Test Drive Unlimited PC Review Denver CO

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When you look at the progression of racing games over the past few years, particularly those in the more accessible 'arcade racer' genre, quite a lot has improved - we've seen better graphics of course, some online enhancements here and there, and a very strong movement towards making the gameplay open to user choice and customization in an almost 'sandbox' style. Despite the reasonable degree of competition out there, only one racer in recent memory really managed to capture all threeof these focus points very well, and this was Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360. Now finally seeing its release on the PC, TDU once again impresses, although not without a few hiccups along the way.

For those who haven't played the XB360 version yet, TDU is all about choice - it's up to the gamer to decide which character to start with, which activities to undertake, which cars to buy, which house/garage to put them in and so on. To do all this, gamers must access car dealerships, races (and other competitions), real estate agents etc in the actual environment, which means driving to locations. Once a location has been driven to, then it is instantly accessible via the game's main map - thisincludes any strip of road you have driven over as well. In effect, the world in TDU acts as the mode menu.

This system is not new to arcade racers, but the degree in which TDU delivers it is. This can be mainly attributed to the fact the "actual environment" you're driving in just happens to be an entire Island - the "Big Isle" of Hawaii to be precise. We're not talking a small representation of a city's CBD here, we're talking the entire big Island of Hawaii - and then some. The in game representation is a true 1:1 scale, meaning the distance from point A to B in real life is the same in the game. Not only this, butthe entire Island is open for exploration from the moment the game's quick introductory period is over, and while the available competitions and services will expand as you progress, there is never a point in the game when you feel restricted by the options available to you - hell, there's never really a point in time in this game where you feel restricted at all, as you can even drive through the forest areas if your car/bike is up to it - there are no invisible walls here folks.

To guide you in this awesome virtual version of Hawaii, TDU incorporates a powerful GPS system complete with a female voice for verbal directions, which you utilize by setting points to go to on the map so it can calculate the shortest distance (following correct road lane ways). This is a pretty cool system although somewhat annoying once you start driving the really fast cars as it is often too late in its directions, forcing you to keep an eye on the small mini-map down the bottom left for any up comingsharp corners. As you can imagine, this becomes quite difficult to juggle when your blasting through heavy traffic at top speed, but you get the hang of it. Speaking of traffic and top speed, should you ever run into a civilian car, a cop is never too far behind ready to issue you a fine, although naturally you can try and out run them.