I got a game alert through the PS app last night, which was an invite to the club (cheers OMTT - looking forward to joining). I have been able to get online for a decent period of time once since the game launched. The matchmaking for the races seem to take an age, and it was all super or hyper cars (which would have been a stretch for me as I am still poodling around in my Mini..) The club list was there ( I am free agent currently) but you couldn't do much with it. I guess they will slowly release the features as things stabilise. That one moment aside - every once in a while, some green writing will scroll across the screen saying during a race saying "you are connected" but it turns red by the end of the straight (by which time I have crashed due the excitement).
All the online stuff aside, I am loving the game. The driving is just great fun. I have not got very far, but am really enjoying the time trials. I am still struggling to get to 1:46 on the VW trial in Scotland - I need to shave about half a second off. The races are great fun. I don't have an issue with the AI really - it is aggressive but not overly so, and they seem to jostle with each other. I did note a trophy for a top three finish without hitting another car, that will be tricky..
I am using auto gears at the moment. Is everyone else manual??