PSP

Well, I’ve exhausted the Class E challenges, I think, so it’s on to Class D. I did win a Class D Cadillac, but it was a bit frisky for my tastes – no, really, a frisky Cadillac – so I went and bought myself a Pontiac GTO instead. I’ve not done any events in it yet, just driven it from the dealer to the tuning shop, but it seems lovely.

This is excellent. I’ve played for a while this morning and driven over a hundred miles in my first car – a Ford Mustang – and I’ve had a very good time. It is Test Drive Unlimited as it was on the 360, pretty much. There’s an obvious downgrade in the graphics and sound, of course. It’s very, very impressive, but obviously the PSP isn’t going to have high-def, high-poly graphics and booming surround sound. So no dashboard view, for one thing. Apart from that, the only other major difference I’ve seen so far is the handling. It seems much, much easier to get round corners in the PSP version and it’s consequently a lot more fun. There’s not the same feeling as learning your car and constantly driving on the edge, but I think the fun to be had screaming round corners as soon as you get in a car makes up for that.

There’s also a nice feature I don’t remember from the 360 version, which is that the GPS automatically points you towards the next race after you finish an event. Makes it a lot easier to find things to do. And if you decide to go somewhere else then once you’ve been there the GPS will set tiself back to te next race. Lovely. But, you know, a few days ago I thought Ninja Gaiden was a 360 game, so my memory’s not to be trusted.

There are also a lot of (to me) minor downgrades. No bikes, no delivery missions, that sort of thing. I think there might be fewer cars too. I can’t say I’m too bothered. My main wish for the game would be for the sun to come out. It’s awfully grey for Hawaii at the moment.