Topic: Driver remake coming?

[idolminds]

Interesting...

Note the name of the page: Driver 1999, which is the year the first Driver game came out. I loved that game. If they just remake that with none of that "get out of the car GTA-ripoff" crap, it might be worth a look.

Yes, I know its ubisoft. Grrr...

[MysterD]

I think if Driver Remake is more true to its original roots and doesn't try to be like GTA, I'll be happy w/ the gameplay and all. That's what made Driver 1 what it was - it was all about the driving.

But honestly, I don't think we really need a Driver remake or reboot in HD. I'd rather have Driver 5 - let the gameplay go back to its driving-only roots, but come up w/ a whole new storyline around Tanner.

[ren]

It was so difficult to get your license at the beginning before you got to go out into the city. There'd probably be an outcry if they kept it at the same difficulty level now.

[MysterD]

Driver: San Francisco delayed until 2011.

[MysterD]

Driver: San Francisco PC requires permanent Internet connection.
Didn't they [UbiSoft] learn from complaints people had w/ AC2 and SC: Conviction, after they toned the DRM down a little bit?

[idolminds]

Apparently not.

[Xessive]

They wait for us to calm down a bit then push it again. The annoying bastards!

[MysterD]

I used to think I was the king of facepalms, until I read UbiSoft resurrecting their DRM for [the highly anticipated] Driver: San Fran...

[Cobra951]

The Xbox demo for this is a blast to play.  It's a full 60 fps with great response and controls.  The shift mechanic (jump from one car into another) is super.  Why did it have to be fucking Ubisoft's?

There are some technical rough edges.  The demo crashed once on me, and another time it garbled the TV signal enough for the monitor to go black and stay that way.  (I had to switch the input source to something else, then back, to coax it into synching up to the signal again.)  This is a sad deficiency in my TV's firmware as much as it is a flaw in the display code of the demo.  I've seen it happen before with other content--very rarely, but it happens.

Hopefully they'll iron out the tech kinks before release.

[Cools!]

The original was a great game. This looks kind of fun.

[idolminds]

I AM SO SHOCKED BY THIS TURN OF EVENTS THAT I THINK I HAD A STROKE!

After yesterday's release of playable console demos for DRIVER San Francisco, we sent an inquiry to Ubisoft to see if a Windows and/or Mac demo is planned, and learned the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are the only platforms getting an advance sample of this driving action game. Along the way we did receive a concrete release date for the game, which was previously revealed to be in September and later reported to be August 30 for North America. We're told the Windows version's release date in North America (which is listed as September 6 on every retail listing we can find) is being pushed back a few weeks to September 27th, and that while an OS X edition is still planned, its release date is now TBD.

[MysterD]

UbiSoft often puts PC releases of their games later - i.e. every AC game.
Nothing new there. [shrug]

As long as the PC version turns out decent enough, a few weeks is NOT a big deal.

Plus, w/ its current "always on" DRM scheme for this game, this thing is gonna brick quick w/ a price-drop.

[idolminds]

Ubisoft wants you to think they listen. Well....they don't.

“We’ve heard your feedback regarding the permanent internet connection requirement for Driver and have made the decision to no longer include it. So this means that Driver PC gamers will only need to sign in at game launch but can subsequently choose to play the game offline.”

Read the article rant, its basically what I would write.

[Cobra951]

I did.  Very well said.

[Xessive]

Ubi is like that kid in class with a learning disability: they just don't get it.

[Cobra951]

Not quite the same.  I would feel sorry for the kid.

[Xessive]

Not quite the same.  I would feel sorry for the kid.

Good point, that may have been marginally insensitive of me. Ok, replace kid with douchebag jock who bullies the nerds.

[Cobra951]

 

[idolminds]

Developer defends DRM and online pass.

Is it wrong that I want to pirate this now just to spite them?

[MysterD]

Developer defends DRM and online pass.

Is it wrong that I want to pirate this now just to spite them?

Yes - yes, it is.

You know you could never pirate it on your 56K! It'd take you a century.

Wait for it to get dirt-cheap AND the DRM has been unofficially cracked, officially removed, or officially weakened to something more reasonable.
That's how I roll.

[Xessive]

I've been stung by Ubisoft before, that's why I'm wary of Ubisoft purchases (with certain exceptions) but I've reached the point where if they make it difficult for me to play the game I bought I will have no issues resorting to less-than-legitimate means to get it to work.

Seeing Ubisoft's response and how inflated their ego has become, I am tempted to burst their bubble or at least contribute to a cause that will. I don't appreciate anyone treating me like a criminal especially when I've purchased their products.

[MysterD]

I've been stung by Ubisoft before, that's why I'm wary of Ubisoft purchases (with certain exceptions) but I've reached the point where if they make it difficult for me to play the game I bought I will have no issues resorting to less-than-legitimate means to get it to work.

See, that's different, though. You paid for it - so, it's not piracy if you crack the DRM just to get the game to work.
DRM should never get in the way of the user trying to get their game running; especially when it comes to SP content.

Seeing Ubisoft's response and how inflated their ego has become, I am tempted to burst their bubble or at least contribute to a cause that will. I don't appreciate anyone treating me like a criminal especially when I've purchased their products.

I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal, either. It's crap. I like to buy my games and keep the dev's and publishers making MORE games for me to be addicted to. You know, things wouldn't be so bad if UbiSoft say lessened their DRM or even removed it entirely, once the game got old and much cheaper.

I get tired of the dev and publisher use the "Our PC game was pirated" excuse that everybody and their cousin has used to say why their PC game sales sucked, when there's often ALSO OTHER multiple reasons their game sold like crap on the PC [shoddy port, PC version was released WAY AFTER console version, console version sold like CRAZY already, DRM measures are too strict, etc etc]. I don't want the piracy excuse to be used - I want them to admit their PC games sales sucked for reasons other than piracy. Piracy's is always the excuse - and I'm tired of it being used as the main excuse. Of course, that would be in an ideal world - piracy is always going to be rampant on the PC; people want stuff for free and will use any reason to try to justify that.

No wonder I support companies like CD Projekt and spend top dollar for their games upon release - they release games DRM-Free or remove the DRM eventually [even if it pisses their publisher off].

[Cobra951]

Voting with your dollars doesn't work.  It doesn't matter how many people support these companies with purchases, or how many decide not to purchase in protest.  Gamers are not a large bloc of like-minded individuals.  The mindsets all cancel out in the marketplace.  The publishers only care about the mythical "lost sales" figures when they count the pirate downloads.  What might work is cracking the unacceptable DRM consistently and quickly.  Why spend time and effort on a scheme that fails within a week?  It makes no business sense.  That ball is firmly in the pirates' court.

Edit:  The game itself is looking pretty good.  It only makes me angrier about the publisher's actions marring it.

[PyroMenace]

The publishers only care about the mythical "lost sales" figures when they count the pirate downloads.

Explain this, in detail please.

[Cobra951]

For every 100 pirate downloads, I'd be surprised if 5 sales were lost.  The vast majority of them are like watching a youtube video.  If you had to buy a DVD of it, you wouldn't watch it.  You'd catch it on commercial TV later on.  The games are downloaded en masse because they're free and easy to get.  If they cost money, then you're going to be careful to get only what you think you'll like.  And even then you can't afford everything you like the moment it comes out, particularly if you're poor, a child without income, or you live someplace where games are extra expensive and hard to get.  You would simply do without many of them.

[idolminds]

Teehee!

Ubisoft has scapped the 'Uplay Passport' online pass for Driver: San Francisco, not out of the kindness of its own heart but because the codes were printed incorrectly in some copies. In other Driver: Frisco news, Ubisoft has insisted that the PC edition's delay was "natural," and announced

"Due to a printing error on the insert of some copies of Driver: San Francisco in North America, Ubisoft has elected to provide the Driver Uplay Passport content for free," Ubisoft explains. "Although this problem does not affect players outside of North America, we have decided to mirror this offer to everyone in the world in order to be fair to all our players."

The single-use Uplay Passport code, included with new copies, is needed to unlock Driver: Fog City's multiplayer and Film Director modes. By itself, it'd cost $10.

[Xessive]

Good! Finally! hehe

I cant help but think Ubi is gonna lord this one over the players for a very long time, like their doing them a special favour.

[PyroMenace]

For every 100 pirate downloads, I'd be surprised if 5 sales were lost.  The vast majority of them are like watching a youtube video.  If you had to buy a DVD of it, you wouldn't watch it.  You'd catch it on commercial TV later on.  The games are downloaded en masse because they're free and easy to get.  If they cost money, then you're going to be careful to get only what you think you'll like.  And even then you can't afford everything you like the moment it comes out, particularly if you're poor, a child without income, or you live someplace where games are extra expensive and hard to get.  You would simply do without many of them.

Going back to one of your points, you cant clump together all gamers en masse but your doing it with those who pirate games. Do you really think all those pirated copies never really get played? I can understand that some will not, but there's a larger percentage in there where the sale is lost forever. I don't believe pirates deserve a court to stand on let alone having a ball.

Look, if you want to pirate a game just to crack the DRM, I don't care and I can understand where you're coming from, but you will never convince me that piracy will somehow take the fight back to DRM. I know how much is pisses everyone off, but rioting and looting the store to doesn't help anyone.

[Quemaqua]

But by the same token, just doing what the publishers demand we do doesn't help either. What other tools do we have to express our displeasure? Sure, we can just go without (I tend to go this route often lately because I don't have time to play all these fucking games to begin with, really), but is that better? Games fail without ideological problems sometimes just because they do, so how do you get these people to listen? Unless you basically just abandon gaming entirely and get a lot of other people to do it with you, there's no hope. So you either bend over and take it or you give up gaming forever. It's not like this shit is ever going to change, so the best we can do is come up with more and better countermeasures to take back the rights we used to have. Of course it doesn't feel right, and most of us that have ever done it probably don't feel swell about it; I tend to buy a game and use cracks to bypass the DRM. But that's not right either. You can't take a hardline stance either way if you have any sense. The situation itself is wrong, and it's wrong because of what publishers are trying to do, even if we can understand their reasons for trying to do it.

[PyroMenace]

Yea and that's my issue here is that you can't win arguing either way, even though I sounded one sided. For me, the only DRM that offends me is Ubisoft's, and fortunately I have little interest in most of their titles. Assassin's Creed franchise and Dawn of Discovery are like the only two things and AC remains to be a console experience for me.

We can all only guess at how many sales were lost, but as long as those channels exist, I don't see publishers just throwing up their hands thinking that all those pirates were actually just legitimate consumers teaching them a lesson.

[idolminds]

Just watched the video review on Gametrailers for this, and it reminded me of Burnout Paradise. Which is a good thing.

[MysterD]

Just watched the video review on Gametrailers for this, and it reminded me of Burnout Paradise. Which is a good thing.

Wow @ 5.8 on Story score - VERY LOW.

Glad the rest of the game sounds really good and fun, though.

[gpw11]

Well, the story sounds ridiculous.  The game looks pretty fun though.

[Cobra951]

But by the same token, just doing what the publishers demand we do doesn't help either. What other tools do we have to express our displeasure? Sure, we can just go without (I tend to go this route often lately because I don't have time to play all these fucking games to begin with, really), but is that better? Games fail without ideological problems sometimes just because they do, so how do you get these people to listen? Unless you basically just abandon gaming entirely and get a lot of other people to do it with you, there's no hope. So you either bend over and take it or you give up gaming forever. It's not like this shit is ever going to change, so the best we can do is come up with more and better countermeasures to take back the rights we used to have. Of course it doesn't feel right, and most of us that have ever done it probably don't feel swell about it; I tend to buy a game and use cracks to bypass the DRM. But that's not right either. You can't take a hardline stance either way if you have any sense. The situation itself is wrong, and it's wrong because of what publishers are trying to do, even if we can understand their reasons for trying to do it.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6810961/extra_credits_piracy/

I agree with almost all of that, and he says it so well (falsetto notwithstanding).

[Xessive]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6810961/extra_credits_piracy/

I agree with almost all of that, and he says it so well (falsetto notwithstanding).

That was pretty awesome and certainly well said.

Also, YAY! Regional Restrictions justify piracy! hehe Game's not available in my region? Pirate away!

That point actually made me feel saintly because I've put in extra cash in shipping charges just to get games legally!

[MysterD]

RockPaperShotgun - "Wot I Think" Article on Driver: San Fran PC.