Right from the intro screen you're blasted with a hard rockin' Metallica song, and you can tell at the very least that this game will have some adrenaline going for it. Right away though, I'm peeved about something. At the start up screen, you are asked to hit Start to continue like normal, but at the bottom there's a little note saying, "Press X to load a previous game." If you miss that like I did the second time I played, then you have to reset the game to get back there. I couldn't find a load anywhere in the menus, and I don't understand why it doesn't autoload in the first place. Once you do get to the main menu, you are offered up a plate full of racing modes. Sticking with tradition, I go with the Career Mode as usual. In this mode is where you'll find most of your replay value. You start off with enough cash to buy one of a handful of vehicles while the rest are just barely out of your price range. You compete in a series of racing events in different location in increasing difficulty all the while earning more cash and buying upgraded vehicles.

The vehicles don't look half bad....but they do look maybe a third bad. Unfortunately the necessary effort wasn't taken to get the most out of the XBox's graphical prowess. So what you are left looking at is a mixture of a poor graphical package wrapped up in some last minute, thrown in hardware effects to polish it up. The off roaders do have a nice sheen on the paint that gives them more depth, and the environment is vast and monstrously hilly. Meanwhile, the models are low poly and weakly animated, and Trackside textures draw in about 10 feet before your eyes, and there are really only a few environments to play in anyway. The speed is a bonus as multiple trucks run amok without a hitch (well I guess these trucks probably do have a hitch, but you know what I mean). The perception of speed is nice as you fly around on the verge of out of control, but it often gets past the verge and flies right on past out of control.

The music is up to you whether you like it or not as is the case with any licensed soundtrack. In this particular case, it matches up well with me since I really dig non-mainstream hard rock (excludes Metallica). The game could really benefit from a jukebox or at least a song skip feature because I really didn't want to hear a couple of songs, and I heard some tracks over and over again. I was also surprised to find out just by playing it on my gaming rig that it supports Dolby Digital 5.1. I'm not sure that it really needs it or if it gained anything from it, but at least the sound was loud and well defined. I couldn't pick out any significant placement of the sound effects, which were average in the first place.

The racing concepts for this off road game are solid, and are carried out well in the beginning. I was thinking early on that this was going to be another break out game for the Test Drive license. On top of regular circuit type races, there are others involved. There is a point-to-point event that has you navigate through checkpoints usually going all downhill or all uphill. There is another where you must be the first to hit all the checkpoints on the stage, but you don't have to do them in any particular order. This also brings the vehicle selection into strategic play because certain vehicles may be better suited to an uphill or shortcut filled track while another may be best used for a flatter, speedier set of checkpoints.

Like I said, this is all fun and games when you first start, but as you continue through the game, the small problems start adding up and seriously weighing on your nerves. In the entry-level tournaments, there isn't much in the way of challenging AI and most of the checkpoints are laid out though flatter terrain without weather effects. You earn some money, buy vehicles, and feel a false sense of happiness. Once the difficulty bumps up, it's like your drunk uncle crashing the party.

First of all, the control isn't that great. It's arcadey and manageable, but don't expect cool physics like the Smuggler's Run series. Let's start off with this huge glaring flaw: when an opponent hits you from the side from behind, you spin out of control off the track, plain and simple. The manual even encourages rough play, but this is ridiculous. When I try a similar tactic, the CPU hugs the road and keeps on going. How fair is that? It gets so bad that my nerves started getting all crazy when I saw a vehicle riding close to me from behind. I could just see the wipeout coming and taking me out of the race. There's nothing you can do about it except maybe pull off to the side of the road politely and let them pass. Add in the weather effects which takes the control completely away from you, and you're staring Mr. Frustration right in the face.

That brings me to my next point. Once the difficulty starts sliding up, good driving skill alone will not help you reach the front of the pack. It takes old-fashioned luck. It doesn't matter if you pick the fastest vehicle or one with exceptional climbing ability, the computer will always be just as fast or faster and climb just as well. So, there goes the strategy I thought they were working towards. Once you wipe out (from a AI nudge), you're pretty much done, and you have to spend money to retry the race.

While Angel Studios does have something to build on here such as the cool Career progression and checkpoint-based races, they need to seriously consider what they are doing with the control and AI. A little bit of spice on the graphics front to take advantage of the hardware wouldn't hurt either. Until next time, pass on yet another Test Drive game.

Click Here to purchase Test Drive Off Road Wide Open from Amazon.com