Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2005 12:53 am
Got this story through the grapevine. 
http://xbox360.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3140479" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
While it's never achieved super popular status, the Test Drive series has been around for a long time, dating back to systems most of us have never ever heard of, let alone owned. So when Atari announced the latest in the franchise, Test Drive: Unlimited, for the Xbox 360, it wasn't too much of a surprise.
For this latest Test Drive, the developers decided to take advantage of the graphical power at their fingertips to create a tropical world -- specifically, Hawaii. The entire landscape that you can drive around is one giant island (Oahu), filled with vast open grassy areas, cliffside roads perfect for one-on-one races, and the occasional downtown area for when you feel like racing between skyscrapers.
One of the key features in Unlimited is how you can customize your character. The idea is that the developers wanted the player to be able to put him- or herself into the game, so you can select your clothes, head model, glasses, etc. to create an avatar that looks like yourself. Then, when you go out driving, you will see this model in the car driving around in impressive detail.
Further continuing the customization aspects, players will be able to set up their own house, sort of along the lines of what you can do in a lot of recent football and basketball games. That's where you get the news, meet up with other inline players, store your car collection, etc, and it looks to add further to the relaxed setting provided by the game.
Naturally, as Unlimited is a 360 game, one of the most important issues is how the graphics look, and the answer is pretty darn good. No one specific frame of the action blew our minds or anything, but the draw distance in the early version we tried was incredible. At one point, we stopped playing, and the developers used dev tools to zoom out on the island from where we had stopped our car, and almost the entire island was just as detailed as the part right around us. The scale of detail is very impressive.
Perhaps this kind of scale will be necessary due to the game's broad range of online modes that let many players be around at any one time. While all the minor details haven't been ironed out, it looks like it will be very easy to find competition and set up different types of race challenges by driving around.
Our hands-on time with the game was mostly spent driving around, getting a feel for the handling, and seeing just how far we could go in the wide open environments. The limit? Basically right until you get to the foot of the mountain in the background. In essence, you can go anywhere.
The handling is decent as well, though definitely a bit less arcadey than many recent driving games, so if you're looking to hold down A and just turn when something gets in your way, you may want to look at some of the other 360 racing options. But for those with a bit of driving knowledge, there are a ton of great spots you can find on the island where you can set up races.
Though the developers are also planning a PC version of the game, they say the 360 version is where they are putting their focus right now, and they expect the game will be out by the end of the year.
http://xbox360.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3140479" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
While it's never achieved super popular status, the Test Drive series has been around for a long time, dating back to systems most of us have never ever heard of, let alone owned. So when Atari announced the latest in the franchise, Test Drive: Unlimited, for the Xbox 360, it wasn't too much of a surprise.
For this latest Test Drive, the developers decided to take advantage of the graphical power at their fingertips to create a tropical world -- specifically, Hawaii. The entire landscape that you can drive around is one giant island (Oahu), filled with vast open grassy areas, cliffside roads perfect for one-on-one races, and the occasional downtown area for when you feel like racing between skyscrapers.
One of the key features in Unlimited is how you can customize your character. The idea is that the developers wanted the player to be able to put him- or herself into the game, so you can select your clothes, head model, glasses, etc. to create an avatar that looks like yourself. Then, when you go out driving, you will see this model in the car driving around in impressive detail.
Further continuing the customization aspects, players will be able to set up their own house, sort of along the lines of what you can do in a lot of recent football and basketball games. That's where you get the news, meet up with other inline players, store your car collection, etc, and it looks to add further to the relaxed setting provided by the game.
Naturally, as Unlimited is a 360 game, one of the most important issues is how the graphics look, and the answer is pretty darn good. No one specific frame of the action blew our minds or anything, but the draw distance in the early version we tried was incredible. At one point, we stopped playing, and the developers used dev tools to zoom out on the island from where we had stopped our car, and almost the entire island was just as detailed as the part right around us. The scale of detail is very impressive.
Perhaps this kind of scale will be necessary due to the game's broad range of online modes that let many players be around at any one time. While all the minor details haven't been ironed out, it looks like it will be very easy to find competition and set up different types of race challenges by driving around.
Our hands-on time with the game was mostly spent driving around, getting a feel for the handling, and seeing just how far we could go in the wide open environments. The limit? Basically right until you get to the foot of the mountain in the background. In essence, you can go anywhere.
The handling is decent as well, though definitely a bit less arcadey than many recent driving games, so if you're looking to hold down A and just turn when something gets in your way, you may want to look at some of the other 360 racing options. But for those with a bit of driving knowledge, there are a ton of great spots you can find on the island where you can set up races.
Though the developers are also planning a PC version of the game, they say the 360 version is where they are putting their focus right now, and they expect the game will be out by the end of the year.