Test Drive Unlimited Comments by Robert Purchese

Considering that Test Drive games look rather crappy usually, this looks pretty astonishing.

Seems like the next-gen early games staple will be depth of field everywhere, "nuclear winter" bloom effect, and overkill reflection effects.

Is it just me or is the comments section a little dead since there's no "latest comments" column anymore?

*undresses, jumps from article to article*

I really miss the 'latest comments' feature, it was one of the main incentives to visit the front page once in a while :-/

Anyway, either my eyes are getting worse or the 360 screenshots really drown in soft lighting (blooming or whatever it's called) and blur. Why would you use a blur effect in a racing game, doesn't the game run fast enough to create motion blur?

Hm, all I can say is that motion blur works brilliantly in Trackmania: Sunrise, a game that is already insanely fast. :)

Bloom orgy!

The cars look stunning, the trackside stuff looks...not so stunning.

I really like the DoF effect, but it can only really be used in replays, which I very rarely bother watching.

I don't want to see blurry floor textures anymore when they throw all this fucking hype! Jesus!

The shots are really, really nice, but not photorealistic. For me they re-create the magic when I first laid my eyes upon the tracks in NFS: Hot Pursuit II. Of course, back then I did not know that all tracks will look the same!!!!!

Anyway. 1000 miles of Hawaiian scenery is incentive enough for me to invest in a 360.

Nice cars, shame to see they still can't recreate a half decent looking tree on the next gen machines though.

That's all I ask for, a decent tree. They've got water sorted, hell, some developers have even been able to recreate fire effects that don't make me want to hurl. But can anyone design a decent looking bush? Nope.

/has a foliage fetish

[MH]

mmmmmmm, Bush.

Am I the only one who thinks this looks actually tastier than PGR3? A lot less sterile.

I have to agree with you, Lou. There's something more real about this, I'm really looking forward to it.

One part of my brain however is saying "wait for the PS3, compare it to the 360 and then buy one or the other". The other is saying "OMG360ROXXORZ look at Test Drive!" and...stuff.

if pgr3 is delayed i may get this one the online play sounds excellent....

you are driving along a see another online player, you can challenge them to a racr on the spot be it 100m drag racr or 30 mile :-)

Ok... 360 is now preordered, i got to have it. No way i'm missing out on this one

lol test drive getting people to buy a console, whatever next

This game looks awesome, i can still remember playing Test Drive for the first time on the PS1 and finding out you could drive up a wall and end up in a blue hell of sorts lol, but this game does look promising :D

ooh, new shots

/awaits another influx of Babelfish staff

we're wise to your game, you charmless feckers

Hmmm, Nice and Shiney.

Who would ever have a car that clean? Is it even possible?

Looking good. I'm getting more and more interested in this game...

Okay, in that car interior shot - what are the objects embedded in the seats? I'm guessing speakers but the thought of my testicles vibrating to Radio 1 while I'm driving seemed a little implausable.

I suppose they could be airbags. I do rather value my crotch and in a collision, it'd be good to know they've their own personal safety system...

Quick release knobs.

http://www.autodrome-cannes.com/images/zonda_c12s_blue_inter
ior_grey.jpg

Return of my old rant: When will dev start putting PEOPLE in games? GRAW is awesome but takes place in a mysteriously deserted Mexico City. The island in this one is lush green, creeping with beautifully carpeted roads - yet there is not a man in sight.

In a game like this, people on the streets would just look crap, compared to the graphical quality of the rest of the game. Probably. And you'd have the problem that you could run them over. Unless you added some comical "jump out of the way in the last second" animation. :)

"GRAW is awesome but takes place in a mysteriously deserted Mexico City."

Er... you can rationalise this on account of the fact that there are people shooting and driving tanks etc.

Makes for good crowd dispersal i reckon.

i don't think you'd notice people while zooming past them at 150mph... besides, those shots look like most of the driving takes place in the countryside, so there wouldn't really be anyone anyway.

I agree with all you guys - you won't notice INDIVIDUAL people at 150 mph. But all the same, you do notice when a city is completely deserted - witness NFS Most Wanted. Though there is traffic, it is thin and the lovely city just feels odd.

On the other hand, in Burnout, there is so much traffic that your mind doesn't really notice the absence of people. My point is, with all this processing power, it is high time devs started to think about creating populated, living, breathing worlds for racing games rather than just a 3D map. IMHO, that might not be necessary for raw driving thrill, but in a setting-specific game like this one, it will add a whole to the sensation of 'being there'. Which is really the point, innit?

For a racing game, top notch graphics + decent framerate > people.

Like it or not, even on nexgen systems those people who are meaningless to the game (and indeed would turn it in to GTA/Midtown Madness) will need to take up CPU cycles.

@Hench: Hmmm, Nice and Shiney.

Who would ever have a car that clean? Is it even possible?.
Come to Germany, the car cult country and you'll see.

Oh and: it is possible to see somebody at 210km/h (that's tops of my car)... if they're on a bridge above the highway.

@FUrbs and all: That's my point - I want MORE now that we have vastly superior processing power. Just look at PGR3 or GT4, or any rally game - they are simply not the same without the audience. Similarly, any sports game is NOTHING without the crowd and their noise. I agree, people will take CPU cycles, but I think time has come for us to expect more life around the racing track.

At the expense of the main game graphics though? Theres always going to be a tradeoff somewhere. Its like FIFA - would you rather have super detailed, individual supporter models, or even smoother gameplay, with better animation and more detailed players?

@Furbs : Yeah I get your point, obviously one would prefer even better main models. All I ask is that human presence should be there at least in some rudimentarty manner (like FIFA etc) with low-poly pedestrians (rather than no one in sight), it will add spectacularly to the immersion while taxing the hardware very little.

Is that a MV Brutale I spy???

Now i'm excited.

/curtains.

Have mixed views. Back in when ever, when some of these preview screens were shown they impressed. Looking at them today I’m not so sure. Some of the shots look like something made for a GC forum, designed only to be view from a certain angle. What’s with all the close ups of rear lenses, since when were games played like this. The interior shots of the cars impress although quite how this will enhance game play is anybodies guess. For all the impressiveness in attempting to look real, Test Drive looks slightly dull, and makes Grand Turismo look more interesting.

bionutz is right, Germany is car-crazy these days (Unlike the Swiss, who'll complain if your car is too big/noisy/wrong colour/bad shape/just not their style, but from what I've heard and read, they'd totally ignore the fact you're lugging a loaded gun around on your passenger seat. Guess it's something to do with there being so many guns in circulation there that people couldn't care less anymore...). There are stretches of road with no speed limit as well, yes, NO speed limit. You can go as fast as you like on them. And do we need to remind ourselves about the Nürburg Ring, where they still kill cars to this day?!

(Don't look at me like that, yes, I watch Top Gear and yes, I actually DO like cars.)

I wouldn't be surprised about how well-kept German cars are. I really wouldn't. I'd expect the cars to be SO clean you could eat food off them (But nein, say the Germans, you'd have to use a knife and fork, and we can't go scratching our lovely paintwork!). I just take that as a given these days.

This is looking bloody unbelievabel. When is it out people?

Static screenshots look all well and good but after playing the 360 demo of this last night I was shocked by the framerate - the game just didnt feel smooth at all which is a prerequisite for a good driving game imo.

Here's hoping they actually spend as much time getting it to play smoothly as they have done on all the modelling.

The video I saw looked pretty good to me, but I haven't played the demo. Was it a constant issue?

too bad all of you Europeans are suppose to be boycotting this title.

no, just Mapster

Why are we Europeans but actually only mapster boycotting this game?

Still not buying this. I won't be raped by Atari!

It's easy to boycott - worst car handling I've experienced in a long time.