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Sneak Preview: Test Drive: Off Road: Accolade's fourth installme© Dan Finkelstein
Mar 4, 1997
Looking back at the Test Drive series by Accolade is like looking back through the history of computer gaming. I remember the first time I played Test Drive--it was one of my first computer games on my old 286. The game had a whopping 4 colors, and groovy PC speaker music. The plot of the game was simple--you've got a lot of money, and decided to try out one of several expensive cars in a trip across country. On the way, you have to navigate traffic and watch out for the impending police officers who are all-too-happy to dish out a speeding ticket, while at the same time trying to stay one step ahead of the opponent. The second installment in the series, "The Passion", gave gamers more of the same, with more exotic locations (like the Auto-bahn), and cars (the Porche 959). When Test Drive 3 came out a few years later, I played it for hours on end. The great thing about the game was that the essence of the game stayed the same--racing against rivals to the finish across large landscapes--but the graphics were beefed up to VGA and the tracks were now rendered with polygon to give the player the chance to explore the environment.
Now, a few years later, Accolade is about to release the latest installment of the Test Drive series (sub-titled, "Offroad"), where you can choose one of several exotic off-road vehicles, such as the HumVee, or the popular Land-Rover. While the essence of the game has basically stayed the same, the few changes that have been implemented bring down the quality of what might be a classic game.
The main caveat I have with TD4 is that the designers have emphasized the "race" portion of the previous games, and cut down on the "exploration" factor. The few tracks that come with the game (I only tried out one in my demo version) are all circuit tracks which must be traversed several times during the race. In my opinion, the best part of the previous games, and other games such as the excellent "Need for Speed" by Electronic Arts, was the large tracks that did not loop around, giving the gamer the sense that he or she was actually traveling somewhere.
Another problem is that while traveling around the tracks, the player must pass through a series of gates to tell the game that they have reached that part of the track. Miss a gate, even by a fraction of an inch, and you'll have to turn around and pass through it. On the easy levels of the game, you can probably make up for lost time, but on the harder levels, you can kiss that race goodbye. In the previous games, you were rewarded for finding short-cuts and new areas--in this game, if you stray off the track, you'll probably lose the race.
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