Import Tuner Challenge Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)To feed my Forza Motorsport 2 hunger, I decided to purchase this game. I'm a big fan of Japanese cars. All my cars are Japanese. Import Tuner focuses on...you guessed it...import cars, mainly Japanese brand cars- Toyota, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Mazda, and Nissan. People ask..so where's Honda? Licensing issues prevented Genki developers from including Honda.
This game delivers TONS of customizations. You can basically calibrate and modify your car based on parts you buy. However, buying upgrade parts for your car isn't that easy. All upgrade parts are level-based meaning you need to beat a boss or win races against a few rival teams to get a new level of parts to purchase. Parts don't come cheap so just racing one rival after another won't get you the goods you need once you face a fully-modified car. You'll have to go back and find a rival team you already beat and race him over and over until you get enough credit points to purchase the parts.
The game requires a lot of patience since you'll be pitted against every import car. There are two ways of challenging rivals. You either hit the streets and challenge OR you can go to the parking area and challenge racers there. To beat the game, you'll have to challenge both street racers and those who hangout by the parking lot.
The tracks are based on real highways in Japan. All the the highways have been faithfully recreated in this game. Now...since this is a race along freeway, you won't be using much of your drifting skills here since you won't find any hairpin turns. Most of the turns are like the Exit ramps you take on our Interstate highways here in the US. This should give you an idea on what's in store for you. Majority of the tracks here are straightways, a few exit ramps turns will test your turning skills. Don't be fooled though. You'll be faced with traffic on the highways. There will trucks and cars driving merrily along the highway while you're speeding at 200mph. The traffic will sharpen your skills on avoidance and overtaking. The game is quite tough on errors you make. You hit a car or a railing and chances are the rival driver will be right on your tail.
There are two modes of races here: SP battles and Time Attack. SP battles are like health meters. The farther the rival is ahead of you, the faster your health meter goes down. You hit a railing or a car and that penalizes your SP meter. The object of SP battle is to run your rival's SP meter dry. That means you'll have to outrace him or punish him by trapping him on a lane where a slow moving vehicle is right in front of him and then you accelerate at high speed to leave him behind. You can use traffic to your advantage by nudging the rival car on the side and pushing him towards an embankment. I know it's bad but hey...you gotta win by any means necessary. Time attack on the other hand is simply a race to the finish line. Why it's called Time attack just boggles the mind. This game was made in Japan so expect some translation hiccups here and there. Poorly translated Japanese terms abound in this game so expect to see weird rival names like Betelguese of the Night, Mundane Omnipotent, Cornering Opera, Mundane Zeus, Astellion Flower, and my favorite... Cat X Cat.
Graphics was where I was a bit disappointed. Genki didn't use the full power of the Xbox360. Somehow it didn't look quite next-gen to me. Also, there are horrible frame rate issues. The game just grinds to a stuttering frame rate when you have three or four rivals on screen. There are a few drawing issues as well. Sometimes, while driving, you'll notice that there's just a black empty space at the end of the ramp. Fear not, the game suffers from redrawing issues. But these issues shouldn't deter you from playing this game. AI is something that's a so-so. You will find rivals who drive like Ms. Daisy or sometimes against a rival who drives like Mario Andretti, Nicki Lauda, and Colin McRae. Most of the AI seem to be afraid to take the risk of making sharp turns at full speed. They seem to brake quite a few meters too far from the turn's entry point. As a result, you can easily take advantage of this and cut in front of them.
So...what's a good gaming tip here. Like any other tuner games, there are three things you need to focus on to win in this game: SPEED, WEIGHT, AND HANDLING. That means you need to upgrade your engine, your body, and your suspension. Don't dwell too much on making your car look like Fast and Furiousque. Concentrate first on winning a few races and invest on the three main aspects of the car. ANy part that will make your car 100lbs heavier should be compensated by a body upgrade that will make it lighter. I've beaten this game by using just one car.
Here's what I did: I purchased the Nissan Fairlady (fastest among the cheapest starter cars). I raced the hell out of it and upgraded it. Then I began challenging several rivals over and over again till I was winning 500K credit points per race. Once I got to about 4 million credit points, I bought my favorite and possibly the fastest tuner car in the game: Mitsubishi Evolution IX. I then sold my Fairlady and then upgraded the engine to the highest possible level I could get. Slowly I began upgrading the three main aspects of the car. By the time I got to about 80% of game completion, I was beating every car and rival I was up against. The Mitsubishi Evolution is by far the best tuner car I have ever dealt with, be it Forza Motorsport or Import Tuner. Try the Evolution and win every race.
In closing, this game is highly recommended. It has it's own technical issues but the fun factor is definitely in the game. Go for it.

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Import Tuner Challenge is an authentic and extremely customizable street-racing game that challenges racers to immerse themselves in Tokyo's underground to take on the fastest street-racing teams. Players can customize and race licensed import sports cars using real tuner parts and tuning techniques. More than five million combinations are possible in customizing a car's interior, exterior and engine.

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Test Drive Unlimited 2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I will start off by saying I was a big fan of the first Test Drive Unlimited because it had a huge open world environment to drive around in, a big selection of cars, and good driving physics that were somewhere between arcade and simulation. The graphics in TDU weren't great but it was just plain fun to play.
Now we finally have the long awaited sequel and sadly it is not an improvement over the first TDU. Like the first game it's not intended to be a simulation racing game. I understand this and didn't expect it to be. What I did expect though was that they would have at least delivered the same if not a better experience. Unfortunately this is not the case. I feel it is fair to compare it to the first game because this is a sequel after all.
DRIVING PHYSICS:
This is my biggest issue with the game. In the first TDU each car had unique characteristics of speed, acceleration, braking, cornering ability, and an overall feeling of weight. It was not super realistic but it wasn't silly either, for example you couldn't make 90 degree turns at top speeds. It gave the feeling of speed but still you had to make sure not to go faster than the car could handle. This is simply not the case in TDU2. Most of the cars handle pretty much the same, poorly. There seems to be only a difference of speed, acceleration and braking between cars but they all handle about the same, and there is no feeling of weight. Among different cars in the same class they all corner about the same. Also doing almost anything can make your car spin out, even while traveling on a straight road. If you turn just a little too much you can lose control of the car. If you slightly graze anything you can lose control of the car. Sometimes though you can hit a wall at a sharper angle and it pops you right off it sending you on your merry way the direction you started. It's also hard to regain control of your car even if you fishtail a little, with each steering correction you make actually making it worse. I don't know why they did this to the driving physics and didn't just build upon what they had from the first TDU, or even just reuse it for this game unchanged.
GRAPHICS:
There is some better news in this department. The scenery and character graphics are actually improved over the first game. The islands really look nice and that makes it fun to explore. Your character looks a little better than the first game also although it's not stellar. The cars on the other hand look a little bland and flat. The cars don't really pop or look very shiny even when they are clean. Your cars now also accumulate dirt, dings and scratches too, which can be fixed by going to a car wash where some scantily clad ladies come out and wash your car by hand. Also you can just put your car in the garage or start an event it it pops back to pristine condition as if by magic. Overall for just driving around and exploring I would say the graphics are an improvement over the first TDU.
SOUND:
The sound is also a letdown. The engine sounds are certainly louder than the first game, maybe too loud. The car engines don't sound very realistic. You could drive a certain car in Forza than drive the same exact one if it's available in this game and easily tell the difference. Also when you run into things it just sounds like taking a metal trash can lid and smashing it against something, no matter what you run into. The off-road sounds aren't much better. Sometimes it reminds me of the sound of chewing on Grape Nuts cereal. The radio is kind of limited like the first game and the music is not particularly thrilling to me but that's a matter of taste. It's not like the first game had great sound either but this is not an improvement.
GAME PLAY:
This game concentrates much more on your character and other social aspects than the first game did. Besides being able to buy houses and clothing for you character you can now also visit a hair salon and get cosmetic surgery so you can completely change your look. Many of the same features from the first game are back such as races against other player in set spots around the island or instant challenges against people you meet in the game world by just flashing your headlights at them. Also there are clubs to form or join and club events just like the first game, as well as custom events you can set up.
The biggest change to the game though is the addition of off-road events and vehicles. This is the area of the game that I feel was the best change. These events can be fun and give you the ability to easily explore the countryside. You can purchase off-road vehicles like Hummers or Land Rovers. They handle differently off-road than on asphalt, which makes sense but once again they all handle pretty much the same compared to each other. The only real difference between the off-road vehicles is their speed, acceleration and braking.
As for the world itself it's pretty much the same as the first game. You can drive pretty much anywhere you want to and explore all you want. This was the charm of the first game in my opinion and why I liked it so much. TDU2 though now has two islands to explore, Hawaii again and now Ibiza. As for the events it's handled differently than the first game. Instead of unlocking events and then picking and choosing which ones you want to do in any order this game has a more linear feel to it. You have championship events that consist of a series of smaller events worth points, finish in first place in the end and you will unlock more. Also there are random events like the first game, such as picking up someone and driving them somewhere within a time limit. These events aren't permanent though and have a time limit on how long they are available, which can be seen in the map, before they disappear and new ones pop up elsewhere. This can be annoying if you haven't previously explored that part of the map because you won't be able to instantly start it, you'll have to drive there and may not get to it in time. Also your contacts will frequently call you, telling you to go somewhere or do something. Overall the game seems to want to hold you hand through the whole process.
BUGS:
Sadly, at least as of the date this review is posted, this game is pretty buggy. There have been some issues with the servers although that can be excused, at least for now, since a lot of games have this same issue at first. I have had issues with the leaderboards not working properly. When I first log in I will do an event and my name and position on the leaderboards will show. Then every event after that it won't work. My name and position do not show properly and if I scroll manually to the position where I should be my name isn't listed at all. I've also noticed issues with sound going out occasionally. This especially seems to be the case when going from off-road to asphalt and hitting some objects. The sounds will go out for a few seconds then come back. I have read there are also issues with trying to form or join a club, causing the game to lock up but I haven't experimented with this myself. Players are reporting other issues also, which you can read about yourself if you go to the game website's forums.
CONCLUSION:
Compared to the first TDU I'd have to say this game is a disappointment. It is better in some aspects, such as the scenery graphics and the addition of off-road content, but it is a big let down in the department of sound, bugs, and most importantly driving physics. The game is named Test DRIVE Unlimited 2 after all, with the main focus being on driving. Making the driving physics worse really takes a lot away from the game. It can be fun exploring the huge world, buying nice cars, houses and clothing (if you're into that), but just getting through events can be annoying with the clunky handling the cars have. You will have to retry events a number of times because your car so easily loses control. Overall it's not a worthy sequel and I had more fun with the first TDU, which is a superior game. If you loved the first game this one may really make you mad, so you may want to rent it before you buy. Unfortunately there is no demo as of yet on Xbox Live. If you've never played the first game and want a fun, open world driving game, find a copy of the first TDU instead of buying this one.
I gave the game 2 stars because of the horrible driving physics and bugs. They may fix these issues in patches someday but I have to rate the game in the condition it is now, not how it might be in the future.

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Test Drive Unlimited 2 transforms the driving genre, adding the persistency, progression and customization of the latest multiplayer games to the critically acclaimed racing of the Test Drive franhise. Test Drive Unlimited 2 integrates a new generation of online and multiplayer features, creating a dynamic world of evolving content and challenges.

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BIG+ SMALL LIVE HEADSET WITH MICROPHONE FOR XBOX 360 US Review

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(More customer reviews)they both stoped working in a week!!! there was no warrening or nouthing the big one one broke first,the ear peicess stoped working just like that one sec there working the next nothing,so i used the other 1,well 3 days latter the mic on that one stoped working,ill nvr shop here again

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Compatible With : Microsoft Xbox 360 / Xbox 360 Slim.

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