Driver sequel headed for PSP

[StrikeMaster Ice]

Atari confirms portable edition of Parallel Lines under development at Sumo Digital.

After getting burned by the heavily hyped but critically unsuccessful Driv3r, Atari took the franchise back into the shop and performed a total overhaul. Gone are the setting and protagonist of the original games. Now the series is set to make a fresh start with a new lead man in 1978 New York City in Driver: Parallel Lines.

What better place for a fresh start than on a fresh platform? Atari today confirmed that Parallel Lines is headed for the PSP in addition to the already announced PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, and is being developed by Sumo Digital. Sumo Digital is no stranger to racing games or PSP development, as it has worked on OutRun 2 for the Xbox and the PSP editions of TOCA Race Driver 2 and Virtua Tennis. The possibility of a portable Parallel Lines first surfaced last night in a report on Shacknews, which cited a "well-placed and reputable source."

The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of Parallel Lines are being handled by series developer Reflections Interactive and should be out in March. Atari has yet to announce a release date for the PSP edition.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143513.html

Driver: Parallel Lines port to PSP. Hopefully it won't be another Driv3r.

[Silas]

This should be good. I still don't know hy people shun Driv3r. it was a good game. Anyway, i probably won't buy this anyway, i have GTA:LCS to meet my crime sim needs on the PSP.

[StrikeMaster Ice]

Atari UK's denied that Driver: Parallel Lines is on its way to PSP.

Reports overnight suggested that Parallel Lines, the fourth in the mission-based driving series, would be materialising on the PSP courtesy of UK developer Sumo Digital.

"Parallel Lines will not come on PSP," an Atari spokesman told us this morning. "The reports are inaccurate."

Now, that doesn't mean there won't ever be a Driver game of some sort for PSP, but for now at least it's a pretty solid rebuttal where we'd expect a refusal to comment.

We'll be taking a look at Driver: Parallel Lines on its confirmed platforms, PS2 and Xbox, very soon, so watch out for that.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62719

Look like Driver: Parallel Line is not coming to PSP.

[Silas]

Ok, so which one is true then?

[samoa_20]

Midway's Simon Woodroffe has revealed that development of free-roaming vehicular action spectacular The Wheelman was hindered by the release of Grand Theft Auto 4. According to Woodroffe, who serves as Creative Director, GTA 4 conditioned a consumer preference for more realistic driving experiences, to the cost of projects (like The Wheelman) which veer towards an arcade sensibility.

"Our game was already quite different, but GTA 4 moved the bar in terms of what people expected from an open-world driving game," Woodroffe told Videogamer (http://www.videogamer.com/news/01-12-2008-10070.html) in a yet-to-be-published interview. "Before GTA 4, open-world driving games generally had more accessible, more arcade-like, handling. Even the previous GTAs were like that. But GTA 4 moved the bar towards realism - even super-realism, you know?"

"We started to get feedback from our focus testers, within weeks of GTA 4 coming out, that the basic driving was dropping in popularity," he went on. "It had gone from being the most highly rated element, to one of the lowest on the list. And I'm looking at this and thinking, "There's only one reason for this. GTA 4 has changed gamers' expectations"."

While Woodroffe found the comparison "fairly frustrating" at first, he commented that it was his "job is to be up-to-date with current expectations and to manage them well." Game development doesn't take place in a vacuum, after all.

"I'm very big on choice, and I'm very big on design and control systems," he went on. "All the physics stuff stays very close to me and the design team, so it was work for a few hours or so, and polishing things up for a week or two, to change the way Wheelman felt to be a little more realistic and a little more grounded, based upon the feedback we were getting, based upon the impact of GTA 4."

The results are, Woodroffe feels, "right on the money in terms of what people expect from an open-world racer."

The Wheelman ships worldwide on February 16 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

[The_Only]

Editing now.