Today, I recieved my review copy of Test Drive 5. It came a little bit late, as I have owned this title for the past two weeks. I was one of the first in line to buy this title, as Test Drive 4 was one of my favorite racing games ever.

Test Drive 4 was an awesome racing game, but did have a few problems that I wanted changed. Test Drive 5 addresses almost every problem I had with the game, and then some. It improves upon it's predessor in almost every way imaginable.

First improvement is in the amount of cars available. The theme continues with the "Beauty vs. Beast" cars (Yesterdays vs. Todays), but this time there are many more to choose from.  Twenty-eight (28) total licensed cars in comparison to the ten (10)  found in Test Drive 4. Add in twelve (12) "super charged" and "bonus" cars to bring the real total to a whopping forty (40) cars available to drive in Test Drive 5!!! These are all replicas of their real world counterparts. Speed, steering, phsyics, ect... all replicate the real thing perfectly. Well, almost perfectly. They do tend to fell a little bit overdone. What I mean is if they fly, they fly really high. If they flip, they flip really high (and long) ect... The phsyics feel perfect,  but go a little farther then the real world counterparts would go.

Here are some of the supercars you will be driving in Test Drive 5: 1998 Dodge® Viper, 1998 Chevrolet® Corvette®, 1998 Aston Martin Vantage, 1998 TVR Cerbera, 1998 Jaguar XKR, 1998 Saleen Mustang S351-R, 1997 Chevrolet® Camaro® SS™ LT4™, and the 1998 Nissan® Skyline. The muscle cars in Test Drive 5 include: the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427SC, 1967 Pontiac GTO, 1968 ½ Ford Mustang 428CJ, 1969 Chevrolet® Camaro ZL-1™, 1969 Chevrolet® Corvette ZL-1™, 1970 Chevrolet® Chevelle™ SS LS-6, 1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda and the 1969 Dodge® Charger.

Another big improvement over Test Drive 4 (as well as most other racing games) is the amount of tracks available to race on. Whereas Test Drive 4 had five (5) tracks (with 2 parts each), Test Drive 5 has a whopping total of eighteen (18) including the tracks found in TD4. Most of thesecan be raced reversed, or at night, bringing the total unique driving experiences to thitry one (31)!!

The race locations are: Moscow, Russia; Honolulu, Hawaii; Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina; Tokyo, Japan; Edinburgh, Scotland; Sydney, Australia; Munich, Germany; Keswick, England; Kyoto, Japan; San Francisco, California; Washington, D.C.; and Bern, Switzerland. Circuit track courses include: Cheddar Gorge, England; Newcastle, England; Maui, Hawaii; Jarash, Jordan; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Courmayeur, Italy.

Graphically, the game is in a league of it's own. By using the Playstations high resolution mode (512 x 240), and some superb graphic artists, Test drive 5 stomps the competition.  These aren't light weight contenders either. They include, but are not limited to: Need for Speed III, Gran Turismo, and it's predessor Test Drive 4. The shading, and light sorcing is supurb. The cars are the best part. They really look real!! Their shape, and the way the light reflects off them is flawless.

In addition to adding tracks and cars, the developers saw fit to fix most of the other little annoyances that were found in Test Drive 4.

One that I really appreciate is the changed camera angle when backing up. In TD4, backing up was a real pain in the butt. The camera would swing in an attempt to show better where you were going. It failed miserably. It left you completely disorientated as to what you were doing. The swinging camera has now been removed. Now, when you back up, you just back up. It works perfect, and still offers enough viewing area to see where you are going.

Now there is an ability to change car charistics. Acceleration, brakes, top speed, ect... A very cool feature left out from TD4.

Another problem that has been addresed is the crash recovery time. It doesn't take near as long to recover form a crash as before. Last time around, you would get completely passed by opposing traffic at the slightest mistake. It almost certaintly would put you in last place. Now, you still have a fighting chance.

From what I read, and from personal experience,  the single biggest problem with Test Drive 4 is the Control. It is a very un-forgiving game. One minor mistake, or hit a small bump wrong, and you'd go completely out of control. When I first played that game, I hated it. I felt the game was almost un-playable. However, since I spent my own hard earned cash on it, I had to stick it out. Had it been a rental, or a friends copy, I wouldn't have played long enough to even write a review. Anyway, after time I learned that what once was it's biggest flaw, soon became it's biggest asset. The control, although extremely hard to grasp, provided a realism not found in any other racing game. This fact has kept me playing TD4, way longer then any other game I have purchased previously........... Now enters Test Drive 5. The developers recognized this shortcoming, and wisely decided to fix it. Test Drive 5 features both an Arcade, and simulation mode. Arcade mode is designed to be more forgiving for those who are new to the game, while simulation is designed more for the vetran TD players who really enjoy the realism. This, with the additional ability to turn off the 3D crashes, really make Test Drive shine!!!

Both Test Drive games feature police chases, but TD5 goes one step further by providing the ability to actually be the cop in the police chases. This isn't one of my favorite modes, but many, especially young children really love it. Matter of fact, my 7 year old son is playing a cop chase as we speak.

As with the original (I mean TD4), Test Drive 5 is loaded with options. But, true to it's nature it includes many more then in the former game. I'll list a few, space does not permit me to list everything available in this game. Here are some: Cup races- TD5 allows you to compete in 5 seperate cup races. Most of these races will unlock goodies like bonus cars and tracks, if you place highly. Drag Race- I haven't even had a chance to try this, but it is yet another welcome feature. Cop Chase- Spin out cars, give tickets, hit the siren... ect.. And Two Player race- This cool feature (missing from TD4) even allows you to race split screen vertical or horizontal screen.
You also have the options of: Controler config., Traffic on and off, Cops on and off, Two player catch up, ect..

This game is even analog dual shock compatible! This is a great improvement to an already great game.

No expense was spared for the sound. "The soundtrack features songs from Wax Trax! Records' industrial rock band KMFDM; gold-selling alternative band Gravity Kills of TVT Records; Geffen recording artist Pitchshifter; futuristic rock artist Fear Factory and Holland's mix-master Junkie XL, both of Road Runner Records." (Quoted from the TD5 press release) The tracks are cool and quite up-beat. May not make your mother too happy, but you'll probably love it.

I never did get all the tracks open. Some of the Cup races can be pretty hard. I did get to try many, and the ones I did were pretty cool.  I do have a complaint though. Some of the tracks seem "Slow as snot dripping in winter", Yet  some seem "Fast enough to make you pee". At first, all seemed slow, but some of this was cured by getting to know the tracks (i.e. Becomming a better racer), and adjusting to the higher resolution.  Choppy graphics always seem to look faster then they are. Even now, after weeks of racing, parts of it seem too slow though, but make no mistake. Get a few trick cars (like Pitbull Special), and adjust yourself to the track, and this game flies!!!! It's probably the fastest racing game ever made in places.

Well, since the games are so similar, and I made made mention of Test Drive 5 in it's review, I must mention "Need for Speed III" in this review. I'm certain most developers hate their product being compared with the competition, but in this case both are winners. NFSIII, and TD5 are both awesome titles in their own right. I feel NFSIII is tighter, and much easier to get into, but TD5 has much more longevity and graphically beats NFSIII. It has option upon option, and everything is so well done. It's just much harder to learn. The impatient will most assurdly like NFSIII, those who really dig driving sims will like TD5 better. This was very tough for me to decide Racing Game of the year between these two fine products. In the end, however, I gave the nod to Test Drive 5. It has so much, that it'll probably keep my busy till next fall.

So is the game perfect? No, not by any means. It's just not imperfect enough to keep it from being the best. A few things that will drive you batty are: Your starting position after a crash. It doesn't take the time to line you up straight again. Often, you will immediatly get hit again because you weren't lined up ready to go again after a collision. The speed. As mentioned above sometimes it is downright slow. Cheap computer shots. The computer cars will ram you persistantly. It's good to have this, but it was way overdone here. Crash recovery time. Way better then TD4, but still takes too long. Another problem is the Arcade mode. It is a great, and welcome addition, but it's not....How shall I put it.....Arcade enough! It still feels alot like a simulation even on the arcade setting. The car sounds could be meaner too. You may also be a little disappointed at the lack of cars and tracks to start. It takes time to open everything up, which is good, but I would've liked to see more opened from the start. As of yet, I cannot even find codes to open all tracks and cars.  It also has some graphic flaws. Sometimes the screen goes crazy, or your car goes through something. These are kinda minor though. Overall, it is very tight.

My conclusion. Get this game!!! All but the very impatient will enjoy it. I'm giving it my "1998 Racing Game of the Year" award!!!!!

RATINGS
GRAPHICS 98%
SOUND 95%
GAMEPLAY 98%
ORIGINALITY 97% 
REPLAY VALUE 97%
OVERALL 97%