Test Drive Unlimited - Hands On Preview

Test Drive is a franchise that's been around for a long time, making its first appearance, courtesy of the defunct Accolade Entertainment, back in 1987. Since then the racing series has undergone many transformations, spin-offs and changes that have witnessed no less than 15 different titles in 19 years (not including the countless Car Disk/Scenery Disk and other expansions).

Undeniably a prolific brand, since making the jump to Infogrames (and later Atari), the series has ultimately failed to find its way back into gear, watching helplessly as the likes of Need for Speed burst past and drift into the horizon. With a long-forgotten franchise and a publisher that's seen better days, it would be easy to dismiss Test Drive Unlimited as yet another false start for the franchise; however, both Atari and Eden Studios are out to prove us wrong, with a next-generation racer that dares to be a little bit different.

With a demo released on the Xbox Live Marketplace during E3'06, you've likely already got a handle on what to expect from the game, but what you're probably unaware of is just how much the game has come along since then.

Set on the Hawaiian island of Oahu ("Gathering Place"), Test Drive Unlimited instantly marks itself out from the crowd during the opening stages. A stylish introduction sequence depicts the main character's journey to Oahu, allowing the player to select from eight pre-determined characters lining up in the airport's departure gate. Touching down on the strip of Honolulu International Airport, a sizeable sum of $200,000 is provided to get you off the ground, purchasing your first base of operations and a vehicle to start making your claims.

Acquiring your first house and car from the limited selection initially on offer leaves you with little in the bank, so it's time to take up the challenges scattered across the island. One of the first of many smart touches to appear in Test Drive Unlimited is the 'Google Earth' inspired GPS/Map feature, which allows you to stylishly pan out from your car to an aerial view of the island in a matter of moments. Clever little nuances continue to proliferate throughout Test Drive Unlimited, such as the 'Chronopack' which easily allows you to compare performances of your cars on the roads, or the subtle ability to adjust the height and position of the driving seat.

Test Drive Unlimited presents a wide variety of challenges to choose from, including traditional races, time challenges and more obscure tasks such as giving hitchhikers a lift. Classified into the archetypical Gold, Silver and Bronze rewards, your performance is also ranked on Xbox Live Leaderboards - just a taster of the full online options on offer! Eden Studios have also embraced the idea of Xbox Achievements into the actual game design, creating a tiered level structure based around a wide number of objectives such as collecting cars, completing challenges and racking up a certain amount of miles.

With over 100 sports cars and motorcycles available from 35 different manufacturers, Eden Studios have put the focus on delivering an authentic experience for each and every one. Dealerships for the different manufacturers are scattered across the island, each of which have been modelled on the same designs and architecture from real world locations. Test Drive Unlimited is a game you'll want to play from the interior view, simply to admire the lengths at which Eden Studios have gone to ensure the authenticity of each motor. There's a solid, convincing look to the cars, along with a heightened sense of immersion provided by the working gauges, windows, radio and GPS devices. Dealers aren't the only locations on Ohau, however, with Tuning Shops providing Upgrade Packs to improve the performance of a car and Paint Shops the place to add custom motifs and designs.

One area that has improved immeasurably from the E3'06 demo is the actual handling of the cars. There seems to be a much greater sense of distinction and diversity of the vehicles we've collected so far; it's probably not quite yet to the same standards as Project Gotham Racing 3 or Gran Turismo 4 yet, but we have every confidence that Eden Studios will continue to refine this before the September release. The French studio has also been hard at work on the game's collisions, which utilise the Havok physics engine to ensure there's a real sense of impact and weight behind accidents. Although non-descript civilian cars feature damage, the licensed cars available to the player are strangely indestructible - though Honolulu's finest police officers will hunt you down and issue fines if you've been causing too much mayhem on the Oahu roads.

All of this lavish praise comes without mentioning the game's biggest feature, a feature of such significance that Atari have had to invent a new genre to accommodate it. Dubbed MOOR or Massively Open Online Racing, the introduction of a new genre during a game's promotion and marketing is typically cause for concern, a sign to treat with some cynicism; however, Test Drive Unlimited appears to be an exception to this rule. The merging of on- and offline racing promises to be a revelation to the racing world, it's what EA, Bizarre Creations and everybody else making racing games should have been doing and likely to become the new standard for others to follow. Forget multiplayer options extending to a handful of game types chosen from the main menu, Test Drive Unlimited keeps everything in the one environment, with multiplayer and single-player challenges on the same map. Constantly rendering the seven closest players, Eden appears to have struck a compromising technical balance that creates an entirely convincing illusion.

Although Test Drive Unlimited should provide a comprehensive offline experience, it's online where the game will really impress. Beyond the actual art of competing against fellow humans, players can also buy and sell used motors between one another; create Car Clubs (essentially Clans for racing fans) to compete in organised competitions and even create Custom Challenges for other players to attempt, selecting entry fees and laying down a wager on the outcome. With plans to support regular additional downloadable content via Xbox Live Marketplace and compatibility with Microsoft's forthcoming wireless steering wheel, Test Drive Unlimited should be a game that lives way beyond its release date.