OK, Driver (1) kinda sucks. It's been many years since I've played the Driver games, so my memory faded a bit I guess. But now it's all come back to me. Driver (1) is pretty rough, and Driver 2 improved upon it in pretty much every way. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't have a PS1 when it was a current gen console. But I had a cousin that did, and we would often play PS1 games when I was over his house. He had the first two driver games, and we definitely played a lot of them. But now I can remember, once Driver 2 came out we really focused on that game alone. We would sometimes go back to Driver (1) for the Survival mode, just because it was MUCH more insane in the first game (and by that I mean it was so much more difficult). You are timed how long you can survive. Survival mode is single player only, but we would take turns playing it and see who could survive the longest. Also, laugh at how erratic the cops act. Sometimes we would watch the replay several times if something funny enough happened.
But yeah, Driver 2 is a massive improvement in every way. The menus are less clunky and load faster. The saving/loading mechanic is a LOT smoother and faster. I'm not sure if the visuals were improved any, but I don't think they were. The driving physics are a lot different, making it much easier to play. Not that Driver (1) controls bad, but it's kind of tough to get use to. The cutscenes are definitely improved, and the story narrative is definitely a step up (not that I care much, I just wanna play the game).
Driver 2 is also a lot more fun to play because of the difficulty. In the first Driver, there's a certain amount of luck involved. For example, you might have a mission that requires you to just driver from point A to point B. But it's timed. If you gun it, you can easily make it in time. But when you break traffic laws, the cops will chase you. If you have to cross a bridge or something and there's a cop in front of you, your choice is to wait behind him which takes forever and you will run out of time, or else pass him and get chased but then you roll the dice if you can evade him before you reach your destination. And where the cops appear seems to be totally random. So you can get lucky and have no cops on your route. Or you can get unlucky and get cop placements that will make you certainly fail. In this way, the game can be challenging for the WRONG reasons, which is so frustrating. Driver 2 definitely improved upon this, and the game is a lot more fun to play because of it.
bmoc wrote:I've always wanted to try a link cable game as well. There are quite a few good games that are compatible. It is just so impractical - I understand why it never took off.
Metal Slug X is another good coop game. I can think of a lot of 2+ player games but not a lot of coop. I guess Final Fanstasy IV, V, VI count because you can assign characters in battle to controller 2. Not the most riveting experience and those aren't the best versions of the games.
Here's a list of games that support the link cable:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Link_CableI forgot how many games actually support it. I can remember purchasing the link cable because I wanted to try DOOM, but there's actually quite a few good games on that list! I own Ridge Racer Type 4 and Twisted Metal 3, but there's quite a few more on that list that I would love to one day try.
Yeah, I guess it wasn't popular because it would be difficult for kids to set up back in the 90's. Needing two consoles and two copies of the game (in most cases) was one thing, but not impossible. For example, you could bring your PS1 and your copy of a game over to a friends house. But having the space AND two TVs would have been the real challenge.
It wasn't uncommon at this time for a household to have 2 or more TVs, but it would have been a chore to set up. I could imagine if I wanted to do that in my parents' living room, they probably would have been annoyed. And I could imagine the same for the parents of my friends and family growing up. "You wanna do WHAT?!" My brother and I both had little 13" TVs in our bedrooms. I suppose we could have brought one TV into the other room. But we didn't have PS1. And although the 13" TV was light enough for a kid to lift, I wouldn't have been able to bring it over a friend's house on my bike LOL.
I do have a man cave in the basement though, and currently I have two 27" CRTs right next to each other. I really only use one, the other is more or less being stored there. But since they're side by side, it's kind of perfect for a dual PS1 setup. I have multiple PS1s and the link cable. And one of my PS1's is chipped, so I don't have to worry about not having multiple copies of a game. The REAL problem as an adult is finding someone else to actually play the games with! But it would be neat to one day try it.
