One road, nowhere to be

Nothing here is timing you. The road keeps drawing itself in front of the car for as long as you feel like driving, and there is nothing waiting at the end of it. Play on your own, or open a lobby and let one friend pull up beside you. One or two drivers, one road.

Press B and you are somewhere else

Tired of the pines? Press B. Look up and the mountain pass is already around you. No loading screen, no teleport, no sitting still while the next stretch builds itself. The land gets rewritten from behind the car forward, so the change reaches you almost the same second you ask for it, and the asphalt under your wheels never shifts an inch.

Five environments in the rotation: forest, enchanted woods, meadow village, mountain pass, ancient valley. The choice is yours alone. Your friend can stay in the trees while you drive the valley, and you are both still on the same road.

Weather and the hours

A full day and night cycle, and the night sky is its own sky rather than a dimmed version of the day one. Rain that leans over when the wind picks up. Snow that settles on the trees and the fence posts, and holds your tyre tracks behind you until it fills them back in.

Look up

Northern lights over the cold stretches. Meteors. A rainbow that sits lower as the sun climbs. Valleys that fill with fog until only the ridges are left above it. Where and when these happen is baked into the world seed, so when your friend says look left, they are pointing at the same aurora you are.

Traffic, tunnels, speed

• Other cars drive properly. They ease off in the corners, hold a gap, and pull out to overtake when the far lane is clear.

• Your top speed opens up the longer you keep it clean, from 75 up to 150 km/h. Brake hard or grab the handbrake and it closes back down.

• Cruise lock on X for when you want to stop thinking about the throttle.

• Bridges, viaducts and tunnels wherever the ground refuses to cooperate.

Driving together

The convoy readout tells you how far ahead or behind your friend is and puts an arrow at the edge of the screen when they drop out of sight. You can hand them your speed so you both settle on the same number, call them over when they get lost, or just wave.

When you want to stop driving

Photo mode on F2 with a free camera, and a gallery on F4 for everything you kept. Cinematic mode on K hands the wheel over to the car and leaves you the long lens.

Nothing to unlock. Nowhere to be.