Driver: Parallel Lines is one of the best GTA clones seen in a long time.
As with GTA, the environment (New York City/New Jersey) is enormous and packed with pedestrians and with vehicles you can steal. The time of day progresses so that you can drive at night as well as in the daytime. Instead of hidden packages, there are star tokens to collect. You can accept missions to advance the storyline, and you can take on side missions (races, assassinations, taxi missions, repo missions, etc.).
The graphics are good, with the second best videogame representation of New York that I have ever seen. Second only to GTA IV. The physics are fine (no funky flying boxes to knock you over, as in Driv3r), the voice acting is decent, and the cut scenes are excellent. In short, it offers the same open-ended structure that the GTA series does...just with less to do (fewer buildings to enter, and fewer challenges).
Some elements from the prior Driver games have also been lost--there is no longer a replay editor, you can't swim, and there are no "take a ride" or "driving game" modes (because these are now part of the main game).
Parallel Lines was a pleasant surprise that almost makes me forget the last Driver game. Reading the online reviews, I cannot understand how reviewers can rate GTA a 10/10 but then rate this game (one of the best GTA clones to date) a 6/10 because it is "repetitive" or "boring." Frankly, I think that GTA has become a "sacred cow" of the videogame industry (just like Smash Brothers, or 007 Goldeneye) that no reviewer will dare criticize.
Don't get me wrong--Parallel Lines is not a "Game of the Year" and it isn't better than GTA, but it comes closer than any other game (True Crime, The Getaway, Roadkill, etc.) ever has. While you are waiting for the next GTA game to come out, you might want to pick this one up. It is a lot of fun if you enjoy vehicle mayhem with adult overtones [Rated M].