You are in an airport and it’s time to choose your character as the game begins, but who will it be? the smug looking bloke at the front? the lady with the short skirt or one of the others? well hurry because as soon as you make your choice your off you to Hawaii.
Hawaii is famous for many things, white beaches, clear water, tropical cocktails and palm tree’s, in fact the TV program Lost was filmed there also, which is quite appropriate really because without the handy GPS in the car you hire when you get there you quite literally would be, it certainly makes your life easier with the ladies voice telling you when to turn and how far you are from your destination, later into the game you will be wondering what you would have done without it as this certainly is a very big place.
Once you have your hire car you will then need to go and buy yourself a home, there are quite a few to choose from, however your funds are limited and you will find yourself settling for something a little more modest until you bring home the bacon later on in the game. The next step in the game is where the fun really begins, buying a car.
When I arrived at the sales room I decided I would settle for a black Audi TT as I believed that this was a good car to start with and I was soon given the opportunity to test this when I was instructed to give it a spin in the time trial, I managed whiz through without a problem though and therefore thought my choice was justified, there are plenty of challenges in the game, ranging from time trial to racing, however there are more bizarre one’s also, like having to drop off a shopper within a certain time to earn vouchers which you can use to shop for clothing or the very challenging one where you have to get the clients car to the mechanic without damaging it to earn a shed load of money, providing you do not take value off the car by crashing it.
Another challenge which is worth mentioning is the user defined one, basically you go to a place called Lisa’s Diner and you will find challenges that have been set by Xbox Live users, usually you will pay to enter these and if you win them you will get a nice little increase to your bank balance.
When you complete the challenges which all have a cash reward you can go and buy some new cars, there are at least 90 different vehicles to choose from which range from Audi’s to Ferrari’s, these fall into classes A-F much like in Project Gotham Racing although beware as some of these can only be used in certain challenges. Having money also enables you to mod your cars exterior and interior as well as being able to buy a new house with more garages for when your current one gets a little too full.
The missions in the game are marked on the map which is accessed using the directional buttons, this menu is also used to find friends online and anywhere else you need to go. To start making money you just need to highlight the mission you want and select it, the first mission I tried was one where I had to drop off a package within a set time, I started off my mission by accelerating away leaving a cloud off smoke in my wake and as I was speeding along with the winds blowing leaves up into my path I skilfully dodged straight into the back of a police car, unfortunately they didn’t take too kindly to this and proceeded to chase me through the streets, at this point another police car appeared from nowhere into the front of my car, somehow I managed to get away, that was until I was stopped by the three police cars blocking the tunnel I had driven through, this surprisingly ended with me failing the mission and being fined for my trouble, this was not going well, never mind though, maybe I would have more luck racing against a real person.
To challenge someone online all you need to do is select them on the map and then go to their destination, you then just have to get to their car by using the distance markers which appear when they are near you and when you find them just flash your lights and providing they accept your challenge, select your route and race This is a great part of the game and really makes you interact with others, similarly to this you can create a custom race with up to eight players, to do this all you need to do is go to the special orange flags on the map and once there you either join in a match which is already set up or create your own.
When you first see this game you will be amazed, the graphics are beautiful and the handling on the cars is perfect, when you are speeding along and smash into someone and their car smashes to pieces or the sparks fly when you scrape against the side of their car it is just perfection and Atari seem to have though of everything here.
There is also something for everyone in terms of music which can range from Mozart to Heavy Metal, not to mention the unlockable items such as photo mode (where you can take photos of anything at anytime) in fact there is so much to this game that it would be impossible to mention it all, the excellent online play stands out as it is great fun driving up to an opponent to challenge them or creating your own custom match on Xbox Live.
My feelings of this game are summed up by saying that if you want to see the most innovative game with the best graphics yet on Xbox 360 then you must buy this game.
