Test Drive Unlimited

"If you’ve tired of Project Gotham 3, then this is your next port of call."

Racing games aren't particularly known for their storylines. TOCA, V-Rally and Colin McCrae all tried and pretty much failed as there's only so many times you can rinse and repeat the clichéd stories of a son revenging his father's death against the odds, a fallen champion trying in vain to be good again (sounds like a Tom Cruise film…) or the rookie rejected by all but one team with a point to prove. What makes racing games so popular is not only the chance the get behind the wheel of a multi hundred-thousand dollar car, but the chance to buy the cars that are in posters on our walls, compete in the races that interest us most and plot our way through a career as we choose. Take away any of these factors and you're pretty much cruising for a bruising. Luckily, Test Drive: Unlimited gives us the basics with lashings of ice cream, virgins and beer in the form of Hawaii, customisation and online play.

The backdrop is a hot-shot racing driver hops on a plane to Hawaii with plans of becoming the most esteemed racer on the island. You'll select a character based purely on appearance, and next thing the plane takes off to a new life. When you land, the story seems to drop away, leaving you alone in an airport lobby with a car rental shop opposite. Luckily, it's made rather obvious what to do next simply because we've all been here before; partake in races and challenges to earn a living and buy better cars with the cash to progress to high-earning races. Test Drive: Unlimited is all about improving yourself and going up in the world, and whilst the various races and challenges have vehicle restrictions, you can replay races to build up your finances to progress, so you rarely feel pushed to go onward and upward.

For die-hard and experienced racing fans, this is more than enough reason to carry on racing. Those of us who prefer a little variety in our games will find our minds starting to wander about an hour or so in; given the fact that we've the entire island of Oahu to roam around, there's not much to do other than drive around. Races are either point to point or circuit-based, with challenges your standard point A to point B affair, and when you compare this to the variety of Project Gotham 3 it feels as if there's an entire section missing somewhere. Cities and towns are merely cosmetic and hold little or no secrets to find, becoming just part of the scenery as you speed towards ultimate stardom. There's a missed opportunity here.

The island comes alive when you plug in an Ethernet cable as players from across the world populate the streets in their rides. Flashing your headlights at a rival issues a challenge that, naturally, can either be accepted or rejected. The instigator then arranges the start and finish points on the overhead map that's accessible simply by pushing right on the digital pad, and you're free to burn some rubber. The problem arises when you organise a race to put on the map; you create a room for competitors to populate and socialise whilst awaiting the start of the challenge ahead, but notifying friends of your race should be far simpler. You can message them the details, but most likely they won't beable to find your room on the map because of a limit of other people you can interact with. Whilst understandable to try and cut confusion and congestion, I'm pretty sure that a solution could have been ironed out. The other bogus point is that creating a race puts your own cash up for grabs, so expect some unsporting behaviour from organisers and even a lack of races on which to partake in. For a game that champions its mark as the first massively multiplayer online racing game, it's disappointing to see that there isn't a way for two or more people in the same room (physically) to race against each other – its online multiplayer and offline solo only.

That's a huge downer, because if you don't have broadband or Xbox Live, you're stuck with the games rather feeble AI to race against, which will test your patience far more than your skill. They seem to follow that same pre-determined path that we saw many years ago with the likes of Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer on the PlayStation, often veering off the road for no apparent reason to seemingly try and push you to go online. With Hawaii being such a beautiful place to both visit and race around, it's such a shame that the computer controlled cars can't properly give a challenge around the twisty bends and over mounting roads.

The island of Oahu is perfectly replicated here, complete with some awesome scenery and quite challenging back roads that will take an age to master. Such a shame then that for entirety of your stay the sun with never stop shining, save for a few off course clouds, so you won't get to see stunning sunsets or sun rises, hurricanes or torrential downpours. None of that really matters though seeing as the cars don't take visible or physical damage despite wrapping endless machinery around telegraph poles and jumping off the side of a hill, so there's no real risk factor that would make the change in weather any more perilous.

Scenery is all well and good in racing games, but as we all know the stars of the show are the machine, and in Test Drive: Unlimited you get both cars and bikes, some of which can be upgraded by buying performance kits to change class types. The motors here look stunning, from Mustangs to F40's and Corvettes to Skylines, everything has the look of sheer class. Cockpit views let gamers see the detailed insides of the car which you can pan around with the right thumbstick to see dials, passenger seats, door handles and even windows that you can open and shut manually. Keeping in with the name of the game, you can test drive a car before buying, heading off for 3minutes at a time around the showroom to do whatever you want, be it test braking, top speed or simply wrecking havoc. The latter will attract police attention, but you need not worry as you won't be getting anything like the blockades seen in Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row, with only a handful of squad cars playing a passing interest in giving you a fine. Keep driving and you'll soon lose them.

It's the sense of style and class that will keep even the most passive of racing fans coming back for more, and despite the lack of variety in race modes, there's tons of circuits to encounter. You won't even need to drive to them, because if you've already done the route before, you can just warp to the event via the overhead map, saving a lot of time and frustration. Computer AI really is poor, but if you have Xbox Live it's something you can dismiss easily as, despite the interface problems, is something that pretty much every racing game in the future should be looking at including. Booting up the game and being able to have the offline world populated by other human drivers, with all your efforts going towards your personal gain and fortunes, is something to cherish.

The more money you gain, the more cars you can buy, but before doing so you'll need to buy more cribs which come with more garage space. It means you've always a need and a hunger for more money to spend as, like Gran Turismo, you'll never be stuck with one car. The race restrictions mean you'll need to find a home for lesser powerful cars that can be upgraded to supercars once you've had your fun and they've served their purpose, or can be sold onto another owner when online.

Despite the story at the start of game urging you to be the best and beat everyone else, Test Drive: Unlimited is more about relaxing, having fun and enjoying the scenery than getting in a sweat at completing every challenge. At first you'll need to put the hours in to get to a level where you can call a car your favourite and just cruise around online enjoying yourself, but once you're there you'll never look back. If you've tired of Project Gotham 3, then this is your next port of call.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/07