There are some games I really looked forward to on this 1001 list. Be they games I'd really wanted to play and hadn't or games that I haven't played since they first came out, there was also something upcoming that I knew I was going to enjoy.
I was going to enjoy going back to playing Driver for the first time in nearly twenty years, not because of its take on car chases filmed in the 1970s, but because of that driving test.
Infamous in its difficulty, this entry might be over before it starts...
Frustrations
Sadly, I've no longer got Driver in my collection, but I was a fan of it and its sequel back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I remember playing through quite a bit of the story, if not all of it, for both titles, but I can't remember if I did so with the aid of cheats or a GameShark or something.
That means only one thing - that I'm going to have to try that driving test, after two decades of driving physics based on the more rigid decades of driving, on an Xbox controller without any setup and tweaking.
I'll get it on the first attempt, won't I?
Fun Times
Alright, second attempt. I'll take it but I've definitely got some rust to remove if I'm to get anywhere. Speaking of anywhere, where will Driver take us?
We are playing as a cop, John Tanner, sent undercover in Miami as a wheelman because of his previous experience as a racing driver. How handy. We'll need to prove to the various criminals in the city that we're worth employing so that we can find out what Castaldi, head of the crime syndicate, is planning.
I don't want to spoil too much, but skim reading the plot after twenty years has resulted in words to the effect of "Well, I never knew that happened", so I either didn't pay attention as a child or didn't finish it. Anyway, onto the game.
Missions come to you through the menu/hub that is whatever cheap apartment you could get on your undercover allowances (I clearly don't know how it works), where you listen to various characters usually shouting at you over the phone.
Sometimes you'll be a pickup and delivery driver, other times you'll be tailing or pursuing someone, and other times you'll be a proper getaway driver, evading the police and everything. Very soon into playing, you'll realise that it's largely the same thing over and over, regardless of the skin and plot they drape over it, or in which one of the four cities it takes place.
A short cinematic and the musical sounds of the 1970s and it feels like we're scorching in the Miami heat already. We've no time to waste on our first job - getaway driver for a bank heist.
The controls are fairly simple, with a dedicated burnout button and handbrake for tighter corners, but there's also one button, the Full Lock button, that allows for more precise turns. It's the button you'll need to use to make your driving look top notch. You might have used it in the driving test to slalom around the pillars, for example. I think I tried and failed to use it. In either case, I've been allowed to drive, so now I've plenty of opportunities to try it out in the field.
Without it, as you can see, your car slides and swerves and wobbles like its suspension is made of a slinky, not a spring. It really demands you to drive carefully, but at considerable speed while evading the police. Just like the cinematic car chases it was inspired by, I suppose.
Using it is still demanding, as it will result in earlier, tighter turns than you were perhaps expecting, and if that means driving into a wall or a lamppost or another car, that'll make your damage increase. Keep it low or it's mission failed.
Damage is signified by the most triangular of broken car parts flying out of the impact and crumpled car models, complete with different coloured smoke, give you some idea of how healthy you are, should the damage bar not be obvious. A delightfully repetitive sound effect is also heard, and, coupled with the draw distance being almost as flat as a pancake, Driver starts to show its age.
We are playing as a cop, John Tanner, sent undercover in Miami as a wheelman because of his previous experience as a racing driver. How handy. We'll need to prove to the various criminals in the city that we're worth employing so that we can find out what Castaldi, head of the crime syndicate, is planning.
I don't want to spoil too much, but skim reading the plot after twenty years has resulted in words to the effect of "Well, I never knew that happened", so I either didn't pay attention as a child or didn't finish it. Anyway, onto the game.
Missions come to you through the menu/hub that is whatever cheap apartment you could get on your undercover allowances (I clearly don't know how it works), where you listen to various characters usually shouting at you over the phone.
Sometimes you'll be a pickup and delivery driver, other times you'll be tailing or pursuing someone, and other times you'll be a proper getaway driver, evading the police and everything. Very soon into playing, you'll realise that it's largely the same thing over and over, regardless of the skin and plot they drape over it, or in which one of the four cities it takes place.
A short cinematic and the musical sounds of the 1970s and it feels like we're scorching in the Miami heat already. We've no time to waste on our first job - getaway driver for a bank heist.
The controls are fairly simple, with a dedicated burnout button and handbrake for tighter corners, but there's also one button, the Full Lock button, that allows for more precise turns. It's the button you'll need to use to make your driving look top notch. You might have used it in the driving test to slalom around the pillars, for example. I think I tried and failed to use it. In either case, I've been allowed to drive, so now I've plenty of opportunities to try it out in the field.
Without it, as you can see, your car slides and swerves and wobbles like its suspension is made of a slinky, not a spring. It really demands you to drive carefully, but at considerable speed while evading the police. Just like the cinematic car chases it was inspired by, I suppose.
Using it is still demanding, as it will result in earlier, tighter turns than you were perhaps expecting, and if that means driving into a wall or a lamppost or another car, that'll make your damage increase. Keep it low or it's mission failed.
Damage is signified by the most triangular of broken car parts flying out of the impact and crumpled car models, complete with different coloured smoke, give you some idea of how healthy you are, should the damage bar not be obvious. A delightfully repetitive sound effect is also heard, and, coupled with the draw distance being almost as flat as a pancake, Driver starts to show its age.
Further Frustrations
Buildings, as good as they look, pop in every block you drive. Car's in the distance are boxes until they start rounding out before your eyes, pass you, and are then never seen again as far as you're concerned. The interface is minimal and shows you what you need to know but isn't nice to look at. There's cinematic influence on the one hand and glowing arcade bars on the other. It's a bit of a mix.
Further Fun Times
Yet it's exactly how I remember it being, from the look to the feel, and we're seconds away from finding out how good we are at getting away.
Sorry.
Thankfully, the clock will start counting up when we've picked these fellas up, so don't be alarmed at running out of time in missions - though I'm sure there are some that require as few mistakes as possible to give you the best chance at hitting your targets.
Here, though, is a leisurely drive back to the lockup. The map is there for us to get an idea of the direction our objective is in, as well as how far away it is, and a bigger, more useful map is found in the pause menu. But we're good. We're just going to drive casual.
Or not. The police must know more than you think, as it appears to be a 'guilty until proven innocent, everything is worth the sirens blaring' kind of approach. There was already a complete roadblock in place for me. An easy to avoid roadblock, but a roadblock nonetheless. These cops mean business.
Drive far away enough, fast enough, and they'll lose you, their minimap icon desperately swivelling to see you, but to no avail. You could force them to stop sooner if you deal enough damage to their car, but when you run the risk of damaging yourself too much in the process, I think I'll try to be more of a driver.
Further Frustrations
And then, after selecting to continue, it crashed. And it crashed trying to go into the replay director mode too, so I couldn't even make my own homage to Bullitt. I've not even seen Bullitt.
Final Word
But the crashes are the fault of emulation. The game worked flawlessly back in the day, so far as my fallible memories know. As I said, I'm sure I played a good whack of this game, if not all of it. I remember playing in the other locations, including San Francisco and New York, but my main memories are really of the sense of playing Driver, rather than any useful details.
Even watching a playthrough, I have no memories of the plot that's unfolding through these cutscenes and phone messages, nor of any mission objective. I can't recall any that stood out as fun or difficult, apart from the first driving test. Did I really play Driver as a child?
While on the subject, I only remember Driver 2 having curved roads in Havana, and a mission where boxes were dropped from the back of a truck. Was I to avoid those boxes or pick them up? Was I the truck driver? Did that even happen in Driver 2?
I don't know, but I actually want to find out. Driver 2 isn't on the 1001 list, but because the original game is, the memories have all come back (as accurate as they are) and I want to go back for the nostalgia hit.
Will I play Driver again? Probably not. I don't have the patience for it any more, either through emulation woes or bad driving. I'll probably have the same problem should I find myself going back to Driver 2, so I might just have to watch them both.
Should you play them? I think you probably should because there's a lot of devotion to the titles that inspired the story and, importantly, gameplay. The replay director mode - if it works - can lead to some time crafting your car chase masterpiece. I'm sure I did that as a child.
It's not perfect, but we're not asking for perfect. If you want the looks, go to Gran Turismo or Ridge Racer Type 4. If you want the style, check out Driver. The keys are on the side.
Fun Facts
Completing the game allows you to drive around Newcastle upon Tyne, where developers Reflections were based.
Driver, developed by Reflections Interactive, first released in 1999.
Version played: PlayStation, 1999, via emulation and childhood memories (I swear)
Version watched: PlayStation, 1999 (World of Longplays)