Topic: Next worthwhile X360 demo I tried: Test Drive Unlimited

[Cobra951]

Here's another free game, a la Crackdown demo.  You're limited to an hour per session, and you can't drive through the whole game world, but you get a very big chunk of it, and you can do pretty much anything you want with 4 vehicles: a Ferrari, a 289 AC Cobra, a Mustang GT and a Ninja motorcycle.  I think the bike controls suck, but I really got into the cars.  I spent almost 3 hours last night just driving all over, and entering the occasional time trial.  Looks are pretty good, physics seem close to real, with a bit of extra forgiveness thrown in, and the presentation is very good.  Give it a shot if you're so inclined.

[Quemaqua]

Wait... you can just... drive around?  And then like enter contests and stuff?  Dude, I would absolutely love that.

[Quemaqua]

Apparently the PSP version of the game is actually quite good as well, and I've gotta' say, I'm really tempted to pick it up.  Maybe I'll buy myself the 360 version and then just give the PSP version a whirl to see how it is.  I dunno'... but right now, driving around just sounds really, really nice.

[Antares]

Well color me interested.  I'v been craving a good driving game lately, and Forza 2 is just too far away.  I'll give it a look.

[iPPi]

Forza 2 is just over a month away.

I've been waiting for a good game for the 360 for a while now.  There have been a couple of games that have interested me the last couple of months (Lost Planet, GRAW2, and Crackdown), but not enough to justify a purchase.  I might rent 'em or something.

[Quemaqua]

Well, I don't know that this one is for everybody, but I'll tell you:

Holyfuckingcrap I love it.  Seriously.  I've been playing for hours and I can't get enough.  Bought a used copy of the 360 version (was pristine, the guy probably played it twice).

Reviews have said that the game is kind of aimless given that you just drive around and undertake challenges, but that's the best part!  It isn't a forced set of races that you go through over and over, nor are there just 10 or 20 tracks to race on... there's a whole humongous stretch (1,000 miles, supposedly) of beautiful Hawaiian countryside to drive around!  My biggest beef with basically every racing game ever made is that there just isn't enough to drive on.  Tracks are so limiting and when you don't have many they get old super fast.  This game entirely rectifies that problem by just giving you a veritable smφrgεsbord of road.  It's an asphalt orgy.  I love it!

The game itself is pretty cool.  Believe it or not, it plays a little bit like Oblivion in the exploration sense.  You have a huge map to explore, which starts out with limited points of interest, and you find more places as you drive around and explore the island (Oahu, if you care).  Once you've drive to a location (like a store, an auto showroom, or a race event) then you can instantly teleport there any time you like by selecting it from the map screen.  But if you want to find out what's going on around the other side of the island, get ready for a really long drive, because you have to drive the whole damned way there.  And it's awesome!  I mean, I love driving, and I don't have to be *racing* to enjoy it.  I really enjoy just taking a more leisurely spin here and there, so this game really provides that "I'm just going to drive out with the top down for a while with the radio on" kind of thing.  It's surprisingly immersive in that way.

Racing stuff is great, too.  There are different events you find all over the place, and there's a nice variety.  Some are "missions" to escort someone sort of crazy-taxi style, only here you have to not only drive super fast, you have to keep the fuck off the side of the road and not hit other cars, otherwise your passengers freak out.  Complete the shorter missions dropping off models, you get coupons for clothes and accessories which you can throw on your in-game character (which you can also edit facially with sliders, Oblivion-style).  Other challenges offer money and such.  There are some fun ones where a character charges you with his or her car, either to return it as a rental somewhere or to go get it repaired, etc., and then you basically just have to drive it a super long way (like 20+ miles) without banging it up (which reduces your reward at the end).  They're usually really nice cars so the temptation to open 'em up on long stretches of road is really tempting.  There's also plenty in the way of actual racing.  You can find places to just race against other cars in a given class, places to do time trials, speed trials, etc., and you can even just challenge other shmucks just driving around looking for something to do.  I haven't tried this online, obviously, but it works great offline.  There are lots of bot cars that just go around and you can challenge them by flashing your highbeams ala the Tokyo Xtreme series, and you'll then set up a marker somewhere on a stretch of road a ways away from you, and you go race to it.  If you set your game options up, you can set an amount to bet for these challenges, so it's a good way to win (or lose) some cash.  Can be pretty interesting if you decide to bet the farm, too.

Car selection so far seems pretty good, too, but I don't really know what the totals are, and there doesn't seem to be much Japanese presence here.  I guess this isn't an import tuning game, which is fine with me, really.  I saw some Skylines and such at a Nissan showroom, but haven't seen anything other than Kawasaki otherwise, which is just bikes (there's a motorcycle portion of the game as well).  Much more heavy on the European stuff, with some good 'ol American muscle thrown in for good measure (yay!).  I'm just happy because I bought a cheapish 69 'Vette Stringray, which isn't too shabby for a starter car.  The first one I got was a shitty Saturn Sky-something or other.  I don't know, I hate Saturns.  No idea why I bought it.  It's actually a class higher than the 'Vette, but who cares?  The cars are pretty sweet to look at from what I've seen, though not the best ever, but they have accurately modeled interiors for each car which make the cockpit views an absolute joy.  I can hardly bring myself to ever drive in the outside view even though the view of the road is better.

Anyway... if you love cars and you just love to drive around, this game is for you.  If you have to constantly be racing, or if you like driving over the same 2 feet of land over and over again, look elsewhere, but if you enjoy being able to race, drive around at your leisure, and explore a wide variety of roadway, give this a shot.  I couldn't be happier.

[scottws]

Cool, I'll have to check it out.  I love cars.  I even want to see Redline for that reason.

[Cobra951]

Holy crap.  I was just in the demo today, twice.  I was in Oblivion SI from about 10 PM or so until a while ago.  I played the TDU demo for almost the full hour right before that.  I really like the openness too, and from what you said, it sounds even better than I had anticipated.  I'm going to have to get it.  I don't really care for the MMO aspect of it, but I understand that can be turned off (in the game--I know I can always yank my net cable or log off of XBL).

[Quemaqua]

I can't speak to how the multiplayer stuff works since I don't have XBL and I'm not hooked up at all in the first place, but even without that stuff I'm having great fun.  If there's a way to turn it off then you should be set.  Lots to do in single player.  Having a little extra social interaction would be kind of cool just because the game has so little structure, but if all you want to do is drive nice cars (and why the hell else would you play the game?) I fail to see how you could go wrong.  The extra little things like your character and being able to buy houses and stuff is just icing on the cake.  Gives you something to work toward, and gives you more crap to spend your money on.

I didn't really mention the physics before, but they don't seem perfect.  Crashes and stuff are a little bouncy.  However, the driving itself doesn't feel too far off the mark.  Not a complete simulation maybe, but it certainly isn't an arcade racer.  It aims for realism and achieves it pretty well.  There really isn't much tuning to be done to individual cars, which is a bit of a shame (especially given how much Tokyo Xtreme I played, which was really heavy with the tuning stuff), but the cars feel like what they should from what I've tried so far.  There are various levels of driving assistance, but I obviously find the game most fun when I turn all that off and set the transmission to manual.  I haven't had this much fun driving in a game in a long while.  I didn't realize you could set those options at first, so I was a little miffed... then I found the menu, and I could never go back to driving an automatic in this game.  Just like in real life.  First time I drove stick, I was sold.  Hate having to drive an automatic car (the only car we have is my wife's).  The assistance options just seem to cover how much you slide, but it doesn't seem to be like an LSD kind of thing (as in limited slip differential) or any real model... you just slide less.  I guess.  I haven't screwed with it much.

Anyway, the cars go nice.  Heh.

[poomcgoo]

The XBL aspect of this game is the coolest part, if you ask me.  It's the same thing as the SP game, but with lots of people.  You just drive around and do the same shit, but so does everybody else -- which is pretty cool.  If you want to set up a race with somebody on the fly, you just pull up behind them and flash your lights.  They can accept or decline your challenge, and you go on to determine what roads the race takes place on and what the stakes are.  Fun stuff.

[iPPi]

The XBL aspect of this game is the coolest part, if you ask me.  It's the same thing as the SP game, but with lots of people.  You just drive around and do the same shit, but so does everybody else -- which is pretty cool.  If you want to set up a race with somebody on the fly, you just pull up behind them and flash your lights.  They can accept or decline your challenge, and you go on to determine what roads the race takes place on and what the stakes are.  Fun stuff.

That does sound pretty cool.  I might have to take a look into getting this game.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, it's a cool feature.  If I cared about other people and had XBL I'd try it.  Fortunately, I hate other people and don't have XBL, so there's no reason for me to worry about missing out.

I've been playing the PSP version for a couple days now as well.  It's basically the same thing, but it's hampered slightly by less control.  It's all automatic so you can't do your own shifting, which totally sucks, and it's missing the mission-based stuff from the other games.  It does a few of its own things the other games don't do, but none are terribly compelling in the end.  Still, for a PSP game it's completely massive, and I've had a lot of fun not being tied down yet still having hundreds of miles to drive around on.  It's quite similar to the 360 version as far as the driving and layout are concerned, it's just a little more stripped down (duh, it would have to be) and has a few niggles like a half-broken GPS that sends you driving down roads against traffic far too often.  Still, for a PSP racing game I have to say I'm impressed.  Burnout may have it beat, but if you're looking for a handheld version of TDU, this actually delivers in a way that handheld versions of bigger games rarely do.

[iPPi]

I've grown to loathe Burnout nowadays.  At one point in time, I greatly enjoyed the series, but now, I just can't stand it anymore.  It's too arcade style for my taste, plus the franchise hasn't evolved much at all over the last few iterations.  The next one, Burnout Dominator, looks exactly the same as its predecessor.

[Cobra951]

I tried the Burnout Revenge demo on the 360.  I was not impressed.  It feels as much like real driving as the gasoline cars on rails at amusement parks.

[Quemaqua]

Oh come on, you can't knock it for that.  Burnout was never once in its existence intended to be anything even remotely like real driving.  It's an arcade racer, pure and simple, and I think it's good fun.  Granted there seem to be too many entries into the series for justification, though.  I only have the first 2.

[Cobra951]

I have nothing against Arcade Racers.  I like some of them real well, like the Ridge Racer series.  But this is so on, well, rails that it hardly feels like you're controlling anything related to driving, in arcade mode or real mode.  It's all about bashing things and then being pulled way out of the driver's seat to see what's happening from a spectator's perspective.  By the time you get back into interactive mode, it's time for the next quick attack reaction which starts the whole passive slo-mo spectating up again.

[Pugnate]

I took some time to warm up to Burnout, but once I did it was quite awesome. A very good party game.

[wizall]

Thanks for the tip.  I just tooled around with the demo for an hour myself.  It was great and I might have to get it.  I like the "aimlessness" of the game.  I agree with everything you said, Que, at least from the demo's perspective.  I got some random invite from someone, and I didn't realize I was actually playing with other people.  I was in the spider, he on the bike, and I was smoked, but it was pretty fun.  It's "only" $40 now, so it'd be a good addition.  (Just bought GH2 and Marvel: Ult Alliance, though, so I'll wait a bit.)

Anyway, yeah, I concur:  fun game. 

edit:  The Shrek 3 demo, eh, not so much.  Surprise, surprise, right?

[Quemaqua]

Nice to see ya' wiz, glad you dug the demo.  It seems fairly popular, but it's definitely one of those things you love or hate.  There seem to be a lot of returns.

I've spent a good chunk of time with the PSP version now and I can officially say that it's a winner.  It isn't as robust as the console versions and has some problems that those versions don't, but I'm just as addicted to it as I am to my copy for the 360.  It's definitely fun and satisfying.

[Cobra951]

About the only reason I might understand this game getting a lot of returns is the multiplayer.  That's because it's the only part of the game I know nothing about, and it's conceivable that it sucks.  But if it's up to par with everything else, then it must be awesome.  I've put in about 8 hours now, and I absolutely love it.  The demo gives some idea about the openness, but totally fails to give a full sample of what goes on in the game world.  If Que hadn't mentioned all the aspects beyond simple driving, I may have never picked it up.  I just bought my 2nd house, and I have 5 cars now, from the lowly Alfa I could afford at the beginning to a TVR beast with a name too unfamiliar to stick in my head.  After some $92,000 of tuning, it goes 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and tops out at 209 mph.  Handles very well too, plus it looks radical.  There is so much rich detail in everything.  The cars are all completely different from each other in every conceivable way.  My last purchase was a Dodge Challenger with what has to be a 426 Hemi, and you can hear and feel the authenticity of that growl.  This torque monster with bias-ply tires is quite a handful under power.  Get into an Audi, and the power delivery is silky smooth.  The variety is tremendous, with lots of dealerships and car rentals around the island.  Speaking of the island, damn!  The whole thing seems to be there, down to every GPS-discernible detail, according to the game lit.  You can spend real hours driving and never go everyplace your vehicle is capable of reaching.  The landscape is peppered with places you can visit.  Beyond the dealerhips I mentioned, there are houses for sale, and their respective real-estate offices, boutiques to alter your appearance, paint & tuner shops, and of course, races of multiple types.  Then there are missions such as driving someone somewhere, or delivering a vehicle, or a package.  It's all pretty thrilling--very hard to put down once you start.  It's a nice leg up from the concept of Gran Turismo.  The whole world is fleshed out, and it's extremely entertaining in and of itself, not just as some sort of uber-lobby for the contests.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, and I love the engine sounds.  I can't speak to the level of true accuracy given that I'm poor as hell and don't own any cars, much less the ones I'd really like to own, but I love how great they sound, especially in the cockpit view.  I just can't drive outside the cockpit with the muscle cars because they sound so flipping awesome when you're inside.   

[Cobra951]

I've never been in a vintage Dodge Challenger, but I know what the 426 Hemi sounds like.  And, yeah, it's written right on the hood of my TDU car.  Duh!  This is a download car, BTW, a free one.  (I mean it doesn't cost any real money.  You still have to find it in game and pay game money for it.)  There are several you can add for free from XBL.  In fact, you should definitely log on to XBL and then launch your game, so it gets the patch.

Test Drive Unlimited Title Update 2 on Xbox Live

Test Drive Unlimited for Xbox 360™ gets a serious tune up as thousands sign on daily for a blast of racing reinvented

Following the runaway success of Test Drive Unlimited on Xbox Live, Eden Games and Atari have delivered a host of enhancements with ‘Title Update 2’, available now on Xbox Live as a free automatic download to anyone with an Xbox Live connection.

Amongst the improvements in ‘Title Update 2’ are the reinstatement of E-trade, changes which make finding and racing with friends easier, further fine-tuning of the bike handling, a number of modifications to the clubs to improve usability, fixes to prevent ranking anomalies, the removal of a number of exploits (online and offline), crash fixes, upgrade of the server connection, improvements to grid vehicle positioning and more.

Microsoft provides product updates to anyone with a Live connection, even without a paid membership. If you have an Xbox Live connection, you will be prompted to download the update.

In addition to the update, as a result of the new motorbike dynamic and because of errors with some of the worldwide rankings, on Monday 20 November Eden Games will reset the following in-game worldwide server rankings for technical reasons (rankings saved locally will not be affected):
- Solo Time Challenge rankings
- Solo Speed Challenge rankings
- Solo Race Challenge rankings

The following rankings will remain unchanged:
- Ladder rankings in multiplayer Speed & Race Challenges
- Instant Challenge rankings
- Club rankings

An in-game message will be sent on Friday 17th November via the news system warning players three days in advance of the reset. Eden Games and Atari apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused.

The fixes and enhancements in ‘Title Update 2’ are as follows:


Enhancements:
• Motorbike handling tuned
• Easier to find your friends in Freeride: select the “friends” filter and click on a player to be automatically dropped in his playing session if session is not full
• Improvements to the management of game sessions in Freeride
• Speed filter added to prevent players from achieving impossible speeds in Speed Trap and Speed challenges
• Replay sequences improved

General:
• Menus: MY COUNTRY filter now fully loads when checking ranking leaderboards in the house
• Various crashes resolved
• Various exploits removed
• Progression no longer lost due to corrupted save games
• Player now always spawns at the correct house after reboot
• Gameplay fix: player can no longer irretrievably lose the current vehicle
• Microfreezes fixed
• Now possible to revert to normal paint after deluxe paint job


Multiplayer:
• E-trade now fully functional
• Clubs: no longer any issues when multiple inter- or intra-club challenges are hosted at the same time in the same club
• Players can now see each other after an Instant Challenge in Free Ride (previously if two users completed an Instant Challenge and returned to Free Ride with no other users in the session, the two users could not see each other in the session)
• Vehicle restriction must now be obeyed when accepting game invite
• Car now always correctly positioned on the starting grid, regardless of how many players enter and exit lobby
• Vehicles of players with low ping rates no longer show erratic behavior and disrupt gameplay
• Intermediate speed shown for speed challenges now always correct
• Host no longer always placed at the rear on starting line
• News messages of club invitations are no longer delayed or lost
• Drive in: limitation of 255 challenges posted removed
• Drive in: going down the first page in the list of challenge no longer makes the details of further custom challenges wrong
• Drive-in: challenges are now listed after completion of a challenge
• Incorrect record speed no longer cited in Speed Trap challenges
• Instant Challenges: Cars now always start at same point
• Gameplay: Player now able to accept Invitation to a Club after being ejected from another
• Multiplayer Races: vehicles now do not lack collision at beginning of race
• Monthly Multiplayer rankings are now based on a monthly frequency
• Users can now switch to Ready when accepting an Invitation from an Extra Challenge
• Time rankings fixed
• Speed rankings fixed
• Various exploits removed
• Police AI issues when disconnected from Xbox Live fixed

Edit:  I should add that the above quote I found on the Xbox forums, and it is uncredited.  But it does seem authentic.

I played until 4 AM this morning.  I now have at least one car in every class, and 2 houses.  My last acquisition was a Lamborghini Murcielago.  That means "bat" in Spanish, and perhaps also in Italian?  Not very sexy in English, is it?  It's also my first, and so far only Group-A car.  Those suckers are expensive.  I want a Maclaren and a Saleen for sure.  The car models are oh so nice, inside and out.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I'm going the Saleen route as soon as possible I think.  And I always wondered what Murcielago meant.  Odd.

Thanks for the tip, though, I didn't even consider logging in to get the patch.  Any idea about size?  As always, that's an issue for me.

[iPPi]

Well I gave the demo a shot.  It's seems like an interesting concept, but I wasn't too impressed overall.  It's an alright game, but I don't think I'm going to buy it.

[Antares]

I enjoyed the demo but was a little dissapointed that it didn't seem like you could customize the cars.  I'm led to believe from cobra's post that this isn't the case?

I may have to pick it up.

[Cobra951]

Yes, there are tuner shops.  The mods are very simple in terms of packages.  There's anywhere from 1 to 3 levels of modification to the whole car.  No choosing from a bunch of different parts combinations as in Gran Turismo.  Also, unless there are places still hidden from me somewhere on the island, not all the cars can be modded.

As I said earlier, the demo doesn't do the job of giving you a sample of everything the game has to offer.  It's almost like an RPG, in that you're developing your character with increasing assets and level.  These assets include houses and vehicles, but also how much of the island you know and can visit.  The more houses you own, the more garage room you have for cars.  Your level goes up from novice to ace, in 6 steps I believe.  You need to open up everything by exploring and boosting your level (through competition).  Then there are side missions such as transporting a car or delivering a package.  I'm thoroughly addicted.  Here it is going on 5 AM, and the night has evaporated very quickly.

Sorry, Que.  I keep forgetting that you don't have the HDD.  I really don't know how big the update is.