Beta

There always comes a time in video game development when content has to be heavily modified or removed entirely. This is well known with the Driver series, from the infamous Yellow & Black Buick to the Bentley Mulsanne in Driver: San Francisco.

Driver: You Are The Wheelman

• Tanner's car in Miami was once a very slick looking Buick GSX, known to fans as the Yellow & Black Buick. It has also seen various design changes since then.
• A speedometer and rev-counter were considered, but were deemed "distracting".
• Apparently a Ford Mustang was supposed to be Tanner's second car as files of it were found in Euro Demo 43 disc.
• The beta features an early version of "Miami Night Cop". The version played in the beta is pitched up and includes an E-Bass instead of a synthesizer bass.
• Female pedestrians were cut
• The back of the PlayStation Case displays early screenshots of the game.
• The Voice lines for cops was completely absent in the beta version.

Driver 2

• Frames Per Second (without Fraps) are 22-28 FPS (retail has an average of 17 FPS)
• Traffic was less diverse
• Different buildings, some not solid
• Vehicle textures were unfinished 
• Cop car, slightly different model (not yet confirmed) and different (but finished texture).
• Music is used in Las Vegas in retail.
• Secret car didnt exist yet, instead you see a rocket in the garage (possibly due to a beta mission about the Cuban missile crisis)
• Game crash in garage/compound if entered (NTSC only)
• Some engine and collision sounds may be different.
• Water is not rendered, can be driven on without sinking (may crash in NTSC version)(Hall OF Mirrors effect occurs)
• Ferry has no texture.
• Draw distance was longer opposed to retail.
• Unfinished skybox.
• Collision detection in tunnels is unfinished, touching the wall will warp you on top of the tunnel or back to mainland.
• Some road textures may be missing.
• Textures may randomly corrupt and turn back to normal sometimes.
• Texture/models may warp on the edge of your field of view (also happens in full version to a degree).
• Unfinished pathfinding for cops
• All roads (except the Church area) are actually driven on, including the road to the compound.
• Cops tend to spawn in groups of 3 or 4 (in pursuit) instead of 2. 1 or 2 may simaltaniously spawn when inactive.
• No skybox when in a tunnel (the Hall Of Mirrors effect occurs)
• Cops use a constant nitro boost so it seems...
• Some hidden tunnels may exist
• Game tends to crash with a delay when coming close to the compound (about 1 to 2 minutes, heavy lag may announce it) (only tested in NTSC)
• The handling on the only truck avaible in the demo, handling is almost similar to normal vehicles, wih the exception of the tuning speed.

DRIV3R

DRIV3R has gone through some noticeable changes throughout development, with the biggest differences being the vehicles and the overall look of the game.

General

• The game was titled Driver 3 during development. The reason for the change, as Martin Edmondson explains,

  "During the development time, the game was simply known as “Driver 3” but a last minute change saw it renamed to the godawful “Driv3r” at a time when being “l33t” was the in-thing to do[...]somebody clever in marketing[...]decided that it was a ‘cool’ thing to do[...]As a development team we were not for it and thought it was a bit tacky[...]It was a needless and pointless thing to do that made life difficult for everyone.”

• The game uses a modified version of the Stuntman engine.
• Ocean Drive looked completely different and narrower.
• The rays of the sun were much more intensive.
• Night time looked much more realistic.
• The overall graphics of the game were much better.
• In early screenshots and gameplay, Tanner can be seen wearing his suit from Driver 2.
• The sawn-off shotgun was cut from the game. The texture remains unused in the game files.
• Calita wore red clothes and had a different haircut, as seen in some early trailers.
• Particle effects were diffrent and looked much more realistic

Missions

• Two missions were cut during the development.
• Objectives were different in some missions.
• Unused text for missions still exist in the game files.
• Cut dialogue in the game suggests that Jones would save The Gator. The mission was scrapped for unknown reasons.
• More cut dialogue reveals Lomaz knew who Jericho was selling the cars to, and would tell Tanner if he got them out of the situtation they were in, alive. It is unknown when this mission may have taken place.
• An unamed character who appears alongside Vauban in Cutscene "Tanner Escapes" was supposed to appear in mission Chase The Train. his model and textures still exist in the game files.
• Tanner was supposed to park a Corvette-looking car in garage instead of the Challenger in the opening of The Hit, as seen in the trailers.

Vehicles

Nearly 99% of the vehicles in DRIV3R have gone through significant changes throughout development. Some of them resemble vehicles found in Stuntman.

General

• Police cars from each city could be chosen for Take-A-Ride (as evidenced in unused vehicle selection videos), but were removed for unknown reasons.
• A Mitsubishi Starion is seen in an official strategy guide, but is never seen in-game.
• Police boats featured in each city and could be chosen in Take-A-Ride, but were later removed for unknown reasons. Their files remain in the game, unused, except for the Istanbul police boats, but only used for a single mission.

Miami

• The '69 Bruiser was a licensed 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 with a blue stripe down the middle. The final version also had a blue and white stripe at one point, but was later removed and the stripe was changed to white.
• The Police Prowler looked much dirtier and resembled the beta Driver: You Are the Wheelman police car.
• The TT Cuatro SuperPower had an unused red color.
• The V-8 looked completely different and had a yellow color.
• The Adams Liberty had an unused silver color, with visible dents on the side.
• The Flamingo Taxi had both brake lights intact.
• The El Toro GT500 was called the El Burro and had a violet color that was never seen in-game.
• The V-8 had an unused red color.
• The Dart Retaliator closely resembled the Dodge Challenger from Driver 2.
• The '80 Redline V-8 had different rims and a dark golden color.
• The Hunter 313 T had a Maranello Red color with bright white rims, just like a real Ferrari.
• The Scout Chaser had an unused red color.
• The G750 Pickup had a dark black color and looked slightly cleaner.
• The Velocity Turbo was silver with golden rims and shiny chrome trim.
• The Go-Kart was a brighter red with different livery that said "Supa Kart"

Nice

• Early screenshots of the game show a Citroen DS-esque police car.
• Citroen 2CV was cut from the game.
• The Le Compact XS had a bright red color with bright white rims.
• The Vitesse Moyenne 72X closely resembled a Citroen CX and had a dark gold color. The overall condition of the car looked very rough and grimy.
• The Le Compact Rapporter closely resembled a Fiat Panda
• The LTS V-8 had a dark black color that can only be found in a mission.
• The Benissimo 74 Turbo looked different and had the wheels from the Lamborghini in Stuntman. The white color can be found on the PS2 version only.
• The Dagger Type-T closely resembled a Jaguar Type-E at one point.
• A special racing-like variant of the Dagger Type-T was seen very early on in development, but was later removed.
• The Prontezza Freddo had an unused baby blue color.
• The Prontezza Brezza looked very different and was similar to a late 80's/early 90's Mercedes Benz.
• The Conquest Motors Dominance had an unused dark black color and a spoiler in the rear.
• The Le Chariot Klein and Le Chariot Transport 6 had unused dark black colors and different front-ends. The Le Chariot Transport 6 also had a broom in the back.
• The Lastwagon Kasten had an unused dark black color and different livery on the side.
• The Dolva 8M8 looked like it came straight out of Stuntman.
• The Moped and Sun Runner had unused bright red colors.
• The Cigarette 42 Tiger was an orange/red combo (like a tiger) instead of blue.

Istanbul

• Santun TTZ had diffrent headlights 
• Presumably a vehicle from Nice was supposed to be a police car in Istanbul, as seen in the opening of the game.
• The TT Cuatro SuperPower was supposed to be in Istanbul as seen in one of the trailers being crashed into. It's unknown if it was a secret car at that moment. The paint job is also a bit different.

Driver: Parallel Lines

Driver PL Original Intro

The original intro used generic images as placeholders for the final version.

• The intro cutscene used pictures from Google as placeholders for the final version later on. It also featured different music and more narrative from TK. The time of day was changed from daytime to nighttime.

• The 2006 era of the game also featured a different HUD for the speedometer.
• Cop cars in 1978 have different lights (red / blue instead of orange / red, plus they have a complete different shape)
• Wayfarer has only big grill instead of two smaller grills
• Cops and TK have pistols instead of revolvers in 1978 (perhaps pistols were replacing revolvers at that point)
• Namorra looked different
• Cerrano looks more tuned 
• Some FMV's were not used
• Some unknown cars are not appearing in the final version (one of them is the Namorra, now we know that so that's one less car. By the way I always thought this Beta Namorra looked like the Driver 2 Havana cop car. Or maybe also a bit like the other car, which always comes in white + a second color)
• More "active" traffic: That means other people getting chased by cops, random traffic jams, random construction sites (yes this kind of happens, I sometimes used to see a Dolva surrounded by some stuff you would usually see on a construction site. I think it always only spawned on bridges, and then it disappeared again, and sometimes it would return).
• Buildings (or Houses?) burning and Fire truck rushing to those places.
• Crooks steeling cars (or stuff, not sure what however) and hitting or shooting at you.
• First mission (liquor store) took place during day
• Grand Valley has a roof
• TK's Cerrano is brown instead of black
• Apparantly the pistols that was replaced by the revolver is the original pistol from Tanner in Driv3r
• Different HUD
• Different Ads around the city
• Different Taxi signs on certain Taxis
• Cars had different names 
• The car handling is also different-cars feel heavier and seem to have more body roll. 
• There's a couple peds that aren't in the final version, and some different ped lines. 
• There's one ambiance sound effect that isn't in the final version-it sounds like a car with dual exhausts accelerating in the distance.
• The following songs were meant to be on the soundtrack, as well:

• ELO-Turn To Stone
• ELO-Mr. Blue Sky
• Jimi Hendrix-Crosstown Traffic
• Jimi Hendrix-Purple Haze
• Winfield Parker-S.O.S
• The ads on Times Square are different 
• Rhapsody had a different frontclip

Driver: San Francisco

• The Bentley Mulsanne was cut sometime during development.
• The original HUD in Shift mode was different.
• Cars, when hovered over in Shift, displayed vehicle specs.
• There were more trees in the city.
• 1989 Chevrolet Box Van Ambulance were cut (Found in dngvehicles.sp)
• Dykemann Haulier SF was called El Dorado Titan
• Lotus was cut
• The Audi A8 was cut
• A unlicenced car (Volley?) was cut
• The ASYM Desanne X/T Taxi was cut
• A RHD version of the Nissan Skyline was cut

Wii version

• The concept art section found in the extras features various different box art designs.
• Tanner's design also underwent changes. These can also be found in the concept art.

Driver: Renegade 3D

• The Rage bar used to have a different look in beta. Some graphics appeared different.