- Sun May 03, 2009 7:27 am
#19908
Hey hey I'm back. Sorry for disappearing again but life's been hectic. As soon as i found out about The recruit yesterday i just had to get on here and see if anyone knew... Apparently so.
Anywho...
I unfortunately at this moment have ideas leading towards both theory's that have been put forward. This leaves me sitting on rather sharp and pointy fence as to my opinions. I have no trouble concerning my hopes such as the return of Tanner and a really hot girlfriend, but i have to be realistic.
Option 1:
"Tanner Lives" proclaimed the large graffiti art in TK's apartment yes, as well as the 2006 era being seemingly littered with a number of Easter eggs that may or may not have been intentioned as official cannon for the for the next Driver installment.
One possibility behind this was, noticing no cannon in '78, that Tanner is indeed alive and living in the beautiful realm of 2006. After his encounter with Jericho it would seem Atari reflections had the intention to revive Tanner from the flat line that left all us fans hanging on screaming NOOOOOOOOOOO! It isn't an unfair assumption, i don't think, that DPL was merely created by Atari Reflections to try and revive the Driver trademark with a new direction while leaving previous fans chomping at the bit to find out what happened to the beloved James Micheal Tanner (Not his real name). So when DPL was a success, Atari would have kept old fans and brought in knew ones to the series, in the hopes of releasing in the future, the final installment of the Tanner Vs Jericho series.
Now this my have seemed like a vote for Tanners return right?
And yet, here comes the BUT!
BUT!!! And this is a shame...
DPL fell flat on its face, with i think the lowest sales margin of all the Driver games. It also caught a colossal rap from the gaming media who stated it to return to the roots of the original Driver, and sucking at it. This caused Atari's plans to also fall flat on their faces too, and as a result of a number of failing names in Atari's possession, including Driver and it's design team Reflections had to go. Reflections is now owned by Ubisoft, meaning any plans Reflections had with Atari are now irrelevant. Reflections may have always planned to continue in the direction they set with Atari, but if the head honcho at Ubisoft doesn't want that, then well, BURST!!! (That was Reflections' proverbial bubble... Madness should get that little joke... Oh yes Madness... It is BACK!!!)
Therefore After all that, this makes me think The Recruit will not follow the story of Tanner and will be another, new direction crap show such as DPL or D76 (No one actually said that, it is just a phrase).
So... Option 2 it is:
"Tanner Lives" a multi generational term, does not pertain to a certain time period, it just means that Tanner is alive in general.
The year is 1976 and a young Tanner has just joined the police force, only to be mentored by... Here It Comes... You might have guessed what i'm bout to say right now... OH YEAH BABY THAT FELLS GOOD OH DON'T STOP... THE WANKER THAT IS.........................................CORRIGAN... dun Dun DUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe a little far fetched but hey why not. No one ever knew what Corrigan had done other than TK so it could work.
The Recruit as someone else has said could be a title meant to suggest the up and comings of Tanner. Under my Brain Power i have also deduced that it could merely be a Teaser to throw off people who have been watching eagerly for news. It may not even be the final title.
Back to my Tanner lives point though. Ubisoft may know that Tanner has a staunch following and that more people want him to return than TK, not just from share loyalty, but in share desperation to find out what happened after the screen faded to black. After all the last noise you here is the charged paddles going off, so it isn't unreasonable to think Tanner may be back and kicking.
If Ubisoft reads the audience right they will know we want a return to Tanner. Also if Tanner comes back it will draw back fans who gave up a while ago, not because they enjoy the game, because they may well not, but they will come back for curiosity's sake, just to see how it ends. Ubisoft must be able to see that this would be a great sales strategy for them, and if they make the game revolutionary enough, the curious fans will love it and will return to the series. And if Ubisoft can't see this, then they should employ me to tell them this kind of stuff.
So ultimately, the pointy fence on which i sit, is well... Ubisoft. It all comes down to their decisions, because at the end of the day Reflections can't do anything their employment disagrees with. It's just the unfortunate side of not being self employed.
But anyway that was just my two cents, or if i calculated it, about $6.38.
The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another. ~James Matthew Barrie