Driv3r is so underestimated it's criminal!

[Jack]

Anyone else who really enjoys playing Driver 3? I hadn't played it untill yesterday. I've heard from friends and I've read interviews saying that the game sucks and that it's the biggest disapointment in video-game history. Well, I'm a big fan of Driver and Driver 2, so I just had to buy it. And I did so yesterday.

I played it for six hours straight, went to bed, woke up at 0400 to play it a couple of hours before I got to school. Man, this is nothing of what everyone's talking about. This game is stylish, carismatic, addictive, and damn near poetic. Just look at the scene when Solomon Cain is assassinated in the elevator. Vingh Rames narration, the slo-mo, the graphics, and the music... That scene, as a couple of others, is beautiful.

The driving is superb. The on-foot action is not great, but it does not - I quote - "suck". It just takes some time to get used to, that's all. And yes, sure, there are glitches, but not as many as there is in Grand Theft Auto. The voice overs by Michael Madsen (Kill Bill, Reservious Dogs), Michey Rourke and Vingh Rames makes this game stand out enourmously in voice overs. The sound in general rocks too. Especially the soundtrack. Although it's only 12 tracks, it's killer. And I don't even like the genre.

The three cities are the designed with such detail it's scary. Each of the thousands of buildings in the game are unique, and you never get the feeling you get when playing GTA, that it is repetive I mean. And when talking about GTA: In this game I actually walk around in the cities on foot, just to explore. You can climb latters and enter buildings, without loadingtime. That's liberty.

Anyway, what do you think of Driv3r? You hate it or you love it?

[Otty]

All we heard were negative things about Driv3r, and I think that's also the main reason why it didn't really sell well. I never bought it.

[Jack]

It had a budget of 200 dollars.

[FoxDie]

WTF? The graphics? The graphics are crap! It looks just like Driver 1 when it came out. Too much bugs and glitches. Ok, one good thing i can say about the game: When doing a wheelie with the motorcycle the bike feels pretty heavy, unlike GTA. Other than that, I say Driv3r is pure utter bullpoop.

[Otty]

It's the same as The Getaway wich is almost the same as Driv3r. There both to stif and are just copy's of the old man GTA.

[genaside2]

Hey Brother nice sig its freaking cool.

i was looking forward to that game but never got it on a count of the bad reviews but I'll take your word and check it out man.

[Jack]

Otty said:

It's the same as The Getaway wich is almost the same as Driv3r. There both to stif and are just copy's of the old man GTA.

What you're saying is that Grand Theft Auto is a clone/copy of Driver. You see, Driver 3 is exactly like Driver 2, but better. GTA came out after Driver 2.

Anyhow, after playing this game for the last three days, I now think Driv3r kicks GTA's ass big time. If you say something about glitches, go play GTA!! Each of them games have more glitches than Driv3r three. I should know, 'cause I have all three, and I've played them inhumanely much.

[Stryder]

I'm not a big fan of games about crime - I hate Grand Theft Auto SA with a passion - But I can tell you that The Getaway (Never played the second one) had a better storyline, city design and gameplay then all of the GTAs.

Driver 2 had the best Storyline of any Mafiaso game, excluding Mafia. I've never played Driv3r, but I would play it if I ever found time to do so.

[Jack]

Ah, finally. I'm with you on what you said about The Getway. But I think Driv3r is slightly better. But maybe The Getaway Black Monday is better (haven't played it either).

Now I haven't played Mafia, so I can't say anything about it.

However, Driv3r has the best ending in a video-game if you don't count MGS1, 2 and 3. It's one of a kind. ;D

[Otty]

Brother said:

What you're saying is that Grand Theft Auto is a clone/copy of Driver. You see, Driver 3 is exactly like Driver 2, but better. GTA came out after Driver 2.

GTA was released in 1998 and Driver 2 in 2000.

[YevgenyVolgin]

Brother said:

What you're saying is that Grand Theft Auto is a clone/copy of Driver.

Yeah, except much better. Driver is a very forgettable, repetitive game. As was Driver 2. That's why I never played Driv3r.

[Jack]

Yeah, Otty, as if you're going to compare a top-down view 2D game with a fully 3D one. Driver 2 was the first game in which you could walk around a pick any vehicle you wanted and drive whereever you felt like. GTA does not count bro...

And anyway, I presonally think the Grand Theft Auto series is more of a child's play. Compare it to Driver 3 and it looks like the level design is Lego.

But don't get me wrong. I really love GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas. I have 'em all. But once you've completed those games 100%, which takes about 60 hours or so, it's no fun to just play around anymore. Driv3r on the other hand, I can enjoy myself with after having completed it. Yesterday I found myself walking around at the docks in Miami for about 3 hours just looking around and stuff. I would never "walk" in GTA SA, there I always drive....

And driving is so much better in Driver 3. Don't get me started. One very memorable moment is when I was chased by cops and I was driving a motorcycle. I was on the wrong side of the road, and I didn't pay attention to this lady who parked her car. So when I was just one meter in front of her, she opened her door. I so crashed into her opned door, flew through the air and landed hard. ;D

Every building you can enter in Driver 3, not only is it muh bigger than any of the buildings in SA, but there's no loading time, and they are unique in interior design. The safehouses and bars and stuff in SA most times uses the exact same design over and over, exept more important interiors and certain safehouses.

One very impressive thing is that every thing you hit (run over with your car), like a tables or umbrellas and everything, turns into solid objects, and never disappaers unless you walk a certain distance. And if you crash with your car so, let's say, your hood fall of, it will remain on the ground. Drive it over and you will feel it.

Once I crashed so hard with my V8 that one of my tires fell of. I then drove over it, and guess what... I got a flattire.

'Nuff said. I for one love this game. Peace out pals.

[FoxDie]

OK so driver is better to drive. Well, GTA games are crime games. Driver games are driving crime games, in wich you play as the same guy who goes undercover over and over again.
In GTA you get that damn nice feeling of freedom when you play. You can fly, walk or drive around as much as you want. GTA is all about what you wanna do. Driver is mostly like driving. Except this driver 3 now, has more shooting right? The shooting sucks. Atleast in GTA if you shoot someones leg, they will take a hit in the leg.. In driver, you try to shoot someones leg it doesnt hit because the corsshair isnt red

[Jack]

What are you talking about? Depending on how you shoot your enemy he will respond differently. Let's say you shoot him with a shotgun in his belly, then he'll fly. If you shoot him with your M16, if you hit his shoulder, he'll spin around and then fall to the ground. If you get a clean shot in the head, he'll fall flat down. I've seen at least six different responses from people I've shot.

Oh, and by the way, I would buy this game even if the only thing you could do was play in free roam and edit your own movies. So far I haven't encountered one thing I could not do in Edit Film. I have forteen movies on my memorycard. Not one of them have I spent less than twenty minutes with. The things you can do is amazing, and the only limit I can see is one self.

I gotta admit, that the first hours of playing Driv3r, I was really frustrated how you can't drive the damn motorcycle up on the sidewalks. But then it hit me: Only because I can do that in Grand Theft Auto, doesn't mean I can do so in real life. ;D When I then exeperemented on how to drive up on the sidewaök with my motorcycle, I realized that if you drive up so you only have your front weel on the sidewalk, THEN drive, your back weel will slide ûber-realistic. ;D

Another thing that bothered me was that whenever my car flipped, I couldn't flip it back by pushing the left analog stick in the opposite direction. You can do that in San Andreas you know. But then I figured I can't compare Driv3r to GTA. Once I stopped that, and started comparing Driv3r to real life, it wasn't so "frustrating" anymore.

Something funny happened today by the way. It was after I wrote my previous post in this thread and I started to play Driv3r again. I was drving in Istanbul when suddenly I heard this sort of old-shool disco music. I didn't stop driving until the music started to fade, then I turned back. I wanted to find out where the music was coming from. I thought that maybe it was a car I drove by, but I learned that the music came from a building. So I started to look for a way in. Soon I found a door. I entered it and there it was; a disco! ;D it was pretty cool. I walked up the stairs leading to the room where the DJ's supposed to be. Know who I met there? Timmy Verceliny...

Well, gotta go play some more now kids, see ya.

Oh, and don't hate me just because I like Driv3r.... Some of you seem to...

[Otty]

Nobody hates you just because you play Driv3r TBoL.
You make it sound like Driv3r is really good. Maybe I should play it sometime to check it all out!