| Test Drive Unlimited (PS2) |  | From: Atari
Category: Video Games
Buy New: £19.99
New (1) Used (2) from £9.91
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 2116
Platform: Playstation2
Genre: car-and-truck-racing-games
Rating: To Be Announced
Media: Video Game
Age: 11 - 18 years
Operating System: Playstation 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 3546430127155
ASIN: B000GBC0OC
Release Date: March 16, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Gran Turismo takes to the streets December 16, 2008
Gran Turismo takes to the streets, but it brings with it the same flaws of Gran Turismo and then some, and without the sheer lunacy obsessive petrol head nature of Gran Turismo. Or the number of cars.
The idea is you drive around the massive island to do each challenge. To start with you can only do the most basic level races using the most basic cars. Clock up enough driver experience (by winning races and general driving) and you unlock the next level of races and cars. Once you have done a challenge you no longer have to drive to it, you simply open your map, select the challenge and you will be taken straight to it. Initially, forcing you to drive from challenge to challenge is a great way to force you to explore the island. Eventually though, it becomes a bit of a chore. The scenery and roads aren't varied enough and having to drive 20 miles to the nearest challenge becomes increasingly frustrated, particularly as you will attract the attention of the abundance of cops and pay a fine if caught (which, rather bizarrely they can do even when you are still moving).
A neat addition is sat nav to save you having to look at your on screen map. Yeah, right. The sat nav must have come straight from poundland - the posh speaking lady will happily guide you the wrong way up one way streets, announce turns just as you go past them and at times even completely forget to announce turns at all. Frustrating when driving from location to location, it becomes infuriating during races themselves.
The races are a variety of races with a number of opponents, speed trial tests where you have to complete a course within a specified time and speed camera trials where you have to clock a particular speed through a series of speed traps. If you get bronze or silver you can try again once you have upgraded your cars (unlike Gran Turismo only 3 standard upgrades are available, so those obsessed with modifying will be disappointed). There are tonnes of challenges to do, and an abundance of car clubs too where you climb the ladder to eventually become president by using a particular type of vehicle (such as noble, mid-range engines, v8 engines) or specific country (european cars, american muscle cars). Much like Gran Turismo this lengthens the life span considerably and if you are a completionist and want to go back to win gold on previous challenges once your cars are upgraded to get nearer the 100% completion mark the game will last months rather than weeks.
The races are frustrating in that the opponent AI is just like Gran Turismo. If you dare to get into their programmed line they will happily plough into you sending you off the road into an uncontrollable spin where you will never recover in time to compete in the race. The temptation to do each race in easy mode (where you win less money than normal or hard) to avoid these frustrations is therefore great as you will instantly take the lead and most likely stay there without much challenge from opponents. At least they won't be constantly hitting you and forcing you off the road, but the lack of challenge takes away the excitement. The time trials and speed trap races are much more tense and playable.
The graphics are good, but obviously have been compromised due to the huge amount of road you will travel on. The sounds are on par with Gran Turismo but you will want to turn the radio right down and just listen to the car sounds. However, working your way up the ladder to get superior cars further disappointment sets in. Driving at 100 mph in a super car just does not feel like driving at 100 mph. There are a lot of cars on offer but nowhere near as many as Gran Turismo.
Still it is a reasonable effort that sits nicely between arcade racer and obsessive simulator. It requires patience if not skill, but ultimately those seeking a simulator should go for Gran Turismo, and those seeking thrills the excellent Burnout series, or Need For Speed Most Wanted. If you have done all those well this will further your lifespan of the PS2.
If you do buy - one tip: don't pay for upgrades. If you make it to president level on the car clubs many will offer free upgrades on your cars.
Welcome To Oahu July 13, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Just arrived at the airport, go buy a car and a house to put it in with the cash in your pocket. Next, drive about Oahu searching for races. Earn more cash, buy more cars and buy biggers houses. And thats it.
You can drive around aimlessly or use the GPS to guide you. The races themselves are standard affair, time trials, one on one, 4 in a race etc. and they are easy to find and access. Graphics are good, not great but there is a distinct lack of atmosphere.
The problem with the game is the sandbox style itself. Its nice to drive around and visit Pearl Harbor and stuff but then you realise that you spend as much time driving around as you racing. Then you find that you have to drive to events miles apart and you spend more time trying to access races that actually taking part in them. Things then start to get boring.
This is a good racing game with touches of Burnout, NFS and GTA mixed in. If you like open maps then this will suit you fine but if you just want to race with some immediacy, this might be a bit slow.
What is interesting is that the game has two versions - on and off line.
If you are connected to the internet, play the on-line version which allows on-line players to access races. Play off line if your not web enabled. If you play off line and then go on-line you'll find that the game is identical and that you start at the beginning all over again. You have been warned. Oh! and welcome to Oahu.
 Great May 5, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm glad I bought TDU for my PS2.
Many people who have the PC/Xbox version will complain about how bad the PS2 version is because it doesn't contain bikes, picking up hitch-hikers, not having as many cars, including Ferraris and Maseratis, etc.
These are all valid points but for me, they do not detract from the quality of the game. There are still about 70 cars to choose from and many of them are true exotics and concepts which I have not seen in any other racing games. For example, how many times have you seen a Noble M400, an Ascari KZ-1, a Koenigsegg CC8S or the more powerful CCR? How about a Chrysler ME Four-Twelve? A Mercedes CLK-DTM AMG road version? Or even a Lotus Exige 240R or Caterham CSR 260?
The game is set on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and is a completely free-roaming game. You progress by winning time trials, competitions, etc and acquiring road miles and air miles.
You can purchase new properties where you can store more cars and be closer to various competitions, car dealers and tuning shops. There is an ingenious GPS system to tell you where to go if you are unfamiliar with the island or simply if you can't be bothered plan out your route.
All in all, a great game and worth getting, particularly because it looks as if gaming companies have almost finished in releasing new PS2 games.
A MUST GET GAME March 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This really is a great driving game, anyone wanting to get a new one should seriously consider this. Graphics are gd, cars look like they do in real life and it is generally a fab game.
An ok arcade game ...but laggy February 9, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Having just played the awesome Gran Turismo 4 on ps2 for the past week, it was a nice change playing Test Drive Unlimited for half and hour or so. But then the novelty quickly wore off and I noticed the game was quite laggy (jerky) a lot of the time. Add to this the fact that there are no cheats available at all for this game, and your stuck with having to play it all the way through in order to enjoy all the vehicles it has to offer.
So to sum up: Test Drive Unlimited is ok on the PS2, but nothing outstanding, not compared to the XBox-360 version, or the king of all PS2 racing games, Gran Turismo 4
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