Driver : San Francisco

[EngineNo9]

Eurogamer also gave an 8/10

They also have a nice 16-minute video "talkthrough", that is an interesting conversation between a couple editors, as well as a good interview with the founder of Reflections talking about past failures and D:SF.

[metallicorphan]

Free DLC


and also the online pass is now free

Ubisoft has announced the first DLC updates for Driver: San Francisco.

It'll release 12 new routes for all online modes on September 15 free of charge. Following that, Ubisoft will launch another free route each week for the following ten weeks.

Driver: San Francisco's games-to-web community service, Driver Club, has also gone live, allowing players to:

    * Unlock exclusive achievements
    * Find your stats and check the leaderboards
    * Showcase your film director clips
    * See and rate your friends' clips
    * Review the Community facts
    * Follow your friends' activities using the Driver Social feed

Earlier today, Ubisoft waived Driver's online pass fee after a number of multiplayer unlock codes contained in game boxes were incorrectly printed.

EDIT:
here is the article on the free online pass
CVG

Ubisoft is currently not enforcing the previously announced online pass fee for Driver: San Francisco.

Beginning with Driver, copies of the publisher's "popular core games" were supposed to ship with a valid one-time code required to access online multiplayer , while second-hand buyers wanting to get in on the action would have to pay 800 MS Points (about £6.85) on Xbox 360 and £7.99/$9.99 on PS3.

However, incorrectly printed Uplay Passport codes in some copies of the game have forced Ubisoft to rethink its strategy, temporarily at least.

Ubisoft said today: "When you begin DRIVER: San Francisco, you are prompted with the Uplay Passport menu. The menu has 4 options: "Purchase Uplay PASSPORT," "Activate my Uplay PASSPORT," "Start my 2-Day Free Trial," or "Remind Me Later".

"There are two ways to access these online features: 1. Select Start My 2-Day Free Trial, which will not expire, OR 2. Select Purchase Uplay Passport, which will be provided at no charge. Either option will unlock the 11 multiplayer modes and the Film Director feature on console titles with Uplay Passport."

Ubisoft has yet to comment on how long the Uplay Passport will be free for.

[EngineNo9]

For a company that is so enthusiastic about their restrictive DRM, Ubisoft sure sucks are doing it right.  "Oops, instead of giving new players their online pass we gave them DLC codes...I guess both are free now!"

My 360 copy did arrive at work today, so hopefully I'll be able to put in some time tonight and give some impressions.

[Bullwinkle]

Unfortunately, the Ubisoft servers are down, so I can't enter any codes.

[EngineNo9]

Unfortunately, the Ubisoft servers are down, so I can't enter any codes.

And just another reason why relying on outside servers is a bad idea.  Damn Ubisoft... 

[EngineNo9]

After playing a bit of the single player I'd say early impressions are that it is much more fun than I found the single player demo.  Certainly the premise is still goofy, but they play directly into that and it comes off well.  There is a pretty good variety of different missions, challenges and activities that I have seen so far, and after a little bit it really opens up to give you your choice of what to do. 

In addition to earning magic money (aka will power) from those activities, you also get it for doing pretty much anything cool.  Drifting around a corner?  Free money.  Taking a big jump?  Free money.  Bought a new car a while ago?  Free money (from periodic "pay days" every 20 minutes).  All of this makes the unlocking process have constant progress, so even if you're not doing story missions you can unlock more stuff.

I was able to get my online UPlay thingie fine, and also used my code to unlock the free Mustang and taxi missions and such, so that's good.  Hopefully Ubisoft were just having launch-day issues (though since it launched in Europe last week you'd think they would have fixed those already...).

[metallicorphan]

Driver Multiplayer access to remain free permanently

"We wanted to make you aware of an issue with copies of Driver: San Francisco," Ubisoft added in a statement. "Due to a printing error on the insert of some copies of Driver: San Francisco in North America, Ubisoft has elected to provide the Driver Uplay Passport content for free.

"Although this problem does not affect players outside of North America, we have decided to mirror this offer to everyone in the world in order to be fair to all our players."

[Bullwinkle]

I have to agree with Engine that this game is really great.  I'm enjoying it much more than Space Marine, for example.

I stayed up way too late last night playing this.

[CeeKay]

dammit, stop with the good impressions.  I don't need another game now!

[Bullwinkle]

Also, the music is phenomenal.

[EngineNo9]

dammit, stop with the good impressions.  I don't need another game now!

Yes you do!    It's a ton of fun! 

I played for another couple hours after my last post and continued to have fun.  I'm surprised by how much I like the story and dialog, since I had expected it to be very throw-away.  And not just the main story, but even the random "jumped into the middle of a conversation" thing when you shift to a new car is fun.  Lots of personality there, and usually worth a chuckle.

[EngineNo9]

I just finished the single player today and while I know this game may not be for everybody, for me it is a total 5 stars.    So much fun, and so many unique uses of their mechanics.  Every time I thought they had run out of new ways to surprise me, they throw another one at you (sometimes literally... ). 

In addition to completing the story I have bought all the cars and garages and completed all of the challenges and movies.  The movie challenges were lots of fun, and they seem to represent most of the big iconic chase scenes I can think of.  The only thing I have left is 6 or 7 of the Dare missions, and frankly those last ones are difficult enough that I may just forget about them. 

Overall, this was such a fun ride and I can't get enough!  It doesn't seem like the game is selling all that well, though, which is a shame.  I would really like to see Reflections be able to make another follow up to this one.  Too bad most of the pre-release hype was negative based on Ubisoft's dumb moves.

Oh, and a special note that I think the soundtrack is great.  Everything from old blues and soul to punk and modern rock.  Clearly Tanner's subconcious had some good taste in music. 

[Bullwinkle]

I'm on chapter 6, and the surprises are really great.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting any gameplay changes, so they caught me off guard, and made me say, "Cool!"  

I saw an article a little while ago that called this game something like an unsung victory.  Best game you're not playing, kind of thing.  I played last night and was tempted to start another thread (and you know how much I hate that) telling everyone to come into this one and hear about how great this game is.

You say this game isn't for everyone, but I think the only folks who wouldn't like it are the hard driving sim folks and people who don't like racing games at all.  This game deserves to be selling really well.  Go get it.

[EngineNo9]

Just this one time I might be fine with a separate thread telling people how much fun they are missing here.  

[CeeKay]

got a used copy yesterday with a bunch of trade in credit at Gamestop.  not bad, but I think my big issue is going to be having to get used to too many cars and how they handle.  I also wish there was a way to disable the right thumbstick-  I'm not fond of the way it controls the camera and keep on hitting it thinking it'll act like a normal third person camera instead of a first person one (rotate around the car versus just looking in the direction I push the stick).

[wonderpug]

Rented this over the weekend and was really impressed!  Played through the whole single player campaign and a bunch of side missions, but only scratched the surface of all the dares and side stunts, not to mention the car unlocking.  If I had bought this outright, (and not amidst the fall gaming deluge), I'd totally feel like I got my money's worth and I could see this being a game I'd try to 100% complete. 

This is basically "Grand Theft Auto - Just the Fun Parts", with licensed real cars.

[Bullwinkle]

Number 2 for 2011 on Zero Punctuation!

[Enigma]

This one looks fun.  Yahtzee liked it so I have to try it.  Now I need to decide PC or PS3.

[EngineNo9]

Yeah, I'm really glad to see this getting a little bit of love from Yahtzee as well as several "most overlooked/underrated games of the year" lists.  Hopefully a few more people try it out now based on this exposure.