I've recently run across a Let's Play of a commercial game that is turning out to be surprisingly dwarfy (that is, sociopathic).
The game is Driver: San Francisco, and the first episode of the LP is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4CZnpV8osQ(Oddly, the only mentions I see on a global forum search for "driver francisco" are a few lists of games and one complaint about its copy protection. Am I really first?)
Anyhow, the premise of the game is that after mysteriously surviving an awful crash, the hero Tanner gains the ability to leave his body and take the place of other drivers, sort of like Quantum Leap. (Also, sort of like Sixth Sense, but more on that at the end.)
At any given time, there are a number of "missions", specific vehicles with quests Tanner accepts when he shifts into them. Quests are things like races, pursuit, evading pursuit, as well as more creative things. For example, one simple quest has Tanner take over a timid driver who has to win a street race so he can use the prize money for college.
Just because Tanner accepts a mission car does not stop him from shifting into other vehicles temporarily. And herein lies the dwarfiness, or something worse.
It would merely be dwarfy to
allow Tanner to hijack an oncoming car and crash it head-on to a vehicle he is pursuing for a cheap win. But this game goes beyond that and has a
tutorial within a storyline mission, with the rationale that you need to hit the bad guy from the front to avoid hurting a kidnapped woman in the trunk.
And at least that mission was to rescue someone else. Just before that, the LP shows a side mission where Tanner has to arrange that "World's Craziest Drivers" has some "crazy drivers" to film....
It's a little hard to accept that Tanner is the "good guy" when he drafts bystanders as kamikazes. He's as careless as Kirby. I think I'd rather have Tyler Durden or Light Yagami loose in my city than him.
Now, on to the Sixth Sense issue. There are a few cutscenes showing Tanner in a coma. It's clear that Tanner really didn't recover from the initial crash, although it's not clear yet whether the rest of the game is just a dream, or whether the ghost of Tanner is loose wreaking havoc in the real San Francisco.
For all that, though, I am eagerly awaiting the next episode....