Good game with server weaknesses

What I was thrilled when I got to play the first version of Test Drive on the C 64. Sound and graphics were trailblazing!
Playing the idea such a game in an open world with such a chart would not even come to my mind.
Well, that was long ago and there are racing games with better graphics, with better sound and better enemy AI.
Nevertheless, I came the game as the fulfillment of an ancient dream!
The story - well, that's not much here, from rags to riches, yawn.
The Championships - broadly too easy, only the time trial there is something more demanding, in direct comparison, the opponents are simply too weak.
The challenges - repeated sometime again and again, apart from some convoy challenges that an ever invited to request something. The German dubbing acts a little slapstick-like, who hath chosen please those voices?
The tasks - take pictures, looking wrecks, which employs a awhile, but are really not the most amazing tasks.
Online mode - unfortunately, at regular intervals, the server down, and partly for a long time, which is annoying because the online mode is an important part of the game.
Overall impression: The greatest strength of the game is just the open world! The race did not find performance on track instead, but on the road, some of them with other road users. The virtual world is modeled on the real islands largely. And so boring some tasks might be; with the Navi to drive from one to another task and to explore the islands, while meeting other participants, which can spontaneously challenged to duels; or simply rumcruisen something and enjoy the scenery or pop out the cool cars; and that makes really long time a lot of fun!
If you have at some point gone through all tasks that can for of course, but until GT5 no racing game took me so long excited!