I don’t know if that’s just my Youtube’s algorithm, but my reels feed is plastered with videos of a driving simulator with realistic physics, one whose players and content creators love to compare different kinds of cars through the same exercises in order to see which model is the best. Or better yet, people just like to crash cars in the most ridiculous ways possible, checking the kind of damage caused as a result. That game is called BeamNG.drive, which was originally released more than a decade ago for computers. Once deemed a hard port due to how taxing its engine is for CPUs and GPUs, it is finally out on Playstation 5. And thus begins a review of something that is actually quite hard to actually talk about.

Sure, why the hell not. Whatever this is.

The thing is, BeamNG.drive is NOT a racing game. It’s about driving cars, it’s about one’s love for everything that cars represent, but this is, first and foremost, an experimental driving simulator. Racing isn’t the focus, testing cars in different scenarios and situations is. This makes this game a lot harder to explain and suggest to the average racing-loving gamer, but it also makes it a lot more unique. Think of it as your personal Top Gear sandbox. Pick a car, pick a scenario, or just fool around in its immense overworld driving pretty much any kind of car you can imagine, from a lightweight bubble car to a mining truck.

BeamNG.drive‘s biggest selling point is its physics engine. This isn’t the easiest driving experience in the market, and that’s by design. There are button combinations for pretty much every single aspect and function of a vehicle. You gotta brake and turn properly, or else you’ll crash on the nearest wall. You even need to toggle a SUV’s all-wheel drive function on or off, depending on the situation. In essence, BeamNG.drive can basically double as an Euro Truck Simulator, Mudrunner, and many more. It’s up for you to decide on how you’re going to play it.

I feel like this is the kind of dumb test you’d see on an episode of Top Gear.

But there is a slight issue when it comes to porting this complex physics-based simulator to consoles, after more than a decade. You see, what made BeamNG.drive stand out in the PC community is its mod support. None of the cars in the base game are licensed, and most of the crazy crap that shows up on your social media feed features situations modded into the game. The PC version even features a cross-game support with another title that allows you to build new cars from scratch, for instance. Being a console port, this version of BeamNG.drive features none of its most iconic features.

I can picture the angry Italians in their Cinquecentos complaining about the truck driver blocking their lanes.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a truckload of base game content. There is a ton for you to do and enjoy with what BeamNG.drive has to offer straight from the (digital) package. But this isn’t going to be the kind of content-producing machine as its PC version. You won’t be able to shove in a realistic 90’s Corolla onto a treadmill that accelerates it to 800km/h just to see if it’s able to brake before it crashes onto a ditch, for instance. Furthermore, its UI, whilst adapted to the DualSense’s buttons, is still very much like a PC (and by that, mouse-based) interface. Lots of menus and submenus crammed onto each other. It takes some time before you get used to how BeamNG.drive operates. The developers did their best to adapt this console-unfriendly game, but there are things that just can’t be properly changed.

I’ll give this game credit for its driving feel: even the acceleration on a small car like this feels great.

As for the presentation, it’s… fine. I’m sure BeamNG.drive is the kind of game that requires a lot of computing power, far more than graphical power, so it’s not the most impressive-looking title in the market. Car models look fantastic, despite the lack of licenses, and of course, the crashing physics are impressive to look at, but but there’s this unwavering feeling that the map is just a bunch of premade assets glued together in order to create the sandbox you drive on. There are very occasional framerate hiccups as well.

Those crashing physics are, indeed, the bee’s knees.

Look, I knew that porting BeamNG.drive onto a console was going to be a tough endeavor. All in all, it’s a pretty deep driving sandbox with a shocking amount of content and activities, but the lack of modding support removes a good chunk of what made it so famous over the past decade. It’s less of a silly sandbox that lets you do pretty much anything you can think of with a wheeled machine, and more of a, uh, “serious” title, meant for those looking for something less wacky and more relaxing. It feels a bit incomplete when compared to the decade-long Steam version, but there’s still a lot to laud about this complex physics engine actually being ported to a console for the first time ever.

BeamNG.drive is available now on PC and PS5.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of BeamNG.drive was provided by the publisher.