Upgrade points can be earned by doing various tricks and earning awards around the city. There is a maximum of four levels for each upgrade. All weapons can be upgraded in the following categories: clip size, reload speed, and damage. The SMG, the pistol, the shotgun, the assault rifle and the RPG are all the weapons available in the game. The Wii version of the game does not include the "Shift" mechanic but allows players to use guns while driving. The game includes 140 fully damageable licensed vehicles ranging from buggies, muscle cars, and sport cars including Chevrolet, Audi, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ruf Automobile, Dodge, Ford, McLaren, Hummer, Shelby, Volkswagen, Pagani, Lincoln, DeLorean, Lamborghini, and Cadillac. San Francisco is unique from other games in the series, in that the game features licensed real-life cars. The multiplayer will also have experience points. Once he is hit, the person who tagged him is now it. All the players are trying to "tag" or hit, one player. The Tag game mode is similar to regular tag, but in reverse. The player who accumulates more points will win the match. In Trail Blazer, the players have to follow the trail of an AI-controlled car to accumulate points.
Split screen and online multiplayer are also available for the first time in the series with 19 different game modes including trailblazer, tag, sprint GT, cops and robbers, among others.
The film director mode, which was absent from Parallel Lines, also returns, and players can share their videos on the Driver Club website. Players can also push L1 on the PlayStation 3 or the left shoulder button on the Xbox 360 version of the game to perform a special 'ram' attack on cars. As well as the ability to use Shift, all cars are equipped with a 'boost' feature, requiring the player to push up on the left thumbstick to use it. With Shift, the player can also start missions. The game was also described as a "return to the roots" of the series as the ability to get out of the car, which was introduced in Driver 2, was removed and replaced with the ability to Shift (teleport) into other cars, as the developers felt that too many games had this kind of feature already and "it wasn't desirable to just copy that exact mechanic". One of the inspirations for Shift comes from Google Earth. For the first time in the series, the game features licensed cars.Ī new feature is Shift, which allows Tanner to teleport from one car to another without discontinuing the mission. In San Francisco, players can shift to any car at any time. A mini-comic series was released which provides plot details of the events between Driv3r and San Francisco, with the game receiving a collector's edition that includes additional multiplayer vehicles and single-player events. The game received favorable reviews upon its release, with the exception of the Wii edition which received mixed reviews. The game's main story sees players controlling John Tanner, a police detective, who falls into a coma pursuing his nemesis Charles Jericho following a prison breakout after the events of Driver 3 ( Driv3r), and finds himself piecing together his plan in a dream world while it is happening in real life. The game sees players traversing a fictional version of San Francisco and the Bay area conducting missions through the use of licensed real-world cars, with the ability to shift into any car in the game's setting in most platform editions.
Developed by Ubisoft Reflections and published by Ubisoft, it was released in September 2011 for the PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, with an edition for Mac OS X in March 2012. Unless, of course, this Ubisoft press conference is just a product of our own fevered coma-dream.Driver: San Francisco is an action-adventure racing video game and the fifth installment in the Driver series. Which should make those car chases significantly easier, right? "How can you drive - when your car doesn't have any wheels? Shazam!" Tanner must have a photographic memory, as the game will include a roster of over 100 licensed cars.ĭriver: San Francisco is slated for release on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC. The game apparently takes place in his mind, giving him the ability to change his dream reality to his will. We make it out to San Francisco for a few days every year for GDC, but we've never witnessed a single act of gritty crime, so we're not sold on how eventful the game will end up being.Īs hinted at in the details released last week, you will indeed be filling the role of original series protagonist John Tanner, who is in the unfortunate position of being totally comatose. Ubisoft has announced even more details about its upcoming relaunch of its gritty, open-world franchise, now titled Driver: San Francisco.