Please give your opinion and state why it is that way.

For me, I feel that the only way for Reflections to go back to making any games as good as the original Driver game would be to set the next Driver game in either the late 1960s or the 1970s. By doing this, it will create a feel around the time when car chases were very popular in movies. Bullitt was the best car chase film ever. The French Connection did very well handling car chases too.

Question:
Should Driver Be Set in the Late 1960s & 1970s

Choices:
Yes
No

 

No thanks. I'd rather have it set in the present day (the 2000s). This way we get the new AND old stuff (vehicles, weapons, music, etc).

I have nothing against the 1960s and 1970s, it's just that I want the 2000s vehicles like tuners, luxury sedans, exotics, and SUVs (just to name a few) in there, just like in the 2000s part of D:PL. As well as MANY other vehicles from before the 2000s.

You do speak the truth. However, think about how much space a game can have. You can't expect the next Driver to have hundreds of vehicles and other technologies from both the 20th and 21st century. It'd be too much of an unrealistic expectation.

Therefore, I like to be as realistic as possible, so by doing so, I'll say that the music, vehicles, atmosphere, and, most certainly, the story, will be the best from choosing either of these time periods.

After all, wouldn't you agree that by taking the 21st century into the hands of Reflections that they'll very likely risk having a terrible story for the game? As far as car chases go, any of today's films with car chases, either entirely based on them, or having little amounts of car chases, don't tend to have as a high quality of that found within movies of the earlier eras in Hollywood. The time before the 1980s, I'd say was the best. After the 1980s, many bad ideas started pouring in and that's when high quality films started to disappear. The only great movies I'd tell Reflections to look into would be The French Connection or Bullitt since there are no matched car chases as these films. Also, these films have had some very incredible storylines and acting, so I would only say that the 1960s or 1970s should be in Driver because these two films were made & set in those time periods.

If you want to have so much technology, then I feel that you'll be left disappointed, judging from how D3 & DPL turned out to be. For every developer, there are limitations, so even for Rockstar North, there are some areas where developers won't be able to get to until after a few years. I even know that Reflections aimed too high in D3 with dreaming of ideas, yet it wasn't able to implement many of those features at all. By just dreaming and not thinking through something logically enough, I don't think that you'll get to where you want to be, nor will Reflections get anywhere by doing such a thing.

Well, I looked at GTA:SA (PS2/XBOX game) which has around 200 vehicles in it. And that's what makes me think we can have 200 vehicles (all from around the 1940s to present day) in the present day, with realistic physics on the vehicles, since the next Driver game will come out on the PS3 and XBOX 360. So we definetly have more possibilites with the next generation to make this happen. Another example of a game with a $#!+ load of vehicles is Gran Turismo 4. There were 700 vehicles to drive, and that game was on the PS2! So I have a confident feeling that they could have the next Driver game set in the present day with hundreds of vehicles to drive, all from the 20th and 21st centuries. All because of the possibilities with today's video game technology.

I also think having it set in the present day makes it "Fair" for everybody. Those who want to drive old vehicles and listen to old music can do that, and those who want to drive new vehicles and listen to modern-day music can do that too.

I understand that GT4 and GTA:SA were able to handle so many vehicles, but think of what a developer Reflections has been. It has been working on such a linear scale for all of its games. Each game that has come out has never found the true meaning of a sandbox/open-world game. Front-end menus and limited on-foot as well as limitations in missions and minigames have kept the team's games from being impressive at all. To have yourself think that Reflections has as much skills as that of Polyphony Digital or Rockstar North would be a mistake. They've made more high quality titles than Reflections would ever dream of. Knowing this, how can you believe that Reflections will be able to do it so well this time?

And how can you expect the storyline to ever feel so well connected and well done as that of the few expert developers out there by having Reflections look at car chases found in the worst possible examples out of the many that have included car chases?

For making a game as much in high quality as possible, I think that a developer must touch greatly upon quality first. Reflections hasn't even been able to do that extremely well since Driver: You Are The Wheelman, according to the majority of people out in the world (fans, critics, and myself), so you can't expect them to make a huge jump to quantity, while making sure the quality is well done too. It would take a miracle for Reflections to get that good in such little time and based on its history of games and as being a developer.

Well, just to let you know, I'm no video game disc. So I don't know the limits to what you can put on it. I just simply ask for as much as possible and let the developers decide from there. I just want to have fun in the games I play.

Yes, but then you're risking the idea of seeing your idea never make it into a game. It seems illogical to come up with such high expectations because if you do that, you can get very disappointed in the end. With D3, I recall being promised so many things by Reflections and none of those things were fulfilled.

Then I asked myself, why make so many expectations when you can instead throw out the too high expectations and stick with the more realistic, yet important ones?

And to think that someone will be living a whole life based on being illogical in so many ways, I don't think that such a person will ever succeed in life, so I suggest that you start making more logical guesses. And it would maybe make you look as an even smarter person. Isn't that something to look forward to?

I've always wanted Reflections to make 1976 in Philadelphia in one of their games. Whether it being Driver or a new game. That would be REALLY groovy!

One thing that's hard about games set in the past is historical accuracy. The developers have to concentrate on making it so that only the stuff from back then is there (without any references to the present day). Noticable historical inaccuracies can hurt the game in some ways.

It's true that historical inaccuracies may hurt a game, but it seems more reasonable than to expect more than you'll likely be getting in the end. Also, I don't find it as such a difficult job to look for the past's history. The Civilization games, which were strategy games, had all their wars based off historical accuracy. Mafia had some very historically accuracy, for a fictional city, but similar to that of a city like Chicago & NYC because it made crime feel more real than in any other game around its time. There hasn't been a game to match Mafia at portraying the life of a gangster as real as this. Even the GTA games weren't able to make it happen because they solely rely on making controversial things both funny and fun to do, thus not pushing the right meaning forward. And if Driver was to be set in the 1960s or 1970s, I'm sure that Reflections can look into the life of crime and of everyone else at around that time. Reflections could even make a similar, if not exactly identical story to that of Bullitt for its game, just to make the story stand out better than most of the other stories based on a cop's life.

In addition, Reflections can take a very similar mood to the game as that which has been seen in Taxi Driver, the movie. If you ever stumble upon a movie like Taxi Driver (was released in 1976, starring Robert De Niro), you'll be blown away by how it portrays that setting around the period of time so well and how it captures the mood of the character Travis Bickle (who De Niro is playing as), which is the main character. It has jazz and a sad mood to it, expressing the loliness of him and maybe even of the people. A mood much like Taxi Driver's would make for a really living breathing city of a video game, while driving the story and main character forward.

70's sounds good. We can still have modern cars in there, its just a game, not reality

Modern day vehicles, with more 70's vehicles than modern, set in an older styled city, like something from the 70's that forgot it was the 00's.

I want to be able to ride a sportbike, sportscar and formula one racer.

quote:

Originally posted by PennySillin:
70's sounds good. We can still have modern cars in there, its just a game, not reality

All the players would be pissed if that happened. They'd be like "What kind effort is this?" If it's set in the past, you then have things FROM that time period. So in short, this idea sucks.

Pretty much. Games don't drive for reality, but if it's one or other option, the realism is the way to go. No one would play game made exact opposite of realism.

Mid-age knights in 1970s cities flying with UFOs. No thanks.



And the topic. I have no idea, but I disagree with arguments of good movies made on that time, nothing to do with game. Whatever works, I'd say later time with nice supply of old.

quote:

Originally posted by InsaneDriver06:
Modern day vehicles, with more 70's vehicles than modern, set in an older styled city, like something from the 70's that forgot it was the 00's.

I want to be able to ride a sportbike, sportscar and formula one racer.

Well whatever it is, DON'T make it like Driv3r's road vehicle roster. Driv3r's road vehicle roster sucked because it was mainly older vehicles and it was set in the present day. There were no SUVs, luxury sedans, or exotics from the 2000s in Driv3r. Keep it like it was in the 2000s part of D:PL with the road vehicles, with a wiiiiiiiiiiide range of road vehicles from the 1940s to the 2000s, and in each and everyone of those decades too.

quote:

Originally posted by kalle90:
Pretty much. Games don't drive for reality, but if it's one or other option, the realism is the way to go. No one would play game made exact opposite of realism.

Mid-age knights in 1970s cities flying with UFOs. No thanks.



And the topic. I have no idea, but I disagree with arguments of good movies made on that time, nothing to do with game. Whatever works, I'd say later time with nice supply of old.

You mean to say that you disagree with me that movies today are not as good as before? Okay. Fine. It's your opinion and it won't change my opinion. As far as I know, you probably haven't seen very movies from the past anyways.

And why would we have modern technology in a 1960 or 1970s time period for a game? I wasn't the one to say that this should be in a Driver game. If it was, then yes, it'd be a very confusing and dumb idea. If you're going to set a game in the past, make it very accurate. And besides, I really don't think that there are any better vehicles than muscle cars for any car chases, including that of movies and video games. Therefore, if the game will be set in either of these two time periods, make a majority of the vehicles as muscle cars. There could also be some other sports cars that were popular around that time, as well as the regular vehicles too, but muscle cars are an important part of the Driver franchise. I personally think that the muscle cars have always been the best vehicles to drive and feel like you're in a car chase, when looking across every Driver title, especially Driver: You Are The Wheelman.

Lets get this straight. You guys want to have a modern time period for the game and you don't care if the story and all else turns out bad? Is that correct? You don't care whether or not Reflections will take another stupid movie with car chases and still its idea to make its Driver games look worse? Bullitt and The French Connection are perhaps the only films left and the only films of them all to look at when trying to perfect the story and the dialogue. Oh, but it seems as if you don't care about the story at all. No, you think that the amount of freedom itself will be able to save this next Driver game from ending up another failure. Well that's very thoughtful and caring of you (*sarcasm*).

Relax man. Did you ever play Stuntman: Ignition? Well the 1970s style car chase movie that you make called "Overdrive" has a 70s like story and vibe (like Starsky & Hutch, in fact, it's a parody of that), but it's set in the present day in San Francisco. That's a cool way of doing things. Watch the trailer of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhUtjZf0BRA

It's my favorite trailer in Stuntman: Ignition for sure!

I know about Stuntman: Ignition. It's not really the game for me. And to think that it made a 1970s movie set in the present year is just ridiculous. As far as I'm concerned, Stuntman: Ignition didn't sell well at all and THQ has announced that it won't be making anymore Stuntman titles. After all, it's just as was said about it. Also, based on what you showed me on YouTube of a movie in Stuntman: Ignition, it's a rip-off of both Driver: Parallel Lines and Bullitt.

Farrell said, "Stuntman just didn't translate well into next-gen," and was seen as "very much an old generation game." Even with its "reasonable quality," it was a game mechanic issue. The game, he noted, was highly scripted, and "games now generally more open, with more player choice. We just think that game mechanic didn't translate."

What Farell said was regarding the sequel to Stuntman. If you want to read the article about this, go here.

Oh and as a response to what kalle90 said about realism in video games, it's not always the element to work for making a game the best that it can be. If you've ever see Mario, Legend of Zelda, or any cel-shaded games, then you'll see that realism isn't a huge factor in them and yet they can work out pretty well. Therefore, realism isn't always fun. In fact, the games responsible for bringing a lot of imagination that is highly innovative and works well should be honored, not those games which only look for most realism possible. Anyone can make a game as realistic as our real world, but what kind of fun would that turn out to be?

New cars in the old days aren't as far fetched as other game concepts that SELL WAY BETTER than Driver, so:

quote:

No one would play game made exact opposite of realism.

.. is completely wrong. Mario? Zelda? Megaman? Lego games? World of Warcraft? Ratchet and Clank? Crash Bandicoot?

In fact it could easily be said that the more unrealistic games sell far more than this realistic bull****.

If having present day cars in a game set in the 70's is confusing, then you're not playing the game right, worrying too much about petty ****

Driver games feel like their at home in the 70's, but Driv3r and DPL prove the Driver formula can enter the 21st century without controlling worse than the 70's eras.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:

quote:

Originally posted by kalle90:
Pretty much. Games don't drive for reality, but if it's one or other option, the realism is the way to go. No one would play game made exact opposite of realism.

Mid-age knights in 1970s cities flying with UFOs. No thanks.



And the topic. I have no idea, but I disagree with arguments of good movies made on that time, nothing to do with game. Whatever works, I'd say later time with nice supply of old.

You mean to say that you disagree with me that movies today are not as good as before? Okay. Fine. It's your opinion and it won't change my opinion. As far as I know, you probably haven't seen very movies from the past anyways.

And why would we have modern technology in a 1960 or 1970s time period for a game? I wasn't the one to say that this should be in a Driver game. If it was, then yes, it'd be a very confusing and dumb idea. If you're going to set a game in the past, make it very accurate. And besides, I really don't think that there are any better vehicles than muscle cars for any car chases, including that of movies and video games. Therefore, if the game will be set in either of these two time periods, make a majority of the vehicles as muscle cars. There could also be some other sports cars that were popular around that time, as well as the regular vehicles too, but muscle cars are an important part of the Driver franchise. I personally think that the muscle cars have always been the best vehicles to drive and feel like you're in a car chase, when looking across every Driver title, especially Driver: You Are The Wheelman.

Lets get this straight. You guys want to have a modern time period for the game and you don't care if the story and all else turns out bad? Is that correct? You don't care whether or not Reflections will take another stupid movie with car chases and still its idea to make its Driver games look worse? Bullitt and The French Connection are perhaps the only films left and the only films of them all to look at when trying to perfect the story and the dialogue. Oh, but it seems as if you don't care about the story at all. No, you think that the amount of freedom itself will be able to save this next Driver game from ending up another failure. Well that's very thoughtful and caring of you (*sarcasm*).

I know a lot of old good movies, but new ones aren't that bad either. There's good and bad movies in all times, problem seems to be the copying, many nowaday movies are copies of others, but I feel old ones were copying each other too.

Thing is that just because some old movies had great and real chases, that doesn't mean game should be based on it at all. Driver=/=Bullit. And argument of Bullit having real cars means nothing, Driver won't ever have real cars. New movies might be more CG but games will be to, not real, but they can still be great, even more than realistic can.

I want best possible story and everything else, but copying some old movie setting is one of the cheapest and weakest ways. I don't say it shouldn't be 1960s nor 2000. I just don't agree with your arguments and reasoning.

quote:

No one would play game made exact opposite of realism.

.. is completely wrong. Mario? Zelda? Megaman? Lego games? World of Warcraft? Ratchet and Clank? Crash Bandicoot?

In fact it could easily be said that the more unrealistic games sell far more than this realistic bull****.

If having present day cars in a game set in the 70's is confusing, then you're not playing the game right, worrying too much about petty ****

Crash, Zelda or Mario are complete opposite of realism? Hardly. They have real physics, real settings (Woodlands, Dungeons), real charachters and items (Dragons, Humans, Money, Cars), story is often the usual save the world featured in "real" games too and overall they aren't very far from "realistic games" at all. Sure they have lots of imaginational brainstorm, but that's just the finished outlook which is often good. Sly the raccoon is basically Splinter Cell.

Tomb Raider and Dino Crisis stretchs the realism a bit and that's just good too, better fun than incomplete realism, giving enemies much better tools than me. Few games get even close the real realism. Driver AI, on foot and glitches are nowhere real. I'd love perfectly realistic Driver, but currently we're fighting over smaller things.

Would you say Elder Scrolls or WOW is complete opposite of realism? That's just wrong. Exact opposite would be more like senseless board of lines and shapes. If we would throw every realistic thing away one by one with argument "it's a game, realism doesn't matter" we would end up with game like that.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kalle90,