Test Drive: Off-Road

The Good
The music in the game is fantastic. The "in-between" shots, those that appear immediately after a race showing you the results are pretty decent (no full-motion video, just still-shots of various vehicle scenes). It does offer the chance to drive a Hummer (but more about that in a moment).

The Bad
Where do I begin? Ok, Ok, I know the game was released in 1997, but I KNOW they could've done better than this! First, let's just begin with graphics: I'm running this game on a monster-fast Pentium II rig......so to be fair, there's no slow-down that I've experienced, BUT there's frequently this strange herkie-jerkie nature to the screens, whether there are several vehicles present or not; it's really difficult to explain, but it's truly weird. Also, whenever you hit another vehicle, tree or whatever, these little goofy-looking triangles pop out (I suppose they're suppose to be debris). The vehicle handling is vaguely acceptable, except sometime the vehicles seem just a little TOO bouncy (especially the Hummer) to come even close to being realistic. This game had amazing potential, and you can tell that a little thought went into the various career modes, but overall, it's a significant letdown. Honestly, spend your money on something else.

The Bottom Line
A pathetic attempt to "ricochet" off of the Test Drive series. This game had potential, but it just failed to deliver.

The Good
The only thing that was good was the music.

The Bad
Everything else. The graphics are sub-Doom (little triangles pop out when you hit a tree or the side of the road), the commentator is extremely annoying, the control is too loopy, the game doesn't even run in Windows reliably, the cars all suck. In 1997, they could have done much better.

The Bottom Line
Don't buy.