Miller wrote:(…) Why would I want to jerk the e-brake and spin the car into the other lane? [or carjack the thing and then make a cool movie in Film Director mode]
Or jump out of the car at the last moment before sending it for a swim off a coastal ramp. Granted, the jump-out animation in D3 was terrible (and a little more refined in DPL) but the concept itself is, of course, immensely fun-friendly.
Miller wrote:I liked getting out of the vehicle,too.
Me, I like it for the ‘sightseeing factor’. It helps me appreciate the efforts of an environment’s designers a bit more thoroughly – otherwise I tend to breeze right past some picturesque areas & painstakingly recreated landmarks without ever noticing the work put into them. I find it odd that you get to customize your character in TDU to a laughably complex degree but you can’t get out of the car in order to, say, take a screenshot of your vehicle from a different angle.
Miller wrote:I guess you guys will be very happy that the cars are real vehicles.
Hmm, yes and no. In my opinion, using fantasy vehicles (albeit very unambiguously based on real-life models) in D3 (for example) allowed for a greater freedom in terms of design and marque-related variety. You had a couple of Dodges, a couple of Fords and a Lincoln, a 2nd gen Firebird, an early C3 ‘Vette, a couple of BMW’s and Lamborghinis, a Maserati, a Ferrari (!)… heck, even an old Bugatti and an Auburn. DSF, judging by what we’ve seen so far in any case, seems to be rife with Dodge, Shelby, Alfa Romeo and RUF offerings which will inevitably upset that balance present in the original games.
Another thing is (and I’m probably alone in this attitude), I’ve always admired Reflections for their uncompromising determination to offer – almost exclusively – classic (pre-90’s) models – an approach which went a great deal towards defining the feel of the series for me and which, needless to say, suited my personal aesthetic preferences. DPL did offer a compromise (in a predictable attempt to attract all those who complained about them 50’s Chevy lookalikes which, to me, added heaps of eerie atmosphere to the streets of D3’s Istanbul) but the ability to switch between the two eras was a clever way of keeping both people who – like yours truly – feel insulted by the blandness of modern automotive design and classics haters happy. Now, unless the devs haven’t gone out of their way (as they did in the past) to encrypt their precious files, my replays and screenshots will be messed up by some pathetic Neon in the background. In short, I want a 70’s (or at least an early 80’s – I admit, I love the DMC-12 and I’m glad it’s there) Frisco! But that’s just me, of course.
If I were to go a little more in-depth here, I’d have to say that as much as I love the (surprising) inclusion of the fabulous Giulia Tubulare Zagato 2, I’d rather see one of the cutest classic Alfas ever made – the Montreal. (Alright… I’m just a little bored with the TZ2 as I’ve been enjoying a pretty cool rendition made by Butch aka NFS Bolide for High Stakes for quite a while now.) Then there’s the 1967 Shelby GT500. Again?!!! (Yes, I have it in virtually every NFS from HS onwards, in GT Legends and, you guessed it, in GTA SA as well.) Why couldn’t it be the rarer but equally cool 1968 KR with its formidable grille (I keep wondering how it would look with an early 2nd gen Camaro type of split bumper) and California Special-kind of taillights? Or the 1969, sporting an aggressive Javelin-like front? Finally, if we’re just talking classic Mustangs here (although it looks like Ubisoft struck a deal with Shelby rather than Ford), the addition of any 1969-1973 hardtop would be more original than the 1967 GT500. On to the Dodges then. With Martin dropping all those ‘Bullitt’ references it’s a wonder (not really, you know the answer to that, uhm, riddle already) they went with the 1969 Charger rather than the (again, lesser-known) 1968 featured in the movie. With regards to the 1970 Challenger… well, of course it’s cool and iconic (Kowalski in ‘Vanishing Point’, I know) but, damn, how I’d love to drive the more elusive 1972 (I think) they used for the ‘parking lot teaser’ instead! At the end of the day, however, I do realize that these are not ‘legitimate’ complaints – it’s just me wanting to take some obscure variant I haven’t yet driven for a virtual spin.
To answer your question though (took me quite a while, eh?): I’d rather have my driving / racing games filled with imaginary vintage rides (think FlatOut 2, for instance – fortunately, thanks to the resourceful guys at FlatOut Joint, I managed to replace all the opponents’ cars I hated with models that suit my preferences) than enjoy a handful of predictable classics amidst a sea of modern designs which simply fail to give me that vintage Driver feeling. It’s a controversial statement, I know. In a similar vein, I have more fun with the generous bunch of assorted fantasy oldies available in Burnout Paradise than I probably will with the licensed modern exotics in the forthcoming NFS Hot Pursuit.
Moonchild wrote:(…) I can't believe there continuing the D3 story (…).
I can’t believe Martin’s unafraid to even mention the controversial D3 (which, let’s face it, cast a shadow of ridicule on the series) and, personally, I respect him for not pretending that the title never existed in the first place or something like that.
Moonchild wrote:(…) And I can't believe theirs licensed cars. So stupid man, damage modeling will be weak but judging by this "shifting" crap crashes will be non existent anyways. WTF man?
Well, you’re jumping to conclusions here (we haven’t really seen any serious damage yet, I think) but I’m having similar reservations with regards to Hot Pursuit. It’s quite possible that the damage will be more, hmm, subdued, than the kind offered by Burnout Paradise. However… Martin did mention that the shift function can be used to ‘set up crashes’ if I remember correctly. (Yeah, like you can’t do it the ‘old-fashioned’ way.)
Moonchild wrote:Ambience, that preview showed the game has none, just like DPL the environment is bland and boring. It just doesn't have the detail of a real next gen game.
Me, I’m just glad that – after the cartoonish extravaganza of DPL – the environmental proportions are realistic again. And I expect some winding roads (I missed those in DPL, along with genuinely varied neighborhoods rather than streets looking like clones of one another), rural areas and (how obvious is that?) heavy elevation changes. I’m also more concerned about gameplay issues. For example, when will a checkpoint (and tournament) editor become a standard feature in open-world driving games? How about improvised outruns s/a those in NFS UG2? Will there be a possibility to store your favorite vehicles? What will the time limit for replays be? Will we finally be able to start recording at any given time or at the start of each mission as before? Will there be more options for the chase camera? How about the ability to define zoom levels for the start / end of a given sequence for a smooth sweep? Or the ‘Matrix’ style frozen frame rotation as implemented in NFS HP2?
emmetmcl wrote:I dont want to be able to smash through EVERYTHING, just things like light posts, not bus shelters!!!
About 9 people out of 10 must’ve complained about those sturdy lampposts in D3 so they finally caved in in DPL and went with the ‘GTA approach’. Personally, I think that luring cops into those obstacles – as tricky as it was – and watching them crash provided some of the most rewarding moments in those classic titles.
Biscaynes wrote:I'm glad that you can't run over pedestrians. I hate doing this.
Yeah, I’ve had my share of that in the first 2 Carmageddon titles (including the ‘every pedestrian murdered’ method of finishing a ‘race’). It was actually pretty sad in DPL – the hopelessly dumb AI evidently oblivious to the trail of bodies just yards ahead and refusing to get out of the way – and occasionally even annoying. Especially when I was trying to complete a checkpoint challenge in one of the parks.
More importantly though, Driver deserves to be an ‘accessible’ series. With the violence toned down and the inclusion of licensed cars, the dash view and the multiplayer modes, this one might attract a wider audience than any of the previous instalments did.
SOAP wrote:I don't like the red trails from pursued cars.
I’d rather have those than a big-ass icon hovering over a car that would spoil my replays. I remember taking the time to customize a crew member’s car in NFS Carbon for the sole purpose of taking some cool screenshots and the stupid icon I had completely forgotten about messed the whole ‘enterprise’ up.