We're careening at breakneck speed through downtown San Francisco, and things are getting a bit hairy. At the moment, we're in the driver's seat of a ZR1 Corvette, in hot pursuit of a criminal on the loose.

Shift mechanic is amazing; Tons of mission variety; Loads of real-world cars

Cars get magically repaired; Some storylines don't resolve; Have to unlock online modes

Good: A solid game that definitely has an audience. Might lack replay value, could be too short or there are some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.

(continued from previous page) ...the way. An EXP system encourages you along nicely as you level up to unlock new stuff and a 'Freedrive' mode allows you to experience the city at your leisure.

The 'Shift' mechanic adds a new dynamic; particularly online; The impressively-designed city of San Francisco and its rolling roads; The instant pick-up-and play appeal.

The rubbish characters and corny dialogue; The drifting lacks 'oomph' and aggression; Slamming an opponent takes you crudely out of the action

Chasing down crooks in high-speed chases, performing death-defying feats of driving, or bringing down entire criminal organisations might be a bit much for your average cop, but Driver: San Francisco's John Tanner takes it in his stride.

Shift keeps the action fast paced and exciting; Huge open-world city to explore; Masses of content to play through; Fun online modes

Ridiculous storyline; Frame rate issues with split-screen; Missions get repetitive toward the end

The Driver series took a unique approach by trying to create theRead the full article…

+ Engaging Story; + Fun Singleplayer and Multiplayer

Despite its silly single-player story, Driver: San Francisco offers up plenty of worthwhile arcadey racing action.

Slick, arcade-y racing that looks great; it's really fun hooning around the supersized streets of 'Frisco; multiplayer modes are highly entertaining

I have very fond memories of playing the original Driver on the PS One years ago. As far as I know, it was one of the first racing games to have an actual story line, and that made it stand way above all others at the time.

Strong focus on the actual racing; solid multiplayer lobby; innovative "shift" mechanic revitalizes multiplayer racing; 120+ real cars with full damage modeling; great presentation, soundtrack and cinematics

Very weak and disconnected story; lackluster single player mode; dated graphics; low to moderate replay value

The game almost takes a page out of the Assassin's Creed multiplayer in that you can hide in plain sight like you can in that game thanks to the shifting ability. Except that the game blatantly points you out instantly when you shift to a new car.

It's been a while since I had as much fun with a sandbox-style game as I did with Driver: San Francisco. This title is a brilliant return to form for the long-running series that debuted in 1999.

The Driver series kicked off with a strong debut, but as the franchise moved on over the years, the games seemed to lose their magic. Perhaps the biggest mistake the franchise ever made was getting out of the car.