|
|
Test Drive Unlimited
With Need for Speed long since leaving its "exotic cars in exotic locations" trademark behind it looks like its oldest rival, Test Drive has decided to pick up the slack. Giving players a virtual recreation of the Island of Oahu which is part of Hawaii the exotic location is definitely covered. Add in a host of cars from Mercedes Benz, Ferrari, Astin Martin, Dodge and more plus some exotic motorbikes and you know this game means business.
The first thing you notice about this game is that before you get to choose a car you have to choose a character. Once you arrive on the island it’s time to rent a car & drive to a real estate agency to buy your first house. Houses serve as hubs for your adventures around the island but more importantly will allow you to store the large collection of cars you will amass. Along the way you will be giving lifts to models & hitchhikers in exchange for coupons that can be redeemed at the many branded clothing stores that dot the island. If all of this sounds a bit unusual for a car racing game it might make more sense when you discover Test Drive: Unlimited also doubles as a massive multiplayer online racing game. Having some snazzy clothes & a fancy house or two is sure to rub some salt in the wounds of your defeated opponents. Not, that, I was able to test the online mode I’m afraid. A combination of the dreaded Securam, copy protection & trouble connecting to the online servers meant it was single player all the way for me. Test Drive Unlimited is a pc port of the Xbox 360 original but still manages to impress. The island is absolutely huge & just driving the circumference will easily take over an hour. You better like driving as every race & location you want to go has to be driven to. It’s not as bad as it sounds as the races are fairly close to each other & once a location has been visited as least once you can automatically jump to it from the map view. A handy GPS will direct you to races you haven’t been to yet. The island is modeled after satellite images of Oahu & this is most obvious in the Google maps like view of the island. Visually everything looks good with the customary ultra shiny cars rendered beautifully inside & out. The in-car view is particularly impressive as you can free look around your car & even roll down the car windows. The island looks good as well albeit a little deserted. There are plenty of good views & the streets are filled with civilian traffic but there are no traces of any humans. The papers & leaves blowing around also add to the ghost town atmosphere. Cars are divided into groups & there are various classes of races around the island. The variety of races are somewhat lacking however. The highest paying events are the ones where you get to drive an exotic car to it’s destination without any damage. Every knock & bump will detract from your payment which makes it tricky especially with the moronic civilian traffic puttering around. You also get to ferry around illegal packages but keep on eye on the police. Unlike NFS there’s no “hide-outs” & they are quite persistent if you piss them off enough. The actual races are the usual circuit or point to point variety. Time attack events & speed trap races where you try to get as high as possible a speed when passing a sequence of speed traps break up the monotony. Certain events are only for certain cars or class of cars which means you’ll constantly be buying new rides. Ironically enough, you have way more customization options for your character than your car which is a first for a racing game. Cash is awarded for podium wins but anything less than fist place seems to be treated as failure. With a total of 120 gold cups to win you’ll be playing this game for a long time. Finding all the car dealerships on the island will unlock the motorbikes but to be honest they feel a bit tacked on & unpolished. The handling of the vehicles is a mixture of simulation & arcade so some cars definitely handle better than others. Cars can’t suffer any damage so whether you hit a brick wall of a small bush your car will simply come to a dead stop. The same can’t be said about civilian traffic which can be smashed into pieces. Slightly odd looking when your own car can’t even roll. The audio is good & features some of the better engine noises I’ve heard in a racing game. The subtle touches like how the engine noises change depending on the car view & even whether the windows are up & down is very impressive. The GPS can become a little annoying due to the distance that sometimes have to be driven in order to reach your next destination. For music you have a few radio stations that can be switched according to your taste. There’s a nice mix of rock, dance & even classical music but considering the amount of playtime this game boasts you’ll want to put up some tracks from your own collection for a while. Since the game has no storyline it can become to feel a bit unfocused & repetitive once you’ve unlocked the majority of cars & houses. The single player mode isn’t very difficult but some of the races will really test your patience. Losing an hour long race by a few seconds because of overzealous cops can be a real bummer. One of the twenty minute long races repeatedly crashed on me with the finishing line in sight even with the latest patch installed. The Securam copy protection also throws up some very annoying glitches if you are unfortunate enough. I bought the download version of the game online but Securom seemed to be convinced I pirated it it & thus would randomly mess the in game currency up, rendering the game unplayable until I could find a work around. If you like large open ended racing games then Test Drive Unlimited has a lot to offer. With Need for Seed still trying to decide if it wants to be a movie or a Gran Turismo clone this is as close as you will get to the heyday of the series. With Test Drive Unlimited looming on the horizon it lessens the impact of this game but it is still worthwhile checking out considering its low price. |
System Requirements
TAGS: Test Drive Unlimited, Open World, Island, Massive Multiplayer, Licensed Cars, Branded Clothing, Houses
|
|
|
Copyright © 2010 GAMERamble. All rights reserved