Driv3r (PS2)

Driv3r has its ups and downs but with less missions than before undercover seems a bit easy.

Nice licenseing of music.

The take a ride is a very gangster style of driving with more badly done roads and cars going at red lights more of a challenge.

Lastly if there thinking of ideas for driver 4 they should push the limits of driver like how GTA san andreas did.

Altohugh a good game, Driv3r is still lagging behind the likes of GTA3 in terms of graphics and overall 'smooth' flow of the game.

As well as having a large variety of vehicles to drive around three large cities, Driv3r does have many positive aspects. The way in which you are able to inflict damage on other objects is like that of no other game, combining technologically advanced coding and much focused concentration to create extremely realistic effects. Director mode, an exclusive and unique feature, although used in Driver 2, has now been successfully incorporated into every chase and every race you may encounter, allowing the positioning of numerous types of cameras, in unlimited locations, so that no film is ever the same. These can be saved on memory card and shown to those you may wish to impress.

However, despite obvious improvements to this, the latest edition of the Driver series, I can't help but feel that some die-hard fans may be disappointed after such hype over the last few months. Some of the framework can be square and jagged and manouvering characters can be difficult. Although hard to describe, it is also rather easier than most people would like for you to become 'stuck' and unable to move, forcing you to quit the game. For example, driving into a lampost too fast, can sometimes result in the car becoming skewered on the lampost, forcing resignation.

Overall, a big improvement on Driver 2, but Driv3r fails to fulfill all expectations and may leave many disappointed, but don't get me wrong - a good game nonetheless.

I bought Driv3r remembering the atmosphere created by it's earlier incarnates, driver one and two, this it retains but this is also the main problem. For a PS2 game it plays a lot like a PSone game. Limbs disappear into walls, the character moves like a wooden doll and most of the game plays like it's on rails.

Missions have to be completed in a preset way, just like a PSone game, so you will be playing for a long time purley out of frustration rather than fun.

The programmers of this game must have sat on their bottems for about two years before actually doing anything. Although GTA is slightly more "cartoony" the physics are light years ahead and the overall detail leaves a much sweeter after taste.

Also for a driving game there is far to much walking and shooting, which is poorly done to say the least.

Even at it's strong point, GTA kicks bottom with it's wider variety of cars and much more realistic bike handling. Save your money and buy GTA vice city! (Or dust it off and play it again).

If you're a fan of the Driver Series you will enjoy Driv3r. If you're not or never played any game from the series and are looking for something Earth shattering you may want to consider a rental before dropping a fifty. I for one loved both Driver games as at the time on the PSOne that was setting benchmarks and raising the bar. These days Rockstar has set the bar and very high I might say. Not to say Driv3r is a bad game, it's what it is, an improved version of Driver 1 & 2. I have to agree with most that the graphics do fall a little short which surprises me because I remember one time in the past hearing from Reflections that no Driver Series game will ever be released for the PS2 as it's not powerful enough. You would think with that statement the graphics would have been cutting edge and pushing the envelope. Anyways if you care to read on here is my review:

This is in-game not cut scenes:

Graphics: Average graphics that could have been better, they appear rushed and the textures seem gritty and "unpolished" and lots of Aliasing or "jaggys". I'm sure the Xbox version may be better as far as "jaggys" are concerned. The textures overall look as though a smaller than normal color pallet was used, as if it uses an 8 to 16 bit color pallet.

Modeling: The structures are nicely detailed and lots of smashables that you can run over or shoot with your assortment of weapons. The car modeling and damage modeling is some of the best next to that of Burnout2 or The Getaway but again the "jaggys" take away some of the luster. The character modeling is lacking and again appears rushed. The boats and motorcycles are nicely done. Some of the hills and landscaping could have been less "poloygonal" looking but I've seen worse. The weapons look very nice and replicate their real life counter parts very well.

Animation: The explosions are very nice along with a nice particle engine. Some of the animations on the smashable items seem a little repetitive and not enough randomization, example: park benches always seem to smash apart the exact same way every time. The character animations are stiff and unnatural, Tanner looks as though he should be running for his Preparation-H. One thing that gets me is you can be on a motorcycle at top speed and if you hit another object and get launched off then while in mid air if you hit another object just right Tanner will land on his feet as though nothing happened. The swimming animations are ok along with the jumping and rolling ones. The shooting animations are also pretty good.

Sound: The sound is ok as well, the motorcycles are very nicely done. Some of the cars sound a little fake whereas the muscle cars have a nice muffler glass-pack snap. The cops running down the street saying "You are under arrest" gets old as maybe he should have me face down in cuffs first before saying that rather than saying it while I'm unloading M-16 because really I'm not under arrest and he's under fire. Speaking of weapons those are great as far as sound, very nice "snap crackle pop" and the explosions have a nice boom factor, sounds sweet on the surround sound system and sub woofer. Music is ok though I tend to turn down the music, I guess it makes it more real. Wish I could turn down the chanting in the mosque in Istanbul.

Gameplay/Control: Well, it's Driver. It pretty much handles like the pervious ones. The physics are a little improved upon and the car handling is less sluggish but then again it all depends on what car you decide to snag. The configuration is the usual X is gas and Square is brake. Driver fans will know O is the burnout and Triangle is hand brake. A nice addition is the thrill cam. It replaces the third view option form the first 2. Remember the 3 view option in the first 2 where you viewed the action from a fixed camera? Now the thrill cam will use a panning type camera with motion blur in slow motion while being pressure sensitive, the harder you push the slower the action, a very nice addition for watching mayhem from another perspective in real time. When you release the thrill cam button it returns to the view you had it set to, either first person or chase. I've not had a chance to mess with the director but from what I can see they made a ton of improvements and additions on it. If you like to tinker with animations this should be up your alley. Out of car controls are not too bad. Aside from the animations the control is ok. A lot of people said the targeting system was crappy and frustrating, if you go to first person mode it is pretty much just like Medal of Honor. I like to have the auto aim off as I want to decide who to gun down, I don't need to be locked on a chick in thong while a thug is unloading his 9 into my head. All I can say is GTA players will be diving out of their cars constantly. Why? Because the L1 button is for getting in and out of cars or a dive out. In GTA the L1 is the hand brake for power slides. I can't begin to count how many times going around a corner I've launched Tanner out to his death as I wanted to do a power slide but this isn't GTA, good luck reprogramming your brains. I haven't gotten stuck or had to reset the game as some people have indicated having to do due to poor collision detection, though I have seen a car or two fuse through a tree now and then but it never got stuck where I had to reset.

In Closing: Driver fans should like the game. It won't be setting any benchmarks or raising the bar but the old fashioned Driver fun factor is there with a few extras and improvements. If at any point you feel the graphics are that bad just throw in Driver 1 or 2 for a while, suddenly Driv3r's graphics aren't that bad. Have some buddies over and have some driving game tournaments, I always had fun watching my dad laugh his butt off while he was being pummeled in Survival. Maybe Atari and Reflections will redeem themselves, Driver 4 on PS3? Happy gaming ;)