UPDATE - 24th Feb

Woolies are selling it for £19.99.

SCOOP

Spoke to Tony Abrams today.  He informed me that the writers of the software were from the Hexham area & contacted him in the first instance.  They took many pictures & video & later returned, after a trip around the factory,  with the American backer for more talk & info gathering.

It is reported that the rights to use the Cerbie cost them £20k.

The most significant piece of info, however, was that they may actually have used my very Cerbera for said testing etc.

REVIEW - UPDATE - INITIAL THOUGHTS

My wife hired the game for me for a couple of days from a local video shop.  I have a steering wheel / foot pedal combination which makes it somewhat easier to control.  Unfortunately, I am CRAP at driving games so I probably won't be buying it.  I prefer the Drag Race as I don't need to do much steering !   I think I'll go & do a bit more playing er..  I mean reviewing !!!

If you would like to write a fuller review.....   Please e-mail me.  The excerpts below were borrowed from the Usenet.  Copyright blah...   blah....  etc....

Accolade, the writers, can be contacted at http://www.accolade.com/

Electronic Arts
PO Box 835
Langley
Slough
Berks
SL3 8XU

Customer Service - 0990 99 88 77

Games Hotline - 01753 546465

For those with Playstations -  There most certainly is a Cerbera in it - a nice red one. There is also a mention of the 12/7 in the credits, but I guess you have to get better than me to see that.

I've only played a bit, but it's a lot of fun while still being quite hard. Lots of TVR tail wagging, and, if you're careful, some pretty neat power slides. I just wish the GRP body work on my 'real' TVR could handle the 'little knocks' as well as the computer rendered variety :-)

The Speed 12 (called 12/7 in TD4) can be accessed by entering your name as SAUSAGE on the high score  screen. This releases four new cars, Viper GTS-R,   '69 Dodge Daytona, TVR 12/7 Project and 'Pitbull Special'.

Hopefully the game is realistic enough so that the Speed 12 will trounce all!

The Cerbera in TD4 loses control at the rear faster and more violently than my real 350i does. Of course, I take corners faster in TD4, since the consequences are simply the penalty of waiting through a re-launch of the race, and the feedback is nil.

> The Speed 12 (called 12/7 in TD4) can be accessed
> by entering your name as SAUSAGE on the high score
> screen. This releases four new cars, Viper GTS-R,
> '69 Dodge Daytona, TVR 12/7 Project and 'Pitbull
> Special'.

This did not work for me on the PC version of the game. I tried a sprint  first, then a single race.

The game is fairly good, but not as good as TOCA. I'm playing it with the  great Digital Edge wheel and pedals, so my Cerbera has F1-like gear changes. :)

To access the Speed 12 in PC version of Test Drive 4 go to the Save Game screen, select slot 10, type SRACLLA and press enter.  You should hear a horn if it worked.

Copyright © 1997-2005 J D Hunter. All rights reserved.

Page last updated : October 16, 2000