Very Nvidia blim! But I like it! This is what I'll be buying the game for. Thanks for the vid!

I really don't understand why most review sites gave this game a 5/10, im really enjoying it so far. I must have clocked up a good 10+ hours just mucking about online with other folk since i got it on Thursday

I love the free roam gameplay, but im SO incredibly frustrated by the horrible cheating AI, which you are forced to play against in order to unlock all the zones.
Sure you can drive anywhere, but without access to the helipads its over once you turn off the console or go somewhere else.

Its a game breaker imo. I absolutely love the free roaming part, thats what i did in Test Drive Unlimited too, 90% of the time i just drove around meeting ppl on the roads.
But in this game you cant, it forces you to sift through the horrible singleplayer career before unlocking the world (or rather, helipads). I really really hope they release some sort of unlock dlc, and free at that.

I actually drove all the way south west to that mountain yesterday, and the top peaks were AMAZING, it was an awesome journey and there were amazing views of blue skies and endless horizons..

If you can somehow teleport to different parts of the world in online roam without having unlocked it, please let me know!

Man i might actually get this game it looks good and thelevel seems big as hell.

The map is even bigger than you can imagine lol. You actually cant drive from one corner to the other in one sitting, its just too big. You'd die from dehydration in real life korean-style in front of your tv.

Wow I really want to play this game now, I had no idea you could do this kind of stuff.

i find it really difficulty to like the look of this game.

i think it's great graphically, especially considering the scale. but i cant help but feel like it's wasted on a racing game. it'd be so much better if there was more to do in the world then just drive.

any word on split screen btw? it's a feature seriously lacking from most racing games this gen?

Yeah, split screen would be nice. Also, can you drive into the water? More to the point, have you got that far yet?!

I've really grown to like this game a lot. I'd have to disagree and say that the single player is great and really comes alive after the first hour or two were you are saddled with slow vehicles and a not too exciting first camp. Once it gets to Tsunami Reef (second camp) it becomes a lot more interesting. There's some amazing races later on which are fantastic fun and incredibly speedy, especially in Drownington were there's some great races such as one set around a broken bridge.

My favourite one so far has been in the middle of a lightning storm and you can see the lightning hitting the ground in the distance and setting trees on fire as you drive past them. I would really love a screenshot button at times, the weather effects are beautiful and some of the night/day cycle changes look great too.

I do agree though that the helipads at least should be unlocked, would make traversing the world with your friends a lot more easy and fun. The online mode is unfortunately broken in a way though. If all you want to do is ride around the world in freeride that's fine. However if you invite some friends in for a race after you've completed the race everyone gets thrown out into their own game. Not acceptable in any racing game and very annoying to have to invite your friends in after every race. I hope Codemasters let Asobo patch it and maybe they can unlock the helipads too if they are allowed to create one.

The game has its problems (bad presentation, awful music and sound effects could be better) but it's really taken me by surprise in how much I've been enjoying it. It's unique in this day and age of racing games and that's something I appreciate. I really am looking forward to seeing what people come up with in the race editor, I'm sure the designers could only see so much of the game, it'll be fun to see what races other people create.

Also, thanks for the videos Blim, shows off why the game is so fun to mess around in :)

As for split screen, unfortunately not, I'm guessing with the world being so big the framerate couldn't handle it. You can drive into the water but drive too far and you drown/restart :P

Game looks great graphically but is sorely missing some physics, in an offroader 2009 is not the year for bumper car physics.

The physics look off. Not only that but they reset you if you crash?

Is it even possible to roll down a cliff? Seems like gravity is always tangent to you no matter the slope you're driving on, meaning the car always lines up with the terrain upon taking off the ground and landing.

It is possible to roll down a cliff, I was in free ride and came to a cliff that kept on making my car explode. Getting to the bottom without an explosion became a mini-game all of its own.

I dig the way that as you go down steep hills your car seems to get faster and faster, some would probably call it a bug, but it actually makes the racing pretty intense!

Its amazing when you suddenly see a new type of sunset or sunrise. Really great game, even if it feels unfinished, I hope that they manage to build on this witha sequel and don't can the franchise.

Sometimes I think they just wanted to make a tech demo for their engine so they can sell it on...

physics looks CRAP and the only indication on damage is a stupid meter..... omfg...

This game is not about damage,it is about exploration,driving for pleasure etc.Physics are not overly important to what the game is trying to deliver.

Environment looks nice (minus the screen tearing). Too bad they forgot to put a game in it.

Further suggestion: adding a race editor with custom leaderboards for custom races would expand the online replay value (besides the sight seeing joy rides).

Also, if you played Test Drive Unlimited, you at least expect 50 to 75% of those features in other open world racing games.

We seriously need TDU 2. Hopefully this time with a better gfx engine.

imo if u got a "sandbox" racing game, physics should be a BIG part of it. And why the feck cant i twist metal and rip parts of the cars in 2009?? Gfx and big worlds isnt everything anymore. i thought developers knew that by now...

Cheers Mr Woo for the heads up, and welcome to Gamersyde!

Yeah.. Imagine this game with at least Dirt's physics or something.

Exactly, You'd never last more than 5 minutes going off-road! (Damn, another tree...)

Are you kidding me?? The physics are the groundwork for any driving game and should've been the developers first focus before designing the rest of the gameworld and all the features. I was looking forward to this and would've really enjoyed the exploration aspect if they had built a better driving model.

It's really quite sad. The developers were apparently embarrassed enough by their crappy physics model that they cut off any crashes and reset you instantly when you crash.

Yeah the physics are really contrived, too bad because the vehicles are pretty cool and the world is fantastic.

I guess I'm not much of a racing game guy because to me, the physics are fine. I must be missing the minutia that everyone else is catching.

Good, though, cause it lets me just enjoy tearing ass around a GIGANTIC map. Seriously, I loaded into a new camp, saw a hug snowy mountain in the distance, and just drove towards it. Thirty minutes later, I get to the top, look at the map, and realize I'd only gone about 1/10th the length of the entire map. This is definitely a game for open world enthusiasts. I have never played a game that was so massive with such a lovely draw distance and beautiful shifting lighting as the day cycles go on.

I said it on another board. You can get great racing in plenty of games. This game offers something completely unique to the genre and for that, it gets my praise and love. I guess I'm an old jaded gamer, but you can keep your other racers doing the same thing over and over. I'll enjoy my hours driving around aimlessly discovering new lands.

you'll probably like far cry 2, there is a lot of aimless driving in that game too.

the physics of the driving model is fine its just the lack of proper collisions(other than a crunch sound), damage, vegetation you just drive through as if its not there, i mean the biker in the first video doesn't even come off his bike once, its like his arse is sewn to the seat.
Open world driving isnt exactly new smugglers run did this last gen and test drive unlimited did it this gen and the island of oahu smaller it may have been looked more interesting to drivethrough