I'm not sure what the Gamespot reviewer was thinking to give it such a low rating. In his review he seemed to be comparing this game to speed racing games. But this game was not meant to be a speed game. This game not only does a great job of simulating real life dirt racing events - it actualy nails it! If you've ever been to your local speedway, you'll know what I mean. Sure your car feels like it's struggling to get going, or accelerate out of the corner, but that's how it is in real life! If you want speed, get Burnout3, or NASCAR CFTC 2005. My 12 year old son and I rented both Burnout3 & Test Drive. We played Burnout3 first for about 30 minutes. After the initial excitement of seeing the spectacluar crashes, we never really got much into the racing aspect of it. To be honest, the racing just wasn't that much fun and felt like any other "Bounce of the Side-Rails Linear" racing game. Then we threw in Test Drive EOD.......my daughter joined the fun, and we played it all night long! We just had so much fun laughing and yelling. Each race was head to head, back and forth. Great crashes and comebacks, etc, etc. It just felt right and was just plain fun! Test Drive EOD does an excellent job of giving you the sensation you are driving an old-suped-up-stock-car at about 60-80mph struggling and banging to get past the next car. In reality you can only drive so fast around a short dirt track anyway. I have to say the physics and car handling are close to what these cars would be in real life. Some of the track designs and race events are not geared for speed. Events like trailer race (pulling a trailer), chain race (pulling another car), suicide race (half the cars go the other way), and flagpole race (race around a flag pole every lap) are intended to cause crashes, not speed. However, some of the tracks, like the larger ovals are designed for speed. The crashes are pretty damn good, not exactly crash-n-burn style, but they are real close to what you would see at the track. Once you get the feel and timing down, this game is really FUN! Nothing like trading paint with the computer or human opponent while blasting your custom soundtracks of Credence, ACDC, Metallica, and Pantera. There are so many race events to choose from and they are all fun to play. All the great 60's muscle cars are represented with nicknames. The more I look at the game the more appreciation I have for the graphics and detail which are pretty damn good. The only negative I could note was that the paint shop is lame since you can only paint certain parts of the car very slowly with just one resizable circle paint brush. It should have had more brushes, text, and decals. If you have patience and a stready hand with your joystick, I'm sure you can get creative. If you're a true racing fan, this belongs in your collection. I will buy this game because it's entertaining and fun and has definite multiplayer replay value.
Other Helpful Reviews for Test Drive: Eve of Destruction
I've been to destruction derbies and enduro races where they soap the track and all drive around backwards - it's lots of fun to watch and this game nails it. I was laughing out loud while I played this game. The damaged... Read Full Review
The first thing you see when you turn this on is the opening sequence, which is real footage from real demolition derbies. Not only is it cool, but it also sets the mood very well. Then if you let it sit at the “Press ... Read Full Review
