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Driver | |
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Genre(s) | Action-adventure, driving |
Developer(s) | |
Publisher(s) | |
Creator(s) | Martin Edmondson [1] |
Composer(s) |
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Platform(s) | PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color, Classic Mac OS, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Wii, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, macOS, iOS, Android, Nintendo 3DS |
First release | Driver 25 June 1999 |
Latest release | Driver: Speedboat Paradise December 2014 |
Driver is a video game series developed by Reflections Interactive (now Ubisoft Reflections), and originally published by GT Interactive, later by Infogrames/Atari and now by Ubisoft. The gameplay consists of a mixture of action-adventure and driving in open world environments. Since the series began in 1999, there have been five main installments released.
As of August 2011, the series has sold more than 16 million units worldwide. [2]
Game | Metacritic |
---|---|
Driver | (PS1) 87 [3] (PC) 79% [4] [lower-alpha 1] (GBC) 75% [5] [lower-alpha 2] |
Driver 2 | (GBA) 73 [6] (PS1) 62 [7] |
Driver 3 | (PS2) 57 [8] (Xbox) 56 [9] (PC) 40 [10] (GBA) 73 [11] |
Driver: Parallel Lines | (PS2) 69 [12] (Xbox) 69 [13] (PC) 61 [14] (Wii) 59 [15] |
Driver 76 | (PSP) 57 [16] |
Driver: San Francisco | (PC) 80 [17] (X360) 80 [18] (PS3) 79 [19] (Wii) 64 [20] |
Driver: Renegade 3D | (3DS) 48 [21] |
The first game of the Driver series was released for the PlayStation on 25 June 1999 in Europe and 30 June in the U.S. It was later released in 2000 for Game Boy Color in April, Windows in September, Mac in December, and iOS in December 2009. In the game, the player controls a former racecar driver turned undercover police detective named John Tanner. It featured a storyline inspired by 1960s/70s car chase movies such as Bullitt (1968) and The Driver (1978) and based in four real-life cities; Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. It was the best selling game of the Driver series and an evolution of the freedom to explore a city as brought forth in the early Grand Theft Auto games.
The second installment in the Driver series was released for the PlayStation on 13 November 2000 in the U.S. by Infogrames (now known as Atari), and later ported to the Game Boy Advance on 4 October 2002 in the U.S. It featured detective John Tanner once more, along with a new partner, detective Tobias Jones, in four more real-life cities (Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas, and Rio de Janeiro). It was the first game in the series to feature 2-player modes, curved roads, and the ability to get out of the car at any time (apart from while being in a pursuit from the police) in order to steal another car on the street.
The third installment in the Driver series was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on 21 June 2004 in the U.S. to generally mixed or poor reviews (despite new features such as the ability to use firearms). The game takes place in Miami, Nice and Istanbul. It was subsequently followed by versions for Windows, and Game Boy Advance. [22]
The fourth game in the series, Driver: Parallel Lines , was released 14 March 2006 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in the U.S., and 26 June 2007 for Windows and Wii in the U.S. Reflections intended Parallel Lines to "return the series to its roots" by focusing more on driving.
The game differs greatly in other aspects from its predecessors, though, as the story no longer follows undercover police officer Tanner and the game takes place in only one location, New York City. The new main player's name is TK, a criminal rather than a cop. The game includes two time periods, 1978 and 2006, when the main player is sentenced to prison for 28 years and returns in 2006. The game received better reviews, but unlike Driver 3, did not sell particularly well.
Driver 76 is a PlayStation Portable game in the Driver series. Set in New York City in 1976, two years before the events in the first half of Driver: Parallel Lines , the player takes the role of Ray, TK's friend and a supporting character from Parallel Lines. The game was developed by Sumo Digital and Reflections, and was the first Driver game published by Ubisoft after they acquired Reflections. It was released on 8 May 2007 in the U.S.
The fifth Driver game was long rumored to be in production. [23] [24] [25] After several years of speculation, Ubisoft unveiled Driver: San Francisco at E3 2010. After several delays, it was released in September 2011 along with Driver: Renegade 3D.
The game takes place in one location, San Francisco, and follows the series protagonist, Tanner, being in a coma after suffering an accident. Thus, the player controls Tanner during his coma dream. [26] The plot of the Wii version of Driver: San Francisco is completely different from the other versions, being a prequel to the events of the original Driver .
For the game, developers decided to remove the ability to get out of a car in order to steal another car on the street. Instead, they created a new mechanic called "Shift", enabling the players to shift to any car at any time, aside from a few missions.
The game received generally positive reviews, getting the highest ratings in the whole series after Driver. Like Driver 3, it sold particularly well.
A Nintendo 3DS game, Driver: Renegade 3D follows John Tanner trying to take down the New York City crime mobs. It was released in September 2011 at the same time as Driver: San Francisco and takes place between the events of Driver and Driver 2.
A free-to-play smartphone game was released on iOS and Android in December 2014. The game, which makes use of in-app purchases, revolves solely around missions on speedboats. [27]
Driver: Nemesis, a novel written by Alex Sharp, was published in 2010 to coincide with the release of Driver: San Francisco . The novel is a sequel to Driver 2 and a prequel to the events of Driver: San Francisco, taking place at some point before Hurricane Katrina. [28] The story follows John Tanner's undercover infiltration to a crime network in New Orleans. It features several characters from the first two games and provides additional backstory for Tanner's life prior to becoming a member of law enforcement.
Driver: Vegas (released in 2006) and Driver: L.A. Undercover (released in 2007) are two mobile games featuring John Tanner. Vegas features his exploits in Las Vegas in an attempt to exact revenge on Charles Jericho after Driver 3 , while L.A. Undercover, set two years later, features Tanner's exploits in Los Angeles to take down the Los Angeles Mafia by working his way up the ladder.
Ubisoft released C.O.P. The Recruit for Nintendo DS on November 3, 2009. It was originally registered under numerous names, one of which being "Driver: The Recruit". [29]
Ubisoft Montreal had been working on its own sequel in the Driver series at the same time that Ubisoft Reflections had been developing Driver: San Francisco. Ubisoft Montreal's game had included some elements of hacking the driving environment to the player advantage, such as triggering street lights, as well as being able to swap from driver to driver. When Driver: San Francisco released in 2011, it did not do well commercially, leading to the Driver title in development at Ubisoft Montreal to have portions reworked into the first Watch Dogs game. [30] Ubisoft Reflections subsequently helped Ubisoft Montreal in building out Watch Dogs for release, handling most of the driving portions of the game while Ubisoft Montreal handled the details related to on-foot missions and hacking. [30] [31] The game's Disrupt engine was originally intended for this Driver game in development. [32] [33]
In February 2002, Impact Pictures, the production team of Paul W. S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt, had acquired the film and TV rights to adapt Driver . Screenwriters James DeMonaco, Todd Jason Harthan, and James Roday Rodriguez were developing a script at the time. Impact Pictures had originally intended to produce the film Driver to coincide with the release of the video game Driver 3 . [34] The following November, Impact Pictures announced its plans to produce a $50 million adaptation of Driver after wrapping up principal photography on Resident Evil: Apocalypse . [35] In April 2006, Rogue Pictures acquired the film rights to Driver from Impact Pictures and Constantin Films, the production companies responsible for the Resident Evil film franchise. Roger Avary replaced the original screenwriters in writing the script for Driver, as well as directing the film. [36]
Prior to January 2007, Driver, having a budget of $48 million, was slated to shoot at Cinespace Studios' MT28 lot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Due to a waterfront revitalization project, the studio was forced to move and the film was put on hold. [37] In May 2009, the movie script was leaked on the internet. [38] [39]
On 14 September 2021, Ubisoft announced a live-action Driver series was coming to the new Binge streaming platform, to be produced by Allan Ungar, Vince Talenti and Ubisoft Film & Television. [40] It was cancelled shortly after. [41]
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth action-adventure video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels that were endorsed by Tom Clancy. The series follows Sam Fisher, a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon", as he overcomes his adversaries. Levels are created using Unreal Engine and emphasize light and darkness as gameplay elements. The series has been positively received, and was once considered to be one of Ubisoft's flagship franchises. The series had sold 19 million units by 2008. No further installments have been released since 2013. A remake of the first game was announced in December 2021. Some of the game's characters are featured in XDefiant.
Driver 3 is a 2004 action-adventure game, the third installment in the Driver series. It was developed by Reflections Interactive, published by Atari, and released on PlayStation 2, Xbox and mobile phones in June 2004, Microsoft Windows in March 2005, and Game Boy Advance in October 2005. The game's story focuses on players assuming the role of John Tanner, an undercover FBI agent, as he investigates a car-smuggling ring across three countries, in order to identify and arrest its boss and learn who they are planning to sell a cache of stolen cars to. The game expanded upon its predecessors with on-foot sections, gun combat, and drive-by shooting, with virtual recreations of three major cities - Miami, Nice, and Istanbul - free-roam game mode, and an improvement to the series' film-making "director mode".
Driver is an action driving video game and the first installment in the Driver series. Developed by Reflections Interactive and published by GT Interactive, it was released on the PlayStation on 25 June 1999, and was ported to Microsoft Windows on 1 October 1999, and to Classic Mac OS on 12 December 2000 by Abersoft Limited.
Ubisoft Reflections Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Founded in 1984 by Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain, the studio focuses on racing games and it is best known for creating the award-winning Driver series. Reflections was acquired by GT Interactive in 1998 and sold to Ubisoft in 2006. The company works on AAA games in close cooperation with sister studio Ubisoft Leamington.
Driver 2 is a 2000 action driving video game and the second installment of the Driver series. It was developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Infogrames for PlayStation. A port to the Game Boy Advance, titled Driver 2 Advance, was released in 2002, developed by Sennari Interactive and released under Infogrames' Atari range of products.
Driver: Parallel Lines is a video game developed by Reflections Interactive and is the fourth installment in the Driver video game series. It is a departure from previous titles in the series that focused on multiple cities, as the game takes place in New York City, within the periods of 1978 and 2006. It is also the only title not to involve the undercover cop, John Tanner, but instead focuses on a getaway driver named TK, who seeks revenge on a gang he worked with during his youth, after they framed him for the murder of a drug lord they held for ransom. Due to the underwhelming performance of Driver 3, particularly the often-derided on-foot sections, Parallel Lines returns to the formula used in earlier games in the series, focusing on driving, although shooting remains in the game, while the game is more open-ended than previous titles. It was released in March 2006 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox by Atari. Following Atari's sale of Reflections and the Driver series to Ubisoft, the latter released the game for Microsoft Windows and the Wii in June 2007.
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Driver 76 is a video game for the PlayStation Portable, which was released on 8 May 2007 in the US, and on 11 May 2007 in the EU. The game is a prequel to Driver: Parallel Lines, and is set two years prior. It is the only game in the Driver series for the PSP. It was developed by Ubisoft Reflections and Sumo Digital, and published by Ubisoft.
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Driver: San Francisco is an action-adventure driving video game developed by Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft. It is the fifth installment in the Driver series and its most recent main installment to date. It was released in September 2011 for the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, with an edition for Mac OS X in March 2012. The game has players traverse a fictional representation of San Francisco and the Bay Area, conducting missions through the use of licensed real-world cars, with the ability to Shift into any car in the game's setting in most platform editions. The game's main story sees players controlling John Tanner, a police detective, who falls into a coma pursuing his nemesis Charles Jericho following a prison breakout after the events of Driver 3 and finds himself piecing together his plan in a dream world while it is happening in real life.
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