The last one was ok, but this one could change everything. With the Murcielago Roadster making its 1st appearence and the presence of a Hawaii track, this looks great!
Test Drive Unlimited
Video: Pierre-Anaud Lambert Video Interview
TRAILER:http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/7...92/vids_1.html
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Eden Studios
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation3, PC Version Planned after X360 release
Genre: Racing
Origin: US
Release: EB Games Dates
Xbox 360 - 11/15/2005
PS3 - 4/30/2006
GameStop:
12/1/05
Price: $60
Cars:
Aston Martin AMV8
Aston Martin Vanquish
Aston Martin DB9 Roadster
Audi (To Be Shown)
Dodge Viper SRT-10
Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe
Ferrari 360 Modena
Ferrari Enzo
Ford GT
Ford Mustang GT
Koenigsegg CCR
Lamborghini Gallardo
Lamborghini Murcielago
Lamborghini Murcielago Barchetta
Lamborghini Miura
Lotus Exige
Mazda RX-8
Mercedes-Benz 300SL
Mercedes-Benz CLK55 AMG
Mercedes-Benz SLK35 AMG
Mercedes-Benz SLR
Nissan 350Z
Nissan Skyline GT-R (R34)
Pagani Zonda C12-S 7.3
Pagani Zonda C12-S 7.3 Roadster
Saleen S7
TVR (To Be Shown)
Location:
~Hawaii Track
A new Article Reveals some new info.
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"In 1987, Test Drive was as much a romance as a driving game, an unabashed fantasy role-play of those twin American dreams: The open road and the gull winged supercar. Since then, the road racing genre’s priorities have drifted from leisurely affairs to epileptically intense speed dating, and the Test Drive name has languished in ill-fitting brand pile-ups such as Eve of Destruction.
So while it may seem odd that the keys to a quintessentially American experience have been handed to a French developer, V-Rally creator Eden has produced a concept that looks back to Test Drives beginnings and ahead for the genre as a whole. This manifesto is apparent from the first glimpse of the game’s Hawaiian location, putting miles of clear pacific water between Unlimited’s tropical highways and the bleached urbanity of its competitors. Its an affluent driving paradise that stretches further than the lavishly modelled car interiors: Play opens not in a garage, but the carefully arranged lounge of your hilltop estate, where your custom avatar reclines overlooking blue sky and swaying fronds.
Here, choosing your designer-label outfit is at least as important as choosing your ride, as your personal style will be on display both behind the wheel and in the multiplayer lobbies. Instead of impersonal text lists, Unlimited’s lobbies take the form of common drive in areas or player created VIP clubs dotted across the island, an approach to community that sees studio head Stephane Baudet reference World of Warcraft as often as he does Gran Turismo or Forza. “Most online driving games are an offline game with an online component,” he says, “and we’re doing the opposite.”
As soon as a player pulls out of their driveway into the dauntingly large gameworld (recreating the entire island of Oahu with an eye for ‘enhanced gameplay experience’ rather than fastidious accuracy), They’re an online presence. Unlimited isn’t a true MMO, considering the gridlock that would ensue from the global population, but an ideal multiplayer world for each player, with server-side calculations displaying the 16 closest players with matching profiles. Flashing your headlights at one initiates an immediate duel, or you can tail them to a lobby area for a larger event: either way, it’s in setting the rules for these face-offs that Unlimited lives up to its name
Races can be tracked anywhere across the islands roads, from a ten-second drag to the four-hour marathon of the coastal loop, chosen from among straight races, time attacks, speed runs, or capture the flag sessions, with or without traffic or police
(In original test-drive style, police aren’t crazed dodgems but rather pace cars, immediately ending your race with a fine if they overtake you). “Each day we are finding new modes,” says Baudet, “like ‘No using brakes’.”
Between competitive sessions there are solo challenges to be discovered, and random point-to-point driving missions such as ferrying female shoppers between malls, or delivering hitchhikers to the airport. There’s also the sheer joy of driving, with the combination of an expansive draw distance, Open environment and the ability to drop the electric windows and pump-up the radio with a flick of the D-pad proving sinfully luxurious. But exploration can be costly – not due to the originally intended feature of having to refuel, since pulled due to ‘being boring’, but in discovering the car dealers and mod shops supplying Oahu’s virtual economy.
Cars and car parts are ranked in rarity, including limited editions that fleetingly appear on the market before being taken out of production. It’s a similar set-up to collectible card games, something Eden has obviously considered, as the current UI displays parts as exactly that – trading cards, which are dragged into spare slots on a car to apply the modification. Trading with other players is performed over an ebay-styled auction system, including the requirement that you supply virtual photographs of your goods to accompany that crucial all-caps headline. “Forza introduced the trading concept, but I found it a little impractical. This is the next-generation version,” Baudet explains. Its mentioned that ebay itself has been approached to lend its appearance to Unlimited’s virtual version; the issue of bidding real-world money on virtual sports cars, though, remains undecided.
Its testament to Unlimited’s intoxicating vision that it can take until the final paragraph of a preview to mention how it actually drives, and in its current state – largely still the E3 build – this aspect requires, and is receiving, attention. Handling seems both cold and slightly samey among the available cars, and is unfinished on the bikes: incomplete physics further complicate matters. Now rescheduled to be fashionably late to the 360 launch, though, there’s time for Eden to make good on that Test Drive dream, and springboard it back to relevance for a generation which might need a little open-top dreaming more than ever."
~IGN
Ok, so it seems that you'll be able to either rent, tune and buy a car. Many new elements are going to be in this, and according to the makers, they are going back to the original concept.
I"ll be sure to update this info as much as possible. I am so siked!
The dealer and interior pic are amazing!
And now info!
* Experience more than 125 licensed vehicles from exclusive
* Manufacturers including Lamborghini, Ducati, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Saleen, Shelby, and Jaguar
* Enjoy the most realistic cars and bikes: amazing render quality and unrivalled interior details including full car functions such as radio, electric windows, horn, wipers and more
* Create your own challenges or races on 1000 miles of open Hawaiian
* Roads from more than 50 game rules and settings. Upload your created challenges online to become part of the player community
* Create or join a club to talk, chat, trade, race or organize club-based competitions and tournaments
* Participate in extracurricular activities such as expanding your garage, getting clothes and fashion accessories for your avatar, helping hitchhikers catch planes, chasing car thieves, and escaping from a psychopath
This is an open free roam game according to many magazines meaning the islands of Hawaii are open to you, no boundaries!
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