Licensed Cars: Yes or No? | Forums

[PeaceMaker_101]

- Why would there be more supercars and classics if they're licensed? There can be just as much fictional supercars or classics.

- Explosions and fire: Well, this only applied for this particular Driver. Maybe in the next one, that will not be the case. Remember The Getaway (fantastic and underrated game by the way), cars burned like crazy there.

- No guns and no running over pedestrians have nothing to do with licensing, they went back to the roots that way just like it was in Driver 1. Remember you couldn't run over people in Driver 1 and 2? That way you concentrate more on the cars and driving.



And as far as the damage goes - well, yes. I mean, I love the damage, and I have no problem with it, but it's true it could be more.

I am still for licensed cars!

One can argue that licensed cars being in most driving/racing titles really limits whatever can be done with the consoles' and/or PC's hardware. With unlicensed vehicles, we can see damage, explosions, physics, etc. all pushed to the next level. The only major upgrade in most racing titles seems to be improved textures and graphics overall, but the gameplay stays largely the same (aside from maybe a bigger roster of vehicles or some more racing modes). And what is there to blame more for this than keeping everything licensed? Nothing. If only game developers poured more creativity into such titles, we'd likely see more innovation and better quality overall.

[J_Frumpleberg]

- Why would there be more supercars and classics if they're licensed? There can be just as much fictional supercars or classics.

- Explosions and fire: Well, this only applied for this particular Driver. Maybe in the next one, that will not be the case. Remember The Getaway (fantastic and underrated game by the way), cars burned like crazy there.

- No guns and no running over pedestrians have nothing to do with licensing, they went back to the roots that way just like it was in Driver 1. Remember you couldn't run over people in Driver 1 and 2? That way you concentrate more on the cars and driving.

I agree on the first point about licensing and supercars, if the only limit is the designers imagination, we should have just as many supercars as DSF. However in practice it rarely works out this way, not that I've seen anyway. In DSF, we have 3 McLarens, I think 6 Lamborghini's, those alone are already more than the amount of supercars in any previous Driver game, and GTA (which usually has about 5). In Driv3r we had a GT40, a Shelby Cobra, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari... and maybe a few others. The problem with unlicensed cars is imagination, and trying to make the car still seem like a real car, so they usually end up blending several cars together. In D3, there was between 15 and 20 cars per city, making 60 total. DSF has twice that because they don't need to make the cars from scratch.

I did like the fire effects in the Getaway. I was playing GTA4 earlier today blowing up cars in chain reactions, wishing the fire would burn longer and spread like in Getaway.

I've always heard car manufacturers don't want their cars being used to run over people, or being shot up. I'm not sure how true that is, again they got away with it in the Getaway, even though several manufacturers pulled out before the game was released. As for concentration, sometimes I like to hone my driving skills, other times I just want to drive sloppy and crash into anything that gets in my way

[PeaceMaker_101]

I don't think that DSF's bigger car list is just due to the fact that it has licensed cars. It could also be due to the hardware being more advanced with the PS3 and Xbox 360 than that of the PS2 and Xbox. And assuming that we don't see another Driver game until the next consoles are available, having unlicensed vehicles should still allow us to choose from a lot of different options. We could have way more variety in unlicensed cars, boats, motorbikes, aircraft, etc.

[ManoelM]

Yes I think the reason there's more cars is simply because it's a next-gen game. So maybe the number of total supercars in say Driv3r or DPL is proportional to the one in DSF, in comparison to the total number of cars in each game. And perhaps they're more in DSF because they wanted to make it a bit more mainstream.

I don't understand either why manufacturers don't want their cars in the game. I mean, it's good publicity. I fell in love with some cars through some games when I was younger. And who cares if you can destroy the cars, if you can destroy all other cars from other manufacturers too anyway? It's the manufacturers who should pay the developpers for putting their cars in there.

The Getaway got away with it because they were the first to do it, and because it was published by Sony, who have a lot of money.
Martin (or Gareth, I don't remember) mentioned in an interview that it was THE game that messed up everything with the licences, since The Getaway nobody wanted to have their cars in games anymore.

Aircrafts, boats etc... for me that is just too GTA-like! It's cool, but I wouldn't want it in Driver... Sure it would be fun to have a game where there's everything and where you can do everything, AND everything is licensed - basically like a GTA with brands - but they should take another game to do that than Driver imo!

[PeaceMaker_101]

Aircrafts, boats etc... for me that is just too GTA-like! It's cool, but I wouldn't want it in Driver... Sure it would be fun to have a game where there's everything and where you can do everything, AND everything is licensed - basically like a GTA with brands - but they should take another game to do that than Driver imo!

I'd hate to burst your bubble, but there simply aren't that many more things which can be done with cars alone, especially if we don't see on foot gameplay return. Besides, many of the ideas in most open world games (even DSF) were taken from GTA, such as the side missions, stunts, and other activities that are found around in any of their citites.

As others have pointed out already, many open world games have done outstanding jobs in taking sandbox gameplay and expanding further on it, even if it greatly resembles GTA. That's just the nature of any genre. Innovation is done in small amounts, but so long as it is done well, who cares?

[ManoelM]

This is the problem, you misunderstood Reflections message in this game, like many other people. They don't want to make a GTA kind of game, this is why they made DSF (without guns, without on foot sections) to clearly show that they want to get away from that idea. There's tons you can do in this game, let alone with cars. You just need some imagination. Also, I've posted videos about rare and secret stuff in DSF, but people don't seem to care. Why even bother buying it if you're not going to care about the details? Games shouldn't adapt to people, but people need to find the games they like. If it isn't what you're looking for, move on. It's like in real life, you don't choose people and then try to adapt them to your personality so that you can have the perfect friends which you always wanted, no, you move on and find people you actually like. Same when you are looking for a partner. Ouch, I really shouldn't be telling you this. It's a thing to know in life!

[KINGmatan]

GRID is a proof that licensed cars can have great damage models in a game. as for fires and explosions, i don't really care... i perfer licensed cars.

[PeaceMaker_101]

This is the problem, you misunderstood Reflections message in this game, like many other people. They don't want to make a GTA kind of game, this is why they made DSF (without guns, without on foot sections) to clearly show that they want to get away from that idea. There's tons you can do in this game, let alone with cars. You just need some imagination. Also, I've posted videos about rare and secret stuff in DSF, but people don't seem to care. Why even bother buying it if you're not going to care about the details? Games shouldn't adapt to people, but people need to find the games they like. If it isn't what you're looking for, move on. It's like in real life, you don't choose people and then try to adapt them to your personality so that you can have the perfect friends which you always wanted, no, you move on and find people you actually like. Same when you are looking for a partner. Ouch, I really shouldn't be telling you this. It's a thing to know in life!

I think it is you who misunderstands me. I never said that the on foot must make a comeback in the next Driver game; if anything, it's better for us to see Reflections focus on vehicles only, starting with cars and moving on to motorbikes, as well as watercraft and aircraft. Driv3r offered the most variety of vehicles in a Driver game, with boats and motorbikes also showing up, in addition to cars. What's wrong with that?

As long as the vehicles are all very well polished, we can have a very fun driving game. And tell me, ManoeIM, what other developer out there is perfect for the job of implementing a shift mechanic and using that for every type of vehicle imaginable? It might even hurt Reflections in the long run, if that were to work out for someone else. And then, what would Reflections have left in its arsenal of "innovative" driving game mechanics to keep this franchise alive for a long time?

[ManoelM]

Okay - I thought you ment on foot action. Of course it would be funny to shift yourself into boats or planes. But I'm still not sure about the idea... It definitely WOULD be awesome, but it wouldn't fit the Driver game. I mean, why is it called 'Driver' after all? If there would be so many aircrafts, it should be renamed into 'Pilot'. Oh well, after all GTA is still called GTA...

But still - for me, Reflections doesn't need any more innovative ideas to keep it alive. Car chases are a fantastic idea from the start, and this idea imo can be expanded a lot. They could make even more dramatic car chases with trucks flipping and bridges collapsing - hell I don't know

With DSF some new only driving games were available and also the WAY they are played - and they're amazing. Yesterday I just played Blitz and capture the flag against 7 other players, no need to say it was a fantastic game. And they surely will find more driving games in the future! They should stick with that imo!

However, don't get me wrong - I see your point and I'd love to see something like that aswell. Just not sure if it would fit the Driver series. I don't know what your first Driver was, but mine was Driver 1 and that was back in 1999 - I was there from the beginning and saw what it was like. And it was a legendary game, which changed the whole gaming world. Everything that was done after that failed more and more. Even if I loved games like Driv3r or Driver PL, it was obvious that the majority didn't think so. And now that DSF is back with the Driver roots, you can clearly see that it had much better reception. So I think it is obvious what's good here and what's not!

[PeaceMaker_101]

Well, technically, Driver 2 was the first Driver game that I ever played, but I eventually did play the first one, and I loved it perhaps more than all the other Driver games. DSF and D1 actually seem like a tie to me, with all the great driving missions that Driver one had at its time (like the President's Run, which was really tough, though) and the great locations (Miami, New York, San Francisco, LA), while DSF expanded on what made the first one great (driving ONLY and no on foot gameplay), while still taking nice ideas from other open world and driving games like Burnout, GTA, etc. to craft a fresh new experience.