gamesradar.com

Rap Mutant · Starting Member Joined: 26 Jun 2004 Posts: 3

Teamxbox

"Atari announced today that DRIV3R is dominating the charts in Australia, ranking #1 on multiple Australian gaming charts, and has also topped the charts in the UK, ranking #1 in its first full week on sale.

After only four days on sale, according to GFK, DRIVER has secured the #1 position across all formats in Australia and is ranked #1 on PlayStation2 and #1 on Xbox.

According to Chart Track, this week DRIV3R is ranked #1 on PlayStation2 and #1 on Xbox in the UK charts."

*Runs off scared*

Abacus · Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:47 pm Post subject:

I think there are two issues here.

The first relates to these glitches and bugs and whether or not PSM2 and XBW made a serious omission by not mentioning them in their reviews.

I should say first of all that after reading a few negative previews (in PSM2, I think), I wasn't going to buy the game. But then the reviews came out and I was pleasantly surprised. Honestly, these were in the back of my mind when I picked up a copy in my local Tescos. So, yes, there are people who base their buying decisions on magazines' reviews. Idiots perhaps, but it is people such as me who buy the mags and keep Future going.

Anyway, the glitches. Within a few minutes of switching on the XBox copy, I'd seen juddering cutscenes and a car materialise in front of my eyes a few hundred yards down the street. As I played on, I saw numerous other examples; NPC's wandering about and directly through each other like ghosts, a strange levitating car going up and down behind a building and numerous others. However, I'd be hard pushed to call any of these game-breakers, and therefore omission from a review, whilst a bit irksome, is hardly a crime.

Most of the time I have been too busy enjoying the game (and I do think it is one of the best games I have played in recent months) to notice this sort of thing. In fact, I think I think it takes a 'special' sort of bedroom dwelling pedant to shriek that these constitute a broken game, or anything close. Perhaps I'll be proved wrong later into the game, though.

Having said that, I'd say that the glitches do ruin the freeride mode. What is supposed to be a leisurely roam about the scenery is jarred by having loads of cars appear in front of you on any straight stretch of road. Unlike in the main game, where I'm focussing too hard on the next corner to get worked up about a bit of pop-up in the middle distance, I'd say in a mode where you are supposed to take in the view, that it does ruin the experience to see scenery morphing into shape in front of you as I have done (for example, first a wall seemed to bend out of another dimension, and then it got covered in quick-grow shrubbery when I got even closer). So I would expect any fair review to at least give this a mention.

Secondly, though, is whether the reviews were 'honest'. People have expressed outrage at scores of 9/10. To be honest, I am glad I went with the reviews and got the game, because it is a lot of fun and the storyline and characters (esp Tanner) are pretty 'cool' for a game, daddio. (Do people say 'cool' any more? Or daddio? Well, I do. Sometimes.)

Yes the on-foot sectoions are leaden and clumsy, but they are not as bad as has been made out. Compare it to a third person actioner like the spiffing Red Dead Revolver and it comes off badly. Compare it to any similar sort of caper, and I think it is better. And yes the driving bits are frequently trial and error on the first few attempts, but lets not beat around the bush. They are infuriating, maddening and brilliant brilliant fun with bouncy car handling that makes you come back for more.

So, were the reviews honest?

Yes and no. They could have mentioned a few more of the bugs, and pointed out the bad bits a bit more effectively, but otherwise I don't think they were far off. I think, in fact, that Edge's barometer is the wonky one in this case. But I'd like a few questions answered before I am totally happy.

1. Did the magazines enter into any sort of minimum score arrangement (either formally or informally) in return for promotion, an exclusive game review, advertising or business reasons, or even just on the promise of reviewing future games as exclusives?

2. How can a score of 9 be reconciled with a score of 3 by apparently professional journalists? You or I might be able to have such divergent opinions on a game, but it should be different for proper reviewers. One is saying it is a supremely polished piece of entertainment, the other that it is fundamentally flawed. And if it isn't different for a reviewer, does this not invalidate the whole idea of putting any store in a reviewer's opinion?

Yawn. And now I've sent myself to sleep with that ramble. Laughing

blisteredthumbs · Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 10:25 pm Post subject:

These magazines have been going down hill for quite a while but it doesn't take much of a brain to guess which magazines I won't be buying next month after this fiasco.

GreenGecko · Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:12 pm Post subject:

Driv3r Review

Gamesradar have now posted of PSM2 review of Driv3r on the main site. It's there for anyone to make judgement of it.

It's a perfectly good review, but there is a somewhat fake sense of push toward the better aspects of the game. It's also very curious how the mark lands directly on the 90% mark, which if this "conspiracy" is to be believed is the minimum score required as part of the deal.

Surely if the game was that great it'd be 91, maybe 92 percent? Seems a but fake to me.
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Kogi Kaishakunin · Member Joined: 25 Jul 2003 Posts: 286

John Square · Experienced Member Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 387

SillySprout · Veteran Member Joined: 06 Aug 2002 Posts: 6331

http://www.mcvuk.com/html/news/story.jsp?newsId=1927830 Idea

MCV comment on the scandel. Surprised

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Cal · Experienced Member Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 1327

Rev. Stuart Campbell · Starting Member Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 20

Matt Pierce is a liar.

Fact.

Lu Bu · Member Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 153 Location: Sheffield

I had a quick look through the driver 3 review in gamesmaster today. For a magazine that is bashed quite alot the review is spot on in my opinion.

Anyone else read it?
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SillySprout · Veteran Member Joined: 06 Aug 2002 Posts: 6331

jamiej · Member Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 299

Look at the new psm2...
"is there a copy of Driv3r inside??"

you couldnt make it up....
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KKLEIN · Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:20 pm Post subject:

PSM2 had the nerve to put on the back of this issue's packet that they don't lie. I bet they did that on bloody purpose...

What did Gamesmaster give it by the way?
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That's a disc drive. What's been in them you ask? Well:
PS2 - Smackdown HCTP, PSM2 disc 51.
Xbox - Driv3r

The Source · Experienced Member Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 808

Looking at PSM2's short list this month they say about Driver 3

'Technically brilliant............90%'

Now even though I enjoyed zipping around on Driver 3 for a while even I know thats bollox.

They've awarded Spiderman 2 a massive score also, odd really considering it's awful in every respect, more so than Driver 3 infact.

PSM2 is a Joke and it's writers amaturish.

The Source · Experienced Member Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 808