DriveClub VR is a vomit comet

Just to be clear: we've been playing and testing VR games for years now and we've only ever once felt physically sick whilst doing do. (Dying Light back in 2013, thanks for asking.)

But it only took 30 minutes for Driveclub VR to make that twice.

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Despite Sony closing Driveclub studio Evolution back in March, Driveclub VR was announced in August this year, with the revelation that the virtual-reality project had been in the works for over a year.

It's now one of the PS VR's main launch titles, with the VR spin-off riding on the back of the original game's eventual success after a rocky launch and its stunning good looks.

However, what we've ended up with is far from the polished game that Driveclub is today, and anyone hoping for Evolution's last hurrah is going to be very disappointed indeed - especially when drawing comparisons between this and Project Cars on Oculus Rift.

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It's a £29.99 full price PS VR game, but anyone who's a Driveclub Season Pass holder can nab a discount on the PS VR title. Although, for many, that won't ameliorate the problems that we've had with the game.

For a start, there's the graphics - and don't let the screenshots fool you, they were originally sent across in 4K resolution. Ha!

We know that PS VR games won't stand up graphically to standard PS4 games, but with Driveclub VR you lose all sense of depth and clarity of the tracks that will feel very familiar to some of you. You can vaguely make out the mountains and the trees, along with the cities that you speed through, but because you're constantly trapped low-down in the cockpit or driver's seat of your vehicle, you'll pretty much miss all of it.

The resolution is also a problem for checking your top speed, which, as anyone who's played the original Driveclub will know, is regularly a criterion for achieving the full bout of stars on a particular tournament.

There's also a strange issue with lighting in Driveclub VR. The first race in the game starts out with racing in the dusk, the sun dipped just behind the horizon and the sky turned a particularly beautiful shade of fire. However, of course you can't actually appreciate this, because the sunset is a mere smudge in the distance and the entire vista is tarred by what feels like a dodgy brightness setting.

It's almost like someone's nudged the actual setting a peg or five, because it constantly feels like you're driving in the dark - even on the brightest of sunny days. And it's not like it's something we've done ourselves: there isn't any way to adjust the brightness or any other display settings. Plus, it's not an issue we've had across the board.

There's also the strange issue of when we sink a little deeper into our virtual car seat or even just look down at our makeshift body, it causes the sky and our surroundings to noticeably brighten.

The combination of the graphical issues and the strange brightness, along with what was obviously not quite a high enough framerate, really sent us over the edge.

Two other members of our household tried the Driveclub VR before we did, so eager were they to experience a racing game on PS VR. And when they slowly removed the headset looking a little green and mumbling about it not being that great, we dismissed it as a standard virtual-reality experience.

How very wrong we were.

We felt it in the first race, that strange feeling of a wave rising from our belly and settling in our throat. Initially we thought maybe it was just tiredness, but a good night's sleep later and several races in we felt it again. Far more strongly this time.

Around five minutes later, mid-race, we were ripping the PS VR from our face and sprinting to the bathroom to hurl. Yes, Driveclub VR really is a vomit comet.

Never before have we actually thrown up playing VR, even back in the Oculus Rift DK1 days - although there was that time playing Dying Light on a DK1 where we got extremely close.

And it's not an isolated incident. Not only were our pals positively nauseous after a race each, we've heard of other brave journalists circling the toilet rim, even if they didn't physically vomit.

In fact, we know many who have downright refused to play it after one race due to the nausea. Take it from us, it doesn't get any better in the later levels (as we stupidly returned to the game to find out after many hours when the room had stopped rotating).

Vomit comets aside, Driveclub fans will also be disappointed that this game is not connected to the main game whatsoever. We've played Driveclub a lot - although not gone as far as buying the season pass - and have a healthy and competitive team of mates that play regularly.

However, all of our medals, progress, our team and our carefully created team paintwork is nowhere to be seen on Driveclub VR.

You have to start totally from scratch and despite our attempts to discover some way to port across our progress, it's either buried in menus or not possible whatsoever. It's a shame, as that might have been the one thing that could make Driveclub VR a little appealing - especially to those who've paid for the original game and Season Pass, and are considering paying yet again for the PS VR edition.

Verdict

There's nothing quite like the feeling of having to rip the PS VR headset off mid-session to hurl up chunks of your breakfast, or having to spend the next hour feeling like the room is spinning.

It was frustrating enough reviewing the experience - we dread to think how angry we'd be if we'd just spent 30 quid on it...

Avoid.

Driveclub VR release date: October 13, 2016

Price: £29.99 (discount with Driveclub Season Pass)

Available on: PS VR exclusive

Developer: Evolution Studios

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment