Test Drive: Limited

The name of the game is actually Test Drive: Unlimited. While it's pretty good, it's far from being the best racing game out there.

Let's start with the good.

Cars. There's a good mix of makes, models, and time periods represented in the game. There are enough cars to give the game variety, but not so many that you're lost in a sea of a million and one Skylines.

The map. You have the whole island of Oahu to explore, and drive exotic cars around on. For the most part, races are spread out so you won't have to drive down the same stretch of road more than a couple of times. That's brilliant.

Pacing. You start out with the low class of cars and easy races, and as you progress, the races get harder and require you to move up to the higher classes. Just like it should be.

Graphics. Very nice. Draw distance is like a mile, literally. And when you're travelling at 180 miles an hour, that's a very good thing. Plus, the cars look amazing.

Control. Each car handles differently. Some hug the road, some are slippery pieces of shit. Very nicely done.

Online play. Something I still rarely get into on the 360, usually because the matchmaking is so fucking terrible. But it's fantastic in this game. There's no TrueSkill bullshit, there's no searching for games, there's just races on the map that happen to be inhabited by other players. In fact, when you're connected to Live and driving around the island, there are other cars, driven by actual players, doing the exact same thing. Pass one and flash your lights at him, and you've got a one on one drag race. All with no loading and no lag. That blows my mind, and it's absolutely the right way to do a racing game with online multiplayer. Plus, I think you can race for pinks. That's fucking sweet.

Now we get to the bad, which surprisingly, includes the flip side of some of the good points, and includes some utterly horrendous things.

Cars. Just because a car is classic, it's automatically considered "G" class. Sorry, but the Shelby Daytona Coupe is definitely not in the same class as the '68 Camaro Z28. Yes, the Camaro is a nice car, and I'm glad it was included. But it can't hold the Shelby's jock. The Shelby won the FIA World GT Championship, for chrissakes. Do your homework.

The map. I like the immersiveness of it, I do. But don't sacrifice fun for realism. Do not make me drive all over the island just to find a goddamn car dealer. Why are there seperate dealerships, anyway? Or seperate real estate agencies? You want realism? Try using the fucking internet. I'm sure I've purchased a laptop with my millions of dollars in race winnings, let me visit Carmax.com and Century21.com to buy my shit.

Control. So, is it a sim, or an arcade racer? A melding of the two? No. I don't know what the hell it is, but trying to be a bit of both doesn't work. That just leads to taking a sharp turn and having a 50/50 chance of either powersliding through or spinning out of control.

Damage modeling. Where the hell is it? If I smash into another car head-on doing 200, both drivers would be dead and their cars would disintegrate. But in this game, the only penalty is a flashing badge meaning the cops might be looking for me. Wow. Which brings me to...

Cops and tickets. Cops aren't psychic. They don't know about shit they don't see. And they can't give tickets to a vehicle that isn't stopped. They sure as hell can't do that when it's doing 90, but somehow I managed to get a ticket when I was doing just that. Seriously, this isn't Hot Pursuit. Hot Pursuit was a good game, and did the whole cops and racers thing very well. Don't remind me of a better game when I'm playing your poor excuse for one.

Online play. For some strange reason, my Xbox can't seem to stay connected to Live when I'm playing this game. It'll connect initially, and stay connected for about 5-10 minutes, and then just drop. I don't get it.

Final verdict: A fun rental, but that's it. Apparently, it can be purchased for 40 bucks. While that's not a bad price, I prefer the $8 dollar rental. You'll have your fun, with none of the regrets. Damn, I can't wait for Forza 2.