review
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POSTED 5/9/11


DRIVER: SAN FRANCISCO

Ubisoft
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, PC, Mac)

Oi, grandad! Yeah, you Michael Douglas – move over. With respect for the passed, Karl Malden’s exempt from such cheekiness – plus dead people can’t move over anyway. Well, unless they’re possessed… Anyway, there’s a new cop duo hitting the streets of San Francisco.

Quick catch-up: John Tanner (yay!) and Charles Jericho (boo!) survived Istanbul. As the title kinda screams, they’ve arrived in flower power’s home, enmity still raging. Chuck escapes custody via a rocket-powered chopper chick and deals significant Johnny-boy hurt – triggering one of the weirder gaming conceits we’ve encountered. Our hero’s comatoseterated, wherein he can ‘shift’ between anything vehicle-like in SF, believing he’s fighting the good fight. Umm, we think.

Fuck it, sense-schmense, it’s fun! As such you’ve a veritable smorgasbord of licensed automobilic wonders in a drivingasm oweing MASSIVE debt to the sublime Burnout Paradise. From the core car, your ’70s Dodge Challenger, through other muscle machines, sleek Euro wonders and more. Hell, if you’re feeling saucy you can even commandeer a wood-encrusted Family Truckster. Holiday ro-o-oad!

You’re a comatose man with a mission, working towards bringing Jericho down whilst undergoing more delightfully hoonic pursuits scoring points to purchase bonus cars and upgrades. So, that’s extracurricular dares, activities and ‘movie challenges’, atop funky local and online multiplayer distractions.

The soundtrack kicks: perfect classic car chase movie homage, spanning the past 50 years. So, Aretha bumps uglies with the likes of the Beasties, Funkadelic and The Heavy’s perfectly-pilfered drivin’ thumper ‘How You Like Me Now?’, which should have a ‘repeat infinitely’ option. Get chased by cops to it (in-game, natch) and you’ll dig.

Driver: SF is ace fun, but some niggles – a general ‘skatey’ feel to cars, cutscene favouritism and bothersome controls -
tarnish the shininess.

Still, if you’re craving something new and arcadey motor rompy, don’t leave home without it.

take me back to the start...

 



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ALL WRITTEN CONTENT COPYRIGHT © AMY FLOWER 2008-2018. GAME IMAGES COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE GAMES COMPANIES.