Driver

The Good
The concept is really cool. You are a getaway driver for the mob. Through objective-based gameplay, you take on a good variety of missions carting people around, performing insane car chases while taking care of business.

After all is said and done, you can go back and review your chases from different angles, which is a really nice touch. You can also select a variety of locations to just cruise around before embarking on the game's main mission.

The Bad
The controls are completely obnoxious to the point of unplayability. Almost every turn results in a burnout, which is particularly obnoxious seeing as the police will pursue you without fail for having done absolutely nothing wrong and will attempt to obliterate you into a pulp if you don't frantically scramble away, which, for this reviewer anyway, typically resulted in a spectacular crash.

While there's a good array of missions, nearly all of them involve driving person x from point a to point b, and take several attempts. Many of the missions are timed, which means you're not allowed to deliberate on how to avoid a spectacular end by strategizing a method around the abominable controls.

That's only if you can make it out of the gate -- Driver's training mission is mandatory to complete before you can begin the main mission, and requires you to pull off nearly every stunt in the game's repertoire to perfection; something that would normally take time, or that you would learn along the way in a balanced game. Driver is the opposite of balanced.

The Bottom Line
Driver is a cool in theory, but provides neither the sandbox wonder of Grand Theft Auto nor the maniacal entertainment of Carmageddon. If you're looking for a cool driving/crime sim, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a cool replay function to bide your time between Dukes of Hazzard reruns, look no further.