Test Drive Unlimited. Turn Right Here for Impressions!

mech · Post by **mech** » 17 Sep 2006 12:36 am

Yeah exactly David.

I was listening to the 1up podcast today, and they were saying how fantastic the first 6 or so hours in the game were, but it went rapidly downhill thereafter. They reckon that the whole idea is fantastic, but just poorly executed.

pilonv1 · Post by **pilonv1** » 17 Sep 2006 01:06 am

Oh thats good to hear then, I've still got Dead Rising and Lego Star Wars that I haven't even started because Saints Row is so fucking awesome. The last thing I need is another great game

. I'll just EB rent it for a week.

t0mby · Post by **t0mby** » 18 Sep 2006 10:58 pm

mech wrote:Yeah exactly David.

I was listening to the 1up podcast today, and they were saying how fantastic the first 6 or so hours in the game were, but it went rapidly downhill thereafter. They reckon that the whole idea is fantastic, but just poorly executed.

6hrs? Well, Im almost 40hrs in and still loving it, but then, I love my car games, well the decent ones. The only thing I think its missing is a little bit more traffic in the built up areas, and some spectacular crashes ala NFS or Burnout. Other than that, I think Edges review was spot on.

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 24 Sep 2006 09:50 pm

Haven't played a huge amount of this, but so far I'm loving it. Very nicely done game - basically a car RPG.

Early on I drove past a clubhouse but I didn't have anywhere near enough money for it, and since then I haven't seen it again. I don't think it appears on my GPS and I never bothered to bookmark it. What does a club do for you?

Someone should start a TeamCowboy...

...

Edit - as for the actual driving, it feels a bit better if you switch the driving aids off completely.

Kreghor · Post by **Kreghor** » 24 Sep 2006 09:58 pm

I have passed a couple of club houses, but when I fired it up again today, they were gone. Not sure how this side of it works, but next time I see one, I will try to set one up for us.

Hercy · Post by **Hercy** » 24 Sep 2006 10:39 pm

I agree, Twit. I think that the solo mode is getting an unfair bad rap in the reviews. It's actually pretty fun. The car handling is a little idiosyncratic, because the cars seem to be almost impossible to spin or get sideways for long. In most games, if your car starts to slide, it'll spin unless you apply opposite lock, but in this game it's almost enough just to stop steering and it will snap out of the slide. Takes a bit of getting used to, but every driving game has its peculiarities.

It's a little disappointing that there's no weather or day/night effects, but that's liveable.

And the clubhouses are the sofa things on the fold out map, aren't they?

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 25 Sep 2006 08:40 am

Did you switch the driving aids off Hercy? It definitely helps with the sideways thing a bit – I think the default setting tries to work like a traction control and basically just acts against you, particularly if you like getting out of shape. Still a bit quirky though.

So what’s the go with these clubhouses? Do they only appear for a short time or something? I’m still not sure what you can do with ‘em, but it would be nice if they act like a club limited version of a café or something. It would also be handy just as a place for everyone to meet up.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 25 Sep 2006 10:53 am

The club house just act as a meeting place for your club/clan. Once in the club house you can challenge each other or challenge other clubs.

I found the sliding in the game is a little different, certain cars are better at power sliding around corners than others. The handling and game does have that old school test drive feel to it. I also like the car interiors, i don't know but the in car views seem a lot more usable than they did in PGR3. I guess the funny head simulated movements of the camera in PGR3 made it annoying to use.