Driver: San Francisco is an action-adventure racing video game and the fifth installment in the Driver series. 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. The game will have players traverse a fictional representation 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. 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 received favorable reviews upon its release, with the exception of the Wii edition which received mixed reviews. 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.
Driver San Francisco Game
A new feature is Shift, which allows Tanner to teleport from one car to another without discontinuing the mission.[1] One of the inspirations for Shift comes from Google Earth.[1] 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 [for us] to just copy that exact mechanic".[1][2] With Shift, the player can also start or continue missions. 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. 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. The film director mode, which was absent from Parallel Lines, also returns, and players can share their videos on the Driver Club website.[1] The game runs at 60 frames per second.[3]
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. In Trail Blazer, the players have to follow the trail of an AI-controlled car to accumulate points. The player who accumulates more points will win the match. The Tag game mode is similar to regular tag, but in reverse. All the players are trying to "tag" or hit, one player. Once he is hit, the person who tagged him is now it.[2][4] The multiplayer will also have experience points.[5] The game's multiplayer functionality was set to be shut down on September 1, 2022.[6] The date was later delayed to October 1, 2022.[7][8]
San Francisco is unique from other games in the series in that the game features licensed real-life cars. There are a total 140 fully damageable vehicles based on real-life models, ranging from buggies and compact cars to muscle cars and sport cars. The automobile marques featured in the game include Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Cadillac, Chevrolet, DeLorean, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Hummer, Lamborghini, Lincoln, McLaren, Pagani, Ruf, Shelby, and Volkswagen.[9]
The Wii version of the game does not include the "Shift" mechanic, but allows players to use guns while driving. The SMG, the pistol, the shotgun, the assault rifle and the RPG are all the weapons available in the game. All weapons can be upgraded in the following categories: clip size, reload speed, and damage. There is a maximum of four levels for each upgrade. Upgrade points can be earned by doing various tricks and earning awards around the city. A new feature for the Wii is the localized multi-player, where a second player may take control of the gun or, if they desire, can connect a DS, DSi or 3DS system through download play. The DS device can be used to make roadblocks, look for police and buy player 1 some more time through playing various mini games. There is also a four player split-screen multiplayer. The split screen mode includes four game variants. The variants are Capture the flag, in which the players must grab a flag and drive it to a specific location, Pass the Bomb, in which players must pass a bomb from car to car before a timer counts down, ending the game, Gold Rush, in which the players must grab a bag of money and hold on to it for points, and elimination, in which players must race each other. There is also a cops and robbers split screen mode.
Moments later, Tanner awakens in his car with Jones, with things seemingly normal; Tanner however finds himself hearing voices in his head regarding an accident. When the pair track down the prison van, Tanner finds himself suddenly disappearing from his car and reappearing in the driver's seat of an ambulance carrying a critically injured patient. To his shock, he learns he is actually inhabiting the body of the ambulance's driver, and is confused by the event. Tanner soon discovers he has an ability that lets him "shift" into another person's body, taking on their appearance but retaining his own memories and skills. Deciding to use this ability to his advantage, Tanner begins helping people across the city while continuing to investigate Jericho.
The game was in development for around five years.[10] A new game in the series was confirmed to be in production at the 2005 Tokyo Game Show when Sony announced a list of 102 games that would be released on the PlayStation 3.[11] Ubisoft later confirmed a new game in the series after acquiring the series from Atari.[12][13][14][15] A new Driver game was confirmed to be in development in 2010 and was slated for release in Ubisoft's fiscal year ending in March 2011.[16]
Ubisoft registered the domain driversanfranciscogame.com as well as driversanfrancisco.com and driversanfran.com in April 2010, suggesting that San Francisco was the setting of the new game in the series.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Ubisoft officially announced the game, titled Driver: San Francisco on their E3 2010 conference.[26][27] Driver: San Francisco was released in September 2011 for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC and for Mac OS X in March 2012.
Reflections founder and series creator Martin Edmondson, returned to Reflections after he temporarily left the game industry in 2004.[28] The game was developed by five Ubisoft studios with Reflections as the lead, and four other developers: Vancouver, Kyiv, Shanghai and Montreal.[29] Ubisoft released a free DLC, with 12 new routes for all online modes on 12 September.[30]
In 2011, Ubisoft confirmed at the time that all of their future games with online functionality would require "Uplay Passport" online pass. Driver: San Francisco was the first in line to utilize this feature.[31] However, due to misprinted codes, which left players who bought new copies of the game unable to play online, the online pass was waived for the Xbox 360 version.[30]
The game's audio was mixed at Pinewood Studios, which is known for the James Bond film franchise.[32] The game includes 60 licensed songs, an original score from Marc Canham along with a new version of the Driver theme by Canham.[33] The OST is mixed and produced by Rich Aitken at Nimrod. On 30 August, the soundtrack was confirmed with 76 songs with genres like funk, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock and hard rock from artists such as Aretha Franklin, Dr. John, DJ Shadow, The Black Keys, The Cure, Beastie Boys, Queens of the Stone Age, The Heavy, Unkle, and Elbow. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions support custom soundtracks which allows the player to listen to their own music during gameplay.[34]
A comic book mini-series published by Wildstorm Productions based on the game was released. The storyline takes place after the events of Driver and before San Francisco, and focuses on Tanner's personal vengeance against Jericho: the mini-series was written by David Lapham and illustrated by Greg Scott. The first issue was released on August 2011 and a preview entitled The Pursuit of Nothingness was available on Comic-Con 2010.[35]
Ubisoft had originally reported that Driver: San Francisco would be released in early 2011, but in August 2010 reported that the game would be delayed to its next fiscal year.[37] In April 2011, it was confirmed by the company that the game would arrive in September 2011, however in August it was confirmed by the company that the release of the game on Windows would be delayed by almost a month, being released on 27 September in North America and 30 September in Australia and Europe.[38][39][40] The game was officially released on 30 August in North America and 2 September in Europe for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360.[41] In March 2012, the game was ported to OS X.
The game has received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms except the Wii version, which received "mixed" reviews, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.[60][61][62][63] In Japan, Famitsu gave the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions a score of three eights and one nine for a total of 33 out of 40.[64]
The game won the Best Driving Game of E3 2010 award from Ripten.[66] The game also received a nomination from Kotaku.[67] During E3 2011 it also received a Best Racing Game award from Machinima Inc. and nominations from G4 and Game Critics Awards.[68][69][70] Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, creator of Zero Punctuation, placed it as his second favorite game of 2011.[71]
On 9 December 2016, the game was delisted from online stores and became unavailable for purchase due to license expiry; one online petition is ongoing at Change.org to request Ubisoft to make it available again.[73] 2ff7e9595c
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