Test Drive Unlimited Updated Hands-On

Test Drive Unlimited was first unveiled just before E3 2005, and since then the game has made appearances at big industry events such as last year's X05 and Tokyo Game Show. While the game has always been big in concept--a huge seamless representation of a Hawaiian island, hundreds of miles of drivable roads, and online play galore--it wasn't until yesterday's Atari press event that we got an idea of how all that ambition is translating into the game. We spent some time tearing around the beautiful virtual island paradise in some of the hottest cars in the world and, while there's still work yet to be done, Unlimited is definitely showing promise.

With around 1,000 miles of sweet Hawaiian road to conquer, Unlimited is nothing if not ambitious.

The first thing you notice about Unlimited is its sheer scope. When we say that Hawaii is drivable in the game, we mean it. The entire island of Oahu is completely accessible in your car, all the way down to accurate topographic data. Hills and valleys, vegetation, important geographic and historical landmarks--they're all there to be marveled at. You'll spend most of your time rolling through approximately 1,000 miles of drivable asphalt, all intricately modeled after the real thing. To be fair, not every street and byway found on the island is modeled perfectly (the development team paired things like dead-end streets), but for the most part, if it's drivable in Oahu, it's drivable in the game.

What this means is that if you're at all familiar with Honolulu or Waikiki or Pearl City, or any of Oahu's other tourist destinations, you'll likely feel a strange sense of déjà vu when tooling around in the game's intricate environments. Just for kicks, we made it a point to drive over to the southeastern tip of Honolulu (near Diamond Head) just to see if a public park that we had visited during our honeymoon was there. Sure enough, we drove right past the park in our Mercedes, slowing down just long enough to take it in. Ah, the memories…

OK, enough romance, let's get to the speed. Designed from the ground up as an online game, Unlimited just might be the closest thing the gaming world has seen to a driving MMO since EA's Motor City Online. Yes, there is an offline component to the game, but if you really want to experience Unlimited as it was meant to be played, you'll want to make sure your Ethernet cable is plugged in and raring to go.

You start off by creating your character. The standard attributes are adjustable for your virtual driver: gender, hair color, build, nose size, and so on. You can even choose from standard preset looks for your character, complete with a variety of clothing choices. Once your look is nailed down, it's time to hit the streets. You start off by renting your first car and then looking for a place to stay. You're not just in Hawaii on vacation, it seems; you're here to lay down roots. You'll want to start by purchasing a house which, beyond being a central HQ for your character, also houses your soon-to-be-vast car collection. As you progress through the game, earning money from race events as you go, you'll be able to buy new houses and new cars. In the beginning, a house will only be able to accommodate four cars, so it won't be long before you'll need that extra garage space.

The more cars you own, the more houses you'll need to store them in.

Because Unlimited is, at its heart, an open-ended driving game, and because Oahu is a big place, a successful navigation interface is key to dealing with all those hundreds of miles of asphalt and scores of challenges you can enter. By pressing right on the directional pad, you can bring up a map of the area you're currently driving in and you can either zoom in to check out specific areas, or zoom out to get a picture of the entire island. Across the map, you'll find numerous icons indicating race challenges you can take part in, car dealerships where you can purchase new rides, clothing stores for those all-important shopping trips, each of your personal houses, real estate offices (when it comes time to buy that next slice of Hawaiian paradise), and even "diners," which act as a sort of local lobby for all the players currently playing in the game.