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Tanner And The Driver Franchise Come Out Of Their Coma
Back in 1999, gamers had a blast skidding around the corners of San
Francisco at blistering speeds in the original Driver. While that game
featured four cities, the city by the bay proved to be the most
entertaining thanks to its jump-friendly hills. In the upcoming Driver:
San Francisco, you'll be spending all of your time in the returning
favorite. The city isn't the only thing that's coming back, however.
When
we last saw John Tanner, he was in an Istanbul hospital after being
shot by crime lord Charles Jericho. That was back in 2004, and the
protagonist from the original trilogy was replaced for 2006's Driver:
Parallel Lines. This upcoming installment sees Tanner return to the
driver's seat after waking up from his coma.
At some point during
his recovery, he acquired a new ability called shifting. While we don't
know exactly how it will be explained in the storyline, shifting will
allow Tanner to essentially warp from car to car. With one button press,
the game will go into slow motion and your viewpoint will raise to a
birds-eye level. You can then move a cursor over cars in the area to see
their make, model, and attributes, and then release the shift button to
drop down into your selected vehicle. The gamer assumes full control of
the new car, but the driver will appear unchanged to other passengers.
It's yet to be seen how the passengers will react once their trip to the
post office turns into a high-speed car chase, however.
This
ability will be managed by a gauge that you build up by performing
various stunts. With every crazy move or drift you pull off, your shift
gauge fills up more and more. As you build it up, you can extend the
time you spend in shift mode and even allow the viewpoint to pull out
farther, giving you a much wider selection of potential vehicles.
Featuring
over 200 kilometers of road network, Driver: San Francisco will ensure
you'll be exploring the city like never before. Hopefully, Tanner's new
shifting ability, the one-city focus, and nine unannounced multiplayer
modes will be enough to revitalize a series that's been receiving mixed
reactions ever since the original.
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