This is a brilliant driving game & a great storyline game, I play the first Driver series since I was like 5 yrs old, I love this game so much.. Drive San Francisco is an excellent production values and an enormous fun factor. The city, music, cars and story create a 'Starsky and Hutch' style. Humor in various dialogues is genuinely funny. Driving/shifting mechanics are perfect. The handling, feel, response, and sound of each vehicle feels very right. Using keyboard is a bit hard to turn just a little to the right or the left but if you're using the controller it's much better.

The wheelman is back!
Driver San Francisco is a story-driven racing game, an underrated, surprisingly enjoyable and memorable gem from Ubisoft Reflections (and Martin Edmonson, the developer who worked on Driver 1, 2 and 3), and it's especially an original racing game, with a very original multiplayer as well.
John Tanner, the undercover cop, returns in action to finish his mission once and for all, but in a weird way. He goes into a coma after a huge car crash, and while he is dreaming, he gains a special power called "Shift" that gives him the ability to get into any driver's body at any time. In other words, he can switch to any car he sees around the city.

You may think that this is way too ridicolous. I thought so too, until I started playing this game. I'm an avid fan of the old Driver series, but even this one delivers, even though everything is different! The Shift surprisingly works well, it makes the action non-stop and less boring. The core of the storyline may be weird too, but it's well interpreted and well executed! Because of these, and because of how the entire atmosphere of the game is not the same as the old Driver games, I personally like to think this is a reboot of the series rather than the sequel of Driv3r.

+ Shift ability makes the game less boring and more strategical, bringing the racing genre to a whole new level.
+ Surprisingly not repetitive, especially the story missions.
+ Awesome driving physics with very smooth steering, even when using keyboard.
+ Licensed cars, trucks, vans, from 70's muscles to modern supercars.
+ Contains both licensed songs and original OST.
+ Lots of challenges, activities, story missions, chases based on famous car chase movies and high-speed pursuits. Single-player alone lasts for many hours!
+ Intriguing storyline with interesting characters and well-detailed cutscenes.
+ Low price tag!
+ Very original multiplayer...

- ...But not very active.
- AI cop cars totally predictable and always faster than you, no matter what car you're using.
- Lifeless city: all traffic cars going at the same speed, only-walking civilians, no particular/interesting scenery.
- Yellow-ish graphics.
- No different weathers and day/night cycle.
- Stiff car physics with no interesting car crashes, except in rare cases.
- Very limited and overhyped film director mode, could have been much better.
- Inability to repeat a story mission of choice.
- No manual transmission, and steering wheel compatibility could have been better.
- Terrible PC port: missing HDR and some lighting sources, missing minor features such as varied traffic after storyline, crashes and other general bugs... and guess what, the console versions have been patched a lot more with added features and many fixes... the PC version is left in the dark (that's Ubisoft for you).

Personal rating: 8/10
Worth every penny if you can go past the issues - especially with this current low price tag.

Great Game. I do hate the fact u need U-play tho. I got it to work but it took a while to figure it out. Otherwise Great game!

Not a racing game, but an actual DRIVING game. This game allows you to switch from car to car, and due to being set in an imagination allows you to do missions that are unrealistic without being stupid. While some missions are just races or chases, ableit very fun and interesting ones, the best mission are the Stunt missions. These have interesting challenges presented to you. Also with a load of cars (including a Delorean) and far too many mini missions, this game will last a while, and is very entertaining. Also, still fairly drivable without analogue steering, somehow.

A reboot of the series rather than a true sequel, Driver SF brings something pretty much brand new to a driving/ racing game. It may not suit the series if you think of this game like its predecessors, but this installment of the Driver franchise has a much more lighter tone to it, therefore this new 'shift' feature fits in pretty well. 'Shift' allows you to jump from one vehicle to another that are cruising around on the streets of San Fran (this replaces 'on- foot'). If you get fed up of a car you're driving in, tap one button to shift out of the vehicle, float around the game world, choose a car that's driving about, then tap one button again to enter the vehicle. Simple. The game brings back the Hollywood film driving handling, allowing you to 'drift' or slide around corners in your favourite film car. Whether it be a classic Dodge Charger, Fiat 500, Nissan Skyline, or a Lamborghini I would say there's a car for everyone in this game, which there should be, since there's about 140 to choose from.

The story is about Detective 'John Tanner' once again, and takes place 6 months AFTER Driver 3. Jericho, also from Driver 3, is about to be sent to prison, yet he escapes in a prison van which he then uses as a weapon against Tanner causing a massive crash that sends Tanner in to a coma. The game, 99% of the time, is in Tanner's coma hence why you have this ability to shift and take over a persons body/ vehicle. The story is odd, but makes sense. In the real world Tanner is in a hospital bed, where a TV in is room is switched on and he can hear everything that is being said on the news about Jericho. So, in Tanner's coma dream he is trying to track down Jericho in a made up San Fran world.

There are main story missions that can range from finding info about Jericho, to chases and to learning about shift. Then there's side missions/ activities/ challenges, which there are a lot of. This could range from races, chases, smashing cars, or doing awesome stunts and jumps. There are also movie challenges which are based on classic car films, like Bullit for example. There is also free- drive which you can do pretty much at any point in the game, missions are found driving around in free drive.

Things I like:
The range of missions/ activites- chases, races, etc
The cars- A nice range of vehciles. Whether it be muscle, sports, super. (Even buses and trucks etc)
In- car cam- Nice details and steering movements, one of the best I've seen in a driving game.
Free roam or free drive- Means you can just mess about in your favourite car, causing cop chases and chaos!
Graphics- The graphics aren't too bad for it's time, they're much better on the cars rather than the San Fran itself.
Multiplayer- Both split screen & online are good, but good luck finding people who play on it.
Film director- It's a bit basic, but it just about does the job to take a look back at a cool crash or chase you just did.

Things I don't like:
AI- Suffers some bad rubber banding, sometimes they'll destroy you, then the next they will be nice as pie.
Customisation on cars- Can't choose what colour you want from the garage, it chooses for you! Also, boost is something the game makes you have and they put it on the steering control, so I advise changing control options.
Story- It's a bit weak, it works in the game, but it's just too short.
HUD- Things flashing up on screen quite often and they don't let you have the option to turn any of it off.

8.5/10

I've played Driver San Francisco on the Xbox 360 and PC (non-steam) for a very long time (and a long time back), and let me tell you: it's a brilliant game. The amount of shenanigans you can pull in free roam in single player alone is worth it alone, let alone the ♥♥♥♥ you can pull in multiplayer with friends!

Of course, this is an old game and while I'm not sure if it sold really well, people are not playing it as much anymore (online I mean, at least). On the 360 you can still fin a few people but so far on the PC version, no one.

The story is good, the SHIFT mechanism works great, lots of cars, a really nice and comfortably large map, graphics are good, soundtrack is really nice.

Really, buy it if you're a fan of racing games or the Driver series, this is a title that won't disappoint!

Oh no, I'm about to crash
*switch cars
Oh look, someone crashed....

For all those complaining about the "Uplay Launcher has stopped working", it's a pretty easy fix if you just Google it. At least it was for me, anyway. And then you just sign in to your Uplay account and put in the activation key that Steam gives you. Yeah, I know the stupid broken Uplay integration sucks, but you'll live. 10/10

Probably one of the most underrated games of the decade. If it isn't in my all-time top ten, it's pretty dang close. I originally played it to near 100% completion on Xbox 360 about a year ago, even getting some of the multiplayer achievements... which is a blast, by the way.

Best racing game I ever played. Over 10 hours' story, excellent and fascinating. You try to be hero? Yeah, for a while and it's in dream, back to reality, take down those bichs, this is real hero's exist. Hundred side missions, challenges offer you to play during story or after it. Over 140 vehicles to use, drive whatever you want, and more secret cars to quest.
It produced in 2011 but still fun to play in 2014, only thing sad is nobody play it anymore, we need bring it back.
Graphic/animation: 10/10
Gameplay:10/10
Story: 10/10( Never seen a racing game has such a great story)
Ubi always sell good games but lack of service.
Final: 10/10....Best racing game ever, worth for 19.99, even 29.99
Sound: 10/10, soundtrack is awesome

I've had this game for a while and completed it a couple of times.
Well worth a buy.

Good arcadey physics make the game really fun as well as diverse mechanics, such as the shift mechanic, which allows players to use any car they want makes the game seem as so the player is completely free within the game, great cinematics, graphics, of which I would not usually be arsed about, but in this game they are good and run on worse computers, amazing soundtrack, voice acting; one problem, the Uplay combo, but after making an account, the game basically comes on immediately.

1) I reinstalled this game from my steam library.

2) Uplay doesn't allow me to play my game anymore.

3) wtf ???

4) faq U play !

5) my advice: pirate the game, it's safer.

I heard it's a great game, but when ever I try to play it...i login to uplay then it says uplay has stopped working.

Would I reccomend this game? No I wouldn't don't get me wrong the game is fantastic I had it on xbox 360 and it was loads of fun but now as I type this I see one fatal flaw with the game. F**KING uplay! Do not buy this game ladies and getlemen it is a waste of money and time. If you wish to blame someone blame uplay for there horrible service

As a fan of the original Driver, I was quite apprehensive towards Driver: San Francisco when I first heard about it. I had seen the "shift" mode and thought it was ridiculous. The last Driver game I had played was Driver 2, and you were able to get out of the car which I felt undermined the classic 70s car chase feel the original Driver had. This is where Driver: San Francisco surprised me. It brought that feel back in a modern setting, still allowing the player to switch vehicles without any "on foot" portions. It doesn't take itself too seriously either, and the shift mechanic is routinely used as a vehicle for some comedy. This becomes the most apparent near the beginning of the game where Tanner has to prove to his ability to his partner by taking control of a jerk driver and doing stunts in his vehicle. The story is average and I didn't pay much attention to it, to be honest. But the driving is solid, not too arcadey. All the vehicles have cockpit views as well, which was a plus for me. The game really plays to lovers of car chase movies, as there is are missions to unlock based on car chases in movies. Movies such as 'The Cannonball Run', 'Bullitt', 'Gone in 60 Seconds', and the movie that inspired the original Driver, 'The Driver'. Many of these missions will also try to recreate the traffic and police of the movie's era, which is a nice touch. Also, try taking the DeLorean to 88.

Would highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of cars and car chases.

9/10

Having been a fan of the Driver series and played them all in which I rather enjoyed it, Driver San Francisco is a definite return to form though. The game is all about driving, just like the first game and that's exactly how it should be. You can no longer get out of your vehicle and run around on foot and considering that I did like that part of the game as well, this is a good thing though. Instead you can just zoom the camera out to a bird’s eye view of the city and select a new vehicle to shift into. The whole story behind this is ridiculous but at the same time entertaining. I found myself being drawn into this game from start to finish.

May i recommend that if you want some crazy ♥♥♥♥ and some cool racing, then you should get Driver San Francisco. It will blow your mind on how great this game is.

Cool game... with a nice storyline!
Only con is it uses Uplay...

In short this game is serious fun, but seriously frustrating in places too.

Postitives:
*The shift mechanic. Really makes the game, seriously shifting into other cars/buses/trucks and ploughing head on into whom you're giving chase to never gets old. Chase missions now are actually serious fun, in the original Driver games I never liked them.
*Actual real cars. Ranging from VW/Audi, several GMs to Lamborghini there's quite a selection there.

Negatives:
*You can't actually leave the car. Not a huge problem I guess, but it'd be nice to better explore the nice city.
*It can be seriously frustrating at times. There are some insane difficulty spikes in the main story missions, particularly around the end. The game can be an excerise in controller-snapping frustration at times.

All in all, a good but quite flawed highly original driving game (thanks to the shift mechanic).

Uplay needs to burn at the stake.

Otherwise awesome game.

Driver SF is a great game that could have been pure gold if not for certain flaws.

The good: the sandbox works well, the story is good (somewhat running on tropes), there are tons of great details (the amazing amount of random conversations fro instance), a lot of real-life cars that can be damaged, a vast city to explore and the shift mechanism is pure joy to use.

The bad: invisible walls everywhere (sure, that could not be helped but it could have been handled with more inspiration), challenges/mission that may have not been playtested or just borderline sadist and uPlay that could have been avoided given the modest content it provides.

The ugly: the game is drift porn. It seems the developpers got stuck viewing Fast & Furious too many times and that changed their view of the physical world: most of the cars (the ones you're stuck with at the beginning, unfortunately) will spin, shift and stray at the slightest touch on average speed. It could be great if you were not expected to race or take risks. And this is partly a racing game.

It is however a design choice (seeing how much smoke your tires produce, it's a wonder a rubber protection fund has not been created) and maybe this is your thing. But keep in mind that if you like tight controls in a racing game and a good straight learning curve, this game may offer you more frustration than fun.

In a few words: A slightly less enjoyable Burnout Paradise with a good story and a few twists.