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Driv3r Review - Xbox

Is Driv3r the true daddy of car chase games?

When I got Driver for the playstation 1 in 1999 I totally forgot about my apathetic and depressed mood thanks to being unemployed. I was that absorbed and mesmerized, my social status, hygiene and love life (not that I really had one) went out the window. Sure I'd played GTA, but I just couldn't dig the top town view. After playing GTA I was telling myself, man, just imagine if this was in 3D. Well, come mid 1999 my dreams came true. Sure I couldn't get out of the car but it was car chasing at its grittiest best.

Not only was the game good, but it was damn hard. Heck, The Presidents Run was the hardest last level I have ever played. But as I loved the game so much, I was that determined to finish it. After the 973rd* effort I succeeded and rang my brother at work to tell him! Now how often do videogames have this effect on people?

Driv3r now has a cool name and it's had more money spent on it than Bill Gate's real estate collection. It's bigger and badder but is it better?

Gameplay

Primarily Driv3r is a car chase game and you can certainly tell this when it comes to the gameplay. The physics in the game, thanks to the Stuntman engine are awesome. Each car handles differently and feels more realistic compared to the arcadey GTA vehicles. When you have a front on crash, the panel will fly open with the engine visible, dented highlights and a crumpled bumper bar, talk about detailed. Vehicles can be blown up and unlike GTA, they won't resemble an automobile basked in soot. Wheels and panels are hurled across the road so dramatic, you'd think the road was a part of the movie Twister. Later on, you really need to use the handbrake effectively in fast, long car chases. In Miami, the car chases aren't too hard or long but that changes when you get to Nice and Venice.

The missions generally are quite generic, drive from point A to point B. But there is the odd mission that is quite innovative such as driving to a truck depot in Nice where you have to access a forklift, dump it on a semi trailer and then drive off. Another involves driving a car on the train tracks, evading an oncoming train and attempting to get in front of a train.

Where the gameplay suffers in Driv3r is the shooting. These missions are just dull, run of the mill, trial and error wish wash. They do become initially challenging throughout the game but after you know where the enemies appear it's all rather uninspiring. It's satisfying how the target changed to red when aimed at the enemy but moving the aim cursor is slow and cumbersome. In the last shooting level, the AI of your teammates is ... (continued next page)