General discussion for the DRIVER series.
#51289
This has probably been discussed before but I haven't found any conclusions on the threads I found on Google about this.
What years do the first 3 Driver games take place? Are they even meant to be set in a recognizable time period? Because all of them have elements that don't make sense for only 1 time setting:
* All of the games have mostly 70s cars.
* The music in the first 2 tries to resemble 70s police TV shows.
* The clothing of the characters in Driver 1 and 2 seems to suggest they live in the 70s or 80s but maybe they just like to dress like that.
* In Driver 1 you can see bilboards in New York from the 90s, like the one below for example (it's from a musical that was on Broadway in 1997).
* Also in Driver 1, in a parking lot in LA (texture) you see what appears to be a modern hatchback car.
Image
* Driver 2 has casinos in Las Vegas that didn't exist in the 70s (from what I've read).
* In Driver 3 there is at least one modern car, and some modern bikes.
* In Driver 3, there are bilboards advertising cellphones from the early 2000s. Also, some ads on trucks and buses are modern.

My thoughts are that either all of those 3 games take place in present day with Tanner just "seeing" old cars because he's mentally stuck in the 70s.
Or that they didn't really care about making the 70s setting accurate in Driver 1 and 2. The modern bilboards and casinos are maybe just easter eggs and not canon.
For Driver 3 I guess it's most likely that it takes place in an alternate present day, where for some reason most of the cars are old to keep the 70s vibe. Like someone suggested in a different forum, it's a "made up time period". There are just too many things out of place for an actual 70s, 80s or even 90s setting in that game so I guess they didn't mean for it to be set in the past.
If all of the games take place in present day somehow, Tanners age would make some sense (with all the titles taking place a few years after each other or so) but this isn't a big deal since like many have said here, he's like James Bond in that matter.
What do you think?

EDIT: But maybe there are clear references to the year or decade they take place that I've never noticed.
#51294
I always thought the Driver games took place the years they came out, just with 70s cars. If Driver 1 was really in the 70s, then Tanner should have had grey hair in DSF.
#51308
So far the only believable theory (Y)

Also in Driver 2 you can hear some cars with some 90s electro music blasting, also Yahoo Games billboards.
#51335
Aha, yeah I think I remember seeing those billboards in Havanna. And I'm interested in those cars with 90s electro music :O any idea where I can find them?
I really like the bizarre mix of new stuff in an otherwise 70s / 80s setting. And yeah, I agree that they are most probably taking place in the years they came out but just with lots of old cars and stuff. Maybe Tanner is an extremely nostalgic person :P
#51346
Take a ride in Chicago and pass near some cars, some of them have blasting some electro music. If don't works driving by side try walking instead.
#51360
xD thanks!! I just tried it and quickly found a car with that *punch punch punch punch* playing. Idk why I've never noticed it before but it's totally bizarre and I love it! And yeah, it works both by walking around the car or driving by.
#51397
I'd always assumed the games took place in the years they were released, though I was only young and knew nothing about cars so that wasn't really a giveaway either.

I definitely never thought Driv3r wasn't set in 2003/2004 until I read it online somewhere, especially since, to me at least the cars seemed modern and the Nokia 3200 advert everywhere.

On a side note, I didn't even know SOBE was a real thing - I just assumed it was made up.
#51403
There's an old interview on DriverHQ (you'd have to use the Wayback machine and dig around a bit) in which Martin Edmondson was discussing Driver 2. The question of, "When does Driver take place?" came up, and Martin answered the question with something along the lines of (not 100% accurately) "The games don't take place in any specific time period. It's contemporary, with mostly 1970s cars and stuff from that era, but it takes place in the contemporary time."

So basically, the Driver games take place in their year of release, with completely made up cars. It's like an alternative dimension that never found out about cheap plastic cars!
#51406
CarLuver69 wrote:There's an old interview on DriverHQ (you'd have to use the Wayback machine and dig around a bit) in which Martin Edmondson was discussing Driver 2. The question of, "When does Driver take place?" came up, and Martin answered the question with something along the lines of (not 100% accurately) "The games don't take place in any specific time period. It's contemporary, with mostly 1970s cars and stuff from that era, but it takes place in the contemporary time."

So basically, the Driver games take place in their year of release, with completely made up cars. It's like an alternative dimension that never found out about cheap plastic cars!
Yeah I was going to mention that sentence, I remember it because you posted it not too long ago when we already discussed this subject :)
#51455
CarLuver69 wrote:There's an old interview on DriverHQ (you'd have to use the Wayback machine and dig around a bit) in which Martin Edmondson was discussing Driver 2. The question of, "When does Driver take place?" came up, and Martin answered the question with something along the lines of (not 100% accurately) "The games don't take place in any specific time period. It's contemporary, with mostly 1970s cars and stuff from that era, but it takes place in the contemporary time."

So basically, the Driver games take place in their year of release, with completely made up cars. It's like an alternative dimension that never found out about cheap plastic cars!
This. And even if those games were to take place in the 70's or 80's, they would be retconned because of San Francisco, as it obviously takes place in 2010. And I'm pretty sure that that the comic that was released a few months before DSF contains a birthdate for Tanner.
#51473
Coyote wrote:Yeah I was going to mention that sentence, I remember it because you posted it not too long ago when we already discussed this subject :)
Damn. You should be a teacher. That's what my teachers always sound like :lol:
#51516
max.thunder wrote:So far the only believable theory (Y)

Also in Driver 2 you can hear some cars with some 90s electro music blasting, also Yahoo Games billboards.
I remember hearing that electro sounding music coming from some of the cars in Vegas, It kept catching me off guard lol
#51526
Badnick24 wrote:
Coyote wrote:Yeah I was going to mention that sentence, I remember it because you posted it not too long ago when we already discussed this subject :)
Damn. You should be a teacher. That's what my teachers always sound like :lol:
Haha :D
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