Test Drive Unlimited - XB0x360 - Quick Review

[RC45]

Well - I picked up the XBox360 version this evenig - we're gonna see just how much fun it is.

It's launch price of "only" $40 may scare some people off.. because usually a "discounted" game must suck

It's a pretty inovative story line and model, now that we got to experience the full game.

You are stand at the counter about to check-in to a flight to Hawaii.. it is here you get to choose your character.

We chose the hot chick in the black mini skirt - it is after all my 8 year old daughters game

You arrive on the island with $200,000 cash. You need to rent a car, find a real estate agent and buy som digs to call home.

The you head out, to buy your first car. We chose a nice silver Saturn Sky with balck/red interior combo.

Then you head home to our $150,000 house a few blocks from the beach - it has a 4 car garage... you need to buy bigger houses to have more cars... and houses don't come cheap. The cooler bigger places run into the millions

Anyway- you arrive at home to do your makeup and hair (if we had enough coupons collected from future misisons we could have bought cloths at boutique store to change into in our walk in closet).

Then its off to earn some money with our Sky to be able to buy cool cars and bikes later on.

Controlling the car is 60% arcdade/40% simulaiton split I feel - which kind of makes it fun I guess. The "free roam" concept is awesome. If you make a wrong turn on your way to some destination you selected on your GPS, the "friendly GPS lady" simply recalcs your route and tells you to "At the Next Interesction Turn Right"... "Turn Right" ... "You are driving the wrong way" "Recalcualting Route" .. "At the Next Intersection Turn Right" ... "Turn Right"..

Cars, as in real life cost much money. So you need to win races and complete tasks and missions to get money. There is no damage modelling for you, but when you have a head-on with a cable company utility truck he sure suffers damage..

And then the cops are alerted to your dangerous driving - and its on... You evade the cops on the way to a race running road blocks and taking detours across open fields to get away

Then when you arrive at your destinaiton - a message pops up "You involved in a police chase - if you enter this destinaiton give uo the chase you will be fined a minimum of $8,000 - Yes to Continue"...

So we are like "NO WAY! $8,000 - we are saving up for a C6 Z06 that6 costs $71Grand".

So we ran.. again.. and after abotu a 30 minute high speed chase down some awesome freeways and through some town.. "BAM!!" we are stopped at a road block...

Fine: $34,000.. -- so much for "cut your losses and run" being the best approach.. at about that time $8,000 seemed like a bargain...

You have to drive every where you want to go.. like in real life -- so it can be a drag, but hey - who ever said driving wasnt a hoot.

You need to discover all the car dealership showromms before you can go to any of the motorcycle shops.. and we drove about 220 miles last night and are still one or 2 short. Don't let anyone kid you... the "big island" is not small

Once you have driven to a "key location", you can select it on your GPS and "warp" there via one of the many "worm holes" that StarGate SG1 must have installed there while we were off playing GT4..

You can test drive cars at the dealerships for a few minutes - but when you jump into a Saleen S7 Twin Turbo you get to realize aaian how pathetic and useless console game controllers are (and will probably be the same on PC) - the "gas pedal" is on or off, even with a light touch you light the tyres up in a point less display of donuts in the Saleen parking lot... - so we head off in our Saturn Sky roadster which is a little less prone to "hammer to the floor" behaviour with the controller.

Our highest paying mission so far was to deliver this dudes Enzo from one side of the island to the other - without damaging it.

Funny how he was there at the destinaiton when we arrived - leading my 8 year old to ask - "Why didn't he just take it himself?"

Anyway - the gig paid $80,000 - we delivered it unscratched and got a $40,000 bonus.

So we headed off to find some more dealerships and along the way ended up paying about $55,000 in traffic tickets.... elmme tell you , those Hawaii cops go from mildy pissed over the radio to "freaking mad' if you rear end them at 140mph on the freeway

It was after we watched our money dwindle from $160,000 (enough to buy some cool used cars) to about $90K that we suddenly figured it out.

100% free reign - free driving.. no limits.

So we pulled off the high way and drove into some Pineapple fields and then headed down a dirt road and about 5 minutes later they gave up the chase and no road blocks to worry about

Conclusion
It's fun - and this was all still single player - we haven't even tried the Live! options.

It's alittle time consuming to have actually "drive there" when you are headed some place - but thats what "free roaming is all about - right?

The high powered cars seem to wild and unrealistic with a controller - so we just go from dealer to dealer and Test Drive the super cars...

We had fun trying to deliver the fashion models without scarying them with our wild driving .. but alas they all made us pll over before we arrived and failed the missions.

So all in all, how mch staying power will the game have? How many "street races" do you need to ahve before boredom sets in?

Who knows.. but for $34.00 including tax after GameCrazy discount, the game is proving to be pretty fun.