Test Drive Unlimited (360)

[Pookmunki]

Ok, so i caved in...

After the utter disrespect for the European market that Atari has shown regarding its pricing for this (?21 in U.S, ?50 here), i swore to myself, on principle alone, that i wouldnt get this, regardless of how good it is...

...im a weak sonofabitch though so i got it from work earlier with some spare credit notes.

Firstly, i couldn't get online, i figured it was purely so tutorials could be dealt with, but a few hours later the servers were still unavailable (user's on another forum are saying that they're on, so il try again later).

Character selection is good, with the ability to customise a la Oblivion.

After a few tutorials and purchases (house, car) i was into the game proper and its...good. The handling is the same as the demos, still takes a little getting used to. i spent most of my time escorting models and exploring the map...its frigging huge by the way. i can see this being fun if many people get online with this (and if i do at all...)

Overall, its too early to tell as the game is massive, but its a solid, if online-centric, title...

[Yoshimax]

I LOVE this game - Been playing for an hour or so now and I'm really liking what's in there. I know there's a whole movement against this game over the pricing which is a shame as quite a few people are going to miss out on an absolute cracker.

Pook - Dunno if you have already but go to options and switch off all the driver assists - the handling is sooo much more satisfying/rewarding it's untrue.

As mentioned in Edge I love the sense of ownership from buying your first place (mine's the high rise apartment with HDTV and a stunning view ) to buying your first car (Audi TT due to financial constraints)

The servers are ok according to mine - I can't start the NTSC club as you need ?250k to do so >_< but I'll get there soon unless someone beats me to it.

Great game - I hope people don't let it pass by on account of the pricing.

[PeteJ]

The pricing is because us European folk get all the microtransactions as part of the package, US folk have to pay extra to get the hidden 40 cars.

[Yoshimax]

Yeah I read that - I wonder if either of us are really any worse off therefore ?

[Pookmunki]

having the aids off really does help, i think what i meant was the in car view makes the handling seem shot, its not, the drivers view take a moment to catch up with the direction the car is facing. i guess i just needed to get used to that...

had a couple of random races offline, do you have to set the wager limit in the options menu or is it just dependant on rank/who you race against?

after playing it, im swayed, its worth paying the full price (even though i suspect those of us playing now wouldn't have anyway? )

[Pookmunki]

Sorry to double post but is there any way to manually sign into the online portion in-game? still not managed to get online, its pretty pants as i was looking forward to it, my NAT is open...i dunno whats wrong?

Yoshi, you got a US machine/ live account? i wonder if the uk servers arent up yet and ur getting on the US ones?

[Yoshimax]

Nah buddy I've got a UK machine and the UK game - no problems at all - I connect my 360 directly to my cable modem so I don't have any of the NAT concerns !!!

Get it sorted and we'll get some racing on - Is really weird seeing real people driving about in MY game world

[MonkeyWrench]

Ahh I don't feel so ripped off now knowing I don't have to purchase all the cars seperately, especially as I'm not on Live. I think I shall pick this up tomorrow afterall.

[Yoshimax]

If it helps the single player looks mighty huge but looks like there's a definite focus in online mode.

It really is strange driving about and seeing other humans in the environment !!

[bankies]

Picked this up yesterday and its pretty good so far but I think you need to be online to get the most out of it. Should really take off once more people are online.

Will try it again tonight with the driving aids turned off

[Simmy]

Really like the idea of this game, but after experiencing the handling in the second demo I was really put off. Does turning the driving aids off really make that much difference ? as the handling in the demo seemed to have no feel, and was just a bag of understeering nastyness.

Also, how is the online handled ? Is it just a case that if you are connected to live all of the other drivers are human players, and if your not connected to live they are AI players ? Do you just drive to certain points and meet up for races alla the first demo etc

[MonkeyWrench]

Started playing this earlier. Only done a couple of offline races but so far I'm enjoying it. It kind of reminds me of the World Racing games, probably down to the visuals more than anything else. I've got no issues with the handling at all, I think it's spot on. Saying that I have turned off the driving aids.

[Yoshimax]

Simmy with driving aids off it's a different game - Case in point with the demo (can you turn them off in the demo ?) I just handbraked round most corners and whilst losing a lot of speed was able to then take off in a straight line - With aids off my current car (Audi TT) is not so stable and is more than likely to do a full 360 if I try belting through corners - Much, much better and changes your driving for it.

Last night I got a challenge (a one-off apparently - once it's done you can't do it again) to drive an Enzo Ferrari a HUGE distance across the map - damage lowered the reward at the end. Try as hard as I did I could not resist pumping the **** out of the beast - Best engine sound I heard in a long time on that monster

Needless to say I did not finish the challenge

There's something about this game - It really is like a "Test Drive" for some reason. I fugging love it.

I think online-wise there's 100 Human people per map so you can be driving about doing your own thing and suddenly these maniacs will come tearing down the street whooping & hollering - It's actually quite fun and very different to any other racer I've played. Racewise you can do them traditionally or seek out friends/rivals etc - I've not played enough to fully understand the whole structure yet.

[Simmy]

Thanks for the write up yoshi, sounds great ! Will be investing in this and Saints Row as celebration of the deboxing of my 360 hopefully next week Need some gaming time now I'm starting to get the shakes

edit : Kind of a shame if the 100 players on your island are random, would be great to have 50 folks from here all bounding around the island at the same time !

[TheForce]

ok that does it..... if I'm not going to the Nordschleiffe this weekend I'm gonna buy it.

it's racing, it has great cars, it has some motorcycles and I like the overall idea of the game, I just didn't like the handling so much, but after reading all this....