lrp70
07-04-2007, 20:31
Sorry but enough is enough now...had ten minutes play today got disconnected and not been able to get back on since so here's a little email ive sent to a UK magazine.....
Dear PC Zone
After the much anticipated release of Atari's Test Drive Unlimited I went and purchased a copy eager to get installed on my PC. After a Long install the game was ready to go. There was a nice cut scene to start the game then I selected the car and of I went driving along the roads. Graphics looked top notch cars were gleaming, the interiors have plenty of gadgets the driving excellent fun.
After picking a house it was out for a drive to get the feel of the game. There I was blitzing away then all of a sudden bang the computer froze! it needed a reset to get going again. Started up the game again in the car driving along then bang same thing happens. This happened on several occasions. I emailed Atari and as of yet I have had no reply. After some forum hunting there seemed to be a very similar pattern for many people and it seemed to be controller related. So I found an old gravis gamepad plugged that in and hay presto 1 hour of freeze free driving. Excellent I thought problem solved.
Next day load up game playing an online profile to get the full experience. My house loads and the thing is as blocky as bugger the car was in the swimming pool and the graphics were flashing like a nineteen seventies disco. Restarted the game same thing, and again, and again then a thought popped into my head, disable my firewall, did this, game works fine. On a good day it takes two to three starts to get the game working properly. Again many people are having this problem and again its silence from Atari.
Now for the most annoying of all problems ever, the server!!! well if you want to play the game at 0300 on a Wednesday morning then its great. You try playing anywhere between the hours of say 1600-2300 you may be lucky and get ten minutes then your car will stop and a little box appear saying "server connection lost" if you are lucky then you may connect straight away if not you may as well turn it off until the next day. At weekends its a miracle to even get a connection and get the game going at all the servers are virtually always down. Yet again loads of gamers having the same experience and there's no reply from Atari.
In a nutshell the game Atari has put on the shelves for PC owners is nothing more than a beta version and its a disgrace it was allowed.If it would be possible Atari should be taken to court and charged with theft of its customers hard earned money this game is so flawed. There has been no official word from Atari about a patch. This game is littered with so many bugs its nearly impossible to play. To cap it all the global rankings system has been infiltrated by cheaters so there are times on there that no one will ever be able to beat.
If you as a magazine are going to review this game please take my comments into account before giving it a score. Gamers need to know that they will be buying nothing but a DVD full of errors if they pick this one and to be warned to stay away from it atleast until a patch is released. Realistically there are going to have to be a few patches to sort out this mess.....
Many thanks
LRP
Dear PC Zone
After the much anticipated release of Atari's Test Drive Unlimited I went and purchased a copy eager to get installed on my PC. After a Long install the game was ready to go. There was a nice cut scene to start the game then I selected the car and of I went driving along the roads. Graphics looked top notch cars were gleaming, the interiors have plenty of gadgets the driving excellent fun.
After picking a house it was out for a drive to get the feel of the game. There I was blitzing away then all of a sudden bang the computer froze! it needed a reset to get going again. Started up the game again in the car driving along then bang same thing happens. This happened on several occasions. I emailed Atari and as of yet I have had no reply. After some forum hunting there seemed to be a very similar pattern for many people and it seemed to be controller related. So I found an old gravis gamepad plugged that in and hay presto 1 hour of freeze free driving. Excellent I thought problem solved.
Next day load up game playing an online profile to get the full experience. My house loads and the thing is as blocky as bugger the car was in the swimming pool and the graphics were flashing like a nineteen seventies disco. Restarted the game same thing, and again, and again then a thought popped into my head, disable my firewall, did this, game works fine. On a good day it takes two to three starts to get the game working properly. Again many people are having this problem and again its silence from Atari.
Now for the most annoying of all problems ever, the server!!! well if you want to play the game at 0300 on a Wednesday morning then its great. You try playing anywhere between the hours of say 1600-2300 you may be lucky and get ten minutes then your car will stop and a little box appear saying "server connection lost" if you are lucky then you may connect straight away if not you may as well turn it off until the next day. At weekends its a miracle to even get a connection and get the game going at all the servers are virtually always down. Yet again loads of gamers having the same experience and there's no reply from Atari.
In a nutshell the game Atari has put on the shelves for PC owners is nothing more than a beta version and its a disgrace it was allowed.If it would be possible Atari should be taken to court and charged with theft of its customers hard earned money this game is so flawed. There has been no official word from Atari about a patch. This game is littered with so many bugs its nearly impossible to play. To cap it all the global rankings system has been infiltrated by cheaters so there are times on there that no one will ever be able to beat.
If you as a magazine are going to review this game please take my comments into account before giving it a score. Gamers need to know that they will be buying nothing but a DVD full of errors if they pick this one and to be warned to stay away from it atleast until a patch is released. Realistically there are going to have to be a few patches to sort out this mess.....
Many thanks
LRP