I've gone on Planet Grand Theft Auto, a huge fansite for the GTA games on GameSpy and I've found this article which shows that GTA IV is making a lot of improvements. For instance, the vehicle handling is going to become less simplistic and more realistic. This can be a sign that Reflections will need to work that much harder on the driving portion since Rockstar North may be able to catch up to where Reflections has been with its driving in the past. One of the other great things you'll be able to do is shoot straight ahead (like in DPL) and toss grenades out the window to attempt to stop any cops on your tail. There are a bunch of other features mentioned. You'll just have to read this article to find out more for yourself. Here it is.

Another thing to know about GTA IV is that the website is now open and has a bunch of things referring to Liberty city and GTA IV itself. You can check that out for yourself on the main website at http://rockstargames.com/IV/

Also, there are over 25 new screenshots to check out, which you can Planet Grand Theft Auto Gamespy. Go to this link.

Solid competition in life is inevitable. Reflections, now combined with Ubisoft, won't have any trouble finding fans of the new game, so long as it's high quality entertainment, there will always be a market, myself included no matter what GTA does.

That's just what I meant when I couple of weeks ago said that GTA will crush Driver eventually if Driver consentrates only on driving. GTA will one day have driving in same level with Driver, and then all the extras will make GTA win. And Im a guy playing lots of different gametypes, choosing the best of all genres, meaning GTA and Driver have hard time appearing on my shelf side by side. That to happen, the both have to be spectacular games, but not clones, that's hard seeing where both series are going.

It's been tough competion and just now the two series are starting to get closer to each other. First GTA was senseless killing and Driver a realistic driver gangster story. Now they cross each others paths.

I have always liked Driver a lot more than GTA, almost disliking GTA. But GTA4 looks amazing.

Reflections can challenge it if they stop sleeping.

From what I've seen of GTA4, the roads look cartoonishly narrow again, like in previous GTAs. I can't imagine GTA matching the same skill and style of Reflections driving, but if they do, Reflections must not give in to trying to copy GTA's formula again, like in DPL.

It's time to carve your own path Reflections, and forget about what GTA is doing. Be your own game.

I suppose the time has come for Reflections to make such choices that will either make the Driver series or break it. At this point, Rockstar North has made millions of dollars from how successful the GTA franchise had been in the 6th generation. Now, with more support from various other technologies, including the Euphoria animation engine and the RAGE engine, Rockstar North is being able to put together such a game that is ahead of the many other games. As far as the graphics go, they're still posing a cartoon animation, but they're also more realistic, so they might give a sort of anime feel, which will make the GTA franchise feel even more unique. GTA IV will truly be a successor to the previous GTA games, from what I've seen so far. It looks to not only include more freedom, but to improve in quality greatly too. This will be a game that not only excels in quantity, but that it also does extremely well in quality.

It will either be that Reflections will move up greatly, or the Driver franchise and Reflections itself will fall apart. If the same roots are taken as in D3 and DPL, it may fail the Driver franchise and make this developer seem much like all the other decent, not big developers in the video game industry out there. Lets hope that this doesn't happen.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:
I suppose the time has come for Reflections to make such choices that will either make the Driver series or break it. At this point, Rockstar North has made millions of dollars from how successful the GTA franchise had been in the 6th generation. Now, with more support from various other technologies, including the Euphoria animation engine and the RAGE engine, Rockstar North is being able to put together such a game that is ahead of the many other games. As far as the graphics go, they're still posing a cartoon animation, but they're also more realistic, so they might give a sort of anime feel, which will make the GTA franchise feel even more unique. GTA IV will truly be a successor to the previous GTA games, from what I've seen so far. It looks to not only include more freedom, but to improve in quality greatly too. This will be a game that not only excels in quantity, but that it also does extremely well in quality.

It will either be that Reflections will move up greatly, or the Driver franchise and Reflections itself will fall apart. If the same roots are taken as in D3 and DPL, it may fail the Driver franchise and make this developer seem much like all the other decent, not big developers in the video game industry out there. Lets hope that this doesn't happen.

I don't think it's really an "End all be all" situation, otherwise, there wouldn't even be another Driver if that was the case after the moderate success of DPL (I liked it overall).

Reflections needs to push the driving to the edge of their skills, hopefully, this time the technology will match most of their vision.

What I meant was that the next Driver will determine what may be the rest of Reflections' future, especially for the Driver franchise.

As far as Reflections goes as a developer, I want to see greater forms of expression, maybe such that are different from other games. It's usually from the form of expression (a connection to the developer and/or the world) where the list of ideas will develop for a game. Therefore, if Reflections only tries to dominate on being the most realistic open-world game, it may not be enough. Its members need to think more deeply. And mood as well as theme can be two other things to really consider looking at when creating a game. I hope that Reflections will consider this. Maybe it's been failing to make the Driver franchise any greater because its forms of expression, mood, and theme aren't set elsewhere, which can explain why the members can't come up with anything new or to improve greatly upon already existing elements. Also, a last thing Reflections will need to get over is the fact that on-foot is one significant piece to an open-world game, so ignoring many of its features will certainly be a foolish idea. Therefore, both on-foot and driving MUST be carried on forward, through creativity & realism.

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:
What I meant was that the next Driver will determine what may be the rest of Reflections' future, especially for the Driver franchise.

As far as Reflections goes as a developer, I want to see greater forms of expression, maybe such that are different from other games. It's usually from the form of expression (a connection to the developer and/or the world) where the list of ideas will develop for a game. Therefore, if Reflections only tries to dominate on being the most realistic open-world game, it may not be enough. Its members need to think more deeply. And mood as well as theme can be two other things to really consider looking at when creating a game. I hope that Reflections will consider this. Maybe it's been failing to make the Driver franchise any greater because its forms of expression, mood, and theme aren't set elsewhere, which can explain why the members can't come up with anything new or to improve greatly upon already existing elements. Also, a last thing Reflections will need to get over is the fact that on-foot is one significant piece to an open-world game, so ignoring many of its features will certainly be a foolish idea. Therefore, both on-foot and driving MUST be carried on forward, through creativity & realism.

Some good points. Can Reflections make this Driver a heavy weight like GTA4, and sell 10,000,000 copies in a year? I agree, this Driver will have to go beyond great to achieve it. But it all starts by the development team doing the best they possibly can. Hopefully, Ubisoft will iron out any rough spots in the series, while helping Reflections reach new heights in game design, keeping things fast paced and fun.

Speaking of games selling really well, currently Gears of War has come to around 4.5 million sales. It's quite an impressive number for one game to sell. But the best-selling shooter in history had to be either GoldenEye or Half-Life.

The only obstacle that lies for those many developers, including Reflections, is that they will always be required to finish a game by a specific date. Therefore, Reflections will need to start as soon as possible in putting together a spectacular driving experience, and as mentioned before, forms of expression is usually where this begins. It's just too bad that many gamers only believe the story and quality is the most important. Hardly any gamers look at what the form of expression is, meaning a particular thing/idea inspired the developer to create a product. Reflections has not looked ahead of the franchise being something more than just a car chase experience and I think that this will be something that the members of it will need to look past, not by ignoring it, but by looking at what else can be considered for use with the driving and on foot features. All kinds of ideas open up when thinking to expand further than car chases, such being more stunts situated around the city, better crashes, more customization options, realistic treatment of vehicles, and the list can go on. In conclusion, Reflections must stop being so close-minded and have faith that the on-foot, when expanded (not limiting it to 10%), as well as the driving, there will be a lot achieved, as a result.

I'm not sure driving a getaway car is the best place for "artistic expressionism". On the other hand, does a great story count as "art", or just a great story in a video game?

One thing I'm gonna hate about GTA IV is that they copied Reflections with D:PL. The setting is the same (the mid/late 2000s in New York & New Jersey). In fact, I remember someone said on the Gamespot forums that Driver: Parallel Lines is such a "Dinky" recreation of NY & NJ compared to what this is gonna be (GTA IV). That member is a loser and has no life since he's a GTA nut (in my opinion). I hope Reflections could make the best recreation of NYC someday in a Driver game, even better than in GTA IV.

Get used to it, Driverman2006. Most developers these days (even Rockstar North) are not able to show a new self-expression. Sequels are the other things that prevent many games from being able to drive this industry forward. I could guarantee that if game publishers cared less about money (sequels are usually made for this intention) and would instead agree to have developers release a new IP each time (with some chances being that they can really find the right forms of self-expression), this would make our current genres expand sooner, and it could maybe bring birth to new genres as well. But we live in a world where most companies are about being wealthy and have its workers focus on creating something that is almost identical as a product to the previous one, which makes that product and worker or set of workers lack creativity and an understanding.

Fine Arts will likely always be the form of art which will see the most self-expression come from. However, that shouldn't mean that we can pretend that self-expression is not existent and that it shouldn't make itself a part of everything else. Wherever there's good health to be found (in other words, where our hobbies & interests lie).

quote:

Originally posted by FutureVenturer:
Get used to it, Driverman2006. Most developers these days (even Rockstar North) are not able to show a new self-expression. Sequels are the other things that prevent many games from being able to drive this industry forward. I could guarantee that if game publishers cared less about money (sequels are usually made for this intention) and would instead agree to have developers release a new IP each time (with some chances being that they can really find the right forms of self-expression), this would make our current genres expand sooner, and it could maybe bring birth to new genres as well. But we live in a world where most companies are about being wealthy and have its workers focus on creating something that is almost identical as a product to the previous one, which makes that product and worker or set of workers lack creativity and an understanding.

Fine Arts will likely always be the form of art which will see the most self-expression come from. However, that shouldn't mean that we can pretend that self-expression is not existent and that it shouldn't make itself a part of everything else. Wherever there's good health to be found (in other words, where our hobbies & interests lie).

How should Driver 5 express itself? I say it should express itself with lots of RPMs, burnouts, close call misses and crashes, stunts, action and one of the most intense driving experiences ever achieved in video games. Afterall, how much can a game like Gran Turismo for example, or John Madden Football express art?

Point. Not all games need expression to be worthwhile. It's mostly entertainment. If you're talking about Final Fantasy or something, then yeah, Artistic expression is fine in those games. I just wanna drive.

It's not that Madden or Gran Turismo don't possess a self-expression; they just can't be further from the first game. The biggest problem with people getting games pitched (an IP that a developer gets ready to make and sell before possibly working on any sequels for it) is that this limits the amount of self-expression on that first title and doesn't carry over such a vast set of new self-expression for the sequels. As far as I'm concerned, sequels can be better than the original one, but they usually can't lift a new self-expression over themselves, so they are only improvements of the original and carry that same self-expression. Of course, there are certain developers which thrive to be as creative as possible, not having themselves revolve around a game that they made, but to move on with another new, innovative game, and keep their development around this direction. UGA (United Game Artists) is a good example of this, which helped create the very unique and abstract title called Rez, which sold pretty small because many people couldn't understand it. However, it is now a XBLA title and is available for download, being cheap, and its title is Rez HD. I strongly encourage anyone to play this game.

While we've seen certain sequels that truly are wonderful for the industry, it can get pretty messy or just boring after a franchise has had more than 20 titles (Final Fantasy, Mario), and the ideas may start to grow weaker. Despite this, I don't like sequels that are even less than that. In fact, for this generation, I'm going to limit myself to playing only 2 sequels on a console. After that, I'll move on to other titles. If you keep yourself within the context of a franchise for too long, it may get to be a troubled state for you, as you won't know what else lies out there. This means that if any Driver game turns out with an average of a 4/5, 8/10, or 80% out of 100, I'll rent it--maybe I'll buy the first--and rent the second one (if it's labeled great). If a game is just okay or good, it shows that the game will not have enough quality or even replay value for it to last as a fun game to be played for many years. Driver is a great game, which is why I still can learn to enjoy it, even after all these years.

Game developers should try to limit themselves further, such that, even if they plan to get their games pitched, it won't be for a long set of years. If they can make a franchise of three or four titles, it seems enough. Then, they can start fresh and anew, looking to form another new self-expression. Basing one's self over the whole course of a career around one franchise is not what I'd consider smart. Therefore, maybe Reflections will be able to come up with around 2-3 more Driver titles before starting on something new because the roots of the franchise are starting to feel boresome already. And even if they can have Driver reach new heights, they should still retire from the idea after 2-3 sequels. It'd be wise to go in a whole new direction for themselves, either with vehicles, with the open-world gameplay, or with a different genre. I'm saying this not because I hate Reflections, but because I think it's the most reasonable choice to make. You can't bet your money for a very long time on something (15-20 years seems long enough). Look at Shigeru Miyamoto--perhaps the most talented game designer of all time. He goes on to creating more new IPs over a certain period of time. He is well known for having created Donkey Kong, Mario, and Legend of Zelda as well as Pikmin and other titles. Nintendo is one of the smartest people of developers, as they know which new ideas to come up with for a new console. However, it doesn't mean that they should continue making so many Mario titles. There have been so many Mario games that I can't remember all of them. And it's ridiculous to expand it further from the platform genre (it's been expanded to party games, sports games, and racing games).

Yeah, that aspect of gameplay may be improved.
But most of the content in GTA:IV will remain on-foot, shooting sequences.

Driver will continue to remain focused on driving.
There are many things driver series can do that gta iv cannot they still have their different focuses.

I'd be more worried about The Wheelman and the Driver Series how similar they are going to be!

To be honoust to see another driver title out there will be amazing. Thinking of those differences, GTA I haven't played in ages but The Wheelman and Driver are focused on driving.

Also to mention The Wheelman also includes a small portion of on-foot!

Anybody see the new pics of JUST CAUSE 2? The first game wasn't bad, but this sequel looks impressive so far.

I hope Driver's graphics hit a new level of realism this generation of consoles.

quote:

Originally posted by driver_madness:
Yeah, that aspect of gameplay may be improved.
But most of the content in GTA:IV will remain on-foot, shooting sequences.

Driver will continue to remain focused on driving.
There are many things driver series can do that gta iv cannot they still have their different focuses.

I'd be more worried about The Wheelman and the Driver Series how similar they are going to be!

To be honoust to see another driver title out there will be amazing. Thinking of those differences, GTA I haven't played in ages but The Wheelman and Driver are focused on driving.

Also to mention The Wheelman also includes a small portion of on-foot!

Yes. Now Reflections is going to need to work much harder. The Wheelman, if done very well, could overcome anything that Reflections was capable of. Despite this, I'll say that it is doubtful of having Reflections get surpassed by a new developer like Tigon Studios (who created the impressive The Chronicles of Riddick game), as it seems like its storyline, just as that of Reflections' Driver games, will look to be unimpressive.

I've got to be honest with everyone in saying that I'm becoming less of interest in sequels as I learn more in the importance of innovating & bringing originality into video games, but I still would like Reflections to show that it's very capable of going up to becoming one of the biggest developers out there. The biggest challenges yet faced by Reflections is that its workers must gather more originality, especially for game elements like on-foot and the story. The driving hasn't grown very consistent either, over the few periods that Reflections had in developing Stuntman, Driv3r, and Driver: Parallel Lines.

Any purposes in having a franchise kept alive is that it is expected to make bigger progress over each new sequel and not a lot of that has been seen in any of the Driver games--Driver: You Are The Wheelman is still the best Driver game out there to see how far a game's driving experience can be driven. If a franchise only continues to disappoint at keeping itself on a margin of the many existent developers, there's no telling how much criticism and hate it may wind up with in the end.

The only way Driver's in trouble is if they don't make the best game they can make. They'll be way better off if they don't try to "one up" every new GTA additional feature, cause if that's the case, they'll always be behind.

Carve your own path and the heck with what the competition's doing Reflections. Just make it the best Driver possible. That's true of many things in life besides.

Always comparing your game, trying to measure up guarantee's you'll always be behind the leader.

Of course, I know it's important to notice for what a particular game was able to handle the most, but Reflections must take that experience into their own games, while also bringing forth more innovation. The biggest thing that drives each genre and concept of a developer's game forward is by adding a lot of innovative features. Reflections can even look for answers of innovation by examining other things besides video games to make that possible.

Driver in trouble cause of GTA4? Would that mean that anyone who bought GTA4 wouldn't buy Driver 4?

I know I'm buying GTA4 AND Driver 4, and plenty of other open city/world driving/on foot games down the line.

Next on the list besides GTA4 and Driver 4 is Midnight Club Los Angeles, Prototype, Just Cause 2, quite a few more.

Let's say GTA4 is the "best game ever", does that mean we can't buy other open city games like Driver 4 and not enjoy them? It's just that title to the thread, "Driver May Be in Trouble--GTA IV news" seems close minded.