Xbox World 360 - Home of the premiere Xbox magazine package

	Far Cry 2 Interview: Art director sleeps rough in the jungle
	Civilization: Revolution ³⁶⁰ Review: Sid and co come up trumps
	Quantum of Solace ^{PS3, 360} Preview: First look at Activision's Bond
	Lego Indiana Jones ³⁶⁰ Review: The best Lego game yet

XBOX WORLD 360 MAGAZINE

PART OF THE CVG

NETWORK

XBOX WORLD 360

MORE GAMES ON CVG

Login

Not a member yet? Click here to register!

Video

Launch Player

CVG NETWORK

Xbox Reviews

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy ³⁶⁰

Enchanted Arms ³⁶⁰

Review

Test Drive Unlimited

8.1

Format Xbox 360

Developer Atari

Publisher Atari

Genre Racing / Driving

12-Dec-2006 Oahu welcomes careful drivers...

These are troubled times for Atari. Recent offerings such as Mark Ecko's Getting Up hardly set the cash registers a-ringing, they sold off one of their biggest franchises, Driver, to Ubisoft, and even with the recent acquisition of PAL publishing rights for AQ Interactive's 360 line-up (see Scoop), their release schedule for the coming months is looking bleaker than Button's chances of bringing home this year's Formula One championship. So with this in mind, Test Drive Unlimited simply has to fly off the shelves. Chances are it will, as the gaming community's appetite for car porn has proved insatiable since the original Gran Turismo roared onto PS1. That, and the fact that this the first truly massively multiplayer online racer, a great leap forward for genre as a whole, plus - also - it is a very good game.

But herein lies the problem with TDU: it's a 'good game'. It's not a must-own classic that we'll all still be playing in years to come. It's not even a great game. It's the girl-next-door of racing titles, perfectly pleasant and suitably attractive - i.e., you 'would' - but ultimately... ultimately it's rather dull, and fails to deliver the same seat-of-your-pants intensity that PGR3 does. To stretch the analogy a little further, we'd like to quote those fine northern tunesmiths, The Macc Lads: "Your tits are too small and your legs are too short, we'd rather have a bird from the Sunday Sport." Apologies to our lady readers (all three of you). We obviously don't really think like that. Honest.

PARADISE COST
We'll get to what's hot and what's not in TDU momentarily, but first we'd like to applaud developers Eden Studios for what is an outstanding technical achievement. To recreate an island the size of Oahu in such exquisite detail - authentic road system included - and then populate it with superb representations of the world's finest sports cars, both the interiors and exteriors and signature engine noises, is nothing short of incredible. Factor in a brilliant GPS system, a heap of radio stations to tune into while you drive plus customisable avatars and numerous properties to purchase and store your cars in and you've got to wonder how Eden managed to squeeze everything onto a single DVD. But to then offer the whole affair on Xbox Live with massively multiplayer support is just mind-boggling. Full marks for turning such an ambitious vision into reality.

Paradoxically, we'd argue that the game's finest achievement, rendering the whole island of Oahu in glorious 360-o-vision, is also its biggest flaw. How so? Well, although Oahu is clearly a gorgeous place to live or visit for a holiday, what with all the luscious countryside, rolling hills, golden sands and warm seas, it actually makes for a rather boring game world. Sure you can marvel at the terrain and the foliage and so on for the first few hours but the novelty soon wears thin as you realise that it all looks the same. Okay, it's not cut-and-paste all over the island but the differences are more 'oh look, it's a green field with a few trees instead of a green hillside with lots of trees'. Trust us, we've done the 118-mile Island Tour race.

It's the same with the island's population centres. Aside from the size or the presence of some docks or a few different shops and car dealerships, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which town is which. Now we're not blaming Eden for this, they didn't make Hawaii, they're merely using creation's source material. But it's a problem. Although roads vary from straight-as-an-arrow fourlane freeways to winding mountain passes, the fundamentally similar surrounds start to breed apathy. We'd suggest that the technology could have been employed to either recreate a more environmentally diverse real-world location or to construct a totally fictional game world along the lines of San Andreas, where each city has distinct character and the world has everything from desert to mountains and countryside. But Oahu it is, so we'd better move on.

EXHAUSTIVE
As has been apparent for many a month, the line up of motors includes numerous high-end models from every manufacturer you could possibly wish for (except for BMW and Porsche). We certainly have no complaints and if you can't find at least ten modern or classic dream machines to suit your taste, you're in the wrong genre. If you tire of four-wheels then there's a decent amount of bikes to acquire too, although somewhat farcically, before you can unlock the bike dealerships, you first have to drive past each and every car dealership on the island. That said, the bikes are a very sweet ride.

As to the all-important driving bit of this driving game, again we have few complaints (aside from the lack of damage, which is understandable but disappointing). There's a variety of handling set-ups to choose from and whichever you go for the car feels solid and suitably distinctive according to make and model. The cars are classed according to performance and naturally you'll start off with just a handful of lower class vehicles to choose from (or rather, that you can afford). As Pete mentioned in his preview last issue, the sense of speed only really kicks in once you floor the accelerator in something like a Ferrari or top-of-the-range Merc and generally speaking the windscreen or speedometer viewpoints are the best for both jangling the nerves and experiencing the framerate at its peak. Not that the out-of-car view or indeed the less powerful cars look or feel sluggish, mind, and if you started off with enough cash for a McLaren F1 then it wouldn't be much of a game, would it?

MAIN ROAD CLOSED
With regard to the challenges on offer - of which there are hundreds - it's a little like the problems with the scenery mentioned earlier. Things start off fine. There's a decent mix of point-to-point or lap-based racing against up to seven AI rivals and a plethora of time, speed and 'don't damage your car!' trials. There are also hitchhikers to pick up and deliver to a destination in a certain time without scaring them stupid by driving wrecklessly, and in similar fashion you can pick up models (of the glossy magazine variety) and give them a lift. Success earns you cash, or vouchers to spend on clothes for your avatar (the less said about that the better). You can also flash your lights at certain AI drivers and go head-to-head with them on a course of your own design for a pre-determined stake. So far, so good.

The problem with all this is that it gets pretty dry pretty quickly and many of the different types of challenge listed above merge into one, as they essentially boil down to the same thing: the hitchikers, the time trials, the models. The reward system also lacks balance. The most simple missions on offer involve delivering a posh motor to a destination intact. There's no time limit, so essentially all you need to do is keep your patience and drive carefully. For this you'll receive tens of thousands of dollars. Complete it without a scratch to the car and you'll get a bonus, again in the tens of thousands. Fine, it's a way of shunting you along in the game and providing you with the means to buy better cars and new properties to store them in - but it makes winning races feel far less important to the player and, also, if you purchase a BHP monster with your earnings from this then many of the challenges become extremely easy regardless of difficulty level. (See Brake Point to your left for further problems).

MULTIPLAYER-LESS
We also have to point out that this review is based on the single player experience, which is something of a pain in the rear considering the whole thing is, essentially, set up to be played on Live. However, the servers weren't up at the time of going to press so there's little we can do about that. We have played it online in recent months, though, and were impressed with what was on offer and would stake our bright orange Saleen S7 on a large and dedicated TDU community springing up and populating the online world for many months. Car clubs, trading of vehicles and property and a host of challenges and competitions await... but if you're holding out to see how it performs online then check back next issue for the final verdict.

Discounting Live play for the moment, TDU is deserving of petrol heads' attention. Despite the fundamental problems touched on here we have enjoyed taking it for a spin, it's only the second serious racer on 360 and, most importantly of all, the cars are really quite fabulously good.

Xbox World 360