“This most recent game in the Test Drive family comes out swinging, bringing down the walls of previous racing titles and showing us the future of online racing.”

Even though it is set entirely on the island of Oahu, this game is nothing remotely close to sandbox. Atari claims to have over 1,000  miles of road in it and says it takes usually at least an hour to drive around the coast of the island. After testing it out myself I found that it is completely true.

There isn’t much of a single player to speak of. The game starts off at an airport where you choose from several characters standing by the gate.  You pick one to represent you and you fly to Oahu. When you get there, you grab a rental car and go buy a house to live in. After that, you buy your own car and that’s it. The rest of the time is spent taking on the AI in various single player challenges or completing missions.

The cars look very slick.

The graphics are amazing. The best I have seen in a racing game to date.  Everything from the water effects, to the plains, and cliffs of Oahu look amazing and the sound is superb. All the vehicles sound just like there real life counterparts. Everything from the whine of the engines, to the whisper of the wind, and the sloshing of the surf sounds real sometimes
making you feel as though you are really there.

The game play is solid. The controls are simple and easy to remember and the cars handle very lifelike, even stalling when you switch gears too early. Being able to hop into challenges at anytime is also a key feature of the game play. You can go into any challenge by either just driving by it and clicking the “A” button or you can go through your map and it will taking you to any challenge assuming you have been there before. Thereis also an in-car view making it the second game to have that after Project Gotham Racing 3. There is some problems making the game seem less lifelike such as your going 240 mph and you come to a grinding halt because you hit a shrub and also the cars don’t take damage at all. The various car manufacturers didn’t want consumers to see what would happen when thier cars get hit at high speeds making the game seem less lifelike.

Over 150 missions and challenges are spread out across the island, from helping models get to photo shoots to delivering cars for people to point to point racing and accumulative top speed challenges. Dozens of Car and Bike showrooms are dotted around the island from Classic Jaguars to Lamborghinis and Ducattis. The classic showrooms usually have a waiting period while there cars are out of stock and you will need to reserve them. Unfortunately, the cars may never arrive and you will
need to re-reserve them so that you can get the car