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Originally posted by smiler_16:
i agree

the on foot modes biggest problems is like in D3 you can jump and swim but cant in DPL where as in D3 the whole controller setup was turd because it would take half an hour to turn around a full 180 whare as if the features of jumping and swimming were in DPL with its fast moving camera angle thingy then it would be great for on foot features and would'nt require a hell of alot more really.

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Originally posted by GameOn1987:
Well, Driver is in trouble because if you go to Game Rankings you'll find that it is now the biggest game of all time. It has even managed to score higher than The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, so it's technically the best game ever. I wouldn't be surprised in knowing this because Rockstar North spent lots of time and money ($100 million) on creating this game. They've managed to have every single element go over that of any other game. It has made history in being the #1 game of all time, and it even has surpassed Shenmue's greatest budget for a video game, which was $70 million or $80 million, and I doubt that any company any time soon, will ever surpass Ocarina of Time or GTA IV, even Driver.

There's no way Ubisoft will give Reflections more than $100 million to work with, so while the next game does have a chance at becoming more impressive than all of the Driver games in the past, it won't take out GTA IV. Not with many commercials or a huge hype will it ever make that of an impact. But I'll say that I wish Reflections the best of luck for trying to actually craft a masterpiece.

I've enjoyed the Driver franchise in the past, though D3 and DPL were quite disappointing, mainly because they had nothing very new to offer for a 3-D open-ended game. With the next Driver game, I hope that both the driving and on-foot will be pushed to new heights. It doesn't necessarily have to be more open-ended than GTA:SA or GTA IV, but I still hope that it'll have plenty of hours for many gamers to sink their teeth into playing that consist of more than just the storyline. Also, I hope that we'll see a very impressive multiplayer, not a complete rip-off of GTA IV.

Driver needs to handle the on-foot better, not getting rid of it, simply because the future does not hold a lot of innovation for games that are focusing only on one genre. Car chases is basically nothing but a theme. Even driving is a theme. They are not genres. Never has anyone mentioned a game as part of the driving genre. Racing is the only genre that has currently existed around driving. I feel that the only way to have a driving genre created, there will need to be so many simulation, arcade, and racing elements crammed into a game that's about driving, such that it'll bring forth a whole new genre. But that is very unlikely. Today, games aren't as capable of introducing entirely new gameplay, so the only way to innovate further is to create concepts for games that will focus around multiple genres and work heavily on them in order to make sure that they go in new directions. This is how the GTA games have been focused on by Rockstar North and several other games, not only open-ended games, have focused on multiple genres. There have been quite a number of impressive titles that have done this. However, with more than one genre, it's a huge responsibility for a developer to bring all of its genres for its concept up to date with today's games featuring these genres, much like what GTA IV did. If Reflections can do this for Driver, I see it as a really big contender towards Rockstar North. The first step is to come up with a unique concept. Then, play it out, find ways to advertise and make it heard to as many gamers as possible. This will lead to many pre-orders and, hopefully, it'll reach a really high peak, similar to that of GTA IV. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as this.

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Criticism is an informed discussion, by an intelligent and knowledgeable observer of a medium, of the merits and importance (or lack thereof) of a particular work. Criticism isn't intended to help the reader decide whether or not to plunk down money on something; some readers' purchase decisions may be influenced, but guiding their decisions is not the purpose of the critical work. Criticism is, in a sense merely "writing about" -- about art, about dance, about theater, about writing, about a game--about any particular work of art. How a critical piece addresses a work, and what approach it takes, may vary widely from critic to critic, and from work to work. There are, in fact, many valid critical approaches to a work, and at any given time, a critique may adopt only one, or several of them.

Some valid critical approaches? Where does this work fall, in terms of the historical evolution of its medium. How does this work fit into the creator's previous ouevres, and what does it say about his or her continuing evolution as an artist. What novel techniques does this work introduce, or how does it use previously known techniques to create a novel and impactful effect. How does it compare to other works with similar ambitions or themes. What was the creator attempting to do, and how well or poorly did he achieve his ambitions. What emotions or thoughts does it induce in those exposed to the work, and is the net effect enlightening or incoherent. What is the political subtext of the work, and what does it say about gender relationships/current political issues/the nature-nurture debate, or about any other particular intellectual question (whether that question is a particular hobby-horse of the reviewer, or inherently raised by the work in question).

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Originally posted by FutureVenturer2:
According to what you say, InsaneDriver06, is that you want Driver to truly remove all of the GTA formula, but how will it be able to do that if it can't bring forth a unique storyline that does more than entertainment? No game in the crime setting, but Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and The Getaway are more apart from the GTA franchise because these two games offer a form of narrative that drives players emotionally and largely represents reality within a city. In Mafia, you experience the life of the 1920s and the 1930s, within a fictional city called Lost Heaven, which resembles both Chicago and New York. Unlike the GTA franchise, the story begins right from before the time you became a gangster, up until the time of your death. This game offers a main menu and game modes to cycle through, as well as more linearity, but this really pays off, as the game makes you feel closer than any other game, as if you're a gangster in any of the movies which you've watched in the past. The Getaway tries to follow its path very closely and, instead, fails to do so. Unlike Mafia, The Getaway is set in London and in a current period (most definitely the 21st century). What makes Mafia a lot more different from these other crime games is that, to obtain more vehicles, the game progresses in its time periods, and this brings forth new models of vehicles, so if you think about it, Mafia took the idea of more than one time period before that of DPL, and it does a fantastic job as a result, unlike DPL, which was an okay game. I'm very much looking forward to one day buying Mafia for the PC, and I might borrow Mafia 2 (after its released) through GameFly for the Xbox 360.

The biggest reason as to why Mafia and The Getaway differ so greatly from the GTA franchise is not only because they're more linear, but because they represent a much more realistic storyline. Their themes are much different than those of the GTA games. And this is something that really is important in driving a setting/genre forward. In order to make a setting/genre for a game look new, it needs to represent something in a different way and it needs to fill players with a new found understanding. It also needs to employ players with the developers' own self expression. Rockstar North's self expression, the humor and expansion of features is its own combination, and many developers just take that concept and use it for their own games' concepts, only for the sake of being greedy. They don't care so much about what happens within the Video Game Industry. Most importantly, they don't care what arts means to people. And that is why Reflections must take on a new self expression, along with a certain one that drives understanding and fun in many ways for the storyline and anything that is a part of the player's experience.

It's also so silly seeing how many developers have taken very general names for use as their own crime games' titles. Mafia. Grand Theft Auto. The Getaway. Driver. Come on. These names have been used for movies that came before them, if not for books or both. Developers need to expand their ways of thinking, especially when coming up with a title, as that can really help them form concepts inside of their own minds that will actually drive their work forward. As ridiculous as it seems, it's often the title that captures people's attention, and it needs to take a more original form, especially when, at one point, a developer wishes to take its concept further (Rockstar North did that in GTA 3, for offering more than just stealing cars, but the ability to steal boats & a plane, and Driver 2 went against the name of "Driver," just for letting players walk outside their vehicles).

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Originally posted by smiler_16:
I think the GTA and Driver series have their own fun aspects that make me wanna play them both!!

Although I preferre Driver (Primarilly because of the better story line!)