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Though anyone like me who dislikes having to complete numerous events at gold level in order to unlock the right to buy certain cars… should be forewarned that car sales/trades between players has been turned off until Eden Studios can work out a bug that can wipe out player progress. How big of a deal this is depends on whether you were counting on buying cars you couldn't unlock from other players who could. No ETA on when a fix will make its way online.
Unlike many of our readers, I was lucky enough to spend three weeks on Oahu several years ago. So I can say with a degree of authority that Eden Studios did an amazing job digitizing the whole island. Within moments of firing up TDU and jumping through tutorial screens, I was racing past locations that previously only existed in my vacation slides.
However, it comes as little surprise that an entire island is more than even the Xbox 360 can handle. Going from an E-class starter car to a C-class road-eating monster showed me that pop-up varies depending on what you're driving and where you're racing. Your mileage will vary depending on your tolerance and how much fun you're having.
When everything is working perfectly, Test Drive Unlimited looks great with its highways, lush green hills/valleys, and sandy beach fronts. The country side looks better than many action/adventure games. So nice do those trails into the woods look that I wonder why there are no-off-road bikes/cars in the game. Does the game look as good as a circuit-based racer like PGR3? No, but it does look pretty damn nice for how much there is in front of your car.
Where the environments can be considered "ok" by today's standards; the car and bike models look beautiful… from the outside. Internally, the cars are respectable, but not as sharp as the curvy fenders outside. Considering the number of cars (including AI traffic filler), the draw distance, and the high-dynamic range sunlight that drips over everything… TDU pushes an impressive graphical showcase at users.
I don't usually make a point of mentioning achievement points, but I love how Test Drive Unlimited has a whole menu setup for tracking which achievements you've unlocked, what you have to do to unlock other achievements, and even how far on the road to getting your next achievement. Future Xbox 360 games should take a page from this game.
The only thing I found unclear is how shops/events are "discovered" on the main map. You can use the GPS map to zap from point-to-point on the island ala Oblivion, but only after you've initially been to that location. Early on, I was rather annoyed that I had to spend 30 minuets driving around looking for the European tune shop because it wasn't marked on my map until I visited for the first time.
Yet, later I logged back in and found several locations/events marked on my map in areas I'd yet to visit. Even more frustrating was finding that the map in the manual has all the locations clearly marked. Having to drive to a location once in order to instantly travel there later is something I can get behind, but why you're required to drive around looking for shops/events is a mystery to me… and the only black mark on what is a great user-friendly experience.
Looking back through the rear view mirror, I find Test Drive Unlimited to be just the sort of racing experience I was searching for this fall: one full of events to complete, vehicles to buy, drivers to customize with funny haircuts, and even cute little touches like being able to roll down your windows. The only aspect holding me back from giving it a higher score lies with the online user trading issues. Even if a patch never materializes, Test Drive Unlimited is a fun and unique racing experience that should not be skipped in a fall season overflowing with first-person shooters.
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