Are you still playing Driver: Parallel Lines? Driv3r? Driver 2 and 1? What gives a game REPLAY VALUE, versus the games that sit on the shelf, collecting dust?

Surprisingly, I still plug DPL and Driv3r into my PS2, even while owning a newer console (360). Here are some reasons why I replay these games:

1. DPL offers plenty of in-game options, day/night options, sportbikes, cars, great controls, on foot, giant map to explore, better graphics than GTA in my opinion, race tracks, tons of traffic to weave around, nice sense of speed, speedometer, multiple camera views on foot and in-car. Fast load time, unlike GTA.

2. Driv3r offers many of the same things, but with a more realistic take. Still, it feels a little stiff in comparison, especially the sportbikes, on foot, and in some vehicles. The load times are really fast, like DPL. Film Director mode, but Driver 1's was the best.

If you're still playing, what is it about the game that brings you back, months after owning it, with plenty of other new games to draw your attention away?

For me, REPLAY VALUE increases when the game goes out of it's way to offer more choices for the gamer, like free roam, choose your mission, alter the weather, time of day, crowds, traffic count, ability to fly, customize the controls, on foot with multiple camera views, vehicles with more than one camera view (Test Drive Unlimited), fast loading, cheats after the game is won, cops on/off, etc.

The problem is, most game developers fail to offer many options. They just throw out the missions and forget about the rest. No options to toggle or adjust, no controller button adjustments, no way to alter the sound volumes, etc.

I'd guess the goal of any game maker is to keep the gamers playing, months and years after first playing.

Question:
Are you still playing Driver: Parallel Lines? Driv3r? Driver 2 and 1?

Choices:
Still playing Driver 1 each month.
Still playing Driver 2 each month.
Still playing Driv3r each month.
Still playing Driver PL each month.
Playing all the Driver games each year.
Not playing them often.
Not playing them at all.

 

I have to say that I've played Driver and watched my cousin play Driver and Driver 2 yesterday, which is much better at, but I think that I will be playing the games more in the future.

I have plenty of open map/free roam games, but the ones with plenty of options to change the gameworld, and the more realistic graphics (like Driv3r) are the ones I replay the most.

Hopefully, Reflections will increase the amount of options for a fully customized gaming experience in the next big Driver game.

Yes. If Reflections gives many on-foot abilities, plenty of explorable interiors, and many of the driving experience to become more realistic and bigger as or even more than we could ever imagine, I'm positive that the freedom will be huge in every way for the next Driver game.

After D:PL came out, it really made the previous Driver games un-playable. D:PL is just so addicting. I know Reflections made stupid sacrifices and decissions, but still, the driving part of the game is very fun! I like how it doesn't have a front-end menu, it also has customization, and a money system. I play D:PL the most, I don't play the other Driver games too much anymore. I wonder what the next Driver game will bring out... hmmm...

I play both d3 and DPL. They're both a lot of fun, but the graphics in DPl just kick major arse :-)

Although DriverPL's graphics are more animated in the style of a GTA game compared to the 'realism' of Driv3r, I still play DPL a bit more, thanks to the following:

1. Almost Zero loading while in free roam
2. Three large areas to explore without loading
3. TONS of traffic unlike any game I've played for an open city/on foot game.
4. The heavy traffic (20+ cars) is fun to weave through. GTA:SA can't even compare with it's 8 to 10 car count and cartoony roads and controls.
5. Sportbikes handle much better than Driv3r's stiff turning mechanics.
6. A lot more pedestrians walking.
7. A day/night cycle.
8. No front end menu to load: useful pause menu
9. 1978 and 2006 eras provide nice change.
10. The over the shoulder view when holding a weapon up close. Needs improvement, but nice to see the game world up close, as though you are right there in the game.
11. Speedometer, innovative Wanted Meter, so when cops pass, your vehicle will hide you, and you can escape a minor traffic offense and still be able to walk on foot without being arrested.
12. Garages hold plenty of vehicles immediately available.
13. Race tracks with races anytime.
14. The fastest Driver yet. Nitro also helps.
15. Nice terrain variety, suburbs, city, town, hills, central park, tunnels, bridges, ramps, rooftops, etc.
16. DPL's graphics are better IMO than GTA:SA's oversaturated, blurry visuals, but DPL needed to lose the widescreen black bars. Thankfully there was the fullscreen stretch, which I use all the time.

Those are the main reasons I play Driver Parallel Lines the most compared to the other Driver games, overlooking the flaws and ignoring the missions. Driv3r is also good thanks to the quick loading and decent maps, though it is kind of slow in terms of speed and the traffic is weak in amount.

The Next Driver: DPL's pause menu options are nice, but I'd like to see more vehicle camera views, a Replay/Director mode, more on foot camera views and bring back the easy to use cheat checklist from DPL.

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For some of the best editable gameplay options EVER in a game, developers should note RockStar San Diego's Midnight Club 2 and 3. For some of the best editable gameplay options EVER in a game, developers should note RockStar San Diego's Midnight Club 2 and 3. Yes, it's worth repeating. Here's just some of the options allowed in the games:

1. Time of day: dusk, midnight, dawn
2. Pedestrians On/Off
3. Traffic On/Off, none, light, medium, heavy
4. Control Mapping: Every button can be mapped, even the analog and R3, L3 buttons for perfect control set ups!
5. HUD display On/Off
6. Sound Options include volume levels for rider vehicle, ambient sound fx, music.
7. Ability to choose any vehicle earned on any map/city.
8. Steering sensitivity
9. Weather: Fog, Rain, Clear, Snow
10. Plenty of modes: Free Ride Cruise, Arcade, Career, Races, Minigames, etc.
11. Rumble on/off, cameras, camera effects on/off, etc... The options go further than most games even consider for their players. A+ RS San Diego.

Also worth noting is the excellent sportbike controls, good arcade vehicle controls and incredible sense you're inside of a city thanks to the cameras and angles, sound fx, lighting, graphics that really capture the feeling of a city. It still could use an IN-Dash camera though.

Reflections aims for more realism in controls, and if it came down to it, I'd choose Reflections for the cars, but Midnight Club 3 for the sportbike controls.

I haven't played Driver 1 and 2 for like months.
I played Driv3r last week and haven't played D:PL since I first played it.

I'll say this about Driver 1, 2 and Driv3r. Driving down a straight road is as dull as it gets. Only when a chase starts up does the game become interesting. And nothing is more fun, I repeat, nothing is more fun in a Driver game than hitting a RAMP, flipping your car and spinning into the air, slamming into the ground and landing on your wheels to do it again. The moment your tires leave the ramp, awesome.

Reflections, give us more chances to take our vehicles airborne, and you'll have a potential smash hit on your hands, no kidding. There seriously needs to be a chance to launch into the air down EVERY street in the game, not just one or two ramps here or there.

And bring back the awesome traffic from Driver Parallel Lines, but include a traffic Option none, low, medium, heavy, like Midnight Club 2 did.

These are all reasons I'll replay a Driver game. If there's more of them, the more I'll replay it, but as of now, ramps are too scarce in the Driver games.

I was playing Driver Parallel Lines for a good year there, till I got a 360 and then that's all I play now, as my PS2 library starts to collect dust. Every now and then I'll play Driver 1, 2, 3 and PL just to remind myself how great the realisitic steering is for the cars. The maps are usually a decent size, but for longer replay, they need more interaction (on foot climbing, jumping, grabbing ledges, more interiors, etc) and larger areas to explore like TDU's huge map of Oahu, Hawaii, which hasn't gotten old yet, after a year of playing it.

The Driver games have a decent list of gameplay options, but they could expand on it: allowing more adjustments to traffic, weather, police, criminals walking/driving the streets, control mapping, etc, for more replay value.

Most of all, I'd like the option to adjust the steering sensitivity and driving controls, either through options or upgradeable parts.

I haven't played D1 for years, I just few months ago got rid of D2 and I haven't played PL since I first played it. And now D3 has gotten pretty dust collective, but I still play it sometimes.

quote:

Originally posted by InsaneDriver06:
I'll say this about Driver 1, 2 and Driv3r. Driving down a straight road is as dull as it gets. Only when a chase starts up does the game become interesting. And nothing is more fun, I repeat, nothing is more fun in a Driver game than hitting a RAMP, flipping your car and spinning into the air, slamming into the ground and landing on your wheels to do it again. The moment your tires leave the ramp, awesome.

Reflections, give us more chances to take our vehicles airborne, and you'll have a potential smash hit on your hands, no kidding. There seriously needs to be a chance to launch into the air down EVERY street in the game, not just one or two ramps here or there.

And bring back the awesome traffic from Driver Parallel Lines, but include a traffic Option none, low, medium, heavy, like Midnight Club 2 did.

These are all reasons I'll replay a Driver game. If there's more of them, the more I'll replay it, but as of now, ramps are too scarce in the Driver games.

That's just all wrong, in terms of overall opinion.

I've always liked the varying and realistic style of Driver. Its fun to abide laws as normal citizen, to play story or mini games, be the ultimate criminal, just watch the environments or follow someone, create chaos and break environment and have the huge chases. Sure, few good jumps and ramps here and there are perfect for the game. That all contibutes to variety.

But on every street, no way. That would be way too arcade, GTA style. And it gets repetive and dull very soon too.


And I'd really like to have better driving, on foot, AI, environments and overall improvement, than including all kinds of different options to customise. Weather/Daytime and starting vehicle options are the only truly necessary options. Cheats, on/off police, traffic adjustement and such seem to exist only to cover the lacks of "the real" gameplay. Plus there is never enough options, mini games have 1-3 starting points, there's no sliders to change every individual vehicle commonity percentages. The list goes on. Halo3 has plenty but nowhere near enough.

Instead, I believe that game including audio and photograpically real and rich environment, featuring perfect physics, perfect controls letting player to drive, run, climb, shoot, turn, crouch, swim, change basic views with smart and realistic AI being able to do the same whetever its police, civilian or ally in free world including memorable, epic story and few well thought options and modes, without time spent on random options would really be a smash hit. Not just potential hit. Realistic Driver FTW.

I always hate games with too few options. Of course, you can't please anyone, and too many options is mind boggling, especially specific ones with ambiguous names that aren't fully explained because theres not enough room on the menu.

Cheats are a necesity to me, I also like lots of them, especially if you could combine cheats, such as in GTA, the riot cheat and give everybody weapons, lots of fun together

And jumps help spice up the landscape some, I would definately want rooftop jumps so we could drive for blocks without touching the street once, maybe unlock cheats/something else if you do it within a certain time (like the tuk tuk rooftop chase in Stuntman, nerve racking!)

One thing I hate about most every game is the on foot action. This includes fps only games without driving. It never seems to be that good (Call of Duty 4 is getting there). First off, bad controls are a huge problem. Next is not enough effects going on makes it look boring, wheres the broken shards, dust, fire? People running around, you being able to duck behind objects easily+fluidly (all while moving). GTA and Driver are both horrible in these aspects, why I mostly stay in the car.

Whenever I'm playing a game I can visualize something cool that I'd like to be able to do, and then am saddened by the harsh reality that pretty much every game sucks. I guess I'm better off that way though

Haven't played them in ages....what with my PS2 short circuiting itself and my TV.

Something tells me that was a sign.

The on foot so far in the Driver series seems like an afterthought to be blunt. Nothing very exciting, even when shooting. Something's missing obviously. There are no good on foot chases with any sense of tension, the gunfights require almost no strategy beyond hiding behind something, the AI isn't very smart, and ah, it just can't compete with some of the better on foot games out there. Even Syphon Filter's On Foot action is still way more fun than Driv3r's and DPL's.

That said, there's hope Reflections and Ubisoft are gearing up some innovative, awesome On foot to go with all the great driving action in the new Driver.

I'm just glad EA didn't buy them, look what they did to burnout (last I saw), you have to try to get all these little icons scattered about the road, its annoying, its not Mario, its Burnout!

I like cheats and options too, but as said, there's never enough or what we need. So there really doesn't have to be too much effort on them. Daytime, weather, car and starting point are the important ones for me.

Other thing is that so far I have always, eventually, reached the point where I play Driver with cheats always on. There's the time I just can't stand the eventual death because enemies are stupid and unrealistic appearing out of nowhere, plus game gets repetive being realistic but not enough. Now I just do invincible deathruns in D3 with all cheats on, destorying and killing randomly and just trying to get huge chases and destuction. I don't think that should be the point. It should be spectacular even without cheats. I would gladly get rid of cheats if the game would then be:
-Amazing, steady graphics, audio and physics
-Great, varieable, balanced Driving and On foot
-Lively cities, lots of smart and realistic people entering and leaving cars, reacting to others actions... Allies and enemies actually giving feel of horrible and yet realistic events.
-Long and memorable story
Of course some add on options like cheats, options and mini games would be great too, but they are secondary. We can't have everything.


Im really for these great looking changes. Burnout Paradise is amazing and new, to it. Burnout 3 was amazing, and after that Revenge didn't seem worth anything. I couldn't see them keep going with the same concept. Now they changed and it's perfect. It still is Burnout, just different. Like you, Pennysillin, say: "If You want to be stuck in a car, Go Play Driver 1" That perfectly applies here too, and yet you talk like that.

Cheats like invincible, ammo, etc, are ok, but the cheats I want are the unique cheats you don't see in every game. Zombies, aliens, mech robots, stuff that takes the game to a new level, cheats are unrealistic in real life, so make them more unrealistic in a game. Odd cars, anything you could randomly think of.

I wish on foot was good, so I say don't scrap it. I acknowledge the games that have been released mostly suck on foot, but I've played games that are great, which is why I push for it.

And really, the driving hasn't been spectacularly fun in the last few games either. Good physics, woo! But nothing really past that

That still doesn't unprove the point that Drivers have major problems with the base game. Cheats seem to exist to cover them up. But Base game VS. Cosmetic Cheats is clear call.

Driver 3 as example. AI, glitches, on foot were huge problems that pretty much made the game far from perfect though there was good parts too. The cheats, both menu activable and armory ones were there to cover up the lacks, but none of them succeeded very well either. Vermicelly Trucks were mostly boring, Armed Pederestians were stupid without invincibility on because they were everywhere and I got show even if there wasn't one anywhere near and the Infinite Mass was made for driving on straight roads pushing everything, very linear. And there were just 3, one on every level.

I'd fix and improve the base game first. Glitches, AI and balanced vehicle-on foot relationship. Then add the cheats and options. Quality over quanity with cheats too, rather 3 great and mixable than 20 bad and copies.

I think if Drivers 1-3 were open world (meaning no front-end menu). The scores would've been much higher. Front-end menus suck all of the fun and magic out of many games, especially the Driver series. Front-end menus suck because they isolate every playable aspect of the game from the other playable aspects. You always have to back and forth back and forth through the menu to do stuff, and that really pisses me off.

D:PL is a very addicting game to play, since it doesn't have a front-end menu. In fact, it is a new standard that all Driving/Free Roaming games are open world. Burnout Paradise, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and Driver: Parallel Lines are in game series that used to have front-end menus, and they started doing open world structures in the newer titles that I just said. So I have a good feeling that the front-end menu will never return in the Driver series, and I support that 100%.