Product Description

Live the dream car lifestyle with the most unique and innovative on and offline racing gameplay on the biggest network of roads ever realised on PlayStation 2, fully streaming with no loading times. With the ability for thousands to play online simultaneously, gamers take part 8 player races or go for a drive on over 1000 miles of diverse Hawaiian roads, passing by any number of other players on the way.

Visit exclusive dealerships to purchase new cars or simply take them for a spin. Collect and trade rare performance parts and customize each car to make it one-of-a-kind. Winning races, challenges, missions and tournaments earns credits which can be used to purchase new cars, rare performance parts, clothes, apparel, homes and garages. Test Drive Unlimited is racing reinvented.

• Packed with unique innovations: 1500km2 of painstakingly rendered Hawaiian island, 1600km of diverse open roads, Test Drive Unlimited for PS2 delivers a fully streaming racing experience with no loading times
• A wealth of licensed cars from 30+ exclusive manufacturers including Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Saleen, Shelby, and Jaguar
• Ultra Realistic cars : Amazing render quality and unrivalled interior details
• Personalization: Upgrade each car with options from the actual manufacturers` catalogue. Players buy new homes and garages, and tune and upgrade cars with aftermarket parts
• Create challenges or races from more than 30 game rules and settings. Upload your created challenges online to become part of the player community
• `Quick Race` instant-play mode allowing busy players to generate a limitless number of challenges (exclusive to PSP and PlayStation 2 versions)
• Master Points system - earn points for racing, driving, air time, drifting, or winning races, then use the points to unlock new races and progress through the game.
  
  

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1356 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Atari
• Released on: 2007-03-16
• Platform: PlayStation2

Manufacturer's Description
Live the dream car lifestyle with the most unique and innovative on and offline racing gameplay on the biggest network of roads ever realised on PlayStation 2, fully streaming with no loading times. With the ability for thousands to play online simultaneously, gamers take part 8 player races or go for a drive on over 1000 miles of diverse Hawaiian roads, passing by any number of other players on the way.

Visit exclusive dealerships to purchase new cars or simply take them for a spin. Collect and trade rare performance parts and customize each car to make it one-of-a-kind. Winning races, challenges, missions and tournaments earns credits which can be used to purchase new cars, rare performance parts, clothes, apparel, homes and garages. Test Drive Unlimited is racing reinvented.

Customer Reviews

Fast and Furious Racing.
This is a fun game to play, but it does have it's faults. Pop-up and slow-down are much in evidence here as the game tests the limits of the PS2.Loading times when you enter events are quite long.Cops only bother you when driving to the many locations on the map, and their AI is pretty bad.But, if you can see past these little niggles, you'll find an enjoyable and often challenging racer.
The cars you buy and race against are well detailed, with nice shiny bodywork, windows and lights that you can operate, and a proper in-car view that is fun for driving around but not for racing.
There isn't any car customising or set-up tinkering here,beyond picking the colour of your car and its interior, and three levels of mechanical upgrades. TIP: Many of the racing clubs that you race your way to the presidency of give free upgrades.
Besides the racing clubs, there are approx. 250 challenges across the map, covering speed traps, time trials and races. Be aware, though, that about 50 of these are only available to play on online multiplayer.
The racing is very good, with generally fast and aggressive opponents.The AI cars are not perfect and make mistakes and have accidents just like you WILL ! As you progress through the game, the races get faster and things move at a fair old lick. Fast reactions can make the difference between coming first or last when racing against some of the fastest cars on the planet in fairly dense traffic.
Buying houses is really only a distaction from the generally fun racing, but it is important to make sure you have spare garage space for the bonus cars you can win.
So, despite the minor niggles, this is an enjoyable game and I would recommend it to any petrol-heads out there.
P.S. Ther are no shopping trolleys in this game - only the type of cars that you dream of racing !!

A future classic.
First off this game is AWESOME fun. The first criteria of any game is to please the punter, and this game does it in spades with its pretty visuals, impressive array of cars to collect, huge selection of tasks and sublime handling. Falling happily somewhere between a sim and arcade racer, the cars are sure-footed but when pushed hard have the edginess that makes any high speed race thrilling by being potentially dangerous. Your nerves really feel it when racing at breakneck speed through oncoming traffic against competitors who are as apt to make a mistake as you are. Controlled realism is a good way to describe how things unfold, where the consequences of a hit are never catastrophic but always in the hands of the player. Which means that when you win you really feel you deserve it. Brilliant.

And what a setting Hawaii is, with every foot of it mapped and ready to be explored. I've driven hundreds of miles already (I've had the game less than two weeks) just looking the place over and so far have not found anything to be bored by. There are hundreds of other cars on the roads and they can behave in an occasionally unpredictable and erratic manner, but not so that they become an annoyance.

Unlike the sat-nav voice that's supposed to help you get from point to point. She sounds uncomfortably like Ruby Wax and you wonder at times if she's just winding you up when she turns you into oncoming traffic when there's no apparent reason to. But this niggle is largely rectified by learning the road layouts and how Hawaii's junctions work.

The police are in evidence and seem only interested if you go way over the limit or make contact with any of the `residents' who are constantly driving around. You can get away with going the wrong way and even screaming past them at 200+ miles per hour at times, and when they begin a chase its usually pretty easy to lose them. But they add another enjoyable element to the game and keep you from putting your foot down all the time and forcing you to go with the flow of Hawaii's traffic, which is actually pretty enjoyable.

There are PLENTY of races of different kinds and enough cars to keep the interest levels up, with some great features and driving views, although the bumper-cam is best when the going gets quick.

If the developers set out to create an immersive, user-friendly, very enjoyable and long-lasting game then they certainly succeeded. At just over 20% through I've still got loads to tackle and I know that when the game's completed I'll still be there trying to better my times or just enjoying getting behind the wheel and cruising around in some outstanding cars.

Unlike too many racing games, Test Drive Unlimited has true depth and character, and this makes it a winner.

Great
I'm glad I bought TDU for my PS2.

Many people who have the PC/Xbox version will complain about how bad the PS2 version is because it doesn't contain bikes, picking up hitch-hikers, not having as many cars, including Ferraris and Maseratis, etc.

These are all valid points but for me, they do not detract from the quality of the game. There are still about 70 cars to choose from and many of them are true exotics and concepts which I have not seen in any other racing games. For example, how many times have you seen a Noble M400, an Ascari KZ-1, a Koenigsegg CC8S or the more powerful CCR? How about a Chrysler ME Four-Twelve? A Mercedes CLK-DTM AMG road version? Or even a Lotus Exige 240R or Caterham CSR 260?

The game is set on the Hawaiian island of Oahu and is a completely free-roaming game. You progress by winning time trials, competitions, etc and acquiring road miles and air miles.

You can purchase new properties where you can store more cars and be closer to various competitions, car dealers and tuning shops. There is an ingenious GPS system to tell you where to go if you are unfamiliar with the island or simply if you can't be bothered plan out your route.

All in all, a great game and worth getting, particularly because it looks as if gaming companies have almost finished in releasing new PS2 games.