Test Drive Unlimited

Quirks and Features

The Cars

The Houses

The Events

Gameplay

• A very useful feature in Test Drive Unlimited is the Map, which can be accessed by pressing the [SELECT] button. You can also press [START] and then select 'MAP' from the menu, but [SELECT] is easier.
• With Auto GPS on, the system will target the nearest undone Challenge that you qualify for. If the target is far away, you can save yourself some unnecessary driving by using the Map to jump to a location near the target. Events/locations where you've already been will be represented by lit/undimmed icons and you can jump to any one of these by placing the cursor on it and then pressing the [X] button.
• Whether AutoGPS is on or off, you're free to use the Map to choose a new target if you want; just place the cursor on the icon of the desired event/location and press the [Triangle] button. Note that you'll only ever need to target places where you've never been before; once you've been there, you can jump instead.
• When choosing a target, you can use filters to show or hide events/locations. When choosing a place to jump to near a target, remember to reset the filters so that nothing is hidden. Also, check both the Challenges tab and Key Locations tab for anything that may be near your chosen target.
• Besides the ability to jump to places represented by icons, you also have the ability to jump to any stretch of public road that you've been on before. With the Map fully zoomed in, and using the left stick to move the cursor, you'll sometimes notice that there's a pulsating circle on some roads. Wherever you position the pulsating circle, that's where you'll jump to when you press the [X] button.

• When driving from one place to another, you'll have to remember that it's not a race. You can (and should) take your time getting to your destination since it's more about safe driving than anything else. You can minimize the risk of speeding and accidents by always using your least powerful car for this purpose.
• In the early stages, you'll be doing a lot of driving on public roads with public (non-race) traffic. Avoid excessive speeding and try not to hit other cars. Be especially careful when there are cop cars in the area; fines will cost you credits that could be better spent on new cars, upgrades, and houses. Cop cars are shown as red diamonds on the GPS Map.
• The box at the bottom right of the GPS Map shows the distance to the next checkpoint or target, but will be blank if you're not in a race or no destination is set. The 'N' on the border indicates due North. The GPS Map also has 3 zoom levels that can be toggled by pressing [R3].
• A Violation Bar (a green/red bar at the top center of the screen) will tell you when there's a risk of being arrested/fined. As soon as you see the Violation Bar, your best bet is to slow down immediately. In most cases, if you continue driving within the law, the Violation Bar will eventually disappear.
• When stopping for traffic lights or stop signs, try not to stop too close to any cars that may be in front of you; they have a tendancy to drive in reverse before moving forward. If the car in front happens to be a cop car, it's an instant arrest/fine if it backs up into you.
• Avoid driving too closely behind other cars, and keep an eye out for upcoming intersections. TDU doesn't use turn signals, so watch out for cars that may suddenly slow down or stop to take a turn or corner.
• When going over hills or taking blind corners, your best bet is to slow down and be prepared for the unexpected. An accident is just around the corner, so to speak.
• If you somehow end up getting stuck somewhere off the main road, you can press [L3]+[R3] to put yourself back on track.

• Although there's an option to use kilometers and KPH for distance and speed, I'd recommend leaving it on the default setting since road signs for distance and speed limits are in miles and MPH.
• It's not obvious, but the last digit on the odometer is one tenth of a mile. There is an inconspicuous space between the last two digits, but a dot/point or different color would've made it more clear.
• Although there is no obvious way to sell a car, there are two roundabout ways. The first way is by trying to buy a car that you can't afford. The second way is by trying to buy a car that you don't have garage space for. In either case, the dealer will ask if you want to sell vehicles. Since you won't always be short on credits or garage space, it's best to just be very careful what you buy.
• There are 3 different lighting conditions possible at any given time: (1) daylight, (2) dusk, or (3) cloudy. Each time you go home and drive out, the lighting will change to the next in the list. So, if you don't like a certain lighting, you can do that repeatedly until you have the one you want.
• While in the Select tab of your garage, if you press [R1] Inspect Car, that car will become your Current Vehicle. If you don't want to switch cars, you'll need to remember to reselect the one you were originally in.
• To rearrange your cars, you can use the [Square] Change Place feature in the Garage List.
  1. First, make sure that your Current Vehicle is not one of the cars in the house whose garage you want to rearrange (if it is, your best bet is to switch to a car that's in a garage that's already arranged the way you want it).
  2. Then, go to the house whose cars you want to rearrange.
  3. Then, go to the Select tab of your garage, and take note of which cars are in which positions.
  4. Then, exit the Select tab and go to the List tab. Now, it's just a matter of using the [Square] and [X] buttons to switch the positions of two cars at a time.

1. Go through all the preliminary stuff (rent car, race, buy house).
2. When you leave your garage for the first time, turn off AutoGPS (so you can choose your own targets) and set TCS to Off (so you can earn Master Points more quickly).
3. Use the Map to target the After Market shop for your car, jump to the nearest road, and then buy a Stage 3 upgrade once you get there.
4. Now go to your favorite 'money maker' (remember to use the Map to jump to the nearest road) and do that for a while (about an hour or so). The goal here is to earn credits and Master Points as quickly as possible.
5. Once you reach Amateur status, you can either choose a new 'money maker' or stay with the same one using the Shelby GT500. For Amataeur events, you'll need a Nissan Skyline or other Group D car. The goal here is still the same (earn credits and Master Points).
6. Once you reach Pro status, upgrade the AC 427 and use it to do the Touring League series. The goal now is to win a car that's good enough to become president of Club Stripe.
7. Now, upgrade the Ford Shelby GR-1 and head on over to Club Stripe to win the Ford Shelby Cobra. The goal here is to have a car ready for when you reach Expert status.
8. At this stage, you should only need about 200 more MPs to reach Expert status, so now you just need to choose a good 'money maker' to rack up the points (and credits).
9. Once you reach Expert status, you can upgrade the Ford Shelby Cobra and use it as a 'money maker' in the Flashback challenge. You now have the means to earn more than a million credits per hour, if you need to.
10. The next step is to complete all of the King Of The Hill challenges scattered over the west and northwest of the island. The nearest one, at this stage, is probably Kelekole Pass. From there, it's Mokeleia Madness which takes you very close to Down The Mountain. From there, you can go to Ridge Runner. With that targeted, the GPS will plot a course that goes along the west coast. If you now go past two intersections, you can use the Map to follow that coastal road and then jump to the farthest point that you can. From Ridge Runner, you can use the same trick to jump to somewhere closer to King Of The Hill. Then, your next stop is Razorback Ridge, which should now be on a road that you can jump to. The last event is Switchback Valley. With the KOTH events complete, you now have the ability to jump to any point on any public road, saving you hours of driving from one place to another.
11. At this stage, you'll probably still need another 300-400 MPs to reach Master status. Now is a good time to rent a Saleen and do the Supercar series (remember that you can now jump instead of drive to places). The goal here is to have a Group A car ready for when you reach Master status.
12. Since the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve costs 320K to upgrade, you now need to choose another club to become president of; this time, one that awards a free upgrade instead of a car.
13. By now, you should only need another 200-300 MPs, so use the Ford Shelby Cobra to do some more Flashback, or choose something else to rack up the points.
14. Once you reach Master status, it's time to take on the Il Viaggio Grande challenges (6 in total). This is where the Chrysler ME comes in handy. You could, of course, use a Koenigsegg CCR or McLaren F1 LM instead; in which case, you'd need to buy one and then do another club for the upgrade.
15. Congratulations! With the hardest part now done, you can relax and do the rest at your own leisure. Now that you own all of the buyable houses, you essentially have access to about 43 million credits. But, don't sell any houses unless you don't care about game completion or unless you really need some quick cash; remember that you'll lose 10% on each house that you sell and you'll need to buy each one back eventually if you're going for 100% game completion.

Areas / Districts

Noteworthy Sites

Miscellaneous Notes

• To save some wear 'n' tear on your memory card, you can turn off the AutoSave option. The best time to do this is right after you've left the garage, but before leaving your driveway. Just remember to save the game before shutting down the PS2.
• The cars and tracks in Quick Race mode appear to be random. Although there's a "Change Vehicle" option, there doesn't seem to be any way to choose a different track.
• Quick Race mode doesn't count for game completion. There are tracks in Quick Race which aren't available in normal (Career) mode, but the result times aren't added to the Challenges tab of the Statistics page.
• Upon game completion, the Challenges tab of the Statistics page will still have entries where the Stats column is blank (no result). Since there doesn't seem to be any way to unlock those Challenges to fill in the blanks, I think the developers should've either left those out of the list or use the results from Quick Race to fill in the blanks. This is possibly a feature that was planned but never implemented. In any case, it doesn't matter for game completion.