I recently had an awesome idea for where Reflections could head in its direction to advance the Driver series even further. The direction of being an undercover cop got old very soon, especially after D2 and beyond. For Driver: You Are The Wheelman, it worked well, but its formula wasn't strong enough to hold on. There have been too many games that are similar to one another. I also didn't like DPL's approach because it wasn't even a good or great one for a gangster. The concept of catching or taking down life-like criminals and escaping from cops has become a very repetitive experience by todays standards. Even having the cops do nothing but go for your car and try to wreck it has grown very boresome.

Therefore, to bring forth a new direction in the Driver series, we need a whole new story, some magical realism (bosses or the main antagonists to fight later on in the game), and a whole lot more. For starters, we need a character that is to work for the secret service, either in the U.S. or in England. Second, we need gadgets to finally make their way into a free-roam game (just think about the possibilities) and even a larger roster of vehicles (landcraft, watercraft, and aircraft), more interesting car chases (those of the 007 movies and even some similar to those in Bullitt). This would be a large opportunity to feel like an agent, while living in a world where you can do almost anything. Of course we shouldn't need every simulation element, but those like gambling, playing arcade games, and a few others, such like having a girlfriend, I actually wouldn't mind, especially since many fit the "Bond description", as to what he does. A really nice shooter experience could be given to us as we can have incredibly smart AI, some bosses to fight, a large variety of guns to use, and more. Think about the possibilities. It would be joined among those already growing list of games that take a direction of a spy or agent, much like Splinter Cell, Metal Gear, and much more. Considering that Tanner moved from just working with the police to working with the F.B.I., why couldn't he move to the secret service? We can either see Tanner star again, or it could be someone entirely new, who can really feel like an agent, much like that of James Bond.

With this kind of gameplay, I think that it would be fresh from the normal crime setting. Of course it is great to chase down real criminals, but just by looking at the way the Driver series approached it, it has grown very dull as an experience. Why couldn't there ever be more than to just catching a gang of criminals and more to it than just escaping from the cops? I think that this could be the right time for something new of an approach.

Driv3r went with a "James Bond" approach and it failed. Driv3r went with this "International Spy" $#!+. I think D:PL succeeded. D:PL was setting was I think in a better place for Driver (New York and New Jersey, USA). Miami, Nice, and Istanbul all felt foreign to me, they're cities that people bearly recognize (most people) and they didn't fit the Driver setting too well. Cities like New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chicago, Toronto, and London are the cities that would fit the Driver vibe well, very well.


The James Bond vibe in Driv3r sucked, the 1970s and 2000s vibe of D:PL succeeded.


One thing that I would change about D:PL's overall gameplay is that I would've made you play as a cop, rather than a criminal. It would still play like the D:PL that's already out, but you wouldn't have gone to prison for almost 3 decades. I would make the story feel like Driver 1's funky and awesome story (of course with uncensored language). The James Bond/CSI approach, vibe, and storyline didn't work well in Driv3r.


The only thing that I would really approve of for a "James Bond Approach" is having the "License to Drive Anything". This being all vehicles that run on the road, rails, air, and water. And having all of these vehicles customizable with the deepest in vehicle customization.

I think it would be much cooler if your were a criminal poseing as a police officer, you could be a rat and then what could happen is. Your boss, mafia, would be an FBI informant and well rats you out. Then your on the run. Watch the end scene of the departed the character in this position is found out.

WATCH THE DEPARTED! It has a this in it and it was BRILLIANT.

Unfortunately I was drunk and fell asleep during the departed, I missed the beginning, and when I woke up, there was no reason to watch it without knowing the story.

A 007 theme, or spy theme might result in a better storyline than the tired "Undercover cop" theme. Personally, I want Tanner to abandon some of the undercover shooting action for more career racing, movie making vehicle stunts.

007 theme might stray too far from the formula of getting into chases left and right. The chases just need to be more exciting, while not feeling "forced", as in many of the previous Driver missions.

No career racing. At least not as the main storyline. I like to drive anywhere at anytime, not be restricted to a track. One of the reasons no matter how bad Driver gets, it will always be better than a racing game

Keep the shooting, its much more fun than racing, it needs lots of work, start over from the ground up, but it can be done. Look at Criterion, they had never made a shooter and on their first attempt, it was one of the best shooters of the year

One of their quotes, I think it was on their site or in an interview, was "We think not coming from an fps background gives us an upperhand, because we won't resort to the same tactics used by other fps games." It was something like that, good quote, and after playing other fps games, I would have to say theirs is much better than a lot of the competition.

I've got to be honest with you that I was about to make a good argument and a post, trying to make it shorter, but now I don't see there being any more point in that now. It is too painful to me to bear the continuance of giving support to a team, a developer, whose members have no idea what they're doing and who continue to make Driver one of the lesser-good franchises. The idea of car chases as being for the driving, you could've said in either the 5th or 6th generation, particularly the 5th, that it needed to be the only focus for the driving and nothing more, but today, the driving should be further than that. Transportation wise, the word "driver" can take a huge, broad, and risky, but new direction. I have failed, as a member, to aid Reflections in taking the Driver franchise into more of a good direction, hoping to bring new and refreshing gameplay for the driving, and somewhat on the on-foot portion. There is no hope left for me to have towards this franchise. When so many points & arguments can be worked hard on,and when so many hopes are to be lifted up high, only to end up dead and in the dust, there is no more need for me to be here.

This has been one of the many forums that I've contributed towards, but now I'm really starting to feel bored of the entire idea of even being on a forums at all, and most definitely, the idea of continuing to rely on such a developer that is not able to bring promises to the real world and make them happen, that is not able to carry a franchise of its own into a very refreshing and new direction, and that only continues to, nothing, but mirror the work of other developers, despite it being around for since the late 1980s, which would seem reasonable to me to believe that this team has more brains than most developers out there, but that far from the truth. I will just have to carry on with my life, keeping myself away from this ever so addictive habit of posting on forums, particularly this one, to expect a lot of good to come from it, and really make a lot of the changes that I've been seeking to make for myself, for a while now. Good-bye to all of you and I hope that you'll not be too damaged by this. As for me, I don't have any more high hopes for this franchise. I've done all I could for it. I've given it the same wishes while certain wishes and arguments extend further than those that others made. For instance, I've come up with the idea of a cop mode, a list of more than just side missions, but a direction of driving careers with their own stories and missions to help keep the whole experience refreshing and strong. Once again, I bid you all fair well and I will no longer have the intentions of being around here anymore.

You know, I don't read your posts that much because its a huge block of poor grammar, but when I do, they all seem to say the same thing. "Well, Reflections isn't doing that well so I think I'm gonna leave"

Hey, it may not be the place, but I updated my last post in the wishlist thread and I think its a pretty good idea. I didn't want to double post though. It has to do with film director.

Assault Machine, thanks for the clever ideas. Stop back when Driver 5 is released to review the game.

Keep me updated on your progress in the video game industry in pursuit of being a game developer with cutting edge concepts. Best of luck.

A James Bond approach would really be a silly one. Lets leave this approach to any games based on James Bond. Driver should be all about a cop working to solve a big crime and, of course, all about the car chases.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:
A James Bond approach would really be a silly one. Lets leave this approach to any games based on James Bond. Driver should be all about a cop working to solve a big crime and, of course, all about the car chases.

If Tanner has the slick style of James Bond himself, I don't think it could hurt the game. As far as the missions though, I'd like to see something more realisitic, down to earth, like some big police chases. Bond movies are rarely about cop chases. Mostly evil rulers of the world.

The idea of being a secret service agent was already portrayed (somewhat) in both Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. These games give you the rights to do anything in order to get a job done, that being the mission (Splinter Cell's approach to narrative) or the primary objective (the Metal Gear franchise follows this approach in narrative). Therefore, something much more new must be thought upon. I want Reflections to do well in expressing themselves, by a new kind of topic, or just something that is rarely seen in video games. When we look at video games, we usually think of their purpose being set out for interacting and to show a story, but this is where many fall into a trap. Every medium form of art is about expressing what a developer was thinking from analyzing a game's theme and other elements, not necessarily judging it by its quality. Critics many times don't even understand what makes games art.

Today, I stumbled upon a great article that gave me more of the meaning of what makes video games art and I'm proud of it. Forms of expression are still in their infancy within video games, as many developers tend to not understand the importance of expressing their views of the world to the gamers experiencing their games. I have a link to a very interesting article that will tell you about the meaning of video games as art. Right now, those who've been able to express themselves in their games, even when most gamers may have not understood their expressions, were Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc.), Kojima (creator of Metal Gear), and Mizuguchi (creator of Rez). The link is here. As soon as the page loads, press stop to keep it from going to a page that says "page not found." Then, you can access the other 2 pages that follow this article. It's a very good read for anyone that wants to understand games more, so I hope that you'll look into it.

Art in games is great, but all games tend to have expiration dates, unlike films. Expiration date? Once the new consoles take over, the game becomes secondhand to bigger games with stronger processing tools that improve on the older artistic visions and formulas. A movie on the other hand, like The French Connection, remains high quality even today.

Take a game like Driver 1. At the time, it was cutting edge. Today, it's behind the times. Expired, but still fun to play, though overshadowed by fancier games on more powerful consoles.

Not exactly. Some games may actually end up with such unique self-expressions and gameplay that they'll always be remembered and loved greatly over that of the majority of the games coming out in each generation. And one of the problems of today's games is that too many are not even worked with a self-expression, or just follow an already too one of some other developer, which gives across the understanding that the developer has really no other ways to think beyond a specific expression. In paintings, almost every form of self-expression is made new, but it is very hard to stumble upon those which truly say a lot about the world. Picasso's Guernica painting is an example of an excellent form of art. Perhaps the biggest reason why video games haven't been able to look for new forms of self-expression is because the video game industry is still in its infancy (many don't consider it art and certain developers may not understand what it means to have something called art).

Did you read the article? If so, you'd see that it's not necessarily refering to the gameplay. It is the way that the developer came up with the game. For instance, Miyamoto came up with Legend of Zelda through remembering the times he went hiking on hills and venturing to caves, so he built the games' worlds around that of his experience in his past. A form of self-expression is either revolved around a person's past or around what the person/people (in this case people, since it's a developer working on a game) views the world as, in the past, present, or future times. It's just like the last sentence of the first page of the article said. "The childlike innocence of Miyamoto's games is worlds apart from Toulouse-Lautrec's sexual iconography, but both developer and painter are wonderfully effective and descriptive in communicating how their environments influenced their personalities and perception of the world."

Most gamers don't care much about "Art" in a game, but it better be fun to play, or bring tension if it's a game like Silent Hill. Without that, any artistic expression doesn't mean much in a game, since it's first purpose is to interact with and be enjoyable to play.

Let me further define what self-expression is (note: I am basing it a lot on what a website defined it as). Self-expression, along with communication, is one of the strongest and most natural desires we all have. It is the desire to share life with others and express who we are, which is one of the best ways to find peace in ourselves. There is freedom and a community which bring us together and keep us from trouble.

Expression (of all kinds) is very healthy and healing when it comes to dealing with life. It's also good for the person listening because they can learn more about different life experiences which can eventually teach them something new and maybe even helpful.

Self-expression is found in all cultures, due to it bringing both fortune and happiness. Most psychologists understand that once someone has found a way to express him/herself, complete with honesty, they'll find more comfort and learn more about themselves. Lastly, it is found in doing things such as talking, writing, art, singing, dancing, abstract expression, chat rooms, dreams, or any other way you can think is healthy and great. Life gets to be more comfortable when it's shared with others.

Therefore, by just looking at my definition of it, it can be seen that it's perhaps the most central and important thing found in any way of making life happy & healthy for yourself. By now knowing this, it goes even further than that of the fun of the gameplay and the interactivity within a game. A game does need to be fun and as interactive as possible, but the developer should really try to express themselves in what they truly believe (not what others believe, which can lead to a misunderstanding and no new ideas developed). I think that Reflections will need to express themselves more greatly. And as I've said before, it (Reflections) should look past car chases--car chases aren't the only form of driving--to truly create something unique. And while the world can be realistic, it should be all based on how they believe the world is; they must look through a broad topic, but narrow it down more, getting it be looked at in the context of a game.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:
Let me further define what self-expression is (note: I am basing it a lot on what a website defined it as). Self-expression, along with communication, is one of the strongest and most natural desires we all have. It is the desire to share life with others and express who we are, which is one of the best ways to find peace in ourselves. There is freedom and a community which bring us together and keep us from trouble.

Expression (of all kinds) is very healthy and healing when it comes to dealing with life. It's also good for the person listening because they can learn more about different life experiences which can eventually teach them something new and maybe even helpful.

Self-expression is found in all cultures, due to it bringing both fortune and happiness. Most psychologists understand that once someone has found a way to express him/herself, complete with honesty, they'll find more comfort and learn more about themselves. Lastly, it is found in doing things such as talking, writing, art, singing, dancing, abstract expression, chat rooms, dreams, or any other way you can think is healthy and great. Life gets to be more comfortable when it's shared with others.

Therefore, by just looking at my definition of it, it can be seen that it's perhaps the most central and important thing found in any way of making life happy & healthy for yourself. By now knowing this, it goes even further than that of the fun of the gameplay and the interactivity within a game. A game does need to be fun and as interactive as possible, but the developer should really try to express themselves in what they truly believe (not what others believe, which can lead to a misunderstanding and no new ideas developed). I think that Reflections will need to express themselves more greatly. And as I've said before, it (Reflections) should look past car chases--car chases aren't the only form of driving--to truly create something unique. And while the world can be realistic, it should be all based on how they believe the world is; they must look through a broad topic, but narrow it down more, getting it be looked at in the context of a game.

There was a lot of self-expression in Pac Man too, one of the most successful video games in history. The creator was expressing the time he was eating Pizza, and noticed after he ate the first slice, that the pizza looked like it had it's mouth open. And so Pac Man was born, to eat the evil ghosts. Artistic expression in the greatest sense of video gaming. In my opinion.

Thank you, InsaneDriver06, for letting me further know the self-expression of Namco. Do you see how wonderful it is to find self-expression in titles? Not only can you find them fun, but you can even learn by what you've seen, and can infer what the developer took to create such an idea for a game. It's just too bad that the many Pac-Man sequels we've been seeing are bad. Only Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are possibly the best of the Pac-Man franchise since they stick to the roots of it. And it's good that XBLA has these titles, which can still be a lot of enjoyment to play. The arcade days certainly were wonderful. I'd love to go over to a place somewhere around where I live and go play some arcades now, but, unfortunately, there are none to be found anywhere near my home.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:
Thank you, InsaneDriver06, for letting me further know the self-expression of Namco. Do you see how wonderful it is to find self-expression in titles? Not only can you find them fun, but you can even learn by what you've seen, and can infer what the developer took to create such an idea for a game. It's just too bad that the many Pac-Man sequels we've been seeing are bad. Only Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are possibly the best of the Pac-Man franchise since they stick to the roots of it. And it's good that XBLA has these titles, which can still be a lot of enjoyment to play. The arcade days certainly were wonderful. I'd love to go over to a place somewhere around where I live and go play some arcades now, but, unfortunately, there are none to be found anywhere near my home.

That's true. Arcades have been replaced as soon as home consoles could deliver better graphics, starting with the PS1, and the deal was sealed with the PS2 generation.

Also, Pac Man Championship 20th anniversary on Xbox 360 Live is an outstanding Pac Man sequel in the true spirit of the original and Ms. Pac Man.

Although 2-D games are the old kind of video games, I feel that it's one of the best ways for developers to get new ideas for the video game industry. This is what makes them special. I'm sure that there are still more 2-D games, which have been released than 3-D. While the number of 3-D games will draw nearer to 2-D games soon, I still believe that 2-D games will be the best games in that they won't be so expensive and that they can inspire new 3-D games.