Will the Director mode- which was hugely in-depth and flexible in Driver 3- return?
No. The Director mode is actually quite restricting and compromises other areas of the game. Whilst it is a cool feature, and certainly enjoyed by the hardcore fans, it ended up being a simple decision to drop it.
Because you can put the camera anywhere in the world, and point it in any direction we have to run everything in the world through full simulation all the time. Dropping it allows us to triple the number of cars in the environment and really focus on gameplay rather than a real world simulation.
Will the excellent hubcap-spinning-off-the-wheel animation return?
It isn't in at the moment.
What was the thinking behind the new character TK?
We wanted something new and fresh. He's young and cocky. We also wanted to have a bad guy as the main character. Whilst he's not truly evil or anything like that, he is free from conscience and can do what he likes. He kind of falls in with the wrong crowd.
One mission we read about talks of TK having to finish second because his 'odds' are too high - will many missions have this unexpected- but very welcome- different feel to them?
Actually, in that mission you have to make sure that a particular car wins the race. It doesn't matter where you finish as long as it's not first. The gameplay in this mission becomes an interesting mix of destruction derby, racing and chasing.
Generally we have added as much variety to the driving missions as possible, so there are missions where you have to protect other cars from ambushes, or attract the attention of the cops and then lure them to rival drug smuggling operations. We use the shooting out of the car dynamic as well, which works really well. Especially with rocket launchers!
