Ubisoft Crashes Driver Into PSP
Prequel to Driver: Parallel Lines coming this spring.
The fortunes of the Driver series have been flagging ever since Driv3r poisoned the waters. The game sold well but critics panned it, and fans weren't as kind to the successor. Ubisoft recently bought the franchise from Atari, and this week the company announced its first use of the brand.
Driver 76 is a Grand Theft Auto-alike set in the Driver universe two years before the most recent console game, Driver: Parallel Lines. Just like that game, this PSP-only iteration takes its sense of fashion, architecture and music from the mid 1970s.
One feature developers Sumo Digital (OutRun) and Reflections (Driver) have added for the portable version is a range of minigames, ranging from races to destruction derbies. You can also modify your vehicles using cash earned during side-missions.
Despite Atari handing the Driver series over to Ubisoft only six months ago, the publisher says Driver 76 is due (in the US at least) in March, suggesting that the 20-odd new missions are based on PS2 code. There's no word yet on a PS2 version of the game.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo
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