I love the concept of having both a 1970's and 2000's New York City to explore. It isn't really fully realised here; it's brown in one era and blue in the other, and the World Trade Center is there in one and not in the other, and that's 90% of the differences, but I really want to see more games do this kind of immersive time period switch.
Yeah, its a smaller approach in this game, others just go wild making you travel around very different times. Chrono trigger for example, each era has significant changes but you can tell you still being in the same world.
The cars and guns are different, too. The change actually feels pretty cool. Love the 70s vibe, but the cars in 2006 are also great. Not many open world games with AMG Mercedes and Chevy suburbans
@@isaacster5027 Yeah, but the problem of parallel lines there is that cars aren’t that different to drive and that the “gun play “ is seriously undermined by the gameplay itself.
It's still my favorite Driver game even though I love them all. For some reason, this one just clicked hard with me and I particularly loved that you could store all found vehicles and customize them with a pretty good amount of options. I spent hours and hours just scouring the map looking for every different vehicle I could, bringing it back to Ray's, and customizing them. I would grind the races to the point of insanity to get the money for it all. I did particularly like the 70's era more, but I remember back then when I was 11 playing this game being absolutely blown away when I realized that you could now play the game in 2006 era with completely different cars and everything. I still feel like this game was sold short by allot of people. I found it absolutely fantastic. Even though they tweaked the driving physics to be a little lighter and more responsive, it's still amazing how there's still pretty much no GTA or clone out there that comes near the physics of Driver Parallel Lines and the ones before it. Next up, San Francisco. A freaking masterpiece. Can't wait for the video.
Tbh the money was so annoying to me. Races barely give you shit. If it were easier to make money in game, I so would've enjoyed the customization system
@@isaacster5027 Can't speak for the 70s era but I remember the 06 era having a hitman activity which earned like 20k every time you did it so you could just do that over and over again.
@@isaacster5027 Its extremely easy? There is a thing called "Perfect Driver Bonus" or that trophy in the stats menu. You get a lot of money for completing a side activity quickly, but only once per activity, nevertheless I still have my money maxed out from those. And I said "easy" but some of those can push you to your limits...
"there's still no GTA or clone out there that comes near the physics of Driver Parallel Lines" Never heard of Mafia, I see. Also GTA IV and, surprisingly, Just Cause 2. All pretty realistic in their own right (Mafia 2 is pretty much perfect, I'd say)
@@sergiomairos23 Mafia 1 driving > Mafia 2 driving. Also GTA IV is the only game with more realistic body sway and damage model. The worst part about GTA IV is the wide turn radius.
I like the wanted level system in this game. If you get the wanted level on you and not the car, but manage to get a car unseen then the cops will suspect you when drive near them. If that suspect bar fills then they chase you again. It mimics the cops looking through car windows. I like it. But if you get in a car with it's top down or get a bike then they'll see you right away.
The intro for Driver improved family relations for me since it's basically how my mom taught me how to drive when I was 7 or so. I didn't understand any of the driving terms so could never figure out what to do. One day my mom saw me struggling with it for awhile. Fortunately she knows driving stuff pretty well and taught me how to do all of the moves on the list. I like to think I drive so well in most games thanks to my mom helping me learn such stuff at an early age.
Finally, you review this game. This game brings so much nostalgia. I remember rage quitting on that Bishop boss mission with the tank. Also this game cutscene is way ahead of its time. That era change cutscene is iconic. I remember getting blown away by how good it looks.
This is one of my favorite games on the PS2. The sound track was amazing and the cut scenes still hold up. Same as the first two driver games the cutscenes are solid
Yup, if Driv3r was a love or hate game, this was like a "jack of all trades, master of none". I personally enjoyed it a lot, and yes, the soundtrack was god tier.
So many fond memories of this game, the first 'Driver' title I ever completed - I only ever drove around in 1, 2 & 3 as I was too young/found them too difficult to complete any missions (no I couldn't do the car park mission in 1) so I was glad at the time that this game was easier. I also love this game for introducing me to all of that fantastic 1970's music. The BBC series 'Life On Mars' was running at roughly the same time so I was being exposed to a lot of 70's influences, so much so that I went out and bought a vintage leather jacket which I wore constantly. Great review, made me dig out my PS2 and jump into the game again so thanks for that!
I've been anticipating this review for a long time and was not expecting to have my true memories of the game to be brought into the light. I had been remembering the hours upon hours I spent tinkering in the garage and driving those slippery circuits, fondly, and hoping to say, "Yeah this guy gets it!". But you now have me remembering how I lamented the crowded roads jammed up at red lights, the overzealous police keeping me in near constant pursuit, the brain dead tutorials, and in hindsight maybe I did spend so much time on the circuit because the missions didn't hold my attention. Well, San Fransisco is my favorite of the series so until then I'll clutch my minimme body pillow in anticipation of having my opinions validated (or crushed, heck I don't know)
Thank you. This has got to be one of my favorite Driver games in the series. I've always wanted this to get a sequel, a remake, or a spiritual successor of some sort.
Driver Parallel Lines is one of my favorite games, with a variety of mechanics, the story, the concept of going from the 70s to the 2000s, graphically it looked pretty good. I remember that after having played many hours in GTA SA I was looking for another equally fun sandbox, and in Driver Parallel Lines I found one of the best games that have come out for its generation. The graphics, the story, the weapons, the cars, so many good things in this game, In addition to a soundtrack that seems very good to me today, I think that one of the songs that most resonates in my head is "Sealings" from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, just remembering that song and the moments driving on the streets of New York from Driver Parallel Lines is a great feeling
Picked this up recently, and finished it in less than 10 hours. Game was surprisingly short from when I first played it back in the day! But this game was an underrated gem of its time. Sure it has it's jank and bad features (the video gamey-video game feels, flat-ness of New York, the awkward gunplay, the 2000's soundtrack, among others), but the story and plot, the time-skip mechanic, and the trademark car handling mechanics of the Driver franchise are surprisingly solid! Say what they want, the game does have it's own charms. Thanks for covering this, my man! Amazing watch and coverage as always. This made me miss the Driver Series all in all. Sad that we may never get to see it rebooted or remade. Edit: a nice detail is that Prices of car parts and upgrades post time-skip have increased dramatically, thanks to changes in the economy. I remember ending the 70's with a healthy 30k, only finding out many upgrades in the Present can only upgrade half a car with that amount!
I disagree on the car handling aspect, they were far to easy to control then the other Driver games and rather boring as a result. The only changing point I found was due to the controls being twitchy, at higher speeds a lot of the cars are completely incapable of making fine steering adjustments, it made weaving through traffic hard, but not in the fun challenging way the previous titles did.
@@scottthewaterwarrior That's fair. It did feel like controls was dampened for an 'easier to get into' experience, but it still did feel weighty and hard to make turns at high speeds like the previous titles. I agree, it gets boring to drive since it feels more simplified, but it still is interesting to see some trademark properties of vehicles from the previous games still apply to Parallel Lines.
@@scottthewaterwarrior Absolutely agree. I grew up playing Driver Parallel Lines and I love everything about it but... only after doing a full playthrough of DRIV3R. I finally realised how boring Driver Parallel Lines car handling is, most cars tend to feel the same, cars feel light and not as heavy like in DRIV3R, in Driv3r it can be easy to make mistakes or spin out when doing a burnout so as a result it makes the game more engaging. On the other hand with Driver Parallel Lines I don't have to put any effort into taking on corners - its too easy.
@@rlfpotatoking9253 Yeah, corners take little to no effort, while high speed straight lines were actually hard. The slightest tap of the joystick would send you across two lanes.
Somehow Parallel Lines was one of the first games with guns I played as a kid. I never got very far into it but I still played it for a lot of hours lol.
It's on Steam? Nice. I had this on Playstation 2, in a limited edition steelbook with the soundtrack CD. Too bad that this game has a steep difficulty curve, otherwise I would have played it more.
Damn, this is a said little story about a game that tries to just hide itself among everything else. Hope to see what you think on the prequel to this sometime!
I gotta say, as an Australian myself, I often really dislike Australian accents on TV or some popular youtubers due to how performative they sound. But you sound really genuine and I enjoy listening to your videos a lot. Not to mention the unique content and consistent great quality in your vids, keep it up!
I remember this being one of the last Xbox games I grabbed. I played the hell out of it and used to love just cruising around NY and causing some chaos and customizing cars. I know it deviates from the Driver formula abit, its undoubtedly my favorite in the series personally. Its just such a wild ride of a game imo
@@Clay3613 Well for me it is because I actually like the handling model of that game. Sliding in Driver PL wasn't as fun, and overall the driving felt quite twitchy. There is responsive handling, and then there is "I just lightly tapped the joystick and the car swerved over an entire lane" and Driver PL is the latter.
Oh man does this brings me back, this and Driver 2 are my big two in the series, I loved Driver 3 however I was one that got in the car and just drove around never played much of the campaign! Great video and thanks for the nostalgia!
Omg I have been waiting so long for an upload from you!! Thankyou. Hopefully a Harry potter game deep dive is in the future. Would love to see the evolution with the new Harry potter coming out!
I bought this on Steam a couple months ago for like $3. Haven't installed it yet, been busy on the backlog, but was super worth it to have an accessible piece of my childhood. I'd like to get a PS2 for my kids and knab this for my son to play how I did... Start them right ;) I also still have my PC copy of Driver 1. I shared it with a Retro group last night lol
man i love this game so much! i couldnt play gta because there wasnt one in the wii but the guy at the game store was like "u want to play gta on wii? try this!" and it was really cool lol
Very underrated game! I just beat it again last week and then now you have posted a video about it! I never played the PlayStation 2 version, although I heard good things from the people that I knew who owned it, I have always had the Wii version and I recommend it
I played this whole game together with my uncle on Wii. I would hold the wiimote and he would hold the nunchuk lol. We cleared the whole game like this, it was amazingly fun. Yes, the soundtrack is absurdly good! This game and Skate 3 really influenced my music taste
Can't wait for C.O.P. The Recruit retrospective episode A rather obscure game which re-uses DPL map and some assets, but didn't belongs to Driver series at all. I think it would be interesting to uncover that piece of Driver history.
DRIV3R (UNAVA) is the best game of the series it was insane realistic in 2005, i played the first mission as a kid and it reflected life you are young and life is ahead of you, just like you its dawn there is your house, your car and you go explore the world. Also great ost
Damn... The memories I have with this game. Racing, creating chaos blasting "One way or another", the fact that I played it in spanish for some reason so TK was "Chico" for me, cheat codes... I miss this game
9:24 Hi John Pete Correction: In the console version of Driv3r you can shoot while driving a car and Boat both select missions and free roam. For whatever reason you can't on PC, only on select missions can you fire while driving. (Unless I'm dumb and wrong my self please correct me as well) Anyway gnarly review
Well you can shoot from a car in certain missions where you have a passenger/buddy with you. By yourself is not possible. And on PC it is still possible to shoot out of the boats with a pistol and MAC-10
Hello John Jeff Schleg Like Kilo said, in certain missions the passenger can shoot out the window and you control their firing, but you yourself can not fire while driving. Thanks you for your comment and kind words, John pete
@@minimme Hi John Minimme Pete I apologize for the misinfo, I was ready to put my hand on the bible and say you are able to shoot while in a vehicle in free ride mode but I was wrong. Sorry for the inconvenience - Jeremy the Basketball coach
@@minimme To be fair, I think the "drive by" mechanic (shooting out of cars) is a very cheap mechanic in video games that just never feels right. Like, who shoots guns out of cars consistently? Either drive, or be on foot and shoot.
The 2000's soundtrack is a proper time capsule of 00's new York music. It's not a downgrade from the 70s in any way. Interested to see if you do a video on the Driver 76 game for the PSP. I always liked that one. Franchise wise it's okay, but considering it does everything this game does, but on a PSP, I was always impressed with it.
The music in 78 feels a lot more like a romanticization of 1978, making it seem a lot more happy (which fits into the story) but the music in 06 sounds way more revenge-focused, angry, etc to also fit TK's emotions during that era. Probably the reason I never got attached to the 06 music though, it sounds waaay more "im a special snowflake" than the music in 78
@@5Puff Dude i mean it's 2000's what do you expect alot of band did that back in the day, i grew up in 2000's. Rock music in 2000's sucks compared the one from 70's to 80's i mean it's not even secret.
oh man I remember all the way back then, those CG cutscenes fooled me. I thought for a long while that it was live-action and then realized "wait that's CG"
Gatekeeping is not a negative thing, it's necessary to keep something from turning into a generic product for the masses, as opposed to the thing you like it as now. Gate keep your hobbies, if you don't they'll be ruined
I'd cry happy tears if they turned around and rebooted the Driver series but after hearing Ubi's comments a few months back regarding the TV show I'm guessing we won't see that happening any time soon...
I miss when there was so many complete arcade street-based driving games. Driver, Grand Theft Auto, Twisted Metal, Burnout Midnight Club, Need For Speed, Juiced, SRS, and Crazy Taxi Glad I kept them all
I remember my biggest disappointment in this game was the removal of the film director as it was the biggest thing I spent endless hours messing around with and making short car chase videos.
Personally, I think had _Driv3r_ released with _Parallel Lines'_ on foot mechanics, albeit retaining the ability to swim and jump, it would have fared a lot better than it did.
1:15 I always hate that argument of games. If a game wastes hours of my time, why should I want to go through it. At most, it should be good in a most 2 hours. Cause there are games that 2 hours long that are fun throughout the entire game
I bought it for 2€ and really enjoyed Driver Parallel Lines. But honestly, Driver 3 has much more charme and I just love it for nostalgic reasons, even with all its bugs and glitches.
I got Driver Parallel Lines first but also enjoy Driv3r a lot more. On paper, parallel lines has a lot more to do, but unfortunately none of it is excicuted very well. While there might not be a whole lot to do in Driv3r outside of the story besides messing around/exploring, the more interesting levels combined with the more challenging driving model makes that far more interesting then the busy work side missions in PL.
I used to play this game a lot with my brother, he loved it. I didn't really play it for the story, but I liked the 70's era and I still remember some great songs from the soundrack too.
Everyone who has ever played a racing game, roller skated, taken a driving course, or watched the Olympics, knows what a slalom is. However. Great video MiniMe!
Very good observations on this favorite of mine in the entire series although I tend to place it in a higher status than yourself. The game in the series with the greatest missteps to me is "Driver San Francisco" which had so much potential but the absurd story arc tied to jumping from one car to the next (cheating basically in any race as you can simply keep skipping ahead of the pack) ruined any sense of immersion & realism for me personally. I never did finish it but did complete all the prior games as they were grounded in terrific stories & characters. I also found the cut scenes in "Driver Parallel Lines" very well crafted compared to.most games at the time & the simply HUD details of the speedometer, etc were a nice clean touch. I agree it does have a lot more video gamey graphical elements throughout but aside from that I loved the clean choice of fonts, graphic design, color & certainly the music selection! A very enjoyable profile my friend as the series is one of my favorites to this day!
The best things Driver SF had: -A really nice selection of licensed cars. -Nice driving (not fan of the boost and ramming mechanics though). -Online multiplayer. -No bugs at all. . Other than that, I think in terms of plot, soundtrack, on-foot gameplay and a few other things, Driv3r and Parallel Lines did it better.
@@spiderjerusalem1019 I agree except when it comes to the online multiplayer part. Though not the fact that it had it, just that it felt like a major missed opportunity. Driver SF online badly needed a system closer to Burnout Paradise: laid back open world freeroaming with the host having the ability to start cooperative challenges, races, and games. And obviously the inclusion of a waypoint editor so players could create their own custom race tracks.
@@scottthewaterwarrior "Driver SF" had a great array of real licensed cars & vehicles, I spent hours just getting into Police chases or doing random stunt jumps, etc, I just hated the odd way out story & Shift mechanic taking over vehicles at will.
Best possible gift I could've gotten for my birthday! I love both Drivers 3 and Parallel Lines, but I do agree with you on most of the points you made. I always wonder about an alternate timeline where a Driver 4 came out rather than PL, but still I wouldn't trade this game off for it
Great game, love game, Great storyline, Great Characters, Great map Big apple, Great soundtracks 70s and 06s music, Great handling cars, and customisation, Great missions and Side missions, It Classic Game 2006 game
Love shootlock on much better Driv3r, U dont get control traffic on consoles bit disappointed ,Yeah Driver PL little bit easier than Driv3r, Driver was hard game
This is my favorite for the options it offers from customizing cars to shooting while driving and the story is great. Freedom live openworld I'm still playing it and discovering the location of challenges and completing them and collecting stars. Never bothered as a kid back then.
Do you ever want to make a video on Watch Dogs, considering it's engine was built for a would-be driver sequel? I would love a review of the game that focusses on and goes in depth on the driving mechanics, it would be a really cool angle
I absolutely love it when a game either does a massive plot twist where something significant happens to the protagonist, or you change player characters and then the HUD's style completely changes to reflect this. Another example of this is Quake 4. Initially for the first part of the game the HUD is in a blocky green style to reflect the space marine aesthetic of the protagonist. However half way through the game *something* happens to the protagonist that completely changes them for the rest of the game and to reflect this the HUD permanently changes to a more angular orange style. I also just in general love it when a game with multiple player characters give unique HUDs for each of them to reflect them such as what Halo does in Halo 2 and 5 (and 3 to a lesser extent.)
I really enjoyed the racing in circuits, especially the off-road ones. I also really appreciate vehicle tuning being included in the game, not just visual; but also suspension spring rates, gear ratio, etcetera. If you want to you could probably make your car more bouncy and slidey ala old + SF driver games style handling by softening the suspension. I like that you have more opportunity to ride bikes in this game as well.
I remember loving and still love Parallel lines. and I loved Driver 3 because of the bugs it had and how weird it was in general for control and movement when on foot I had so much fun braking that game. Driver Parallel lines is a really good solid game
I'll never forget the first time I played Parallel Lines. Hearing Suffragette City for the first time and then my mum overhearing me playing it was a great bonding experience
I had some fond memories of this game playing it when i was about 8 years old. I knew about the time change but I never got past the 70's when I was a kid so when I finally got around to playing this game again a full decade later my mind managed to be blown a good bit, especially when I heard that they had an MF DOOM song in the game. I had fond memories of this game but after I did that second playthrough and finally finished the game it felt so uniquely charming and different from anything I have played in recent years, nostalgia and something new at the same time. Even though the game was incredibly easy to the point of being sleep inducing at times, I thought it was a pretty good experience all the way through. I love this game quite a lot.
Really interesting to learn about this game, I only played San Francisco and watched a couple people play Driver 3 after hearing how bad it was. Never realized this game came out to basically try to "make up" for Driver 3. Really excited to see the video on SF!
This game's assets would later be used in it's PSP port, Driver 76. Maybe there could be a video about that one, since that PSP game and Parallel Lines are similar, although made by different developers.
![Driver 3 - All cutscenes (game movie) [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JsKAXiV79nM/mqdefault.jpg)
![Driver 3 - All cutscenes (game movie) [HD]](/img/tr.png)
I love the concept of having both a 1970's and 2000's New York City to explore. It isn't really fully realised here; it's brown in one era and blue in the other, and the World Trade Center is there in one and not in the other, and that's 90% of the differences, but I really want to see more games do this kind of immersive time period switch.
Yeah, its a smaller approach in this game, others just go wild making you travel around very different times. Chrono trigger for example, each era has significant changes but you can tell you still being in the same world.
The idea is great, but this game crash landed the result.
If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?
The cars and guns are different, too. The change actually feels pretty cool. Love the 70s vibe, but the cars in 2006 are also great. Not many open world games with AMG Mercedes and Chevy suburbans
@@isaacster5027
Yeah, but the problem of parallel lines there is that cars aren’t that different to drive and that the “gun play “ is seriously undermined by the gameplay itself.
It's still my favorite Driver game even though I love them all. For some reason, this one just clicked hard with me and I particularly loved that you could store all found vehicles and customize them with a pretty good amount of options. I spent hours and hours just scouring the map looking for every different vehicle I could, bringing it back to Ray's, and customizing them. I would grind the races to the point of insanity to get the money for it all. I did particularly like the 70's era more, but I remember back then when I was 11 playing this game being absolutely blown away when I realized that you could now play the game in 2006 era with completely different cars and everything. I still feel like this game was sold short by allot of people. I found it absolutely fantastic. Even though they tweaked the driving physics to be a little lighter and more responsive, it's still amazing how there's still pretty much no GTA or clone out there that comes near the physics of Driver Parallel Lines and the ones before it.
Next up, San Francisco. A freaking masterpiece. Can't wait for the video.
Tbh the money was so annoying to me. Races barely give you shit. If it were easier to make money in game, I so would've enjoyed the customization system
@@isaacster5027 Can't speak for the 70s era but I remember the 06 era having a hitman activity which earned like 20k every time you did it so you could just do that over and over again.
@@isaacster5027 Its extremely easy? There is a thing called "Perfect Driver Bonus" or that trophy in the stats menu.
You get a lot of money for completing a side activity quickly, but only once per activity, nevertheless I still have my money maxed out from those. And I said "easy" but some of those can push you to your limits...
"there's still no GTA or clone out there that comes near the physics of Driver Parallel Lines"
Never heard of Mafia, I see. Also GTA IV and, surprisingly, Just Cause 2. All pretty realistic in their own right (Mafia 2 is pretty much perfect, I'd say)
@@sergiomairos23 Mafia 1 driving > Mafia 2 driving. Also GTA IV is the only game with more realistic body sway and damage model. The worst part about GTA IV is the wide turn radius.
I like the wanted level system in this game. If you get the wanted level on you and not the car, but manage to get a car unseen then the cops will suspect you when drive near them. If that suspect bar fills then they chase you again. It mimics the cops looking through car windows. I like it. But if you get in a car with it's top down or get a bike then they'll see you right away.
coming from Driver 3, that is the only aspect of the game I liked. Well, that and Sufforage City..
I really love your willingness to dig into development history.
Adds so much to why game turned out to be
The intro for Driver improved family relations for me since it's basically how my mom taught me how to drive when I was 7 or so.
I didn't understand any of the driving terms so could never figure out what to do. One day my mom saw me struggling with it for awhile. Fortunately she knows driving stuff pretty well and taught me how to do all of the moves on the list.
I like to think I drive so well in most games thanks to my mom helping me learn such stuff at an early age.
I remember hearing Tribulations by LCD Soundsystem in Parallel Lines and falling down the rabbit hole into them becoming my favorite band lol
Finally, you review this game. This game brings so much nostalgia. I remember rage quitting on that Bishop boss mission with the tank. Also this game cutscene is way ahead of its time. That era change cutscene is iconic. I remember getting blown away by how good it looks.
You mean the cgi cutscene?
They should have put more in game narrative, and maybe not have weird looking characters
And that music choice is impeccable in that era change
@@1r0zz yep the cgi. Agreed the weird character design take away from the realistic cutscene. Should have gone the realistic route
@@MrHAZZA821 yeah yeah yeah Is a banger song
Yeah, I also didn't have the one hand grenade launcher so it wasn't a walk in the park for me.
I've been waiting for this one, Parallel Lines is the one that no one seems to talk much about
Yeah I didn't even know it was real
Its because how generic it is. Why the hell talk about generic shit? Its pointless.
@jbiehlable I was 10, but I didn't even know about driver until nick Robinson's video about driver SF.
@jbiehlable maybe it's because i only had nintendo consoles until i bought a ps2 in 2008 just to play kingdom hearts lol
@@beardalaxy Driver parallel lines was also on wii and I think it has the best shooting controlls.
This is one of my favorite games on the PS2. The sound track was amazing and the cut scenes still hold up. Same as the first two driver games the cutscenes are solid
Yup, if Driv3r was a love or hate game, this was like a "jack of all trades, master of none".
I personally enjoyed it a lot, and yes, the soundtrack was god tier.
So many fond memories of this game, the first 'Driver' title I ever completed - I only ever drove around in 1, 2 & 3 as I was too young/found them too difficult to complete any missions (no I couldn't do the car park mission in 1) so I was glad at the time that this game was easier.
I also love this game for introducing me to all of that fantastic 1970's music. The BBC series 'Life On Mars' was running at roughly the same time so I was being exposed to a lot of 70's influences, so much so that I went out and bought a vintage leather jacket which I wore constantly.
Great review, made me dig out my PS2 and jump into the game again so thanks for that!
I've been anticipating this review for a long time and was not expecting to have my true memories of the game to be brought into the light. I had been remembering the hours upon hours I spent tinkering in the garage and driving those slippery circuits, fondly, and hoping to say, "Yeah this guy gets it!". But you now have me remembering how I lamented the crowded roads jammed up at red lights, the overzealous police keeping me in near constant pursuit, the brain dead tutorials, and in hindsight maybe I did spend so much time on the circuit because the missions didn't hold my attention. Well, San Fransisco is my favorite of the series so until then I'll clutch my minimme body pillow in anticipation of having my opinions validated (or crushed, heck I don't know)
I was soooooooo hoping you'd cover this one, I love the frick out of this franchise
Thank you. This has got to be one of my favorite Driver games in the series. I've always wanted this to get a sequel, a remake, or a spiritual successor of some sort.
Driver 76 was the closest we got!
@@nosidezero Yeah. That one was enjoyable as well. Kinda sucks we didn't get anymore good portable Driver games (besides Cop on the DS).
Driver Parallel Lines is one of my favorite games, with a variety of mechanics, the story, the concept of going from the 70s to the 2000s, graphically it looked pretty good.
I remember that after having played many hours in GTA SA I was looking for another equally fun sandbox, and in Driver Parallel Lines I found one of the best games that have come out for its generation.
The graphics, the story, the weapons, the cars, so many good things in this game, In addition to a soundtrack that seems very good to me today, I think that one of the songs that most resonates in my head is "Sealings" from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, just remembering that song and the moments driving on the streets of New York from Driver Parallel Lines is a great feeling
Ah I’ve been waiting for this one
Definitely my favorite driver game
Picked this up recently, and finished it in less than 10 hours. Game was surprisingly short from when I first played it back in the day!
But this game was an underrated gem of its time. Sure it has it's jank and bad features (the video gamey-video game feels, flat-ness of New York, the awkward gunplay, the 2000's soundtrack, among others), but the story and plot, the time-skip mechanic, and the trademark car handling mechanics of the Driver franchise are surprisingly solid! Say what they want, the game does have it's own charms.
Thanks for covering this, my man! Amazing watch and coverage as always. This made me miss the Driver Series all in all. Sad that we may never get to see it rebooted or remade.
Edit: a nice detail is that Prices of car parts and upgrades post time-skip have increased dramatically, thanks to changes in the economy. I remember ending the 70's with a healthy 30k, only finding out many upgrades in the Present can only upgrade half a car with that amount!
I disagree on the car handling aspect, they were far to easy to control then the other Driver games and rather boring as a result. The only changing point I found was due to the controls being twitchy, at higher speeds a lot of the cars are completely incapable of making fine steering adjustments, it made weaving through traffic hard, but not in the fun challenging way the previous titles did.
@@scottthewaterwarrior That's fair. It did feel like controls was dampened for an 'easier to get into' experience, but it still did feel weighty and hard to make turns at high speeds like the previous titles. I agree, it gets boring to drive since it feels more simplified, but it still is interesting to see some trademark properties of vehicles from the previous games still apply to Parallel Lines.
@@scottthewaterwarrior Absolutely agree. I grew up playing Driver Parallel Lines and I love everything about it but... only after doing a full playthrough of DRIV3R. I finally realised how boring Driver Parallel Lines car handling is, most cars tend to feel the same, cars feel light and not as heavy like in DRIV3R, in Driv3r it can be easy to make mistakes or spin out when doing a burnout so as a result it makes the game more engaging. On the other hand with Driver Parallel Lines I don't have to put any effort into taking on corners - its too easy.
@@rlfpotatoking9253 Yeah, corners take little to no effort, while high speed straight lines were actually hard. The slightest tap of the joystick would send you across two lanes.
You didn't like the 00's soundtrack? It had some nice tunes
this channel is in my top 10 favs. I love the topics you touch and your style. all I can say is THANK YOU!!
Somehow Parallel Lines was one of the first games with guns I played as a kid. I never got very far into it but I still played it for a lot of hours lol.
Recently bought it on steam for like 2.50€. Not the best Driver game but still quite a good game for a single playtrough.👍🏻
It's actually the best
Where's my 2.50? You clapped my cheeks and didn't even make payment
It's on Steam? Nice.
I had this on Playstation 2, in a limited edition steelbook with the soundtrack CD. Too bad that this game has a steep difficulty curve, otherwise I would have played it more.
Do you think Driver '76 deserves its own video somewhere in the future?
I'm considering it but probably - I remember thinking it was a neat little game way back when but I also remember liking Parallel Lines a lot more too
@@minimme what about driver san francisco, the missing driver game?
@@NOOSE2008 he already did
@@aliatef7203 nuh uh
Damn, this is a said little story about a game that tries to just hide itself among everything else. Hope to see what you think on the prequel to this sometime!
I gotta say, as an Australian myself, I often really dislike Australian accents on TV or some popular youtubers due to how performative they sound. But you sound really genuine and I enjoy listening to your videos a lot. Not to mention the unique content and consistent great quality in your vids, keep it up!
I remember this being one of the last Xbox games I grabbed. I played the hell out of it and used to love just cruising around NY and causing some chaos and customizing cars. I know it deviates from the Driver formula abit, its undoubtedly my favorite in the series personally. Its just such a wild ride of a game imo
I will always consider Parallel Lines to be an objectively good game and no one can convince me otherwise.
I'm saying this without any nostalgia.
this is one of the best game from that genre for the ps2 ever made in that time
This is a very no nonsense, straightforward game. They accomplished what they set out to do. And yeah, very fun.
@@TheSultan1470 wish they remake it for the ps4 imagine how fun
Naaa.
I need to get around to this one. Every time I try to start a game I loose interest and end up playing Driver 2 again lol.
How the hell can you wanna play a much harder game?
@@Clay3613 Well for me it is because I actually like the handling model of that game. Sliding in Driver PL wasn't as fun, and overall the driving felt quite twitchy. There is responsive handling, and then there is "I just lightly tapped the joystick and the car swerved over an entire lane" and Driver PL is the latter.
@@Clay3613 Pathetic
@@nordicrain he could be sarcastic.
man, driver 2 needs a remaster with decent frame rate and draw distance. that game was special back in the day, imho.
The 70's era has a lot of charisma its just awesome
I've been waiting for this specific video review for so long!
Fun fact: Parallel Lines is the name of the Blondie album that features "One Way or Another".
Love your retrospective vids, they're always the perfect mix of nostalgia and analysis.
Oh man does this brings me back, this and Driver 2 are my big two in the series, I loved Driver 3 however I was one that got in the car and just drove around never played much of the campaign! Great video and thanks for the nostalgia!
I did love the race track bit of this game. It much more of my attention than it probably deserved but I was having a blast.
Omg I have been waiting so long for an upload from you!! Thankyou. Hopefully a Harry potter game deep dive is in the future. Would love to see the evolution with the new Harry potter coming out!
I bought this on Steam a couple months ago for like $3. Haven't installed it yet, been busy on the backlog, but was super worth it to have an accessible piece of my childhood. I'd like to get a PS2 for my kids and knab this for my son to play how I did... Start them right ;) I also still have my PC copy of Driver 1. I shared it with a Retro group last night lol
man i love this game so much! i couldnt play gta because there wasnt one in the wii but the guy at the game store was like "u want to play gta on wii? try this!" and it was really cool lol
Very underrated game! I just beat it again last week and then now you have posted a video about it! I never played the PlayStation 2 version, although I heard good things from the people that I knew who owned it, I have always had the Wii version and I recommend it
oh wow, parallel lines does NOT look like it plays how I remember. I do still have some slink voice lines kicking around in my head though
That "You're a funny guy" line from TK will stay with me forever lol, it's so strangely timed and delivered
BAM!
I played this whole game together with my uncle on Wii. I would hold the wiimote and he would hold the nunchuk lol. We cleared the whole game like this, it was amazingly fun. Yes, the soundtrack is absurdly good! This game and Skate 3 really influenced my music taste
Ahh yes! A new minimme video. And it's about Driver even! This will be a nice treat for my dinner!
Can't wait for C.O.P. The Recruit retrospective episode
A rather obscure game which re-uses DPL map and some assets, but didn't belongs to Driver series at all. I think it would be interesting to uncover that piece of Driver history.
Love the nostalgia in your videos, even with games i never play. ha thanks for the upload!!
Great video, you gave this game the in depth discussion that to my knowledge not may have
DRIV3R (UNAVA) is the best game of the series it was insane realistic in 2005, i played the first mission as a kid and it reflected life you are young and life is ahead of you, just like you its dawn there is your house, your car and you go explore the world. Also great ost
Wake up everyone, minimme posted a new view; and it's a Driver video.
Damn... The memories I have with this game. Racing, creating chaos blasting "One way or another", the fact that I played it in spanish for some reason so TK was "Chico" for me, cheat codes... I miss this game
9:24 Hi John Pete
Correction: In the console version of Driv3r you can shoot while driving a car and Boat both select missions and free roam. For whatever reason you can't on PC, only on select missions can you fire while driving. (Unless I'm dumb and wrong my self please correct me as well)
Anyway gnarly review
Well you can shoot from a car in certain missions where you have a passenger/buddy with you. By yourself is not possible.
And on PC it is still possible to shoot out of the boats with a pistol and MAC-10
Hello John Jeff Schleg
Like Kilo said, in certain missions the passenger can shoot out the window and you control their firing, but you yourself can not fire while driving.
Thanks you for your comment and kind words,
John pete
@@minimme Hi John Minimme Pete
I apologize for the misinfo, I was ready to put my hand on the bible and say you are able to shoot while in a vehicle in free ride mode but I was wrong. Sorry for the inconvenience
- Jeremy the Basketball coach
@@minimme To be fair, I think the "drive by" mechanic (shooting out of cars) is a very cheap mechanic in video games that just never feels right. Like, who shoots guns out of cars consistently? Either drive, or be on foot and shoot.
The 2000's soundtrack is a proper time capsule of 00's new York music. It's not a downgrade from the 70s in any way.
Interested to see if you do a video on the Driver 76 game for the PSP. I always liked that one. Franchise wise it's okay, but considering it does everything this game does, but on a PSP, I was always impressed with it.
Yeah, exactly. The music in the 00's era is a lot like Radio Broker in GTA IV, plenty of contemporary rock music.
The music in 78 feels a lot more like a romanticization of 1978, making it seem a lot more happy (which fits into the story) but the music in 06 sounds way more revenge-focused, angry, etc to also fit TK's emotions during that era. Probably the reason I never got attached to the 06 music though, it sounds waaay more "im a special snowflake" than the music in 78
@@5Puff Haha, lots of hipster rock in 2006, yeah
@@5Puff Dude i mean it's 2000's what do you expect alot of band did that back in the day, i grew up in 2000's. Rock music in 2000's sucks compared the one from 70's to 80's i mean it's not even secret.
oh man I remember all the way back then, those CG cutscenes fooled me. I thought for a long while that it was live-action and then realized "wait that's CG"
Would be great to see Driver SF next
Gatekeeping is not a negative thing, it's necessary to keep something from turning into a generic product for the masses, as opposed to the thing you like it as now. Gate keep your hobbies, if you don't they'll be ruined
Police Information Gain System. Now thats a easter egg.
that's the reason why I love this game a lot more because of that.
I want another game set in 70s New York soooool badly. A ton of potential there for an epic open world experience.
The Godfather?
Excellent Retrospective, I couldn't agree more. This game was...... fun. That's about all I've got to say about it
I'd cry happy tears if they turned around and rebooted the Driver series but after hearing Ubi's comments a few months back regarding the TV show I'm guessing we won't see that happening any time soon...
tv show?
I miss when there was so many complete arcade street-based driving games.
Driver, Grand Theft Auto, Twisted Metal, Burnout Midnight Club, Need For Speed, Juiced, SRS, and Crazy Taxi
Glad I kept them all
I remember my biggest disappointment in this game was the removal of the film director as it was the biggest thing I spent endless hours messing around with and making short car chase videos.
Personally, I think had _Driv3r_ released with _Parallel Lines'_ on foot mechanics, albeit retaining the ability to swim and jump, it would have fared a lot better than it did.
wow what an incredible video wowee
1:15 I always hate that argument of games. If a game wastes hours of my time, why should I want to go through it. At most, it should be good in a most 2 hours. Cause there are games that 2 hours long that are fun throughout the entire game
Oh wow didn't need to wait 2 years for this :)
Are you also gonna talk about the PSP Spin off driver 76? It's decent but pretty short
I bought it for 2€ and really enjoyed Driver Parallel Lines.
But honestly, Driver 3 has much more charme and I just love it for nostalgic reasons, even with all its bugs and glitches.
I got Driver Parallel Lines first but also enjoy Driv3r a lot more. On paper, parallel lines has a lot more to do, but unfortunately none of it is excicuted very well. While there might not be a whole lot to do in Driv3r outside of the story besides messing around/exploring, the more interesting levels combined with the more challenging driving model makes that far more interesting then the busy work side missions in PL.
Thank the lord you finally made this. This is a game I still tell people how fantastic it is to this day
Ahh the best Driver game finally
You are masterful at writing about games
people hate this game because it's gta clone. but i love this game, i played it with my brother and i didn't see any bad things about this game
*throws my Parallel Lines video in the trash*
What about Barnyard?
I like that I discovered both you and Mr Sunday Movies independently of each other.
Can’t wait for your Driver: San Francisco Retrospective!
I used to play this game a lot with my brother, he loved it. I didn't really play it for the story, but I liked the 70's era and I still remember some great songs from the soundrack too.
San Francisco (Wii version) has a similar opening car park level, interestingly.
Damn I only ever rented this game once back in the day, didn't know you eventually jumped forward in time. That's dope. Need to find me a copy now.
Everyone who has ever played a racing game, roller skated, taken a driving course, or watched the Olympics, knows what a slalom is.
However. Great video MiniMe!
Slalom just means zigzag fyi, for the handfull of people wondering
Very good observations on this favorite of mine in the entire series although I tend to place it in a higher status than yourself. The game in the series with the greatest missteps to me is "Driver San Francisco" which had so much potential but the absurd story arc tied to jumping from one car to the next (cheating basically in any race as you can simply keep skipping ahead of the pack) ruined any sense of immersion & realism for me personally. I never did finish it but did complete all the prior games as they were grounded in terrific stories & characters. I also found the cut scenes in "Driver Parallel Lines" very well crafted compared to.most games at the time & the simply HUD details of the speedometer, etc were a nice clean touch. I agree it does have a lot more video gamey graphical elements throughout but aside from that I loved the clean choice of fonts, graphic design, color & certainly the music selection!
A very enjoyable profile my friend as the series is one of my favorites to this day!
The best things Driver SF had:
-A really nice selection of licensed cars.
-Nice driving (not fan of the boost and ramming mechanics though).
-Online multiplayer.
-No bugs at all.
.
Other than that, I think in terms of plot, soundtrack, on-foot gameplay and a few other things, Driv3r and Parallel Lines did it better.
@@spiderjerusalem1019 Driver SF removing the on-foot combat was a good thing
@@superdrinkingpepsi Replacing it with weird coma astral possesion wasn´t.
@@spiderjerusalem1019 I agree except when it comes to the online multiplayer part. Though not the fact that it had it, just that it felt like a major missed opportunity. Driver SF online badly needed a system closer to Burnout Paradise: laid back open world freeroaming with the host having the ability to start cooperative challenges, races, and games. And obviously the inclusion of a waypoint editor so players could create their own custom race tracks.
@@scottthewaterwarrior "Driver SF" had a great array of real licensed cars & vehicles, I spent hours just getting into Police chases or doing random stunt jumps, etc, I just hated the odd way out story & Shift mechanic taking over vehicles at will.
I hope we see a Mercenaries POD & 007 Nightfire review someday.
What absolute atmospheric masterpieces.
Awesome classic! Love to see these old racing game! Smashed that like! Have a nice rest of the weekend🎃😃🔥👍
I beat the car park tutorial when I was 7 idk why everyone had a problem with it
This is my favorite driver game of all time its highly underrated Parallel Lines was legendary. The story gameplay and driver was super fun.
Best possible gift I could've gotten for my birthday! I love both Drivers 3 and Parallel Lines, but I do agree with you on most of the points you made. I always wonder about an alternate timeline where a Driver 4 came out rather than PL, but still I wouldn't trade this game off for it
Great game, love game, Great storyline, Great Characters, Great map Big apple, Great soundtracks 70s and 06s music, Great handling cars, and customisation, Great missions and Side missions, It Classic Game 2006 game
Love shootlock on much better Driv3r, U dont get control traffic on consoles bit disappointed ,Yeah Driver PL little bit easier than Driv3r, Driver was hard game
This is my favorite for the options it offers from customizing cars to shooting while driving and the story is great. Freedom live openworld
I'm still playing it and discovering the location of challenges and completing them and collecting stars. Never bothered as a kid back then.
Do you ever want to make a video on Watch Dogs, considering it's engine was built for a would-be driver sequel? I would love a review of the game that focusses on and goes in depth on the driving mechanics, it would be a really cool angle
I absolutely love it when a game either does a massive plot twist where something significant happens to the protagonist, or you change player characters and then the HUD's style completely changes to reflect this. Another example of this is Quake 4. Initially for the first part of the game the HUD is in a blocky green style to reflect the space marine aesthetic of the protagonist. However half way through the game *something* happens to the protagonist that completely changes them for the rest of the game and to reflect this the HUD permanently changes to a more angular orange style.
I also just in general love it when a game with multiple player characters give unique HUDs for each of them to reflect them such as what Halo does in Halo 2 and 5 (and 3 to a lesser extent.)
I really enjoyed the racing in circuits, especially the off-road ones. I also really appreciate vehicle tuning being included in the game, not just visual; but also suspension spring rates, gear ratio, etcetera. If you want to you could probably make your car more bouncy and slidey ala old + SF driver games style handling by softening the suspension.
I like that you have more opportunity to ride bikes in this game as well.
DRIV3R and San Fran were the two best games in the series imo. Such a shame we didn't get a follow up to SF
Hello fellow Australian! I use to play this game a lot growing up!
I remember loving and still love Parallel lines. and I loved Driver 3 because of the bugs it had and how weird it was in general for control and movement when on foot I had so much fun braking that game. Driver Parallel lines is a really good solid game
I'll never forget the first time I played Parallel Lines. Hearing Suffragette City for the first time and then my mum overhearing me playing it was a great bonding experience
Driver parallel lines is my favorite driver game and have beat it many times
I love you continuing with the Driver games. Very curious to see your thoughts on Renegade and 76!
I had some fond memories of this game playing it when i was about 8 years old. I knew about the time change but I never got past the 70's when I was a kid so when I finally got around to playing this game again a full decade later my mind managed to be blown a good bit, especially when I heard that they had an MF DOOM song in the game. I had fond memories of this game but after I did that second playthrough and finally finished the game it felt so uniquely charming and different from anything I have played in recent years, nostalgia and something new at the same time. Even though the game was incredibly easy to the point of being sleep inducing at times, I thought it was a pretty good experience all the way through. I love this game quite a lot.
The soundtrack saves the game for me. Can listen to it for hours .
This game has its own indescribable feel to it. It’s great.
I honestly can't believe that people found the tutorial hard in driver 1
Really interesting to learn about this game, I only played San Francisco and watched a couple people play Driver 3 after hearing how bad it was. Never realized this game came out to basically try to "make up" for Driver 3.
Really excited to see the video on SF!
man i was missing ur videos i love them , you do cool reviews
9:37 Fun fact: Vin Diesel Wheelman has ability called "cyclone" where you exactly do that but with slow-mo
This game's assets would later be used in it's PSP port, Driver 76. Maybe there could be a video about that one, since that PSP game and Parallel Lines are similar, although made by different developers.
I loved Driver 76, I seem to remember it being an impressive game for a portable console