Reflections on Driver

CANNES - Driving games often entertain, but they rarely surprise. Peel away the superficialities, and what you have left are tracks, vehicles, and checkered flags. But GT Interactive owned Reflections Interactive hopes to bring a breath of fresh air to the genre with Driver, a new racing game that feels like a cross between Interstate 76 and Destruction Derby.

The game uses a mission-based format that requires the player to track a computer-controlled criminal car. The chase takes place in a variety of urban environments, and you must dodge pedestrians, street signs, and, of course, other cars during your pursuit. The gameplay is fast and frenetic and has plenty of screeching tires, head-on collisions, and powerslides across multiple lanes of on oncoming traffic.

As the screenshots indicate, graphically, Driver is fairy understated, and the PlayStation version in particular emphasizes speed over detail. The 3D-accelerated PC version is more visually compelling, with realistic lighting effects and spectacular crashes. The PC version will also include a multiplayer component - essentially a high-tech version of cops and robbers - although specifics have not yet been revealed (indeed, it is not even known whether the multiplayer game will make it into the shipping product or released through an add-on patch).

Driver is scheduled to ship in May for the PC and June for the PlayStation.