September 25, 2003 - Atari Games today gave IGN the very first gameplay footage of Driver 3, the next major game by long-time veteran developer Reflections Studios.
Burning itself into gamers' memory banks with the PlayStation series Destruction Derby and then launching its name into the stratosphere with Driver and Driver 2 in the late 1990s, Reflections is endeavoring to create the ultimate in the series with number three. The video we have is a mix of gameplay and choreographed cutscenes, which hint at the story and the characters involved. Atari is, however, remaining quiet with the minute details. So, we can tell you several rather vague things about this video.
Tanner, the lead character, once again must go undercover to find who's running the underground crime syndicate and how to stop them. Naturally, he does this single-handedly in both the car and -- as in Driver 2 -- on foot.
The video shows off a number of evil henchmen from what Atari has vaguely referred to as "The Syndicate." The most prominent character in this video is a tall, bald man with a white shirt, tie and a black trench coat. He's the game's central villain, and whom Atari representatives officially dubbed, "A really bad man." The slim, tall and leggy brunette with the red vest is also part of the syndicate. And, well, she's hot. And of course, being as accurate as possible, the well-dressed African-American fellow who appears in the beginning of the clip is also...part of the syndicate. We bathe in our journalistic skills, really we do...
Other characters who don't appear in this video are Jericho, Bacchus and Lomaz. If you want to see Tanner, he appears oh-so-briefly in two sections. In the alley scene in which four people are crowded around one guy who's being held at gunpoint...well, Tanner has his hands up. Tanner is also, we believe, the one driving the 18-wheeler like a bat out of hell.
Taking place in Miami, Florida; Nice, France; and Istanbul, Turkey, Driver 3 offers fewer cities than in the previous games, but these cities are larger than before. Reflections' new title will follow a linear story, as opposed to Grand Theft Auto's open design, though each mission can be completed by a variety of methods.
Using a surplus of cars, players can switch between powerful heavy vehicles, fast sports cars, or they can approach the missions on foot. And, in the past, the cars are all unlicensed, but if you look them over well enough, there are distinct resemblances at every turn. For instance, you'll clearly see a car modeled after a Corvette in this video. Another new addition is the use of an arsenal of guns, from Berettas to Mac-10s. We're hoping the game, unlike Driver 2, will offer a smoother, less stiff, panhandle-like camera system.
Driver 3, in development for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, is slated for spring 2004. Atari Games will only admit to the game being a single-player experience to date, but we suspect it will at least include two- to four-person multiplayer challenges, and -- though we are speculating at this point -- may even have an online component. We can wish, can't we?
That's all the news that's fit to print now, but be sure to return when we have more on Driver 3 in the near future.
