'Forza 5', 'Driveclub' And 'Mario Kart 8' Epitomize The Next Gen Battle

Although very different games, Forza 5, Driveclub and Mario Kart 8 depict the different values and approach of Microsoft MSFT -0.18%,Sony SNE -1.37% and Nintendo towards their next generation consoles and offer a way to identify which one suits your family.

Sometimes a particular game or game character comes to epitomize a platform. Whether this is Mario and his explorative nature for Nintendo, games like Lego Marvel with its cross platform fun or Sonic and his fast action reflexes with Sega we see video-game consoles through the lens of the games we play on them.

Last week I had my first proper hands on with three racing games. Forza 5 on Xbox One, Driveclub on the PlayStation 4 and Mariop Kart 8 on Wii U. My plan had been to use the experience to pit the platforms against each other. However, to my surprise these were such distinct experiences that I found myself seeing the benefits of each for different reasons rather than one standing out as the winner.

Forza 5 Xbox One

Let’s look at Forza 5 first. Here we have another iteration of Turn 10′s racing game for a new platform. Although the technology behind the experience was all new, I was instantly at home with the familiar look and feel and the Xbox One controller in my hands.

The familiar soon turned into something fresh though as I hit the first turn and felt the triggers juddering under my fingers with the Impulse Rumblefeature. This small evolution of the controller experience made a surprising amount of difference not only to the physics of driving but to how it felt. Something about this contact between the road-rubber-finger-tip made an emotional connection.

It’s the same commitment to evolution you see with the new Xbox One Kinect controller. While other platform holders may have thought twice about doubling down on this potentially unpopular technology with core games, I’ve been impressed to see Microsoft go all in once again on Kinect — and even when it hurt in terms of their headline price.

Forza 5, like the Xbox One and its controllers is the epitome of evolutionary design. It’s the next step forward in the familiar world of Xbox, and one I’m very much looking forward to making.

Driveclub PS4

Turning our attention to Driveclub and the PlayStation 4 we find a different story, but one that is no less compelling. Far from the iterative approach of Forza, this is a brand new offering from the studio behind the PS3 launch title Motorstorm, and the series that followed.

Squarely focusing efforts on the modern player it takes driving into the social space so you are not only racing against the track or artificial competitors but other players in your social graph. Glancing down as I played and glimpsing the Share button on the PS4 controller I couldn’t help but notice the synergy between game and hardware here.

While Driveclub might be less obviously showy than Motorstorm, it matches the PS4′s new found understated tone and desire to put gamers and games first. This is extended further by the ability to construct teams of drivers to contribute to a common purse of experience and points, again underlining the front and center nature of PlayStation Plus in the PS4 ecosystem.

Talking to Chris McCann from Evolution it was interesting him to broaden this appeal beyond the core gamers. “People are able to pick up the game and play, you don’t need to be a hard core racer.” As you can see in the video he went on to talk about some children coming into the studio and getting on very well with the game.