Driver
Before Grand Theft Auto made it's way from a top-down game and into the realm of a fully 3D rendered game GT Interactive released Driver, which was pretty much what GTA became when the third game was released a couple years later. Driver was one of the first games I'd ever seen that pushed the glory of movie car chase scenes into the player's hands. Unlike GTA, you never leave your car, there aren't any 3rd person shooter elements. But just like GTA, you spend a lot of time outrunning the cops and chasing other cars throughout the streets of busy cities. And just like GTA, it's a whole lot of fun.
Driver starts out in a parking garage with a training session. You can't advance into the bigger story without proving you can handle your car. This is actually one of the most fun parts of the game, as far as I was concerned. You had to complete a number of actions, from a J turn to a burnout to a handbrake 180°. These weren't easy, but important skills to know before adventuring out into the bigger cities. This usually meant a lot of practice and trying over and over again until you got it all right. Not unlike the licensing test of Gran Turismo.
Eventually you get out into the world. The story takes you across the US from Miami to San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Each city making for a great playground for you in your stolen cars, evading cops, chasing rival gang members and generally hooning around. The car physics were quite nice and compared quite well to most other arcade style racers. You were rarely tossing the controller in a fit over poor response and the whole experience was generally a fun one.
Driver had a sequel on the PS1, which I only played a little bit of, and a really great part 3 on the Xbox which I loved. Only trouble was that at the time, Grand Theft Auto 3 had arrived and did a lot of what Driver had done already, only better. So I never really played much of it, though I do own a copy. I believe there were a couple more Driver games released recently, but I never did hear much of them and I never got around to trying them. I still would love to go back and play this first one though, it was a pretty memorable game.
Before Grand Theft Auto made it's way from a top-down game and into the realm of a fully 3D rendered game GT Interactive released Driver, which was pretty much what GTA became when the third game was released a couple years later. Driver was one of the first games I'd ever seen that pushed the glory of movie car chase scenes into the player's hands. Unlike GTA, you never leave your car, there aren't any 3rd person shooter elements. But just like GTA, you spend a lot of time outrunning the cops and chasing other cars throughout the streets of busy cities. And just like GTA, it's a whole lot of fun. Driver starts out in a parking garage with a training session. You can't advance into the bigger story without proving you can handle your car. This is actually one of the most fun parts of the game, as far as I was concerned. You had to complete a number of actions, from a J turn to a burnout to a handbrake 180°. These weren't easy, but important skills to know before adventuring out into the bigger cities. This usually meant a lot of practice and trying over and over again until you got it all right. Not unlike the licensing test of Gran Turismo.Eventually you get out into the world. The story takes you across the US from Miami to San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Each city making for a great playground for you in your stolen cars, evading cops, chasing rival gang members and generally hooning around. The car physics were quite nice and compared quite well to most other arcade style racers. You were rarely tossing the controller in a fit over poor response and the whole experience was generally a fun one.
Driver had a sequel on the PS1, which I only played a little bit of, and a really great part 3 on the Xbox which I loved. Only trouble was that at the time, Grand Theft Auto 3 had arrived and did a lot of what Driver had done already, only better. So I never really played much of it, though I do own a copy. I believe there were a couple more Driver games released recently, but I never did hear much of them and I never got around to trying them. I still would love to go back and play this first one though, it was a pretty memorable game.
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