Test Drive Unlimited (XBox 360)

Now this is serious stuff. This game is absolutely brilliant with so many great cars to drive, from Italian Supercars (sadly no Ferraris though) to Classic Musclecars.Now don't be put off by people stating the analogue stick is impossible to use; it just takes time to get used to and you'll soon become Stick King. You may get a rather sore left thumb though!The handling is very realistic, the power, speed and acceleration is all spot on. Every car is different. The only poor point is the lack of guidance of the manual, but go to various websites if you get stuck. In other ways it's fun to find out for yourselves what you need to do to unlock all those great driving experiences. One of the best features is going on-line where you can race anyone in the world by either challenging anyone direct (flash your lights twice) or go to a racing lobby and choose set races. The PSP does sometimes have trouble keeping up with the graphics but the 2000 is much better.Now a serious point though: this game is so addictive I had only 4 or 5 hours sleep before getting up for work! I have spent around 35 hours play on this game and I still haven't quite finished it ( 2 more to go which seem impossible!) Warn your family before you start play or lock yourself in a room to play, and play and play. Fantastic. Have fun. Go get it.

Test Drive Unlimited is a Must buy.

Simply amazing.

Great real estate feature

Graphics are, well..... outstanding at the least.

This game is good but needs to be easier to get money.

I last played Test Drive back in the PSOne days, and after playing a demo of Test Drive Unlimited in-store, I decided to give it another go and see what's changed, and the answer's an awful lot.

The old Test Drive games were very arcade like, offering Time Trial races and although being fun, they were short lived. Test Drive Unlimited is still very arcade like, especially in the drift happy, floaty style handling and time trials but this time around you have hundreds of licensed cars, with some customisation available, you create an avatar of sorts who drives your cars and is again customisable to a degree, you can even buy your own properties which is essential for keeping your cars, then on top of all that you have an entire Island to race around.

The island itself is very convincing, it doesn't suffer as much from the usual glitches seen in such large scale games, however do expect a bit of pop-up and fade-in as you drive along. You are mostly confined to the roads however, try off-roading too far and you'll find your car starts to struggle before going no further, but you can create your own short cuts and cut across roads at most places.

However my biggest complaint with the game is the Motorbikes, their handling is awful and although they're fast, they're just not fun to drive. You'll try them, and most likely never use them again unless you have to.

But thankfully it gets better, and as if the island wasn't big enough, Atari have packed more than enough into it to keep you busy, there are plenty of races, time trials and special events such as picking up hitch-hikers and delivering packages. The early races aren't worth much and it takes time before you can afford any of the supercars, but get your rank up enough and the money starts pouring in, however this will take quite some time. And if you're just cruising the island while connected to XBox Live, you will be able to see other players from around the while driving around too, the main island itself in free mode acts as a sort of a hub, from where you can access all the single player and XBox Live events, but just driving around you'll bump into others and you can generally just muck about. It's amazing how much time you can waste without even doing any races, but you won't care because it's fun.

The XBox Live modes are pretty good too, there can be some noticible lag in some of the races but it isn't much of an issue as long as you turn collisions off, with them on you'll occasionally be ramed by someone and then see them seconds later, or attempt to ram someone and go straight through them, but it doesn't ruin the fun and you've still got an entire island to race around.

The choice of cars is pretty good, you buy new cars by visiting dealerships around the island, you only have a few garages available from the start, the rest you must discover yourself whilst driving around. You also need to have a free space available in a garage at one of your properties which are found all over the island. Each car can be painted in a custom colour and some extra rims but it's nothing compared to other racing games, just a little bonus really. Each car can also be tuned with a booster kit, but there's no in-depth tuning or mucking about with settings, this is pure arcade fun.

Although progress is slow once you first start, give it time and eventually you'll have properties filled with cars all across the island, which is good because you'll need specific styles or brands of cars for some races, and occasionally a single specific car. As well as races you can expect the usual time trials, speed trap races (as seen in Need for Speed - racing past speed cameras) and some more unusual ones such as picking up hitchhikers and models, and delivering packages or even cars! These kind of races offer you much more cash than a normal race, if you pull it off, or tokens which are used to buy clothing for your avatar.

Graphically, the game is really quite good, although it's let down by a few technical issues. Although the game has variable times of day, it never actually goes into night, so don't hope for any night-time cruising, and when you're hurtling along at some speed buildings and trees tend to pop-up more often than I'd like but the island is very convincing, and although the general traffic is boringly generic the actual cars you get to race in look great, and all with in-care views too.

The game also features a fantastic sat-nav system, yes you get a boring voice telling you to turn left or right but as you select where you want to go you can zoom out to view the entire island (or even the world!) and then the camera thunders down from the sky, it looks fantastic.

I've already mentioned that the game is always connected to XBox Live (if you have it), but as well as online races there is also a marketplace to buy and sell cars, you can arrange tournaments and race events and even set up your own clubs and club races. If you really get involved in the online world of TDU you'll be playing this game for years, it's big enough to last you months purely through single player but this is a whole new game online, if you're not hoping for a serious simulation then you'll love this, despite some problems in pacing and the few technological issues, it's a great game well worth playing if you're a racing fan.

For actual gaming Test Drive Unlimited is not amazing. It is more about the graphics, scenery, sounds and zooming along ripping up the tarmac in your Lamborghini Murcielago or your Ferrari F430. I still like this game a lot and think that it is definitely worth buying for the experience.

I've been playing this game for a week now, and still look forward to playing it. However, I think after a while, I think this may get a bit bland.

Although, personally, I love the game because i appreciate the attention to every little detail on the cars and bikes and other things that you can buy, but to somebody that just wants a fast paced arcade style simple racing game, I'd recommend Project Gotham.

In short, this is a quality game with a long term aim of building money, car collection, bike collection, property, clothes etc.

I'd definitely recommend this to the more mature gamer.

Top of the line XBox 360 driving game with a fresh take on the usual race, race race Monotony.

In Test Drive you can do all the customary single race stuff against the CPU or online gamers, and time trials etc. But more unusually, you also get to do drop jobs for shady individuals, or offer lifts to hitchhikers or sexy models in exchange for cash or shopping vouchers.

Undoubtedly though, the real magic of this game for me stems from simply driving around Honolulu on hyper accurate to scale roads, while admiring the breathtaking scenery. Whether by yourself or with an assortments of online buddies, simply cruising the coastline or rolling through the mountains presents staggering views of the Island, and it quickly becomes a major boon to the last ability of this great game.

A must buy if you haven't got it already and you will definitely need your Xbox connected to the net for maximum enjoyment.

Test drive unlimited is a great game. The graphics are amazing (even better when played on a HDtv) and the whole concept of the game works really well, firstly the game is set on the island of Hawaii and you are able to drive from one side to the other in a really great scale, next the real licenses for the cars and there real garages are great, also the right to the point style for picking all the little details from the colour of the car to the interior trim, a great game.