Driv3r - Atari's Savior, Or Lara Croft-Style Travesty?

Thanks to Eurogamer for its hands-on preview of a near-complete build of Atari's PlayStation 2 title Driv3r, as the article notes: "Never before has an entire company's fate rested so heavily on the release of one product [financials reveal $20 million for 'production costs'... and 'marketing costs... double that amount'], but Reflection's long-overdue sequel is that kind of game, and Atari is doubtlessly slightly peeved that... it has had to watch from the sidelines while Rockstar, Sony and even Activision have cleaned up in mission-based driving stakes." Although the previewer rhapsodizes: "Anyone who loves pure driving will have a fantastic time in Driv3r", the out-of-car elements are another story: "The third-person control system feels sluggish [and] the combat/shooting is currently nowhere near the standard it needs to be", and the preview ends with the warning (though it's possible the gameplay "may well come together at the last minute"): "Releasing [the game] in an unpolished state would be a crime of Angel Of Darkness proportions."

Comments

Re:Atari cannot be saved

[AltaMannen]

Because the titles you list are popular among a smaller marketshare (guessing maybe up to 1M units for each title) than driver would be (probably aiming at the same people as GTA or around 5M units).

Re:Here's the problem

[scot4875]

Well, also keep in mind that the Gamecube has a relatively large and very fast video memory buffer, along with S3 texture compression, giving it roughly a 12:1 compression ratio. That frees up a ton of memory space and bandwidth for extra geometry. Of course, if they go the same route as many developers and "optimze for PS2, port to 'Cube," those capabilities will probably be ignored anyway.

Also, the 1T-SRAM doesn't have the burst bandwidth that the PS2's memory does, but it does have nearly non-existant latency.

If the anecdote about the ex-Rare employee is true, it sounds to me more like a case of sour grapes than anything else.

--Jeremy