Test Drive 6

There's no sadder sight than watching a once great sports person competing well past their peak, and drifting off into obscure mediocrity. The same can be said for games. I've been a follower of the Test Drive series for 12 years now, and the last few titles have been regurgitations of the same ideas with slightly nicer looking graphics.

TD6 has unfortunately followed this trend, and shows that the series is well past its best. You must buy yourself a sports car and compete in one-off races and tournaments, while avoiding the police and earning enough money to either upgrade your vehicle or buy a new one. You can't damage your car, so its easy to just plough around the circuits and knock everyone out of your way, which, although unrealistic, is quite fun purely from a sadistic point of view. The cars handle more like hovercraft/dodgem car hybrids than obscenely powerful sports cars, and the collision detection is erratic at best. On the plus side it does provide plenty of fast paced and mindless driving fun.

TD6 can best be described as a lesser version of Midtown Madness. What a shame then that Cryo has missed the opportunity of adding splitscreen or Internet multiplayer options. If you still love the Test Drive series or easy to leam driving games, then you'll enjoy this for a while, but there are plenty of better racing games available to spend your money on.