DRIV3R

THE BAD:
Lots and lots and lots of annoying glitches, character models are sub-par, game feels "unpolished"

SUMMARY:
I've played the original "Driver" extensively, but I never got a chance to play Driver 2. However, I'm a huge fan of carchases and driving games, so I figured I'd enjoy Driv3r. What I ultimately found is that what could have been an absolutely stellar game was essentially muddled by really inexcuseable glitches, errors, and bugs which really cut into my enjoyment of the game.

The graphics are both good and bad. Car models are awesome, with incredible detail to the exterior of the cars, including light glinting off of bumpers. Car damage is extensive and detailed, going above and beyond anything I've ever seen in a game. Windshields shatter, doors rip off, hoods fly open, bumpers fall off, everything. It's amazing, and lends a lot to the game. However, other graphics are decidedly half-assed, such as character models (which lack much articulation. Think 'Grand Theft Auto III', but worse) or weapons. Muzzle-flash is even two-dimensional! Some walls and obstructions are also two-dimensional, but you aren't supposed to notice that, I guess. Much of the downgraded graphics show up when your character is on foot, so it wouldn't be as big a deal if the vast majority of the game was played behind the wheel of a vehicle, but there's enough on-foot missions that it starts to stand out.

The controls are reminiscent of True Crime: Streets of LA mixed with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. That is to say, it takes the best of both. I truly had no problems driving any cars or accomplishing any of the cool driving stunts you'd expect to see in the game, and the on-foot controls (both movement as well as aiming/shooting) were very intuitive. Cars also handle like you'd expect them to. A sport coupe handles like a sport coupe, and an 18-wheeler, well, handles like a behemoth machine with a trailer tacked on the back. All the cars have subtle differences, even when you go to different cities (Miami, Nice, and Istanbul). There's no "clone" for each of the cities -- the trucks in Miami handle differently from the trucks in Istanbul. I felt it was a good touch of realism and attention.

The sound in the game is ultimately sub-part compared to what I'm used to. I expected to hear a lot of ambient noise and chatter from random citizens, who were instead totally silent. No screams of terror as I barrel through an intersection, no curses as I cut them off in traffic, no random chatter like you'd hear in the Grand Theft Auto games. Car sound, though, are all there. Police sirens, shattering glass, crumpling metal, squealing tires, it's all present and in copious amounts. What dialogue there IS, though, is delivered by many top-name actors including Michael Madsen, Ving Rhames, Michelle Rodrigues, and Mickey Rourke. However, the only really noteable performance is by Michelle Rodrigues -- Madsen's line deliveries seem flat, Rhames doesn't sound like Rhames (perhaps I was expecting Marcellus Wallace, and Rhames' character definately isn't him), and Rourke's character simply doesn't have enough lines to be noteworthy. Getting big-name actors is really cool in my book, but it's nowhere near the caliber of the Grand Theft Auto games.

The missions are quite varied, although one might say they're TOO varied. This might not make much sense, but I was expecting a lot of cool driving missions. While there are plenty of cool driving missions, there's also a fair share of really bad on-foot missions, or damn-near-impossible driving missions, or really stupid boat missions. That isn't to say the single-player campaign isn't fun. The absolute best mission in the game involves you riding in the back of a truck and fending off cops who are chasing the truck (which is AI-controlled). You have 3,000 rounds of Uzi ammo at your disposal, along with 200 shots for an M79 grenade launcher. The mission is an absolute blast (pun intended), with almost limitless replay potential. I know I intentionally failed it my first time through simply so I could re-play it a few more times. Luckily the game's main menu also includes the ability to re-play any mission, so you can show off those awesome missions.

Yes, the game is buggy as hell. Here's a short list of errors I encountered:
- the game completely crashed my XBox twice
- clipping errors involving pedestrians passing right through cars
- cars leaving the ground and flipping out of control for no reason
- replay cameras clipping through the map and being almost unrecoverable
- collision errors where the character couldn't walk somewhere due to an "invisible wall"
- cars getting stuck on lamp posts (or other obstacles). I failed the same mission 25 times because of this stupid error
- nonresponsive enemy AI (sometimes works in your favor, however)
- choppy graphical borders, especially when objects were highlighted against explosions
The bottom line is, it makes the game feel rushed and released very prematurely. I felt like I was playing a beta of the game, not the actual final release. Although it doesn't justify all the bugs and errors, it IS possible to play the game and still enjoy it once you learn to anticipate (and occasionally compensate for) the glitches.

The one standout feature in the game, though, is the director mode. This allows you to take replay clips from missions (or random carchases) that you've done and then edit them with different camera perspectives and other effects to make your own car-chase movies. There are literally endless possibilities with this function, and I have a lot of fun messing around with it. I would do a random charchase, and then go through it and put different cameras like rear-bumper cams, wheel cams, tripod cameras, slow-motion cameras, chase cams, etc. I totally felt like I was John Frankenheimer while using the director mode. With XBox Live, you can also upload your own movies, and download other people's.
That's not to say that the director mode is perfect, however. One of my fantasies has been to film carchase sequences, and I felt Driv3r would finally let me do that. While the director mode is incredible, it does lack a few camera functions I would have liked to see, like helicopter chase cams, point-to-point panning, scaling slow-motion, contrast and color controls, frame rate manipulation, and most importantly, the ability to physically edit out parts of a chase or start the "movie" at a specific point in the replay. It might be wishful thinking on my part, but perhaps if the game had been more polished before release, we might have seen some of these camera modes.

In the end, I found Driv3r to be a lot of fun, glitches and errors aside. Some of the single player missions have a lot of replay value, and the director mode extends the replay value almost indefinately. Without it, I doubt I'd like the game nearly as much as I do. I feel it's worth buying... but not at full retail price. The most I'd pay for it is around $25-$30, tops.

Ratings:

4 out of 5 - the bugs alone would have dropped it down to a 3 out of 5, but the director mode bumps it back up to a 4. That alone is worth the price of a rental.

78%

My rating system:
5 = buy it
4 = pay money and rent it
3 = borrow it from a friend
2 = watch someone else play it
1 = don't bother

THE BAD:
Massive Slowdown, Terrible AI, Very Bad Popup

SUMMARY:
This game should get a Zero, because as a southpaw gamer it is unplayable when the player leaves the car, but i will give it a one. The controls cannot be changed and in this day and age that is just not acceptable. The massive slowdown during the driving is very bad. The AI cops will drive off into the water when chasing you. Car explosions are very lame. Cop cars randomly blow up if they hit water. Cars 'die' after taking too much damage. If your on a Motorcycle you will get hurt the same amount if you fly off after hitting a light pole or just nick a wall. Cops will hunt you down and kill you if they seen you speed or run a red light, shure its a crime but not one that cops kill you for. This game is just very bad all around, but rent it and try it for yourself.

THE BAD:
generic plot,when walking the controls are awful,bad auto aim for guns and very poor gunfights.freeroaming environment not up to other games in its genre *cough*GrandTheftAuto*cough*

SUMMARY:
After what seems like a century driv3r(how it is put on the merchandise)is finally here....but with not much to offer...but i will start with the good. the cutscenes are just plain beautiful. some of the best in awhile and the characters voices are done well with actual emotion behind them. But lets get to the point...driving is the name of the game(literally)and that is done nicely...the cars are detailed and the crashes are spectacular...though the police chases dont have the flare of the first two games did.<br> Now to the bad. The plot is recyclable. watch 3 action movies or so and you will see that repetive resemblance of renegade cop who doesnt play straight is overused. so why did the makers of the game think it was a good idea. now lets get back to gameplay.. on foot, tanner walks and runs like a drunk mentally challenged mule..its just plain akward.the graphics in game are nice but nothing to make a announcement about.auto aim is just plain useless and really does more harm then good.As for the gunfights, they just arent thrilling compared to other games.people complain about Grand Theft Auto Vice City's auto aim should watch this games auto aim and they will go home and apologise to their GTA game. but we are not done yet... oh no.Driver3 has free roaming cities...wow..thats been done....GTA,True crimes streets of la,and even the new spiderman2 game, as well as others.Its not that its bad that the driver3 has that..its just they dont add anything new to that part of gaming.<br> Now dont think i hate the whole driver series..im a huge fan of 1 and 2. I once even thought Driver would be able to challenge Grand Theft Auto and become the most popular action/driving game...but after this hideous installment i think that the driver series is down and out and has become just another GTA clone...maybe this game was in development too long (development started around the time the the ps2 and xbox came out)and people lost interest..as when playing the game it feels old... as the stuff that was supposed to be driver3's great gameplay additions were done by other games before driver3 came out..but whatever the reason driv3r just crashes and burns.

THE BAD:
glitches, boring missions at start of game

SUMMARY:
My Review is as follows.......

My initial impression of the game was that it was a great game. The fact that I done TAR mode before Undercover was better as Undercover was pretty boring until it got to Nice.

Graphics
The graphics are outstanding for a game that it platformatted to both PS2 and XBOX. The scenery vehicles look great and the water affects look really good. Some of the buidlings look a bit dodgey but for the amount of them I think it brings over the impression of a city very well.

9/10

Sound/SFX
The music in the game relates well to the Driver series. The artist may not be well known (apart from a couple) but it doesnt mean that music is that bad. It proves to GTA that you dont need popular artists to have great music in a game. The sounds of the car door closing and other small sfx like this adds to the realism although where is the sound in first person mode??? Or is that just mine?

8/10

Gameplay
The game offers a huge variets of gameplay varying from shooting, exploring and driving. Within the Undercover mode lies variety of missions including stealth, driving, riding boats, car chases and loads more. The handelling of the car may feel slightly more like GTA than the previous Driver games but later on you find that the controls just make the game more fun. The missions are of somewhat unoriginal to begin with but as the plot unfolds the missions become more intenese and is recognisable from the previous Driver game style.

9/10

Lastability
The game is massive. Undercover may seem slightly short but some missions can take a while to complete. TAR mode is huge with great cities and hours of explortion. There are so many things to do in this game that the game will defiantly last you a long time.

9/10

Conclusion
The game has great potential to be fantastic although it so so underhyped for the amount of glitches which appear in the game. The game is good and at minimal, half-decent. Although with amount of competion the game has it would be unfair to compare other games of its genre.

9/10

THE BAD:
Bugs and glitches
Bad in and out of cars
Hated the character's voice (My opinion)
Poor customizeable soundtrack
Shooting targets
Storyline, not so involving.

SUMMARY:
Driver 3 is a great game with lush graphics that rivals the GTA gaming franchise. The game offers a great driving experience with three different means of transportation at your disposal; Great cars to choose from and bikes to select. The game offers all that a good game has and certainly lives up to the hype as described.

The games minor setback in terms of providing a great experience falls shot when it comes to getting off and on cars, bikes and most especially boats. This is all too silly if you ask me. Handling the boats was fantastic and the view was great, but shooting from the boat and also, trying to get off the boat, becomes frustrating. This makes you want to destroy the game with fury. Controlling the character’s movement was most annoying, because he doesn’t respond quickly to turns.

Also, the game gives you the choice of listening to your own customized soundtracks but does not allow you to select your own tracks. This means the players have to listen to the same soundtrack continuously. And at times, it plays the same song over and over again, when you restart a mission.

This is all too bad for a great game with awards. Did they actually play this game before they released it? This is a total mess and I agree completely with what Tehuti said. I have giving it the score above because of the hardwork they've done, although pointless. Nothing new in this game and there is no experience, rather it could help your anger management. This is pure frustration. Better luck next time Atari, as for now, this Driv3r is going down the drain. Over and out.