Take To The Streets

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 10, 1999

Stuart Clarke

DRIVER

Runs on: PlayStation

Category: Driving action

Developer: Reflections

Distributor: GT Interactive

Players: 1

Price: $79.95

Classification: G8+

Rating: ****

They just don't do car chases like they used to. Apart from the recent flick Ronin, we haven't really seen a great all-out cross-country (and city) chase since The Blues Brothers, Bullitt and The Streets of San Francisco.

The team at Reflections Interactive, a game developer based in Newcastle, England, obviously misses anarchic car-chase action on the big screen. So it decided to create its own interactive version for the PlayStation.

Reflections has had several huge hits over its 14-year life, including 1989's Shadow of the Beast (first released on the Amiga) and Destruction Derby, one of the first million sellers for the PlayStation back in 1995.

Destruction Derby 2 was another smash in 1996, and Driver has many similar car-crunching elements. At the same time, Driver is a big step forward from those short-term crash-'em-ups, boasting far superior graphics, gameplay and control.

In the main game, you play an undercover cop, Tanner, hired by underworld contacts for various missions that need driving skill. The game requires plenty of expertise, so the first stop is the training garage.

As you become proficient at outrunning the cops in mission segments set in Miami and San Francisco, you'll be drawn further into the web of intrigue until you're ready for the more dangerous streets of Los Angeles and New York.

All four cities have been recreated with a high level of detail, almost 50km of road in each, complete with traffic lights and landmark buildings.

A funky, '70s-inspired soundtrack backs the 44 main missions and the other quick-game options such as Pursuit and Getaway. The high-resolution graphics are excellent and, while the backgrounds are second-rate, they're compensated for by rich foreground detailing (especially in the cars themselves).

The ability to edit your own replays frame by frame is a superb touch, and impressive mini-movies can be produced, saved to the PlayStation's memory card and shown off to friends. And, no, unlike Carmageddon and Die Hard Trilogy you can't run pedestrians down - they run screaming out of your way.

Endgame: Belt up for challenging, rubber-burning action that's sure to relieve your road rage without harming a soul.

Stuart Clarke

Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis

Runs on: PlayStation

Category: Sport

Developer: Namco

Distributor: Sony

Players: 1-4

Price: $59.95

Classification: G

Rating: *** 1/2

Russian Anna Kournikova is causing quite a commotion on the international tennis circuit.

She's gorgeous - and on a good day she can hammer the best of the world's racqueteers.

Along with the recent Australian renaissance, this grand slammer has made tennis worth watching again for many people.

If you go out and buy Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis in the hope you'll be spending some time with a virtual Anna, however, we've got bad news.

Her involvement in this game is only marketing deep. She's on the cover and title screen, and one of the tiny animated players is a blonde female called Kournikova, but that's as far as it goes.

While this could understandably lead to cries of "deception!" from the legions of Anna fans, the game Kournikova is helping sell - Smash Court Tennis 2 - is actually a great deal of fun and definitely worth a look, even without the leggy title star.

Japanese developer Namco has made several versions of Smash Court Tennis on various consoles over the years and it has maintained the cute, cartoony visuals and tight gameplay.

Endgame: Despite the wafer-thin connection with Kournikova, Smash Court Tennis is a highly enjoyable game in both single and multiplayer modes.