Driver 2

Release Date: November 14, 2000

MIRROR, SIGNAL, MANOEUVRE GOES OUT OF THE WINDOW AS TANNER AND CO ONCE AGAIN BURY THEMSELVES IN THE MURKY WORLD OF ORGANISED CRIME

Your bumper has just collapsed, the boot’s caved in and the rear left wheel is bouncing off down the freeway. Your damage gauge Ts flashing red, blaring impending disintegration, and you've only got 33.89 seconds to meet your contact. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO? Panic? Never. Die? Of course not Answer: You get out of the car.

Yes, we've said it before and we'll say it again, the key feature of Driver 2 is the ability of Tanner to hop out of his motor at will. A flick of f and the @ button and he's off trotting down the street clad in his best Oswald Boateng suit. Brilliant, but the latest play of the game reveals the true Implications of Tanner's new found mobility.

“Long sections of freeway are perfect for evading cops”

Car about to Fall apart? Simply &»am on the anchors, hop out and start walking back along the freeway into the path of a new motor. Luckily the considerate motorists of Driver 2% cities are prepared to avoid bowling you over and kindly stop a few feet In front. A tap on ® and Tanner's back in the hotseat and ready to race away at top speed. Assuming you don't take command of a battered old jalopy that -is...

Of course, in the middle of die game, with coppers flying out left, right and centre, dumping your motor might prove a little too time-consuming, so those driving skills honed through playing the first game are going to come in exceptionally handy, For those newcomers still crunching the gears it's advisable to take a ride around the cities in preparation for the missions ahead. Marvel at the features modelled from the locations themselves, Chicago's skyscraperladen horizon, Las Vegas with Its neon-soaked hotels, the Sugar Loaf mountain of Rio, and Havana with its big-finned Cadillacs and ummmm, cigars.

The First thing you'll notice racing around the city streets is areas where the road curves off into the distance making the whole experience much more realistic. In Chicago, for example, there are long sections of wide freeway that are perfect for evading the cops, with exits that curve round dropping you back into the city streets.

Havana sees you cruising along meandering tree-lined avenues that open up on to the beach¬ front promenade, ft quickly becomes obvious that the new cities are even larger than in the first game, so it's going to take a white to get used to the back-alleys and shortcuts. Luckily, Reflections has cleverly tweaked the map to help you navigate. Once you're on the map, hit ® and it'FI orientate Itself to the direction you're facing, giving you a better idea of which way to turn.

Driver had a compelling and often complex plat and the sequel's no exception. Tanner finds himself deep undercover again, this time accompanied by his partner, Tobias Jones, in a double act that makes John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction look like Rodney and Del Boy. Accountant to the Mob, Pink Lenny, has cut a deal with same Brazilian crime lords and started a war in the underworld. The balance of power has shifted towards the South Americans and Chicago's in grave danger of turning from the home of the blues into the city of samba. Tanner and Jones are charged with Infiltrating the Mob and restoring peace to the city.. Tough call. Pink Lenny goes on the lamb, leaving our intrepid duo with the job of stopping any shipments coming into the city via Havana. Cue trip to Cuba.

After successfully completing that job, they're off to Las Vegaa to pick up Lenny's trail. Trouble is, public enemy number one, Solomon Caine, is also after little Lenny and there's no option but for our heroes to hook up with the arch-villain and help him track the snitch down. Lenny escapes, but turns

I up again in RFo, so It's off to the land of sun, sea and football for our coppers, Will they find him? Or will the Mob get to him first? That's entirely down to your motoring skills.,*

“Two suited and hooted heavies steam into a bar wielding shotguns”

The plot evolves through a series of cut-scenes and while the cuts En Driver were good, the new ones are quite stunning. The opening sequence looks like something straight out of Lock Stock And Two Smoking Bar refs. Two suited and booted heavies steam into a bar wielding shotguns looking for Pink Lenny who's having a pint with one of the Brazilians. Needless to say they wreck the joint and a man ires dead, blood washing across the floor, his hand still twitch Eng, The effect is incredibly cinematic and, as you'd expect, Driver 2 acknowledges its inspiration with a stream of references to famous movie car chases, doffing Its cap Lo everything from The French Connection to The Blues Brothers.

Driver 2 is shaping up to be every bit as exciting as its predecessor was last year. The fact that Tanner can get out of the car adds much more flexibility to the missions, and there's no doubt Et feels right and looks great. All that remains is for Reflections to reveal the missions themselves, PSM will have the full review for you next month but, in the meantime: keep 'em peeled...