DRIV3R (PS2)

Now finally Driver 3 (or DRIV3R as it insists on calling itself) is here, and although it's not the disaster that the last game was it's still a considerable disappointment. As you would expect from developers Reflections, who also did Stuntman and the original Destruction Derby, the car handling and physics are excellent--perhaps some of the best ever seen. However, the artificial intelligence of your opponent drivers is almost laughably poor and the incredibly detailed graphics, which look so good in the screenshots, come at the expensive of some disappointingly short draw distances, with buildings and backgrounds suddenly popping up as if out of nowhere.

The game itself is now very much influenced by Grand Theft Auto and you can get out of your car and hijack other vehicles. DRIV3R is still predominantly mission-based, though, and unfortunately the difficulty curve is still as frustratingly uneven as ever with some missions seemingly almost superhumanly hard.

If you're a fan of the series then DRIV3R probably won't disappoint too much, but newcomers to the series may find this has rather more problems than you'd expect from such a heavily hyped title.--David Jenkins