The Rise and Fall of Driver

[Music] when it came to racing games the original PlayStation had speed aficionados hooked Gran Turismo need for speed Ridge Racer and many more provided players was plentiful hours of breakneck entertainment behind digital steering wheels among these games however was a decidedly different experience from Newcastle based developer reflections interactive driver focusing more on emulating the thrill of Hollywood style car chases then on pure racing the game allowed players to unleash their inner Steve McQueen across the United States as roughest roads driver was immensely successful and quickly spawned an ambitious yet inferior sequel that allowed players to exit and hijack cars in a 3d environment nearly a year before Rockstar let players do the same in Grand Theft Auto 3 however the subsequent popularity and quality of the Grand Theft Auto games would prove to be an albatross around drivers neck unable to escape the former series transcendental design reflections would gradually inject more and more of GTA's open-world trappings into driver leading to some major embarrassments and a gradual loss of the franchise's identity finally after switching multiple publishers and coming to terms with driver strengths reflections would transition the series back into pure car chasing action with 2011's driver san francisco the cost of doing so left the studio uninterested in continuing this series but resulted in an immensely entertaining experience one that righted his predecessors wrongs while offering clever new ideas that helped release it from Grand Theft Auto Shadow this is the rise and fall of dry hi this is des asleep Airy energy providing history I'm here with Martin Edmondson development director reflections was established in July of 1984 by Martin Edmondson the English studio developed a string of minor hits before striking widespread success in 1989 with the release of shadow of the beast a challenging sprite based platformer for the Amiga best remembered for its atmospheric soundtrack and high-quality graphics reflections would follow shadow of the beast up with a smattering of sequels and other 2d titles before making the jump to 3d with Destruction Derby in 1995 released for the PC and all the home consoles of its era Destruction Derby allowed players to experience the chaotic thrill of a demolition derby in video game form complete with a robust physic system that allowed cars to collide and crush each other apart piece by piece it wasn't universally beloved but the way it simulated cars destructibility was at the time second to none for the next three years reflections would continue to grow in both catalogue and clouds releasing both destruction derby 2 in 1996 as well as the monster truck game Thunder truck rally in 1998 before announcing in early 1999 that they had been acquired by GT interactive the influential publisher of doom quake and Duke Nukem 3d as the demolition derby and dirt track racing fan from a young age Martin Edmondson was more than happy to continue designing games inspired by his passion for cars and their destructive potential but he also loved them for their speed and aspired to create a game that would take Destruction derbies mayhem and physics off of the racing tracks and into the streets an experience that would capture the sense of adrenaline pumping car chases like those seen in movies such as Bullitt the French Connection and the driver at the time another British developer by the name of DMA design had already attracted the interest of car chase enthusiasts with its 1997 action game Grand Theft Auto possessing a top-down view at a devil-may-care attitude Grand Theft Auto allowed players to engage in all manner of chaos within its two-dimensional cityscapes including breaking into cars and entering high-octane chases with the police while Grand Theft Auto and its sequel commanded considerable popularity both games distant perspectives prevented their action from evoking a strong sense of immediacy and theatricality but what if they were made using a similar engine and viewpoint to that of Destruction Derby the idea was there and reflections would waste no time capitalizing on it when in June of 1999 they'd released their most technologically advanced game yet for the original PlayStation driver driver follows John Tanner an undercover NYPD officer tasked with investigating the notorious Castaldi family in a funky 70s inspired rendition of the United States infiltrating the criminal underworld as a will man for hire Tanner is ultimately forced to put his pedal to the metal across Miami San Francisco Los Angeles and New York in his efforts to stop a nefarious scheme orchestrated by the family like grand theft auto before it drivers cityscapes our dynamic open-ended and filled with cars that the player is able to interact with and explore from the confines of their own vehicle the game also allows players to make full use of the many vehicular techniques at their disposal from the slalom to the reverse 180 in order to complete Tanner's capers once they managed to do so the player can go back and edit their missions in the games director mode which allows them to set up cameras around and record their exploits from whatever angle they so choose the game also contains a small number of mini games featuring specialized objectives including pursuit in which the player must follow and destroy a police car and survival where they have to survive as long as possible against an onslaught of cops driver would be met with universal acclaim with many unsurprisingly singling out the sublimity of its driving the physics governing the movement and capabilities of the games cars were realistic for the time and provided competitive oriented players with a sufficiently high skill ceiling its control scheme was easy to grasp and the sensation of crashing into opposing cars was as satisfying as it had been in Destruction Derby giving the experience in arcade flavor other serious driving games lacked more importantly however even though comparisons to grand theft auto or Destruction Derby remained inevitable most players agreed that the game's tone and multitude of original concepts such as its director mode made it irreducible to either driver wasn't just a fully 3d grand theft auto or an open-ended Destruction Derby it was its own distinct beast two reflections the success of driver was indicating after spending two and a half years creating one of the earliest games that allowed players to freely explore a three-dimensional in-game city the studio was happy if not slightly surprised to see their brain shall take off as it did given that it was the new IP and released relatively late in the Playstations lifecycle some within reflections were dissatisfied with the way certain aspects of the project had turned out however with Gareth Edmondson Martin Edmonton's brother revealing to GameSpot in 2006 that they were disappointed with the game's storyline and believed its mission designed to be weak because it didn't support its narrative well but such disappointments were not enough to prevent players from lapping it up driver would prove to be an immense commercial success selling over 6 million copies on the PlayStation alone and eventually making its way onto PCs Macs and even iPhones in the years that would come with new features and improvements a 2d adaptation of the title would also release for the Game Boy Color in May of the following year courtesy of crawfish Interactive despite making various concessions to accommodate for the game voice lesser Hardware the game would be well received critics were impressed with how earnestly the title attempted to emulate its console brothers look and feel across home consoles and handhelds driver had become an aim to be reckoned with after a string of highly lucrative years GT interactive had become mired in considerable financial difficulties by 1999 enough so that even driver strong sales were of little help as a result both GT and reflections would end up being acquired in November by info Grom entertainment which had risen to prominence over the preceding decade by acquiring numerous other development studios and their respective intellectual properties including the rights to Ataris properties a name which it would prominently rebrand itself with in the early 2000s while relations between reflections and their float re owners would eventually become strained over time the two remained largely cordial during the development of reflections final game for the original PlayStation driver two released in November of 2000 driver to cease Tanner and a fellow officer named Tobias Jones traveled to Chicago Vegas Havana and Rio de Janeiro with the intention of putting an end to a criminal underworlds war this time around however driver has taken an additional page out of DMA designs book with Tanner now being able to enter and exit different cars and explore each city on foot joining this change are several other tweaks and additions to the original game's design such as each city having a larger surface while also being visually and structurally more complex and the inclusion of a two-player multiplayer mode for some of the packages minigames while all of these changes carried with them nothing but reflections goodwill driver two's reception would be mixed - in large part to the games of Bund ins of frame rate issues unbalanced difficulty and it's out of car segments though many appreciated the novelty of being able to explore driver twos environments on foot and with it the freedom to access multiple vehicles most agree that these segments were just too limited in what they allowed the player to do and difficult to control outside of these sticking points much of the underlying tissue that made the first game so great still remained but the consensus was quickly reached that driver too was too ambitious a project for the hardware and which had arrived and the time in which it was produced internally reflections was pleased with many of the upgrades and enhancements they had made over the first title with Gareth Edmondson highlighting the games featured cities and improved story as aspects of the game he was personally satisfied with however even he would acknowledge that they had pushed the Playstations capabilities a little too much and that the finished product wasn't all that it could have been as a result despite this the momentum of the first driver still fresh in many gamers Minds helped propel driver to sales wise with Atari highlighting the game as a key contributor to the company's strong financial performance during the year of its release and like his predecessor it would be complemented by a solid portable adaptation titled driver to advance for the Game Boy Advance in October of 2002 developed by Senora interactive driver to advance follows in the footsteps of titles like duke nukem advance and cruising velocity using a ray casting engine custom-built bison re which allows the player to explore basic three-dimensional cityscapes in cars are on foot and rivaling the PlayStation versions two player multiplayer advanced allows for up to four players to play mini-games with each other using Link cables the game was well received and critics were impressed with how faithful the title was in emulating its home console counterpart despite the handhelds technical limitations the release of driver two reflections decided to take a break from their vehicular pursuit series and develop 2002's stuntman an action racing game for the PlayStation 2 about a Hollywood stunt performer featuring a mix of drivers vehicular mayhem with some intense out of car antics stuntmen would receive accolades for the originality which premise and mechanics but criticism for its punishing difficulty at the very least fans of driver unenthused by stuntman could take solace in knowing that driver 3 was on the way with an exclusive teaser for the title included in stunt man's disk but even with this knowledge there was reason to be anxious because another game with three in its title had already stuffed into town and stolen some of drivers thunder a PlayStation 2 behemoth called Grand Theft Auto 3 [Music] [Music] for their third entry in their crime series dma design now known as Rockstar North had transplanted the design of their first two top-down titles into an expansive and fully 3d world replete with shootouts car chases and an endless amount of emergent scenarios thanks to its open-ended design the game would proved immensely beloved and influential providing the blueprints for all open world or sandbox games that would follow - reflections however Grand Theft Auto 3 represented a fierce riposte up until this point reflections had repeatedly borrowed elements from Grand Theft Auto and implemented them into driver earning their own series greater Fame in doing so even the handheld driver games despite their limited nature tended to be more favorably received than grand theft auto's portable entries but now Rockstar had shot back and trounced reflection in praise and profits with a game that while possessing vastly different driving mechanics absolutely crushed driver in terms of gameplay possibilities and environmental detail Rockstar would even go as far as to start openly mocking driver within their games from this point forward in a Grand Theft Auto 3 mission titled two-faced Tanner for example the player is tasked with killing an undercover cop who has a feminine running animation a reference to Tanner's comparatively awkward walk cycle in driver - likewise in the grand theft auto vice city mission auto site the player is tasked with killing another character called Tanner along with several other NPCs named after characters from s ie London Studios the getaway over all the cars were stacked high against driver 3 not only did it have to make up for driver twos missteps but it also had to prove this series worth in a post grand theft auto 3 world in the lead up to driver threes release reflections stressed that while the game wouldn't ignore the advancements that Rockstar had brought to the open world genre the series third title would be a driving game first and foremost it would tear more and more pages out of Grand Theft Auto home such as giving players the ability to wield firearms went on foot and by having its own star-studded list of celebrity voice talent like Michael Madsen Mickey Rourke and Iggy Pop but everything that didn't involve Tanner behind the wheel would play second fiddle driving per the series title was the game's focus however when driver three would finally launch for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in June of 2004 and later on the PC in March of 2005 it was difficult to see whether reflections had focused on anything at all khalida South Beach lead she moves eighty million a year in stolen guns and cars he ain't working for Niko's lomez hardware specialist gun free pimp cheek you need a driver the game's plot provided some enjoyment and driving still felt solid but everything else was mercilessly bogged down by a myriad of bugs glitches and awkward design choices the game's AI was questionable at best the mission designed slipshod and inconsistent and its controls during the on foot sections severely lacking the game would be lambasted upon its release with many critics accusing Atari of rushing reflections to release driver 3 before it was ready so that the publisher could get ahead of grand theft auto san andreas is launched later that year this assertion would end up being proven true with Atari sales and marketing VP Nick Bosch or admitting at a press event two years later that driver 3 was pushed off the door half baked for revenue reasons as if the situation couldn't have been any more painful driver 3 would also end up embroiled in a conspiracy known as driver gate shortly after its launch members of the game's radar forms accused two outlets that gave the title unusually high review scores PlayStation Magazine and Xbox world of having been paid by Atari to do so only to find their complaints being systematically deleted well no concrete evidence would ever emerge that proved the accusations to be true the debacle did little to help reflections or Ataris reputation the tenuous relationship of the two companies would come to a head when Martin Edmondson departed reflections half a year after driver threes release and sued Atari for unfair dismissal shortly thereafter like driver 2 driver 3 would receive a belated Game Boy Advance adaptation which would launch in October of the following year to mixed reviews created by the two-man development team of fernando phillies and guillaume de Bie the game wild players with its impressive 3d graphics while letting them down with its inconsistent collision detection and awkward combat in the aftermath of driver 3 reflections conducted an extensive post-mortem on the game's production carefully analyzing everything that had gone into its creation and everything that had been said about it after being put out the door reflections wanted to get back in fans good faith and after evaluating what had gone wrong with their last title it was decided that their next game would right driver threes wrongs by refining its mixture of open-world and driving systems while dropping the scenery and characters from the series first three titles the result of these efforts would be 2006's driver parallel lines released in March for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox with ports for the Wii and PC arriving the following year parallel lines follows TK a getaway driver who becomes entrenched in New York's criminal underworld unlike previous titles parallel lines narrative unfolds entirely in the Big Apple yet across two time periods with the first half of the game taking place in 1978 and the second in 2006 after TK is framed for murder and sentenced to prison for the better part of three decades though this difference in time periods results in the appearance and layout of New York changing parallel lines core gameplay a sandbox experience similar to Grand Theft Auto with the physics and vehicular action of driver remains the same throughout players reactions were warm yet despondent the glitch is an awkwardness that's so aggressively characterized driver we were all but smooths over the story was solid and the sensation of blazing through the streets of New York City in a stolen car was second to none but where this series previous three entries felt at least marginally distinct from rockstars juggernaut series parallel lines made no pretense of having abandoned the iconic steeples they characterized the franchise's earliest entries and aside from driving everything it did to well GTA simply did better while the negative stigma carried by driver 3 had been successfully shaken off the series identity felt as if it had been lost [Music] for what issues driver was suffering from at the time however Atari was an even dire straits after years spent aggressively acquiring companies from all over the industry the French outfits finances had entered a downward spiral one that parallel lines middling reception did little to help alleviate one by one Atari closed down and sold off all the studios that had amassed and reflections would end up being purchased by Ubisoft in August of 2006 Ubisoft was at this point well on its way to becoming the giant that it is today and saw driver as a means of gaining a foothold in the driving games market where it still lacked a strong presence the acquisition would be followed up in May of 2007 with the release of two new driver titles for portable devices the first would be driver le undercover a Gameloft developed mobile game that ceased Tanner take on the Mafia in the City of Angels mechanically and visually similar to Gameloft's own asphalt series the game would receive mixed reviews the second would be driver 76 for the PlayStation Portable developed jointly by reflections and sumo digital 76 serves as a prequel to parallel lines following TK's childhood friend ray as he takes down a criminal empire to win the affection of his flame in another Grand Theft Auto like romp once again mixed opinions about it 76 is driving felt as great as ever and the game's cutscenes which used comic-book style illustrations to relay the game's narrative proved popular but it's drab environments for enemy AI and short length left critics less than satisfied like parallel lines before it 76 was neither as bad as driver 3 nor did it present a particularly seductive vision of the series future and with grand theft auto liberty City Stories and vice city stories having already been released for the PlayStation Portable and years prior it couldn't claim to offer a unique experience even within the confines of Sony's handheld platform fortunately plans were already underway at reflections to try and steer the series back to its former stardom I've driven the streets of a hundred cities to catch criminals different beasts I've always sworn I'd dragged the hell and back looks like I just got my chance I got hold of the Amiga shortly after requiring reflections Ubisoft brought Martin Edmondson back on board to oversee the studio's next home console release unlike Atari Ubisoft made it clear early on that they wanted reflections project to receive whatever resources it needed to be a hit and that they wouldn't force the studio to release the game until it was ready inspired by the extent to which Ubisoft seemed to care for and understand their craft production began at reflections on a driver game that would attempt to resolve the series fractured identity doing so meant addressing many complicated issues that had built up along this series rim over the years including most significantly the series on foot sections being able to exit and enter new vehicles was novel and useful back in the days of driver 2 but it always felt off and resulted in the series being compared more to Grand Theft Auto than reflections wanted it to the studio desire to return to the glory days of the original driver and that meant the players ability to get out of vehicles and walk around needed to go but how would they retain the game's freedom to switch cars on the fly if they didn't want the player to physically exit them the answer would be a concept conceived early on that the team called Google Earth live whereby the player would be able to zoom out any time to a comprehensive top-down map of their environment and enter whatever vehicle struck their fancy creating the technology that allowed reflections to implement such a system would take a great deal of time and effort but when driver San Francisco reflections Google Earth opus would finally release in September of 2011 for the PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 PC and we most consumers agree that this time and effort had been well spent [Applause] [Music] [Applause] driver San Francisco brings tenor back into the fold as the series protagonist albeit in a very different manner than any prior title in the series after a devastating crash puts him in a coma Tanner discovers that he can survey his surroundings from a top-down view and shift his consciousness into other people's bodies allowing him to take control over whatever car they're driving at a moment's notice what unfolds is a narrative that sees Tanner attempt to make the most of his ability in order to foil a plot hatched by his arch nemesis Jericho and understand the nature behind his strange predicament the game also features the return of director mode which was absent from parallel lines and in a first for the series San Francisco allows for online play across the host of competitive multiplayer modes the Wii version of San Francisco on the other hand serves as a prequel to the entire series following Tanner in the city by the bay during his rookie years as an undercover cop as a result of the Wiis lesser Hardware the game lacks its HD counterparts shift mechanic in its place the player can get a leg up on their adversaries by shooting them with the Wii Remote and entering a slow-motion mode to make difficult maneuvers [Applause] the response to San Francisco's High Definition version would be ecstatic with players unanimously praised full of the uniqueness and depth of the shift mechanic as well as all of the very gameplay scenarios that made possible over the course of its narrative also positively received was the game's humoristic tone in dialogue while a major tonal shift from previous entries many felt it provided the game with a unique and entertaining feel that stops short of descending into self-parody [Music] right here please Frank there's still time on the clock and I want my money's worth please I'm too young inside I'm still the Wii version on the other hand would receive a less enthusiastic reaction with critics disappointed by its simpler design and control issues but in a year when most other third-party developers efforts on the we were either exploitative cash grabs or non-existence it was an unexpected breath of fresh air and more importantly both it and its HD counterparts designed firmly rebuffed the series previous closeness to grass after Auto for the first time in years the drivers series felt like its own beast again and not just an imitator living in the shadow of a monolith internally however reflections own assessment of the game was Pyrrhic the studio was immensely proud of their latest opus but the challenges of rebooting driver had taken five rough years filled with layoffs delays and Direction changes and though San Francisco would perform decently at retail it would fall short of covering the cost of its development despite succeeding so strongly in players eyes reflections almost felt as if they had failed like prior driver games San Francisco would be complemented by a small flurry of portable entries with both a mobile version of San Francisco similar in style to LA Undercover and a 3ds game titled driver renegade 3d releasing the same month as their console cousins developed by the same two-man team that made driver threes portable version renegade takes place in between the events of driver 1 and 2 chronicling Tanner's attempts to continue cleaning up crime in the streets of New York sadly the novelty of being able to explore the Big Apple in stereoscopic 3d would not be enough to assuage the game's critics who felt the game's objectives to be repetitive and lacking in challenge and its environments overly bland frag goodbye forever [ __ ] after 2011 the driver franchise would go quiet with only scant lifesigns reminding players of its existence in late 2013 Ubisoft North American president laurel de tock would explain that the engine used in the open-world game watch dogs was originally built for a project that might have become a driver game the title saw some progress but much like how Rainbow six Patriots metamorphosed into Rainbow six siege the changing tides of the videogame industry led it to being scrapped so that watchdogs could take its place then in December of 2014 Ubisoft Paris would release driver speedboat paradise for iPhone and Android a free-to-play racing game with in-app purchases speedboat paradise sees the player a nameless rising star within the speedboat scene take on the UH nayana clean aimed powerboat mafia by competing against them on the ocean waves the game would receive a cold reception upon his reveal with many upset to see a driver named slapped willy-nilly on to what seemed an incredibly generic boat racing game and those who would go on to play the title were hard-pressed to find anything positive about it well one might assume that driver San Francisco's modest success made Ubisoft apprehensive of green landing a new main line driver title the reality simply seems to be that passions have shifted at the development teams most equipped to make it after burning themselves out making San Francisco reflections decided to reorganize their operations shifting from a studio that based its entire livelihood on a single product of their own creation to a studio that handles multiple projects of other studios design instead of releasing new destruction derbies or drivers once every few years reflections has worked in a supporting role on most of Ubisoft's tenpo releases since 2011 helping implement vehicles and titles that prominently feature driving such as Ghost Recon wildlands and watchdogs too and playing a large part in the overall development of series like the division and the crew their involvement on the latter title is most notable as both the crew and its sequel similar to driver San Francisco's Google Earth inspired teleportation allow the player to instantaneously fast travel around the map via a satellite view amidst these triple a scale projects a small internal team continues to produce original indie game inspired content such as 2015's grow home or 2007 teens at Omega but for the most part reflections occupy second building on the projects they develop as explained to MCB in 2016 by reflections managing director pauline jackie the english company has found a satisfying junction in which to exist even though their contributions to watchdogs or the crew won't be as well-known as those of the studios that originated these titles the team is satisfied knowing that they left a mark on the game that is unmistakably theirs and because they don't have the pressure that comes with leading such massive projects they've benefited from a stronger and less constrained work ethic when asked whether a new driver title was in the cards Jackie responded by stating that if they wanted to develop one they could and they would nobody at Ubisoft is preventing them and they've come to terms with the fact that San Francisco wasn't a failure they just don't have any interest in rebooting the franchise reflections may no longer possess the passion they once had for driver but the lessons that learned developing this series has allowed the studio to elevate the rest of ub sauce portfolio hopefully this talent will one day mix with the same impulse that drives original titles like grow home and reflections we'll give John Tanner one more [Music] our documentaries are crowdfunded and made possible by the generous supporters backing us on patreon if you enjoy our content consider subscribing to our Channel and becoming a patron to help us create more [Music]

Channel: GVMERS

Views: 1,008,400

Rating: 4.9179378 out of 5

Keywords: Driver, Driver 2, Driver 3, Driv3r, Driver 4, Driver Parallel Lines, Driver 76, Driver Renegade, Driv3rGate, DriverGate, The Rise and Fall of Driver, The History of Driver, Documentary, You Are The Wheelman, Driver Speedboat Paradise, Reflections, GT Interactive, The Crew, Watch Dogs, Driver San Francisco, Driver 5, GTA, Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games

Id: oBRqVZObvu0

Length: 34min 35sec (2075 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/convoyv8]

I'll always remember the first one for its insane tutorial that you couldn't skip. Game was fun from what I remember past that though.

[u/peanutbuttahcups]

Very informative video about the series, and Reflections Studio as a whole. I'll always have a soft spot for Driver for it's more realistic driving physics and destruction (compared to GTA at the time) and director mode. The introduction of weapons in Driv3r had me spending hours in director mode (shoutout to the noob tube on that one Nice mission). The Stuntman game they mentioned was also a great game. Hard as hell, but when you finally nail each stunt and watch that take, it's like nothing else.

[u/llamanatee]

I know Driv3r gets a lot of (well deserved) shit thrown its way, but I will always have a soft spot for the many hours I spent wrecking havoc in the mall in Miami.

[u/Erzeal]

Damn this made me want to go try driver San Francisco, but it seems to have been pulled from sale. :( it looks fun

[u/tacomcnacho]

Driv3r was my budget GTA Vice City as an 11-year-old. My mom had heard about how violent GTA was and refused to let me own it. She did not, however, know what Driver was so I was able to convince her that it was just a racing game. I remember even hiding the "Mature" rating with my index finger when I showed her the box like she wouldn't notice.

I played Driver 3 daily for years. I knew every street and completed every bonus mission multiple times. In my mind it was the perfect game. I remember being very confused and angry after reading that it had received 4/10 ratings across the board. It was only later that I realized Driver 3 was a poor imitation of Vice City riddled with bugs that my 11-year-old mind completely ignored. Still, Driver 3 had some amazing content that I think gets overlooked. I will never forget discovering the secret Go-Kart track or unlocking the Infinite Mass cheat. And I'll never replay it, because I know that if I do, those blissful memories will be shattered in an instant.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/lukeLOL]

Why was Driver: San Francisco removed from Steam? I just went to check it out and can't find it. Can only find the community page: https://steamcommunity.com/app/33440

[u/blackhawkdown58]

Driver: San Francisco was such a great game and it holds up great on the Xbox One. Would love love love another game with the same shift mechanics

[u/CrazyDude10528]

I know DRIV3R has a lot of problems and a lot of people hated it, but when I was 12 it was one of my favorite games. I loved how the cars felt to drive and i just found it relaxing to get in a car and drive around. I still to this day go back and play it a bit. Driver parallel lines was a much better game all around though, and even Driver 76 on the PSP was really good. I miss the Driver games.