rec.autos.simulators

>That "President's Run" mission to end the game wasn't too hard - when the
>cops got too close behind, I just skimed by traffic very closely as I passed
>and often the cop would crash into the civilian car, slowing it down.

>Using the "Super Fast Cars" cheat along with the red sports car (early 50's
>Ferrari???) produced speeds up to 300 MPH. Standing on the gas from a stop,
>it will do a wheelie for a city block - hmmm, a pro stock Ferrari. I was
>zipping towards one of those small hump-backed bridges in Miami so fast that
>I suppose the game calculated the nose hit the pavement as it rises up and I
>did a very strange nose-down end-over-end flip. Such fun.

>I'll have to try the game again on the "hard" setting instead of the default
>"medium", not to mention the other Driving Games. Let's see what the
>'replayablity factor' is like!

>        ...207

> > Some little things I didn't like:
> > - when you're at a point where you have to lose the cops, the warning
> > message is in the middle of the screen, hindering the vision greatly,
> > just when you often only have a couple of seconds left on the clock...
> > - the force feedback isn't disabled in the replays
> > - the 'camera below the ground' bug in the replays
> > - you can't save after every mission, sometimes you have to play more
> > missions before you can save. For example, if you can't succeed at the
> > president level, and you quit the game, you also have to play the
> > former mission too.

> Also, some intelligence and realism would be great. The cops are
> essentially heatseekers wanting to immediately destroy you with no
> questions asked for driving without headlights and they perform this
> "duty" with less care of innocent law-abiding citizens than your
> average drunken *** who still believes he'll live forever.

> Once the cops get active, they serve only one purpose - to demolish you
> at all costs. They appear from nowhere in numbers which could only
> indicate resources the magnitude of US defence budget. In about
> 15 seconds you'll realize that you have initiated a manhunt of the decade
> by accidentally rear-ending someone's car when cruising at 22 mph.

> So is this just a funny little arcade title where AI couldn't possibly
> become an issue? No way. The game could've been so much better if they
> had just managed to spice it up with some credible AI. Unfortunately,
> intelligence is merely replaced by brute force to produce some kind of
> challenge.

> As it is, if something unexpected happens in an intersection the cars
> just stand there for eternity, lines gathering behind them, but of course
> you have no time to marvel this demonstration of collective dumbness
> (I guess they relied on it when developing the game - just keep the guy
> busy somehow and he won't notice we took a few shortcuts), since the
> whole game is really nothing more than just timed urban slalom: go here,
> you've got 2 minutes, go there, you've got 4 minutes. We're quite
> familiar with straight checkpoint formula, even if disguised a bit.

> Pedestrians are seemingly able to alternate their molecule density as
> sometimes they just leap into places where they couldn't possibly be.
> When it's raining, it's raining so hard that when you slip into a parking
> garage, it's just as slippery under the roof where you'd expect it to be
> dry. Minor imperfection but speaks volumes of the general lack of
> attention to detail.

> The cops are so dumb a child could delude them. If you're positioned in a
> certain way when you enter their triggering perimeter on a freeway, they
> drive straight into a 4-lane freeway's mid-section barrier because their
> canned behavior wasn't supposed to be initiated in that particular time
> and place.

> The physics have also their share of oddities. Even without the supercars
> cheat it's quite possible to collide in a way which hurls you into the
> orbit in about 0.2 seconds - something NASA would be proud of.

> Yes, I'm being harsh here. But only because I saw potential and I saw it
> ruined. I'm not saying people couldn't have lots of fun with this title,
> sure they can. But Driver could've been something great, something we'd
> still remember in 2005. Now it lacks intelligence in a big way and for
> me, that's a deciding factor. Feeding something like this to the ***
> community as a full price game is a downright insult to their
> intelligence.

> ---
> Antti Markus Peteri

>        15 miles. your dim light shines from so far away

>                                  - Soul Asylum, Promises Broken

> That "President's Run" mission to end the game wasn't too hard - when the
> cops got too close behind, I just skimed by traffic very closely as I passed
> and often the cop would crash into the civilian car, slowing it down.

> Using the "Super Fast Cars" cheat along with the red sports car (early 50's
> Ferrari???) produced speeds up to 300 MPH. Standing on the gas from a stop,
> it will do a wheelie for a city block - hmmm, a pro stock Ferrari. I was
> zipping towards one of those small hump-backed bridges in Miami so fast that
> I suppose the game calculated the nose hit the pavement as it rises up and I
> did a very strange nose-down end-over-end flip. Such fun.

> I'll have to try the game again on the "hard" setting instead of the default
> "medium", not to mention the other Driving Games. Let's see what the
> 'replayablity factor' is like!

>         ...207

>Some of the listed "cheats" are puzzling. There's a "freight train" option
>as well as a "railroad cops" choice. Anyone know what happens when these
are
>activated? I didn't notice any train tracks in the missions I played.

>        ...207

>> Could you list any of the cheat codes? Thanks.

>         ...207

message

> > Could you list any of the cheat codes? Thanks.

> Cheers
>        Gary.

> 01.sprint.ca>,

> > They're not cheat codes in the traditional
> sense. Once you finish the game,
> > when you select "Cheat Codes" from the main
> menu you'll get a menu of
> > goodies that you can activate. Some of these
> you could use by manually
> > editing the ".dms" file for the particular
> mission you're interested in,
> > e.g. you can add a line "DisablePlayerDamage"
> to make yourself invincible.
> > Or you can change the weather/time of day, your
> starting position and the
> > car you use, and on and on. Browse through
> the .dms files to see all the
> > stuff you can tinker with.

> > Some of the listed "cheats" are puzzling.
> There's a "freight train" option
> > as well as a "railroad cops" choice. Anyone
> know what happens when these are
> > activated? I didn't notice any train tracks in
> the missions I played.

> >         ...207

> message

> > > Could you list any of the cheat codes? Thanks.

> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

> Cheers
>        Gary.

> 01.sprint.ca>,

> > They're not cheat codes in the traditional
> sense. Once you finish the game,
> > when you select "Cheat Codes" from the main
> menu you'll get a menu of
> > goodies that you can activate. Some of these
> you could use by manually
> > editing the ".dms" file for the particular
> mission you're interested in,
> > e.g. you can add a line "DisablePlayerDamage"
> to make yourself invincible.
> > Or you can change the weather/time of day, your
> starting position and the
> > car you use, and on and on. Browse through
> the .dms files to see all the
> > stuff you can tinker with.

> > Some of the listed "cheats" are puzzling.
> There's a "freight train" option
> > as well as a "railroad cops" choice. Anyone
> know what happens when these are
> > activated? I didn't notice any train tracks in
> the missions I played.

> >         ...207

> message

> > > Could you list any of the cheat codes? Thanks.

> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

> > Some little things I didn't like:
> > - when you're at a point where you have to lose the cops, the warning
> > message is in the middle of the screen, hindering the vision greatly,
> > just when you often only have a couple of seconds left on the clock...
> > - the force feedback isn't disabled in the replays
> > - the 'camera below the ground' bug in the replays
> > - you can't save after every mission, sometimes you have to play more
> > missions before you can save. For example, if you can't succeed at the
> > president level, and you quit the game, you also have to play the
> > former mission too.

> Also, some intelligence and realism would be great. The cops are
> essentially heatseekers wanting to immediately destroy you with no
> questions asked for driving without headlights and they perform this
> "duty" with less care of innocent law-abiding citizens than your
> average drunken *** who still believes he'll live forever.

> Once the cops get active, they serve only one purpose - to demolish you
> at all costs. They appear from nowhere in numbers which could only
> indicate resources the magnitude of US defence budget. In about
> 15 seconds you'll realize that you have initiated a manhunt of the decade
> by accidentally rear-ending someone's car when cruising at 22 mph.

> So is this just a funny little arcade title where AI couldn't possibly
> become an issue? No way. The game could've been so much better if they
> had just managed to spice it up with some credible AI. Unfortunately,
> intelligence is merely replaced by brute force to produce some kind of
> challenge.

> As it is, if something unexpected happens in an intersection the cars
> just stand there for eternity, lines gathering behind them, but of course
> you have no time to marvel this demonstration of collective dumbness
> (I guess they relied on it when developing the game - just keep the guy
> busy somehow and he won't notice we took a few shortcuts), since the
> whole game is really nothing more than just timed urban slalom: go here,
> you've got 2 minutes, go there, you've got 4 minutes. We're quite
> familiar with straight checkpoint formula, even if disguised a bit.

> Pedestrians are seemingly able to alternate their molecule density as
> sometimes they just leap into places where they couldn't possibly be.
> When it's raining, it's raining so hard that when you slip into a parking
> garage, it's just as slippery under the roof where you'd expect it to be
> dry. Minor imperfection but speaks volumes of the general lack of
> attention to detail.

> The cops are so dumb a child could delude them. If you're positioned in a
> certain way when you enter their triggering perimeter on a freeway, they
> drive straight into a 4-lane freeway's mid-section barrier because their
> canned behavior wasn't supposed to be initiated in that particular time
> and place.

> The physics have also their share of oddities. Even without the supercars
> cheat it's quite possible to collide in a way which hurls you into the
> orbit in about 0.2 seconds - something NASA would be proud of.

> Yes, I'm being harsh here. But only because I saw potential and I saw it
> ruined. I'm not saying people couldn't have lots of fun with this title,
> sure they can. But Driver could've been something great, something we'd
> still remember in 2005. Now it lacks intelligence in a big way and for
> me, that's a deciding factor. Feeding something like this to the ***
> community as a full price game is a downright insult to their
> intelligence.

> ---
> Antti Markus Peteri

>        15 miles. your dim light shines from so far away

>                                  - Soul Asylum, Promises Broken