Oh it's more than just tachometer and "barely feel the speed". The issues with driving are several and dire, although it's not entirely borked. Namely:
- speed indicated in the game is not mph, and it's not even km/h. Actual speed is 2.18 times slower than what it'd be if indicated speed would be real mph. I provided full and conclusive evidence of this in
this topic, with specific and obvious examples. By the way, if you want experience a semblance of proper high speed in the game, then get a caliburn and go drive at max speed (200+) through the wide around-Night-City circle road driving into the traffic (i.e. opposite lane). Totally possible to do clean "laps" there - i.e. with no collisions. That's how slow things are;
- revved up engines maintain most of their torque / hp after any major collision, at times making things worse;
- collisions and damage model are both way too forgiving. I get that this is arcadish driving, yes, but slamming a car head-on at some 150+ km/h (real speed, i.e. 200+ indicated in game) into a concrete wall - should be fatal by all means in any game, i'm sure. Apparently, CDPR thinks it's more fun to be able to live through such should-be-fatai collisions, but me, i'm sure the game would be much better if it wouldn't be possible;
- speed drop during gear changes for some vehicles is way too big. Losing ~10 "whatever units it is" - i.e. some ~5 mph - in a second it takes to gear up? Yeah. Silly;
- for some cars/situations, oversteer and drifting is working as it should, but for many others it doesn't. Like, god forbid to have a caliburn eat a tiny bump on the road in high speed, high intensity turn - spins out uncontrollably like there is no further driver input, no downforce and it's polished ice for the road;
- popping a tire is almost impossible, at least for some cars;
- and when a tire does pop, resulting drop in ability to control the vehicle is times less than it should be.
The list can be continued, but above is already sufficient, to me, to clearly see: what we got in CDPR - is not any sort of "car arcade game" or somesuch, in its driving part. Instead, it's a game of "let's make a semblance of driving to have kids think they drive fancy cars through a fancy future city", while having least trouble and least difficulty at it.
And understanding this key difference, i think, is essential to have any realistic expectations / requests about it. I'm sure CDPR will continue to improve it, but most likely it'll be in the latter sense only. I.e., CDPR were not, are not, and likely will not be trying to make driving "real-like". Rather, only "fun" to a widest audience. The bulk of which has no racing / fast driving experience at all, of any kind.
You do, i do, but we're minority. I think we'll have to tolerate it for what it is. I understand why, as per above. Which is why i don't even try to make requests like "please add manual gearbox", "please add steering wheel support", etc.
By the way, there is a guy in youtube who actually managed to have a steering wheel to work in the game - and the result is awful. Massive issues, he was barely able to drive around slowly without hitting things, and he's one plenty experienced PC car sim driver at that. So yeah. Smell the humus, eh...
