So how's Test Drive Unlimited 2 so far? I'm not sure if I should get it, I hear there's been lots of server problems and the driving can be a little wonky some times.
Ahh yes! It's finally out. I may wait a while longer before getting it though as £40 seems a lot for a racing game to me. Not a massive fan of them, just like to play casually. Maybe if it drops to £20, or get a pre-owned version.
You just described what TDU is all about. Casual driving. No one really buys TDU for the racing, they buy it for the freedom. Actually I mentioned it on my blog a few days ago, I won't link, but here's what I wrote: "The Secret Of Happiness Is Freedom …at least that’s what Thucydides says. I’m inclined to agree with him, ‘cause while there’s an almost surprising lack of actual racing to be had, Test Drive Unlimited 2 does feature an extraordinary amount of freedom, and it’s relaxing as hell. I love the more race-focused games such as Gran Turismo and Burnout, but there’s always been something missing. In the simulation games particularly, you’re given so much control over the performance of these machines and it’s practically going to waste when the game then cages you in and forces you to follow the line like a stuffed rabbit on a horse racing track. There’s a lot to be said for the simple notion of escape, just being able to get in, rev up and go. Indefinitely."
Yup it's definitely relaxing. In fact a couple nights ago I fell asleep while playing it, just cruising about on some nice windy roads. There are however quite a few problems that need sorting out. There is no weather when offline, online can be laggy, you can't mute people and there's also a problem where the last challenges in Ibiza (adrenaline challenges) can't be completed. I'm staying in Ibiza until a patch fixes at least some of these problems.
Great, thanks for making me aware. I didn't realise it was a relaxing, casual game as this. Don't think I'll wait for price drop then!
Well, do be aware that in order to make money you'll still need to complete either races or challenges. The races are all very easy so far, easier than the likes of Forza/GT/Burnout/NFS in my opinion, I've come first in practically everything I've entered. The only thing that might make it difficult is learning to control your own car, but the AI is slow as hell.
Grabbed TDU2 on Friday and I haven't been able to put it down since, the game gets really fun after a few hours. Off roading is a great addition, the B3 championship on Oahu is heaps of fun in the Spyker D8 at night. I havent had much problems with the game but I've read reports of saves getting corrupted. I'm not quite sure why it got such mediocre reviews, the game is quite enjoyable.
I think it's mainly the hardcore TDU1 fans that are disappointed. They were expecting super realistic handling and features from the old game like being able to turn your engine on/off (yawn). It's probably a good idea to back up your save data to a memory stick, just in case. But I read that a patch is due to be released soon which should fix some of the problems including the weather not working in offline mode, which is good.
Well the closest I got to playing the first TDU was the PSP version. I think the handling is fine once you tweak it a little bit. I was messing around with the stickers and I feel as though the system could be improved, it was a little clunky and you didn't have a layer system, heck the emblem creator it black ops might be a bit better. And it's great to hear Atari is quite on the ball with the patches, nothing is worst than a dev/publisher that doesn't support the game.
There's a general assumption (but not proven) that most save corruption is because the game autosaves when paused. If you go to exit the game via the XMB it'll pause itself and you'll press quit right in the middle of the save process. So watch out for that.
Ahh... that makes sense, I guess the problem is that most people think that once the autosaves sign goes away they like when they enter their house and think that they can quit and then go straight to the dashboard but doing that causes the the pause menu to pop up and save again.
I've heard that this Battlefield 3 trailer will destroy any COD game to come, just look at the ACTUAL IN-GAME FOOTAGE, great graphics and their engine is amazing! Then there's this awesome inFamous 2 trailer dating the game and showing ice powers for a second or two Oh, yah and there's this... MW3 countdown
Battlefield 3 will own black ops. The new engine seems wicked sick. Plus, they can fix every mistake that happened to BBC2 (which is still a good game)
That's the first thing I've seen on BF3 at all (I've been ignoring it as I usually do until games are nearing release) and it looks damn promising. Reminded me a bit of CoD4 in theme but with that engine BF is just gonna keep blowing everything CoD does out of the water.
So who's thinking about getting Yakuza 4? Constantly praised in Japan, constantly ignored in the West... it's probably worth investigating. At the very least you'll get your moneys worth, those games are crammed with content.
