Tag Archives: need for speed

DRIVER: San Francisco Game Review

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I don’t know about you but when I first heard about Driver:San Francisco I was almost bi-polar about it. I mean; the last Driver game was awful in so many ways – things could only get better on third generation hardware. However, on the other hand, I had heard that they were going to do some mad ‘supernatural’ thing with Tanner, having him ‘jump about’ from ‘body to body’ at will. Now hands up who actually thinks that, that is going to work? Er…yeah…me neither.

So begins another entry into the Driver Franchise and perhaps the most outrageous premise in computer game history seen in a decade. Man, I would have loved to have been at the developers table at Ubisoft when they thrashed that idea out; I am guessing that they would have been more raised eyebrows than a Roger Moore convention. Yet for some insane reason it got the go ahead and here we are, Driver:San Francisco is a reality that has had gamers raving. But is it as good as they say?

Well I might as well cut to the chase and blatantly say DRIVER: San Francisco is not a ‘10/10’, a ‘gaming masterpiece’ or a ‘must buy’ like a lot of reviewers are/were saying and I don’t care what anybody says the multiplayer is never going to be a ‘Call of Duty killer’ but as far as a single player driving game goes it does hold up to provide an enjoyable race experience. Once you get past the aforementioned ludicrous storyline and clichéd scripting the only negative thing you are left with is the terrible handling of the vehicles. Yes – Burnout, Split-Second, Need for Speed, even Motorstorm Apocalypse fare better when it comes to the handling of the incredibly weighted vehicles of Driver which sporadically felt like I was steering a tank at times through quick drying cement.

Other than those ‘facets of joy’ though everything else is largely excellent; San Francisco is a beautifully glossy, detailed vista and the whole jump into another person’s head idea – called ‘Shift’ despite being an absurd idea actually works quite well; thrusting you into the mainstream driving, racing, chasing and crashing scenarios with ease.

Now hands up if you want to know more on this whole ‘shift’ thing? Thought you did. Well, fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) the first 60 minutes of game play is taken up with the storyline and ‘mere reasons’ to justify the plot. John Tanner the undercover cop from the main game has finally tracked down his long time nemesis Charles Jericho. In an attempt to take him down he is forced into a near fatal collision and ends up in a coma. This means the vast majority of the game takes place in Tanner’s head and in which he continues to track his nemesis down; mind jumping from person to person in order to get close enough to stop Jericho once and for all.

Just in case you couldn’t tell – I had huge doubts about the whole ‘shift thing’ but in play I found what it brings is some real immediacy to the proceedings and a kind of ‘cocky but coolness’. What it also gives is options; trying to chase down a target? Hey why not just jump into a bus driver coming in the other direction – he-he laugh out loud as you say ‘any more fares’. What’s more every crash, every explosion happens in beautiful slo-mo so there is always a reason to do it; the game delights in bringing you thought out destruction.

Being a sandbox game there is a fair bit of exploration to be had and as typical for this type game alongside the main missions you have a plethora of side missions. However fortunately Driver: San Francisco has the least boring side missions I have seen this year besides perhaps those seen in LA: Noire. One such mission sees you jumping into the body of a young weedy chap, nervous as anything about his driving test. Do you think the idea is to help him pass? Nope…the idea is to put the fear of the devil into the test instructor by driving as insanely as possible.

Other than this though for most of the time you have standard Driver fare; follow this car, get to x in x amount of time, come first in this race, smash this car etc. Of all of these though the most exciting is shaking off the police and it has to be said that for all of the faults synonymous with driver of the past, one of the things that they have got right here is the police AI. No longer can you shake off the police by just bombing it down a road or even driving into oncoming traffic, they really do keep up the pressure and you have to be good to get away from them.

Longevities is sadly not a strong point of this game; the whole title taking me just over 6 hours to get through resulting in an ending hardly inspired enough for me. Although completing the game opened up some challenges and online multiplayer which in all honesty was not too bad and I am sure enough people went out there to buy this so there is hardly going to be a drought online. There are issues with balancing out gameplay between players of different ability so my advice is be the best you can be before you go online or else you will lose…a lot. Quite controversially I read the developer stating in interviews that no DLC (Download Content) has been planned which is an incredible shame.

My Verdict

Despite my initial concerns about the whole shift thing I do have to say it brings a level of originality, even if it makes serves to make the script clichéd and downright weird I would be lying if I said that I did not enjoy this game. I am hoping that further patches will be released to improve the atrocious handling and fix balancing issues because once those issues are resolved the game will go from great to being fantastic. At the moment I would say whilst it is a great purchase it is far from essential and for some hardcore gamers I would even say wait until it comes down in price before giving it a long hard look.

8.0 / 10

 

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

This is a hard one as although there are other racing games, none have the ‘shift’ feature and so are not the same and can’t be compared.

Equal to: Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit (only just)

Better than:  Burnout Paradise

Worse than: None

Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit {Gaming Review}

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Yes indeed this is fast love…

Playing the original on the Playstation one was a thrilling affair for me years ago, taking me back to a lost youth spending many days on the legendary coin-op machine Chase HQ. It was fun and invigorating but much more so with my friends huddled around my bedroom on the weekend – it was more than a hook up it was ‘an event’. Hearing that Hot Pursuit was to have a makeover by none other than race masters Criterion got me all worked up, it was a bit like hearing Red Rum was going to race at the Grand National.

From the get go when it comes to presentation Hot Pursuit is one hot looking piece of totty. Game developers Criterion pulled out all the stops creating this game. Visually the game stops just short of astounding. Driving the vehicles is every young boy’s dirty dream and delivers a dramatic rush of adrenaline; the environments are just so outstandingly realised, drenched in detailed vistas ranging from mountainous slopes to bridges, towns and waterfalls. Race in the daytime and akin to ‘Burnout’ the lens flare will singe your retinas. Race through the night and you will squint to pick up the road ahead through the illumination of your headlights. Race in the midst of a thundering rainstorm and you will have a hard time keeping your eyes on the road because you want to gaze upon the next crackle of lightning. In case you aren’t getting my point Hot pursuit features some of the most highly detailed graphics I have seen in an age bar the game legend that is Grand Tourismo. So good is the game engine that it not only delivers impeccable detail but it does so with the smoothness of a well whipped ice cream. No matter how fast you go or how many people are on the screen it doesn’t blur or slow down.

Although it is a part of the Need for Speed franchise Hot Pursuit is mercifully without a tedious storyline. Thank heavens too it is also without a free-roaming world. All that nonsense removed means that the entire game is based around providing the finest race and chase experience.

Choose from an incredible array of predefined events spread over Hot Pursuit’s aerial view of ‘Californ-i-a’ alike Seacrest County. Much in the same way you did in Burnout before all the free-roam lunacy took hold, you choose your events – we all know the drill; forge a career, time trials, straight forward races, cop chases, concept and exotic duels, the staple diet of most racing games are all here for the taking. Progress is achieved by finishing in the required place or by gaining the required points via take downs or arrests and as you do so more tracks open and new vehicles and equipment become available. It’s a tried and tested formula, but this time with a twist – in career mode and online Hot Pursuit splits the game play experience between both ‘Cop’ and ‘Racer’ components, meaning that you’ll play on one side or the other depending on the event you chose and build up independent driver profiles for either side of the law. This brings a refreshing variation to the game as you require different skills and tactics dependent on what side of the law you are on. For example cops must work together to shut down racers, while the racers themselves are competing for first place in a ‘dog eat dog world mentality’.

The power-up system is well judged as is the learning curve which is both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. The equipment that you receive for achieving levels of success range from spike strips that can be dropped to pop the tires of pursuers, as well as ‘fast and furious-esque’ EMPs that target vehicles just ahead of you with a system-crashing boost of energy. The power-ups that you gain in this game were never going to be able to compete with the neon fantasy of other racing titles such as ‘Blur’ or the extraordinary explosions of ‘Split-Second’ but lets face it – they weren’t supposed to. For all the fantasy that Hot Pursuit offers it is grounded in reality, and that reality is at its best when cops and weapons are involved.

Here lies my first area of criticism I found the ‘Racer’ side of the career just a little bit…erm redundant. Besides the chase modes, the head to head duels and races were just too stripped to my liking. All you get are racers, nitrous boosts and…well…that’s it, no cops no nothing. I found myself wondering if the cops were at the doughnut shop and whether I should join them because to be honest these type of races are boring compared to the rest of the game and lack any real thrill, worse still they happen far too often and go on for just a tad too long. It would have been so good to have elimination rounds, nitrous boost rounds, something, basically anything to spice these tracks up because to be frank, besides the scenery, after a while they are…well…dull.

Online modes are what takes the game to the next level and at the heart of Hot Pursuit lies a gem in the form of a superbly integrated ‘Autolog’ hub. A very ‘facebook’ like addition to a racing game and built obviously with the aim of reimbursing the social aspect of the original title. Here you can add friends, post images on your wall and set fast times that will show up on your friends logs when they play the game. You can even post news about scores that you’ve just beaten and this adds a huge competitive element to the title. Racing just got a lot more compelling.

Another serious area of criticism to be made is regarding the Artificial Intelligence level especially in the offline modes. Sometimes it goes soooo beyond the call of duty to ensure that every race is nail-bitingly close that it bends conventional rules and even laws of gravity. For example I can recall a number of races where I took competitors out of the competition by slamming them over a cliff or hitting them with a spike strip yet within seconds they were in my rear-view mirror. How does that happen? Are they driving cars designed by ‘Q’ out of James Bond? No it is not good and not possible.

I also got the feeling that this game wasn’t sure what it wanted to be, whether it wanted to be a simulation or an arcade type racer. Certainly with the effort put into the graphics you get the feeling that this was meant to be a world class racer. Compared to ‘Split-Second’ I found the steering to be too overly weighted in comparison and often you need to pull real precision tight racing lines even in the shortcuts to be successful, all this screams ‘Racing Sim’ to me. Yet there is no manual transmission option, there are police on your tail, power drifts, nitrous boosts and spike strips – this seems to say ‘arcade’. In my opinion the game fares worse for not knowing or investing completely in what it is meant to be.

My final verdict? – well don’t get me wrong, for the most part this is a thoroughly enjoyable title, full of adrenaline, action, gorgeous graphics and some show stopping sequences. However is it a 10 out of 10? Hell no, it is more like an 8.7.
In my opinion it just pinches past the post in front of its rivals but not by that much. But it must be said that this title is still a fast love that you will want to spend a lot of time with.

by Junior Smart