Test Drive: Unlimited
Preview by
Hardcore Gamer Magazine (3/06)
Reverse: The Past:
~Here’s a scenario for you: you’re one of the longest-running racing franchises out there, but no one seems to know it. A fast and furious upstart of a series seems to get all the attention, even though you know were the first game in its sub-genre. When it isn’t that series, its Gran Turismo that’s hogging the attention. “You just aren’t technical enough,” say some detractors. “You’re too realistic,” say others. “You’ve changed too much,” cry the old schoolers. “You’re a game for old folks!” shout the kids. What do you do to keep up? Simple: you raise the bar.
It’s almost cliché to say it, but this era of gaming can be best described as post-GTA. It’s getting harder and harder to simply stick a game in one genre and be done with it. Freedom of choice is all the rage, and if you can’t do a wide variety of activities in a game, a lot of people are going to give that game a miss in favor of a game where you do have that option. Your best possible choice is to pull your franchise, kicking and screaming if need be, into the 21st century. Turn it into an experience, instead of simply something that’s one-note. Give your player a plethora of things to do and they’ll keep coming back for more. Enter Test Drive Unlimited.
First Gear: Insurance
~TDU wants to change the way you look at racing games, and even does a bit of reinventing the idea of singleplayer and multiplayer gameplay at the same time. It starts with a big idea. Take the Hawaiian island of Oahu and fully model over one thousand miles of roads that snake through towns, mountains, and forests. Add more than a hundred twenty-five real-life vehicles, and make sure you include everything from Aston Martins to Jaguars. Toss in a few motorcycles for variety and render everything, always making sure to take advantage of the next-gen hardware where available. Then, pull all this off without the aid of “Now Loading” screens, save for at the beginning of races and around certain menus.
This is approaching the level of detail that Test Drive Unlimited is bringing to the table. Atari wants to provide a cohesive and immersive racing experience and anything less than excellence is unwanted. This means that the cars must all be accurately modeled on their real life counterparts and perform similarly. WhatÂ’s the point of driving a brand new, shiny, custom Miata if it controls just like your real-life Escort with the faulty headlight and loose bumper? Your in-game ride features features most things that a real car would, from adjustable seats to a working radio to power windows. Everything about your seats, from color to position, is just as customizable as the rest of your car. Feel like letting the wind cool your car as you drive around on the beach at sundown? Drop the windows and turn up the music.
This detail does come at a price however, although itÂ’s nowhere near steep. There are no damage models on your vehicles, which means that your cars stay wonderfully crisp and clean, no matter how hard you hit that SUV thatÂ’s going too slow in the fast lane. However, a high-speed collision with civilian traffic will bust up the other guy pretty badly. Beware, though, as those impacts will net you attention by the police. ThereÂ’s a meter of police badges that appears when you do something bad enough, and filling that meter will net you a ticket, which automatically deducts money from your account. The more trouble you get in, the higher the tickets go. ItÂ’s to your benefit to drive carefully and skillfully.
To aid in this, youÂ’re given the virtual equivalent of an On-Star system. ThereÂ’s a map located on your HUD which will give you directions to any location you wish, and will let you know when you need to turn and when you have arrived with an audio cue. The map also lets you move instantly to certain locations on the map, though, some of them require that you have visited them before in order to gain instant access. Oahu is huge, and itÂ’ll take you a good amount of time to explore the entire island and reveal everything. A drive from your house in Waialae to the western-most tip of the island is just a shade over 40 miles. Expect it to take you a good, long while to make that drive.
Think of it this way, though: how many other games let you simulate a road trip?
Getting into an actual race is easy. Instead of simply selecting a race off a menu, you need to drive to the start of the race and hit a button to enter it. YouÂ’re given a flyover view of the race while you go over the rules, requirements, and possible outcomes, and then the race begins. There are checkpoint races, when you simply have to pass through or by a number of gates before everyone else does, regular lap races, and time attack-style checkpoint races. In short, thereÂ’s no lack of variety for the modern racer.
Second Gear: Role Playing
~TDU is not all cars and roads, though. You can pick an avatar once you enter the game, male or female, and dress them up how you please. You can go out and buy clothes for them from various shops scattered around Oahu, which stock everything from three-piece suits to Ecko Unltd. Jeans. Name brands abound, and who doesnÂ’t want their avatar looking their best?
The clothes didn’t have any readily apparent function in our preview build of the game, beyond, you know, clothing your character, but it adds an interesting angle to the game. We’re no longer stuck with focus group-analyzed “cool guys” as players. In Test Drive Unlimited, you pick an archetype at the beginning of the game, and there are plenty to choose from, purchase your first house, and then you can hit the wardrobe for a change. We started out with 48 upper garments alone, and there are clothing stores in various places in Oahu, so you’re assured of a wide variety of clothes.
Brand names are big business now, so of course there are licensed clothes for you to wear. Fancy a bit of Ecko? Hook your player up with a full complement of Ecko gear. ThereÂ’s a number of made-up clothing designers, too, if you arenÂ’t into name brands. ThereÂ’s something for everyone, from three-piece suits to t-shirts and jeans to biker gear.
Looking your best, though, means nothing if youÂ’re living out of a cardboard box. ThatÂ’s why your first stop on the island is the real estate agentÂ’s office. You have to sit down with her and shop for a new house. Your choice of house affects the size of your garage, its furnishings, and its location. Some houses are situated near a number of races, while others are off a beaten path.
The house doubles as your base of operations, as well. You can stop by when you need a breather, and gain access to a number of essential components to the game. You can check out your garage to switch cars or edit them if need be, your wardrobe if you feel like your character is not quite dapper enough, or even check out your mail or the newspaper and see whatÂ’s new on the island. You can see where youÂ’re ranked on the island, too, for all game modes.
This provides an interesting twist on the whole idea of car management. You no longer have a garage with infinite depths. You aren’t just the random “cool” guy that the game needs you to fit its gimmick. Here, the character is you. His taste in clothes will be your taste in clothes. His car collection will be smaller and more focused, instead of filled with junk cars.
All of this has an affect on your reputation, as well. See the “May I Help You?” sidebar for more info on how having a cool ride will net you bonus points.
Third Gear: Massively Multi-player
~This is the 21st century nowadays, and the next big thing is online play. Test Drive Unlimited has you nicely covered, since the entire game, depending on your connection, is online-enabled. It blurs the line between singleplayer and multiplayer, as the person who may be passing you doing 160mph may very well be a friend of yours from Skokie, or perhaps a random real-life stranger.
This kind of integration is done via a variety of races. TDU supports up to eight players online, which means there are seven people online around you at any given point in time. Friends are given preference first, of course, and then you are matched up with other players based on your ranking and skill. This makes sure you wonÂ’t be going up against a digital driving scientist when youÂ’re just starting out on Oahu. This is extremely cool, as you can find competition while youÂ’re just tooling around on the island, checking out the sights.
There’s more traditional online play, as well, though you won’t find, say, a menu labeled “Xbox Live” anywhere. You can select online races the same way you select offline ones. Go to the map and look at the list of available challenges. Some of them will be online and others will be offline. You can either join an already-created race or create your own and wait for people to drop in.
Beyond that are the car clubs and diners. There’s a variety of them situated all over the island, and they offer a new depth to the online mode. You go to the diners to “meet up” with other drivers and trade challenges. If you have a particularly slick run on a certain race, upload the challenges to a diner and see if you’re actually the best.
Car clubs are like clans, if youÂ’re familiar with first-person shooters. ItÂ’s a gathering of like-minded players who band together as a team. Clubs may feature a common theme, like each player has a Lamborghini of a different color, but more often than not theyÂ’re a group of friends who simply love to race. You can do club-based races, tournaments, or other competitions.
The online play is not limited to simple racing, either. You can buy, sell, and trade car parts amongst the online players, If you need a certain kind of part for your car, and your buddy happens to have it, make him an offer. Test Drive Unlimited doesnÂ’t just want to give you an online experience, it wants you to have an entire multiplayer community at your beck and call. A lot of online games are transient. You can no-scope a guy Halo all you want, but how often do you actually interact with him beyond the occasional witticism? Here, you have to interact. Make an offer, accept an offer, and possibly make a new friend.
Fourth Gear: A New Age
~Our copy of Test Drive Unlimited is still quite early, and it shows it occasionally, but it also shows a ton of potential, much of which is already realized. Integrating the online and offline aspects of the gameplay is a masterstroke and adds a needed shot in the arm to a long-running genre. How often have you stopped playing a racing game because you got stuck on one race where you always lose by a tenth of a second? Here, thatÂ’s not an option. ThereÂ’s a stellar amount of races available right from the start, and if you get stuck on one, simply move along to another or do a couple online races to cool down.
The gameplay toes a comfortable line between super-realistic and arcade. You can get away with going extremely fast, but you wonÂ’t be able to whip around a right angle turn at 200mph like you can in other games. ItÂ’s not annoyingly technical, but it is just technical enough to require a decent amount of skill to play. ItÂ’s easy to get the hang of at first, though each car does control differently and require different levels of touch to drive perfectly. Luckily though, if you go off the beaten path, you can simply hit the Back button and be put back on the road and facing in the proper direction. TheyÂ’ve made it as easy as possible for you to get into the game and going 150 on the highway.
You could almost call Test Drive Unlimited a mash-up. It has fully combined online and offline gameplay, elements of the Sims with your player character, high speed racing, open-ended gameplay, and a remarkable freedom of movement. Half the fun of Grand Theft Auto is going off-mission and doing whatever you want. Test Drive Unlimited gives you that option and more. You can vary between fighting to be the top dog online and dressing up your punk rock chick in a business suit for ironic purposes. HereÂ’s hoping that it can deliver on all its potential and promises once it drops in September. ItÂ’s already part of the way there.
Sidebars:
-May I Help You?
YouÂ’ll quickly find out that everything matters in this game, particularly in relation to what you are allowed to do. Races require a certain class of car, while buying houses and cars requires money. WhatÂ’s new to the mix, however, are a number of mini-quests, for lack of a better word, that have their own requirements.
If you check your map, you’ll occasionally notice a small icon of a woman’s face. Drive up to it and listen for a voice telling you that there is a “lady who would appreciate help with her bags.” Hit A, and you’ll be treated to a quick cinema. Your avatar will ride up in his car, slow down, and stop next to her. He (or she) will roll down the window and the woman will lean inside. If you’re cool enough, she’ll ask for a ride home. What follows is a semi-Crazy Taxi-esque minigame in which you must get her home in a certain period of time. Howeverm if you’re driving a low-class car, or just the wrong car, she’ll shun you, call you a loser, and refuse to even ask for your help.
This is an incentive to keep your equipment cutting edge. The better your car, the more likely youÂ’ll be able to pick up a woman and gain some bonuses by driving her home quickly.
-Aloah!
The first thing you have to do when you set down on the island of Oahu is rent a car. Why? Well, thatÂ’s easy. YouÂ’ve got nothing but the clothes on your back and $200,000. There were five cars readily available in our revision of Test Drive Unlimited. You can pick from an Audi TT quattro sport, an Alfa Romeo GT V6, a Nissan 350 Z Coupe, a Mazda Miata MX-5, and a Saturn Sky roadster. YouÂ’re given the specs for each car as you browse, and you can rent any of them for $500 if you only need it for half an hour, or $1000 if you need it for a full hour. Even better, you can come back here later in the game and still rent other cars.
Renting is how you get to the real estate office to purchase your first house. Your itinerary is updated and the voice will tell you exactly how to get to the office. Once there, you can pick out the best house for your needs, all the while keeping an eye on upgradining to the $2,000,000 dream house.
-Asking Directions
Your map is invaluable. YouÂ’ve always got access to it with the flick of a right button on the d-pad. The map will let you set destinations for your GPS system to map out for you, and youÂ’re given spoken cues when you need to make a turn or pull in to park.
The map itself has a Google Earth-type interface, and yes, you can actually zoom all the way out and view the world, the stars, and the sun. Does this mean that there may be new areas, or even countries, to explore? It isnÂ’t very likely, but it does bode well for a sequal, doesnÂ’t it?
YouÂ’re given the option of merely clicking on an icon on the map and teleporting directly to that spot, but only if youÂ’ve been there before. ItÂ’s similar to how some RPGs will allow you to easily revisit areas youÂ’ve conquered after you beat them. Driving around and getting the fell of the island is important, and after youÂ’ve mastered that, you can just jump from spot to spot, racing and earning cash to upgrade your ride. Learn to use the map well and your in-game experience will be so much easier.
-DonÂ’t Call It A Comeback
A lot of people seem to not know it, but the Test Drive series goes way back. When people think of long-lived series, they think Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Sonic the Hedgehog, or Contra. However, get this: the first Test Drive was released in the US in the same calendar year as Castlevania, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mega Man. The series had two more entries in the bag before Sonic the Hedgehog hit the ground running. Even better, the very first game featured the “Outrun the Police!” action which has been in dozens of games ever since.
There was a break between Test Drive III: The Passion and Test Drive 4 (seven years, in fact), but the series has since made an appearance on every major system out there. ThereÂ’s been entries on the Commodore 64, Dreamcast, Game Boy, Genesis, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Super Nintendo, Xbox, and now the Xbox 360. The series has changed formats often, and features rally racing, destruction derby, and real-life sports events as shown in Test Drive Le Mans.
Test Drive isnÂ’t a new series by any means. ItÂ’s evolved over the years into a wide variety of different forms, and if TDU is any indication, itÂ’s going to keep innovating and remain relevant for some time to come. I wonder whatÂ’s in store for its 20th anniversary?
I want a x360!!!!!!
