Driver: San Francisco Message Board

Ubisoft's Reflections studio, the developers of Driver: San Francisco, Just Dance 3, and currently working on Far Cry 3, has been nominated for an Innovation Award by the UK's Royal Television Society of the North East, spotlighting "exceptional contributions to technological and production innovations." In other words, they produce games real good, ya hear?

The awards will be handed out on Saturday in a ceremony at Newcastle upon Tyne in Northeast England. Reflections also tells Joystiq that the company is growing and hiring at the moment, so if you want to make games and live in the UK (or are willing to move there), there might be an opening for you.

I’ve spent the last few days behind the wheel of the delayed PC version of Reflections’ rebooted car chase game, sinking myself into its open-world singleplayer. I hope to look at multiplayer, which I hear good things about, soon, but meantime here’s what I think of John Tanner’s latest tale of planes, trains automobiles, automobiles and automobiles.(more…)

Driver San Francisco is Now Available on Steam in North, Central and South America and will become available in other regions soon. Please check the store page for release times.

Play as John Tanner, a hardened detective as he takes chase in a relentless manhunt through the City by the Bay and experience the thrill of long drifts, sharp bends and high-speed pursuits!

The Wii has suffered its fair share of shaky ports over the years, not least from Driver: San Francisco's publisher. Yet rather than shoehorn a compromised version of the HD game onto a less capable console, Ubisoft Reflections has opted for a different approach. Though protagonist John Tanner is th...

As a game with possibly the most ridiculous and difficult-to-explain premise of any driving game in history, Driver: San Francisco has a lot to prove. It's difficult to see how a racer in which you can zoom out of your own body and temporarily inhabit any car in the road like a thrill-seeking polter...

#driver Yelawolf, an Alabama rapper signed to Eminem's Shady Records, loves muscle cars. So he must be pretty excited to drive around a real life model of Driver San Francisco's yellow and black Dodge Challenger. More »

Ubisoft have just got in touch with us to say that as a consequence of the extremely negative reaction to the news that Driver: San Francisco, on top of not supporting wheels and being a month late on PC, would have their disgraceful “always on” DRM, that they have changed their mind about the latter. Hooray! I exclaimed. Until I read it more carefully.

“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.”

So, er, what has improved?

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Wow – it actually happened. Eurogamer confirms that Ubisoft have delayed the PC version of Driver: San Francisco. This is after explicitly stating they would not.

To put this in perspective: When Ubisoft announced that Driver: SF would carry their detested and grossly poorly-conceived DRM, a community manager at the @drivergame account helpfully tweeted,

“Bear in mind though that the PC version of DRVSF is released simultaneously to consoles.”

Since then it’s been confirmed that the PC version won’t support wheel peripherals, and just Monday Ubisoft confirmed to us that there will be no PC demo. I was tempted to add in that post, “Now we just have to wait for the inevitable eleventh hour delay”, but that would have been poor form. Turns out it would also have been correct.

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As part of what can now only be interpreted as Ubisoft’s ongoing campaign to ensure Driver: San Francisco is the most hated PC game of all time, not only will it include their abhorrent ‘always-on’ DRM (meaning everyone from those without a reliable internet connection to those in the armed forces can’t play it), but there’s also going to be no demo! The consoles get their demo of the game tomorrow, but according to Ubisoft, “There are no current plans for a PC demo.” When we asked why not we were bluntly told, “We have no information on any PC demo planned.”

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There's a lot of talking in Driver: San Francisco. Much of the game's opening few hours is given over to cutscenes and exposition, setting up undercover cop Tanner's ability to Shift between different cars at will. The action is divided between the real world where we see Tanner in a coma with his partner at his bedside and what's happening in his mind, where he suddenly develops the ability to inhabit other people's bodies (as long as they're behind the wheel of a car)...

Take to San Fran's notoriously twisty streets with Driver: San Francisco, the next installment of the Driver franchise.

An in-depth look at Driver: San Francisco's multiplayer!

Show your team colors in this gameplay.

Prove yourself in this gameplay.

Can you make a clean getaway?

The PC version of Driver: San Francisco requires a constant internet connection in order to play both singleplayer and multiplayer content, Ubisoft confirmed today on its official twitter account...

At a certain point you have to wonder if Ubisoft is in the midst of some spectacular version of a Producers-style attempt to treat PC customers as abysmally as possible for some unknown goal. After bumping PC release dates on their last two games (Call Of Juarez and From Dust) just days before release – rather spitting in the eye of pre-order customers – they’ve now ensured that those looking forward to playing Driver: San Francisco can distract themselves with the knowledge that it will carry Ubisoft’s loathed DRM that requires you always be online to play both single- and multiplayer.

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The forthcoming Driver game (subtitled “San Francisco”, but could probably do with being called “Coma Wars”), has an excellently weird videogame premise: the protagonist is in a coma and, as a consequence of his horrible unconsciousness, can psychically take over any driver in the city. Yes, it’s a game about the psychic danger of people in comas. A warning, some might say. Ubisoft are aware that this is super-bonkers, and have put out a new video to explain how the feature works. You can watch it at your leisure, below.(more…)

Challenges, objectives and story details highlight this overview!

A glimpse of some of the licensed cars in Driver: San Francisco!

Update: Ubisoft has confirmed the Uplay Passport, which the publisher says begins in the coming months and will be included "in many of Ubisoft's popular core games." "Customers who've acquired a pre-owned game can purchase a new Uplay Passport online for $9.99 and automatically unlock the game's...

Publisher Ubisoft is preparing to launch its own online pass initiative called Uplay Passport, according to a new report from Gamerzines...

We've called Driver: San Francisco's premise "ridiculous," its multiplayer "not crap," and we've given you tips on how to survive in its multiplayer Tag mode. In all of our coverage thus far, we've stated that the game is fun, but it has a crazy premise. So how does Driver: San Francisco balance its...

Cruise your own path through the open-world San Francisco setting to catch your nemesis, Charles Jericho.

It's safe to say that most people were taken aback by the change-up of core mechanics in Ubisoft's latest game in the long-enduring Driver franchise. After the lukewarm reception for the most recent title in the series, developer Ubisoft Reflections realised it needed to do something drastic to stan...