Driver: San Francisco - Bullitt With Butterfly Wings

Gaslight

I'm not entirely sure why, but I feel sort of compelled to keep following every twist and turn in the increasingly sordid story that is the launch of this game. For anybody else who may still remotely care: after acting like the fact the PC version of the game was launching simultaneously with the console versions was some great favor they were doing us that made up for the silly DRM, Ubisoft ended up pushing the PC release back a month to September 30 anyway. Console versions are still slated for the end of August, it seems.

On the bright side, they're also making a great show of listening to the (predictably, overwhelmingly, negative) feedback to the constant-connection DRM by scaling it back to only require a connection when you first launch the game. Which, I guess, is basically the same as the DRM Assassin's Creed II eventually ended up with the last time they tried the always-on nonsense with a reasonably high-profile release and got crucified for it...I think? And which I know is how some other current Ubisoft PC titles like From Dust are set up.

To be honest, I think this change is somewhat more significant than RPS is giving credit for in that article, and a connection check once at startup is something I guess I could live with personally, but I'm just sort of soured on this game in general now and I'm not sure what I want to do. I still think the game itself looks like it could be great fun, but the DRM shenanigans and delays have me spooked on the PC version and make me suspicious it's going to be a lackluster console port. Since console players are getting the game a month earlier now I guess if any of you buy it you can tell me whether it's actually any fun and I'll still have time to decide whether I want to risk it.

Halfhand

Played the demo and it is not good

Prohass

I cant believe the story actually revolves around possessing people. I hate racing games so it has no interest for me, I can see its appeal. But the fact that the whole story is him being a psychic driver possessing people, it confused the shit out of me. I...ah...?

TeeMan

So you can mind-jack innocent people and hurl them into horrific accidents. Something just... unsettles me about that. I mean, I have no gripes about driving around in sand-box game, smashing/shooting other cars that may or may not be in my way, but to mentally commandeer someone and force them into a massive crash while they're still 'awake' but completely unable to resist? How do you wrap a story around that without the protagonist being portrayed as the biggest sadist in video gaming?

SilkyNumNuts

He's in a coma! Everything can be explained away like that.

TeeMan

I guess we'll never get to know the protagonist then because none of it really matters. His dreams/visions also seem staggeringly coherent and accurate considering the scope of real-life vehicles he's able to recreate from memory

Kyougu

SilkyNumNuts wrote:

He's in a coma! Everything can be explained away like that.

What's weird is that they seem to back off this story point.

Which makes me wonder if they're going to try to play it off like it's a huge twist in the actual game.

Gaslight

Halfhand wrote:

Played the demo and it is not good

Can you elaborate?

Skull2185

Despite being a shitty game, I just realized how completely awesome the thread title is.

Slow Skull is slow

Basticle

I think it's criminal that the OP fails to mention that Reflections developed Destruction Derby 1 & 2

TeeMan

Basticle wrote:

I think it's criminal that the OP fails to mention that Reflections developed Destruction Derby 1 & 2

That's got my attention, but they were also released about 15 years ago.

cooljammer00

They should have just stuck with the air jacking mechanic from Vin Diesel's Wheelman.

SilkyNumNuts

I played 2 of the 3 events in the demo, and I'm not really sure about this. The driving seems stiff and unyielding, and tbh looking at the videos I was expecting something a lot more arcadey. Not that's is really sim-like, but it's not especially forgiving. I really like the shift mechanic, but I'm going to need to have another play to see whether the actual driving mechanics really hold up.

TOGSolid

Gaslight wrote:

Which, I guess, is basically the same as the DRM Assassin's Creed II eventually ended up with the last time they tried the always-on nonsense with a reasonably high-profile release and got crucified for it...I think?

You have to have an active internet connection in order to do the initial login with Driver which is still insanely retarded. When I played AssCreed II I was able to play 100% offline.

PaperLuigi44

The reviews I read during my lunch break were pretty positive on this game, my interest has been piqued.

cooljammer00

Yeah, more and more of the marketing makes me think the in-game justification of Driver San Fran was supposed to be some sort of twist.

SilkyNumNuts

Well, I'm getting this for free with a subscription to Empire, a film magazine. Hope it's good. (UK Deal only, though)

SilkyNumNuts

http://www.giantbomb.com/driver-san-francisco-burns-some-rubber/17-4801/

OH GOD

TERRIBLE FLASHBACKS

THE PAIN

Although I'm pretty stoked for this game. I am amazed at the utter lack of any hype at all for this, I can't think of any game with this little interest in a long time.

TeeMan

From the reviews I've read they've said that the only real fault in the game is the driving model, which is a pretty big thing in my books for a racing game.

I do believe the hype for Motorstorm Apocalypse was even less than this, SNN. Didn't even have a thread made for it

Gaslight

TeeMan wrote:

From the reviews I've read they've said that the only real fault in the game is the driving model

...

Fantastic.

SilkyNumNuts

Really? The higher reviews on metacritic say the handling model's hard to get used to but is satisfying, while the lower ones are too busy bitching about the story to give it enough coverage (but very quickly say they don't like it).

TeeMan

It's not like there's a lot of choice going on in the arcade racing game scene at the moment anyway, this is the only one I can think of that's gonna be released heading towards the end of 2011.

Have you got it/pre-ordered it, SNN? I'll be interested to hear how it stacks up against something like Split Second.

SilkyNumNuts

I got it with a subscription, but I don't know when it'll actually arrive, plus I'm not sure when I'm heading back up to uni, so I may not be there when it does, might be the 20th before I actually get to play it. Also, I never played more than the demo of split second, the vehicles felt too weightless in the demo. As opposed to this thing's demo, where they feel a bit too heavy, but the thing is getting reviews good enough for me to definitely give it a chance.

Looking around it, it does seem what they've tried to do with the handling engine is pretty different, with the whole arcade rooted in realism thing.

It may just end up making me sad at the lack of burnout any time recently.

PaperLuigi44

I picked up a (360) copy today, I'll play it soon and give some early impressions.

G Rol

Gaslight wrote:

Halfhand wrote:

Played the demo and it is not good

Can you elaborate?

The story (at least, as much of it that is presented in the demo) is ridiculous. The first demo mission involves convincing your partner that you do indeed have the ability to astral project your consciousness and take possession of other drivers on the road. The voice acting is wretched (and constant) throughout the mission.

That could be forgiven if the driving itself was fun, but the cars all handle like slightly different bricks. We're taking sub-GTA4 driving. I loved the first Driver game way back on PS1, and am incredibly disappointed with what I've played of this title.

klemming

I really like the premise, but the demo didn't sell me on the game at all.
It's one thing to have handling that requires some getting used to, but by the end I still couldn't get the car to do what I wanted. GTA never gave me this much trouble.
And if losing the cops is that frustrating in what I assume is a tutorial mission, I can't see the 'harder' missions being anything like fun.

PaperLuigi44

My thoughts a couple of hours in:

Alright, so, I've played Driver for a couple of hours and once you have full control of the shift powers things get interesting, as being able to take over whatever car you want whenever you want is pretty fun.

For example after hitting a cop car I got into a pursuit, and when I realised the car I had shifted to wasn't fast or strong enough to outrun them, I started shifting to cars going the other way and using them as battering rams to wear them down.

Handling with the starter car is kinda eh, but I haven't had that issue in the various other cars I've shifted to. The car I bought with a decent drift stat has served me well too.

I haven't done many of the missions, but so far, so good.

So so far I am digging it.

Mego Thor

Gaslight wrote:

"Hurr durr why U not GTA with fedoras, Mafia II?"

Is there a color for more truthiness than lime? If so, I will use it.

I tried the demo and couldn't wrap my head around the possessions. If I'm in this car now, who's still driving my old car? Are there two of me? Could I race myself?

Also, it's perfectly cool to take over other drivers and make them have horrible wrecks, but all the pedestrians miraculously get out of the way when I drive down the sidewalk. And I will drive down the sidewalk.

PaperLuigi44

Just unlocked the ram ability shortly after I got boost, man it is fun to ram into things.

Also got the rapid shift ability, which normally allows you to cancel out of shift mode and return to your vehicle instantly, but during pursuits you can instantly switch between patrol cars, it's a great way to keep up the pressure.

Basil

This sounds like a game that belongs to the Matrix franchise.

Mego Thor

DRM is "morally correct."

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/09/driver-san-francisco-developer-defends-ubisoft-drm-practices.ars

Jintor

Guys this game is fun as shit

the possession mechanic is awesome. It's stupid as fuck but it's awesome.

the game knows that it's dumb but it's really smart about being dumb. This is great.

Jintor

I mean I just shifted into a cop car just as a lark and then I hit a car that was tagged and SUDDENLY I WAS IN A CHASE

And then I nearly wrecked my car but some other cops came around to join in and I shifted into one of those and managed to total the other car just as I arrived

And then I drove up the back of a slanted moving ramp-truck and shifted back into my vehicle and did some more hilarious story-related shennanigans

this is just fun. I don't even really like driving games and this is fun.

PaperLuigi44

Yeah, I had few amusing moments in my last session, such as:

- Using those car transporters as a mobile ramp, for a fire truck.

- During a random pursuit I finished it off by overtaking the getaway, braking in front of him, then rapid shifting to a patrol car behind me and smashing into him from behind.

- During a sidequest pursuit (where it's your car of choice and no support police cars) I used the ram ability to knock him into the wall, crashing into the wall myself. As I reversed out I bumped into him trying to make a break for it and completed the challenge.

- Tanner saying 'another happy ending' after the getaway had barrel rolled sideways multiple times, no doubt fatally.

Big Classy

you guys playing on the PC or console? The DRM is really putting me off getting the game. I don't want to support these kinds of measures but the game itself sounds interesting.

PaperLuigi44

360 for me. There was still that uplay token in the box and you have to create an account and punch that token in for multiplayer (which is actually pretty easy to do from your console).

If you have a console I'd reccomend renting it and at least going through chapter 1 to get a feel for it.

Big Classy

Ah, I only have PC options. I was a huge fan of the series, and I am incredibly tempted to get it but I think I cna wait for a price drop, especially since there's so much other, bigger stuff on the horizon.

TPSou

Got this on the 360 on Wednesday, put 17 hours into it so far, it's fun as hell! You get used to the handling and to me it just feels like Driver one did. The 'shift' thing is used in some pretty clever ways. Chasing down a car using two police cars is my favourite so far.

Also, the game even has a cheevo for completing a chase using a car transporter, which kind of breaks the AI. The cops still try to ram you from behind, but just drive over the top of you instead, it's good fun. Also looks like the survival mode is unlockable. Not sure how to do it though, just appears as a greyed-out challenge at the moment.

Jintor

PS3 for me.

PaperLuigi44

I also purchased a Delorean.

Spoiler:

A challenge unlocked for me for driving to 88mph, I haven't tried it out yet, but that makes up for the inability to switch to metric.

Also, are the unlocks in the garage to just your selected vehicle or all of them? I have a lot of brain money but I'm not sure whether there are better cars on the horizon.