TDU Central at Eden Games Report & Impressions - Exclusive TDUC Screenshot!

[Eudemon]

As you know myself and TDUCk got to go to Eden Games and see TDU2 in it's metallic shiny flakey goodness and also play the game itself as well as ask questions and speak directly to the main people behind the game which as you can imagine was BRILLIANT!

 

So I hope you enjoy this report and impressions of our hands-off and hands-on experience and please remember I cannot tell you much about what I may have seen as I want to keep my legs.

 

Enjoy and thanks for reading!

 

Exclusive TDU Central Screenshot :D

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(please do not link to the image directly guys otherwise we will need to implement leech protection, feel free to host it on your own server and image hosting accounts but please link back to this thread :))

 

TDU Central at Eden Games

 

Introduction

Wow where to start. On the 2nd June 2010 me, myself and I was invited to attend a very special meeting and have a playtest of Test Drive Unlimited 2 (TDU2) at its home; Eden Games. The below will describe a lot about my experience and also what I saw, heard and did not see, well pretended not to see anyway. :cheeky:

 

Ok stepping out of the taxi I walked up to the main reception of the campus where Atari and Eden Games are situated. I walk up to the receptionist and ask for Atari ….blank stare, I say again ‘Atari’ and then finally some speech, “go out and turn right”. Well that was wrong so I phone Lee “Pizza & Games” and 5 mins later the man is there and I am shaking his hand and trying to explain my excitement of being where I was, I failed as all I could keep saying was “brilliant”, 3 or 4 times I think I said it in fact. Walking up the path we get to a nice shiny building with a lot of glass and through the door we go. Inside there is stairs, a V-Rally arcade machine and more people. First is Vince Farqoolurhasonshotanegg …just kidding it’s not that bad; Farquharson who is *looks at card* the Executive Producer at Atari and next to him is a man whose name escapes me, damn it I can’t even remember if he was Namco Bandai Partners, Atari or none of them. Nuts, I’m sure I’ll find out his name and put it in later. Sorry man in fleece! Anthony Grabit who is the Community Head for Namco Bandai Partners France.

 

Eden Games studio

 

Walking through to get to the room where the presentation and playtest was taking place was a number of the team who are working on TDU2, yes they were working on TDU2 right in front of me. Scanning the screens of some of them I saw an Aston Martin being tested at night, I saw the dials being created for an unknown car, I’m quite good with cars but these dials I could not make out and the artist had a photo of the interior on the opposite screen and still I couldn’t make it out, of course there was some things I could see but cannot talk about or I could lose my legs, warnings were quite harsh as you can imagine. :evil: Anyway through that area and up the stairs we go, lots of flags and promo materials for V-Rally and Alone in the Dark are scattered about, we reach our floor and walk towards a corner room, inside this room is ……*cliffhanger*

 

The Presentation

 

Previously on TDUC at Eden Games…

 

Alright this is what you have been waiting for, the main cheese of the visit and no I’m not talking about David Nadal (kidding!) but the main point of being here, the juicy gossip and all that jazz so I will not disappoint and get right on with it.

 

In this room it’s like royalty for a TDU community as in here we have David Nadal the main man behind Eden Games and one hell of a funny guy, Nour Polloni who if you’ve seen the interview videos is as laid back and passionate about what she does as anyone you could probably meet, Alain Jarniou the Game Director who made his way through the slideshow while certain aspects were being explained to us by both David Nadal and Nour Polloni with feedback being returned by myself and Fabien and then last but not least another Eden team member who unfortunately I forget the name of, he was Boris Mellet who was in charge of being Eva, a female avatar for use and demonstration of the co-op (including PassengerCam™ lol) and get together locales.

 

Like I said above it was Alain Jarniou who was in control of the slideshow presentation on a giant 50” LCD/Plasma TV (Sharp iirc) and as you would expect there was some General for the media stuff like sales, activity and such including of course how 6000 players still go on TDU daily even today. At this moment another entity joins us and lo and behold it’s Fabien from tdu2.fr, we shake hands, say hello and get back into the presentation. The next screens we get to see some good stuff, “cars” as David Nadal referenced them. These are cars that are not 100% confirmed or are still under strict negotiations so even if I wanted to tell you what was in those shots I couldn’t, I will tell you that they were very nice. :cheeky: More screens and an explanation about the main wants of the community like Day/Night, Weather and other things, it was mentioned that the Night is a bit shorter than the day but not by much and there was an amazing shot of a mansion with somewhat of a courtyard filled with many “cars”. It was difficult to make out what cars were there but from what I could see they again were very nice.

 

TDU2 Gameplay

 

After the presentation Alain started up TDU2 and began to show us what it had to offer, now I can’t remember the order in which some of these things happened but you guys just want to hear good things anyway so I’m sure it won’t matter so I’m just going to put as many down as I can recollect and you can sift through it at your leisure. :)

 

In this Gameplay showoff there was a lot to see and take in, these included the visuals of the game first and foremost, it looks amazing. Be it in the beating sun, during a storm or at night the game is stunning. Definition of the environment is heavily improved what with the vegetation, buildings and of course the roads themselves which you will be happy to hear are sublime and a joy to drive on. No more from the sections we saw (and played later) were there any stairs or jagged sections, roads were really well defined and flowed rather than jerked at angles, if you loved driving the roads but were slightly annoyed by the jaggedness then fear not TDU2’s roads be it Ibiza or O’ahu are smoooooooooooth. We then saw an Audi TT-RS (the blue one from the official pics) and the roof mechanism was shown as well as the indicators/blinkers/turning signals and like I said we’ve asked for them so we BETTER use them otherwise David Nadal and his team will be very angry. :lol: Now off to an off-road section and after some debug mode trickery the TT-RS changes to a big powerful 4x4/SUV and we are now watching TDU2 being played off-road, after narrowly dodging a slow moving tractor the big metal beast comes across a wreck, a message appears on screen congratulating us and David and Nour both explain what this is about, cars acquired via the finding of wrecks are the only way to get those cars, there is no other way or quick and easy workaround from what was said. After a few more jaunts the 4x4/SUV is panned around to show off how the dirt has built up and then again with debug voodoo the heavens open and the rain starts to clean the car, this is too slow though for Alain and thus another quick hit of the keyboard cleans the car completely up.

 

Jumping to the map we are now making our way to one of the more luxury houses, inside this house we are shown some of the customisation and improvements you can make to your abode. Just like the cars you select an item and then can if available select the colour and style and then purchase it. The idea behind this is that obviously with the way the game is you and your friends will of course have the same homes in the game, but due to the ability to make it yours via these options they will all be different (you get me?). So if at the start of a drive/race/cruise you start off at your house and you invite your friends in they will see your setup and not their own, pretty cool huh! With that explained we watched as the avatar walked out to the back and gave us a view of the pool and the view that this house gives you is truly needed to be seen to be believed, it is glorious. It may even make you hate your own house. :nuts: Eva was then invited in to partake in the greatness that is the design of this luxury living space. Next we headed to the garage and oh doggy sitting in this massive garage was not only the oft seen TT-RS and Mustang but also plenty of “cars”. I’m not going to say anything at all about these or even hint as it will spoil the smile and shock you guys will have when they finally get released but let me say that despite what you may think should be in or not, you cannot and will not be unhappy about the selection that will hopefully be available on release day. (providing negotiations and terms can be met of course)

 

Alain selects one of these “cars” and takes it out, its sound is pretty good for what it is and fits well enough. When driving from the outside view it is clear to see so many nice details about the landscape and the car itself, a debug spell and Eva is sitting in the passenger seat Yay it’s PassengerCam™ in action guys!! Anyway we’ve read that the instructions and directions can be told via Voice or via Icons on screen and we see this as Eva tells the driver to go straight and then take the next right, very promising and I’m sure it will be something that people will use to show off their skills and also take people places or if you just need to eat why not have a mate drive for a while as you chow down.

 

We pull up at a showroom and go inside, remember the trailers, that’s the showroom however this is clear as day and there are more “cars” in here. A short walkaround of the showroom was done here and then a car was chosen, the wheels, colour and interior were selected and then the purchase was made. Alright we’re in a brand new car, where to go? Ah let’s destroy its sleek aggressive looks by painting it pearlescent pink/purple and aqua and throw some stickers on. Hmm with the creative juices definitely flowing it’s decided this particular car needs sharks, so one at left side looking like it’s about to eat the wheel, and another …and another, other side the same, on the boot/trunk more shark is needed and a nice little help automatically appears whereby the sticker will be mirrored so matching sharks perfectly sat facing each other. Ok so we have this car that would probably be glowing red with embarrassment now if it could but it’s not over yet as oh yes we need some tribal stickers! The disaster …masterpiece is complete and the in-game avatar hands over the cash and appears happy with his abomination ...creation. From what we saw customisation was coloured paint and the sticker shop however there was an interesting image of a car on the wall so perhaps more is still to be revealed at a later date.

 

After a quick speed around with Eva in her sleek but powerful powdered blue convertible we hit a Club and are shown how this system will work with the President, Treasurer and how to invite friends and even recent players. We then proceed to the Club garage, inside this garage is 2 cars both under their manufacturer covers, one is the well known by now Gumpert Apollo and the other; well let’s just say it’s well deserved of Club exclusivity and it’s something that will make a lot of people smile as wide as a Cheshire cat, it was obvious from the shape of the cover what it was and of course the manufacturers logo/badge on the front was their front and centre. David Nadal mentioned that they [Eden] had read and seen all the (somewhat negative) feedback about the club exclusive cars being limited to one person and though I don’t think I can tell you what was said, I can tell you that they have listened. Make of that what you will but note only when an official confirmation from Eden or Atari is made will the final method be fully final. Alright we’re back in the main room of the club and now we’re being shown the upgrade feature; it looks like there is a few options available so players should be able to have a club that represents themselves and their members well. After the decorators had finished we walked up to the bar which is where the Challenges appear to be set either within your own club and members or between other clubs. It looked good and was quite user friendly in the setup and navigating which is always handy. Oh you can only be a member of 1 Club at a time so those of you thinking of creating multiple clubs to grab the Club exclusives for yourself think again. Also there is a filter for Club names so don’t think you can name your club anything, there are limits but common sense should tell you that anyway.

 

Onto the last part of the hands off presentation and we are back on the open road, the violated car is changed for the one used earlier. Eva is ahead and we follow her to her house, now considering the car we were in and what she was in appearances were deceiving as we headed to the Yacht! This thing is a beauty, the interior, the view just everything is complete opulence. Being the hard working avatar that he was and well deserved of a break Alain took to the Jacuzzi and with a quick button press we were sitting in a Jacuzzi checking out how great we were. After a few seconds a nice movie-esque flyaway from the Yacht kicked in showing the ocean and O’ahu in it’s finest. The shining sun making for a great backdrop and lighting up everything beautifully. Seriously the only thing missing from this part was Moby’s song Extreme Ways playing out like the end of one of the Bourne trilogys. The TDU2 logo shows up and the presentation part is over.

 

To be continued….

 

Next up Lunch. :D

[Eudemon]

Lunch …decidedly French

 

With the presentation over it was time for foooooood. Over behind us there were these interestingly shaped boxes, very like Pizza boxes but Octagonal + the sides of a Square. These were brought over and put in front of us and with a curiosity befitting of an explorer discovering the entrance to a hidden Egyptian tomb I open the lid and what is in front of me but an adventure of taste and new delights. I start with the Salad which was lovely and had all manners of lovelies like prawns and the sauce was delicious. Next up was a plate filled with cuts of extremely delectable chicken and choices of cut meats coupled with some kind of fish cheese/pate which I have to be honest I did not touch again after one taste but the one at the other end of the plate was quite nice, it had a mixture of some vegetable or fruit within it, whether you could eat it I don’t know but I did anyway. :) Now we’re onto dessert, and this is of course the best part, small upright rectangle shaped cream in two flavours of mint and vanilla were taste fantastic, no other way to describe it they were beautiful. Next to these was some pizza shaped looking food but it was not, it was a dessert also and coupled with the little biscuit it was amazing and really had a tang to it that was not to bitter but not overly sweet. With this fine selection of culinary brilliance you probably expect a nice red wine or Pino Grigot to accompany it, oh no we had something better, we had Water and Pepsi!! Oh yeah you can’t get any more French than this. :cheeky:

 

During the lunch some questions were asked but unfortunately the answers can’t really be told and also myself and Fabien were shown a Work In Progress trailer that should be getting a big viewing in the next couple of weeks. In this trailer as you would expect the music choice was perfect for the scenes that followed, new clips were interspersed with old seen before clips acting as placeholders however despite this a good amount of new scenes were still shown and a lot of nice things were shown that I’m sure the community is going to be shouting the praises to Eden for when they eventually see it for themselves. I know I’m teasing you but hey like I said there’s things we can say, can’t say and fear for our lives to even hint at. You won’t have to wait too long to see it for yourselves anyway so don’t gather into a mob and hunt me or Fabien down looking for answers as you won’t get any!! :evil:

 

After we were well fed and watered it was onto the Hands-on Playtest, that is coming up next and you sure as hell do not want to miss that. Thanks for reading.

 

To be continued….

[Eudemon]

Watching TDU2

 

Well well well here we are folks, the part you have probably been waiting the most and very patiently for and I assure and promise you it will not disappoint. I will tell you as much as my feeble mind can recollect and also of those scenes and events I witnessed and experienced myself. So let’s get on with it eh!

 

Ok so it all starts with Alain starting up the TDU2 playable build that was as far as I can remember a recent build of a few days or so. The first thing I noticed was that the menu screen showed the last car you were using in a location, this particular one being on the beach with the sound of the sea waves and birds in the background however note this screen did say WIP so perhaps this is not how it will appear in the final game. Alright enough of that here we go. The motion is made to us to come on down and play, Fabien goes first as he is closest so I get to bear witness to actual TDU2 gameplay by a pro (:p) and see what I myself will also be doing afterwards.

 

It all starts in a garage where there are 3 cars sitting waiting to be played with. These 3 are already known as we have the Ford Mustang muscle car (not the same one or the Shelby from the first game ;)), the stunning blue Audi TT-RS and the Pagani Zonda Cinque. The first thing Fabien does is walks around and checks out the Audi, crouching down by pressing the RT of the Xbox 360 pad he gets up close and has a look at the paintwork and the interior. The interiors are unbelievable, the textures are so lifelike you will actually feel like you can touch them, no joke they are that well done and it’s clear to see that Eden are very very very very very proud of them and so they should be. Jumping into the car now and having a look around inside it and now starting it up there’s a nice sound from the Audi. Revving it up is good too, the sounds are improved for sure and if you have a good sound system you will get even more joy out of it which I will elaborate on later. At this point David says to us that the dials will be working in all the cars, unlike the last game where if it was a digital dash there was no display this will no longer be the case, a smile formed on my face at hearing this but unfortunately I could not see this in the build we were looking at and getting to play but I cannot wait to see this for myself and who knows maybe the startup sequence in the Aston Martins might actually be in too. Like I said we didn’t see this for ourselves so all we have is David Nadals word on this but hey come on what better word could you have!

 

Out of the Audi now and Fabien takes a wander around to the Mustang and does the same crouch and stare at all the details, from the badges to the old style wheel the car is reproduced to an extremely high standard. The vehicle artists have done an incredible job and out on the road the cars you see in the garage is the car you see on the road, no tricks here as David Nadal was only to happy to point out. Quick check on the Zonda and we are back to the Audi. One small thing about the menu at this part was that the wording is easy to misunderstand. ‘Select’ and ‘Enter’ are the top 2 options now it does make sense but like I said it is easy to get wrong as ‘Select’ is for choosing that car and going for a drive in it whereas ‘Enter’ is to get into the car and view it from it’s Interior. Like I said it’s a small thing but maybe the wording could be looked at as like I said it did catch Fabien out and I only realised what option to select in my go due to his confusion at this part. Anyway just a small observation, now onto the road we go.

 

The first thing you notice about TDU2 is that it is a very impressive looking game, if I had to describe it it’s like a cleaner TDU, the colours are more vibrant and as I mentioned above the plantlife and buildings are well varied and vary from quite full to bits and pieces dotted around. The roads are superb, the textures are sharp, there is no drop off at the edge either and the distinction between gravel, tarmac and grass blends in beautifully with each other. While watching Fabien driving around I spot something …a bus, yes I tell no lie a bus was a traffic car and not only that there was vans, trucks and the obligatory cars and fire engines seen driving around in TDU (not the same ones just the same in general). There was also Police making their way round, in this build they didn’t do anything and there wasn’t really much said about what they will do if anything but despite nothing being seen or talked about, the aforementioned in an interview notification did show itself so perhaps Eden are keeping this one very close to their chests indeed. :D

 

After driving the Audi for a while Fabien switches to the Mustang, in a style that could be straight from a 70’s movie he takes off and starts gunning it down the roads of Ibiza, reaching the redline and bouncing off the limiter Fabien narrowly avoids oncoming traffic and flies past traffic on his side, coming up to a curve it’s clear that the weight of the cars and brakes are now much better as with too short a distance and too much speed he goes off the road and into the vast greenery showing another little nicety that the vegetation has varying degrees of how it impacts your car. What I mean by this is on the grass the car can’t go as fast as on the road, if you drive over a bush or shrub you no longer just stop dead you slow a little before vaulting over it, hit too hard and you will damage your pride and joy and try and play chicken with a tree and you will lose as come on it’s a tree, what do you expect! So that was very unexpected but welcome to see.

 

With those 2 down it’s now time to embrace the insanity that is the Zonda and where better to test this maniac out than on a track, that’s right there is a track in TDU2 that you can race around at high speed aiming for those apex’s and cutting down on your laptimes. With the aids on the Zonda gripped hard and pushed crazy speeds, braking and turning are also helped by the aids so if you want to stay on the road and have the car be as easy to control as possible then you can do so. At the other end with no aids the car did take on a new life, it was a lot more prone to oversteer and you had to watch how you countersteered otherwise the car would just snap back on you. Part of this was due to the inability to adjust the steering sensitivity as it was very instant left and right motions which is perfect for the arcade or casual racer but for those who like a bit more feeling we were assured settings would allow for a much more as the player wants play style. One thing that did somewhat… not annoy me but made me think “huh” was when the man from Atari said “even with no aids the car still has to be manageable”. Now don’t look at that as the final call as with the beta and such coming up I’m sure feedback will be plentiful but when I heard this I was thinking if you choose no aids the car should be somewhat of a menace and be somewhat unpredictable - especially when as powerful as the Zonda Cinque is - when you are literally throwing the power down, this was certainly the case for the most part but as I will tell you in my own playtest below there was a seemingly apparent hesitance for the car to want to swap ends unless you were in the process of spinning round.

 

The last section of the playtest was a nice set of twisties up in the hills to the East, placed here in the Zonda still with no aids and blind turns and crests was something else. Trying to keep the Zonda on the road and facing the right way while negotiating tight turns, oncoming traffic and road barriers was difficult but a lot fun. Fabien ended up doing well and only jumped off the road a couple of times to the joy of Eden who seemed to laugh with every incident that happened. All in all TDU2 from watching looked mighty impressive and now it was my turn to get a first hand feel for it. Here we go!

 

Playing TDU2

 

So it was my turn now, watching Fabien and listening to some of the discussion between them I had some of the controls down and jumped right in again from the Garage. I decided to check out the Mustang first and had a look around and using the crouch button along with moving around I probably resembled a jack-in-a-box to anyone who might have been watching. Opening the doors and looking into the cars interior everything looked so good. Stepping into the car I had a look around with the Right Stick and then started her up. Woah, that was nice, the Mustang has a nice growl on ignition and rumbles very deceptively with an almost smooth growl. Revving this US piece of nostalgia was also very satisfying and redlining produced an angry sound that not even a rodeo clown would dare to tame, the sound of this car was good if you couldn’t tell. I had a quick sprint round the Audi and the Cinque and then back to the Mustang to try out and see what the RWD handling was really like.

 

And as you would expect the handling was very fitting of a muscle car, it tended to lounge about and was somewhat heavy in the turns, you could almost imagine your driver being thrown into the bottom of the door while still hanging on to the wheel for dear life and shouting “turn damn you” (think Hammond in Clarksons Mercedes Cottage). Throwing the car around the turns and shaking the wheel from left to right even with the aids on started to kick the tail out, you need speed for it but it was happening and pressing ‘X’ for the handbrake to get a nice slide into an oncoming traffic car ..I mean to perfectly slide around and carry on at high speed was fun. Driving at high speed I make my through a few turns and find a fairly long stretch of road. Gunning the accelerator I climb up to and beyond 130mph and then without seeing it coming a bit of a hill and wooo doggy I’m airborne …but only for a brief time, no more moon gravity in TDU2 guys, you come down in a timely manner now. Still carrying on at high speed I try and negotiate between traffic *crash* nope didn’t make that one and there’s a nice little effect on the screen with a split second blur and maybe even a flash of red though I’m not sure on that last bit. Oh while driving you have a HUD on the top centre which will show you how your current money accumulation is going and also what sort of bonus or multiplier you have, rack up the goods and don’t hit anything or spin out and it’s yours and banked. Oh the ‘Back’ button is no longer the reset, it’s ‘B’ (again Xbox 360 pad) and you have to hold it for a second or two. Back is what shows the map now due to Left being set for immediate car functions; Left: Left Indicator Right: Right Indicator Up: Roof control Down: Windows. Not sure about the lights and stuff though earlier in the presentation it was said while showing the Night that the lights come on automatically but they can also be done manually. Maybe that’s changed or going to change I’m not sure, I’ll try and get clarification on that.

 

Well enough of the Stang let’s try the safe and dependable Audi, AWD so as you would expect it sticks to the road and stick to the road it does. This was the car that made me realise that the signs are destructible, stop signs, motorway/highway signs everything apart from lamp posts from what was said can be knocked over. This is due to as I was finding out throwing the cars around the turns in built up areas is kind of tough and you would tend to under or overshoot a turn and thus career right into a brilliantly placed sign. In TDU rocks and tree stumps were out to get you, now it’s signs so beware people they are good. Forgetting where I was I started to drive down the Left lane and was wondering why everyone but myself was going the wrong way then it clicked, the button to put the roof up of course. So gave it a try and watching the roof opening and then closing down trapping my avatar in a furnace was a joy to behold, if you remember watching the roof go up and down on Midnight Club Los Angeles then this will give you the same feeling. In summary the Audi is a safe car, easy to drive and quite nippy and brilliant for taking roundabouts ;).

 

Finally I get my hands on the Zonda Cinque, this thing is mental, it looks crazy from the outside and is equally nuts inside. The sound is good again it’s a decent representation of the car itself and if you have a nice 5.1 or above sound system you’ll get the full benefit. With the Zonda like before with Fabien I was put on the track, again going for it and trying to hit the corners and take the racing line the car showed its speed and agility really well. All the cars have been driven in the game with the aids on up to and including this point. Now it’s time to dance and the aids are removed, I rev the car as hard as I can and it starts to leave a black line on the track where the tyres are trying to grip and then finally they do and off we go, following the same not very good line I had before it was noticeable the differences between the safety of the aids and the more in your own hands style of handling via the removal of them. The car did tend to feel like it wanted to peel out and understeer was evident when flooring the accelerator and turning so that was good to see, however there was an easy to feel heightened level of grip and like I said previously getting the back to come out when coasting up to a corner and then just planting your foot wasn’t exactly happening, the car was more than likely to speed out of the turn rather than struggle to find traction and then have you control it before speeding away in a mass of smoke and rubber. I tried my best to use tiny adjustments to see how the steering was and it certainly does feel better and will feel better when we can adjust these options ourselves. I just hope that some of the lunacy that was evident in TDU stays in TDU2 as some of these cars are angry snarling beasts and do not like to be just coaxed about, they like to fight back and put a big smile on the drivers face. Now I know this is a game but who hasn’t played TDU in it’s purest sense and smiled when at high speed over a crest the back end just wants to leave you and put you in a wall. Try the McLarens if you want to see what I mean by that.

 

All in all the handling and physics are a definite improvement over TDU and the different drivetrains and high powered cars are a handful, to me though when in no help mode they should be even more hazardous. The roads are pure bliss to cruise on be it slow or fast and the feeling of weight of the cars when on the road is excellent. Sounds are much better also and there is no annoying brake sound when braking hard or even gently. Damage on the cars was good, you don’t want to be overly dangerous when driving your car as it could end up looking quite bad and a mess and if what we saw later during the walk around was anything to go by, you don’t want a hard smash especially. (not definite terms still being worked on). I never tested a slow pull away or whether you are able to see the traffic lights while inside the car but what I did see and test was exceptional and I’m sure with the Betas and the months left still, Eden and the community will only make it better and better. And again let me say again that we had no control over the steering sensitivity so smooth control and gentle cornering was not really an option.

[+]

I completely forgot to mention about the cruel but funny trick Eden played on me with the Zonda on the twisties just like Fabien before. Going round this section like I said is tough as there are many blind turns and traffic negotiating this place. So I’m doing not too bad going off at some places and such and then there’s a bit of a stretch so I open the taps on the Zonda and gun it, on my route David asks me if I’m looking at the GPS and I say no so I keep going and there is a bus ahead of me that’s slowed down so I do the same, not slow enough as I go right off at the other side way into the wilderness and the Eden masterminds are laughing away at their success in getting me to fly off the road. Great fun and supposedly everyone does it there so it’s not that bad. :oook:

 

 

Some pics of ME playing TDU2. :D

Click thumbnails for larger image

 

 

Fabien from tdu2.fr using the Zonda Cinque

Click thumbnails for larger image

[Eudemon]

Walkaround the Studio

 

Well alrighty then, here we are coming up to the end of an amazing day. After the playtest was over David and Alain take myself and Fabien down to the bottom floor and show us around some of the team. Again just scanning screens and seeing what I can see I catch glimpses of cars being made and dials being created that I not only recognise but which also make me smile broadly knowing that these may possibly be included in the game itself. We stop at one workstation being operated by a certain Jonathan Marole who is the Lead Vehicle Designer and on his screen is the Twilight II in-house developed tool and currently being worked on is a brand new car not seen in Test Drive Unlimited sporting a stunning shade of red. Showing us the intricacies of the tool Jonathan starts to zoom right into the bodywork showing the metallic flake paint to great effect which looks like it could have just had a professional detailing job due to it being so clean and shining brightly. This car was then swapped for another (again new to the series) and off we were into the interior where a pan around everything was given to show the level of detail that has been expressed within it. The Suede dashboard was easy to make out, the leather on the seats with red stitching, the carbon fibre on the centre console and the metal of the vents. Not content with only this we were then shown behind the seats, yes I’m not kidding we were shown this and Eden are not wanting to have this commitment to and level of detail wasted, so they are considering putting in a method of looking around the whole interior so that you too can see the amount of work that has been done and of course have a look at the view of the engine behind you that only the lucky few who get to actually drive and own these ever get to truly experience for themselves. This attention to detail extends of course to the outside of the car and what we were shown next was definitely a surprise, not going to go into specifics but let’s just say the area behind the front and rear bumpers was also modelled. Something David was only too happy to keep saying was that the model quality and finish we were seeing on screen was in fact what would be seen in the game, no tricks, no magic switching between the garages and what is seen on the road, what you see in the Twilight II engine tool is what you will see in the final game. Hmm I wonder who he was hinting at, any ideas? :nuts:

 

Once this was done David asked if there was any car we would like to see, I mentioned one but got no response to that, then I said about another and David smiled, then I said “well if you have that do you possibly have …” and an even bigger smile, a nod and a “yes” was said back to me. If this is indeed true and these 2 models are in fact in then a lot of people are going to be really happy including myself. :dance:

 

Coming to the end now and thanking Jonathan for the time he took and what he showed us we walked over to a small room with a lone soldier working in a room filled with a computer, many monitors and some kickass speakers. In charge of all this technical wizardry was Gilles Camous and this is where we were told the screenshots are taken that you end up seeing on the official site, magazine and of course websites. Unfortunately due to time constraints I had to leave at this moment and couldn’t really delve deeper into what goes on here which is a shame but I’m sure Fabien will be able to talk about this part a lot more than me. So off I ran back up to the presentation room and grabbed my stuff, TDU2 was still on the TV and ready to be played and I was eager to snap a quick pic with my phone but decided against it as time was definitely short and I had to go plus I didn’t want to abuse the goodwill and opportunity I had already been given. So grabbing all my stuff I ran down the stairs and to the exit door of the studio, and then I remembered TDUCk! With mentioning this it was funny hearing David, Alain and Nour saying that they had heard of ‘him’ and when I brought him out for all to meet laughter ensued. I then handed David TDUCk so that Eden could have their very own and without even thinking I was ready to go, BUT then Lee thankfully mentioned about getting a pic of myself, David and TDUCk together, of which you can see below.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to shake hands and say goodbye to Fabien and the others but like everything with myself, time keeping is not my strong point so I long jumped into a taxi and off I was. In the taxi I grabbed my notepad and started writing everything down I could remember which I have to say was damn tough but I got basically all of it and what I wrote down apart from the obvious you have been able to read in this report over the last few days.

 

Well that’s it folks! I hope you enjoyed this report of mine and TDUCk’s day at Eden and I just want to give MAHOOOSSSIVEEEE THANKS to everyone at Eden Games, Atari and Namco Bandai Partners, without them this wouldn’t have been possible. Extra special thanks goes to Lee Kirton, Vince Farquharson, David Nadal, Nour Polloni, Alain Jarniou, Boris Mellet, Jonathan Marole, Gilles Camous and everyone at Eden Games whose screens showed me something great. :thumbsup:

 

Thanks also to all of you who have read this and I hope that it conveyed the day to you and gave you an idea of what to expect from the game itself. Remember Eden are very much watching their community so if you have something you want to see added or improved then by all means mention it as if enough people feel the same, you never know what could happen! :)

 

Cheers!

 

[cschrille]

Can't wait to hear about the lunch :D Anyhow when will u write the next topics?

[khevolution]

who cares about the write up, I want to know what you had for lunch :)

[CLR-GTR]

[americanresident] owww myyhh goohhhdddd [/americanresident]

 

Sounds amazing. I also like those cars under their covers, reminds me of that other amazing Eden product :D

 

''after narrowly dodging a slow moving tractor the big metal beast comes across a wreck''

 

You mean the cabpart of an 18-wheeler or a farmtractor?

[Eudemon]

Well it was decidedly French so I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to talk about it.

 

You mean the cabpart of an 18-wheeler or a farmtractor?

As in Farmer Giles style. :) I wanted to say at this point to David and company that I bet you will see people racing these tractors with the whole Neutral gear/No acceleration down the hill playaround that people did on TDU. But something else was talked about and I forgot about it. lol

[grease]

This is very good! *-*

 

Tell everything to us, do not want to miss anything! xD

 

Tells us about the cars, over 200 right? xD

[Eudemon]

Yeah don't worry more is coming. I'm trying to convey what I experienced on the day so that you can get a complete impression hence the somewhat detailed description in places where it isn't really needed.

 

But hey, that's just me! :monkeydance:

[Carl_D]

Nice write-up, Can't wait to read the rest now :D.

[Baldy]

Great to read, looking forward to lunch! :D

[Flex]

Great write can't wait.

[S71NG3R]

Very well written Diablo thanks for sharing this with us. This sounds just like the game we all wanted TDU2 to be. I can't wait to get my hands on it. :D

[GTAMADDOG]

Great write up. I was suprised by the tractor and you saying we wont be disappointed by the selection of cars only teases me even more.

 

I had to laugh when I got to the bottom of the page to find 12 members and 31 guests viewing the thread - Almost a record from my point of view. Ha ha.

[Eudemon]

Outstanding, just got the image through with David Nadal, myself and TDUCk. lol Will make a great finisher.

[iLLGT3]

Wow this is one awesome read. I can't wait to read what's next. :)

[Jazzi]

Sounds like you had fun then :P

Can't wait for the next parts :)

[EW]

Go eat boy!

[TDUFREAK500]

I wanna see the pic LOL

 

Now 14 members and 35 guests

[CarMadMike]

Great read :)

[T0M722]

Wow sounds as if it was heaps of fun. Very detailed write up and I'm sure all of us appreciate you going into that much depth :D

[Eudemon]

Part 2 Lunch is up now

 

Under the first post or click link below

 

http://forum.turboduck.net/showthread.php?t=19523#post322149

[Dan G]

sounds good this :) now, about that lunch? :cheeky:

[CarMadMike]

Your lunch sounds rather nice, and as you said, it's very french, I've had lots of meals like that, they served it all the time around my town, I've never been a fan of prawns but I love the pate :)