Earlier this year, Franchise Pictures released a little-known movie called Driven. Despite being a good movie, Driven received quite a few bad reviews and failed to succeed at the box office, mainly due to its crappy marketing campaign. If you don't remember seeing the movie advertised or had never even heard of it until today, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Bam! Entertainment could have easily taken this as a sign to get out before it was too late and decide to scrap the whole project. But they didn't. They took a risk and decided to release the game anyway. And after playing Driven for a while, I can see why.

I assume that most of the people reading this have never seen the movie before, but if you have, you're in for a real treat. Driven is the first truly cinematic racing game. Everything about the game is very movie-like, especially the blurry visuals, which were no doubt inspired by the film's cool cinematic effects. The graphics are impressive throughout most of the game, but the blurry cinematic effect (used when you "enter the Zone") is definitely the most eye-popping of them all. I'll explain more about entering the Zone later, because at the moment I am too awe-struck to talk about anything except the graphics.

The backgrounds are nowhere near as detailed NASCAR Thunder 2002, nor are the vehicles as realistic as the ones in Gran Turismo 3. But the style that the graphics are presented in is awesome. No other racing game has attempted to do this before, but Driven hits the mark without failure. When Metal Gear Solid was released for the PSone, it changed the way we play games forever. Metal Gear Solid also changed quite a bit of the industry itself. I don't expect Drive to have that big of an effect on things, but I would be really surprised if it didn't influence the design of at least a couple of racing games currently in development. Just wait until next fall. Then the copycats will begin to appear.

At first, Driven doesn't seem like a very unique racing game. Aside from the cinematic effects, what's different about it? Then you play it for a while and slowly begin to notice all of the subtle differences between Driven and other racing games. One difference worth noting is the gameplay. Driven plays very realistically. You feel like you have full control over your vehicle, until an opponent accidentally rubs up against one of your front tires. Before you know it, your vehicle is spinning in circles. You turn the wheel in the opposite direction to try and straighten yourself out, but then it only gets worse because the vehicle ends up spinning faster than it did before. The only difference is that this time, you're spinning left instead of right. You are still in last place and you are still going to lose. Unless of course, you enter "the Zone." In the movie, the Zone was a state of mind that every great racer had the potential to enter. When you enter the Zone, your mind becomes one with the vehicle. Your concentration is so high that all background noises are magically silenced. The blurriness is caused by the increase in speed. It's an amazing cinematic experience both in the movie and in the game.

Achieving "Zone status" can only be done by performing near-perfectly in the race until your Zone meter is filled. Once you enter the Zone, you must not make any mistakes or else your concentration will be lost and you'll be kicked out of the Zone immediately. This means that while you are in the Zone, you can't bump the wall, drive off the track or come in contact with any of your opponents. The list of things that'll pull you out of the Zone could go on forever, but those are the three most important ones to avoid. Tip: Taking your thumb off the gas button will NOT pull you out of the Zone, so consider easing up on the gas instead of braking when making a turn.

Even the physics of the tires are impressive. When you crash or bump the wall too harshly, the tires that were damaged will begin to wobble. The more the tires are banged around, the more they'll wobble, eventually falling off! Try winning a race without a tire, I dare you. It's nearly impossible to finish a race without having all four tires attached, let alone win first place.

Driven is a speedy good time. It's not the fastest or most realistic racing game out there, but it is one of the most fun. For all of the special effects this game has, I'm surprised it didn't receive more hype and support from the gaming community. The question isn't whether or not Driven is worth buying, the question is whether or not gamers in general will feel that it's worth buying. That's the strangest thing about this form of entertainment. If I said that you should not buy [enter highly anticipated title here], most people would ignore me and pick the game up anyway. But there's always at least one gamer who would be influenced by my review and hold off on purchasing it. No matter what I say though, I doubt that anyone's going to go out and buy Driven just because I love it. So instead, I urge you to rent Driven. There are tons of great games out there, and if you'd rather only spend $50 on the games that you've been waiting a year or two to play, that's fine. But you have no excuse to not give Driven a shot.

Gameplay: 8.2
I've been fortunate enough to play more games this year than ever before, and this is definitely one of the top 5 racing games of the year. Once the thrill of staring at Driven's special effects begins to fade, the awesome gameplay will keep you coming back for more.

Graphics: 8.4
Driven scored most of its points because of all the unique special effects it has. The dynamic camera system rocks. Every time you crash, the camera switches to an overhead view that shows the crash unfold in the coolest way possible. The camera changes depending on what part of the track you are on and how many cars are involved with the crash, so not every crash looks exactly the same.

Sound: 5
What do racing games have in common with techno music? I'm not exactly sure, but apparently game developers feel that they have a special connection that no other genre of music has with racing games. I have nothing against GOOD techno music, but after playing six different racing games, all with similar soundtracks, I'm starting to wonder if there is such a thing as good techno music anymore. Note to developers: take a cue from Electronic Arts and forget about the music altogether!

Difficulty: 7
Is Driven an addictive game? Yes. Does it have good replay value? Yes. Is it easy to beat? Not in the least bit. But it isn't too hard either. Driven's difficulty is balanced quite well.

Concept: 8
In a world with nothing but Gran Turismo clones, it's nice to see one game try so many new things. Driven is a refreshing experience. It's the closest thing to a Hideo Kojima racing game that we're ever gonna get, and is hopefully a sign of things to come for the genre. I don't want a bunch of copycats, but I do want to see game developers follow in the footsteps of Bam! and create more unique racing games.

Multiplayer: 6.5
Driven's multiplayer modes aren't as entertaining as the single-player story mode, but overall, the multiplayer is pretty good.

Overall: 8
Driven is the first cinematic racing game ever made. It does things that have never been done in a racing game before, things that we're only used to seeing in Metal Gear Solid. If you're still skeptical, I don't blame you -- I was too at first. But I am so glad that I gave this game a chance, because if I hadn't, I would have missed out on a great experience.