Test Drive Unlimited Comments by Tom Bramwell

My girlfriend got me this for my birthday in Germany and ended up paying 69 euro for it from Gamestop on a pre-order with a test drive face plate 'free'. 69 euro is just way too expensive for any game and of course the deal is made worse by the fact that Gamestop sells it for 69 euro here and the equivalent price of 31 euro in USA, that makes it over 2x more expensive in Germany purchased with the same company.

As it was a gift I am not going to make a fuss and the face plate is kind of cool but I don't understand the pricing of 69 euro. Most other stores in Germany will surely sell it for around 55 euro. I have found the fluctuation of prices to be very strange in Germany, some games sell for 69 and others for 50 and there is no link to the quality of the game to determine what it will end up being charged at.

Having played this for the last two days, I've decided that it's an excellent game that's well worth full price (more so than a lot of other releases). I've also decided that's the only thing that really concerns me: is it worth what I paid for it? Yes it is.

The fact some other bloke who lives thousands of miles away from me can get this more cheaply doesn't really seem relevant, and it's definitely a petty reason to deprive myself of a game as good as this one.

not quite convinced smelly.

the $1 = £1 was true - not so sure it is now.

regardless of which - we can buy it for £39.99 - the same as all other xbox games.

americans usually pay $59.99

they are given a $20/£10 discount.

we are not.

if we were receiving any discount we would see it in the shops for £39.99 and pay £29.99 online.

J

Gears of war, I have been told (read on 1up.com) will cost 60 dollars american, for the standard game. 70 dollars american for the special tin edition (like halo 2).

That makes the tin edition 160 dollars Australian. And about 60 quid. 60 pounds!!!!!

Sure Gears of War is meant to be the bees knees and may be worth it... but what if other publishers thing they can get away with it :O

The horror

>regardless of which - we can buy it for £39.99 - the same as all other xbox games.


Other 360 games are 49.99? We are being given a £10 discount.

If you look at amazon.com, americunz dont get any discount...

(sorry being pedantic here.. I kinda see where yer coming from - but i think yer being overly pesimistic for no reason... )

This entire price discussion is silly. If those of you complaining cannot understand why a larger market means more buyers and eventually a lower price then I don't know what to say. I actually see it a little bit different - why is every game in the United States about the same price as here in Europe? Europe is a huge video game market, no question about that. But in the end hardly any game will sell about as much or even more than in America. Add that to the fact that you mostly need only one marketing campaign over there and publishers don't have to translate the game to various languages.

In the end it all sums up as this: The total cost of a game is way lower and you most of the time have more people who will buy the game. Of course it will be sold cheaper - this is common sense and has nothing to do with favouring America or simply ignoring Europe. Again, I honestly believe Americans pay way too much for a game for those very reasons I just gave. Then again judging by the reaction of Europeans about the price difference with this game I totally understand. All the complaints are bad PR. Just don't adjust the price and everyone wins: Europeans for not having to pay more than Americans and the publisher for earning twice the money for every game sold overseas. Everyone is happy.

Well all I can say is I hope Amazon finaly deliver mine tomorrow. I have no problem with people who rufuse to buy it because of the price discrimination in Europe or pointing out to others why. What Atari did is wrong - I've just looked foreword to this game to much to boycott it (unlike GTR/GTL with it's starforce and lack of AI in lan games).

For me, the price debate is pretty much redundent. It's still the most tedious game I've ever played! Whether it was 50 quid or 50 pence I'd still be taking it back. Why it's reviewing so well is utterly beyond me. Everyone I spoke to on Live was driving round bored rigid as well. No wonder they decided to drop the price in the states.

What a load of crap.

Even our sister site, gamesindustry.biz, complained about the outragous price of 360 games.

And I seriously don't get why some of you are defending the industry for overcharging for games and for overcharging us. And they control the market by locking out American games from our systems, so they CLEARLY know that if we could play the cheaper American games that we would.

The price discussion isnt silly. Its not rocket science either.

Games normally RRP at $60 in the US, £50 in the UK. Publisher announces they are putting their game out at $40 in the US so more people play it blah blah blah. UK gamers rejoice, it will probably RRP £35! No wait, its still RRP £50.

Now, kangarootoo-and-the-bend-over-crew think you should grab your ankles and take it with a smile on your face because, well, thats just the way things are. Other people think the situation is unfair and unjustified, another example of Rip-Off Britain. I know which viewpoint I agree with. :)

@Garwoofoo

+1, a bt of sanity.

@MrAtheist

Oh ffs. At what point did I suggest anyone should "bend over and take it". Could it have been at the point where I said "if you don't like the price, don't buy it"? Was that maybe it?

At no point did I say this price difference was good, at no point did I say we should buy the game and not complain. What I did say is we should stop whining like children and simply exercise our consumer choice.

Whining like kids means nothing to a corp exec, nothing at all. Not buying their product means everything. So if someone feels strongly about it, stop doing the first and starting doing the second one. And if you are already doing both then how about you realise that the first one is redundant and just makes you look childish.

Can you imagine a situation other than games where people would use the language that gets used in this issue? If you went to a web forum about cars, would you expect to see people complaining about the difference in US and UK car prices using terms like "they treat us like scum"? Of course not (unless it was populated with stroppy kids only just old enough to drive).

And we wonder why people often treat games as the pursuit of children, something not to be taken seriously. Anyone reading a thread about this issue on this site or any other, seeing people screaming and shouting just because something they want is more expensive than they would like it to be (and thats really all this is) will just think we are a bunch of kids not able to control our emotions.

Again, I'm not saying you should "bend over and take it from the man". I'm simply saying show them you aren't happy by not buying the game, because they really don't care whether you spit your dummy out or not.

I for one am never buying ANYTHING in this country EVER again, be it a television, burger, dvd, etc.

As I can buy them all cheaper in america, so therefor Im gonna boycot those products - i may even steal them from the stores.


*sigh*. Im leaving this thread now, as it seems (to me) that a few of you really do have a screw loose.

@kanga

Oooooo touchy! ;)

Funny you should bring up the car price issue. Thats how the term Rip Off Britain came about. Look into this issue, its the people "screaming and shouting" that stopped us getting massively ripped off compared to other countries.

PS whats with the videogames for kids rant? Has Doctor Who whisked us back to 1993 or something? :)

@MrAtheist

"Oooooo touchy! ;)"

Hehe, I am getting a bit into this aren't I :)

I'm pretty sure that no-one driving the rip of britain campaign was using terms like "they treat us like scum".

Actually, I seem to keep referring back to that when it was only really used a couple of times by one person. And I think maybe I'm letting that comment drive me a bit in this discussion.

As you may have seem in my posts on other subjects, I have a bit of an allergy to over-reaction. The slightest bit of bad news comes along and some people act like its the end of the world, created specifically to annoy them. This is a situation like that. Atari are simply making marketing decisions, we as consumers respond to those decisions with our buying choices. Thats is our role in all of this, stamping out feet like kids isn't (except for those who are kids I guess).


The "games for kids" ref wasn't communicated very well. My point was that acting like kids doesn't help establish video games as a mature hobby. Every forum thread that is filled with immature vitriol is just another deterrent for the casual gamer. If thats how we appear to the "outside world" then we will never get any further than specialist sites and 1 column inch in a Sunday paper supplement.

When adults respond to bad news with excessive reactions and rants, that just makes gamers look like hyperactive nut jobs. Which in turn harms gaming and continues the cycle of unoriginal titles aimed at 14-24 yr old males.

Blah blah, probably best that I drop out of this thread as I seem to have quite successfully continued the whole price issue discussion, which is exactly what I was originally asking that we avoid doing :)

So, are people enjoying this game? Is it any good? Or are we too upset about the price to have an opinion?

well I'm about 10 hours in and I'm loving playing it, the online challenges seem a bit limited though as I seem to get matched with people who have A class cars when Im driving a C class but I'm really enjoying exploring the island and the single player challenges.

If you are having issues with the handling turn all the driving aids off for a better drive.

IMO well worth 50 quid

"It's still the most tedious game I've ever played! Whether it was 50 quid or 50 pence I'd still be taking it back. Why it's reviewing so well is utterly beyond me."

Don't talk crap, plugmonkey. If you just bother to persevere past the first couple of hours and get a half decent car (I'd highly recommend the DB9 to all and sundry) it's a top game. Fool.

I love it. It won't be for everyone though. Its odd - much more of a 'driving' than a 'racing' game. If you play it in manual with the assists turned off you can have lots of fun just cruising round the Island. Wish there were a few more tracks on the radio though.

Smelly - "I for one am never buying ANYTHING in this country EVER again, be it a television, burger, dvd, etc.

As I can buy them all cheaper in america, so therefor Im gonna boycot those products - i may even steal them from the stores.


*sigh*. Im leaving this thread now, as it seems (to me) that a few of you really do have a screw loose. "

Ahhhhhh. Smelly misses the point AGAIN! This is not a discussion on the "America always get things cheaper" issue. Did you even read my previous comments? How about going to the news article relating to the price issue on this very site to see exactly what all the fuss is about. Then you might have some clue as to WHY this case is different to the norm.

@ Kangerootoo - That is what I am doing. I am exercising my right not to buy the game, as I feel that this is the best way to show Atari and other publishers that I disagree with what they are doing.
I feel it is my duty to inform others of how Atari are treaing European consumers and allowing them to then make their decision on whether to buy it or not, as it seems that there are a lot of people who hadn't heard of it before, and are therefore buying the game unaware that there is such an issue that would otherwise fire them up to take a stand and refuse to buy it.

I'm aware that pissing and moaning rarely acheives anything, but if that pissing and moaning makes others aware of an issue they previously didn't know about, then in my eyes, that has acheived something.

Awesome game. Handling is fine for me, mind you I'm fairly hopeless at all driving games.

The whole idea of an open world is superb. I've spent a good few hours just driving to scenic spots on the island - it really does remind me of driving round parts of Greece (I know it's Hawaii but there's somehting in the feel of it). As someone else pointed out ducking in and out of the traffic is very, very realistic.

Offline races are good, delivering cars great fun, hitchiker and shopping pick ups tough, online racing I've been hammered every time - idea of challenging anyone you bump into adds a real twist, as does the drive in challenge idea (this does seem buggy for now though).

Compared to the boredom of PGR3 after 5 hours, for me this game rocks...hope other developers come up with new (not sure it is a new concept) concepts like this.

Almost reminds me of Midwinter on the Amiga for the open ended world.

Love this game. Poor old Dead Rising is struggling to get any love at all.

Oh and as for the price £40 at Tesco more than happy with that,
yes it's cheaper in the States but I don't care. And doing the math for all to see only makes me bored and want to go back on the highway to driving bliss.

Looks like PlugMonkey has a split personality! :D

I notice the price of the game on the PS2, PC and PSP is around the £25 mark compared to the £40 of the 360 version. I think it's just part and parcel of owning a 360 in this country. Even used 360 games seem to be like £30 or so, bit crazy.

Might well pick this up though, saw it in Tesco earlier and thought 'god not another Test Drive game' as practically all of them have made me think 'what a load of turd' but this seems a decent bet. Would fit snugly alongside PGR3 as something a bit different. Only similarity is both games have cars in :)

/hugs his Tesco discount card, £35 \o/

Someone help me, not sure whether to get 360 or Wii for December so I will be asking some questions in various thread:


Is this better than PGR3?


Thanks.

Just read the reviews for both games and decide which features you would prefer. If you played PGR2 then it's basically that but far better looking. I would say it's worth getting both eventually.

While this game may have it's warts and bugs compared to anything out there it's light years ahead in concept! Certainly the game could have been given more development time to better define handling, support for steering wheels (pet peeve? NO "Y" axis support on any known 360 wheel so competing in ad hoc races are impossible!) and less bugs. But the concept! Major kudos to Eden and Atari for the pretty damn good attempt at it. By far the best Test Drive EVER done and the only real successor to NFS Porsche Unlimited where NFS has completely lost what made the game great in the first place. Carbon absolutely sucks not only in comparison but as a successor to the whole NFS legacy.

We'll see how well Atari and Eden are can patch this game as they work the warts out, but this game is truly where I hope these types of games expand. Free roam and pickup races as well as a pretty decent career mode.

So far I've spent over 170 hours testing various steering wheels and over 7,000 miles and completed everything in gold off-line. Now that testing is done I'm looking forward to actually re-starting this game using the Microsoft wheel on-line.

I'm no beginner at Racing SIMS and have over 200 of them I've been through on the PC with my Momo wheel and have yet to see anything like this game. I hope it's successful enough to see more like it.