NY RealWheelman
09-06-2005, 01:05 PM
Here you go :)
"There were quite a lot of issues with Driv3r," Gareth Edmondson, production manager at Reflections tells us in typically understated British fashion. "We had a very good, hard look at that. A very in-depth postmortem," he adds. When pushed on what he'd change about the much-maligned (but very successful) prequel, he's politic in his response and speaks directly to his objective with Parallel Lines. "I would've made it more focused on driving," he says, refusing to criticize previous works any further.
Complaints about the awkwardly titled predecessor ranged from the Official PlayStation Magazine's observation that "it's desperately, desperately flawed," to GameSpot's comment that "a bevy of technical problems make portions of the game feel sloppy and unfinished." Because of its heritage, though, critics perhaps foolishly pulled their punches and cut the game some slack thanks to fond memories of Drivers 1 and 2. Edmondson knows that gamers still remember the franchise fondly, and even cites his reasoning for targeting current generation systems on this. "PS2 and Xbox are still very strong. There's a massive audience out there, but let's be honest...we want to win some fans back," he admits.
The new game pushes reset on the whole franchise. Fans disappointed by the evolution of Tanner from smoldering misanthrope to Michael Madsen voiced...well...corpse may be heartened by Reflections' decision to completely drop the Tanner mythos, and keep the action contained to one city. Parallel Lines ("the reasons for the name will become apparent, but we're not saying now," Edmondson explains) is set in New York during the seventies, and the protagonist is no longer an increasingly complicated anti-hero...he's just some dude enigmatically called "The Kid" who rocks a luxuriant mullet, Aviators, and a cool leather jacket. "We chose New York because it's an exciting city," Edmondson tells us, dryly. "It was an interesting city in the seventies. Driver always had sort of a seventies feel about it, so that was a natural decision for us."
Continuing with the inevitable and unavoidable Grand Theft Auto comparisons, the new game focuses much more on the criminal underworld itself. Edmondson describes The Kid as "a driver for hire, free from conscience," and admits that there are "limitations to what you can do with an undercover cop." In Electronic Gaming Monthly's exclusive first look feature in the October 2005 issue, Edmondson explains, "we got rid of all those obscure conscience type issues. He's doing work in New York City for the mob, small time building up to bigger time." As with previous games, the structure is of the de rigueur "digital sandbox" design philosophy that just about everything trumpets these days, and offers plenty of freedom for you to explore the slums of New York circa 1978.
During his brief demo of the early code, Edmondson shows the overall game map, and explains that there are "absolutely no load times" in this game. As the spider web of city streets pops up, he points out the vast scale of the new game. "We go out to Jersey, Staten Island, and some other areas," he explains. "With Manhattan itself, though, a grid like that is perfect for the big Hollywood car chase kind of vibe that we're aiming for." Parallel Lines, we're told, features the equivalent of 167 miles of road, an impressive feat, and Manhattan itself has been squeezed, morphed, and condensed for enhanced gameplay purposes. Reflections has tried to steer clear of the painstakingly faithful approach seen in The Getaway, instead opting for a fantasy version that's optimized for great chases and noticeable landmarks.
Graphically, it shares a lot with its predecessor, but even at this early stage there's already a noticeable improvement in the frame rate. One of the many criticisms of Driv3r was that it would choke up and stutter; something we're assured won't happen this time. Because of limitations imposed by the inclusion of a director mode in 3, the game was only able to render eight to 10 cars at any one time -- something that led to the decidedly empty feel of previous locales. Edmondson assures that we'll see "20 to 30" cars at most times in Parallel Lines. It's not apparent in many of the exclusive screens we have accompanying this story, but it was clearly visible in our brief time with the game.
Addressing yet another complaint with the last game, namely that of it being an open world filled with desperately linear objectives (remember trying to stop Jericho from escaping by blowing up his car in the last game? Only to see it magically reappear at the appropriate point? Not exactly "digital sandbox" stuff really, was it?) Edmondson points out that "we've changed it from a very linear 'do the mission, retry, do the mission, retry' to much more open gameplay. The mission structure is a branching one, and you don't necessarily have to do every mission we throw at you." There's also going to be much more life to the city, we're told. Random scripted events will be a big part of the overall experience, like cop chases and emergency response vehicles, and these join the strong narrative that's threaded throughout. When challenged on Atari's previous insistence on making Driv3r a big "Hollywood style" production with all the pomp and circumstance that goes with that, Edmonson shifts uncomfortably before stating evasively "we're still all about Hollywood car chases" and going on to explain that the majority of the gameplay is actually behind the wheel, rather than on foot. Given the size of the production (currently the game sports a team of over 100 developers, and it's growing all the time) and the level of investment that implies, it seems safe to assume that we'll hear news in the future of some celebrity talent. We pushed Edmondson on the subject a lot, and although not stating so directly, he hinted that they are approaching the subject in a fashion akin to GTA's "great voices over great names" philosophy. So no...we won't have to tolerate the likes of Madsen's phoned-in performance this time.
Those of you that loved previous Drivers for the mini games, rather than the narrative, will be pleased to hear that Survival mode, Trailblazer, and Quick Chase will make a welcome return, and these are joined by new track races including one that harks back to Reflections' early PS1 days with a full-on destruction derby. "For Survival, you ram donut stands to piss off the cops," Edmondson told EGM. "If you survive, you win money." Joining the solo mini games are a number of online games, none of which we were able to actually see in the early demo. A cops and robbers mode is promised (where one player is chased by five others) along with team-based carjacking games that follow the basic gameplay mechanic of a capture the flag game.
Driver: Parallel Lines is currently slated for a March 2006 release, and so far things look like they're being steered back onto the right course for this franchise. "We wanted to get away from the idea that this is just a sequel," Edmondson asserts. "We've completely changed the way the game plays. It's not just Driv3r and something. It's a completely new game." Let's hope.
"There were quite a lot of issues with Driv3r," Gareth Edmondson, production manager at Reflections tells us in typically understated British fashion. "We had a very good, hard look at that. A very in-depth postmortem," he adds. When pushed on what he'd change about the much-maligned (but very successful) prequel, he's politic in his response and speaks directly to his objective with Parallel Lines. "I would've made it more focused on driving," he says, refusing to criticize previous works any further.
Complaints about the awkwardly titled predecessor ranged from the Official PlayStation Magazine's observation that "it's desperately, desperately flawed," to GameSpot's comment that "a bevy of technical problems make portions of the game feel sloppy and unfinished." Because of its heritage, though, critics perhaps foolishly pulled their punches and cut the game some slack thanks to fond memories of Drivers 1 and 2. Edmondson knows that gamers still remember the franchise fondly, and even cites his reasoning for targeting current generation systems on this. "PS2 and Xbox are still very strong. There's a massive audience out there, but let's be honest...we want to win some fans back," he admits.
The new game pushes reset on the whole franchise. Fans disappointed by the evolution of Tanner from smoldering misanthrope to Michael Madsen voiced...well...corpse may be heartened by Reflections' decision to completely drop the Tanner mythos, and keep the action contained to one city. Parallel Lines ("the reasons for the name will become apparent, but we're not saying now," Edmondson explains) is set in New York during the seventies, and the protagonist is no longer an increasingly complicated anti-hero...he's just some dude enigmatically called "The Kid" who rocks a luxuriant mullet, Aviators, and a cool leather jacket. "We chose New York because it's an exciting city," Edmondson tells us, dryly. "It was an interesting city in the seventies. Driver always had sort of a seventies feel about it, so that was a natural decision for us."
Continuing with the inevitable and unavoidable Grand Theft Auto comparisons, the new game focuses much more on the criminal underworld itself. Edmondson describes The Kid as "a driver for hire, free from conscience," and admits that there are "limitations to what you can do with an undercover cop." In Electronic Gaming Monthly's exclusive first look feature in the October 2005 issue, Edmondson explains, "we got rid of all those obscure conscience type issues. He's doing work in New York City for the mob, small time building up to bigger time." As with previous games, the structure is of the de rigueur "digital sandbox" design philosophy that just about everything trumpets these days, and offers plenty of freedom for you to explore the slums of New York circa 1978.
During his brief demo of the early code, Edmondson shows the overall game map, and explains that there are "absolutely no load times" in this game. As the spider web of city streets pops up, he points out the vast scale of the new game. "We go out to Jersey, Staten Island, and some other areas," he explains. "With Manhattan itself, though, a grid like that is perfect for the big Hollywood car chase kind of vibe that we're aiming for." Parallel Lines, we're told, features the equivalent of 167 miles of road, an impressive feat, and Manhattan itself has been squeezed, morphed, and condensed for enhanced gameplay purposes. Reflections has tried to steer clear of the painstakingly faithful approach seen in The Getaway, instead opting for a fantasy version that's optimized for great chases and noticeable landmarks.
Graphically, it shares a lot with its predecessor, but even at this early stage there's already a noticeable improvement in the frame rate. One of the many criticisms of Driv3r was that it would choke up and stutter; something we're assured won't happen this time. Because of limitations imposed by the inclusion of a director mode in 3, the game was only able to render eight to 10 cars at any one time -- something that led to the decidedly empty feel of previous locales. Edmondson assures that we'll see "20 to 30" cars at most times in Parallel Lines. It's not apparent in many of the exclusive screens we have accompanying this story, but it was clearly visible in our brief time with the game.
Addressing yet another complaint with the last game, namely that of it being an open world filled with desperately linear objectives (remember trying to stop Jericho from escaping by blowing up his car in the last game? Only to see it magically reappear at the appropriate point? Not exactly "digital sandbox" stuff really, was it?) Edmondson points out that "we've changed it from a very linear 'do the mission, retry, do the mission, retry' to much more open gameplay. The mission structure is a branching one, and you don't necessarily have to do every mission we throw at you." There's also going to be much more life to the city, we're told. Random scripted events will be a big part of the overall experience, like cop chases and emergency response vehicles, and these join the strong narrative that's threaded throughout. When challenged on Atari's previous insistence on making Driv3r a big "Hollywood style" production with all the pomp and circumstance that goes with that, Edmonson shifts uncomfortably before stating evasively "we're still all about Hollywood car chases" and going on to explain that the majority of the gameplay is actually behind the wheel, rather than on foot. Given the size of the production (currently the game sports a team of over 100 developers, and it's growing all the time) and the level of investment that implies, it seems safe to assume that we'll hear news in the future of some celebrity talent. We pushed Edmondson on the subject a lot, and although not stating so directly, he hinted that they are approaching the subject in a fashion akin to GTA's "great voices over great names" philosophy. So no...we won't have to tolerate the likes of Madsen's phoned-in performance this time.
Those of you that loved previous Drivers for the mini games, rather than the narrative, will be pleased to hear that Survival mode, Trailblazer, and Quick Chase will make a welcome return, and these are joined by new track races including one that harks back to Reflections' early PS1 days with a full-on destruction derby. "For Survival, you ram donut stands to piss off the cops," Edmondson told EGM. "If you survive, you win money." Joining the solo mini games are a number of online games, none of which we were able to actually see in the early demo. A cops and robbers mode is promised (where one player is chased by five others) along with team-based carjacking games that follow the basic gameplay mechanic of a capture the flag game.
Driver: Parallel Lines is currently slated for a March 2006 release, and so far things look like they're being steered back onto the right course for this franchise. "We wanted to get away from the idea that this is just a sequel," Edmondson asserts. "We've completely changed the way the game plays. It's not just Driv3r and something. It's a completely new game." Let's hope.