Tag: driving

After way to long, I finally purchases Driver Parallel Lines for pc. I was reluctant to purchase this game while I was waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV to be released for Computers. Many of the online communities rated driver PL really bad. So you see why I never bought Parallel Lines.

Today I was at the electronics store with my son looking for him a game and me a cooler for my recently acquired laptop. While walking around killing time as my son picked out Fear2  for his Xbox360 I rummaged through the pc games section. I came across Driver Parallel Lines for pc on sale at $9.99. Well that went into my basket pretty quick. I also grabbed Split Second at $39.99. (crummy control Need for speed mock up). We made our way back home.

On first inset of the game DVD, The first pop up message looks pretty bad. It looks like I am running a windows 98 program.I noticed the install never prompted for a cd key. but it did as me if I wanted to register, I selected a reminder of 15 days. Cutscenes ate the start of the game reminded me of grand theft auto iii and Vice city. When I could finally start the game I was sitting in front of a boxy looking city with a skinny lanky looking fellow with long hair as my main person. I started to walk and his hair started swinging back and fourth in an exact repeated motion. it was kind of goofy. I was getting really disgusted with the game. I jumped into another car and chased down my car (which was being pushed down the street by the police car that was supposed to be chasing me). In chasing down my car, I hit a pedestrian. Ok I am cool with it now. The way I know the game driver, you couldn’t get out of your car. I switch cars and begin running from the cops again. I ran over another pedestrian and they did the exact same thing the last pedestrian did. I tilt my head a bit to the right in confusion and nail another one. Yep exact same motion. So the physics sucked.

I later grab a motorcycle and decide to go for a joy ride. I first search everywhere and can not see how to do a wheelie. I jump what looks like a ramp and barely get any air. I get to top speed and try to power slide. the slide was pathetic. I came to an instant stop with no drift.

I do a custom search in Google for “mods texture Driver Parallel Lines PC -xbox -ps2” and find plenty of skins for cars and peds. So I go to work on resolving the issues that bugged me. (I clipped off that hair so I don’t have to see that stupid swinging)

After I get good and settled in, I start playing the game for real. The game is really fun. Yeah the cars handle just like they did in the first driver game, and the controls have limited  functions but hey I am here just for the fun. Right? This game has all of that. The back end story you get in the cutscenes is probably ten times better than any other game I have played. it is a memorable story. I realized that driver was out long before GTAIII and True Crimes. In GTAIII you are the driver of gangs, in driver you are a driver so it would only be expected that you can change cars as you do in GTA. The textures well they clearly reflect EA. ok back on topic, I had more fun playing the missions in Driver Parallel Lines than I ever had in GTAIV. The action is fast and hidden humor is abundant. The cops do not let go of you man. When they chase you, expect to spend 5 minutes minimum trying to shake them.

Wish I could turn the radio to another station. or honk the horn. Or power slide.

Ubisoft made a pretty fun game here and it is well worth buying at it’s current price.

I have to categorize this as a racing game because it has more than 60% of it’s action in a car. Typically they call those racing games. I call em action if there isn’t a drag strip or illegal street racing as the major part of the game. So it’s a racing game. :-)

Racing Game Score

ragdoll- 1

AI – 3

texture- 5

sound- 5

entertainment- 10

This is not video game for showing people how cool your graphics card is. This a game for showing your friends a fun game.