Tayaya
04-08-2009, 07:08 PM
I know it's odd making a thread abut an older game, but seeing as it's $15 right now at Gamestop, and really impressed me, I figured it might be some time to shed a little light on what I think is a truly solid and technically impressive, not to mention fun PSP title. I just picked it up this weekend, but a lot of my impressions here are written in the light of someone that logged a lot of hours on the 360 version of the game (enough to get every single player gold trophy).
There are many reviews out there of the original on 360 and PC, and those that have played it know that it's a massive game, boasting hundreds of miles of roads, built from real world data on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It's an open world driving game, meaning you can cruise about the island just exploring the roads, visit car dealerships and shopping for new homes to live in and house your cars, or you can partake in the many single and online multiplayer challenges littered across the map to earn rank and money. It's a very unique game, and while it's a little simple in the driving model the sheer scope of it and that feeling of accomplishment that you get once you get every gold trophy or even just finally get that car you've been saving up for make it a great experience for the car lover and racing game fan.
All told, it's something that seems way too huge for a handheld... but the experience is almost 100% intact on the PSP, from the island, presented in its entirety on the PSP in seamlessly streaming fashion just like on the big consoles, and the unending supply of race, time trial, and speed camera challenges, the huge supply of cars to buy, collect, and race, and even the online multiplayer, sporting both ad hoc and infrastructure modes, and a good representation of the game's open multiplayer world, albeit a little more heavily instanced than the 360 and PC games.
Those that spent a lot of time with the "big" version of the game will notice some things are missing. You can no longer customize your in-game avatar for example (which means the clothing, shoe, and sunglass shops are gone, and the Car Clubs are now single player challenges used for unlocking instead of online clans, and the mission are gone, which is the only true negative as they were a fun diversion from all the racing. If you wanna get really nitpicky, you can only teleport to locations that you've been to on the GPS now, while on the old game you could teleport to any individual point on the roadway system that you've been to. However, the awesome "swoosh" from the island view down into the behind-the-car view effect is still there, which is awesome for some reason. Oh, and Ferrari and Maserati are missing.... but there are still like 40-50 cars to buy.
The in-game engine is brilliant... it runs at a very, very fluid clip, and the world is absolutely seamless as you cruise around. There are a lot of load times, when teleporting or heading in and out of events, but they're usually about 4-7 seconds... perfectly acceptable for a PSP game. The cars handle in a very easy to drive manner and aren't as twitchy as the 360 versions, and for a PSP game on this scale are well-modeled, but a little stubby and taller than they ought to be. Overall the gameplay is as solid as it was on the bigger version of the game, and just as fun as always.... even if I do have to do everything all over again.
TDU's a bit of a unique game, but for $15 you really can't go wrong with it. It's huge, it's solid, and for a PSP title the scale is huge. I felt like I was taking a gamble picking it up, especially already owning the full game in the 360, but I have zero regrets about the purchase now. Definitely worth a peek.
There are many reviews out there of the original on 360 and PC, and those that have played it know that it's a massive game, boasting hundreds of miles of roads, built from real world data on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It's an open world driving game, meaning you can cruise about the island just exploring the roads, visit car dealerships and shopping for new homes to live in and house your cars, or you can partake in the many single and online multiplayer challenges littered across the map to earn rank and money. It's a very unique game, and while it's a little simple in the driving model the sheer scope of it and that feeling of accomplishment that you get once you get every gold trophy or even just finally get that car you've been saving up for make it a great experience for the car lover and racing game fan.
All told, it's something that seems way too huge for a handheld... but the experience is almost 100% intact on the PSP, from the island, presented in its entirety on the PSP in seamlessly streaming fashion just like on the big consoles, and the unending supply of race, time trial, and speed camera challenges, the huge supply of cars to buy, collect, and race, and even the online multiplayer, sporting both ad hoc and infrastructure modes, and a good representation of the game's open multiplayer world, albeit a little more heavily instanced than the 360 and PC games.
Those that spent a lot of time with the "big" version of the game will notice some things are missing. You can no longer customize your in-game avatar for example (which means the clothing, shoe, and sunglass shops are gone, and the Car Clubs are now single player challenges used for unlocking instead of online clans, and the mission are gone, which is the only true negative as they were a fun diversion from all the racing. If you wanna get really nitpicky, you can only teleport to locations that you've been to on the GPS now, while on the old game you could teleport to any individual point on the roadway system that you've been to. However, the awesome "swoosh" from the island view down into the behind-the-car view effect is still there, which is awesome for some reason. Oh, and Ferrari and Maserati are missing.... but there are still like 40-50 cars to buy.
The in-game engine is brilliant... it runs at a very, very fluid clip, and the world is absolutely seamless as you cruise around. There are a lot of load times, when teleporting or heading in and out of events, but they're usually about 4-7 seconds... perfectly acceptable for a PSP game. The cars handle in a very easy to drive manner and aren't as twitchy as the 360 versions, and for a PSP game on this scale are well-modeled, but a little stubby and taller than they ought to be. Overall the gameplay is as solid as it was on the bigger version of the game, and just as fun as always.... even if I do have to do everything all over again.
TDU's a bit of a unique game, but for $15 you really can't go wrong with it. It's huge, it's solid, and for a PSP title the scale is huge. I felt like I was taking a gamble picking it up, especially already owning the full game in the 360, but I have zero regrets about the purchase now. Definitely worth a peek.