Discussion for Driver: San Francisco (2011)
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By Nikusakken
#38407
DRIVER: SAN FRANCISCO FAQ

When Driver San Francisco will be released?

It'll be released in North America on August 30, 2011 and Europe on September 1 or 2, depending on the country.

For which platforms will the game be available?

For the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X An exclusive version for the Wii will also be released.

Does Tanner have a home/garage?
Tanner’s ‘base’ in Driver San Francisco is his car, a 1970 Dodge Challenger RT! Although the city is full of garages which you can own to store cars you have acquired.

Can you walk? Can you shoot?
We very much wanted to return Driver to its roots so one of the first decisions we made was to lose the walking of Driver 2/3/4. Driver San Francisco is all about the driving. Getting the walking sections of a game absolutely right takes a huge amount of time, time that we ran out of with Driver 3 actually, and we wanted to completely focus the team’s efforts on other areas. There are so many other games dealing with mixtures of driving, walking, running and shooting. They do it well and we wanted to be different. As a result, Driver San Francisco really is unique and unlike any other game in what it has to offer. It’s worth pointing out that the need for walking is somewhat negated by the Shift feature in any case. With it you can switch between vehicles instantaneously.

Does the level of felony increase if you persist in crimes?
We have tried to be a little more lenient than some of our previous Driver games in terms of the attention of the cops. For reasons of playability simply speeding past them, or driving on the sidewalk will not attract their attention (as it would in Driver 1), but if you slam into them they will be on your case immediately. You will then continue to collect cops as they are called to the scene and it will be up to you to lose them. After a clean period of time (no cops within your felony zone) the cops will move on to other suspects and you will be free of them. Of course you could also choose to shift out of the car and into another one and the cops will carry on chasing the car you initially crashed into them. Come to think of it, you could even then shift into a cop car and join the chase after your previous ride! There's a number of ways to very easily initiate cool chases any time you want.

Are all cars licensed?
Almost all of them are, yes, but we have one or two vehicles that are not. Usually because we don’t need them to be: A prison transport truck or a bus, for example.

Best car/worst car?
Due to the nature of the gameplay and driving environments in Driver San Francisco there genuinely isn’t a ‘best’ or ‘worst’ car like there might be in a straight racing game. It completely depends on the situation. Obviously sports cars like the Pagani Zonda are quicker, more nimble and corner better, but only on the road, not off road. On dirt you would be better choosing a 4 wheel drive car or a buggy; something with more suspension travel. If you are using a vehicle tactically (trying to take out a getaway vehicle, for example) then you might want to try and head-on smash the bad guy using something big, heavy and strong like an 18-wheel articulated truck! Smashing into him in a little sports car would be less effective. And then there are matters of personal driving style - front wheel drive cars are prone to understeer when powering through bends (i.e. the nose pushes out) whilst rear wheel drive cars, especially powerful ones, tend to over steer (rear-end slides out) making them a little trickier to handle, but ultimately more controllable and rewarding to drive in skilled hands.

How come there are so many European cars in San Francisco?
Well there are a lot more European and Japanese cars in the US than there were back in the 70's so we are just reflecting that really. We have perhaps pushed it a little as the diversity of cars is important to the game and to players. Plus San Francisco is a pretty diverse city so it's probably not all that far from the truth.

Are all of the cars available to begin with?
Potentially yes, but you will find that they are very rare in certain areas of the city. And we have a complex system of spooling traffic vehicles in and out that manages to achieve more realistic variety than previous driver games and often results in you seeing a vehicle for a fleeting moment that you have not seen for a very long period of time, just as in real life. It's well worth keeping your eyes peeled.. And as you progress through the game you are able to permanently acquire cars and store them in your garages for easy access later in one of the many challenges littered around the city.

Can you still drive Tanner's car even though it was crashed at the beginning?
Yes you do. In fact quite a number of missions take place in Tanner's Dodge Challenger but it would be giving away too much of the story to explain how and why. It's a great car to drive; classic 70's US muscle with enough power to get long flowing power slides, without being too much of a handful.

How does the rally fit in?
Well there are dirt roads down to the south of San Francisco around an area called Sutro and also up to the North in Marin County. Of course, you can take any vehicle you choose onto these dirt roads but you will potentially find people organising races in buggies and rally cars on these roads. Tanner can shift into one of the drivers and take part in the race. It’s still all driving to Tanner.

Cars are damageable? Can they be destroyed? Repaired? Tuned? Personalised? Upgraded?
Yes, all cars can be damaged, and in a very realistic manner too, not just a few scratches. If you crash the car heavily you will really see the effect of that with buckling of the fenders/wings and the hood. Wheels and panels can be lost. Cause enough damage to a car and you will eventually render it un-drivable. It is not possible to actively tune a car but what we do is feature several cars in various levels of tune. The Lamborghini Murcielago for example can be found in both its standard form and the SV state of tune.

Are there special cars to unlock? How are they unlocked?
Yes there are. Throughout the progression of the game we gradually make cars available for 'purchase'. These cars can be stored in one of your garages for later quick access. Then there are additional cars that are unlocked via retailer unique keys. However these unique key cars are all eventually unlocked throughout normal progression regardless of the retailer you purchased the game from, it will just take a bit longer to get your hands on them. And we also have a unique car which is unlocked via the Uplay rewards system.

Are there any collectibles?
Yes. We have hidden throughout the city a number of little movie icons. When you collect enough of these it will trigger a ‘movie challenge'. You will have to play the game to find out what these are but any true fan of movie car chases will instantly recognise them! And the potential for creating movies of these with the Director Mode is pretty exciting.

Do collectables contribute towards your progression?
Not progression of story, no. The Movie Moment collectibles are a bonus challenge only. And in fact even have their own set of leader boards quite separate from those of the main story progression.

How many Race Modes and Mission types are there?
It’s difficult to really group them into ‘types’ but the game is basically split into:

16 Tanner Missions in which you play the part of Tanner during the main narrative missions of the game that are spread across 8 chapters.

28 City Missions in which you play as Tanner; helping people in the city to achieve their various personal aims. While they are required to unlock further ‘Tanner’ missions, these generally add more depth surrounding the other missions/characters without directly impacting the main narrative.

31 Challenges that are simply classic Driver: races against opponents that feature their own worldwide online leader boards. Set vehicles, no shift. These include 13 Movie Challenges.

50 Activities are non story-based missions designed to populate the city with lots of interesting things for players to do. These award the player Willpower and so they are a perfect way to earn enough to buy new Abilities between City and Tanner missions.
There are 3 categories of Activity:
RACE types, ACTION types (including takedowns, getaways, chases etc.), STUNT types
(including checkpoint races, smashing objects etc)

80 Dares – these are one-off tests of skill which the player can discover at any time during the story. A few examples might be maintaining 100mph+ for 60 seconds, driving in oncoming traffic for 30 seconds, jumping 50m, and so on. While not necessary to complete the narrative progression these can potentially be easy ways for the player to net bonus willpower to unlock more vehicles / powers.

What kind of soundtrack can we expect?
Driver has always been known for its soundtracks and Driver San Francisco has the same focus we have always given to this aspect. We sifted through hundreds of potentials and selected tracks that are not the usual mainstream music, in other words avoiding tracks that everyone already has on their iPods, and gone for a much more original music style. It is a similar approach to our previous Driver games so anyone familiar with those will appreciate them. In terms of style we have a lot of 70’s influenced material but it is far from exclusively 70’s; plenty of more modern tracks and underground music. I think people will find the sound track very interesting just as they did for our previous games.

Will Driver SF feature the cool theme song from Driver 1 in one way or another (remix)?
As it happens Driver San Francisco is the first game since the original to feature that theme but this time re-recorded with a full orchestra (the original was synth based). We also have an interesting twist on it - remixed by UNKLE, and the theme appears in various guises through the missions. We are really pleased with what we have managed to do with this, and it’s a nice little retro throwback to the original game.


Will Driver SF have any day/night or weather cycles?

The mood of the day changes throughout the game; dawn, dusk, afternoon sunshine, foggy days and so on but if you sit still and do nothing for an hour it will not start raining, no.

Will we have night missions?
We focused on daytime missions and have tuned the look of the game and focused the tech on that.

What happens when you fall in the water?
It is not possible to fall into the water in Driver San Francisco. We have designed the building and road barriers to prevent it.

Can the game be played with a steering wheel controller?

No, it can’t and the reason for this is that driving the cars in Driver is very different to driving in a racing game. The inputs necessary for weaving between the traffic and throwing the car into constant 90 degree bend slides is seriously hard work. The game is actually bordering on impossible to play on any kind of force feedback steering wheel and even a lighter sprung loaded wheel leaves the player sweating after just one mission!

Will the game be compatible with Kinect or Playstation Move.
These kinds of controllers are fantastic, but not suitable for driving games.

Why do the cars never seem to stop at crossroads?
Well they do if there are traffic lights at those crossroads and they are on red! Generally speaking though we try to keep the traffic flowing. From a technical perspective having the traffic flowing more freely allows us to use a code solution which is much quicker for the game to process. This is important as you will notice that our volume of traffic is considerably higher than other city based driving games so this system helps us to achieve the 60 fps gameplay we wanted. This solution also enables us to more practically integrate online given the number of cars in the city.

Is Driver SF in 3D?
No it’s not. I think with issues of the darkness of the screen & the frame rate issues, 3D has a little way to go before it is a genuinely great experience. Some of our particle systems (smoke etc) and scenery objects (like trees, for example) were designed to be as fast as possible to render but do not translate effectively to 3D. In fact our high speed render cheat for trees look really awful in 3D!

Are there motorcycles?
No, we really wanted to return to the roots of Driver and that is all about 70’s inspired Hollywood car chases.

Are there trollies in the game?
Sadly, no. We did have them early in development (you can still see the tram lines) but took the decision to remove them and spend the memory on an additional type of car driving around the streets to give that touch more variety in the choice of vehicles you see and can shift into, which I think most players will prefer.

What kind of DLC do you have planned
There is no DLC planned for Driver SF. Everything is on the disc for all to enjoy!

Q&A
STORY

What happened to Tanner after Driver 3, didn’t he die?
Well he flat-lined on a hospital bed in Istanbul. Or Jericho flat-lined... It was deliberately left open for the point at which we picked up the story in the future. And this very situation that Tanner got himself into with Jericho in Driver 3 is very important to the story. In fact Driver San Francisco takes place just a year or so after those events in Driver 3.

Who is Rufus and why does Jericho want to bust him out of jail?
Well a large sum of money was discussed at the beginning of the game... And Jericho is all about the money. But he has also been known to double cross people. Even his own boss in Driver 3 (he did shoot Solomon Caine in the elevator).

Are there any secondary characters?
Jones, Tanner’s longstanding partner makes a return; he is the stabilising influence on Tanner’s more maverick approach to police work. Jones has a life outside of police work. Tanner doesn’t seem to.

Does what is happening in the coma have an impact on the real world and vice versa?
When people really are in a coma friends and relatives are encouraged to talk to them; play them their favourite music and so on. This is because often a great deal of this filters through to them. So various things that are going on in the real world are constantly filtering through to Tanner even though he is in a coma. He interprets these and they form part of the coma experience for him. What is important is what he learns during this coma and how he uses that should he emerge. Things that happen to Tanner do not have a direct impact on events outside in the real world (he is laying on a hospital bed presumably) BUT they have every possibility of affecting things if he wakes up.

Does Tanner have all the knowledge and memories of the people he shifts into?
No, he is basically thrust into their life and knows absolutely nothing about them, unless they are characters he has shifted into previously. This is more amusing as Tanner has to very quickly (within seconds often) work out what on earth is going on in this car and who he is, and react accordingly. Especially if there is a wife or husband sat in the passenger seat shouting at him!

So he doesn’t forget his own memories. Do the people he has shifted into remember anything of him?
Correct, all of Tanner’s memories are intact. As far as those people are concerned they just zone out and wake up when Tanner shifts out. Often finding themselves up against a lamp post or in the middle of a cop chase with their passenger screaming at them! They must be pretty confused.

Are you only playing as Tanner?
Well in some ways you play a huge number of characters but you are still Tanner in effect, so yes. Once you have shifted into someone we show them to the player as Tanner and we hear Tanner’s voice. This is principally to avoid confusion for the player. But for that time you could be a cop, a fireman, a getaway driver, a street racer and many other people you would expect to find in a city.

What is Jones’ contribution to the story?
Jones is a very important character in Driver. He has been Tanner’s partner for more years than he cares to remember. And in many ways being Tanner’s partner is the hardest part of Jones’ job. He looks after him, and is the stabilising influence on the more maverick Tanner. Jones is with Tanner when he is pitched into a coma. We don’t know if Jones is injured or even survived. But he has a strong influence on Tanner during the coma and the two of them meet many times throughout the game.

So it has the feeling but isn’t actually set in the 70’s?
Driver has always had a 70’s feel to it but even the original game wasn’t specifically set in the 70’s, it just had that whole vibe with the cars and the music. I prefer the Pulp Fiction approach of being vague about the time setting. For one thing it allows us to be much freer with certain aspects of the game such as cars, tech and music. And imagine having to build the city genuinely set in the 70’s; the photographic reference for building structures and textures would be much more difficult to get accurate. The main reason though is we just want to be able to feature mobile phones, modern cars, music by modern bands and DJ’s if we want to and if you specifically set the game in the 70’s then none of that is possible.

How old are Tanner, Jones and Jericho?
Tanner is 38, Jones is 36, Jericho is 42.

Is Tanner not undercover anymore? How can he be if Jericho knows his identity?
No he is not. As you say his cover was well and truly blown with Jericho back in Istanbul during Driver 3! But he has since made it his life’s work to take down Jericho by whatever means necessary. Jericho put a bullet in Tanner, and for Tanner, it’s now beyond just police work, it’s personal.

Is Jericho escaping for good or is Tanner killing him in the end?
That would be giving away the story ending! At certain points I think Tanner would certainly consider killing Jericho rather than letting him escape. But he is still a cop at heart even if a little rough around the edges sometimes.

Do you plan to have a sequel featuring the same characters? Is Rufus about to become Tanner’s next nemesis?
It’s too early to talk about sequels but Rufus is certainly a formidable character. In some ways even more powerful than Jericho, in fact, and certainly more wealthy.

How does Tanner realise he is in a coma?
This would be giving away too much of the story to be specific but the player will gradually see the clues while playing through the story.

Does Tanner come out of the coma at all in the game?
I think it’s important not to reveal what happens to Tanner, but to play the game and discover the story. We know that Tanner is facing death after the crash and is in a race against time. If he comes out of his coma it will be interesting to the player to see what has changed and what has he learned in his coma that may help him.

If so then how do you explain that Tanner is losing Shift?
Well it actually doesn’t need to be explained in too much detail to the player really as Shift is something that exists in Tanner’s mind. If he is no longer in a coma then he no longer has the shift ability.

Is Tanner the only one able to shift?
Anything can happen in a dream or coma...

Will the story change depending on my choices whether to play as cops or a getaway?

No, the story does not change in any practical way. But perhaps Tanner will feel a little guilty :-)

Why did Tanner’s face change so much since Driver 3? He looks “nicer’ (i.e. less badass)
We were not terribly good at face rendering back in the days of Driver 3 to be honest. This has come a long, long way with current tech. Looking back at Tanner from that game now, I’m not entirely convinced he looks quite right, a little strange I think. The Tanner in Driver San Francisco looks a lot more human that’s for sure. He isn’t really a badass either, he is basically a pretty good (but tough) guy. He just gets the job done.



Where can I get official info directly from Ubisoft?[/color]

*Official website
*Facebook page
*Driver on Twitter
#40953
Well at least there will be an array of driving games, just like previous games, which will let you do all that, albeit in a more set up enviroment
#41176
Olanov wrote:Police won't chase you if you're speeding past them or so? Oh man, that's a let down... I don't want to bloody smash my ride and getaway in a damaged vehicle. Damn >-<
i second this
Crazy Copper Frenzy

https://youtu.be/xAE3QsULyB4

https://youtu.be/AxdGf3F0yIg

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