In these post-GTA Vice City days it’s hard to remember what was so special about Driver. Although it didn’t have such detailed cityscapes and populated streets – I can’t remember seeing a single person in the first one, or maybe you just drove through them? – what made it stand out was the driving.
The satisfaction of mounting the kerb to squeeze past a police road block was exhilarating. Diving down dirty alleyways to lose a police tail and pulling a 180 in rush hour traffic was enough entertainment. The second installment allowed you to change vehicles but the little character that you controlled on foot was appalling and all you could do was clamber into another vehicle. Still it had the same intense driving missions.
Of course the full 3D experience of GTA III arrived (I still fondly remember the sublime top-down 2D versions too) and Driver has since taken a back seat. Driver 3 promised to be bigger and better and, although I liked the short playtest I had on the Xbox, to the mainstream public it bombed. All the major games magazine’s criticised the out-of-vehicle missions (Surely it can’t be worse than Driver 2?) and said the whole thing was a GTA wannabe. I’ve never played the full game yet. The game industry sure is fickle.
Well, from the playtest i’ve had of Driver Parallel Lines it looks like the series is back in contention once again. Those same alleyways are still in there but much more claustrophobic than before. The Cinematic View allows you to see the debris go flying everywhere from a nice theatrical angle (However, you can’t exactly see where you’re going so you usually end up meeting a charming brick wall) and the same intense driving is there – I was soon zipping in and out of traffic just like I used to, causing the police to crumple into oncoming traffic behind me.
The on foot missions are supposed to be much improved too, although the demo only lets you run about and hijack new cars. There’s a variety of guns and you can shoot from vehicles. The city of New York looks gorgeous too: There are pedestrians everywhere that bounce off your bonnet with a satisfying crunch, the buildings are big and detailed, the cars themselves are more than a match for GTA, and the folliage in parks is beautiful.
Apparently the full game is split into two halves – the first played in the 1970s (yes afros and flares are back), and the second in modern times (dvd players and widescreen t.v.s). I have to admit it looks great, it’s certainly got the magazine drooling, so I just hope the final product lives up to the hype.
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Drakengard 2 is another demo I got to play on the magazine’s disc. I thought it was great. I’m not a big rpg fan, mostly because I don’t like fights that are turn-based (with the exception of Risk), but I like talking to in-game characters, item collecting/upgrades and fighting with a group of allies.
Drakengard 2 has fights in real-time and as you fight you gain upgrades in the form of button sequences you can string together to pull off special moves. I’m not sure how many allies you’ll have in the main game as the demo has only two, with you controlling only one at a time, with the option to switch characters mid-game.
There’s also a dragon and the demo includes both a land-based hack n’ slash section and a flying section where you get to ride the dragon. I found it pretty good, aiming was a bit difficult, but the dragon’s movements as it swooped and dived were nice to see.
The magazine hated the game though, giving it only four stars. Apparently it’s no impovement on the original and they thought the fighting was dull – I found the interface pretty intuitive! I might try it out sometime anyway.
The other rpg was pretty good – Sword of Etheria – again the fighting is in real-time. You fight with two other allies and you can punch out combos to daze an enemy and toss them through the air to the waiting blade of one of your allies who continue the volleyball technique before passing them back to you for the killer blow. There were lots of enemies to kill and different button combos to master. Again it didn’t find much favour with the magazine which begs the question: “why were these games even on the disc then?”
There was a good section in the mag about rpg’s. Some I’m a little interested in are: Phantasy Star Universe, Harvest Moon, Rogue Galaxy and Final Fantasy XII (The first in the series to have real-time fighting apparently so that’s why i’m interested!lol)
I liked Final Fantasy VIII but I haven’t gotten very far – I’m still at the battle with the mechanical spider thing if I remember correctly? – I loved the visuals, the story, and the lead character Squall but I didn’t like the random battles and turn-based combat. I’m just not a rpg fanatic I’m afraid. Final Fantasy X looked even better and i’m sure I have a demo kicking about somewhere but again I didn’t get hooked on the gameplay. Ah well, there’s time for me yet.
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I also playtested the new commandos game, Strikeforce. It’s not bad but it doesn’t exactly stand out among more popular shooters (Killzone, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Medal of Honor) and I have to admit I miss the top-down view. I liked the tactics in Behind Enemy Lines and Men of Courage – avoiding the enemy cones of vision and sneaking up on them to take them out – but in this new game it’s hard to do even that.
I played the spy – he has a cheesewire to garott the enemy soldiers and I was able to take down the first two silently. But when I accidentally took off the guard’s uniform I was wearing, I was spotted and a lone soldier opened fire. I ran at him, zig-zagging across a bridge to dodge his bullets, and when I got to him I tried to use the cheese wire but couldn’t! Perhaps you have to be behind an enemy or perhaps you can’t use it when you’ve been seen? Either way the only other weapons the spy has are coins, that you throw to distract the enemy, and apparently smoke grenades, although I didn’t seem to have any. So in the end I was eventually shot to death – nice!
The other mission on the disc allows you to control the commando and storm a dockyard, all guns blazing. This was alot easier and it played just as good as any shooter but nothing really stood out to distinguish it from the dozens of better quality titles already out there, in my opinion anyway. Still, it’s a worthwhile effort for a first foray into full 3D for the series.
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I managed to roll a bigger Katamari but i’ve yet to pass the King’s test (1.5 metres). However I did manage to roll up some cats and small children – yay!lol
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Also in the mag worth mentioning is the jaw-dropping Scarface game due for release by the end of the year – I can’t wait to say hello to Tony Montana’s “little friend”! (Okay that sounds a bit weird..I hope you’ve seen the film…)
Also Lemmings on PSP – woo hoo!lol The new Project Zero game which has you taking pictures of creepy ghosts before they kill you – i’ve yet to play the first two but they all look scary! Yakuza which reminds me of Shenmue II – the Xbox flop that I thought was pretty good after playing the demo – walk around a richly detailed town teeming with people to interact with, what’s not to like? – and Talkman for PSP: animated translation software that lets you say something into the microphone and then says it back in said language. It also teaches you pronunciation – a clever little program overall.
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Well have you had enough of my blethering yet? I have to admit, despite the joy I get from gaming, I’m feeling a bit hollow today. Is this all my life is? Gaming? I know there’s more to life than this but right now, at this moment, today of all days, i’d be lying if I said there was more to life for me. That makes me feel
pretty shit as you can imagine.
Time for some music I think…
