WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.320 Most 3D, character-driven video games 00:00:03.320 --> 00:00:06.240 can be pretty easily placed into one of two categories: 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:08.890 either first person or third person. 00:00:08.890 --> 00:00:10.550 In a first-person game, you see the game world 00:00:10.550 --> 00:00:12.560 through the actual eyes of the player character 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.950 as though you were that character, 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:16.120 and in a third-person game, you see the player character 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:18.310 from the outside - often from behind their back 00:00:18.310 --> 00:00:20.680 or from a fixed isometric perspective. 00:00:20.680 --> 00:00:22.280 But the existence of these two perspectives 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:23.360 begs a question: 00:00:23.360 --> 00:00:25.520 if this is what a first-person game looks like, 00:00:25.520 --> 00:00:28.600 and this is what a third-person video game looks like... 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:32.480 what exactly would second-person look like? 00:00:32.480 --> 00:00:34.670 Now, I'm not the first person to wonder about this - 00:00:34.670 --> 00:00:35.890 the question of whether or not 00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:38.140 a second-person shooter could actually exist 00:00:38.140 --> 00:00:40.280 is one that has plagued video game message boards 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:42.560 just about as long as the Internet has existed. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:43.880 It's also served as the premise 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:45.950 for some pretty good comedy sketches over the years, 00:00:45.950 --> 00:00:47.740 like this one from Mega64: 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:48.680 - [Announcer] Introducing the world's 00:00:48.680 --> 00:00:50.973 first second-person shooter. 00:00:50.973 --> 00:00:53.890 (video game music) 00:00:54.824 --> 00:00:56.710 (rock music) - No no no no! 00:00:56.710 --> 00:00:57.860 - And this one from The Onion. 00:00:57.860 --> 00:00:59.600 - To enter second-person shooter mode, 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:01.730 you just simply adjust the narrative slider 00:01:01.730 --> 00:01:02.863 from first to second. 00:01:03.800 --> 00:01:06.650 - You are walking down a long corridor. 00:01:06.650 --> 00:01:10.140 Suddenly, a Nazi leaps out from around the doorway 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:13.980 and unleashes a hail of machine gun fire in your direction. 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:15.080 - But to help us actually figure out 00:01:15.080 --> 00:01:16.670 what a second-person game would really be, 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:19.440 I think it would be helpful to look at this grammatically. 00:01:19.440 --> 00:01:21.660 In written language, the term "first person" 00:01:21.660 --> 00:01:23.320 denotes any writing where the point of view 00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:25.380 uses phrases like "I" or m"y" 00:01:25.380 --> 00:01:28.250 to tell the story from the perspective of the protagonist. 00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:29.440 Third-person writing, on the other hand, 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:30.900 uses third-person pronouns - 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:34.280 for example, "he went this way," "she went that way," et cetera - 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.000 to talk about characters from an outside perspective. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:38.760 Now, second-person writing does exist, 00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:39.920 but it's kind of a weird one - 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:43.360 in second person, the primary pronoun used is "you." 00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:45.800 "You do this," "you go there," et cetera. 00:01:45.800 --> 00:01:48.330 The second person is actually a lot less common 00:01:48.330 --> 00:01:49.351 in narrative writing, 00:01:49.351 --> 00:01:50.940 and it's actually something you're more likely to encounter 00:01:50.940 --> 00:01:52.890 in, say, a list of instructions 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:55.170 or a choose-your-own-adventure book. 00:01:55.170 --> 00:01:57.230 Now, the analogous video game camera perspectives 00:01:57.230 --> 00:01:59.490 for first and third-person writing are obvious - 00:01:59.490 --> 00:02:01.280 but what about for second-person? 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:02.760 We know what an "I" game looks like 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:04.410 and we know what a "he" game looks like, 00:02:04.410 --> 00:02:06.450 but what about a "you" game? 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:08.690 Strangely enough, I actually found the answer to this 00:02:08.690 --> 00:02:10.370 before I even came up with the question, 00:02:10.370 --> 00:02:12.810 and, believe it or not, it came to me courtesy of a game 00:02:12.810 --> 00:02:14.810 you may have heard me talk about once before - 00:02:14.810 --> 00:02:16.840 and that game is Driver: San Francisco. 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:18.110 See, for all the interesting missions 00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:20.170 in Driver: San Francisco - and there are plenty of them - 00:02:20.170 --> 00:02:21.410 there's one mission in particular 00:02:21.410 --> 00:02:23.670 that I swear to God I think about all the time. 00:02:23.670 --> 00:02:25.440 The mission in question is called "The Target" 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:28.430 and it's the final mission of chapter six of the game. 00:02:28.430 --> 00:02:30.670 In the game, you play as a cop named John Tanner 00:02:30.670 --> 00:02:32.670 who, for reasons I won't get into here, 00:02:32.670 --> 00:02:34.340 basically has a superpower that allows you 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:36.350 to take over the bodies of any other driver, 00:02:36.350 --> 00:02:38.260 and has begun using that superpower 00:02:38.260 --> 00:02:39.900 to foil a possible terror plot 00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:41.570 from a gangster named Jericho. 00:02:41.570 --> 00:02:43.060 Over the course of the game Tanner decides 00:02:43.060 --> 00:02:44.660 that the best way to unravel Jericho's plans 00:02:44.660 --> 00:02:45.800 is to do it from the inside, 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.310 and in order to do that, Tanner takes over the body 00:02:48.310 --> 00:02:50.260 of a low-level henchman named Ordell 00:02:50.260 --> 00:02:51.420 and uses his driving skills 00:02:51.420 --> 00:02:53.300 to help move Ordell up the ranks. 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:54.850 The final mission in this story arc 00:02:54.850 --> 00:02:57.360 sees you inhabiting Ordell's body one last time 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:00.020 to complete a major assignment from his boss Leila, 00:03:00.020 --> 00:03:01.490 who is this international assassin 00:03:01.490 --> 00:03:03.240 and Jericho's second-in-command. 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:04.320 Tanner's plan? 00:03:04.320 --> 00:03:07.130 Warp into Ordell's body and, without arousing suspicion, 00:03:07.130 --> 00:03:10.460 drive Leila and Ordell directly into police custody. 00:03:10.460 --> 00:03:11.710 Now, the mission begins as normal 00:03:11.710 --> 00:03:13.330 with Tanner and his partner Jones 00:03:13.330 --> 00:03:15.800 driving their iconic orange Dodge Challenger, 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:17.720 and soon enough, you warp into Ordell's body 00:03:17.720 --> 00:03:19.110 with Leila in the passenger seat 00:03:19.110 --> 00:03:21.337 where she gives you some clarity on the mission. 00:03:21.337 --> 00:03:22.573 (car engine roaring) 00:03:22.573 --> 00:03:24.770 - [Leila] Ordell, I need nothing but your best today. 00:03:24.770 --> 00:03:25.760 - [Tanner] What's going down? 00:03:25.760 --> 00:03:27.870 - [Leila] Jericho's got a problem he wants fixed. 00:03:27.870 --> 00:03:29.770 Get me to the target and I'll fix it. 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:31.010 - So you drive to the destination 00:03:31.010 --> 00:03:32.560 she's given you, closing in on your target, 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:35.341 and as you get close, this happens: 00:03:35.341 --> 00:03:38.424 (car engine roaring) 00:03:39.820 --> 00:03:40.910 - Slow down. 00:03:40.910 --> 00:03:43.505 We should acquire the target any time now. 00:03:43.505 --> 00:03:48.505 (car engine roaring) (tires screeching) 00:03:49.070 --> 00:03:51.020 The yellow Dodge, up ahead. 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:53.460 Stay close but don't be obvious. 00:03:53.460 --> 00:03:54.420 - ...that's my car. 00:03:54.420 --> 00:03:55.717 - What? 00:03:55.717 --> 00:03:57.500 That's the cop that's been getting in our way. 00:03:57.500 --> 00:03:59.380 - Do we follow him to the target? 00:03:59.380 --> 00:04:01.070 - ...he IS the target. 00:04:01.070 --> 00:04:02.280 - [Narrator] It's you. 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:04.946 You've been assigned to kill... you. 00:04:04.946 --> 00:04:07.440 (music) 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:08.580 Now, after that cutscene ends, 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.790 you are back in Ordell's body in the first person 00:04:10.790 --> 00:04:12.570 with Leila sitting to your right. 00:04:12.570 --> 00:04:16.260 But then... you press the throttle to accelerate, 00:04:16.260 --> 00:04:18.440 and the car in front of you moves. 00:04:18.440 --> 00:04:19.680 You steer to the left and to the right... 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:20.700 and the car in front of you moves 00:04:20.700 --> 00:04:21.690 to the left and then to the right. 00:04:21.690 --> 00:04:25.320 And then, quickly, it sinks in that the car you're controlling 00:04:25.320 --> 00:04:27.860 is actually the car you're following. 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:31.250 Your perspective as the player is entirely separate 00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:33.680 from what you're controlling as the player. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:36.930 In other words, you're pursuing... you. 00:04:36.930 --> 00:04:38.650 Now, as you can see, the car that you're sitting in 00:04:38.650 --> 00:04:40.410 is moving, too - but, crucially, 00:04:40.410 --> 00:04:42.740 you're not the one who's controlling that car. 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:45.010 The car you're sitting in is moving automatically, 00:04:45.010 --> 00:04:47.500 seemingly operated by an AI-controlled driver 00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:50.240 who's tailing the car you're actually controlling. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:53.160 It's basically like a chase mission in any other video game 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:54.660 just like you've seen countless other times - 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:56.770 except for this time, it's flipped on its head. 00:04:56.770 --> 00:04:58.950 This time, you're the one being followed, 00:04:58.950 --> 00:05:01.220 while simultaneously seeing it all unfold 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:03.940 from the perspective of the car doing the following. 00:05:03.940 --> 00:05:04.870 And while it's hard for me to guess 00:05:04.870 --> 00:05:06.470 how well this comes across on video, 00:05:06.470 --> 00:05:08.300 all these elements combine to make something 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:10.720 that is very, very odd to play. 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:12.350 There's something shocking and disorienting 00:05:12.350 --> 00:05:15.300 about seeing a first-person perspective on your screen 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:17.260 but also not controlling that perspective 00:05:17.260 --> 00:05:20.140 while remotely operating the car that you're tailing. 00:05:20.140 --> 00:05:21.940 It's the closest a video game has ever gotten 00:05:21.940 --> 00:05:24.060 to feeling like a true out-of-body experience, 00:05:24.060 --> 00:05:25.910 and it's an experience that has stuck with me 00:05:25.910 --> 00:05:27.900 ever since I first played this game back in 2011. 00:05:28.380 --> 00:05:30.120 Now, when I first played Driver: San Francisco 00:05:30.120 --> 00:05:30.953 eight years ago, 00:05:30.953 --> 00:05:32.470 I kinda just played through this mission once, 00:05:32.470 --> 00:05:34.990 start to finish, marveling at the unique perspective 00:05:34.990 --> 00:05:35.830 that this mission granted you, 00:05:35.830 --> 00:05:37.500 but then moving on to the rest of the game. 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:39.670 But I've always felt like if I ever came back to this game, 00:05:39.670 --> 00:05:41.140 I'd wanna pick this mission apart 00:05:41.140 --> 00:05:42.260 and see what makes it tick, 00:05:42.260 --> 00:05:43.730 and that's part of what I hope to accomplish 00:05:43.730 --> 00:05:44.563 with this video. 00:05:44.563 --> 00:05:47.600 See, as cool as this mission is, it's also pretty linear. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:48.960 The whole thing takes place with you driving down 00:05:48.960 --> 00:05:51.060 this completely locked-down race course 00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:52.600 with no exits or detours - 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:54.800 pretty much just a straight shot to the exit. 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:56.840 I've always assumed that the developer Reflections 00:05:56.840 --> 00:05:57.930 designed this mission this way 00:05:57.930 --> 00:05:59.610 due to the technological limitations 00:05:59.610 --> 00:06:01.130 of this weird second-person camera 00:06:01.130 --> 00:06:02.870 that they built just for this mission. 00:06:02.870 --> 00:06:04.710 Perhaps there was no way for them to get this camera 00:06:04.710 --> 00:06:06.540 to behave properly in the actual open world 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:08.270 with all the various streets, elevations, 00:06:08.270 --> 00:06:09.720 and alleyways you could dip into - 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:11.140 not to mention the other street traffic. 00:06:11.140 --> 00:06:13.320 And on top of that, they built this mission 00:06:13.320 --> 00:06:15.070 with a pretty strict countdown timer, 00:06:15.070 --> 00:06:18.000 forcing you to hit the checkpoints in rapid succession - 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:19.720 something that I've always assumed was placed there 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:21.760 to keep you from ever veering too far off the path 00:06:21.760 --> 00:06:23.650 and breaking the game somehow. 00:06:23.650 --> 00:06:24.760 Still, I've always wondered about 00:06:24.760 --> 00:06:26.410 the actual limitations of this mission, 00:06:26.410 --> 00:06:28.440 and I knew that this time around I wanted to test out 00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:30.300 whether or not there was any way to escape - 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:32.390 so before finishing the mission, I paused, 00:06:32.390 --> 00:06:34.460 started it over, and then this time, 00:06:34.460 --> 00:06:35.990 instead of starting the race as intended, 00:06:35.990 --> 00:06:37.550 I swung the car into a 180, 00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:40.240 driving the car backwards in the wrong direction. 00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:41.870 Now, when I do this, the AI driver 00:06:41.870 --> 00:06:43.120 immediately begins panicking, 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:44.530 rapidly spinning the steering wheel 00:06:44.530 --> 00:06:47.290 trying desperately to keep my car visible in frame, 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:49.620 and then eventually, it turns around 180 degrees 00:06:49.620 --> 00:06:53.440 to reveal what looks like the entire open world 00:06:53.440 --> 00:06:54.590 of Driver: San Francisco - 00:06:54.590 --> 00:06:57.520 seemingly 100% accessible to the player. 00:06:57.520 --> 00:07:00.120 Now I drove away from the racetrack and began exploring, 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.110 and I kept bracing myself to hit some kind of invisible wall 00:07:03.110 --> 00:07:04.960 or failure state for going off course, 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:08.100 but it never happened. It all actually worked. 00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:09.090 I merged into traffic 00:07:09.090 --> 00:07:11.010 and the second-person camera followed me, 00:07:11.010 --> 00:07:12.570 immaculately bobbing and weaving 00:07:12.570 --> 00:07:14.120 through the other cars on the road. 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:15.700 It was around this time that I noticed... 00:07:15.700 --> 00:07:16.880 there was no timer. 00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:18.390 It turns out that Reflections 00:07:18.390 --> 00:07:20.030 had generously designed this mission, 00:07:20.030 --> 00:07:21.750 intentionally or unintentionally, 00:07:21.750 --> 00:07:23.120 so that the mission countdown timer 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.960 doesn't actually begin until you reach the first checkpoint - 00:07:25.960 --> 00:07:28.100 meaning that if you never hit that first checkpoint, 00:07:28.100 --> 00:07:29.990 you can drive around forever. 00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:33.750 (car engine roaring) 00:07:33.750 --> 00:07:35.230 (car passing on right honks) 00:07:35.230 --> 00:07:37.070 This led to what I can only describe 00:07:37.070 --> 00:07:39.470 as a transcendent video game experience. 00:07:39.470 --> 00:07:41.100 It felt like I was seeing something 00:07:41.100 --> 00:07:42.870 that I was never meant to see. 00:07:42.870 --> 00:07:46.510 This ability to explore the city as much as I wanted to 00:07:46.510 --> 00:07:48.630 all from this wholly unique, 00:07:48.630 --> 00:07:51.570 extremely surreal second-person viewpoint: 00:07:51.570 --> 00:07:53.170 it felt like a magical experience 00:07:53.170 --> 00:07:54.560 and one that almost nobody else 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:55.940 has experienced for themselves. 00:07:56.500 --> 00:07:57.730 Now, revisiting this mission 00:07:57.730 --> 00:07:59.420 and managing to escape the confines 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:01.690 laid down by the developers all those years ago, 00:08:01.690 --> 00:08:04.680 I really wanted to try and push this thing to its limits. 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:06.430 I couldn't resit trying to break things a little: 00:08:06.430 --> 00:08:09.750 I drove the car off ramps, into upcoming traffic, all of it. 00:08:09.750 --> 00:08:12.000 But surprisingly, it held together perfectly. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:14.840 That is, until I tried one specific thing. 00:08:14.840 --> 00:08:16.140 See, I haven't talked about it before, 00:08:16.140 --> 00:08:18.990 but this mission actually does have a failure condition. 00:08:18.990 --> 00:08:20.310 In the lower-right corner of the screen 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:21.180 there's a health meter, 00:08:21.180 --> 00:08:23.000 and it represents the health of Tanner's car: 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.620 the car you're chasing / driving. 00:08:25.620 --> 00:08:27.130 But if you get into one too many collisions 00:08:27.130 --> 00:08:28.650 while driving this car in the second person, 00:08:28.650 --> 00:08:30.580 you can actually run out of health, 00:08:30.580 --> 00:08:33.390 causing Tanner to die and the mission to end in a loss. 00:08:33.390 --> 00:08:35.140 This is actually pretty hard to achieve 00:08:35.140 --> 00:08:36.770 on the default mission path they laid out, 00:08:36.770 --> 00:08:38.820 but driving into oncoming lanes of traffic 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:40.420 and ramping off car transporters 00:08:40.420 --> 00:08:41.850 had taken its toll on my vehicle 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:44.250 and I only had a small sliver of health left. 00:08:44.250 --> 00:08:46.450 Wanting to explore this mission as long as possible, 00:08:46.450 --> 00:08:49.480 I gingerly pulled Tanner's car into a narrow alleyway 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:51.300 and then decided to try out the one thing 00:08:51.300 --> 00:08:52.240 I hadn't attempted yet: 00:08:52.860 --> 00:08:54.700 I turned around and drove the car, 00:08:54.700 --> 00:08:56.120 in the second person, 00:08:56.120 --> 00:08:57.860 directly at myself. 00:08:57.863 --> 00:09:00.410 (music) 00:09:00.410 --> 00:09:02.300 This put the AI driver in a weird position. 00:09:02.300 --> 00:09:05.030 It now had to drive backwards just to keep me in the frame, 00:09:05.030 --> 00:09:06.480 and it was also narrowly sandwiched 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:08.200 between the two walls of the alley, 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:10.360 giving it almost no room to maneuver. 00:09:10.360 --> 00:09:11.590 I kept driving towards myself, 00:09:11.590 --> 00:09:14.343 putting on the pressure, closer and closer, and then... 00:09:14.343 --> 00:09:15.940 (car engine roaring) 00:09:15.940 --> 00:09:16.940 (car screeching) 00:09:19.020 --> 00:09:19.845 (cars crashing) 00:09:19.845 --> 00:09:21.260 - [Leila] Nice work. 00:09:21.260 --> 00:09:22.540 - It broke. 00:09:22.540 --> 00:09:25.420 All at once, the second-person vehicle shoots into a wall, 00:09:25.420 --> 00:09:26.253 clips through it, 00:09:26.253 --> 00:09:28.870 and then launches hundreds of feet into the air. 00:09:28.870 --> 00:09:30.210 Briefly, one frame at a time, 00:09:30.210 --> 00:09:32.400 we can get glimpses of the chaos that unfolded: 00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:34.060 we see the car inside the wall, 00:09:34.060 --> 00:09:36.850 then we see the car's front console flipped over; 00:09:36.850 --> 00:09:38.910 we see what appears to be the ocean floor 00:09:38.910 --> 00:09:41.660 and then the pavement as seen from underneath; 00:09:41.660 --> 00:09:43.920 we see rooftops, the driver's arm, 00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:46.970 the sky, trees, abstract geometry - 00:09:46.970 --> 00:09:49.220 and then the city from above, 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:51.530 flooded with unloaded geometry. 00:09:51.530 --> 00:09:53.880 After that, we see the car spinning and spinning in mid air, 00:09:53.880 --> 00:09:55.910 giving us glimpses of San Francisco from above, 00:09:55.910 --> 00:09:57.750 before finally getting so high 00:09:57.750 --> 00:10:01.440 that nothing can be seen but endless ocean. 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:02.970 And then, 00:10:02.970 --> 00:10:04.085 black. 00:10:04.085 --> 00:10:06.860 (music) 00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:09.780 Suddenly, all at once, the car snaps back to earth. 00:10:09.780 --> 00:10:12.860 The health meter for Tanner's vehicle turns blindingly white 00:10:12.860 --> 00:10:14.200 and then the second-person viewpoint 00:10:14.200 --> 00:10:17.420 fills with an orange-yellow hue: Tanner's car. 00:10:17.420 --> 00:10:19.410 Quickly it becomes clear that the second-person car 00:10:19.410 --> 00:10:22.200 has somehow spawned inside of Tanner's vehicle, 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:24.199 dealing infinite damage to the car. 00:10:24.199 --> 00:10:25.560 (cars crashing) 00:10:25.560 --> 00:10:27.400 A deafening crash sound can be heard 00:10:27.400 --> 00:10:28.860 and shattered glass flies everywhere, 00:10:28.860 --> 00:10:32.160 and then, for a brief moment, right before the mission ends, 00:10:32.160 --> 00:10:35.270 the camera inexplicably shifts into Tanner's car 00:10:35.270 --> 00:10:36.870 where the car is balanced on its nose, 00:10:36.870 --> 00:10:38.000 its windshield shattered, 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.810 thrust impossibly through another vehicle. 00:10:40.810 --> 00:10:43.360 And then, horrifically, the camera clips 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:45.610 through the back of Tanner's partner's head 00:10:45.610 --> 00:10:48.580 and shows us the backside of his eyeballs and tongue: 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:51.140 a truly terrifying second-person perspective 00:10:51.140 --> 00:10:52.287 if ever there was one. 00:10:52.287 --> 00:10:54.870 (music) 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:02.080 Shaken by my other-worldly encounter seemingly brought on 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:04.980 by pushing this already existential mission to its limits, 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:05.980 I reset the mission 00:11:05.980 --> 00:11:08.630 and played it beginning to end one last time - 00:11:08.630 --> 00:11:10.930 this time careful to do it the right way, 00:11:10.930 --> 00:11:13.160 not wanting to disturb whatever eldritch being 00:11:13.160 --> 00:11:15.580 I'd upset by breaking the mission in the first place. 00:11:15.580 --> 00:11:17.920 After all, I thought, I know that every mission 00:11:17.920 --> 00:11:19.010 in Driver: San Francisco 00:11:19.010 --> 00:11:21.440 ends with a continue and retry option, 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:23.370 so if I really wanted to explore this mission again, 00:11:23.370 --> 00:11:25.770 I could always hit the retry button to give it another shot 00:11:25.770 --> 00:11:27.170 after running through it normally. 00:11:27.170 --> 00:11:29.540 So I proceeded to complete the mission as intended - 00:11:29.540 --> 00:11:32.880 a mission, by the way, that ends with the antagonist Jericho 00:11:32.880 --> 00:11:34.420 actually taking over your body 00:11:34.420 --> 00:11:37.174 and attempting to drive you into a lethal car accident: 00:11:37.174 --> 00:11:39.680 (car engine roaring) - You mean... Jericho! 00:11:39.680 --> 00:11:42.010 - [Leila] Sit back and enjoy the show. 00:11:42.010 --> 00:11:45.140 Not many people get to watch themselves die. 00:11:45.140 --> 00:11:46.960 - ...a problem that Tanner decides to solve 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:48.860 by, disturbingly enough, shifting 00:11:48.860 --> 00:11:50.890 for the first and only time in the game 00:11:50.890 --> 00:11:53.040 into his partner Jones' body. 00:11:53.040 --> 00:11:54.170 Yes, that partner. 00:11:54.170 --> 00:11:55.820 - [Jones] What the heII is going on? 00:11:55.820 --> 00:11:57.520 - Anyways, I go to finish the mission 00:11:57.520 --> 00:11:58.920 the normal way, staying on the path, 00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:00.290 fully expecting the restart option 00:12:00.290 --> 00:12:02.190 that appears after most missions to show up. 00:12:02.190 --> 00:12:04.280 Instead, I get to the end of the mission, and - 00:12:04.280 --> 00:12:06.260 for some reason that I still can't explain - 00:12:06.260 --> 00:12:08.070 the only option was continue. 00:12:08.070 --> 00:12:10.053 The reset option had vanished. 00:12:10.900 --> 00:12:13.490 Panicked, I quickly hit ALT+F4 and existed the game, 00:12:13.490 --> 00:12:15.020 hoping I could load up my save file 00:12:15.020 --> 00:12:17.080 and play through the mission again, but it was too late. 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:18.770 It had already autosaved over my file 00:12:18.770 --> 00:12:22.854 and the mission was gone with no way to replay it again. 00:12:22.854 --> 00:12:26.090 (music) 00:12:26.090 --> 00:12:28.250 Look, Driver: San Francisco is a game 00:12:28.250 --> 00:12:30.820 full of weird, interesting, strikingly-designed missions - 00:12:30.820 --> 00:12:32.830 but, to me, "The Target" has always stood out 00:12:32.830 --> 00:12:36.100 as the perfect example of what makes this game special. 00:12:36.100 --> 00:12:37.970 Video games are an entire medium 00:12:37.970 --> 00:12:39.870 built around taking over others' bodies, 00:12:39.870 --> 00:12:42.570 and Driver: San Francisco is a richly existential 00:12:42.570 --> 00:12:45.160 and metatextual reflection of this idea. 00:12:45.160 --> 00:12:47.260 This mission in particular brought these ideas to the fore 00:12:47.260 --> 00:12:49.150 in a way that I wasn't fully prepared for 00:12:49.150 --> 00:12:51.350 and that I'm only now beginning to wrap my head around, 00:12:51.350 --> 00:12:52.940 years and years later. 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:54.540 Even writing the script for this video 00:12:54.540 --> 00:12:56.290 felt like a mind-bending exercise 00:12:56.290 --> 00:12:57.500 in trying to explain something 00:12:57.500 --> 00:12:59.390 that is borderline unexplainable. 00:12:59.390 --> 00:13:00.700 You really have to play it for yourself 00:13:00.700 --> 00:13:04.140 to get a full sense of how crazy this mission feels. 00:13:04.140 --> 00:13:06.330 In designing this mission, Reflections took decades 00:13:06.330 --> 00:13:08.870 of 3D video game conventions and turned them on their head 00:13:08.870 --> 00:13:12.150 to create what feels a truly out-of-body experience. 00:13:12.150 --> 00:13:15.350 That, to me, is an accomplishment worth celebrating. 00:13:15.350 --> 00:13:16.931 Please play "Driver: San Francisco." 00:13:16.931 --> 00:13:17.890 (car engine roaring) 00:13:17.890 --> 00:13:20.510 - [Leila] If you're here, who's in your body? 00:13:20.510 --> 00:13:21.710 - [Tanner] Well, no one. 00:13:22.628 --> 00:13:23.461 ...oh God. 00:13:25.222 --> 00:13:26.559 (door shuts) 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:27.755 (keys jingling) 00:13:27.755 --> 00:13:29.540 (car revving) 00:13:29.540 --> 00:13:30.900 - All right, so a couple quick updates 00:13:30.900 --> 00:13:33.450 on the "Driver: San Francisco" situation. 00:13:33.450 --> 00:13:35.640 The petition to get Ubisoft to re-list the game 00:13:35.640 --> 00:13:37.240 that I mentioned at the end of my last video 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:41.530 is now at over 70,000 signatures, which is insane. 00:13:41.530 --> 00:13:43.390 Please, if you have any interest in this game, 00:13:43.390 --> 00:13:44.810 please sign this petition. 00:13:44.810 --> 00:13:47.880 It now feels like 100,000 is within our grasp, 00:13:47.880 --> 00:13:49.940 which is crazy, and I can't believe I'm saying, 00:13:49.940 --> 00:13:51.510 but it could happen - 00:13:51.510 --> 00:13:53.630 which, to me, feels like an unignorable number. 00:13:53.630 --> 00:13:55.750 But! In the meantime, as you might have noticed, 00:13:55.750 --> 00:13:57.180 Ubisoft has not re-listed the game - 00:13:57.180 --> 00:14:00.480 they have been ignoring the 70,000 signatures we have. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:03.247 And on a totally unrelated note, not connected at all, 00:14:03.247 --> 00:14:05.390 Driver: San Francisco, since my video last month, 00:14:05.390 --> 00:14:07.940 has been in the top 10 most downloaded games 00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:09.130 on The Pirate Bay. 00:14:09.130 --> 00:14:10.810 ...totally no relationship there, 00:14:10.810 --> 00:14:12.210 not mentioning that for any reason at all. 00:14:12.210 --> 00:14:14.410 Just saying, the game is not available 00:14:14.410 --> 00:14:16.630 and it's also one of the most pirated video games, 00:14:16.630 --> 00:14:19.500 and has been in the top 10 most pirated games 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:20.450 for the past month. 00:14:21.950 --> 00:14:22.880 Just a coincidence. 00:14:22.880 --> 00:14:24.730 Also, totally unrelated to the fact 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:28.940 that this game is apparently very popular on Pirate Bay, 00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:32.970 did you know that if you go to NordVPN.org/babylonian 00:14:32.970 --> 00:14:37.970 you can go to websites, illicit or non-illicit, 00:14:38.020 --> 00:14:40.690 without being tracked by your ISP or anybody else? 00:14:40.690 --> 00:14:42.010 So that means that, for example, 00:14:42.010 --> 00:14:44.570 if you were to go to - and I'm not saying you should - 00:14:44.570 --> 00:14:47.750 a website that allowed you to download a video game 00:14:47.750 --> 00:14:49.810 that is no longer available and can be easily pirated 00:14:49.810 --> 00:14:50.920 with just a few clicks 00:14:50.920 --> 00:14:53.060 and you don't wanna get an angry email from your ISP 00:14:53.060 --> 00:14:54.410 saying you can't do that, 00:14:54.410 --> 00:14:56.560 you should invest in a VPN. (laughs) 00:14:56.560 --> 00:14:58.880 If you go to NordVPN.org/babylonian 00:14:58.880 --> 00:15:00.650 and use coupon code "babylonian", 00:15:00.650 --> 00:15:02.580 you'll get 70% off their three-year plan 00:15:02.580 --> 00:15:05.500 and get one full month of VPN coverage free. 00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:07.280 But yeah, if you enjoyed this video, 00:15:07.280 --> 00:15:09.530 please share it with anyone you think would like it, 00:15:09.530 --> 00:15:11.900 and/or subscribe to my channel 00:15:11.900 --> 00:15:13.540 if you'd like to see more stuff like this in the future. 00:15:13.540 --> 00:15:14.760 I've got a lot of videos 00:15:14.760 --> 00:15:16.830 in various stages of production right now 00:15:16.830 --> 00:15:19.770 that I'm really excited to get out into the world, 00:15:19.770 --> 00:15:20.603 and I can finally start thinking about them 00:15:20.603 --> 00:15:21.790 now that this one's done. 00:15:21.790 --> 00:15:24.450 So yeah, that's it from me for this time. 00:15:24.450 --> 00:15:26.880 Hopefully the next video comes out a little quicker. 00:15:26.880 --> 00:15:28.270 I've got a lot of ideas that have nothing to do 00:15:28.270 --> 00:15:30.570 with Driver: SF, I just... this one 00:15:31.520 --> 00:15:33.340 has been on my mind for a while 00:15:33.340 --> 00:15:34.790 and I'm glad to finally have it done. 00:15:34.790 --> 00:15:37.760 So thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time. 00:15:37.760 --> 00:15:39.380 (music)