Miaghstir: The conclusion, as I understood it, was that: Because the need to make the games unavailable for purchase stirred up pretty strong emotions (and not the good ones) among the GOG community, the team will try to steer clear of similar license deals.
I may of course have understood it wrong, and I hope we at least get a chance to purchase the games we want, even if outside forces may require they be made unavailable after a while.

Miaghstir: The conclusion, as I understood it, was that: Because the need to make the games unavailable for purchase stirred up pretty strong emotions (and not the good ones) among the GOG community, the team will try to steer clear of similar license deals.

Miaghstir: [The conclusion, as I understood it, was that: Because the need to make the games unavailable for purchase stirred up pretty strong emotions (and not the good ones) among the GOG community, the team will try to steer clear of similar license deals.
I may of course have understood it wrong, and I hope we at least get a chance to purchase the games we want, even if outside forces may require they be made unavailable after a while.

stuggo26: No, people were annoyed because they were going to remove the games from owners' accounts, not because it couldn't be purchased anymore. They never did remove the games, though I haven't seen anyone say if the reprieve is permanent. Could be GOG's just leaving the games while they try to renegotiate, or it could be they're hoping Codemasters (or Ferrari or Red Bull or whoever it is that the licensing problem is with) don't actually notice. Or maybe they've come to an arrangement but don't want to stir up that hornet's nest again by announcing it :)
Driv3r was one of the most insultingly bad games I've ever played. It wasn't that it was horrible, exactly, so much as it just didn't care. I've never seen any game that screamed "I wish I was making movies instead" so loudly. Everything, from the commentary on the making of film included in the game, to the obvious complete lack of playtesting on mission designs, to the tone-deaf GTA3 baiting, not to mention the the way they had to buy their review scores when it came out, suggests that the developers spent 3 years making CGI cutscenes and then realised 6 months before release that they needed to get something to fill in the space between their movies, and, sigh, it would have to be a videogame cobbled together from the stuff those engineers had been working on in their corner of the basement. Even the map gives the impression of having only been built because they needed a set for the CGI.
The abrupt drop from a beautiful, mood-setting intro film into a house with no lightmapping, looking like an AutoCad render from the '90s, sets the tone for the rest of the game. Really well-crafted cutscenes and soundtrack, and an afterthought of a game. J Nash of British games magazine fame has an excellent overview of replaying the game here.
Perversely, it all makes me really curious to see what Driver 4 is like ;)
I'm glad to see it on GOG, but I'll be waiting for a sale -- especially considering I already didn't bite when steam had it for $5 last week.

jimbob0i0: They never said it would be removed from owners accounts. They specifically stated that if purchased it would stay there and people had X days to purchase if they wanted it before they had to remove it from sale.

soulgrindr: I actually rather enjoyed Driv3r... at the same time as wanting to smash the cd into pieces and send it to the developers with death threats. When driving it felt awesome.... when getting stopped because you clipped a lamp-post 15 minutes into a mission, for the 150th time.... not so good.

569874123: I do not understand why people are hating on gog, just because the game is new...

stuggo26: No, that's what they said during the last sale of the games, but afterwards they sent out an email to everyone who owned it, saying it would be deleted. The deadline passed and it hasn't actually been deleted (yet?), but there's been no word on when or if it is still happening.
EDIT: It wasn't that they were trying to trick people into buying the game, they just didn't know it would have to be deleted at the time of the sale. And so saying it would be safe forever was part of the front-page sale news, but announcing the upcoming deletion was only in emails, which is probably why so many people believe it never happened.

Miaghstir: Given that the earlier Colin McRae 2005 was recently removed because of licensing issues outside GOG's control and the forum outrage that followed, making the team promise to avoid such licensing issues in the future, don't hold your breath.