Driver Strategy Guide Company: GT Interactive Product: Driver ?Life is just one big test. Ya better start learnin? how to cheat now.? - ?Leadfoot? Louie Top Student, Graduating class, 1997 As ?Leadfoot? so eloquently pointed out, life is a series of tests. The foist test ya gotta pass is a little drivin? test. If ya wanna try this one out a couple of times before ya give it a real go, youse can use the ?training? section. Yer lookin? for the ?Car Park? selection. Why?s it called ?Car Park?? Cause that?s where the test takes place... in a parkin? garage... with parked cars in it. Youse gots 60 seconds to pull off nine different moves. In the trainin? mode, you can watch some punk driver that works for ?Reflections? do the rundown. Of course, just ?cause they show youse ONE way, don?t mean it?s the only way... or for that matter, even the best way. First, let?s go over the different objectives, and what?s youse gotta do to nail ?em. BURNOUT - This one?s easy. All youse gotta do is hold down yer Circle button and lay some rubber. HANDBRAKE - This is another easy one. Simply press the Triangle button while you?re moving to use yer handbrake. SLALOM - This one?s tricky. Youse gotta start at one end of a row of columns, and weave thru the columns, on one side, then the other, till youse reach the other end. THEN, youse gotta keep on going around and weave back thru to the place ya started! This one?s dangerous, so it?s best to just tap the gas as you go thru this one... otherwise it?s impossible to keep control of the car. When ya get to the opposite end of the columns, and yer turning it around to shoot back the other way, you can tap the Circle button to spin out a little, if?n youse can handle it. When youse do that, yer car will whip around, and you?ll be at a good angle to start headin? back (if ya did it right). 180 - This is a quick way to turn around and go back the way ya came from. Do this one by givin? it some gas, then hold down your handbrake (Triangle) and a direction (left or right) until yer car has spun around the opposite direction. 360 - This is a fun one. A 360 is a donut... and not the kind the cops like. It?s not hard to pull off, either... just hold down the Circle button to start burning out, while holding either left or right. Watch carefully, though -- they won?t count it on the test unless you go for a FULL 360. REVERSE 180 - This is not that hard to pull off, and is very useful for those sticky situations when you end up face to face with the Coppers, and youse gots no elbow room. It?s like this... when you?re going backwards, quickly let go of the gas, and hold left or right until yer cars spins around and yer headed forwards. SPEED - Youse GOTTA know what SPEED is. Now, lemme tell youse a good way to attain it in such a small area... Get all the way into one corner of the garage, facing the center. Now, hold down the Circle button to tear off across the garage, towards the opposite corner. Watch the checklist. As soon as you?ve accomplished the speed requirement, you?ll need to brake, so?s ya don?t wreck on the other side! BRAKE TEST - This is simply to prove you can successfully brake from high speeds. Actually, if you don?t get this one BEFORE you do the Speed test, youse should get it by the time yer done with the Speed test! LAP - This is a simple one to explain, but an easy one to mess up on. All youse gots to do, is make a complete circle around the outside of the garage. Try to take the corners a little slow... If yer not careful, there?s lots to run into in those corners... and three strikes, and yer out! Now that we?ve got the basics out there on the table, here?s a quick routine to get ya past the garage test... At the very beginning of the test, before you even have control of the game, Press and hold down Circle. That way, as soon as you have control of the vehicle, you?ll start to BURN OUT. That?s one! Now, keep the Circle button pressed until you start to pass the blue car that?s parked in front of the column on the left side of the garage, then quickly let go of the Circle button and press and hold down the Square button. This?ll throw yer brakes on, and (hopefully) bring yer car to a stop somewhere BEFORE hitting the wall (if not, start over and hit the brakes earlier next time). If ya did it right, you should have made your SPEED and BRAKE TEST. If not, start over... Now, hold down Square until you?ve backed up far enough to just start to see the second column from the car (not the one with the blue car, but the closest one to it). Then let go of the Square button and hold down your D-Pad to the Left. Your car will whip around until you?re facin? the wall. Let your car come to a complete stop (when the smoke stops comin? offa yer tires is close enuff). You should now have gotten the REVERSING 180. Now, while still holding Left, hit the Circle button to burn out again. This time, hold it like that until yer car whips all the way back around to where you started (or so... just ta make sure it counts). You should now have completed the 360 test. Okay, sport... Now it?s time to play it cool. At dis point, all?s ya gotta do is three more stunts, an? youse should have some time left on yer clock. Now, ya gotta slalom the columns... drive around the blue car on yer left, then weave in and out of the columns on down the line. Don?t try to get too much speed here -- the main objective is to keep as close as ya can to the columns without hittin? ?em. Easy way to do it is to just keep tappin? the gas (X button) so you can keep tight control over the car as you weave around the columns. When you start to pass the last one, tap the Circle button to whip around the last column, then cautiously continue back. When you get back where you started and get all the way back around the blue car, you will have completed the SLALOM objective. Just two more moves now! Next, get the LAP outta the way. Just take off around the outside of the garage. As long as you stay outside of the columns, yer doing a lap. Do this one fast if ya can, but don?t sweat it if youse can only take it a little fast. Youse should have some time left, even if the clock is flashin? red. (Don?t let the little flashin? clock distract ya. If ya run outta time, youse can always try again. No biggie!) When you make it all the way around the garage, you will see that youse got the LAP done. That leaves one short move... Finally, quickly turn and face the opposite side of the garage. Tear off straight down the center of the garage, and a little past the center, let go of the gas, hit left (or right), and hit the Triangle button. This will get ya the 180 and the HANDBRAKE if youse didn?t already get that one. RULE #1 ?Play it COOL...? One of the most important things when yer out on the streets is to keep yer cool! Here?s a few points to keep in mind... Watch yer radar - sometimes it?s easy to just avoid da cops... consider it a couple of seconds well spent. Follow traffic rules if cops are near -- If they don?t SEE ya speeding,? ya weren?t speedin?, get it!? Wait out your felony bar -- sometimes your felony will fade from the bar (and from the cops minds). See if it?s goin? down, and let it run out to nothing if it will. There are ?roads? that the traffic doesn?t drive down. They?s called SIDEWALKS. If?n youse GOTS to get somewhere quick and can?t be bothered by traffic on the streets (or if a Copper spots ya and jumps at ya and you can?t afford to take a hit), take to the sidewalks. But, make sure ya line yerself up straight. Otherwise, you?ll get clipped by trees and $#!T as you whiz by. Thisn?s important, so pay ?ttention. No matter how fast your ride can go, it won?t help none if you ain?t go no idea where the heck yer heading. So, since yer PAY is dependant on you actually GETTIN? somewhere, stop from time to time, as needed, and check your map. If yer out drivin? somewhere, and a road or alley that?s not on your map shows up, it might make a nice shortcut... Not only that, but if you DON?T check yer map, you might wind up with a serious case of ?You Can?t Get Ther From Here-itis? -- the only cure for which is time... something that you won?t have much of. Losin? a Tail... First, no wisecracks. I don?t mean losin? yer a$$, and I don?t mean my REAL tail... a ?Tail? means a Copper that?s got you in his sights. If you see the pretty flashing lights and hear high pitched noises, ya got yerself a tail. Da best way to lose a Tail is to outrun ?em (if you can). The easiest way to out run someone is on a straight open road. The Coppers know this. That?s why dey like ta mix things up a bit by lining a few extra cop cars across the road, so as ta slow ya down a bit (slow is bad). To avoid these ?roadblocks,? ya need to stay far to the side. The Coppers are smart enough to cover the road from one side to the other, but don?t think about the medians and sidewalks. With a little practice at ?sidestepping? these roadblocks, you?ll be prayin? fer one next time ya got an ambitious Copper kissin? yer tailpipe. If you don?t happen upon a roadblock, you can also trick the Fuzz into slamming into solid objects. Light poles, buildings, cars, anything like that will do fine, but I especially like makin ?em slam into each other... that way, no matter which one wrecks out first, it?s a good thing. The trick to getting? the Cops to wreck is to swerve close to the objects yerself. They?re gonna follow yer moves as closely as they can... make it risky and give them time to mess up. If ya got two cops chasin ya, side by side, swervin? left and right will make them ram each other... That one?s great for a few laughs! If it comes right down to it, and you gotta lose a tail fast, you can sometimes put ?em outta commission the old fashioned way. Just ram into ?em. The cops? cars damage more quickly than yer rides. Unless there?s a specific reason ya gotta take special care of the vehicle, youse should be able to put away one cop car with about one third of the damage you can stand. For the slow ones in the class, that means, if you have half of your damage left, you should be able to take out one cop car by simply ramming into it. If you have little or no damage, maybe two... Three cop cars, and yer pushin? it. Play it safe -- use this method ONLY if youse ain?t gots another choice... -Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins Related Links: Driver Review