I had a race... and got pwned
But the online racing is where Test Drive Unlimited really comes into its own, as the system Atari have designed is so brilliant and yet so simple you have to wonder why no-one has thought of it before. The system for setting up a race is dead easy. All you have to do is cruise the streets looking for other players and when you come across one you reckon you can take, you give them a flash of your lights. Over on your opponent’s screen a challenge message will flash up and if they accept you both drop to the map where you both place your bets. Whoever is challenged gets to pick the start and finish points and then the game drops back to let you both get on with the race.
Click for larger imageNow this is the clever bit. The online Oahu is really just one great big interactive lobby, so when you go into a race, you drop out of the multiplayer world so that just you and your opponent can get on and race. There’ll still be AI traffic to negotiate and other than the fact there’s no other human drivers around, you won’t notice any difference. But what this does do is make sure the race is as fair as possible as neither of you will have to contend with unpredictable human driver careening around or perhaps even mates of your foe trying to sabotage your efforts.
Click for larger imageWhere Test Drive Unlimited’s races differ from other racers is that though you might set your own start and finish points, hopefully playing to your advantages and your opponent’s weaknesses, there’s no actual course that you have to follow. How you actually get to the finish line is totally up to you. All the cars have a very nifty and comprehensive Sat Nav system which shows you the quickest route to wherever you want to go and this comes into it’s own in a race, giving you directions to the finish line even if you go haring off in the wrong direction.
Click for larger imageSo armed with this knowledge and motoring along on a Triumph Bonneville T100, I decided to challenge some bird in a Lotus. Now although this is early code, there were plenty of Atari guys and girls online to challenge as they’re all giving the game a thorough playtesting all the time. So the girl in the Exige accepted my challenge and set a course that would see us both belting up the freeway… Now I’m on a bike, she’s in a car so you’d think that although I’d be faster off the start, she’d eventually pull ahead of me. Luckily for me, the finish line was set in the oncoming lane of traffic, so all I had to do was blat down the narrow hard shoulder, leaving her to dodge and weave through oncoming cars… But sadly, my lead was short lived as I over corrected on a bend, drifted into traffic and got a major tank-slap going which saw me swerve across two lanes of oncoming traffic and into the central reservation… curses!
Click for larger imageI was quickly remounted on the Triumph and shot off again but I had to take drastic action at an intersection and ended up the wrong side of the lane divider but at least I was clear of oncoming cars and didn’t have to worry about sudden stops caused by truck radiator grilles anymore. I gave it full throttle and pulled what I think was an incredibly impressive wheelie all the way along the street, getting the front wheel down in perfect time to slam into the back of a 4x4… and all this time the Exige was zipping further away. I’d like to say it was a close run race but when the message flashed up that the chick in the Lotus had won, I was still a fair way from the line so I have to admit I was soundly beaten. It’s a shame there’s no parallel parking challenges in multiplayer otherwise I’d have been able to even the score with her… ah well.
Click for larger imageSo that’s it then. Atari’s Test Drive Unlimited really is shaping up to be one hell of a game. It’s got more ‘real world’ stuff than you could shake a big stick at and has an online mode that’s to die for. It’s deceptive just how much depth there is to the game and the online MMO aspect is a stroke of sheer bloody genius. Add in the faithful mapping of an exotic location, the simply incredible detail in the cars, both inside and out, the amazing race challenge system, the cracking Sat Nav, the excellent car handling, the variety of driving experiences across the island, the built in challenges and the whole lifestyle ranking thing and you’ve got an absorbing mammoth of a game on your hands…
Click for larger imageWe were extremely privileged to have been given this early glimpse of the game and what we’ve seen so far makes us hungry for the finished version. Now, where did I leave the keys to my Ducati?
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