TDU2 playtest at Namco Bandai Partners UK (Keep your Distance video)

[Eudemon]

TDUCk at Namco Bandai Partners UK

 

Alright guys! Unless you have been living under a rock these past few weeks you probably would have noticed myself and most of the other staff talking about a “moon trip”. Well that was deviously our cryptic way of hiding that we were going to be going to NBP in London to test out the latest version of the Xbox 360 version. Yes you read that correct the 360 version.

 

Anyway myself, Baldy, Mellors, Who, Sponge and Jazzi were the lucky ones to make this journey and what a journey too! But I’m sure we’ll tell that to people if you want to hear about it as at the moment you probably only want to know about the game itself right? Yeah I thought so. So without further ado let’s do TDU2. :)

 

Park, Meet and Greet

 

We arrive at NBP towers in London before 1PM and then park up (a story in itself but again that will come later if you want to hear all about that) and enter reception, after signing in and going up in a very fast lift we were at NBP. On entering we meet Lee “Pizza & Games” Kirton and are ushered to sit down in front of a TV with a laptop connected to it, another member of the NBP team appears and this is Peter Oliver (need to think of a middle name for him guys!). Anyway brief 5min talk about what we will be doing; intro, trailer preview, TDU2, pizza and more TDU2. Sounds good I bet you’ll agree! Oh yeah trailer, brilliant, music is instantly recognisable and is perfect for what is shown on screen. New cars and locations will be revealed with this trailer which should hopefully be coming in the very near future along with pre-order bonuses and the pencilled in release date. Oh yes we were told this but no we won’t tell you, however it is still Q1 2011 so don’t worry. Nuts forgot to mention during the brief presentation we saw a list of “confirmed” cars and guys a lot of bases are covered so don’t worry as there is essentially something for everyone. We all notice a little delight that is truly unexpected and when Lee mentions something this car is known for we all laugh and make a pact not to let this little beauty be known and would prefer for Eden/Atari/NBP to reveal this car by the way Lee mentioned it to us. Seriously guys you should it would be amazing to see.

 

TDU 2

 

Ok presentation over, now it’s over to a console and TV where TDU2 is running on the main menu and it’s completely free reign for all of us. Sponge and Jazzi take the 2 to the right and Mellors, Who and Baldy take the left side, Baldy being right in front of the mini fridge that contains many bottles of fresh Sparkling water which we think he might enjoy due to the apparent build up of green bottles sitting next to him on the desk. Me? Oh I was in my own wee room, it wasn’t padded though so I wasn’t feeling quite at home but it had a good view of a couple of buildings and some Tekken posters!

 

The version we were unleashed on was very recent and we were playing the game from the start so had no money and were seeing the actual storyline for the first time. Speaking of which the game starts with you enjoying a lively party at your luxurious home, people are dancing by the pool and the DJ is blasting out the tunes, then a very glamorous woman calls you over and takes you to the garage. She shows you a brand new Ferrari California and says it’s yours, you get into the car and then take it for a spin with the roof down of course. Couple this with some chilled out sounds on the radio you head on down a sunlit stretch of road resembling what could only be described as automotive paradise. ‘Ah this is the life’.

 

“Hey!”, you are awakened by a sharp call by a woman, the same woman you just imagined but this is reality and you are not some millionaire but in fact a lowly valet who fell asleep on the job in ‘her’ Ferrari. She’s not happy either but this is mainly because she is late for an appointment and for some reason she must see something in you, perhaps she’s thinking you could be a world class racer as what she does next is offer you the chance to compete in an elite racing series but only if you can drive her to her destination before it’s too late. A counter begins to count down and the race is on, it’s not too hard though you got enough time to get there so balls to wall driving is not necessary. When you get there a cutscene kicks in showing you that she is in fact involved in television as a reporter. She then agrees to help you out in your new career path and points you in the direction of some friends who can get you started. The first being a cut price car dealer, in here you get the choice of 3 starter cars; Ford Mustang Fastback, Lancia Delta Integrale and Lotus Esprit S3. I went for the Mustang as I wanted to test the handling and physics out and this heavy lurching monster should provide the best means of seeing what’s what in this regard which I’ll talk about later.

 

After you have your new wheels you are taken to a humble caravan/trailer with a pool in the back and a surprisingly roomy 2 (maybe it was 3 I can’t remember) car garage. Walking around your new digs you can check out the TV and see what the forecast for the next few hours is, you can customise your interior, well not much in this first place but you get the idea as well as being able to check out your progress and stats.

 

With all this done it’s now time to get racing …oh but not so fast you need a license to be able to race in these Championships so you better get that sorted first. This first license is easy so don’t think it’s going to be a pain to do these as they are quite short and the school liveried vehicles you get to play with are fun to throw about and test especially the offroad trials but that’s something else for later. ;) With this done it’s time to do your first set of races.

 

We are introduced to Miami Harris, a fast female racer who is quite a fighter and won’t give up her position easy plus she’s quite quick. The Championship is broken into a number of races you can do at your leisure, there is no set linear way of doing them and you can retry them as you wish but once you confirm the finish of a race the result sticks and the points for that result are taken and added to your current total. After all the races are completed which range from a normal flag to flag race, speed challenges, time trials and more the points are totalled and you get a cash reward for where you finish. Obviously winning will give you the best amount of green (or should that be blue, pink, orange, purple and green due to it being in Ibiza?) but the other rankings also give you something so even if you don’t do well it’s not all for nothing. As well as racing you also level up via just driving or pulling off fancy or near to as dangerous driving while free roaming but the values aren't huge so you'll need to do a fair amount of this in order to build up the funds that you could easily achieve with just a few races.

 

With some money in your pocket you are now close to being able to just cruise about as you so wish but if you want to do this offroad then you’re going to need a 4x4/Jeep/SUV to do so. So it’s off to another test centre and this time it’s the off-road license you’re aiming for. These are fun, the off-road physics at this time are more enjoyable imo than the on road, throwing these things about and having them jumping around and hitting rocks and even rolling over makes you laugh. The tests are a bit more difficult but this is mainly due to not knowing the course, once you know the course these are also easy and like I said a lot of fun. With this done you can now go and pick up a heavy offroader and enter a Championship specifically for them. Same applies again as before but this time the racing is much more unpredictable as the vehicles struggle for grip at high speed and dodging the AI that frequent these tracks is something that keeps you on your toes.

 

Free roaming

 

With some of these races done I decided to set out and explore the island of Ibiza and see what dealers and other goodies I could find. This also gave me prime time to test out and experience the handling of the game. I used the Mustang to do this for a wee while and in this build we could customise the controls to fit what we would prefer or want the handling to feel like. With no hints or what to what setting did what I turned a lot of the stuff down which seemed to work for the most however I have to admit that I felt the car still felt too twitchy. I wasn’t the only one either, all of felt the twitchiness of the game was their and are hoping it will be ironed out, it feels like there could be more weight to the cars and a need for more graduation in the steering. Don’t get me wrong the handling is vastly improved but these 2 little things are definitely something we all felt would make it even better. Grip is still a bit too high, revving the nuts in Neutral and switching to 1st gives a nice peel out but there is something awry about the way the car just catches grip after a short time and goes on it’s way unlike the way I used to prefer in TDU and Hardcore mode where the car was a monster and needed you to control it from spinning round on itself. Like I said though this is still being worked on and for arcade casuals and those who enjoyed normal handling in TDU the current setup will be something you will no doubt get a feel for quite quickly but for us who like to feel that power trying to get away from us and want a fight (haha) some more work is needed. I’m sure they’ll get there though as hell you guys are asking for it and we had it though somewhat crazily in TDU so here’s hoping!

 

I’ve driven the Mustang enough now, time for something else so I find a dealer jump in and see some new never seen cars. Not sure what I can and cannot show or tell you right now so I’ll leave names and pics out just now until I get confirmation but I’ll give you as close to telling you as I can without giving anything away that I shouldn’t. I decide to go for a FWD to test this area of the physics also, definitely feel it and the wee car I was in handled quite well and had a decent sound, very reminiscent of a car in TDU but they are clearly working on the sounds of the game as was clearly evident by a few cars that I probably can’t talk about. Sorry. :D

 

After doing some miles and finding more dealers and goodies I decide to step out and see what the other muppets are doing. A lot by the look of it, Mellors is aiming to find as many dealers and test drive and even buy as many cars as he can as like he said himself “I want to get to O’ahu”, he’s determined I’ll give him that. Who is driving a 2011 Mustang and throwing about the roads quite the thing and crashing at the same time. Baldy is drinking his sparkling water while on screen he has parked up his VW Touareg, Sponge is driving his stunning in blue ….erm car and Jazzi is failing one of the offroad license tests for the 2nd time. :cheeky: With them all together an invite appears to join a ‘Keep Your Distance’ race, this does not go well and I really hope I can show you the video of this as it is just too funny for words and within about 10secs I forget it’s not a standard race as I am stunned that Baldred is in the lead. Great to watch though and definitely not the way the mode should be played.

 

Pizza and Impreza!

 

Amazingly Lee must have sneaked Pizza in as when I turn around to head back I see the boxes and each one is missing several slices (Jazzi!) so I grab a slice of the Cheesy one and return back to my cell …I mean room. I jump to the map and see a dealer I fancy visiting but numbnuts me must have moved the pointer just as I pressed to GPS it and ended up going the opposite way towards a dealer I’d already been to; D’oh! So with that noticed I jump to Baldy and drive with him for a bit, Who joins us and then we separate when I come to a Asian Cars dealer. Ooh Subaru Impreza!!! Plus more of course but again can’t say anything about them at the moment until I get the ok. Being a fan of the Impreza I test drive it and immediately notice it looks good and handles quite well but sound of a boxer engine it does not have. However the sound it does have seems to be a placeholder as some of the other cars tested and I’d seen others driving also had this engine note and with the easily noticeable and incredible sounds of some of the other cars it’s very much hoped that Eden are constantly addressing this as the weeks go on.

 

Time for another slice of Pizza, mmm Barbecue tasty! While eating I wander around the others and see what they are doing, I see Baldy and ask him to do a co-op drive with me, so he sends the invitation and I run back and accept. Haha this is something I have wanted for aggggeeeeeessss and since TDU2 whispers were being heard and now it’s here. It was just something else to see, looking out the windows, moving my head and watching Baldred’s avatar controlling the car and such, it was kind of surreal but cool at the same time. It’s then that Who says something about a carwash and Baldred asks if I’ve seen it yet and I say no so he jumps to the map and off we go to get his car washed. Oh wow, ermm it’s something crazy as you’ll see for yourself, if you ever saw the hidden carwash video from TDU then this is along the same lines but the music is good. As the Bald one himself said “it’s ridiculous” but in a good way not in a ‘what the hell is this rubbish’ manner. If we can show it we will if not you’ll just need to wait.

 

I can now hear Jazzi saying something and she and Sponge are looking at Mellors, why? Well because he found the Mercedes dealer and was showing what it held and also test driving some of them. You may remember the article from a magazine earlier this year mentioning the Mercs you’ll be able to drive in TDU2, well it was right and you will no doubt guess that there was others they didn’t mention but of course our zips are again zipped in this aspect but one thing we can say is that the ones that have active aero do have it.

 

As you can guess the day was mainly spent driving round the island, doing some races, cruising with each other, trying to find as many dealers and buy and test drive as many cars as we could possibly find. The odd police chase popped up also, something I am glad to say I beat in my Impreza but that damn helicopter wow it’s quick but the offroad prowess of the Scooby did me proud and the timer reaching 0:00 meant I’d done it. Yay!

 

With it coming close to 6PM we decided it was time to jet so after playing with some Maracas, bubble wrap, putting Pac-Man ghosts on heads and pretending to be punched by lifesized Tekken characters we prepared ourselves to go. Lee was in a meeting but fortunately Pedro I mean Pete was still about so we shared some thoughts with him and said our goodbyes. I also assured him that none of us had taken anything, which I’m pretty sure was the case, yeah pretty sure. :susp:

 

Well anyway that was it, like I said we’ll try and get some of the pics and hopefully at least 1 video up but until I get word I’m not sure just what we can show so please be patient.

 

Thanks for reading and any questions feel free to keep them to yourself. :evil:

 

….oh yeah unfortunately at this time we can’t tell you what the car is behind the Pizza box. :sorry:

 

Pics from the Day

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Videos from the Day

 

Keep your Distance fun

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Sponge thrashes his S5, Mellors sunday drives his Golf GTi and Jazzi fails an offroad test

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Who drives his new Subaru Impreza

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I rev up a GT-R

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Mellors drives the Stirling Moss

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[Eudemon]

Mellors' Report

 

Journey There

At first, it just seemed like an ordinary Monday morning with my alarm blaring out at 7:45 and it actually took me a few minutes to realise that it was going to be a far from ordinary day! So about 20 minutes later I was stood outside, confronted by an iced over car, very chilly stuff. So I scraped all the ice from the car with my bank card before realising that some de-ice spray was in the glove box... But hey, it’s the me thing to do!

 

I finally got going and made it to the service station, all be it 30 minutes early. I waited a while but they were late, an even better start! :p Got a phone call from the lovely Who(Lewis) saying that Baldreds “super amazing TomTom” had got them lost in Derby, also on the phone with him was Barbara Streisand blaring from the radio deafening me. They eventually got there though, 30 minutes late and then decided to go shopping in the service station. *yawn*

 

That aside, we set off to London! Or at least tried to if it wasn’t for the average speed cameras on the motorway for the workmen that weren’t even working. :evil: We did make it there without many hiccups on the way and didn’t get too lost.

 

Arrival

Once we arrived at the building and made our way up to the Namco Bandai floor, or Bandai Namco as the sign said we were greeted by Lee, yes, the same Lee that keeps us updated via his tweeterer thingy. Once we had all introduced ourselves to each other we were led off into an open room, sadly away from the rather comfy looking sofa covered in PACMAN ghosts!

 

Presentation and Trailer

We all sat around a rather shiny looking TV which had been prepared to show us a presentation about TDU2. We were shown some facts and figures about TDU1, most of which we already knew so Lee skipped on ahead with the presentation to the juicy TDU2 section. And it was very juicy indeed. Lee talked us through some TDU2 related things and some features of the game. We were also shown a rather tasty looking partial car list. Which included cars such as the... damn it, where is my memory when I need it, although a large sum of money may help jog my memory. ;)

 

Shortly after the presentation we were shown a new trailer which was still in production. I can’t remember exactly how it went as it was quite long and I’ve slept since, several times. The trailer was stunning though, I do remember that and I can’t wait to see the final version. The first half was all new footage including new areas of the islands, new cars and new features in the game. The second half was partly comprised of old trailers that were presumably placeholders for new footage, of which I can only imagine what it will be.

 

Playtest

After the trailer, we were let loose on the 6 HD TVs, 6 Xbox 360’s all with copies of the most recent build of the full game. We all started new games from the beginning. It all started out at a luxurious house party where you choose your character. I was eager to get going so I just chose the first one to choose from. One thing led to another and we ended up waking from a dream in a Ferrari California. After a short drive in the Cali for a woman who was complaining about my driving, I mean it’s not like I rolled the car trying to drive over a roundabout or anything like that... I ended up in a driving school(I think) raring to get my first license. Once I had passed all of the tests I was then taken to buy my first car.

 

There were 3 choices, the Ford Mustang Fastback, Lancia Delta Integrale and Lotus Esprit S3. I went for the Lotus, I have a soft spot for them and I was then taken to my first home, a super posh caravan. It even had its own swimming pool with a 2 car garage. After that we were let loose on a championship consisting of around 5 races in the Lotus.

 

At this point we were free to roam around the island, finding new shops for various things including plenty of car dealerships with some extremely nice cars in them that were way way way out of my price range. I eventually found something that I quite liked, I’ll save what it is for a later date but it is pretty awesome. ;)

 

After some driving around on my own and crashing the shiny dev Xbox several times we all decided to have a few races together. Follow the leader, it’s a shame though that not of the others knew what we were meant to be doing. I thought the clue was in the name, but hey, you’ve seen the other staff around here. :p

 

After that, I did a bit more exploring, finding new shops and dealerships, full of some great “cars”. I also found myself getting deeper in to the story line and quite enjoyed it along with doing some of the new side missions.

 

Overall, the game in itself is fantastic, the way that it gradually eases you into it and the story line of a whole up to where I got to felt well thought out. The handling of the cars also seemed much improved on the build of the game that we were playing. They are going in the right direction from the early impressions from the game.

 

There were a few bugs in the game, but hey, it’s to be expected and I’m sure they will be fixed by the time that it’s released. And it’s not like they really affected gameplay anyway. Another grumble I have is about the lunch we had, tasty Dominos pizza, or at least I’m sure it was tasty, but I only had 1 small slice before Jazzi ate it all! I’ve never seen pizzas get devoured so fast. :cheeky:

 

I will be posting, more information here as I remember it and I feel it to be suitable to post.

And the day out to Namco Bandai was fantastic, finally getting to meet a few of the other guys and girls behind TDUCk. I’d also like to say a big thanks to Lee at NBP and the other guys behind the day(sorry, I forgot your names, I’ve been to sleep) and also Diablo for getting us and TDUCk to this point.

 

Last but not least, if you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer them. :)

[Eudemon]

Sponge & Jazzi's Report

 

Reception

Upon arriving at Landmark House, we saw a rather gorgeous Ferrari F430 Spyder, which boosted our happiness even more than what it was. We had a little difficulty in parking our vehicles due to an unnecessarily large Jeep occupying 1 and a third parking spaces... Not to worry as the helpful security guard quickly tracked the owner down and she kindly moved it for us with a thoughtful apology.

 

Upon braving my fears of lifts, I closed my eyes as we were transported higher throughout the building. I was the first to escape the wrath of the metal container. We arrived at the door of your company entrance and was taken aback by the life-like models of the two characters from Tekken. I noticed our resident Diablo was taking a rather suspicious shine to the one in black. We were made comfortable just before the exclusive trailer and we were made to feel like friends, rather than “A couple of guys (and a girl) who have come down to test a game”

 

The Trailer and other bits before the play test

The latest trailer to emerge from the Eden team was actually rather breathtaking. We were extremely giddy after the trailer had been shows as there were a few cars we never even though of being in TDU2. Sponge is a little sad as his beloved Nissan 350Z is not featured in, but is slightly happier that the 370Z is in... Perhaps Eden could release a “Spongie DLC” (Hey, who knows?! Ed - He knows nothing!)

 

We were all rather impressed with the wealth of vehicles that are featured in the sequel. We were especially thrilled to hear about the Ferrari 458 Italia. That car will be driven to it’s death by many (but considering how the 458 doesn’t have a relatively long service life... That may be s**ner than we think!)

 

The first part of the playtest

Part one of the playtest was a strange feeling for us PC Beta players. We were used to sloppy, understeering handling and the inevitability of the tree in front being struck as we flail about trying to avoid it. The 360 version of the handling was almost exactly how it should be, perhaps maybe a teeny-bit less grip though guys?? Anyway, we were thrilled and honoured to have been one of the few to see how the game begins, rather than be chucked in at the deep end in a Mustang... In the middle of the road...

 

The story amongst the game is actually quite humorous. The way the avatar (Or Manco, as mine was ingeniously named) was sleeping in the California, dreaming of driving it around Ibiza was rather funny. It sounds like something quite a lot of us would be doing. The first 10 minutes of the test was a little tedious, as we were unable to skip the cutscenes (And bloomin’ long cutscenes they were, too!) So we were having a social chat about how we think the game looks on 360. Our reactions were mixed, we all agreed that the game looks truly epic graphically. But us PC Gamers were a little cringe-worthy to remember that the 360 doesn’t support Anti-aliasing. So up-close to the screen, we could easily see the “jaggies” (Ed - really?)

 

The Pizza

At the request of Jazzi, we just had to have a section dedicated to the wonderful pizza in which you kindly provided for us to devour. Unfortunately, I (and anyone else) was unable to try the cheese and tomato as Jazzi decided it would be beneficial to gobble it all up before we could even try some. Jazzi’s words exactly on the pizza: “Gobble-worthy” ... Yes... She is a strange one.

 

As for the other two pizza’s, The one on the left (which I very much enjoyed) was sweet and full of flavour and the one on the right would’ve been even tastier if it weren’t for the evil mushrooms. There’s not much we can say about the pizzas except for “Thank you” and “Please sir, can we have some more?”

 

Part 2 of the playtest

Once we had filled ourselves with pizza and chocolate bars (Which my mother kindly provided for us all) it was back to business. We all met up for a “Follow the Leader” group session. You would have thought that the title and description would have given an indication as what the proceedings are, but you’d be wrong... Very wrong. As soon as the “GO” appeared on the screen, it was a pit of destruction and expensive paint swapping all throughout the twisty roads of the island. It would appear that we all thought we were in a race until we figured out that the closer we are to each other, the more points we were accumulating. It was at that moment we realised that we’re a group that needs to stay close to each other, not race each other (Which annoyed Baldy – otherwise known as Dan) as he’d been saving all of his money for a scrumptious car he had his eye on only to realise that he must stay behind a mind-bogglingly slow Lancia Delta. I think the Delta had a deformed rear end by the first corner.

 

We then decided to go our separate ways and test different aspects of the game. Mellors was interested in completing as much of the story as possible, while Baldred was more interested in the sparkling water. Diablo was locked away in his own room while Jazzi and I explored Ibiza in our Camaro and California. We noticed that the AI has a tendency to spawn right in front of you, giving you very little time to dodge. We also took part in a few police chases, thanks to Mellors’ “enthusiastic” driving. We remembered that the Viper and Charger were exceedingly awful off road, and we thought to test that out, see if anything was different for the Xbox. It was. The viper was even worse off road than on PC. The best we could do was doughnuts while the charger trundled along at a measly 32mph. Mellors, in the Q7 was over the hill by the time the Viper had come to a halt, facing the wrong way. Needless to say, Mellors escaped with embarrassing ease.

 

We then resumed our individual tour. Trying out the indicators. We noticed it was very easy to use compared to the PC, as the Xbox pad only has a certain level of “turning” compared to a Logitech G25. That made all the difference in wondering whether our indicators self-cancelled. The “Tunnel sound” of the California was something special. It had a resonance of awesome. I then paused the game as a certain Scottish bloke was hovering over my shoulder. Only to get a fright to see that I hadn’t actually paused it, and the sound of police sirens confirmed that. It was then a mad dash to escape in my newly bought stunningly blue coupe. Easy!

 

Break time

It was then time for a short break as our eyes were starting to square off. We got together for a few photos and moments of randomness. (Diablo deciding it’d be a good idea to run riot around the room with a pair of maracas. We then shared our thoughts on the game so far. No one had anything really bad to say, which was nice. The general atmosphere of the room was at such a high degree of impression that no one really knew what to say. Our thoughts then turned to our forum. We quickly sneaked off the Dominos Pizza box and positioned it carefully in front of the screen of a never-before-seen car (The [removed], in case you were wondering!) The box was positioned in such a way as you could only see the roof of the car. The photo was then posted on TDU:C as “An exclusive shot from the London Playtest” Needless to say, the views were rolling in, thick and fast. Only for the mortals to discover it was a pretty much impossible test. Quite a few members thought it was a Beemer of some kind. Bless. (Ed - Haha!)

 

Last part

The last part of our test consisted of races. I was a little disappointed to find out it was an off road race. I say disappointed... It was my own fault for bringing along my stunningly blue coupe. Not going to go very fast off road with that. I took it upon my self to launch my stunningly blue coupe off a cliff and into the path of the mighty Q7. Didn’t go terribly well as I landed on my roof. Baldy was kind enough to smash into me and send me on my way again. I then decided to test out the drift physics. That didn’t go well either.

 

After the races, we proceeded to finish up and have a sit on the Playseat which was in the far corner of the room. I wish I hadn’t sat in it, as I now want one. Once we had shut down the Xboxes and tidied up a little (there was pizza all over the place for some bizarre reason...) We then manned up and decided who would venture into the offices to announce our departure. It took a rather long 5 minutes to decide who was to brave the NBP staff. While Diablo sheepishly ventured in, Mellors and Jazzi decided to be Pac-Men and hold the Ghosts above their heads going “Wob, Wob, Wob” while walking around in classic Pac-Man style. Hilarious.

 

A colleague who was introduced to us at the beginning of the day (And who’s name I have conveniently forgotten Ed - It was Pete) came out to greet and thank us for our hard efforts! We once again got into the Metal Box of Evil and plummeted down at a dizzying rate to the ground floor where we were asked to sign ourselves out. We were all still mesmerised by the revolving door and tried to cram as many as we could into one section. I couldn’t fit in, unfortunately, but when I entered the adjacent section on my own, I didn’t realise that it had actually stopped. Needless to say I managed to walk into a revolving door. Yes... Impossible one would have thought. But not for the Sponge *Does super hero stance*

 

The Journey Home

We said goodbye to Diablo, as he was to get a flight back from London, instead of riding in the car (Lucky so and so! Ed - not compared to the London Underground believe me)

 

Once we had all taken our seats in the two cars, we fired up our 1.something engines and headed towards the exit. As we turned right onto the street, our Sat-Nav decided it would be a good time to lose it’s signal and leave us at the mercy of London’s one way systems. Great . Once we had passed Hammersmith council buildings, it re-acquired it’s signal and off we went towards the motorway. We stopped off at the services as Baldy needed some Petrol, so did his car actually. So we quickly stopped there. Just as we stopped at the pump, a truly gorgeous Aston Martin V8 Vantage N400 Convertible in Grey pulled up next to us. Well... What a dash it was to find our cameras. We managed to get a slightly blurry picture of the beautiful machine, so that was us chuffed.

 

Back on to the motorway we went headed towards the Donnington Services. We pulled in there for our last bladder emptying session of the day and we then said our goodbyes to Mellors as he was to take the next turnoff to head home. So it was Baldy, Jazzi, Lewis (Who) and I in the back of a Mazda 2 Sport. Poor car was revving it’s nuts off trying to keep up with the hustle and bustle of the M6. I think I turned into a “snooper” whenever I saw a sign or an orange coloured box “SPEED CAMERA!” I occasionally shouted. Not that we were exceeding the speed limit, of course...

 

An hour or so later, we took a turn off the motorway and it was Jazzi, Lewis and mine’s port of call... Knutsford. We were booked onto a train back to Chester where we spent our time discussing the day and casually complaining about how fatigued we were. From memory, I think Jazzi actually fell asleep briefly. We later arrived at Chester train station where we said goodbye to Lewis. Jazzi and I were still booked for another two trains.... Lovely! We arrived finally home after another good hour and a half and instantly looked at the bed. Telepathy wasn’t needed to tell what we were both thinking. Bed time it was.

 

It was a phenomenal day for a phenomenal cause.

 

~ Sorry guys, had to remove some mentions but great write-up ~

[Eudemon]

Who's Report

 

Introduction

On a quiet Monday morning, Who did wake up at an unholy hour, for not often did he awake from his slumber before noon, yet today was different, for today the kind ladies and gentlemen of Namco Bandai Partners had invited him, and the rest of the mad squad of Test Drive Unlimited Central to come and play Test Drive Unlimited 2. Although in normal circumstances little could awaken him from his slumber, today, at the hour of six, Who was awake, fuelled by coffee, and ready to head to London

 

The Journey

The journey, at least in my opinion, was one of the best parts of the trip. Not because I love public transport and congested motorways, but because I met face to face with people who I'd talked to for years but never met. The trip started with a train leaving Chester to go to Knutsford, departing at 7:35. Here's where I'd meet Jazzi and Sponge who had 9 minutes to make the connection from their train to the one we would be taking. Naturally, the train arrived 8 minutes late, leading to an impromptu run from the duo I was meeting.

 

The journey on the train was a pretty sleepy, antisocial affair :p although the highlight was seeing a Toyota Supra out of the window. The train arrived a whole 2 minutes late according to Baldy, who we met on the platform.

 

Yes, sure enough Baldred and Diablo were on the platform when it arrived. How did we know it was Diablo? Because he waved page 3 of The Sun in our faces when we met him at the station, as he wanted to share the Tiger he saw on page 3 ;) (there actually was a tiger; Ed - Haha I forgot about that)

 

Safe and sound in Dan's car, with Homer the TomTom guiding us, the madness started to unfold, notably the bouncy road that turned myself and Guilia into 5 year olds, and me and Diablo doing our own take on this.

 

Poor Dan probably has scars, as we were about as close to being 'mature' as George Bush is to being a genius.

 

Besides Homer getting us lost in Derby far too many times for comfort, and Dan doing some suicidal brave manoeuvres on a roundabout, the trip to Donnington services was pretty seamless (even if we did have to resist the temptation to go to Alton Towers instead numerous times :p)

 

Eventually we made our rendezvous with Mellors in the Motorway services. Due to Derby having a copious amount of roadworks we were late and had to move pretty quickly. Naturally this meant it was time to go shopping. Highlights of the shopping centre were finding something for under a pound (A massive brick of galaxy chocolate) and Diablo buying myself a Mocha with at least a million calories. Trust the Scottish to introduce you to the concept of putting a flake into coffee! (Ed - shame they were out of Whipped Cream)

 

Anyway, back onto the road, with Diablo and myself transferring to Adam's car. I managed to take shotgun (hooray for legroom) and the slog was made into London. The traffic was slow, the other drivers were idiots and we had to stop using the walkie talkies because someone official sounding told us off... I blame Jazzi for saying boobies down the mic every 2 minutes!

 

Arrival at Namco Bandai

Arriving at the carpark we were met with a problem. 2 cars and 1.5 spaces. Trust the female Jeep driver to be parked across 2 bays eh? :p. Subtle tongue-in-cheek sexism aside though, the legend of a security guard was a very big help to us, and he actually radioed the owner of the offending jeep and the situation was dealt with very quickly, although due to the pressing need to urinate, the words 'she'll be down s**n' actually made my heart sink and my bladder want to die. Once all of the parking problems were rectified though, we signed ourselves in and made our way up the elevator to the offices of a legendary publisher. Exiting the lift we were greeted by Lee (of 'Pizza & Games' and twitter fame) who welcomed us to the test, shook our hands and debriefed us on what we would be doing

 

The view from the office was amazing

 

The TDU2 Related stuff

Meh, it was allright...

 

Diablo: :evil:

 

Me: *sigh* fiiiiine

 

The Presentation

So, it all kicked off with a presentation, The header saying the words "Welcome TDU Central". (Ed - crap I forgot that too :fp:) We had finally done it and I felt really good to be part of the team. This was pretty much your standard media presentation, to show to the press to show off how well TDU1 did, most of what was shown we knew, and thankfully Lee skipped most of it, but it's always nice to know that a game as old as TDU still pulls in ~6000 users to the servers, and that communities like ours are part of the reason it still continues to be as popular as it is. We were also shown a massive car list (right now I really wish I had a photographic memory!) with a few special surprises for you all.

 

From the Horse's mouth we were told that there are no Porsches in the game, it's a confirmed fact that they are exclusively linked to EA. BMW have a similar story, although we are told to keep an eye out for DLC. Fingers crossed people! (Ed - It was hinted that something could happen after release)

 

Having been shown the carlist, we were given a worldwide exclusive preview at the 'Techno' trailer, which will be released in the near future. Whilst there were not any new vehicles in it I could see, many scenes were still place-holders from older trailers, waiting to be replaced. What we saw that was new though was truly phenomenal and is sure to blow you away when it is finally unleashed. The song was brilliant and the synchronisation with the video was amazing.

 

The Game

You just lost it

 

Serious Business

So, the presentation was over, and we were essentially told "here are 6 Xboxes, all with the latest build of the 360 version, it's more or less the final game rather than a restricted demo, we're going to leave you guys alone in the room, go nuts". Thanks, don't mind if I do... (Ed - I was amazed we left to it, what trust eh?)

 

So, to the Xboxes! We scuttled off to the massive screens and booted up the game, a familiar affair given that I'm included in the [NDA]. However, once loaded, things were different. You find yourself at a party, ready to choose your avatar, similar to the airport scene in TDU, however with free movement opposed to selecting from a queue. You select the vessel you want to put your soul into then boom! If anyone played Battlefield 2 for the 360 it's like when you swap soldier... anyway, that's a tiny detail, your new character will then be able to schmooze with the other party animals. Fortunately it turns out that whoever you chose just so happens to have a birthday, and the party is for them. A woman calls you over and tells you she has a present for you, walk over to her and she'll take you to the garage. This woman must be rather loaded as she deemed a brand spanking new Ferrari California to be a good birthday present! At this point I should mention that many people regarded TDU as 'The premier rich git simulator' and in this respect, TDU2 outdoes it's predecessor tenfold.

 

Having been given this shiny new toy you're invited to have a look at it, and much like TDU the subtle details such as opening windows and doors really complete the experience, especially when you begin to play with the folding roof the California has! The time came to take it for a spin...

 

California dreaming

 

And then there was a cutscene... what the hell?

 

There's you, in a Ferrari California, asleep in the driver's seat. Your shirt has the word 'Valet' on it and you're being chastised by the owner for being late... Oops! As a means of introducing you to the high life concept of TDU2, I will (just this once) excuse the use of a dream scene!

 

The owner has sympathy on you though, and allows you to be her chauffeur to the very important media event that I may have forgotten the purpose of...

 

This was like a hitch-hiker mission, you're given a timer, a destination and a suggested route. Driving the California I have to say I saw a considerable improvement on handling from what I had scene prior, and although still somewhat twitchy at the front end (there's never any loss of grip) overall I'd say the physics are now very close to being at a suitable level for consumption by the larger audience.

 

So, having taken the woman to her destination we have another cutscene. Having heard this from the other 5 instances of the game running, I felt I knew what it would say and pressed 'A' to skip the scene. No luck, in the preview there was no way to skip it, and hopefully this will be changed in the release version, because whilst the storyline is a great introduction to the game and the high life concept, some of us just want to drive.

 

By the end of the scene we were in a car 'dealer' (well, more just a grotty garage, which is a good underpinning of the 'coming from nothing' theme) with 3 cars to choose from. The 3 cars were a Lotus Esprit, Lancia Delta and Ford Mustang Fastback. I liked this introduction as unlike other games where you will begin with a run of the mill hot hatch, you start out with genuine poster cars, which seems fine to me given that it's plausible, based on price, yet it's not just another car. I chose the Delta

 

Who could resist a rally legend?

 

So, getting into our budget high life thrill we are able to visit home sweet home. This is a man with his priorities right. The guy lives in a caravan (think Colin McRae Dirt but a lot less executive) which has its own pool (well, more of a paddling pool, but it's the thought that counts) and he has a brick walled 2 car garage with a Lancia Delta in one of the bays. Keeping your cars safer and more secure than yourself is an admiral move!

 

This concept art covers the choice of accomodation pretty well!

 

[End Of Part 1]

 

~ Is there more to come with this Who? ~

 

Authors Note: University work is out of the way - Part 2 to come s**n

[Eudemon]

Baldred's Report

 

Woke-up. Picked up Scottish Bloke. Picked up 3 other people. Went to London. Played a game. Made the most of the free sparkling water. Took people home. Went to bed.

 

.....more

 

TDU2 – The Day!

 

The Beginning

It was a cold frosty Monday morning and I was sickened by the time on the clock, 5am, and I was up ready and excited for the day ahead. After doing the normal morning stuff, I had a nice cup of Yorkshire Tea (the best in my opinion) and a banana while packing myself some grub for on the way there!

 

6am:

I defrosted the car and got on my way, setting off on my journey to Preston railway station. The journey was pretty boring to be honest, with the highlight being a fuel stop and coffee purchase at the petrol station on route. Anyway, made it to the train station with about 10minutes to spare, so had a sandwich and waited for it to be nearer the arrival time of Andy’s (Diablo) train, well it was bloody freezing after all!

 

7am:

I head off to the platform and wait for Andy, his train pulls in and he gets off, staring around he walks straight past me as I look at him thinking is this Andy? So I do the wise thing, pick up the phone and call him, while walking behind him of course! We have our hugs and kisses, this was an emotional time for us, the first time the TDUCk admin have met face to face, and well we both moaned it was cold and headed to the car! Safely in and we set off to good old Knutsford railway station to meet Tom, Jazzi and Lewis (Sponge, Jazzi, Who). M6 was no busier than normal, and we had some fun singing along to the radio and listening to a BMW roar past us, not sure which one it was but it sounded good, we ended up overtaking it later on.

 

8am:

We arrive at Knutsford railway station and of course being me I need the toilet! So we ask in the station and to my shock and horror they don’t have toilet facilities, so we headed off to the local Shell garage, where I also picked up a bottle of screen wash (need to keep the essentials handy for the car!) while Andy got a coffee and a copy of The Sun! Back in the car and we go to meet the peeps!

 

8:18am:

And the train arrives two minutes late, disgusting! We all greet and Lewis has a cigarette and then we set off, Donnington Services here we come! With a full car we enjoyed a good laugh along the way, singing, and some crazy dancing (See Lewis’ post!) and of course brave roundabout manoeuvres we followed Homer to the services. Passing the Toyota factory on the way! Sadly Homer thought it would be a good idea to divert us off the diversion route to the road that was actually closed, so I followed my nose and got us going the right direction again, and at last...

 

9:50am:

We arrived and saw Adam (Mellors) sat in the car park waiting for us, ooops!

 

The Services:

Well what can I say, very nice, good toilet facilities, an M&S Simply food, Burger King and Costa, BP petrol station was also very nice but very expensive, at £1.25 per litre! Anyway people had a look around and bought some stuff while I had my second toilet stop and another sandwich. Then back to the cars, where we split up, Tom and Jazzi came with me, and Andy and Lewis went with Adam.

 

10:30am:

And finally we meet the M1, and trust me, it’s not a nice road to meet. With 13miles of 50Mph average speed cameras for the none existent road workers and plenty of traffic we made steady progress to London. Arriving at NBP just before...

 

1pm:

After parking up and making a toilet stop we proceeded to the office….

 

The Playtest!

….where we were greeted by Lee himself. We all said hello, and then sat down to watch a new trailer. And it was good, showing some new clips and plenty of other things. The music used on the trailer really does give a good feel to the Ibiza life, and trust me, the music in game will not leave you disappointed (mainly). Anyway after the trailer and a car list we were shown to the consoles, we all chose one each, me by the window so I could see the sights, and off we went.

 

The first few minutes were weird, with the sounds of the cut scenes echoing around the room as we all tapped A vigorously in the hope it might skip them, sadly it doesn’t! After getting the intro to the game and buying a new car it was off to a driving school. Now this myself I found a bit tedious, I’d rather just get in and play, but it has to be done and it doesn’t take too long. Once the driving school was done a series of races opened up, which I did and then went and spent my winnings on a nice 4x4!

 

Wasn’t a bad motor, and drove well, it’d be nice if we could keep the headlights on for when off-roading as that would make it a bit easier, but all in all the driving experience was a good one, I just felt that the handling off road was a little easy, the steering should be a bit harder and the bumps should slow the car down more, but other than that it’s improved a hell of a lot from the beta! While off-roading I came across an off road driving school, which is a lot harder than the normal one, with the challenges being difficult the first time around. It also gave me chance to drive the Ranger (Ed - Ranger eh?) Rover Sport, which I must say sounded great and it was good fun to drive too!

 

After doing that I decided that I’d go explore Ibiza, and in the middle of ramming Jazzi off the road I found a few dealerships and the car wash! The car wash is mental, a bit surreal at first, and whether people will love it or hate it is to be seen, I know I hate the price of it haha! Anyway I got bored of the 4X4 and decided to buy the dominoes car! Great fun, and I even ended up with a Diablo and Jazzi tagging along for a ride, (separately sadly) and wow what fun, we’ve got videos to share if we can at some point!

 

Later we decided a game was in order, so off we went to play follow the leader, worked well until everyone smashed into me and ruined my new car L Feel the game mode needs work, or at least some explaining so crazy people like us can understand it, but hey was good fun and I’m sure once we’re all used to the game it’ll be great fun.

 

Then to be honest I’d had enough, so I started looking out of the window and relaxing before the long drive home, they had a cool racing chair which I sat in and then me and Diablo found some bubble wrap. Now that was fun!

 

Now time for the important review.

 

The Sparkling Water!

The water of choice was a 330ml green glass bottle of Highland Spring sparkling water, which just happened to be my favourite! The lid is a green aluminium screw top, with the company name written on it. On unscrewing the lid there is a slight hiss as the gas escapes the bottle and the bubbles come to life.

 

The first sip is always the best, with the glass bottle adding an extra touch of flavour as it cools the drink. The bottle itself is quite heavy and could do some substantial damage to a head if you decided that smashing it over someones head is the best choice to recycle it.

 

The Journey Home

Pretty uneventful really, got everyone home in time and that’s it as I can’t be bothered typing anymore.

 

The End.

[Eudemon]

Ryzza's Report

 

Pre-ordering TDU2 on PC? $69.95 AUD

Travelling to London to play a pre-release version with the reset of the Mad Squad? Priceless.

 

Actually, no - it's ruddy expensive.

 

 

Wednesday was the day chosen to go to the moon, so I scavenged around for the cheapest flight to London, packed up my essentials (mobile phone, laptop, chargers, etc), and flew over. I haven't been overseas before (unless Tasmania counts :nuts:) so it was all rather exciting. The long trip and time zone difference stuffed up my body clock when I arrived early Wednesday morning (UK time). Once off the plane I hailed a taxi and decided to check my email on my phone - only to discover that the moon trip had been post-poned to the following Monday. :ill: :headbang:

 

I hadn't made any other arrangements, so I figured I'd continue on to NBP in London in any case - just to familiarize myself with the area. While walking along the pavement I noticed someone familiar - Lee Curtain himself. :p I introduced myself and he invited me to join him. Our discussion turned to what I do for work. I mentioned I was an IT Systems Engineer for one of the leading Universities in Australia in their Corporate Education division.

 

To cut a long story short, I ended up hanging out with the IT Service Desk at NBP to fill the time in. A young-ish guy called James generously offered me accommodation, and the time flew by pretty quick providing local IT Supprot as well as remotely working my own job still, moderating the forums (no-one noticed the different IP which was good) as well as testing TDU2 - so much so that come Monday, I had forgotten that the rest of the astronauts were coming.

 

The lifts opened and I saw them come in from a distance. Unfortunately I was in the middle of a job so I didn't get to say hi straight away. By the time I finished that task, I decided to introduce myself as an NBP staff member, since none of them would recognize me. (I had been practicing my British accent). :p

 

Obviously, you want to know more about TDU2. I had never tried playing the Beta with any controller besides my G25 previous to going to NBP, so it was interesting to compare the X360 version of the game. The handling was easier since the controller offers no resistance to your steering inputs unlike the G25 (try driving without power steering). The graphics were very good for the console, and the story mode was clever, although the acting could be a bit better IMO.

 

The new cars I got to see were fantastic as well. I can't say anything that you don't already know in this regard though, sorry :cool:

 

Having extra time to play the game earlier, I got to check out O'ahu as well. Driving through the winding forest roads when it's pouring rain is a fantastic experience. When they get the handling right there is no doubt this game will be fantastic. They've been making physics improvements steadily and regularly, so I have no doubt we'll be in for a treat come release day.

 

Ok, so I've saved the best for last - the pizza comparison. :p London Dominoes is wayyyyyyy better than Australian Dominoes (ours is pretty awful, so I've not gone there in a while now). Over here my favourite pizzas come from either Johnny Boys or Bubba's. The BBQ Chicken pizza was great, but I didn't get that much thanks to you-know-who. :pf:

 

 

After finally getting to meet up with everyone I left early to catch a return flight. Losing time when flying back to Australia was even worse thatn going back in time when flying there the previous week.

 

 

Big thanks to NBP/Lee and Diablo for organising this. :thumbsup:

[Eudemon]

Please note the report is still a work in progress and the videos are being uploaded to youtube now so should be available in the next hour or so.

 

The reserved posts are for the reports from the other TDUCk'ers that attended also.

[TIMELESS]

That was a long but great read. Many thanks for posting so much info, I look forward to the rest :D

[And3rs]

Im not even gonna read that now.

 

:leaves:

[Luchingador]

i hate the not saying rule, i prefer the shot first ask later one.

 

but anyway, looks like you guys had fun, i just wish you could tell us more.

[Who]

Believe me, we have a lot of 'new' for you guys, we just need to have what we can and can't say clarified by Atari before we can post

 

For example myself and mellors investigated the list of achievements following a game crash... whether we can or cannot enlighten you, remains to be seen :p

[Eudemon]

Haha I never realised you guys did that, though I do remember one of you saying something crazy and it is an achievement iirc.

[Mb]

Lazy Jazzy :lol:

 

Nice write up :)

[Eudemon]

Put up most of the other reports also, so make sure to have a read of them and comment and ask them questions.

 

I'll see if I can grab some caps from the other vids also.

[t.]

Wow! lol

 

Great effort from all involved, I'll read it in the morning afternoon when I'm slightly more awake.

[Leadfoot[YT]]

You know, if it were anyone else, I'd be terribly jealous. But you guys are easily the coolest and most deserving. Thank you once more for reporting all this! :)

 

Even if you are pizza hogs. :p

 

-Leadfoot

[zo6dude]

I'd love to read all that right now but I'm tired so it's going to wait until the morning. Thanks for the write up though, it looks like you all had a great time!

[T0M722]

What an awesome experience. And a detailed and long write up to match. Looks like heaps of fun. Come to Melbourne Atari please.

 

I think Leadfoot was correct and you guys are very deserving of such an awesome day. Nice job!

[seven2uno]

I lost the game. lol

[TheElement911]

Great great news ++++++rep, thanx a lot! But about Porche, what about this????

 

the second to last paragraph:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news/news-6789-Test-Drive-Unlimited-2-Hands-On-Preview-%E2%80%93-Sun--Sea--Sand-and-Skids.html

[blackhole522]

Great stuff guys!

[TiagoLima]

News news news news :coolspot:

[FizzPagan2000]

it's good to see nbp finally getting the gears crunching lol

[T1M]

I read most of it but i'll read the rest later. Sounds like you had a great day and some nice Pizza. The game looks pretty epic, too. :D Nice video aswell, and great driving Who! :cheeky:

[Brian]

This game is going to be epic!