Okay so I spent some time driving around, and replayed some missions. The actual drifting dynamics feel how I remember, which is to say intuitive and responsive, though a little too forgiving imo. More on the “arcade” side of “simcade”. So overall good. Though I think they retuned the grip? Lower hp and generally unmodified cars feel way easier to initiate and hold in a drift. In low hp cars the handbrake used to rob too much of your speed and make your engine bog when you got back on power, so clutch kicking was the move. Now you really don’t need to clutch kick at all except in the super low power cars, and even then it’s usually optional. Also they gave the tofu delivery car way more steering angle, which is a positive imo.

Grip driving is definitely not this games forte. Even when a car is set up for grip, it feels like it wants to be a drift car. I can’t quite get the steering setup to make it not feel like a drift car. Every steering input when gripped feels more like trying to initiate a drift than actually turn.

Still, I think it’s fun, and I’m going to do some of the new missions that have been added.