Driver is a series of mission-based driving video games for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy Advance and PC. Developed by Reflections Interactive, it was originally published by GT Interactive, and is now published by Atari. There have been four installments released, the latest on March 14, 2006. Recently, Ubisoft has bought the franchise from Atari, and all of the 80 employees who work at Reflections Interactive transfered to Ubisoft.
Driver: You Are the Wheelman
- Main article: You Are the Wheelman
The first game of the
Driver series was released
June 30,
1999 in the US, and
March 9,
2000 in Japan for the PlayStation, and
September 10,
2000 in the US, and
October 13,
2000 in Europe for PC. You play as an undercover police officer named Tanner. It featured a storyline based in four real-life cities; Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. The game was set in the 1970s. This game was the best selling game of the Driver series of games.
Driver 2: the Wheelman is Back
- Main article: Driver 2
The second installment was only released for PlayStation, by
Infogrames (now known as Atari), and later ported to the
Game Boy Advance. It came out on
November 13,
2000 in the US, and four days later,
November 17 in Europe. It featured Tanner once more, in four real-life cities. Which were Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas and Rio De Janeiro. It was also the first in the series to feature the ability to get out of your car at any time in order to steal another car on the street.
DRIV3R
- Main article: DRIV3R
The third edition of Tanner's story was released for the
PlayStation 2 and
Xbox on
June 21,
2004 in the
United States and officially on
June 25 in
Europe to generally poor reviews. This game takes place in Miami, Nice and Istanbul. It was subsequently followed by versions for the
PC,
Nokia's
N-Gage and a GameBoy Advance version.
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The game sold rather well despite poor reviews, and Reflections paid notice to the complaints about the insipid story line, poor controls, and abundance of glitches in order to improve the series' standings with critics and gamers in the
Parellel Lines of the series.
Driver: Parallel Lines
- Main article: Parallel Lines
The fourth game in the series,
Driver: Parallel Lines, was released
March 14,
2006. Reflections intended
Parallel Lines to "return the series to its roots" by focusing more on driving. The game differs greatly in other apects from its predecessors, though, as the story no longer follows undercover cop Tanner and the game takes place in only one location,
New York City. The game includes two time periods, 1978 and 2006.
Xbox and
PlayStation 2 versions have been released, a rumor stated that a
PlayStation Portable version was going to be created but it was proven to be fake by Reflections.
External links
1999 computer and video games | 2000 computer and video games | Computer and video game franchises | PlayStation games | Windows games | Vehicular combat games
Driver | Driver (videogioco) | Driver (gra)
"Driver (video game)"