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Live the dream car lifestyle with the most unique and innovative
on and offline racing gameplay on the biggest network of roads
ever realised on PlayStation 2, fully streaming with no loading
times. With the ability for thousands to play online simultaneously,
gamers take part in 8 player races or go for a drive on over
1000 miles of diverse Hawaiian roads, passing by any number
of other players on the way. Visit exclusive dealerships to
purchase new cars or simply take them for a spin. Collect
and trade rare performance parts and customise each car to
make it one-of-a-kind. Winning races, challenges, missions
and tournaments earns credits which can be used to purchase
new cars, rare performance parts, clothes, apparel, homes
and garages...
The
biggest problem with being a games reviewer is that nine times
out of ten you receive nothing to actually prepare you for
the game but the disc itself. Test Drive Unlimited is
one such game. We received no instruction manual and there's
no real training level to get you used to the game, so my
experience of the game involved many hours of driving around
from race to race. However, checking the press information
online on the Xbox 360 version of the game you can also race
bikes as well as engage in numerous missions like helping
hitchhikers catch planes, picking up girls, chasing car thieves,
and escaping from a psychopath. But don't go looking for any
of this on the PS2 version, because the bikes have been scrapped
and the missions take an age to find - after hours of playing
all I was doing was following the onscreen directions to the
next car race.
I
find it next to laughable that the bikes are missing from
the PS2 version. GTA managed to fit more vehicles on
screen on the PS2 and in Test Drive Unlimited the other
vehicles on the road are very limited in appearance. So what
was the problem?
The
gameplay all got a little too repetitive a little too quickly,
I'm afraid. The graphics are pretty average, the racing segments
of the game are a little lacklustre, and exploring your environment
is boring. If you decide to roam around and get the cops to
chase you, don't go expecting any wild GTA style pursuits.
For a start you can't damage your car, so it's simply a case
of driving full pelt at any vehicles that are in your way.
And should the police organise themselves well enough to produce
a road block, the simple solution is to just drive straight
through it, sending the cars flying.
I
know I keep mentioning GTA, and I know that Test
Drive Unlimited is nothing like GTA, but I'm purely
trying to illustrate that other games manage to cram everything
in, so what is the problem here?
There
are some neat little touches, like being able to open or close
your doors and windows and changing the radio station, but
there's very little here we haven't seen before. Possibly
the only truly original element here is the ability to stop
at any car showroom and take any of the cars on display for
a test drive.
This
is far from a great game, but there's something about it that
will have you going back time and time again. Maybe it was
the car geek in me that really got off on visiting dealerships
and spending ages looking over some classic sports cars.
At
the end of the day though this is going to disappoint a lot
of gamers who will be expecting much more. I suggest you rent
it and take it for a test drive before you part with your
cash.
Nick
Smithson
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
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£24.98
(Amazon.co.uk)
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£24.99
(Play.com) |
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£24.99
(HMV.co.uk) |
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£24.99
(Game.co.uk) |
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£24.59
(WHSmith.co.uk) |
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£22.89
(Sendit.com) |
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£25.99
(Thehut.com) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
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