AI

The racer AI isn’t too bad; it rises in challenge as you rise in experience from completing the various challenges around the island in SP. It’s nothing brilliant but it does what it says on the tin.

The traffic AI is annoying however and will often do dumb things, they are the biggest cause of traffic tickets in the game and you should get a lot unless you’re really careful. They cause a great deal of problems on the bigger race runs and unless you can avoid the stupid things they do, or plan ahead, you will lose valuable time and money if the cops catch up with you.

Physics

The game isn’t about physics, in terms of object interaction, there’s no car damage on the player cars but there’s a low level of damage on the AI traffic cars and you can knock bumpers off, break certain things. The physics for the car handling is dependant on your level of driving aid, if you have the aid off, then you’re going to have to learn to control every single class of car (or bike) and they all handle differently.

Sound

The audio department of TDU doesn’t disappoint, it is packed to the brim with the sounds of various engine types, ambient noises from the island and the screech of tires. It’s so good you can almost feel the rumble from a high performance sports car as it revs up at the starting line.

Music

You have a small variety of radio stations to listen to, these vary between classic rock, classical music and other genres. The songs are catchy and there are a few nice tunes in there. If you’re not impressed with the selection, you can always use your own playlist right from Xbox Live.

Voice

The voice work is limited both in the scope of the dialogue, that comes from the various challenges and the actual voice work itself. There’s no much to say about it apart from it’s passable but could have been done a lot better.

The chequered flag

TDU is a mixed offering, as a SP game it doesn’t quite hold it and as a MP game it doesn’t quite get it right. It’s not a bad game but there could have been a lot more potential if the developers had of included system link and split screen, as well as allowing friend’s access to your island. Even a custom player list that gives priority to your friends from Live compared to strangers.

A sort of preferred player list if you will.

It is a car enthusiasts game however and will attract those kinds of people, myself included. I thoroughly enjoyed the game and will continue to play it. I hope that the developers continue to support it through downloadable content and of course patches – perhaps even adding in certain features that were missing and redefining the race setup interface so matchmaking was a lot easier.

See you on the island.

Number 6...