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I Yova I
155,251
TA Score for this game: 1,691
Posted on 23 April 10 at 11:36 |
This review has 13 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Expanding the idea created by the Underground series of Need for Speed, another legendary racing franchise took a different approach to their classic style, giving birth to a game that is both beautiful and enjoyable.
TD: Unlimited is somehow a racing sandbox. The world map is set in the paradisiac island of Oahu, where you can freely drive all around for your own enjoyment. There are no invisible walls, loading screens or any other form of limitation for your driving experience. All the roads and areas of the island are seamlessly connected, as well as races, car shops and, more surprisingly, multiplayer features.
If you have an Xbox Live Gold Account and you're online while playing TDU, you will see other players driving around the island, just as you. You can challenge them on the spot and, if they accept, they pick a finish marker and the two of you are off. Career races are placed all around the island, both single player and multiplayer. The latter case will take you to an online lobby, where you can wait until there are enough players to compete.
There's no story or predefined campaign in TDU. You decide what to do, when to do it and whom to do it with. If there is any structure at all it lies solely in the economic systems, which requires you to own various classes of cars to participate in various events. You start off with a Class F ride and move on up through A and the G muscle cars. And once you have located all the car dealers on the island you unlock the motorcycle showroom and can then explore Oahu on two wheels.
On single player, you can play not just straight racing competitions but also missions, which include driving someone or something to a particular location within a time limit or escorting an expensive car across the island without dinging it. Races are split up into three main categories; timed challenges, race challenges, and speed challenges.
On multiplayer, you have all the modes of single player but also a few additions, like playing user created challenges, joining clubs (or clans, where you can challenge others in your clan to a race or other clans for racing superiority), and the previously quoted instant challenges.
While not being a great racing game by its own racing terms, what makes Test Drive Unlimited shine among other racing games is the mixture of single and multiplayer options all together in one single driving experience, in a lovely real scenery like Oahu, adding lots of features not usually related to racing games which expands and improves its overall feel and makes both hardcore and casual racers enjoy cars and bikes like no other game.
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MarkySharky
164,973
TA Score for this game: 1,717
Posted on 10 May 10 at 17:16 |
This review has 11 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
9/10
Having now completed this 100% I can safely say this is currently my second favourite 360 racing game behind Forza 2.
Pros
- Varied types of races/events
- Much more depth than your average racing game
- Good selection of cars
- Great looking location to drive round rather than just tracks
- Nice online integration
Cons
- Some graphical issues (frame-rate drops/slow-down)
- Very 'arcadey' handling and physics might not suit all
- Pointless number of clothing tokens. Money for every kind of event would have been better with the option to be able to spend money on clothing etc.
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DcupsOfJustice
309,831
TA Score for this game: 1,290
Posted on 29 September 12 at 03:22, Edited on 29 September 12 at 03:59 |
This review has 6 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I've read the other reviews and I do agree there are a lot of really good things about this game. The attention to detail is so good you can see the driver shift gears through the rear window. The 3D map and the way it jumps you back into your car from the map is really slick. So many fantastic cars to choose from.
What the others fail to state is the absolute most important element of the game: the driving. It was the one area they did no research in. Every single car in the game is front wheel drive.
Rearwheeldrive.org:
Aston Martin DB9, Vanquish, Vantage
Cadillac CTS
Chevrolet Camero, Corvette, SSR
Chrysler 300
Dodge Viper
Ford Mustang, GT
Jaguar XJ, XK
Lamborghini Gallardo
Lotus Elise, Exige
Maserati GranSport
Mercedes-Benz CLK, CLS, SL, SLK, SLR McLaren
Nissan 350Z
Pontiac Firebird, GTO
Saturn Sky
That's a lot. To make it worse, there is no launch control (system that prevents tire spin at the start) or traction control. If you put the power down from a dead stop you can spin a car in a 360 regardless if you turn the wheel the opposite direction to correct. Without traction control the back end slides out nearly anytime even the slightest correction is made. Without launch control there is massive tire spin and smoke. You can leave lines on the road in third gear. Third. In an Enzo.
The braking is useless. The e-brake does nothing make leave marks so you have to jam that and the reverse gear to get it to stop, which it's always way past where you want.
GPS directions usually tell you where to go. Sometimes it doesn't tell you anything and other times it will tell you to turn moments before the turn while you are going flat out so you have not time to brake. There is a map on the GPS but it's not good enough to show you exactly where to turn. It's up there some where, but good luck finding it until you are there.
Even if you can figure out how to work with the immensely horrible control, which is do-able, the game always has a way of making sure maximum frustration ensues. Very often there is traffic during races and challenges, which makes sense. However, the traffic flow is purely bases on luck that a car will not change lanes, turn, or stop in front of you. My favorite is when cars pull across lanes to hit you. You could be going full out on your side of the road and a car will turn into head on. I've had a car do that on a four lane road while I was in the far right lane. On many challenges, if the traffic isn't flowing just right you have no chance. That is not an exaggeration.
At time, road itself will have it out for you. I was driving a Dodge Viper in the Dodge time challenge (whatever it was called) going nearly top speed and the car started to shake violently, as if I was on dirt road, and threw the car into the divider. This was on an eight lane highway.
The game is more luck and a persons ability to stick with it than anything else. It does take skill to keep the cars on the road, but even with that it's if allows you to succeed or not. Example: motorcycle race for Triumphs only. There is only one in the game and mine was fully tuned. Last tenth of a mile left and I get passed while I'm going full speed. It wasn't that he edged me out at the end, it was bam I got passed. However that is possible, I'll never know.
I am not brilliant at racing games ( I enjoy them and I get by rather well, F1 and Sega Rally Revo are hard as hell but so much fun), but this game bewilders me with how bad the driving is.
Condensed version: There is so much really good stuff in the game. The one thing that makes it unbelievably horrible is the driving and this is a driving game.
I do think at times one star may be a bit harsh, but then do a challenge and think "no, this is one of the worst games I've played."
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