Customer Reviews for Test Drive Unlimited DVD-Rom

Test Drive Unlimited DVD-Rom
by Atari

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Video Game Reviews of Test Drive Unlimited DVD-Rom

Customer Review: Authentic Vehicles w/ Challenging Gameplay
Summary: 5 Stars

My dilemmas were these:
A - I don't want to buy a PS3 to play a few games (Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) in this case), when I have a computer that can handle the graphics.
B - Need for Speed (NFS) is cool, but NFS's wings and paint jobs are ridiculous for the purists.

This game, in my opinion, trumps GT5 and NFS. My reasoning is this:

1. Test Drive Unlimited (TDU) focused on the authenticity of driving these spectacular cars. The look, the feel, and the sound of the cars in TDU are excellent virtual representations of the real thing. The up side is you don't have to futz around with a Citroen C2 just to get a car you really want. In about 5 challenges in an Alfa Romeo I bought an Aston Martin DB9! All the cars are upgradeable, but are very simple upgrades. GT5 and NFS:Shift offer full vehicle tuning, but that's not what I want. I want to drive a Lamborghini one minute and a Shelby GT 500 the next.

2. Two Words - Open World. This is a Grand Theft Auto (GTA) size map with better GPS. Once you have unlocked a road you can "Warp" to it saving you the 45 minutes you use in GTA driving to your next challenge. Speaking of 45 minutes. This map is to scale. When you have to drive 5 miles it would take you 5 minutes if you were going 60 MPH. There is a race that is one lap around the Island it will take the better part of an hour to complete.

3. Challenging... Well...Challenges. Excuse the redundancy, but they don't make these challenges easy enough your grandmother could do them. If you want all perfects... be ready for some sofa time. You have to concentrate for every one, from learning to drive to lapping the entire island. There are races, time trials, driving skills, transports, hitchhikers, and a few more. I would compare some of them to Crazy Taxi from the Dreamcast way back when, get from A to B and don't be late.

If this game were perfect there would be no need to write a review so the down sides:

1. A couple major car manufacturers are missing. BMW and Prorche to name the most obvious. If your not afraid to mod your game you can find those cars with no problems. If you aren't so keen on modding, learning to love a Ferrari is not a hard thing to do.

2. This does not have the Top Gear Test Track.

I recommend this to everyone who loves cars. I hope my opinion was helpful and I can't wait for the sequel (if it happens)!

Customer Review: great
Summary: 5 Stars

i've played this game plenty of times. really enjoyed it. however, it would not install on my computer. even though i cant play it on my computer, im not gonna give it a bad rating because i know this is a very good game. the maps seem almost endless. you can drive for hours and not end up at the same place. cars and senery are very detailed. good gameplay. definitally recomend it to anyone

Customer Review: Test Drive Unlimited constantly hangs
Summary: 1 Stars

The game when I am able to play it is fun and I like it a lot but it always hangs and aborts when it does an auto-save. You have to go back into the game and then sometimes it doesn't save where you were. It is very annoying and makes the games unplayable.

Customer Review: Arcade physics, but high fun factor
Summary: 4 Stars

Test Drive Unlimited

I am running this on a Phenom II X3 720 (2.8 GHz, 3-core) with a Sapphire HD 4870 512MB GPU, and a Logitech Driving Force GT wheel/pedal set. I run it at 1280x1024 in full details, and the game flies. The physics engine is pure arcade although it isn't as bad as the Need for Speed series. The game really shines in the sand-box style gameplay where you can just choose to explore Oahu with a variety of cars that are graded from A to F in terms of performance/handling. Grade A cars range from the Maserati MC12 to the Enzo Ferrari or the Pagani Zonda, while Grade D through F cars are generally your run of the mill production cars like the Mustang GT, Audi TT, etc...

There are side missions like escorting a runway model or hitchhikers to their destination. The reward are bonus coupons used to buy accessories for your character (shoes, sunglasses, etc...) while the time/speed/race missions involve monetary rewards. You can also trade cars online or race other playerse online. What's unique about TDU is that the multiplayer and singleplayer games are seamless. You don't necessarily log onto a separate multiplayer game, but instead you are immersed in an environment where you can do both: cruise with online players or engage in singleplayer missions.

Pros: Great looking graphics, fully detailed car interiors, excellent engine sounds, and fun to drive with a wheel/pedal set.

Cons: Repetitive objectives, basic money/point grind like any other RPG or MMORPG game, the traffic and cops are annoying. The game is also very unstable. I've run into frequent hangups and lockups with version 1.66, and it seems everyone has abandoned the game. My PC runs fine with much more intensive games, so it is not a hardware issue.

Overall: 4/5