The title is a reference to Cocaine, ergo it HAS to be cool.

______

only you'd know treble.... Being the PlayStation owner that you are.

Played the PC Demo for 3 minutes last night of Driver :

http://www.atari.com/us/games/driver/pc

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=947

Now IIRC they released an upgrade to funk up the gfx a bit, or maybe that's rose tinted ted talking in my ear again.

Nice driving engine, they've got a good fishtail 70s heaveyness to it all...

Your plaintive cries don't even reach the ears of us uber-1337, my friend. I pity you.

PS4 for the win, yo. If it's not in 1080p, I don't even wanna know.

______

1080p why stop there?

2430p only man.... the ONLY way.

That's like 4320x2430 a mere 10million individual pixels a whacking 8million more than the pathetic excuse that is 1080p.... tut tut tut.

Imagine the world of possibilities....

imagine...

imagine...

Dangerous ground here dude. Anger rising...

I'd always imagined that TV development would be controlled by the broadcasting industry standards, but fucking digital has popped the cap on that hasn't it. What we're seeing now is a flip reversal with the screen manufacturers churing out all manner of resolutions and waiting for the broadcasters to sign up to one. Utter madness. I'm hoping it will stabilise once the digital services are out and a standard has been set. Otherwise people will be upgrading their TV every year like you have to with your PC.

Sorry back to Driver4ever - The Kate Moss Files.

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"For the next year most of the 360s will end up in the hands of the hardcore gamers because they are the most eager ones. So the first wave of software will reflect that." - Gerhard Florin, Head of EA Europe

Driver, out tomorrow, getting it at lunch, going to blogify my impressions, with video and photos I reckon.

My curry being brewed... the night before the day Driver Parallel Lines is released:

"Playing" Shadow of the Colossus... on the PS2 not the console I'll be playing Driver Parallel Lines on tomorrow...

Me looking at the Driver Parallel Lines thread on Open Senses... dreaming of the possibilities.....

The payment quandry: Cash, or Card.... YOU DECIDE.

Get your votes in by 1230 17/03/06 YOU CAN DECIDE the way "Driver Parallel Lines" is bought. YOU control my destiny.

The deoderant I am using today, EXTRA DRY, so I don't get all gooey when I go and get Driver Parallel Lines:

My breakfast, my fast was broken with Cheerios, Orange Juice and consumed with a knife... just the way I like my games, nutritious with an essence of danger, just like Driver Parallel Lines:

The walk to work, I've been practising my walk like the 1970s character, TK, from Driver Parallel Lines, unfortunately I lost a leg.

You phail - you didnt eat the right kind of cereal!!1!11

Well, I was going for a more mainstream cereal this morning, to get me in the mood, I normally have a bowl of shredded master system game manuals, and use a master system game card (not cartridge) for a spoon.

Checking the weather for my area:

Black clouds, rain and snow, reflecting the diversity that is Driver Parallel Lines, a good omen.

3 minutes till I leave and walk into the local metropolis and purchase the game... where to buy, GameStation, Game, Woolworths, Virgin??? Decisions, decisions.

My journey to town:

http://www.cloudsprinter.com/os/driver/01.3gp

http://www.cloudsprinter.com/os/driver/02.3gp

Then DRAMA!

GAME didn't have Driver Parallel Lines for the Xbox. Only PS2, infact the Xbox release is next week. I wondered over to GameStation, they only had the PS2 version too, so after much deliberation and talking to the frightening staff:

And here it is:

Glorious it every detail. Soon I shall play it, the wait will be long.

Impressions soon!

So you didn't get the Ltd. edition from HMV for the same price with soundtrack CD then?

tsk.

There was me thinking you were 1337 too.

What is that stain on your right shoe? Is that suede?

Bah! HMV is inside a shopping centre, I'd rather be hung. Which apparently someone actually did, in that shopping centre. Spooky.

Suede shoes, with wierd stains on them, yes. I'm a geek. It's probably a fat based residue.

This has gotta be the first PAL game I've bought on release since OutRun2 I think.... ... ...... ..... .... I can't remember.

What a totally bizarre experience...

After an evenings play its like playing an update to GTA3 or Miami one after that, but with all those annoying game flaws removed, like a map that works and is functional, a fairly non irritating targetting system and absolutely swish graphics engine, oodles of cars onscreen.

The Driving engine seems less Driver than it should be... but I think I'm about not that far into it. The loading times are non-existant, saving is all seamless... the mission structure is pretty handy as if you fail within a mission it'll flash the select button for 5 seconds for an instant restart, with NO loading.

And with the roads so chocka block, and the police being sooo police like, each mission requires quite a serious amount of concentration, just to get to the start of it. In GTA you tend to relate it to a cartoon, the police aren't particularly pro-active. DrIVer you seem to actually havce to play the game.

Essentially, if you break the law in the witness area of any copper, they do you, first they relate the crime to the car, but if they actually SEE you the crime is also attributed to you. The proceedure then is to find an alley whilst being persued, try and lose the cops in a 70s style chase, then dump the car and nick another. If you are attributed to the crime and change the car, if a copper sees you, they slowly recognise you, so you have to eak around patrols... quite good fun.

You're a plant for Atari and I claim my five pounds.

I have to concur with Jibber. It has no right to be good, and yet... It is. The cars are weighty and fun to drive, the police have just the right amount of aggression, the landscape is really well presented and looks lovely (i'm playing the Xbox version). So yes, on the whole, it's like Driver 3 never happened. Which is nice.

I'm playing it in installments atm. 1 missions at a time, then turning it off. Otherwise I tend to get over frustrated with my inability to get from A to B without carnage ensuing.

How are the controls on the Xbox? It's got one of those shouldery buttony thing going for it, does it rely on the black and white buttons for stuff?

The controls are fine. Obviously you get the benefit of the analogue triggers for accelerate/brake. The black button is used for free targetting with the gun. Not sure if the white button does anything. Left trigger to draw your gun etc. It controls very well, nice lock on and everything. Considering Driver 3 had such awful on foot controls, it comes as something of a shock to wish there was more of it Driver 4 as it has one of the smoothest on foot 3d controls I've come across.

I did the prison break in... and thought it was actually good fun... you can't target beyond where you can see, and you can crouch behind objects for reasonable cover... no jumping, like GoldenEye, means that entire aspect is completely removed, making for a "tighter" experience I reckon.

OK some Q's for you lucky peeps

1. Is it better than Driver? (I'm not even going to bother asking whether it's better than 2 and 3).

2. Have they done anything clever with the different eras? Do you get to drive through the same places and walk through the same locals in the '70s and '00s? Does the plot in the 70s have a direct impact on the world now?

Splitting it accross two eras really opens up the scope for some cool touches, I hope they haven't wasted the opportunity that is all.

_______

"For the next year most of the 360s will end up in the hands of the hardcore gamers because they are the most eager ones. So the first wave of software will reflect that." - Gerhard Florin, Head of EA Europe

1. Difficult to say, Driver rode the wave a fresh 3d gaming, where a living city was a mere dream before (maybe). DrIVer has nice driving physics, the only reason I was interested in it really, always loved their physics. Without completing it, I can't say if it's "better"

2. As above, I'll have to play till the split in the game's narrative to tell you, but the narative itself is building nicely.

In 2006 now.... in the game, obviously stuck in the 1950s personally... more tea vicar... anyways...

No decent chronological back to the future style happenings, in fact it'd be difficult to even know you were in 2006 from the 70s other than the cars are different, superficially the locale is identical.

The Music is foul aswell now, hysterically bad as bad as you'd expect, atleast the 70s music is amusing.

So now the story has turned, as a review mentioned, from a scarfacian tale into kill billian revenge. That sounds quite epic and grandios, however its a bit BBC 1 Friday 9pm about it, other than the prolific swearing, it offers nothing cerebral.

Still, driving around and shooting from cars dynamic is good fun and not irritating at all, so skipping though missions is quite entertaining.

Eventually I got stuck on a mission, I can't even remember. Gave up. And possible sold it/swapped it for some skittles.

Anyways, for all those Driver fans out there, its pretty much confirmed for Wii.

In theory, these multi-genre games will rock with the Wii Remote, driving, running about, shooting things... in theory it can't fail on the control aspect. But portafonics means it might be kludgarella. If one were to be cynical.

Possibly,

Although you'd expect a PS2 to Wii port to be relatively easy considering that getting to grips with Wii is supposedly easier due to it's similarities with the Gamecube. I suppose they could fuxor the control implementation.

OMG OMG OMG

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=155982

Driver 76 for the PSP!

Sounds like they've cleverly taken the first half of Driver Parallel Lines and ingeneously, skillfully, ney expertly crafted all new missions for the ubiquitous Sony handheld...

And its Sumo Digital! So you know, they'll be able to take their expertise from other PSP titles and use that expertise, expertly for the prequel story telling of Driver 76... its just genius... I can wait!

Wow, 2006 me liked this game, excellent.

So the demo was out and I can't say enough about Driver San Francisco... Its deeply deeply terrible. Everyone can try it, it has nothing going for it at all.

Thank Zeus for demos.

Zeus pinned me against the wall when I was in Asda and I picked Driver San Francisco up for £15.... And you know what, its not as terrible as the demo implies, as usual the demo kinda plants you mind tutorial, when you play the game from the start its grows on you alot more.

What they've tried to do is bring the funs back into the game, but with a new generation lilt, so essentially, SPOILER, because its all happening in the main character's head they are super happy to go off on actual computer game tangents leaving them free to have fun with the free world driving idea. So far there is no walking around and the mechanic of changing vehicles is interwoven with the plot and avoids the problems of GTA and the mincing everywhere when all you want is a car of a type to jump off something quick.

I've only done a few missions beyond the tutorial, but its totally fine and by removing the walking around and introducing some fun mechanics its the most interesting free roaming driving game I've played in a long time. Be interesting to see where it goes.

The demo was woeful, so this is an interesting comment on the full experience. Doesn't the ability to teleport at will remove the normal point of a driving game, that is to come first.

Uhuh, but its an open world drive'em up not a racing game. Also if there was a race say the transistion to birds eye view and typical gates/checkpoint system solves that issue.

The framework is the same any other open world game, so there are "fun" missions, races and story things... I haven't quite dialed into the format yet. One of the recurring "fun" missions is to do first find, in birds eye view, a camera crew truck, park it up in a specified location, then find a "fast" car then perform the require stunts in a zone infront of the parked camera truck. So hopefully you can see the subtle shift of gameplay motive, because you are kinda role playing for each car/driver you possess, so instead of playing the game as Gruff McSquarejaw you just kinda do stuff for funs.

Hmm I see. Sounds interesting, presumably there is some sort of narrative linking all this together? At least the car handling is 100 x better than the rather stale physics in GTA.

Yeah, its basically Life on Mars if you ever watched that... I think its a good idea to try and sell fun to the mainstream... I'll have another sit down with it over the weekend see if it collapses. Considering the twist in Parallel Lines where you got booted into the current decade when you started in the sixties or seventies it seems this ubi, reflections combination has the capacity to go large halfway through a game if you know what I mean. I am expecting Moon missions or something. It's set sort of now by the way, with a seventies style presentation.

Sussed the format of the game now. Once you complete a Tanner mission, denoted by a "T" on the map/birds eye view, you have to complete other missions, denoted by other icons, these icons get you karma points or whatever so there is an imputus to complete them to continue the storyline. These "karma" missions appear to have a loose threaded storyline, so I've driven as the street racer kids the same, driven as the same cop, or should I say driven with the same cop and I've probably had repeat characters in the other missions.

The game world is very reminiscent of the first game in so much as its just roads, and just driving, but what's happening, because most missions are "chasing something" or "getting somewhere" you spend most of your game time staring at an arrow, and as there is little reason not to hit other cars, as its quite charitable, you just kinda dogems your way to whatever the big arrow is floating over and don't ever really take in the environment, also since the game world is just sort of generic san francisco you don't really have enough visual variety to see where you are, and since you are GPSing all the time you have no real need to.

They've introduced a new skill recently, where you can quick flip between two cars in the same team, i.e. Two pursuing cop cars, or a father daughter team in a street race... So they are exploring the concept, not sure its actually fun. I've always had the more fun in these games when learning the map and the environment, with the mini map overlay and the giant arrows, it tends to turn into a ricochet competition.

I can't decide if I am interested in playing it any more, but because each mission takes about 5 mins its got a quality mong factor.