Hello Drivers!
Today is the 9th anniversary of Driver San
Francisco!
But we are gonna go back in time even more
by taking a look at the Driver San Francisco
beta build from early 2011
and compare it to the final game on PC!
We already talked about the Menu design differences
last month so this time we will focus on the
gameplay of the introduction of the game.
The footage was recorded by Mr.Pinball, big
thanks to him!
The ingame part of the introduction cutscene
is clearly not finished and can sometimes
completely stop after being very laggy.
Now we are in Tanner’s car and we can already
see that the Picture-in-Pictures (PIP) uses
a different model for Tanner.
The graphics are also different with a framerate
way more unstable that we are used to in the
final version.
The color filters are also different but keep
in mind that it’s already the case between
the final console and pc versions as the PC
port was made by Ubisoft Kiev!
You can see old advertisements billboards
in the scenery, just as the ones in the E3
2010 build.
The cutscenes are slightly different, especially
the ingame part as you can expect, with different
camera angles for example.
The biggest change in my opinion is subtle
but during the helicopter hijacking, you can
actually hear the cameraman screaming after
Leila cut the rope supporting him!
During the van chase sequence, you can see
that the rubberbanding wasn’t there yet
as it’s very easy to stay close to Jericho
even with Mr.Pinball clearly not driving very well.
At the end, you can even see Jericho’s van
disappears in front of you before the alleyway!
The crash is also different and you can see
it unlike the fade to black in the final version.
You also see a brief shift segment that shows
Jericho’s van getting away.
It was replaced in the final version by the
defib sequence making it weird that Tanner
knows where Jericho went without actually
seeing him. (Wild Olanov appears)
Going to Jericho shows that even if the barriers
were already there, the city was way more
open than in the final game.
The paths taken in the Alpha can’t be followed in
the final version due to a red wall blocking
the exit of the highway.
I don’t see why they done this by restricting
to that extent the levels because you can
still use another exit of the highway but
that makes it just more difficult to use the
highway in the first place.
You can also notice on the highway that some
buildings and objects such as signs or big
cones have been removed and that the Field of View (FOV) is a little bigger in the Alpha, showing
more of the city.
The ambulance transition is different, not
showing Tanner’s ID and so on.
The biggest difference however is right after
with the Alpha featuring a pre-mission screen
just like the missions later in the game.
Note the different icon and colors used for
this “Action” mission.
In Final, the mission just starts without
transition and I think it’s better for the
flow and the mood of the introduction.
Tanner isn’t losing a lot of heart rate
in the Alpha and it’s easy to go to the
destination with more than 50 beats per minute
left.
But the Hospital was far from completion in
the Alpha and it doesn’t have any exteriors
signs showing it’s an Hospital beside the
ambulance vehicles parked.
On that point, it’s better in the Final.
Later on, the Shift introduction and tutorial
is a bit different with more cinematic transition
in the final than the raw teleport in the
alpha.
You can also see that the Shift highlight
is whiter in the alpha, less pronounced in
the Final version.
Let’s end this video with the introduction
of the mission city that was clearly not finished
design wise on the Alpha version.
Again, we can see a different icon and colors
for it while it’s more unified in the final
game with the mission’s icons being 
all yellow.
You can see this mission was rewarding with
Willpower that has a different yellow icon
which was changed in the Final with a blue one!
And that’s it for today!
There is still a lot to tell about this alpha
build and be assured I will continue the comparison
videos in the future!
You can still enter the giveaway to win a
copy of Driver San Francisco on PC by liking
and retweeting the tweet in the description.
Thanks to my Red Rivers Driver-dimension.com,
Freshcontact, Nirosins, Tank09_YT and the
SkyCcTv for their precious support!
If you want to support the channel as well,
click on the Join button below the video!
Thanks for watching and see you soon Drivers!
