Erm... I didn't suggest anything implying a GTA clone? I meant your idea is one of the few things that could save Driver.

Or do you mean 1950s-70s are for GTA clones?

Oh, please excuse me for the misunderstanding, kalle90.

I am glad that someone else feels the same way about Driver. We finally need something meaningful and different to come from Ubisoft Reflections. Hopefully, seeing how Ubisoft loves to innovate and change the directions of franchises (not always for good reasons, though), Driver will be one of the few that will go in the right direction.

And no, I meant that 70s-present day time periods have already been done often with other free-roaming titles (e.g. Scarface, Saint's Row, GTA, Driver, etc.). Even seeing the Driver franchise only copy its predecessors would not do it much good. A new direction is certainly the right way to go.

And what is better than seeing a whole police department work together, instead of the player doing all of the work on his/her own in the game's story.

I agree that the Driver franchise should definitely aspire to being more than merely a GTA clone and attempt to inject a innovative take on their classic formula however I don't think they should attempt to do this by changing the time period! The reason most games of this genre are based on this time is because that was when the underworld was drawn to most of the public's attention, inspiring the most films on which the games are based.

Yes I know that the Mafia were renowned, however I believe its appeal is limited due to the lack of drug fuelled organised crime, fast paced action and very fast car chases, which is what driver is surely about?

So sticking with the classic time period, lets say the 1980's, Ubisoft Reflections should instead turn their heads to innovating the game play, maybe instead of the generic free roam game, create a rigid, clear and involving storyline. Further than that, clear decisions could cause it to split, putting a certain level of freedom back to the player whilst allowing the developers to create areas of strong and interesting story lines to allow the player to relate well with he character.

Finished, I totally agree that video games often don't challenge me mentally, that why I often love old school survival horror for the combination of puzzles and fast thinking. Despite this, I am not sure how this kind of logical challenges could be implemented in a game of this genre but if possible and appropriate, I would like some of the real world physics challenges from Alone in the Dark (the recent game on the next gen platforms), because although it was rather clumsy, it really made me think in a logical way that helped me relate to the protagonist.

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I agree that the Driver franchise should definitely aspire to being more than merely a GTA clone and attempt to inject a innovative take on their classic formula however I don't think they should attempt to do this by changing the time period! The reason most games of this genre are based on this time is because that was when the underworld was drawn to most of the public's attention, inspiring the most films on which the games are based.

That's not really as true as you see it. Most of the films that come to mind as inspirations for games are just Boyz in the Hood, Scarface, and The Godfather. Bullitt inspired Driver, as did The Driver. But all of these films were post-60s ones. Even most noir films that inspired games like Max Payne were post-60s ones, too, like Blade Runner, The Terminator, Se7en, and so on. I have never seen much influences from movies like Casablanca (Humphrey Bogart), The Blue Lamp (starring Dirk Bogarde), and Maltese Falcon, which were 30s, 40s, and 50s films.

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Yes I know that the Mafia were renowned, however I believe its appeal is limited due to the lack of drug fuelled organised crime, fast paced action and very fast car chases, which is what driver is surely about?

It may be true that most males are psychotic, in that they enjoy violence in the media, especially in games, rather than be filled with sorrow and pity (despite that they contain pixels). And so, such people would not be interested. But isn't the whole purpose of for there to be diversity among the media, leaving many different tastes for society? Where one may like hand-eye-coordinated games, another may like puzzle ones, or another may like romance. Games are way too narrow in their scopes, appealing more than 90% of the time to sex and violence hunger males. Games will die, like comics did, if they don't take risks to be something else. And I certainly see it this way for Driver.

So sticking with the classic time period, lets say the 1980's, Ubisoft Reflections should instead turn their heads to innovating the game play, maybe instead of the generic free roam game, create a rigid, clear and involving storyline. Further than that, clear decisions could cause it to split, putting a certain level of freedom back to the player whilst allowing the developers to create areas of strong and interesting story lines to allow the player to relate well with he character. [/QUOTE]
By clear decisions, do you mean that there should be more ways to accomplish tasks that are given to the players, other than just drive and shoot?

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Finished, I totally agree that video games often don't challenge me mentally, that why I often love old school survival horror for the combination of puzzles and fast thinking. Despite this, I am not sure how this kind of logical challenges could be implemented in a game of this genre but if possible and appropriate, I would like some of the real world physics challenges from Alone in the Dark (the recent game on the next gen platforms), because although it was rather clumsy, it really made me think in a logical way that helped me relate to the protagonist.

Logical challenges wouldn't be so possible in a 2000s period or even 60s period game because the sexual revolution has put so much more pressure on the media to be more deceiving and evil, and to help society go along with its secret plans. This may sound like a conspiracy theory, and I'm not really deviating from that notion. We must accept the sad truth about this world, and embrace it, which is clearly what I wish for myself and others to do. And old films did not consist of the same sinister media that we see in our lives today.

The New World Order is not so far away. Soon, a North American Union will emerge. The UK is already on its way towards a Big Brother Totalitarian government.

Just look at these videos and you will see that I am right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...v5jo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGAEmG0jhPs

Hmmm....I seem to have come with an alternative idea. It may not work so much as my previous one, but it certainly would be important for society to see.

London is the most monitored city in the world. And the UK as a whole is pretty filled with CCTV cameras. This is a huge problem, especially when we see the police acting like they're above the law. Maybe the next Driver game should try to show many gamers the truth, as to how the world is becoming increasingly a police state (look at Arizona's police dept. and at China's monitoring). Could this allow Driver to reach out with more powerful messages than any crime film, book, or game has ever done so? I really wouldn't mind seeing a game about the brutality and corruption that is getting worse among the police.

Perhaps we can play as a policeman, who, over time, is increasingly seeing the truth about London's police. At first, he or she trusts it with his life. But that will not be the case at the end of the game.

I really would love to see another game like Deus Ex that is closer to saying the conspiracy theories that we are so filled with, particularly about a one world government and total enslavement of the masses, would be a marvelous idea, not to mention of extreme

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer2:
By clear decisions, do you mean that there should be more ways to accomplish tasks that are given to the players, other than just drive and shoot?

Yes, possibly interactive cut scenes, preferably not the dull dialogue selection of RPG games but an intuitive way of shaping the character's future by his body movements, for example, when your boss offers you a morally challenging mission, you could merely accept it or walk away, shocked at the lack of moral integrity shown to you. This is just a thought, but I believe it might be hard to implement in a game.

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The New World Order is not so far away. Soon, a North American Union will emerge. The UK is already on its way towards a Big Brother Totalitarian government.

Regarding your vids; thank fudge I live in the North where we aren't worth watching, just remember "If there is hope, wrote Winston, it lies in the proles."

I would love a game that deals with these issues, particularly drawing from the dystopian city portrait in Mirrors Edge; something along the lines of "we drive to be free" maybe, but its not the place of the driver series. I believe that Ubisoft Reflections would do well considering a game like that in the future!

Did you know that even places like China, Arizona, and Chicago are becoming police states? It's horrible, especially since I live in Chicago. And Chicago has the most intelligent surveillance systems in the country. There, a project called Operation Virtual Shield is being conducted. It's currently in phase one, which is to have surveillance cameras situated around various street corners. Phase two will be to place cameras under license plates, and to track who is in the car, the car's license plate, as well as the location of the car. Furthermore, by 2016, we will see cameras on every street corner. Currently, there are around 3,000 cameras here.

I think that I wouldn't mind seeing Ubisoft Reflections begin working on a new IP, actually. And it could still be about the roles of a policeman, as well as some driving, only that it would focus a lot more on the main character as a whole. That would certainly help its story succeed because not enough emphasis was placed on the characters in D3 and DPL as well as D76.

There was already a game announced not long ago by Midway New Castle, which was about police brutality in today's world. Its name is Necessary Force. Unfortunately, Midway has been sold to Warner Bros. and nobody has decided to publish this game. I think that it really could draw some powerful messages about the laws of our world, if it still comes out.

My belief is that Ubisoft should make as many of its games discuss the evil things in our society today, especially ones about secret societies, or even police states. Heck, even PMCs are increasingly becoming a problem for us, so addressing how we are seeing more mercenaries and less government control over various areas around the world would be another good option.

Maybe Ubisoft should risk changing its Tom Clancy games into less propaganda titles, and more into warnings about what is our governments' future as well as that of its people. Splinter Cell: Conviction's first version with Sam running and hiding from police guards could have been a good way to show gamers how worse our law enforcement is becoming. Sadly, the newer version that we saw at E3 looks like it will once again focus on the propaganda of counter-terrorism, for every enemy that Sam faced in the recent demos was a criminal or terrorist, not a policeman.

At least there is still hope in making Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon into games that question the validity of us trusting our governments and going to fight what we call "terrorists." It could be as powerful as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Deus Ex were.

It really is a shame that we haven't seen many conspiracy theory titles recently, except for Mirror's Edge, whose story wasn't really that good.

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And those are still small in the sense that one can move away. But one documentary I saw talked about the microchips put under skins and satellite surveillance that aren't as far fetches as people think. Easily found and tracked all around the world.

But I fail to see how a game can do much of anything to counter that. Like The Island had the portion with camera tracking, didn't really make me want to protest. For most it's just easy entertainment.
I don't even think more surveillance has to be all bad. Crimes and other threats are noticed faster etc. but I do see how it could be used wrong. Once something is invented, it's always used wrong.

Tell me, kalle90. Have you ever considered the idea that our governments have been planning something very sinister all this time? If you still believe in everything that is said on the news, then I'd suggest that you do your research before coming to any conclusions.

It's been 7 or 8 months since I discovered many things about corruption and secrecy in our society and I have learned a lot of things. For instance, global warming is really a hoax. It proposes that the temperature will rise, due to more CO2 emissions, but it is actually the other way around. Every living thing as well as things like transportation produce CO2, and the temperature affects carbon dioxide.

Go ahead and watch videos about the New World Order. Google various forms of info. Do whatever it takes to find out the truth.

If there's one thing that you ever should do, above all other things, that is, either read George Orwell's 1984 novel, or watch the 1984 movie adaptation of it. It clearly demonstrates what our future could be like if we put too much power into the government's hands.

Lastly, I will say that we must spread this information to as many people as possible. And turning away as much as possible from mainstream media certainly would benefit us even more. Perhaps we will need to prepare for the collapse of America, as we come closer to the North American Union, which will come about in 2010.

I thought Ubisoft snapped up midway Newcastle (plz don't put in the space!) or was that just to flog Wheelman on us? Although there is a worry of this surveillance state, you seem to be a bit over anxious, i mean keep it in perspective, I mean yes, no-one wants to be watched, but there is a lovely thing called the countryside, thank fudge, the best place for private meditation and free thought, I suggest you try it!

Yes, Man made Climate change due to CO2 is ******** and this has long been public knowledge however just because the IPCC is a bit of shi , along with the EU doesn't mean that there is deep rooted corruption and I extremely doubt any alternative motive behind these installations of CCTV through out our isles although it could lead to problems in the future!

Anyway, we are verging a long way from the topic at hand; You obviously have a very strong viewpoint on this one, however mainstream gaming cannot deliver such extreme bias to one side, it would however to be fun to play a game that reflects your worries and fears about the totalitarian regimes of modern governments!

Well, aside from the totalitarian gov. idea, I wouldn't mind seeing a game that helps us tap back into our moral values, and the most appropriate time period for that is the pre-60s. Anywhere, from the 1900s-1950s seems fine to me. Come to think of it, the 1940s or 1910s would be the most interesting time periods because we could witness how propaganda was used and how the World Wars affected the quality of life in America.

I've actually thought of another alternative. It may not sound as bright as the former two, but I'll tell you about it anyways. It is the 1960s, and you're Tanner. You are a police man, and you have been appointed to follow and help protect JFK as much as possible. This spans from 1960-1963, showing us much historical accuracy about JFK's presidency, and letting us listen to his warnings about secret societies. In addition, there could possibly be an alternative historical event, in which you can actually save JFK from being assassinated. And it could have a lot of ties to the NWO conspiracy and/or that of secret societies. So while it would take place 4 decades ago, it would still make for a significant piece of work. And Tanner could act more like a normal policeman would, back in those days, of course.

Oh, wait. I have one more idea. We could see ourselves once again in the 1970s, but this time, Driver will take its influences from the 1978 movie Taxi Driver (starring Robert De Niro) and it can be about a taxi driver that is trying to make a living in what is a city full of corruption. And he eventually finds love, as well as many other things. The huge difference, however, would be that this game's focus then has to move on to the character, meaning that its emphasis on driving wouldn't be as big, nor would its action be. Instead, it would take on the role of a more nonviolent, emotional drama that also is filled with driving and pretty realistic, not too frequent, action.

The last idea of mine sounds like a mix of LA Noire, Driver, and Crazy Taxi. Nevertheless, it certainly would be a fresh new approach for an open-ended action-adventure game with a mystery/crime setting. And I think that it would greatly impress Rockstar North, who will likely always be busy with its GTA franchise. Actually, now that I think about it more, R* North is working on an agent game that is open-ended, so maybe its employees will have a little bit more freedom to come up with new ideas and gameplay. If that is the case, then why can't Ubisoft Reflections take a break from the Driver franchise. Maybe it would help its employees become more open-minded and less filled with GTA-clone ideas.

Yes, I would much prefer that to the games they are producing at the moment, as although Wii games can be fun, they are no my thing and don't look good on a developers profile! I would love something with a very character based story. As your ideas require a good on foot experience, I think you might have found the wrong studio, but you never know.

Aside from later releases to the driver franchise, I would love to see a gritty FPS along the lines of Half Life with a strong campaign following a person in a densely populated city attempting to escape its walls and free him self from the tyranny of the ruling body by any means possible. I would love if the graphics were along the lines of blade runner and the game play often involved using a vehicle, buy that's just me!

I think that because Ubisoft now own Reflections, we can expect some of its staff to be able to craft a compelling on-foot experience. After all, D3 and DPL weren't the best on-foot games, but the on-foot gameplay does seem to be improving in each new installment. With that in mind, we can say that there is still hope left.

And while I didn't like DPL feeling way too much like a GTA game and less of a Driver game, I thought that the mission structure and open-ended gameplay was an improvement over that of the previous Driver games. Even the one-city idea felt great. In fact, the traveling from one city to another idea was unique in Driver: You Are The Wheelman, but got repetitive in D2 and D3. I think that it was one of the biggest reasons why the freedom in D2 and D3 was very limited. All that we were left with was a little bit of freedom here and there. Now that Ubisoft Reflections has learned from its own mistakes even more, I don't see why it can't provide a more improved and original experience to the Driver franchise.

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I recently read an article on Godfather Part II, and it gave me a really neat idea. Instead of focusing just on what Ubisoft Reflections has been so poor at doing, I thought that I could point out what perhaps was great about its Driver games. Something that rarely goes said is that each Driver game, except for DPL, has had lots of random moments. Sure, they were pretty full of glitches, but that also made it funny to look at the final version of the game, and it brought forth moments that you probably wouldn't find as likely to occur in any other open-world games.

Hey, now that I think about it, Ubisoft Reflections could try to create a Driver game that, like GTA, parodies many things about crime and other games. Heck, I wouldn't mind if we saw old features like the cops knocking your car into the air in Survival mode and to return. Saint's Row 2 attempted to be funny, and look at how well that worked out. And I would be lying to myself if I said that many things like the dialogue, story, and gameplay weren't funny at all in any of the Driver games. So, if Reflections can't craft a very original experience for a Driver game, then why not just make fun of what has gone by in the non=linear nature of games, and of the Driver franchise?

Now that, FutureVenturer2, I would love to see! I say this because the best bits of Halo is when you have a fluky kill, the best parts of Skate is crippling your guy and watching the rag-doll physics play out and the best part of FIFA is when you have the most failed attempt of the keeper to save the goal!

Now i dunno about what other people think but frequently when playing driver 3, I found that the police sped into me at a tone, sending my car flying and me erupting into laughter! If you don't know what I mean, then watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkJ2PA0ObiI&fmt=18 at about 1:30!

Also from this video, first person style? And you would need a Replay Editor, hmm, something Halo, Skate and FIFA all have because they are awesome!

Yes. After all, none of the Driver games really had any great or excellent stories. In fact, I could say that D1 had the best one out of all the Driver games, but that it was good, not great. Part of this reason is the fact that they never were so emotional or didn't get you so attached to their characters as much as RPGs would. Even GTA: SA and GTA IV did a lot better in terms of narrative. They both had some of the best voice-overs in any video games, but also were pretty emotional at times.

The Driver franchise has dealt mainly with the purpose to excite and bring thrills, with its car chases and action. Sadly, that hasn't really made me care much about their narrative. So, if Ubisoft Reflections cannot create serious, moral, and dramatic stories for its Driver games, then it might as well make fun of video games.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: FutureVenturer2,

i hope ubisoft complete DRIV3R story

having a online mode

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer2:
Yes. After all, none of the Driver games really had any great or excellent stories. In fact, I could say that D1 had the best one out of all the Driver games, but that it was good, not great. Part of this reason is the fact that they never were so emotional or didn't get you so attached to their characters as much as RPGs would. Even GTA: SA and GTA IV did a lot better in terms of narrative. They both had some of the best voice-overs in any video games, but also were pretty emotional at times.

The Driver franchise has dealt mainly with the purpose to excite and bring thrills, with its car chases and action. Sadly, that hasn't really made me care much about their narrative. So, if Ubisoft Reflections cannot create serious, moral, and dramatic stories for its Driver games, then it might as well make fun of video games.

u are so wrong about that ''none of the Driver games really had any great or excellent stories. In fact, I could say that D1 '' maybe ur saying this cuz driver ur type & GTa sucks sucks sucks remember GTA trying to do like DRiver but never will be like Driver ^^

I think you mean because Driver is not your type of game, you don't think it had a good story; But I think that Driver 3 had a story of (in the gaming world) good proportions and so I would like that kind of story as opposed to a free roam type one.