Driver: Parallel Lines - On this day

In a very short period, the Driver series of games were ahead of the Grand Theft Out as one of the earliest 3D games in which you drove around "real cities". However, Driver quickly took a downward trajectory, and the worst came with the third part when the action spread beyond the vehicle. The then publishing house Atari then sold the Reflections Interactive studio, which found a new home with the French Ubisoft, and it was decided to return the series to its roots.

The fourth Driver was called Driver: Parallel Lines and was launched on this day 16 years ago on PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. He put the focus on driving and brought several useful novelties. For example, a vehicle could destroy several buildings in the vicinity, and the police could be fooled by changing vehicles. There was action outside the vehicle as well, but the mechanics of jumping and swimming from the previous game were thrown out.

Driver: Parallel Lines brought a few more novelties to its series, such as raising money, modifying vehicles, etc. The biggest difference, however, was that the game was located in only one city - New York. However, we saw this city through two different periods - 1978 and 2006. Changing the period in which the game takes place meant changing the look of the city, but also weapons, vehicles, citizens, music, and even the game interface. 

This sequel picked up better ratings than the disappointing Driver, but it didn’t leave a big mark on its genre next to the dominant GTA titles. A few months after the release of the console version, Driver came to the PC platform, and in 2007 a prequel to the PSP console called Driver 76 followed.