CarX Street

This game needs more rework. My EG civic engine was fully built and decided to swap it with a 2JZ and i could barely upgrade the 2J due to all the parts being so expensive. I ran the swap for a little while since it was slow but then I wanted to put back the stock engine (d15) just so i could make more money to rebuild the 2JZ. I swapped it back to the d15 and found out i would have to buy it back for 130 coins again even though i already bought the swap. On top of that my stock engine is no longer built and would have pay again just to upgrade my stock d15 engine. I'm gonna uninstall the game and never play again because all my time was wasted. Don't recommend this game for righ now because it needs work but I'm done.

this game is a massive W. The launch was pretty damn rough, but they've been pumping out updates damn near weekly to iron out the kinks. if you like building cars, both visually and mechanically this game will bring you alot of enjoyment. ive spent a few hours on this game on fitment alone for my cars let alone drift builds, drag builds, track monsters etc. there are a few issues for me however. the biggest one is how online racing works. I like the online betting system and i LOVE the pink slips but as a person who likes to just queue up with random players and race online i think this game needs 2 key things: 1. an online lobby system that just had you do a bunch of races on a rotation with players (like NFS does) and 2. you NEED to be able to make money regardless on what position you finish in, with the higher spots awarding more money ofc, keep the open lobby betting races but add a PVP lobby system to the game. all of the cars from carX street needs to be added to this game, i have no idea why they are missing in the first place but they should be added. a better way to make gold in endgame and repeatable club races that arent just elite races, sometimes i like to race in the same car and KEEP racing in the same car... not have to have a car rotation if i wanna grind for money. aside from that i enjoy the game

This game is not worth at all. No storyline, uses AI imagery and voice lines, opponents don't use the same class cars as you and "somehow" have more grip and better cornering than you, no matter what kind of setup you run on your car. After beating all of the clubs absolutely nothing happens. Progression in this game is a grind, the whole economy system is flawed, like you can literally pay the same amount for a whole CAR and a set of rims. TLDR: don't buy this, or wait for it to be horrendously cheap, either way I don't recommend the time waste.

Has its problems, main one for me is optimization and how traffic flows, i like having the ability to change traffic density but the ai doesnt follow any sort of rules they just drive, they need to add functioning red lights and have the ai drive normally. other than that game is fire.

Fantastic game to play, can really get into your tuning to get your cars to do what you build them for. A bit difficult to make money with everything being a bit expensive, but if you grind a bit, you can get around that.

I never thought I'd be bonding so much with what is essentially a mobile game that has been ported to PC. A game whose shameful DNA is plastered everywhere in the game. It's all over its aesthetics, its mechanics and some of its weird time constraint features. I am, however, starting to think that may not be such a terrible thing.

~ Estimated reading time 9-10 mins ~

The thing with the current state of car games is that they all feel sterile as fuck. They're all hyper clinical and hyper disinfected. They all give you a very short high and overwhelm you with instant gratification. They never stutter (figuratively) and they always give you all the super cars 5 mins into playing the game. I'm looking at you Forza and your spinny wheel! (I know that some games are actually more grindy, but usually the grind in most cases is an absolute borefest). To some it might feel counterintuitive and I can empathize. You know, some people don't have 10 hours to actually play a game and some people actually do enjoy getting the keys to the Bugatti immediately. But I have a real issue when that becomes the norm. Imagine starting Skyrim and having the game give you 69 level ups, 10,000,000 pieces of gold and a sweet, but suspiciously obedient companion, that takes care or your estates while you go out and one shot dragons.

My point being: Instant gratification isn't always the best way to approach a reward system in a game. Part of what makes achievements meaningful is the fact that you kinda have to work for them you know? It actually feels way better in the longer term. So when a derivation of a mobile game nails gratification way better (imo) than most driving games, I find it quite fascinating.

Now don't get me wrong, CarX Street is not a super polished game. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles. Hell, it doesn't even have licensed cars (but they are modelled so close to the real deal that for the first couple of hours I didn't even notice). The physics are kinda wonky and you have to stop for gas (something that I've actually come to appreciate). It does nail the most important thing - It's a really fun and engaging game, its world is beautiful and varied, and the car collection is pretty big. It's a game that's fun to play, who would have thunk?

The "story", if you can even call it that, is honestly laughable. The whole thing is just literally a couple of minutes of drone footage of the city while an AI guy talks about how cool driving in said city... and that's it. You never ever get any dialogue ever again. It's almost as if the idea of the underdog story and archetype is enough to carry you through the game - which honestly it kind of can be.



The moment that initial video is over and you gain control over your first tutorial car everything looks and feels pretty good! Visuals are saturated and enticing. The scenery is gorgeous and there are many many roads to conquer. The physics, while wonky like I said before, are still fun to understand and are creative in it's execution. It's strange to describe, but sometimes (and when using RWD cars) the game nails the feeling of drifting so well. It's very arcadey, but not insanely so. It reminds me of Need for Speed Underground 2 in many ways. Other times (when using AWD cars) the game manages to give you a slightly more sim-cade driving experience. Cars actually grip the road and respond to your commands.

Funnily enough, I think that what I like most about the game is its immaculate vibe and its admirable moral fiber that's displayed by not relenting to the pressure of rejecting the common man's cars. I mean, this game gives you the option of starting with an old Honda Civic, a Miata or an old Datsun truck. Talk about the perfect rags-to-riches archetype! It makes me so fondly think of the NFS Underground series in that regard as well. Starting with a shitty car and making it beautiful and being given the chance to work up to upgrading your car or getting a new better one feels really good.

Races start in an unforgiving way. Your car sucks and if you manage to win you start earning only 5000 credits. The grind doesn't feel too arduous though because most races are very short in length and there are many to overcome to be able to beat a "club" (this game's form of progression). In order to join a club you need to have a car that has certain rating of performance and then you need to beat certain amount of races and finally beat the club leader. This is pretty straight forward and while it is effective and entertaining I was left wanting a bit more sauce. I wanted some spice and personality cooked into this world. I was fully expecting the cartoony and dramatic showcases of older NFS games (like most wanted) where the leaders of the most wanted list showed up at the beginning of a section and were always super douchebagey and underestimated your racing prowess and skill. It was a game with tons of personality and I feel like CarX could have capitalized on that a lot. It is a pretty big let down in this department.

Despite my affinity for cringey stories, I get it's a strange thing to want since I remember the NFS fanbase being very divided about the live action cutscenes in those games. It's definitely in the so-bad-it's-good category of stuff, but learning to love things like that is a pleasure in life that very few can appreciate lmao.

The game has me hooked and I am glad that more and more smaller studios are taking the reins and putting their stuff out there. I value creativity that might fail over formulaic slops any day of the week and as things stand today, I would take a CarX Street over any Forza Horizon or The Crew (maybe not forever though). The game is definitely a diamond in the rough, and some of its sides are very very rough. I just hope that devs take care of the game moving forward and keep building on it at time passes by.

Oh and this is a $20.00 game by the way. Do with that information what you will.

In any case I'd currently give Carx Street a 3.5 premium air in your tires out of 5 🚗🚗🚗

The game has a ton of potential and seems pretty fun already. The issue is stuttering for me, even on lowest graphics settings, tried everything. My pc should be able to run this at max settings without issue.

Gives off Underground 2 vibes, if you like Need for Speed (especially the old ones) then this game is for you. I am loving the car handling system and the amount of cars to choose from. The game is also under development so I can't wait to see what they do in the future. The base of the game is great and my favorite thing is the way you earn money and the grind!

This game is a gem in the current racing game market, especially at the price of $20. I grew up with 2000s racing games and CarX Street definitely scratched that itch of mine.

The $20 price is a bargain for the amount of contents the game has. It has more content per $ on day one than FH5, Unbound, or TDU:SC, not to mention the game is still in early access state.

You guys should have a big "EA" sign btw.

What I like!

Map

CarX Street has a great, possibly the best map in the game right now (maybe behind MC:LA). Never has a racing game map made go "Wow"... Set the traffic level to high and I had a blast just driving around. I believe there's only street racing/drifting, some might think the gameplay will be repetitive. Well... you're not wrong, but to me the variety of roads really makes it fun to play.

You will have a blast if you're into Initial D.

Driving/Physics

Its great! It's Simcade style. Doesn't feel quite polished as FH5 (very close tho) but CarX has a very in-depth tuning menu.

The game will put your skill on the test, so make sure to upgrade your suspensions and aerodynamics part, use better tires and don't forget to check the tuning menu if you're having a hard time controlling the car. The sense of speed is ok at the beginning, but it gets great once you get into faster cars. One thing about CarX Street is the game's speedometer is telling the correct speed, unlike FH5 or NFS telling you're going much faster than you really are.

Cars + Customisation

You will enjoy the car list if you enjoy the Blackbox NFS era like Underground 2. Many ZDM cars like the HSX or the 34R, and many more like Astron Martinis and Trevrolets with in-depth visuals and performance tuning.

Progression

It's not like FH5 where the game give you 5 cars/minute, you will grind for cars and parts in CarX like old NFS. The game's economic was a mess before, but it's better now. I definitely don't mind the grind after being stuck in FH5 for 4 years.

I ignored the drifting but only played street racing part, there are about 100 races. Took me around 30 hours to beat them all. Hope there will be more offline events in the future to max-out our rides, as the online lobby are pretty much dead in player count.

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What I don't like..or I want more!!!!

Game Performance

Of course, being an early access game, there are things that need to adjust or change. The performance of the game is ok, not great, more optimaztion is needed. I have a 3070 and a R5 3600. With the game set to maximum graphics setting, I get around 68 FPS max and freezes here and there when I collide with something, while I have consistent 80FPS 1440p in FH5 max setting.

AI

The AI is fairly easy, but they only stick to the line, meaning they will totally can knock you out while turning if you happen to be near them.

You will feel just like home if you're familiar with FH5 Online lobby,

Cars lineup + Speed

The car lineup is great if you are into JDM tuning culture, I love them too but I hope they will add more Supercar/Hypercar in the future. It sucks to see higher classes like C4 and C5 are events cars that are upgraded version of C2 or C3 cars.

Also, pretty much all of the cars struggle to reach 300 km/h, given that the amount of HP the game said the car has or real life counterpart can easily reach that speed. Even with fake brands, all of the cars look identical to IRL version so there will be expectation when player buys & upgrades their cars.

I hope CarX will buff all of the cars top speed to meet the player's expectation, as well as for further improving the sense of speed. Speaking of sense of speed, the game should have at-least some camera shake and enable vibration on controller.

Handling + Performance part

I couldn't test out different engine swap because of one big problem with the tuning. If you swapped to a different engine, performance parts that you bought for the previous engine will be lost, and you will have to buy them again.

As mentioned, the game will put your racing skill to the test, which is great imo, but therefore not so beginner friendly/ casual game, where the game portrait itself as one. This is might be the reason why players are complaining about the driving.

The game won't hold your hand in-term of car tuning. There are general tips on each upgrade does, but not in the tuning menu. There should be specific parts for drifting for newbies like me, or guides for players to tune their cars for different races. Right now, I'm at level 30 and I still cannot pass the first Drift event. Tbh, I'm not good at drifting at all, and the game not having anything to assist me to progress or I have to google how to tune or drift at all, to me is not a great gaming experience.

Graphics

Rendering distance need to be improved. Looking at low poly assets at close distance is weird. The UI also need some work as well, the menu buttons are oversized for mobile, making the interface on PC feel cluttered, including the speedometer.

Since the game is ported from mobile, the graphics are okay, but can be beautiful at times, However I can't help from thinking the game could look so much better with more time tuning, given the beautiful map they've created. I know its much to ask but the game could really outshine other open world racing game if they add pedestrian

For now I hope they focus on improving the game's performance.

Audio

The car sounds are good, but I wish other sounds were more high definition or audible. For instance, the SFX after finishing a race is practically non-existence, making it feels very anti-climatic. Some of the SFX in the menu need to be more audible too, in-term of sound design.

Can't forget the AI voice over...not sure if its due to time/budget constrain, but I think having real talent will absolutely make the game feels more polished. I just don't think using AI for VO is a good decision for public image, even with budget/time constrain when there are strikes happening at the current time writing this review.

Would happily to pay the game extra if it's to pay the talents.
Don't forget the people :(

Conclusion/Verdict

I think the game is great!

CarX Street seems like the only hope for this dying genre. I know I've been judging the game hard, the game is very much an indie game, but it's filled with potential that I can't help myself but wish for more.

I hope the studio have a long term plan to support the game, fixing and improving, as well as adding more content to the game. And please don't add mobile or pay 2 win element to game. We racing game fans are already in the mud...

The developer do listen to feedback and implement patches quickly too. Idk why the mixed review tho...

7.5/10 (Early Access)

Give the game a chance..

The game was fun until i noticed the crazy amount of rubber banding with the ai cars. breaks the immersion of the game what is point of upgrading your car if the ai keeps the same speed as you even through they cant make the corners at the speed they are forced to go

Requires online connectivity to play! Stop making us connect online to play single player! I bought this game so I could play on my PC and then switch to Steam Deck when I'm on the go, but you have to have internet. If I had known this, I wouldn't have bought the game.

it's got everything (which is crazy for 18 bucks)
- drifting, racing, no hesi, drag racing, pink slip races
- insane map: dense city, touges, highways, tunnels, parking lots, abandoned buildings, airstrip etc..
- insane performance tuning, visual customization
- very good, proper physics
- very good force feedback (i was surprised to see that it works with high end dd bases like the Asetek ones)

dont get me wrong i love this game and i love the grind but after 78 hours ive maxed out 1 car that was engine swapped, so it was fully purple parts and i went back to the first engine that was in the car to check something only to realise i had to pay for the engine swap again and all the purple parts AGAIN! please carx devs sort that out i was absolutely livid

the game is only going to get better with time they actually listened to the community and hay its 20$ for the price and for what you get is absolutely insane... so yeah maybe you should all think about your reviews and play the game for more than 2 hours and tune your car right like.... bro!

If you loved NFS Underground 2's vibe but enjoy the racing/drifting of Assetto Corsa, this game is for you!

It’s not Assetto Corsa or the latest NFS title, but for me, it feels like NFS Underground 2 reborn with a fantastic driving experience.

Arcade racers: It may feel tough at first (Why isn't the car turning? Why does it under/oversteer?), but once you tune the car properly, it responds perfectly. Look up setups to get it just right.

Sim racers: While I haven’t tried it with a wheel, the joypad experience is fun and predictable. You can extend drifts with the handbrake, adjust angles with left-foot braking, and clutch-kick for transitions - all very satisfying.

The downside: Even after updates, it’s still very grindy. It takes a lot of hours to earn enough credits for the car and upgrades you want. If you don’t love the car after all that effort, it’s back to grinding for another.

Still, as a sim racer/drifter looking for a chill experience without setting up a full rig, this is a fun and rewarding game!

Very good car game. Drifting/street racing/open world exploring. You name it. Graphics are solid. Physics feel good with a good car. It is grindy and most cars feel bad in the beginning. But if you give it time and build a nice car you will enjoy it.

The Ai that you are against are like walls and don't move even if you hit them but as soon as they slightly tap you that's it you flip or spin. But i really like the concept.

quite decent. if you don't cheat yourself out of gameplay you will have a good amount of hours fun. just don't expect it to be anything like CarX Drift Racing Online.

Really love this game, really brings me back to the Midnight Club and NFS glory days. I've been waiting for a racing game like this for years. The map is beautiful and is so fun to drive, the customization is so open and you are easily able to create and tune your dream cars. Both of these features alone put Triple A games like Forza and NFS to shame. The driving physics are a mix between simulation and arcade but they are predictable and fun, something that other games have tried and (in my opinion) failed to do... NFS, The Crew, etc.

The launch was pretty rocky, but in under a week so much of the game felt fixed something that takes other developers months or years. All the complaints that I have now are about small things that don't affect overall gameplay or fun that I have.

I've been playing CarX Drift for a long time and will continue to do so with Street.

Спасибо, CarX

Right now, I can't recommend this game. It genuinely feels like an early access title. I personally didn't have any performance issues with the game but I do have a pretty good setup so your mileage may vary.

Issues (in my opinion)
- No vibration on game pad, makes it incredibly difficult to 'feel' what's going on.
- Extremely grindy gameplay without much freedom. Example, if you want to try a new engine for instance you have to buy all the parts, fine. However if you'd fully upgraded your original/previous/another engine well now you've lost all those parts and need to buy them again.
- Handling - Everything feels like it's on rails regardless of tyre compound.
- Braking, is basically non-existent unless you massively upgrade your cars brakes.
- UI, simple things like changing the 'units' from metric to imperial or whatever doesn't exist.
- Performance/Sense of speed? Unsure how to categorise this, but the performance does not feel realistic. Example, a car weighing 800ish KG with 180HP should not struggle to reach 100 km/h, breaking traction in general feels difficult even on small narrow tyres.
- AI, aggressive.. I don't mind a hard fight, but it feels more akin to racing against 'rammers' on forza where they're just trying to constantly smash you off the track.

Positives
- Graphics do look good for the most part, some textures could do with improving.
- The world is pretty cool and decently sized
- Modding is decent, could potentially be a little more intuitive but the stuff you can do to the cars is good and probably the single best thing about the game.

All in all, it feels unfinished and unpolished. I would potentially give this another go in future if a lot of the frustrating issues could be fixed. But in it's current state I can't recommend this game.

I wanted to post this review because I wanted to stack up some playtime first and see how the devs would react to the rocky launch of the game, and I was more than happy with the outcome. The devs reacted quickly, releasing two very welcomed balancing patches already.

So, long story short, I genuinely think this game has the potential to be the best arcade racer on the market. Given the devs' dedication to the project and their engagement with the community, I have no doubt that it will become just that. Don't let the mixed review score fool you (sure, the launch was a bit rough, but I never understood people's problems with this game). For the laughably low price, you are getting a way more fun game than any of the recent NFS games and a much more interesting and engaging title than Forza Horizon.
That being said, there are still some balancing issues that need addressing, and the game needs to be much more optimized (If you have the recommended hardware, it's definitely not unplayable—far from it—but it should run much better than it does).

I'm going to start with the "bad" stuff first:

• The economy has mostly been fixed, and most of my issues with it are gone. The only thing left that I have an issue with is the gold/special currency. It is still hard to stack up, and the parts that require it are pretty expensive. Honestly, I don't really see the point or the need for a "special" currency in a pay-to-play game with no microtransactions. I would love for this currency to be completely removed or at least used only for special options like engine/transmission swaps. Even then, I think the amount needed for a swap should be at least 30% lower.

• The racer AI has mostly been fixed in the last update, but they still seem to be using higher-class cars in class-locked races. You can still catch and pass them in the corners, but in longer races with long straight stretches, it is unnecessarily hard to keep up with them. I'm split on this because I want the races to be challenging, but it still feels unfair. I would love to see an opponent difficulty/skill slider, which would, in my mind, pretty much fix this problem.

• The game is poorly optimized—no sugar coating it. I have better hardware than recommended, and my game still runs at about 30fps but frequently drops below 25, even to 20 on max settings. (For reference, I get a steady 30 to 40fps on Forza Horizon 5 max settings, which is a much more graphically demanding game.)

Now for the good stuff:

• The handling is some of the best arcade handling I've experienced. It's much superior to CarX Drift handling, which is only good for drifting, and NFS can only dream of having such engaging and fun car handling.

• The map is the best open-world racing game map I've played. It’s an awesome mix between a Western urban city and Japanese rural/mountain roads, with lots of nice toge drift roads. It is generally very beautiful too.

• Customization is also the best in any racing game I’ve played. If you’ve played any CarX game before, you know what I'm talking about; if not, you’re in for a very pleasant surprise.

• The car list, although not licensed, is filled with beloved tuner cars. It’s an awesome mix of old and new cars. I don't think anyone will have trouble finding something to be excited about.

• The community aspect of the game has a lot of potential. The game is still finding its audience, but the versus online modes (like pink slip races with other players) and just the basic cruising around with friends or other players are awesome.

As someone who has played a lot of racing games (and prefers "simcade" games), and is a genuine car guy, I can't recommend this game enough. Sure, there are some issues, but pretty much all new games have them at launch, and if anyone should get a pass, it should be a smaller, dedicated game studio like CarX.
I played a lot of CarX Drift on the PS4, and I can tell you that the game changed substantially for the better over the years, so as I said at the beginning, I have no doubt that this game will too. There are still some cars and features missing from the game, like the livery editor (which is, by the way, also the best one I've used in any racing game), but I am sure it is coming very soon.

I know this has been a long one, but I wanted to be really thorough, objective and honest. So, without further ado, see you in Sunset City!

This game is like a cutlet

Do you ever feel like that one critic from "Ratatouille" movie? Man, this is what this game is to me.

I've longed for a game like NFS Underground/World/MW but with realistic physics and online - CarX hits that spot, but it's a cutlet.

The meat is there

Driving feels absolutely FANTASTIC - Cars oversteer and understeer as you'd expect, and while the game on gamepad seems to be oriented around helping you manage oversteer, seasoned racer will probably crash few times (I got it after crashing into 3 barriers) and then learn to love this.

This is the most important aspect of the game to me, the fact that driving experience is nuanced even on gamepad gives the game so much more playability, because while content might end, driving will always be fun. I've had great fun going around the map and finding cool drift spots ( Tokyo drift style parking lot, roof of a building and drifting between structural pillars, irohazaka style road ), perfecting my car's setup and enjoying cars for what they are.

Cars handle as expected, FWDs can oversteer while trailbraking into corners and its intuitive, sliding around RWDs is just plain fun. I've seen people complain that it feels very weird, but I guess that aspect of the game can be polarizing depending on what you expect and where you are coming from in racing world - fair warning, i'd give it time.

Salt, please?

Yeah, we also got tuning, slap me some neons on the Civic, Watanabes on an 86 or donk out a Charger, yeeeeessss.

Game splits car "classes" into two systems, basically your power to weight ratio and how posh your parts are, which is funny. Any part that affects your weight will affect the main scoring - P/W ratio, but you can add better transmission, swap to 6speed, put fatter tires ( yes that affects grip and handling ) and it will be straight up upgrade. It's unfair, but who cares, its fun, driving is skill based anyway.

Actual tuning is pretty good, you can adjust a whole lot of things, damper settings, camber, toe, caster, ackerman, stiffer springs, aero, peak rpm, revlimiter, turbo pressure, it all affects how your car handles pretty predictibly, which helps me ground things from my real life experience, feels good.

Ah, also, the map - big, awesome, crazy, beautiful. You drive and see palm trees on the sidewalk, and on another side of the street - cherry blossoms and Tori gates, what the hell, I love it. Also - elevation changes, banking corners, wide streets, narrow streets, bumps on asphalt, things that can upset your car. Yeah, that's all, idk.

It lacks sides, alas, where's my drink?

The game's got some issues, VERY grindy gameplay, which to me was also a refreshment from all the GT7 and Forza bull... that was like OH HAVE THIS CAR, HAVE THAT CAR, THIS THAT, OH AND THIS ONE - yeah, as of some patches within the first week of the game, they addressed it some, but upgrading a car and acquiring one takes time, I like it, some will not, you shall be warned. It seems that aspect was already changed towards something that seems much more likable by the community, more happy means more good!

Optimisation ain't great, but it runs on my PC, and on my Steam Deck, so that's a yay!

A not yay thing is you either have TAA or you have jagged edges, pick your poison.

The content of the game seems kinda unfinished, no voicelines, not enough races online, there could be so much more but this game would be SO much better off and better received if it was released as an "early access" title. That being said i'm 20 hours in and I still got plenty to do - test drive style car deliveries, online races etc.

HECK - I wrote too much text!

You still there? Oh, okay, so uh.... will I come back to this restaurant?

Yes, so far it seems devs are actively listening to what people say and implementing fixes, changes, that's good - I'm hopeful for more content cause I've had a blast online and also had great fun living my childhood dream of Underground with realistic physics.

I'd love to see cop chases and all the cool stuff, more races ( please utilize that touge type stuff on the left side of the map, there's also beautiful waterfall and tunnel that a lot of people dont see ).

I'd say for the price, it's worth to give the game a chance,

OH ALSO - HAVE A NICE DAY :D

To be honest, the beginning of the game is a bit frustrating, but as you progress and learn more, the better it gets. Yes there are some issues with the AI being Concrete walls on rails, and the traffic cars are basically scripted to be in your way, truth is, get better lol. Also traffic is mostly in the same places on each lap of circuits so you can plan ahead. As far as the physics go, IMO they are better than Forza Horizon. the cars actually feel unique, the upgrades actually make a drastic difference to how that car handles and drives. A lot of people are giving this game a hard time but lets be real, this is a mobile game ported to PC. If you have seen CarX Drift, with where that game on pc started vs where it is now is insane. This game has a ton of potential. If you want a game that gives you whatever you want with no grind, this is not the game for you. You have to earn the things you want in this game and its a nice change from all the racing games the last few years. Also if you truly miss you old school midnight club/need for speed vibes, this game has it. I find myself reliving the same energy i got as a kind driving through the city of midnight club: DUB edition. The map is beautfil, races are fun, albeit once youre faster than the AI racers, the features are cool, car selection is awesome, the game has some minor performance issues but i still run 60fps stable like 98% of the time on ultra witha 3060, r5 3600, and 32gb of ram. Also make sure you INSTALL ON SSD TO MAXIMIZE PERFORMANCE. Give the CarX Devs time, this has so much potential and is already so good imo. If you dont like it, go back to forza, leave your negative remarks in your mind and go somewhere else. Legit constructive criticism is welcome, negativity is not, its a waste of a read and waste of your time for posting. Unless this game is in the same state 2 years from now then you can complain. Its been out for barely a week. Get your panties out of a bunch karen.

The game features an impressive map, visually appealing cars, and decent gameplay. However, it suffers from a significant drawback: it's extremely grindy. Progressing and earning enough money for the expensive car parts takes far too long, which can be frustrating.

The most disappointing aspect, though, is the game's lack of optimization. Every time I start the game, it runs smoothly at first, but over time, the frame rate gradually drops from around 160 FPS down to a painfully low 20 FPS. This drastic performance decline severely impacts the overall gaming experience.

Not sure if its the parts i currently have in my PC but this needs to be fixed.
I have an RX6600 and a I5 10500.

At this point (v1.0.2) the stutter is still present but way better, the pop in of buildings and textures still very bad, AI traffic and opponents are terrible and worst of all it has a very bad economy so earning cash is slow and goes very fast.

We already had a first patch that improved greatly so hopefully with time this can change to a yes I recommend instead

Edit 1; v1.0.3 The stutter is not better. The more I play this game the more it feels like it was made by AI, empty signs, traffic lights in the middle of an exit road?

Edit 2; v1.0.3 Last night i lost all my money after redeeming my DLC cars. This game is really starting to piss me off now.

Edit 3; v1.0.6 We're getting there! Finally getting good cash & XP

Genuinely had more fun playing this than the last 2 NFS games. A great arcade racer with loads and loads of visual and tuning mods. Some tuning aspects also reflect visually on the car and affect how to car feels, eg: camber. The handling model takes a bit of getting used to but learning to not lock up under braking and modulate throttle makes the game way more fun. My only gripe is the grind for gold coins as certain mods are locked behind the gold coin currency, it takes a long time. Well worth the price IMO

Despite the negativity, I'm enjoying it. Captures some of that old school, open world street racing feel.

-Traffic interaction reminds me of Midnight Club. Would recommend maxing the traffic option in settings.

-Camera movement could be a bit smoother and filter out more extreme movements (like the aforementioned collisions with cars and walls). It's also a bit too low at times so height adjustment would be nice. This is an important thing for racing games imo so other than that, it's pretty good. Not overly stiff like GT.

-Handling feels extremely similar to Street Legal Racing Redline but better imo. It's not amazing, but it's not nearly as bad as people have been saying. Way better than NFS 2015 for example as much as I like that game for other reasons. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to slide around every corner in this. I'm a few hours in and this is one of the first things I realised. One thing that really needs to be changed is the friction from hitting walls and other cars. It doesn't feel very good. It's not as bad as other indie racing games can often be in this regard where the slightest tap with the rear of the car grabs you and spins you right around, but it's pretty bad. Also the brakes are way too weak at times.

-Most of the music that's there is surprisingly good for an indie game, but there isn't much variety at the moment.

-Car audio is pretty how ya going.

-The exploration and world design reminds me of a variety of games. Parts of the city have that colourful, vibrant, twisty Underground 2 feel. Other parts of the city are more cluttered and bleak with more typical street layouts, kinda reminding me of Heat, which isn't a bad thing at all. There's plenty of canyon style roads outside of the city too which is nice. It's a very nice mix overall.

-The game is sliiiightly too on the grindy side for me at the moment. They could do with making the game at least feel more rewarding for the grind that's there (As an alternative to simple money/car rewards. Think junkman parts or rare vinyls whenever that comes to the game. Those would make it feel more satisfying).

-Some stats/systems are a bit confusing at first, but it's not a big deal.

-AI voice slop is awful. Would 1000% recommend muting the dialogue volume in the settings. That's one of the first things I did and I wouldn't have it any other way.

-Graphics are nice. There are a few small parts of the map where I feel like they're a bit empty and need some more set dressing. I feel like they're just mundane spots that have been overlooked though, so it's the exception not the rule. There is a bit of grass pop in that could be improved when you're off roading. Zero forced TAA is a massive blessing visually. Everything looks crisp asf because of that.

-Performance has been good for me. Game is on a ssd and I get some rare stutters but it's pretty smooth. Bonus side note, the game seems like a good stability tester for cpu overclocking, undervolting, etc. I've played many hardware sensitive games and this game seems pretty consistent and sensitive, which is a good thing for nerds like me.

EDIT: I've beat almost all the clubs now. I really wish there was a new game+ style thing for each one because i'm not super into online racing/leagues. Please let us go through the clubs again but with more difficulty and rewards (Potentially exclusive rewards like unique decals when the livery editor is a thing or even bonus special currency). Think prestige in cod or eddies challenge in nfs 2015. Late game content that is single player friendly. Maybe let us pick our own class restrictions for any club after completion so we can try diff routes with more build variety? Just some suggestions.

For accessibility reasons my only wish for the game is to be able to UNBIND the look around stick. I am disabled and in order to have a usable clutch and the ability to up and downshift I need to use the right thumbstick for up and down shifting.

Very much worth $20.
If you're here to drift, a decent amount of grinding races is required before you can build the cars how you want.
Physics, Customization and Graphics are pretty good.
The game has A LOT of potential, but does need polishing and is missing key features that CarXDrift had.

The 2 year wait is the biggest reason why this game felt extremely underwhelming on launch

- AI voice actors and AI generated character icons
- Lack of / no ability to assign cars to houses
- AI traffic will torpedo you in intersections while in races
- Racing lines are strange and the race AI will religiously follow them, to the point they will ram you off the road
- There's only either one or three extra cars you race unless you're playing with your friends
- Crashes (That might be more of UE5's fault)

Nevertheless, this game is a nice open world step up compared to the claustrophobic tracks we used to drift around on in CarX Drift Racing, the ability to refill your car and have tires that wear gives this game a nice touch that no other open world racing game has done to my knowledge.

The game economy should be fixed ASAP, it has potential of ruining the game's legacy.
Otherwise the game is having huge future if some minor tweaks are made, probably the closest thing you can play to NFS: underground in the 2020s.

So they fixed some of the economy issues with the update 1.02, but the gold coins are still an issue, you still need about 2000000 green money, and around 500 to fully update a car, which is way too much.

They fixed some of the economy stuff with update 1.03, but they putted the old players in a significant disadvantage, because the game caps at level 50, and there are no more gold coins, with who you buy the elite stuff in the game. There is only one solution, remove the gold coins, or add some kind of conversion for the normal cash, like 1000$ to 1 gold coin or something like that. Right now I'm level 50, and there is no more progression or high class car building offline. I don't want to stake my cash in online races versus modders...

It is insane how much hate this game is getting and how undeserved it is.

I have played and completed most NFS games and played most big racing/drifitng games that have come out.
For 20 dollars, this is beyond worth it - this genuinely just feels like a better nfs experience with better physics, and to all the people complaining about the physics not being the same as CarX DRO - the physics are better! You wouldnt want to race around with the physics in CarX DRO, you would slide everywhere - if you go and build an actual drift build it will feel just as good as DRO. (Also you have Racing+ tires on as default which will give you more grip, feel like a lot of people dont know that, switch them to stock at a gas station and you can slide any car.)

- The grind definitely needs slight tweaking but people are overreacting. People are so used to all the other car games giving you a good car early game and grind not being too long. The grind makes it fun and it feels like you are actually committing to a build- it feels so much better to complete a full build when you have a fully upgraded car

- For 20 $ you get customization far better than any current racing game, with livery editor coming soon (already in DRO)

- WHO ACTUALLY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THE AI VOICELINES, its only in there for the first 4 minutes of the game, no one plays car games for the story.

Not gonna sit and point out the negatives people are doing that plenty already, just wanted to talk about all the braindead negative reviews. NOT NULLIFYING ANY NEGATIVE REVIEWS!

As someone who played the mobile version, this is a great game, especially for $20. The current reviews are "mixed" because people played the game for 40 minutes then refunded without even touching the tuning menus. I guess people are just used to Forza Horizon giving away a hundred free cars off the rip, and forgot how it was in older racing games where you had to stick with an awful car for a while before you got something decent.

Now the physics. Arguably the most debated aspect of the game, the physics are classic CarX. I'm seeing quite a few people say it's "worse than NFS" without understanding you'll have to upgrade and tune your car before it actually feels good to drive. Especially if you're in something AWD/FWD. Just like in real life, if you have a set of cheap tires on those types of cars and throw it into a corner, you're gonna get understeer. I'd place it between GRID and the new Forza Motorsport on the realism scale. It's no Assetto Corsa but it's far better than any recent NFS, especially when it comes to drifting.

The open world is impressive, and I like how it takes inspiration from both Japan and California. The entire left side of the map is devoted to Initial D style touge routes, and the world is physically beautiful. I often found myself pulling over just to look at the scenery. If I had to make one change I'd ask for an elevated highway loop so we can live out our Wangan dreams as well, but the highways in the game are already great as is.

The car list and customization is solid, both are on par with NFS. They nailed all the important JDM cars that I'd want in this type of racing game but I know others would like more American muscle and European exotics in the future.

The game does have a bit of a grind, but again I think that's something older racing games had that has since been lost on new games that just give you everything. It gives weight to the cars you choose and allows you to spend more time in the game as you work to get that next special car. The one thing I'm weary of is the "S" currency. You use that currency for larger upgrades, such as engine or transmission swaps. You get a large sum every time you beat a club, but after you beat them all there aren't many other reliable sources for them.

I still think the game is worth more than the $20 price, but it does have it's issues. The A.I generated dialogue during the opening few scenes is terrible, and is easily my least favorite thing about the game. Bad voice acting from a random intern would still have been preferable to what we got. With that being said, it is a racing game so I know most won't care too much about it, and you won't hear it much after the first 15 minutes. It just feels like a such a lazy choice for something that would not take much effort to do correctly.

The other A.I cars also need improvements, both the other racers and the traffic. Your opponents will often stick to the racing line no matter what, so if you're next to them they'll knock you off the track. They'll hit each other as well, and if you brake too early they'll often smash right into you. This would be fair if their cars weighed the same as yours, but if you try to hit them back you'll just bounce right off. The traffic density can be toggled in single player, which is great, but I wish traffic existed in multiplayer as well. Without it the world feels empty, and weaving through traffic is a significant and integral part of the challenge in games like this. The traffic needs to stop at red lights as well. It can be brutal when you're about to win a long race just to have a random car fly out and T-bone you.

Lastly, the optimization is not the best. My FPS starts at 60 when I first open the game, but after an hour or so it will drop to the 30-40 FPS range, and it will start to have very brief stutters as well. My rig beats the "recommended" system requirements, and I've heard others complain about this as well.

Overall I'd give CarX: Street an 8/10. If you're a fan of NFS but have been put off by the lackluster handling in recent NFS releases I would highly recommend trying this out. It certainly has a few issues but this is the best new racing game I've played in years. The A.I dialogue is annoying but irrelevant after the first few minutes, and the A.I cars and optimization issues are all fixable, assuming the devs actually address them. The unnecessary hate this game gets highlights how insatiable and whiny modern racing game fans are, as the game already has all the tools to be one of the greats. For $20 and no micro transactions it's a great value, and a no-brainer if you enjoy older NFS titles.

Edit after update 1.03: I'd now give the game a 9/10. They updated the A.I opponents, so they now give you room and don't just plow into you. The minor issues I had with the economy have now been improved, as they've increased the amount of Credits and StreetCoin you get from all sources. My game now runs at a consistent 50-60 FPS, but it still does stutter pretty bad sometimes. And I don't think they'll ever get rid of the A.I voice acting, but again I have not had to hear it since I first opened the game. If they fixed those issues and added traffic to multiplayer I'd give it a 10/10.

After reading all the reviews and spending some actual play time with the game i've come to realize that the majority of people are wrong. I was in the same boat as you were the physics didn't "FEEL RIGHT" and the cars were floaty and had lots of under-steer, but it all come down to the tuning! This not CARX Drift Racing where you can drift anything from balloon tire cars to slammed to the ground cambered out mess of a car. the tuning actually matters PLEASE spend some time with the game before you jump to conclusions like i did!

Has the bones of a great game hiding in there. Devs chose a cash grab over what could've been a NFS killer.
The remnants of micro transactions are plagued throughout. The economy is geared towards buying in game cash, and you can't buy in game cash.

Simply TUNING the car costs cash. Gas costs cash. Tires cost cash.
These things themselves aren't bad as they could've easily made this work as an immersive element to the game. However it was simply to milk cash from the mobile game which has been ripped out.
You can only do crew races once for money. There's also Elite races that you have to wait an HOUR to redo.

You'll either love or hate the physics. For me, it was absolutely fine but I can see why people are having issues with it.
The traffic AI is completely borked but you can use them to take out the rubber band racer AI that will plow you off the road any chance it gets.

The character voice and images being AI is hilarious. For a small Indie dev that hasn't made millions from micro transactions it would be serviceable. For this game - it should've been left out entirely.

Overall it's just an absolute let down. There were clearly passionate people behind this project but it's been mutilated by greed. Avoid until it's on par with CarXDrift.

A REVIEW FROM SOMEONE THAT DOESNT OVERREACT:
-For context, anybody that knows the company behind these games knows it’s a small/basically indie game company. The team has always seemed to have a passion for the community for which the game is meant for.
That said:
I give this game a 7 out of 10 currently. It can easily be improved to feel more like a 9 given some time.
THIS GAME IS NOT FORZA. THIS GAME IS NOT NFS. This is a 20 dollar game max by a small company. That said, they’ve done an outstanding initial job on the city setting and the cars and details. Graphics are beautiful*. The handling takes some getting used to. This game is not meant to feel like Car X drift. It is not a drifting sim. It is an arcade racer. Car x drift itself didn’t have great grip handling. Car x street has a handling model that is very much geared toward arcade racing. If you can’t steer smoothly with your controller’s stick, and are not smooth with your throttle and braking, you will spin. The game surprisingly feels amazing on a Logitech g923 after control binding and calibration. (Although there could be more settings for better feel). This encourages players actually having to put in work to have great races and be good drivers. Once you get used to the handling and camera behavior, it’s a great time.
Performance and handling upgrades have dramatic differences and promotes balanced upgrading and thinking about your final result for performance when buying upgrades.
The AI badly needs some work. A lot of the time I have pretty good races, but if you get in front of AI racers on the racing line, they absolutely will take you out and send you flying out of control. It feels like traffic and AI have insane mass and you are just a feather. That needs some work.
The story is pretty basic. We’re not really here for it. But the game offers a bunch of activities to do other than just racing crews.
The AI voice acting is atrocious. I personally turned down dialogue.
*As mentioned before, the graphics are beautiful. However the game is terribly optimized. My computer has run way more graphically intensive games with nowhere near any of the problems this game has with its frame rate.
It runs beautifully for about 30 minutes after booting up, then seemingly as soon as nighttime comes, no matter what graphics settings you use- Low to High, the game starts chugging to some really ugly levels. And apparently stays chugging after that even into daytime. I usually have to restart the game for the graphics to be smooth again.
As for wheel support- great plug and playability after mapping and calibration. And the patch for h shift mapping was much needed. But there is no way to map a separate handbrake. The game recognizes it, but won’t map anything to it.

For 20 dollars, and made by a small game company, the bounds of modification and performance upgrades has tons of depth and is satisfying to do if you’re big on the enthusiast parts of cars.
However, this game was something we’ve waited for for so many years and has been delayed for so long, that it’s just a little insulting that the game is missing lots of basic but drastic options and features that even car x drift has. It really makes us wonder what they’ve doing for all this time for the game to still come out like this and be so horribly optimized. Still. It’s great fun…till it starts chugging.

I believe that in a few months, we’ll have a solid 8 to 9 on our hands.

Last updated: 7th of September.

Long story short: They're moving in the right direction and actually trying to improve the game and cater towards their playerbase. You can consider buying it now, but me, personally, I'd either wait a few more updates, or wait for some kind of sale. Once the optimization gets better, it's gonna be an actual good game.

Long story: I'm a long time CarX player, have over 18k+ hours (I have never seen grass) in regular CarX Drift Racing Online on steam, been playing since the first mobile versions too. Let's cover a few important topics: optimization, physics, progression, tuning and localization.

Optimization: On a pretty high-end pc (R7 5700X, 4080, 32 gb of ram, the game is on an M2 drive) I get anywhere between 60 and 110 fps at 1440p resolution. Why is it a negative? Because if the framerate drops (and it does randomly) significantly, for example by 20 frames, you feel it. However, after the first update, I felt like my fps got way more stable. I still do get losses here and there, but not as much. Deffo an improvement. Sometimes I still get random freezes, where my fps drops to 1, be it me just driving around or scraping an npc.

Physics: It's still CarX. But it's worse. The game does feel like it's more catered towards grip racing, and I actually LIKE the steering assist, but somehow, I can't drive as well, as I do in regular DRO (yes, I do time attack in regular CarX, fight me). Drifting feels weird too, but it's possible. However, the car tries to straighten up way more, than in DRO. Basically, I don't feel that I've got as much precision in this game as I do in DRO. Update: I've been getting more used to it, but I still don't feel like I can be as precise as I want to.

Progression: So, they've changed the rewards for races and deliveries in 1.0.3. Seems like everything gives you quite a bit more money and maybe even XP. Good that they've listened to their community. I can't say how much better it is now, since I've finished my club races before this update, but it looks like it's way better and easier.

Tuning: This was my biggest negative point before, but they've changed how dynostand works, so you practically don't need to pay money for changing any values (except some, but I don't remember which ones).

Localization: I'm russian, so, I don't have any problems with the russian part of the game. However, I play in english, since a lot of my friends aren't russian and I frequently stream for them or just show some stuff to them. And, some parts of the interface AREN'T LOCALIZED. Some text in photo mode, for example, is still in russian, even if I'm on english.

Characters and their voices: They're all AI. AI art, AI voices, AI everything. BUUUT it was like that when I played the game first time. They said they improved it, but I can't say to what extent.

Cars: Alright, there are some cars missing from the mobile version, like some Ladas and whatnot, however, they're still okay-ish at least. Obviously, they're not Gran Turismo or Forza quality, but at least comparable to regular CarX.

Map: It's actually pretty good. I like the views of the map, I like the touges, I like the highways. So, at least that's good.

*sigh* so...

I'm going to CAUTIOUSLY recommend this game. I REALLY want to love it. It's almost there, but there's some things the developers need to fix ASAP.

before i dive into it, i wanna say a few things about the game I've seen people complain about that doesn't make much sense to me.

1. The handling. This is a CarX title, and if you haven't played a CarX title before- the car manages OVERSTEER for you. What that means is- when a slide or drift is initiated, the game will countersteer FOR YOU and YOUR input manages which direction the car goes. It is VERY arcade-y in an otherwise surpsingly manageable physics system that just takes a bit lf getting used to.

!!!THAT BEING SAID!!! PLEASE give us an option to turn this assist OFF!!! OR give us the option to have different levels of assisted countersteer. PLEASE. The controls for the CarX titles are easy enough to use, but are incredibly stale at this point. Please grant an option to allow the player to countersteer the car themselves. The feel of the game would improve dramatically and it would be less confusing for new players to CarX games.

2. Sense of speed.
I saw a review mention that the cars feel slow and they had less than an hour in the game. Well, yeah, the cars feel slow cause the starter cars ARE slow. Increase the FOV in the options, it may improve the sense of speed.

Here's MY big complaints.

The optimisation is horrible. Everyone who mentioned this is absolutely correct.
This needs addressed IMMEDIATELY. The game looks decent, but theres NO way it should run the way it does.
On a scale of 1 (being potatoe) and 10 (being a NASA computer) my PC lands at around a 6 and runs FH5 on max settings at 80FPS. This game runs at about 50 on average and frequently dips.

The traffic/CPU racers
I'm gonna bring up traffic a good bit for different reasons. In this bit, i wanna talk about how the other racers and traffic drive. They're pretty dumb at best, and fucking stupid on average. The racers AND the traffic make zero effort to not plow into you and change lanes in the blink of an eye. The traffic crossing at intersections is almost always full bore, banging the revlimiter at mach Jesus and will VERY commonly ruin your race after blind siding you and sending you into the next county over. It's hectic. The other racers are just dumb and wreck frequently and will hit you with no effort to avoid.

Traffic (cont.) and atmosphere/sound

There's one thing i think games miss sometimes that's crucial and adds a layer of depth to an open world and its atmosphere. This game has little to none. There ARE background noises but they're VERY quiet. If you stop your car, it just kinda sounds and FEELS like you're sitting in an empty map. You're stopped in the middle of a BIG city full of street racers, but the sensation is comparable to being parked in the big, open flat map in BeamNG.

This brings me back to traffic-
Traffic levels can be changed in the settings, which would be great *sigh* BUT-

on low, there's not enough, it feels barren. On normal, it's slightly more, but the map frequently feels lifeless. On high, it feels WAY better, it feels like a decent amount of traffic for a game. This would be great if Ricky Bobby wasn't piloting every single traffic vehicle.

The traffic is unpredictable and out of pocket. Last time I'll mention it. (Maybe)

The sounds.
They (so far, from the couple cars I've driven and the other racer's cars I've heard) are pretty much on par with CarX Drift Racing 2. They're no better.

This is disappointing. I'm not into sound design but the cars aound like synths or just... Boring. We need new sounds that are more detailed soon, this franchise needs it.

Also, what the hell is up with the AI voice acting? Like, come on. Do better. How hard is it to just record some voice lines? This was pretty pathetic, in my opinion.

That's every rant about the bad stuff i can think about.

The good-!!! (

The visuals
This game has some moments where it looks really good, like in low lighting and at night. Some environments feel complete and well put together and just really make me wanna drive around and look around more often then other times when... Well, it feels empty. Some parts of the city feel too open and barren. When there's no traffic to be seen (...okay last time!) it makes the city feel lifeless. If you turn the traffic density up it looks more "finished" and lively. More exciting! However it's only a matter of time before a Ricky Bobby T-bones you, as previously stated.

Theres a few places on the map where i caught myself thinking "wow, these roads are so fun to drive" and that happens frequently, honestly. The tracks are fun, the roads are great. The map in that sense is amazing. Driving around aimlessly on the curvy roads (which there are PLENTY of) will never get boring.

The cars.
The selection looks great and we all know CarX does cosmetic customisation very well. I'm pretty confident even more cars are coming as well. There seems to be a car pack available on steam right now, at launch, which is a little confusing. The game just came out, why were those not available in the base game?

I want this game to do well, it has potential to kick ass, but the devs should have had some pretty simple things like optimization and playability cleaned up MUCH better before launch.

TL;DR- it's worth 20 bucks, needs optimization fixes, the sounds still suck, map feels empty but roads are fun to drive, and the traffic is out to kill you and kick your dog.

5/10

If you're expecting Forza Horizon for 18€ then lower your standards. This game has it's weird side with the AI voice acting (which there is not a lot of.. luckily), but for 18€ you get a big map, tons of cars that you can modify and unlike other games, this game won't shower you with free million dollar cars and ruin your progression. Performance leaves something to wish for as 1440p ultra settings with a 3070 gets you about 50-60fps.

Don't let other reviews keep you from this game, get it and if it's not for you, refund it.

First 20 minutes impression? 6/10. *90 minute update at the bottom.

This game has potential, but it's difficult to see the creative vision with horrendous AI generation for VA and images, as well as what feels like early AIgen writing, incredibly weighty and what feels like inconsistent steering controls, and a wide open but not super invigorating open world.

Clearly taking influence from Forza Horizon, The Crew, and some of the newer Need for Speed titles, CarX Street is an intriguing entry from the developers of what I believe is an incredible precursor, CarX Drift Racing Online. After how much time was spent between announcement and release, the general presentation is a bit baffling with how much time this took to develop, given what I ASSUME is a relatively high indie budget with the success of CarX DRO.

The UI is fine, there's some clear inspiration from Need for Speed Heat and The Crew, but it doesn't quite have the same flare. It gets the job done, and doesn't seem to bog things down with excess information, so this will be a bit more subjective.

Not sure how the fuel system will play out, but it's strange in an arcade racer to have fuel consumption. No real opinion on this, but to potential buyers who hate management systems you are required to refuel your car, purchase and track tire wear, and make sure your tune is up to snuff even in early events.

Devs, you mention that future plans involve a complete story line. I beg of you, PLEASE pay for voice actors and an experienced writer. Even brand new amateurs will do a better job than whatever crappy website you're paying a subscription for is giving you. I know you are not an English native studio, but even just using a consultant who can translate for you will tell you how jarring and unnatural every single voice sounds. I almost would have preferred just text over the current implementation.

The AI generated character images are also a disappointment given how much money seems to be flowing into this project, since the car models are diverse, there's clearly a lot of programming polish, many customization options, all of which are very time consuming and expensive to implement. Don't skimp on the art and sound departments.

Speaking of which, the sound is just.... bad. Everything feels quiet, nothing has any punch to it. Engines so far sound muffled and dull, even though they start you out with customized drift beasts. The music choice is, in my opinion, not very good, though this is a first impression and I haven't listened to very much of it yet. This should be top priority, even if you want to give writing and voice acting a backseat. Sound is very important, especially to car people. Give your mixing engineers more time.

Then there's the driving. I do not know if I'm just missing something, but as someone who does the smallest amount of ripping and sliding IRL, even though I don't know what I'm talking about.. this does not feel like driving. Below 30kmh cars turn on a dime, beyond that you are on a straight line trajectory into the wall of every single corner and poorly timed traffic vehicle around. E-brake drifting seems to be king here as opposed to clutch throws and scandis, but with enough weight transfer you CAN get the car into a slide; however, it will slide forward and that is it. Tires don't seem to have any grip at speed and it makes it incredibly difficult to get a feel for how to actually drive these street circuits. This will take a lot of feedback and testing to get right, but please don't just listen to me, pay attention to the people who start to put real hours into this game, people who have played DRO, to try and get a handling system that actually complements inputs rather than only following them by technicality. The sense of speed is.. okay? Maybe as you upgrade the cars will get faster but the fact that the starter cars are capping out at less than 100kmh is a strange decision, reminds me of the first hour of NFS:MW but AFTER you've beaten the game and know what a good car feels like.

Graphically, the game is okay. Generic traffic models leave a bit to be desired, but the racing vehicles all feel very distinct and it seems customization is a big focus here, so I'm interested to see what kind of cars show up, what the community ends up creating, etc etc. It's indie so I don't expect the world, but there isn't a ton of identity other than the car designs, which I guess is the most important part but I don't expect people to be wowed by the UI, world design, lighting, etc. The game does run very smoothly, easily hitting 165hz on my now-modest setup (Ryzen 3600X, 2070 Super).

The AI is also just okay, if not a bit aggressive?? The game advertises itself as a street racer, hamstrings itself into a drift racer, and the AI acts like we're playing Burnout. And the difficulty is all over the place. Races feel a bit too easy if you can somehow hit your corners, while the time trial sprints are WAY too difficult starting out. Seems like they just unlock a bunch of content all at once rather than feeding it to you in tiers, and there isn't an easy way to figure out if you're prepared for a particular event so good luck.


All in all, it's clear a lot of work went into this and I sincerely hope that people who are more experienced than I am continue to provide feedback, and that the developers listen to this feedback. I loved CarX DRO, and I believe this can be made into something people can love too, but it does feel like an Early Access title that wasn't marked as such.

TLDR: sound is bad, driving and graphics are okay/good but not great, AI/difficulty is serviceable at best. Some potential here but will take quite a bit of work. To less hardcore fans, I'd consider waiting for a couple updates, first, and see what directions the devs take regarding feedback.

Of course I could be wrong and this is secretly a masterpiece for some, but certainly not for me.

Given the low price, I think it's worth trying, but this is definitely a situation where Valve should add a "Maybe" or "Partial" recommendation option.

*90 minute update, right within the refund period.

Hey everyone! After some more time playing, the issues I've found have still been pretty pervasive. The events are pretty repetitive, the racing is more often just with one other racer and it doesn't get very exciting. My initial issue with speed ended up being my controller, and cars do go much faster at the start, but the sense of speed is still a miss for me.

I've clearly gotten a good glimpse on what the game will be like. One thing I can state is that after messing around with tuning, trying a couple different cars, there is a lot of distinction between different builds, so that could be a big potential reason as to why the intro feels so bad, but you only get one chance at a first impression, and the handling still leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully updates come soon! For the money, I think interested parties can feel safe figuring out if they want to stick around within Steam's 2 hour refund window, but there is definitely some casual fun to be had if you're truly tired of Horizon 5 and Heat.

I bought this game the second I saw it released, it did not even come close to meeting my expectations. The characters' voices are all AI-generated and bland, the cars feel incredibly slow, and the driving is horrible (which is kinda the main thing). I have been anticipating this game since it was announced and was met with nothing but disappointment.

Terribly optimised, after all this time........
my 4080 RTX barely runs this on 30 FPS if i turn VSYNC on, which is critical as this game really screen tears hard.
*Edit- Seems like if I turn the Vsync to single then it's limited to 60 FPS. Makes it playable, but in the core of it, it's still a let down. Graphics-wise, only if you turn the resolution to 4k it seems good enough, but I wouldn't say the graphics even go sub-par to games of the recent 8 years.
I mean, NFS 2015 looked better. While I appreciate the general atmosphere, some things were seriously neglected. Take a look at parked cars. I can't even explain it. Blacking out the windows completely would've been better than what they did.

The car's handling is terrible. you either not steer or go 90 degrees sliding, no in between.
No sense of speed at all and braking is inconsistent.

Don't, DON'T get me started on the ABSURD amount of money I have to waste on G****MN FUEL or other simple maintenance. I almost ran out of money AND fuel one, I was too afraid to guess what happens then. By miracle, My BMW was running a full race on a completely empty tank just so I could use that 5k cash to refuel. WTF.

So disappointed.

Guess Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is really my last hope. Since there's nothing better, I guess I'll be juggling between this and The crew 2 (since they ruined MotorFest) until TDUSC comes out and then I'll bail at least until they make a SERIOUS improvement.

Great concept, garbage game. Customization looks cool but the driving and the AI text to speech this game should be free not worth a singular dollar. I love Car x drift, but this game just feels horrible. I understand it just came out but it needs a lot of work