If you love movie car chases and video games, your world was rocked 12 years ago when Reflections Interactive released Driver, a 3D city driving game that became a favorite for the hard core among us. The game, set in San Francisco, is being updated and is scheduled for release at the beginning of September.

Driver was one of the first games to incorporate real-life locations into a driving game, featuring faithful recreations of four well known US cities, including Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. The game achieved both critical and commercial success selling over a million copies.

With that, sequels were inevitable, but platform changes and competition launched the developer on a rocky path. Judging from the trailer below, that’s all water under the bridge now.

The premise, however, is largely unchanged, with gamers assuming the role of John Tanner, a hardened detective involved in a relentless manhunt throughout the city for an escaped mob boss, Charles Jericho. The new version, aside from incorporating significantly improved graphics, may be a little less gritty than the original, with some subtle humor added.