When Test Drive: Unlimited was announced for the Xbox 360, it seemed to be overshadowed by Project Gotham Racing 3. This was no surprise really, seeing as PGR has built up an excellent reputation thanks to two previous titles on Xbox. The fact that Test Drive was no longer a launch title didn’t help it either, but after and around the time of E3 06, it started to take the limelight. It’s probably fair to say the most dominant titles in racing games on the Xbox were Project Gotham Racing, Forza Motorsport and Need for Speed. Test Drive however, has been around much longer than any of these titles. The first Test Drive game was released in 1987, since then it has been on various platforms but has been absent in the market for the past few years and has been met with mixed views in terms of its game play.
Xbox 360 owners will probably have heard all the buzz about Test Drive Unlimited which has been delayed more than once, as it was originally going to be a launch title; and it’s easy to see why. Test Drive has been getting a lot of attention lately especially as Atari have confirmed an impressive amount of features. Test Drive Unlimited takes place on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, which means there will be more than 1000 miles of roads to race on. Cars and bikes will be at your disposal to get to your desired destination on the island. You have to earn money in the game to buy your cars or bikes and to buy parts for them, presumably each will have various advantages and disadvantages.
Atari are certainly taking the online portion of racing games a step further, as Test Drive will be a M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing). This means that there can be hundreds of players on the same server, which you will be able to interact with in various ways. Challenging them to races is probably the most obvious way, but you can also trade parts, vehicles and enter tournaments. In Test Drive: Unlimited there will be more than 125 licensed vehicles from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Ducati and Aston Martin to choose from, and as if the list of cars is not impressive enough you can also customise each vehicle using parts available in the game.
You will surely find something to your liking to get you from A to B, but since that could be from one side of the island to the other, 1000 miles of road that could take a while to cross. Luckily, Atari have implemented a book marking system, so you can save locations and allows you to transport to them so you don’t have to waste time driving somewhere to meet your friend for example. These bookmarks can be shared with you friends so it’s easier to meet up with them online. Many games which use Xbox live have some sort of matchmaking feature, for example servers running a certain map/track, in Test Drive the online matchmaking feature allows you to search for players which have the same car as you. Alternatively you can just challenge people when you see them as you are driving around. In the demo, which was released during E3, this seemed to work very well and you can choose the start and finish points of your race which you plot out on the map prior to the actual race.
Player vehicles will be stored in their garage, in a similar way to Project Gotham Racing and if you run out of space, you better save up your cash and buy a bigger house! You will be able to earn money by doing small missions, such as using your car as a taxi to take people places or using it for delivery missions. With the money you earn, players are able to purchase new cars from dealers which will be dotted around the island, for example you could drive to the Aston Martin dealer, test drive some cars and buy the one you like the most. Players can also customise their in-game character, this will most likely be choosing the sex, hairstyle, racing helmet perhaps? I must admit I’m not sure what the character creation will entail, it probably wont be as in-depth as Oblivion’s, but will surely mean you can have a unique appearance for when you meet people online or maybe a bunch of friends will have the same racing suit and no doubt will be another area where you can use your in-game cash in.
For a lot of games, which are popular on Xbox live, you will usually find people requesting ‘clan support’ in some form. One example of this would be Rainbow Six: Black arrow on the original Xbox, however it seems to be rarely implemented. In Test Drive, you are able to join clubs. Within these clubs competitions, tournaments, races can be organised or you can just chat with fellow members. Although this can be seen as some sort of clan support, you would probably expect it in other genres, however it sounds interesting to say the least but unfortunately not much more has been said about it, so only time will tell if this works out.
It’s probably wrong to look at the demo and base that on the finished game, however the atmosphere in the demo was what you would expect for a game that lets you drive around a Hawaiian Island in a super car. The sunlight filtering through the leaves on the trees and reflecting off the water makes the game look very nice and visually pleasing. The amount of detail on the level design seemed very good considering the size of the island and the amount of AI cars on the road. A lot of time has obviously been put into the player-controlled vehicles, from the engine noise to the interiors, which have been accurately designed based on the real-life versions. From both the trailers and the demo the engine sounds great, revving it up, braking, accelerating, the screeching of tyres Atari seem to have done very well in this area. At first the cars didn’t seem as responsive as they should be, whether this is deliberate or the game needs a little touching up remains to be seen – although it wouldn’t be surprising if it was touched up because the demo was released far in advance of the game’s release date. The demo ran fairly smoothly, it was definitely playable; however I would expect the final version of Test Drive will be more seamless.
The concept which Eden games have come up with is certainly an interesting and original one so its unlikely Test Drive will be pushed aside as another racing game for now. All of the features mentioned seem to be very well thought out and will probably help gamers out a lot as well as add longevity to the game; but this may well change upon the game’s release, because we will have to wait and see if the vast amount of features we have been promised are all included in the final game and if they come together nicely and integrate well with each other. The finished version will require a few tweaks and a bit of polishing to make it more appealing. The demo offered a limited amount of features compared to what the final product will include. However considering it gave us a taster of such a small portion of the game, what was given was of good quality for a game which is still a while away.
Preview By: Fraser Keith
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