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Driver 3

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DRIV3R
Developer(s)Reflections
Publisher(s)Atari
Platform(s)PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox
ReleaseU.S.= June 21, 2004 U.K.= June 25, 2004
Genre(s)Action, Shooter
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

DRIV3R or Driver 3, is a racing, shooting adventure video game. It is the third installment in the popular Driver series and was developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Atari. DRIV3R was released in North America for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on June 21, 2004 to mixed reviews. In Europe, it was officially released on June 25, although due to the way Atari shipped the title across the continent, it made its way into independent UK retailers before the release date, even making a #6 position in the ELSPA chart for that week. On March 15, 2005, it was released on PC for US customers and a scaled down version was released for the mobile phone in June 2004. At one point a Nintendo GameCube version was planned, but it was later cancelled due to poor sales of the other versions.

A version of DRIV3R is announced for the Nokia N-Gage; however, there have been no press releases of screenshots or info yet. A version for the Game Boy Advance was also released.

DRIV3R brings back features from Driver 2 and adds the ability to ride motorcycles and boats, use weapons, swim, and enter certain buildings among other things.

Story

About 1990, a gang of Miami car thieves attempts to ship forty of the world's most expensive cars to a mysterious international buyer. Taking their pick of cars in Miami and Nice, France, the gang keeps on the move and coordinates the sale in Istanbul, a city straddling both Europe and Asia. But in the gang of car thieves, posing as a getaway driver, is Tanner, an obsessive and ruthless undercover cop, determined to stop the sale of the cars and then discover the identity of their buyer.

You play the role of Tanner as you work both for and against the gang of car thieves. You must use your skills in driving and firearms to infiltrate your way into the gang and then work out how to stop them in time.

There are forty stolen cars. They have a street value of $20 million. But there is only one cop who counts.

Tanner's been undercover before, having joined the force after leaving his stock-car racing career behind. His assignment back in Driver was to infiltrate the largest criminal organization with big plans. Tanner's driven cars for the bad guys just to get close to the heart of the organistion, by doing bank heists and transporting stolen cars left right and center. This assignment should be a piece of cake...

Characters

Tanner - Undercover cop a.k.a. "The Driver." Obsessive risk taker, with brutal methods, accustomed to highly dangerous undercover work. Frequent tendency to ignore and override authority.

Tobias Jones - An African-American police detective, Tanner's partner. Cool, calm, and confident, accustomed to working with Tanner, admiring and repelled by his methods in equal measure. Jones is more restrained, but has been seen giving a reluctant witness a fist in the gut to help him into a co-operative mode. Dedicated and ruthless.

Jericho - Former lieutenant for Solomon Caine, a gangster with an empire stretching from Chicago to Las Vegas. Unpredictable and unflappable, his ruthlessness is matched only by Tanner, the man who's trying to stop him. This hood wears a tie and leather overcoat that conceals the 12-guage sawn offs.

Solomon Caine - Big time gangster. He is shot dead by Jericho, his trusted lieutenant, when he steps into an elevator with him.

Calita - Head of "South Beach," a notorious Miami-based car theft outfit. She is cold, efficient, and ambitious. They say she once killed her own crew member in a hostage standoff -- no one has crossed her since.

Lomaz - A member of Calita's car jacking gang. He's hip and cool and can remain calm under any pressure. He's been with Calita for a long time, and knows not to cross her and go against her word...

The Gator - The Gator is Calita's contact down on Dodge Island who she collects cars from. He's a no good punk and would do anything to avoid the law...even turning states' evidence.

Didier Dubois - French detective from Nice who co-operates with Tanner when he arrives in France. Excellent law-officer and all around nice guy...

The Bagman - A French mobster. The Bagman acts as a buffer between clients and his bosses. He was nicknamed "The Bagman." for his traditional approach for dealing with people he doesn't like....'sends 'em home in a body bag. Or several, depending on how well he liked you.

Connection to Grand Theft Auto

After the release of DRIV3R, there was a notable stir in the gaming community due to DRIV3R mocking Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In DRIV3R, tanned men with floatie-like arms and Hawaiian shirts were hidden throughout the game. They were called Timmy Vermicellis after the playable character in Vice City, Tommy Vercetti. The men had floatie-like arms because players in the GTA series were unable to swim (until Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was released later in 2004), whereas in DRIV3R, players could. Many GTA fans were angered by this, even though it was in fact Rockstar North that had started the rivalry with a mission in Grand Theft Auto III called "Two Faced Tanner" in which players had to kill an undercover cop who was "useless out of his car", a reference to Driver 2's game play (they even went so far as to give the pseudo Tanner a female's walking animation). Rockstar fought back in GTA: San Andreas. There, a mission where player breaks into a rapper's mansion features a person playing a video game and making fun of the way the main character walks (Tanner's walking animations were often criticized) and asking how Refractions (a play of the Driver series' developer, Reflections) could have made a game this bad. Also, in a side note, Michael Madsen the voice actor for Tanner, provided the voice of Toni Cipriani, a GTA III character, who later became the main character in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. However, Madsen did not provide Cipriani's voice in Liberty City Stories.

Reviews and criticism

DRIV3R was met with a poor critical reaction, with the vast majority of magazines and websites giving the game mediocre scores; IGN and GameSpot both gave the game 5.4 out of 10 [1] [2]. However, two magazines published by Future Publishing gave it 9/10, sparking a furor on one of Future's own forums, GamesRadar, which culminated in the revelation that two forum members who had praised the game were, in fact, working for Atari, the publisher of the game. However, the game was so poorly received by the gaming community in general that ultimately their influence on the game's rating by the magazines was little to none.

Driv3r "won" the MegaGames.com award for Worst Game of 2005 [3].

The in-game world were also criticized because of Tanner's lack of hand-tohand combat and no meleé weapons.

Trivia

Cars

Miami:

Nice:


Istanbul:

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