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Driver: San Francisco |OT| A whole generation, with a new explanation

K

Keyser Soze

Member
Got this today, started playing about 2 hours ago (single player), and I don't think I have ever been so happy to be proven wrong.

Everything I saw about this game during development looked a bit off, and Shift just looked silly. However, when your playing everything seems to fit together so perfect. The main story seems good (even though I have seen only a little), and it seems to have a nice Life on Mars vibe to it. which I love. But most importantly the Shift mechanic combined with exploring the city seems super slick.

The game reminds me of Burnout Paradise, as their is so much to do in the city - but unlike that game it is super easy (and usually fun) to get to it. I don't know if I am in love with the handling just yet, as Burnout is more my 'go to' thing, but this game is vastly above my expectations.

I don't think Ubi managed to get across what makes the game fun in their marketing at all - which is a shame.
 
J

JonCha

Member
Subbed for a later date because the trailer did a great job of making the game look really fun. I've downloaded the demo so will play it tomorrow and see what I think. I loved Driver when I was a kid, especially the Cops 'n' Robbers mode.
 
Big-ass Ramp

Big-ass Ramp

hella bullets that's true
I'm happy to see people enjoying this game. I was really interested in this game, but the single player demo really soured me. Maybe the full game comes together in a better way.
 
GrayFoxPL

GrayFoxPL

Member
Keyser Soze said:
Got this today, started playing about 2 hours ago (single player), and I don't think I have ever been so happy to be proven wrong.

Everything I saw about this game during development looked a bit off, and Shift just looked silly. However, when your playing everything seems to fit together so perfect. The main story seems good (even though I have seen only a little), and it seems to have a nice Life on Mars vibe to it. which I love. But most importantly the Shift mechanic combined with exploring the city seems super slick.

The game reminds me of Burnout Paradise, as their is so much to do in the city - but unlike that game it is super easy (and usually fun) to get to it. I don't know if I am in love with the handling just yet, as Burnout is more my 'go to' thing, but this game is vastly above my expectations.

I don't think Ubi managed to get across what makes the game fun in their marketing at all - which is a shame.
Click to expand...

Can you change the controls from triggers to right stick or buttons?
 
K

Keyser Soze

Member
Wallach said:
Just wanted to say the OP is really fantastic. Wish more OTs were done that way.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Just added in a few more video/review links

GrayFoxPL said:
Can you change the controls from triggers to right stick or buttons?
Click to expand...

Bad news. Even though there are three preset controller option int he game, all three of them have break/accelerate on the triggers.
 
GrayFoxPL

GrayFoxPL

Member
Keyser Soze said:
Bad news. Even though there are three preset controller option int he game, all three of them have break/accelerate on the triggers.
Click to expand...

The fuck?

Sales -1

Thanks for the info.
 
Dommel

Dommel

Member
Keyser Soze said:
Thanks. Just added in a few more video/review links



Bad news. Even though there are three preset controller option int he game, all three of them have break/accelerate on the triggers.
Click to expand...

That annoyed me as well, I like to have acc/break on R3 but that's not possible.

Also, I tried to activate my Uplay pass when the game asked for it, entered the code on the PSN store and went back to the game and it's still asking me to activate my pass.

Tried entering it with 'redeem code' on PSN, says the code has already been used. Which makes sense cause it activated on the first try but the game does not seem to recognize this.

So I had to activate my 2 day free trail just to be able to go online and checkout the muliplayer.

Anybody else having problems activating their pass?
 
B

Bollocks

Member
Have you downloaded/installed the activation file?
If not go to your download history and install it manually.

Btw is it me or is Trailblazer glitched?
It was my 2nd race and we were only two. He would just sit there at the start doing nothing, I thought cool easy win, drive behind the car till at about 50% when he suddenly shifts into the car next to me and rams me, too little too late I thought, apparently no, as I'm about to recover from the ram like 3 secs later it said that blabla is close to winning and sure enough after 5 seconds he wins?! wtf.
I stayed behind the car for the majority of time and it would only charge up to 50, with 1/4 of the time he manages to win?
 
G

Gacha-pin

Member
Got a copy. Only on......what?
kdsevb.jpg
 
M

mujun

Member
I played a bit more of the MP. Trailblazer is a hoot!

Also put about an hour into the SP. It's well written, interesting and fun. They have you doing a pretty good variety of stuff and it's nice to play a racing game with a story rather than just a series of cups or something (i also enjoyed Wheelman).

Fingers crossed the game keeps fresh and fun for the length of it's campaign. I also hope that the story is interesting enough to keep me watching and paying attention, I'm definitely prone to skipping a lot of game's stories.
 
T

tiddles

Member
Based on the first couple of hours' play, this game is VASTLY better than the demo would suggest - particularly the handling, which was awful in the demo but really enjoyable in the final game. Maybe the demo was an earlier build which has since been tweaked?

The whole game has a really nice and fun arcade feel to it, from the 60fps to the entertaining cameos of the characters whose cars you hijack - but it's also packed with things to do. The story gimmick is absolutely fine in practice - Tanner is a likeable character, and because he's as surprised by his new abilities as anyone, somehow you buy it, and can concentrate on having fun swooshing around the city into different vehicles.

Not many criticisms so far - there's a bit of tearing here and there, and I wish the out of car view was pulled back a little, but that's about it.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
I caved anyway and glad I did. Love this game.

The shift thing sounds retarded from the outset and from demo impressions but once you play the full thing it does make sense. And I don't mean story wise, but gameplay wise. What the shift does is paving a way to include a shitload of completely unrelated missions and to drive just as many different cars into the main game. Those missions are fun and varied.

There is this sidemission where you need to shift into a TV truck, then place it somewhere, and then shift into cars and do all kinds of stunts for the truck to record on tape. In other occasions you're chasing a convict, shift into ongoing traffic from far and frontal hit him. Its really goofy fun. There are still the classic Driver 1 missions where you need to ram a convict without the use of any shift mechanics, and those are still great. But not offering more than just those missions would be stupid for nowadays standards.

Gameplay is really decent once you get the hang of it. Some cars do have better handling than others. Graphics, framerate, soundtrack and silly dialogues are all in place as well. What others say here is really true, this game is better than one might suspect.
 
addyb

addyb

Member
Yeah had my copy since Thursday for the 360 (UK) and really enjoying it. Handling is great, missions so far have been a lot of fun and the shift mechanic works really well. I honestly didnt have high hopes for this at all after the horrendous driv3r.

I read a couple of positive reviews and decided to chance it and wow the game is brilliant and just what I needed at present to snap me out of my gaming lull.
 
J

Jintor

Member
The only thing I'm not really hot on is the car handling, I don't have a grip on it just yet. I'm sure it just varies from car to car though.
 
addyb

addyb

Member
@jintor

Yeah I was a bit meh at first with the handling but now pretty much got it down. Gotta love pulling off a major handbrake turn at 100mph whilst dodging all traffic and watching the cops crash and burn behind you! :)
 
T

tiddles

Member
What I really like is that the game has lots of character... because you get to meet so many of the people driving vehicles in the city, it humanises the whole driving experience and makes the city come alive. It just feels like a polished, fun experience all round.
 
addyb

addyb

Member
Yeah I can easily recommend it. It's just been one of those games that is far better than I thought it was going to be. I'd totally forgot about the game until I came across an early review on metacritic and it was pretty glowing so thought I'd have a punt.

Tiddles is right the game does have lots of character and it certainly adds to the game especially with it's ludicrous premise. Easily the surprise of the year for me.
 
S

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
I'm eventually gonna pick this up but I really hate Ubi for making me choose between getting the console version on the 6th or the PC port on the 27th.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
Tried some multi and the downgraded graphics and framerate are a bit of a let down. I actually didn't know this, never tried the MP demo and only cared and looked out for the single player in the Driver games. The MP is rather fun though. Its absolutely not being tacked on.

Buying cars in SP however seems to be a bit pointless? There are probably trophies attached to it...
 
B

Bollocks

Member
Buying cars is so that you can hop right into your favorite car without actively roaming the streets looking for it.

I still don't understand why they couldn't upload the videos to Youtube(PS3 SDK supports that natively don't know about 360 SDK), would be so much smoother, instead you upload to ubisofts server where everything is in beta, no preview pic just "video processing" for every video since days. My previously uploaded video is not there at all. Even though they are all SD I can't play them on my netbook, 1080p on youtube is actually smoother than this ._.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I managed to dream last night that I was playing this even though I haven't seen anything of it outside of the cover.
 
G

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Jintor said:
The only thing I'm not really hot on is the car handling, I don't have a grip on it just yet. I'm sure it just varies from car to car though.
Click to expand...

Haha. Welcome to real life, where different model cars handle........ differently.
 
L

legbone

Member
i'm so glad there are so many positive impressions. sounds like the final product is even better than the demo (which i absolutely loved). monday night cannot get here fast enough. wonder if i can sleep until then?
 
J

Jintor

Member
Gen X said:
Haha. Welcome to real life, where different model cars handle........ differently.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the majority of car's handling is busted up the ass right now. Was doing one race where the slightest nudge would make the entire car flip out and lose you the race pretty much instantly.

This is why it's way more fun just possessing cars and ramming enemies head-on 100% of the time
 
S

saladine1

Junior Member
I fucking love this game!
The driving experience is some of the best I've seen in the genre. All cars feel and sound different. The classic cars bob and weave like boats as they should, the modern production cars are smooth and predictable and the higher end cars handle excellently.
I'm from Sydney so I don't know what the area is called (I remember seeing it in a Mythbusters episode) but rallying/drifting through those snaking downhill slopes in the beginning of the game was very fun and felt right.
The missions are varied and the side missions are worth doing as well.
The cars featured in the game are also varied providing opportunities to drive some vehicles that otherwise are rarely seen in games such as the Crown Victoria and Oldsmobile Cutlass.
The shifting is very fun to play around with especially at high speed with quick shifting.

I'm very impressed here and I don't really say that about arcade games often as they tend to be too over the top for my liking. But this game feels very right. It's enjoyable so far and intend on finishing it.
Kudos to the dev team.
 
S

Superfrog

Member
Only 2 pages? Where's the GAF love for this game?

My copy (360) is waiting for me in the office, but I won't be able to play it before Tuesday.
 
addyb

addyb

Member
Yeah I'm surprised it's only 2 pages long. Fantastic game. Never seen such a great turnaround for a franchise that was dead and buried imo.

Stuck about 4-5 hours into the game so far and not really done much of the main story at all. I start shifting round the map on my way to the main story marker then cross over another side mission/challenge and get distracted :)
 
J

Jintor

Member
Almost certainly, though I haven't seen PC code yet.

This is definitely my 'biggest surprise' of 2011 so far, I think.
 
L

legbone

Member
Superfrog said:
Only 2 pages? Where's the GAF love for this game?

My copy (360) is waiting for me in the office, but I won't be able to play it before Tuesday.
Click to expand...


haven't you noticed all the gaf hate for this game. this is the game it is cool to hate. partly due to drm and partly due to the shift mechanic. oh well, my love for this game is all that matters to me. this is my most anticipated game of the entire year. if i had to buy only one game this year it would be driver.

edit:

that's par for the course toge. driver was fucking hard toward the end and stuntman was hard from the start. reflections have difficult driving games usually. and that is one of my biggest criticisms of their games. uneven difficulty curves are one of my gaming pet peeves. but usually i can adjust. i beat the shit out of stuntman. of course i had more time to game back then so i was more willing to be patient with difficulty.
 
R

rakanishu

Banned
I just got to say that this game is amazing! Most fun I've had in arcade racer this generation :D I can't find one flaw with this game. The story might be a bit silly, but the driving, the city and the cars are perfect. So many fun activities all over the place and the movie missions are superb! I've discovered some easter eggs as well. Driving the DeLorean at 88 Mph and unlocking "A blast from the past" was just super nostalgic for me. I really hope this game sell well, because it's something I want to see more of in the future.
 
D

derFeef

Member
Good to see positive impressions. I knew it would be good. It just sucks to wait until the end of september :/
 
C

canadian crowe

Member
So I just read about the movie mode in the game. This game just went from 'maybe purchase' to a Day 1 purchase.

I loved Stuntman, so I'm sure I'll love that portion.
 
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