The Driver Evolution: Driv3r...

Driv3r (or Driver 3) is the third game in the series and the first Driver game on Playstation 2. Now we see Tanner in a high definition clear image and we start learning more about him and the characters that surround him including Jehrico.

Also in this incarnation of the Driver series there are many well known celebrities providing the voices of characters such as Michael Madsen voicing Tanner, Mickey Rourke voicing Jericho and Michelle Rodriguez voicing new villain Calita. As with Driver 2 you travel the world but unlike Driver 2 there are only 3 locations but with bigger, more detailed and more interactive environments in Miami, Florida USA, Nice, France and Istanbul, Turkey.
For the first time ever in the Driver series you can use firearms and enter certain buildings such as Tanner's houses and hotels. In these places there are health packs and weapons as for the first time you can be killed which adds a whole new dimension to the series as we start to leave the aim of the game being about driving wildly (although this is still a big part of the game) and focus more on Tanner as a detective.

In the marketing for Driv3r, they made this short promotional video and with the introduction of viral marketing and advertisement on the internet, this was a very good move because they could advertise directly to a new audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJh7r9sCpWk

Something you may have noticed is that they used cars based on real cars, real people and real locations. It is quite clearly marketed at a certain kind of audience and the use of real vehicles and people.
Driv3r opened up a new floodgate of creativity that would pour into the next game in the series Driver Parallel Lines with the interactivity, graphics and physics engineering of equal and better quality to Driv3r.
The game incorporated a whole new team of designers working alongside the designers of the two previous games and was released on the newer PlayStation 2.Working on a newer console meant recreating the whole design process for a newer game format that allows far more detail compared to the previous console.



Driv3r also paid close attention to the soundtrack and incorporated a lot of underground bands music such as Destiny by Syntax and Zero pm by The Bellrays. They picked music that gave Driv3r the vintage feel of the first 2 games but also had music that kept it sounding modern. Good idea right? The in game music you heard when driving around was primarily music that was made for the game but the music heard in the cutscenes was the music made by the bands. This is something they definitely carried on into their latest release Driver San Francisco.

The story of this game reveals a new element of Tanner and Jones's investigative style and shows the 2 of them (or Tanner at least) as mavericks and not playing by the rules to get results. It also shows a new level of ruthlessness in Jericho when he decides to take matters into his own hands and exterminates Solomon Caine (his boss) in an elevator.