Every now and then, a game comes along with a revolutionary graphics engine and redefines the state of the art. Usually, however, games fall short of revolutionary, and instead simply provide an expected level of eye candy. Test Drive Off-Road 3 fits into the latter category. It's not going to change the world, but it could occupy several hours of your time. There are several vehicles to choose from, and they all look pretty nice. It takes a lot of driving to get them dirty, though. Even then, they don't get very dirty. Aside from that and the fact that you can't smash the vehicles up no matter how much you run into things, it looks pretty realistic. The sound effects are about average, but TDOR3 does have one sound-related feature that's pretty cool. When you're flipping around in the menus getting ready to play, the music is continuous. Most games have interruptions in the music when you switch from one screen to the other. Test Drive Off-Road 3 avoids this. The one part of the game that I find to be a bit lacking is the two-player (split screen) mode. The frame rate is significantly reduced, and the view simply doesn't show enough to adequately allow you to see where you're going. Split screen can be fine for a track racing game where all the action is, for the most part, restricted to left and right movement. But when you're 'off-roading,' you could just as easily be going over something as around it. This is pretty much impossible to handle with a split screen.

First let me say - I LOVE racing games. I appreciate a wide range of racing games, from circle track to rally to futuristic and 'themed' racing. In general, I have not been too thrilled with the Test Drive series. That being said, I found myself quite pleased with Test Drive Off-Road 3. If you own Test Drive Off-Road 2, then you may want to rent Test Drive Off-Road 3 before buying it to see if there's enough difference to warrant purchasing it. My suggestion for those of you who have TDOR2 is to trade it in towards TDOR3.

You are not ready. Test Drive Off-Road 3 is a fun game. However, it is very difficult to place. The main thing is to play the game alone for a while (and without an audience) so that you can get used to the handling and learn the tracks a bit, without your 'friends' laughing every time you roll over (again). Or you can cheat. F'rinstance, by putting your name in as 'ZAKARY X,' you can activate the cheat menu. 'LEAD TO ROME' gets you all of the tracks. These two codes make the game a whole lot more fun and allow you to upgrade your vehicle with whatever upgrades you'd like. This makes the game a lot easier.

The graphics are not too shabby, although there are times that you will see 'seams' in the landscapes. And the two-player mode is simply inadequate. That's mainly due to the nature of the type of racing. The upgrade system is nice, allowing you to outfit your vehicle to suit the track you'll be racing on. Also, there are a wide variety of vehicles to choose from (although a good chunk of them are hidden vehicles...). While the tracks look good, a few of them are fairly repetitious, leading you to think that you've made several laps, when you're actually only on your first lap. A nice game, overall.