It's a Massively Multiplayer game too!
Now the number of these supercars and superbikes I’ve actually driven in real life is roughly, er… none, so I can’t give you an accurate estimation of how real they feel, but I can tell you that as they’re all licensed from the makers, the in-game handling is as true to life as the actual manufacturers say it should be. Now don’t forget that this is an arcade/sim racer, so although we’re screaming along at 180mph in a Shelby, there’s no way on you’ll be able to make a tight right hander without backing off and taking a racing line. Test Drive Unlimited, even though it has still to have many gameplay tweaks, drives a damn fine game.
Click for larger imageTest Drive Unlimited nicely strikes the balance between arcade fun and sim-style realism. So if you floor it in some 550hp rear-wheel drive monster, you are going to have to work to keep it on the straight without the back wheels trying to overtake the fronts. Similarly, many of the cars corner like they’re on rails, unless you do something daft like boot it halfway through, in which case you’ll get some great power induced oversteer and lift-off understeer. Some of the tight, twisty roads on Oahu make for some of the most exciting driving you can have, even without actually racing anyone.
Click for larger imageHave you ever wondered why no-one has made a game where you can just drive around a realistic location in as real a car as possible? If so, then here’s the answer to that dream. I could’ve spent most of the session just hopping between cars and bikes, cruising around and seeing how well I could drive a particularly tricky mountain road… but racing is a key part of the game, so I had a few of those too.
Click for larger imageAt this point I should mention that Test Drive Unlimited has a solid single player mode that sets you with various challenges that you activate by driving into the icons dotted around the roads. Completing these might earn you cash or respect and help to bump you up the general rankings. The real fun comes in when you find another like-minded driver who’s up for a race as this is where serious money and even cars can be won. In the single player game, the bots give a pretty decent challenge but the AI is still being worked on so it’d be unfair to comment on how they play right now. But to be honest, unless you’re unlucky enough to not have a broadband connection, you’ll probably spend far more time online as superbly Oahu in Test Drive Unlimited is a persistent MMO where you’ll meet and race against real players.
Click for larger imageYep, that’s right, the entire island of Oahu will exist as an online world for you to live in, cruise around in your latest motor, checking out what other players are driving and then challenging them to races. You can even go to online clubs on the island and just chill out, perhaps smack talking with other drivers before taking the argument out on the road. Unlike PGR3, there’s no lobby system here. This is a persistent online world for you to drive around in at your leisure. Of course, until you’ve been playing for a while you’ll still find some of the island closed off, but that’ll only spur you on to get more dosh, respect and notoriety to get access to those ‘elite’ areas.
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