Driver 2 - Secret Landmarks #17 - Chicago Meigs Field Airport

Driver 2 also has its fair share of great landmarks you might not know about!
Let's begin our discovery tour with the Meigs Field Airport located in Chicago which has unique planes models and a single runway, just like its real life counterpart before its destruction.
Secret should be understood in its unknown/unused meaning as you will never be around this place during your story mode walkthrough, so this series aims to celebrate those landmarks by highlighting them and making some commentary, discussion and comparison with reality to appreciate the art fidelity which has always been one of the best qualities of Ubisoft Reflections!
00:00 Intro (Scope Extension)
01:05 Meigs Field Airport Ingame
01:38 Missed Opportunity Discussion
02:13 Watch Dogs 1 Non Featuring
02:51 Real Life Comparison
03:10 Fate & Repurpose of Northerly Island
04:19 Fake Flying Plane Mythbuster
05:13 Outro (zanks for watching!)
Music:
The Sea Beneath Our Feet - KZbin Audio Library
Footage recorded in ReDriver 2, the PC port of Driver 2 PS1 by jellysoap: github.com/OpenDriver2/REDRIVER2
#ReDriver #landmark #showcase
DRIVER Discord: discordapp.com/invite/sxt45rR
Driver-Madness on Twitter: / drivermadness
Join this channel to get access to perks and rewards:
/ @vortexstory

[@cd-rommasterclass19]

Driver 2 doesn't get enough credit... The cities were huge; and the love put into their making is off the charts; this frandhise was truly a labour of love... There will never be another open world game like this; the driving alone puts 99% of the modern sandboxes to shame.

[@VortexStory]

In certain aspects, Driver 2 looks like a PS2 game. You can clearly tell they were pushing the hardware to the limit. Thanksfully, it's now playable with a decent constant framerate with ReDriver 2!

[@cd-rommasterclass19]

@@VortexStory indeed it does, the sheer scale of its cities alone... Many games on PS2 look tiny by comparison; it pushed the PS1 to its very limits and it's performance showed. Yet to give ReDriver a try, but am glad it can finally be played in full glory on PC.

[@TwistedChad]

Even modern driving games that are well received still don't hold up. Forza Horizon for instance doesn't have the driving physics nor characterful maps that are actually compelling to explore...

[@robostomp19]

Agreed, I was amazed by the game's world back then. It seems pretty much the same thing at times but there are some cool details here and there so it warms up your interest to explore more. For example, I found once a interactable switch / button / whatever that wasn't used but still Tanner could "turn something with his hand". Maybe it was Chicago and the place near his apartments, but I'm not sure now.

[@SubidubidubiDu1]

Driver 2 was the first GTA game of us all :) back in the day it was like GTA 5 to today's kids

[@_Braised]

As a kid I played a lot of Flight Simulator 5.1 back in the 90s. Every time you launch FS it puts you at that exact runway, in a Cessna. Funny seeing the same place in vastly different games

[@cardenasr.2898]

It always blew my mind how enormous and accurate where the cities renditions in Driver 2, you almost felt like it was a real city because it took you a long time to go from end to end, and they also had such unique and curious locations. Of course when comparing it to later GTA games it feels rather dull and lifeless but for the PS1 it was quite an achievement

[@Sun0B0ru]

Wow. Thanks for the story. It's amazing how games help preserve memories of places. I was even upset that the airport no longer exists.

[@augakem]

"Shicago" -Vortex

[@VortexStory]

[@rayh6118]

Give him a break he is not a native English speaker

[@augakem]

@@rayh6118 I'm not saying anything bad about him, chill.

[@VortexStory]

No offense taken

[@nikto7297]

Shikagoe

[@sewe3863]

I've never seen that short beach before! And I have driven there many times over the years. Always learning something from your videos, keep em coming! :D

[@VortexStory]

I "found" it by accident during the record of the footage for this video thanks to the "player ghost" debug option!

[@dennyfrontier]

I really appreciate the work you put into your videos. I used to always wonder what was inside of the airport. Thank you for show it to me in greater detail than I could ever have imagined!

[@VortexStory]

Thanks! I like the Secret Landmarks Series because it isn't about driving fast, precisely or escaping the cops but just chilling around a landmark, giving some facts and wandering while exploring the great surroundings made by Reflections

[@PPablinho]

It will be nice in ReDriver 2 to take advantage of any unusable landmark like the airports in Chicago or Las Vegas, the train system in Chicago, the Ferry in Habana, etc..... because being big maps but so empty in content is kinda a shame

[@tormever]

You seem to be a fan of airports in games, I love finding them in games and riding around on the runway and looking at planes

[@VortexStory]

It usually a great big place to drive around and have fun with the physics, without being disturbed by traffic cars or cops!

[@tormever]

@@VortexStory you're right

[@cobrathibok]

Very interesting 👌

I remember the first time I found this airport as a kid, of course I tried to fly one of the planes haha. I think you should show the secret carnival in Chicago next time!

[@VortexStory]

What Carnival? Chinatown?

@@VortexStory Not sure if it was in Chinatown, I can only remember there was a Ferris wheel somewhere in Chicago

[@ivanangelov8825]

Driver 2 is unpolished gem. It could have been developed much more even on the PS1 platform. Even now I would love Driver 2 looking game, with many gameplay aspects developed much more. It is awesome that Driver series is getting fan resurgence with ReDriver 2 and The Driver Syndicate. There is something to this Reflections style, I love a lot and Destruction Derby 2, from which Driver originates in a way.

[@holyboy1]

To say it is unpolished, hmm, maybe it had some bugs but not many I don't think. It may be rough around the edges, more so than DRIVER 1 but it really was pushing the PS1 to its absolute limits - I think they used some trickery with the programming to pull it off - you can kind of see it whilst you're playing. But to polish a game that's pushing the boundaries of what was already revolutionary to begin with and then some, I don't think much more polish could have gone into it. I think they'd have had to remove stuff to do that. In terms of adding more content, I don't think they could have unless it had a 3rd disc! I think DRIVER 1 is technically the better game but DRIVER 2 can be considered more fun, with the stealing any car and on foot work.

[@ivanangelov8825]

@@holyboy1 Well there a lot of misconceptions around Driver 2, mostly because of Driver 2. All cities fit in one disk, and they are present in both disks. The 2 disk format was required due to the cut-scenes, which are important part of the story, and this is why they didn't cut on that. Other funny and sad thing - Driver 2 got times of the day transition, but only achievable within few missions. I can have that in take a ride, but with a gameshark code(like 2 lines of gameshark code). There are also shitload of amazingly random bugs, like loading Chicago textures on Havana cars. One time I was able to control 2 cars at once without cheatcodes involved in that run, etc. There are youtube channels with gameshark codes, which de facto introduce new modes and features with less than 40 lines of gameshark codes. Having experience as a game dev I can see how little and pressuring time frame is 1 year for a completed ambitious project, especially with limited hardware, and sure they did the maximum possible for this time, and you can see how much more could have been done if given more time. Also the year 2000 was the last train for profitable PS1 game, so the deadline was indeed justified.

[@holyboy1]

@@ivanangelov8825 I was thinking how quickly they put out DRIVER 2 yes, you are quite right. Pretty amazing really. Question, does DRIVER 1 or 2 have better graphics, or 2 just looks better? I would have imagined with the extra detail and scope and generally how much bigger DRIVER 2 is even being on 2 discs, that the graphics not be as good as DRIVER 1. But Idk. I see your original post is 1 year ago haha

[@ivanangelov8825]

@@holyboy1 Well Driver 2 is one of my best beloved games. I love it despite I know probably all of it's flaws, including the staggering difficulty. Sure thing they removed some shininess from Driver 2, to pull in other areas, but also it is slightly more realistic with less blink-blink. Also you can see how with Driver 2 they were just starting to go in the wrong direction to fight GTA head-on, and lost. Also, yes, my post is old, but the game is much older :D I think Driver 2 is like Doom and Age of Empires 2. No matter how much time has passed, it emerges again!

[@holyboy1]

​@@ivanangelov8825 DRIVER 1 & 2 are timeless classics no matter how shitty their framerates becomes with each passing year lol Same, both games are very special, I always come back to them even if it's to just watch videos and talk about them. I prefer the look of the graphics on the PS1 version of DRIVER 1 than PC. It's weird how shittier graphics look better than smoothed out textures and higher resolution. I played both demos to death before release. The demos were very unkind with their short time limits.

[@JayBirdBlu_117]

Interesting my DRIV3R Bro!!! #keepdriveralive

[@francisnguyen6349]

Driver 2 are great secret of Airport Station.

[@sb92ify]

Bonne vidéo mec !

[@VortexStory]

Merci

[@kavinskysmith4094]

With your point of why they didnt fly to havana, I think all air travel and travel to cuba was prohibited in the united states back then, so they would have had to travel to mexico to probably charter a flight to get there, hence why they simplified it and showed a train going south through the desert, probably with the destination of mexico, instead. also that isnt the only field that game is modled in, its also in angel studio's midtown madness 1 from 1999 on the PC, so theirs two versions of it that still survive in videogame form.

[@VortexStory]

Yes, I've also seen on Wikipedia that the field is in Microsoft Flight Simulator as well! But Driver 2 is the last game featuring it I think :P

[@lachmowe1642]

@@VortexStory The last game was actually Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 released in 2003, it was already created when the Airfield was demolished so it was kept in the game. (I didn't counted the remake for the 40th anniversary of the flight simulator released yesterday because this was made after the field was destroyed)

[@sixstringbestfriend]

I remember being on the internet back in 05 and there were claims that said you could fly a plane from Meigs Field when you input a bunch of key presses. We can only dream for now, but maybe someday reDriver2 modding can make those fake cheats into truths.

[@VortexStory]

Maybe, but more in Open Driver 2 than ReDriver 2 which aims to stay faithful to the original content!

[@landonbobbett2301]

Imagine if there was a code if you can fly a plane. Or the helicopter! Or drive the ferry! That would be amazing!

[@Comando52Colton]

Might be possible to swamp a car model with the airplane model now in REDRIVER2.

[@VortexStory]

True... but still not flyable :D

[@Comando52Colton]

@@VortexStory i couldn't find the model. but if i did. just raise the body height of the car very far up :pervuh:

[@aruro]

quand j'était jeune je voulais en voler un pour fais comme dans GTA

[@EthelredFlametail]

It would have been a good feature if you could fly the plain in driver 2

[@VortexStory]

You can fly the helicopter tho

[@allanl.f7814]

Is it possible to make a time transition mod in take a ride mode?

[@VortexStory]

Dawn/Day/Dusk should be possible, maybe even night but I have no clue how to do it. That's a question for the Driver discord community!

[@mansouralanzi8036]

Hello, how did you use the plane ride? Thank you

[@VortexStory]

This part is a recording of another video which is fake and I wanted to address this to avoid people believing it's possible

[@krisraps]

I Knew All Of It And Even More Secrets That Are NotShown In This Video :) And I Cracked All Of Them By Playing The Game Because i Did Not have A Computer Or A Internet At The Time..

[@advsttsvda4935]

4:20 seems video is no longer available, can't find it

[@VortexStory]

Yes the channel was deleted not so long ago. But well it wasn't real anyway

[@advsttsvda4935]

y i was kinda interested what other videos were about

[@VortexStory]

I don't know why, but I always disliked that it wasn't clear about the fact it was not real gameplay

[@advsttsvda4935]

true but some fake footages of D2 might be innteresting, I never saw before "flying" in the game. btw i'm watching Your channel since 3 years or more and today I realized I didn't subscribed it, lmao, now i fixed this issue

[@nicolasxy96able]

I think this game is more beautiful than the PS4/ONE version of Cyberpunk 2077

[@VortexStory]

It's a FACT

[@wolterdejong2708]

Atleast driver 2 was playable when it came out😅

[@elite20vtx_Org]

What Name music 😉 plz tell me I like music that you do in this video

[@VortexStory]

The music is always written in the description!

[@elite20vtx_Org]

@@VortexStory thanks👍

[@MrAshot]

круто

[@VortexStory]

Da

[@BuilderDemo7]

Airplanes are no long driveable :]

[@VortexStory]

They are flyable?

[@sandrachang2748]

como le insiste no podemos

[@thatweirdgreenparrot7715]

Secret Landmark that arenn't even secret.

[@VortexStory]

That's why next episodes weren't using "Secret" tag anymore. The next episode will tho'.

[@ferdigngrms]

Please remaster all driver games

[@VortexStory]

Have you seen Miami Classic in The Driver Syndicate?

[@ferdigngrms]

Pc port good 👍

[@VortexStory]

It truly is

[@cristianS_m]

Bad accent 😂😂😂

[@VortexStory]

Let's gooooooooooo

[@leneattymari4602]

Really nice 👌 😍💋 💝💖❤️

[@VortexStory]

Actucmcnally it's Chicago