Feeling old yet? The Driver series turns 20 today.

[Squilookle]

20 years ago today, the Driver series did its first tyre-screeching, hill jumping, traffic cone smashing powerslide across TV screens all over Europe. Five days later it would be smashing up all those cop cars in the US too. And driving in games was never the same again.​

Did you experience the Driver series? Perhaps you were there at the start, when Driver changed open world games forever in 1999. Maybe you only jumped in with the recent Driver: San Francisco, reviewed quite favourably on this site by Yahtzee- much to his own astonishment. Perhaps someone gifted you the notorious Driv3r thinking it was Vice City, much to your disgust.


Whatever the story you have with Driver, I'd like to hear it. Did you stay up all night editing your own car chase movies together, as many of us did? Or were you satisfied with Grand Theft Auto's more varied -though much less polished- vehicular mayhem?

And be honest here... did you make it past the carpark? You know the one I'm talking about...

 

[bluegate]

The only Driver games I played were 1 and 2 on the original PlayStation and I had a good time with them.

It took me a long time to get out of the carpark as a kid, I wasn't really accustomed to race games or the English language, so when I finally did get out... boy, I back-upped that save file to a couple of memory cards as soon as I could.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Oh right this series exists.

 

[Squilookle]

It took me a long time to get out of the carpark as a kid, I wasn't really accustomed to race games or the English language, so when I finally did get out... boy, I back-upped that save file to a couple of memory cards as soon as I could.

I remember the huge wave of relief at beating it as well. Took me ages to realise I had to release the brake to get a proper reverse 180. The carpark seemed impossible at first, until I realised the game had a tutorial for it built in, with button presses shown onscreen. It was pretty straightforward after that.

Of course, those ridiculous jumps and car pouncing was what it was all about.

 

[Kyrian007]

It doesn't surprise me in the least that Driver is 20. I've only played Driver 1 and 2 and I never bought either game, only rented them. See, there used to be these places called Blockbuster Videos... get off my lawn.

So yeah, even the vehicle (pun included) that allowed me to experience Driver as a series doesn't exist anymore.

 

[BrawlMan]

It doesn't surprise me in the least that Driver is 20. I've only played Driver 1 and 2 and I never bought either game, only rented them. See, there used to be these places called Blockbuster Videos... get off my lawn.

So yeah, even the vehicle (pun included) that allowed me to experience Driver as a series doesn't exist anymore.

Played Drive 1 & 2 back in the day. 3 my brother owned, but neither of us liked it.

 

[Hawki]

I played Driver 1 once. I couldn't get past the tutorial.

Then GTA was a thing and I never looked back.