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PC Gameplay Test Drive Unlimited 2 [Dutch]


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Translation of the article.

 

 

Rusty secondhand cars, a van that almost falls apart and a wrenged bike that has been stuck between lorrywheels for about 3 times, that's the overall vehiclecollection of the PCGP-editors. Among this scrap ready for the junkjard is ofcourse also the expensive roadmonster of the main editor, but nobody may take a ride with it, and the last who tried to do so is still shaking of the tenthousand Volt that the alarmsystem chased through his body. When the maineditor recently asked who wanted to have another unlimited test drive, nobody raised his hand as we thought it was a creative way to cut down on personnel. Drenched of sweat, Sander Hendrix eventually accepted the offer and soon found himself on the plane to Lyon, final destination: the offices of Eden Games, developer of Test Drive Unlimited.

 

It's almost 4 years ago that Atari gave the Test Drive series new glamour by launching Test Drive Unlimited. The idea to create an entire island as playground for all sorts of twowheeled and fourwheeled exotics seemed like the perfect concept, but it turned out to have some flaws like repetitive problems with disappearing or corrupting online profiles. With Test Drive Unlimited 2, Eden tries to repeat and improve the succes. Before the presentation we got some statistics: since 2006 1.2 million online profiles were created and after 4 year the pc and consoles still finds 6000 active players. According to producer Nour Polloni, Eden has taken a close look at what players did most in TDU, which was not only completing challenges but do lots of free-riding. Nothing unexpected here, as TDU was advertised as a Massively Open Online Racinggame, to attract players who like to massively terrorize the open-world streets in groups.

 

''You can now actually walk around in dealerships as if you are really looking for a new car.''

 

Treasure Island.

Where its predecessor placed you on a virtual copy of O'ahu, you now get to lay down lots of burning rubber on the streets of Spanish party-island Ibiza. Some new features like dynamic weather and a day/night cycle show Eden really listened to the feedback of players. Nour Polloni: ''We kept the cycle this short - about two hours - that a player who daily plays at the same time still gets to see different times ingame. That means you won't have to stick to 2 o'clock in the afternoon, but you also get to see thunder at night, or a rising full moon. Ibiza is put on the virtual map with exceptional details, once again by using satellitedata. You can cruise over 930 kilometers of road, and not just asphalt but also offroad trails. This is also something based on TDU-events, where players often went offroad to discover the terrain. Eden not only decided to encourage this with some sort of treasurehunting (find the hidden wrecks to unlock vehicles and other bonusses), but you also get the proper tooling for this treasure hunt. After all, an Audi TT RS won't offer much on rocky mountaintrails, hence why Eden gives you the keys of cars like the Audi Q7 (which you finally get to unleash where it belongs). No word was said yet about motorbikes. The famous gameplay-elements of TDU (races, time trials, challenges, sidemissions) are part of the game again and this time Eden used some sort of story line to give some structure to the whole thing. Actually it's the same old song of a newbie who washes ashore on Ibiza with no money, to eventually work himself up in the careermode. More interesting is that your progression and achievements will now be rewarded with levelpoints, which like in an MMO you can use to gain higher rankings in disciplines such as Competition, Social Skills and Collection. In addition, challenges aren't the only way to earn money. Your behaviour in free-ride now also earns you money, as like in Need for Speed high speeds, drifts and dangerous drivingbehaviour earns extra cash. You can choose to collect it a.s.a.p., or you can try to combine stunts as long as possible, which adds to the risk of losing everything in one crash.

 

''As you make more mistakes, the police will pay more attention to you and chase you down as soon as they spot you.''

 

*Gumpert Apollo interior picture*: Dashboard and seats of the cars are modelled with perfect precision. We know it, the real stuff is parked on our parkingterrain (with a 10.000 Volt alarmsystem).

 

Mud and scratches.

The main purpose still consists of earning money to get an impressive collection of vehicles, including garages and houses. Once again a big collection of expensive and exotic cars are available: sportscars like the McLaren MP4-12C and the Pagani Zonda, old and new classics like the Ford Mustang Fastback and the Ford GT, and now also offroaders such as the Spyker Peking-To-Paris and the already mentioned Audi Q7. However, this time Eden will take a different approach on certain aspects. In TDU it wasn't possible to exit your car. You could drive anywhere, but once in a dealership or tuner you got loadingscreens which led you to menus. Now you'll get the chance to actually wander around a dealership, tuner or paintshop. Nour Polloni: ''The possibilities to customize your car with decals has been added to existing paintpossibilities. You can keep it clean or really go crazy, no matter the (lack of) taste. In addition to that, vehicles are not undestroyable anymore as TDU2 contains a damagemodel. What we got to see was mainly optical damage: scratches, dents and parts coming off. Weatherconditions will affect drivingbehaviour of your car, and if you treated your Q7 on a big mudbath, the rain will slowly clean it.

 

I'm not sure if that TT-S Roadster is a typo or not, so I oranged it.

Free Ride with Doughnuts

The hands-on preview we got to play offered free-ride with two cars: an Audi TT-S Roadster and a Ford Mustang Fastback. It quickly becomes evident these cars have been chosen to demonstrate the all new handlingsystem including the big differences. In TDU, the handling wasn't really difficult, but sometimes it required some getting used to, because of perhaps a little delay in communication. Nour Polloni: ''We tried to tune the steering in such way that it remains realistic without making it too difficult.'' It seems to work. The TT-S is a small quick car you can go very fast with quite easy to race through heavy traffic and narrow streets. The Mustang on the other hand is a classic with the simple thought which puts horsepower above handling. It takes a lot to get the power on the road correctly, but it's easy to get the car turned around in notime or do some doughnuts with. A good drift is more difficult as you will often go too far. For example, I hit the pavementedge, crash into a copcar and park the Ford roof-first on a driveway. The policeofficer, either too busy with his doughnut or not being AI'ed yet, steadily drives further. Remember though, in the final version the officers will pay more attention: as you make more mistakes, the police will pay more attention to you and chase you down as soon as they spot you. Losing policecars in a chase is also a way to earn cash, as it's implemented in free-ride rewards.

 

*Ibiza map picture*: Just like for the previous game, Eden Games used satellite data to design the gameworld. If you were in Ibiza last year and you suddenly saw a lightflash passing through the streets, it was Eden's satellitescanner.

 

*Above jumping Aston picture*: TDU2 will have a co-op passenger feature: If you want to hear your girlfriend or mom also complaing about your drivingskills in the game, invite her.

 

Your own house and a spot underneath the bright sun.

TDU2 will be more MMO than the previous game. You now get the chance to improve your clubhouse as you reach new levels. You can add garages and also the interior can be changed. In TDU2, a few very exclusive cars have been made available only once you buy them with the entire club. One of them is the Gumpert Apollo. A nice addition in housesearches is that you can really get a yacht (which doesn't have a lot of carparking space though). It will also be possible to customize the entire place, including the garages. Furniture, wallcovering, floors, your inner interiordesigner finally sees his wishes come true. Add the fact you can explore everything on foot and you almost think you took the wrong turn to some sort of Second Test Drive Life. The creators call it myLife and allow you to maintain a Facebook-ish profile. You can add ingame photos, a profilepicture, choose avatars for your club, watch some stats, indicate what people may or may not see of you, etc. The idea of TDU to work with an online and offline profile is not applicable anymore. Something I'm happy to hear, as in the previous game it often happened your profile got damaged, removing all but two worthless entrycars of your entire collection, and which also changed the looks of your avatar (somehow I got a sunglass-wearing boldhead). Readers paying close attention to this preview might wonder why TDU2 would be almost three times as big as TDU1, while the island Ibiza gets less kilometers of road. Well, once you earned enough and reached a specific level, you can fly back to Hawaii. ''It is the same island, but we remade everything: challenge-locations, dealerships locations and we added lots of offroad trails.'' We can't wait till Q4 2010, when the endresult will be in stores.

 

 

 

With that, I can conclude:

I've just read all of it, no new info there. :p

This is not true :p. We didn't know anything yet about the police, whereas we now know they might have a similar ''method of operation'' as Most Wanted had with heatlevels.

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Thanks for the scans, a couple of new images. What's with this theme of Vipers chasing the DBS? lol

 

Dunno exacly but it could be part of the "Chase Mode", which was one of the modes that was revealed in the latest trailer ("MyLife" profile) ;)

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First mention of Police in the game, interesting and also the bit about him putting the car on it's roof is eye-opening ....if true.

 

Actually they mentioned the police before but it was pretty vague I think. Also, if you wanted realistic physics, you got it if the car can actually flip. :3

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They only mentioned there would be police and it would have effects on social aspects. We did not know how they will operate, untill this preview.

 

They also mention: old and new classics such as the Mustang Fastback and Ford GT Imo this pushes the Mustang more towards the earlier models.

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First mention of Police in the game, interesting and also the bit about him putting the car on it's roof is eye-opening ....if true.

 

Good point. I'd overlooked it because it's in so many other games, but I forgot TDU didn't have it. (Not sure how, with all that half-rolling down hills and stuff :cheeky: ).

 

-Leadfoot

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it looks like police are going to be a constant and not just in single player, which i quite like.

i also think they mite have referred to the new mustang as a classic because of the name MUSTANG.

rear wheel drive and difficult to put the power down sounds good to me:D

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