Test Drive 4

Racing 1997 Windows Accolade Driving Gran Turismo

Ahead of its time racer with great graphics

TD4 is a driving arcade with a good enough dose of realism brought by the physics modeling of each car, particularly in the way they steer. It's similar in feel to the later games in the NFS series. Another great addition of the game is the large amount of real vehicles you can drive including top speed factory sports cars from the era: Dodge Viper, Jaguar XJ220,, Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette models and a many other speedsters. You can jump into a quick single race mode or compete in a championship or a challenge mode, similar to NFSs Porsche Factory driver mode. Another mode soon to be taken on by the NFS series is the drag race mode, which was quite original for the time and which will test your manual gear shift timing. Races are fast, you always feel that you're driving the cars to the brink of their stability. Understeering is particularly well simulated and, coupled with a good engine sound simulation, the package feels and truly is ahead of its time. Today the game is highly playable as well, and the graphics won't feel half bad, though of course they have their fair share of jaggedness and muck.

Fourth TD game, nice graphics improvements!

The Test Drive series is one of the oldest racing series in gaming. Test Drive 4 shows that the series is still having a hard time trying to attract more and more gamers. There are a lot of things in Test Drive 4 that I didn't like and the first thing was the engine sound. It was like the sound of a toy car, not an actual Dodge Viper from which you'd expect an engine that would roar. The graphics are as well unappealing and ugly. The gameplay thankfully is good and sometimes makes you forget about the problems that I just mentioned. There's a good variety of tracks and cars, but unfortunately this isn't enough to make the game at least good. All in all, as a racing game fan you're better off staying away from this game if you're expecting a good experience. It's a mediocre racing game with ugly graphics and bad sounds, yet with an acceptable gameplay that unfortunately doesn't make it a good game.

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