- 6,820
- Vero Beach, FL
- dice1998
It's crap.
Ok, I lied, it's not crap.
As a first timer to the TDU Series (and coming out of a GT5 stint), I find TDU2 Easy to pick up and play. Granted, the DS3 (DualShock 3) controls are a little funky and weird, after a little over an hour, I found the controls comfortable.
Graphics
The graphics on TDU2 is just plain spectacular. There's no other way of describing it. Both islands feel lush and full of life and to have no almost loading times on both islands (not including entering/exiting accessible buildings and races, just plan driving aimlessly around) makes enjoying the game, to me, more amazing.
The Cars
The game's car collection is diverse spanning classic road cars of yesterday to the modern sports cars of yesteryear like the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe to the modern Hypercars of today, like the Bugatti Veyron SS. The cars are split up into 3 categories (Asphalt "A", Dirt "B" and Classic "C" and you need to get licenses to participate in racing events of each class (the license tests aren't hard at all and only have around 7 per license and each test is short).
The Car sounds, are...not realistic, but try to be somewhat realistic.
That being said, though, some of the car sounds is amazing, for example, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe sounds wonderful (To me) while others... sound like death.
The car handling, which 3/4 of the people are complaining about, to me, feels pretty good. The cars do handle weirdly, but that's somewhat exprected of an arcade racing game. If i had to sum the physics up in one word, it'd be..."different". (Once can put assists on if he/she cannot control a car, it helps.)
The interior view of cars is not as good as some other games (Namely GT5) but the interior isn't bad either. I enjoy the interiors of each car.
Customization Elements
I have not yet dive very deep into customization yet as i'm busy either just exploring the map or doing races to raise my driver level (maximum level is 70) but from what i've done so far, it's actually not bad.
I have NOT visited the plastic surgeon or the hairdresser yet. (to be edited later).
Clothes for your avatar is..diverse.. i find this part of the game pointless and could've been limited to add to more personalization options for your car. The same goes for the plastic surgeon option.
Vehicle Customization is pretty good for this type of game,i haven't done the vinyl placement yet because it seems to be bugged to the point where it's impossible to line up objects and such properly at the moment. (edit later)
Vinyl/Sticker placement on the cars is different from other games like nfs where it's a grid sticker setup, on TDU2, it's a "Free" camera where any part the car the camera's centered at, you can place a sticker (well almost any part).
Lining up stickers is INDEED quite annoying with this camera, but not impossible. Once one can properly line stickers up, the sticker shop begins to be pretty darn cool (minus the prices for some of the stickers..20k for tribals? GTFO.)
Performance modifications can be added to a number of cars (not all) in the game. To those cars that can recieve an upgrade, the performance upgrades are seperated into 3 categories:
1. Acceleration
2. Speed (Top Speed of a car)
3. Braking (includes handling i guess)
All 3 categories have 4 tiers of upgrades which is unlocked when you obtain higher discovery levels (I think)
You can change your car's color to just about any color on the color spectrum (including pink, purple, ruby, lemon, etc.) and also add two tone colors. So far i've unlocked Matte (which is oddly called Matt.), Metallic, Gloss (which is called Glossy) and Carbon (which is actually a full carbon body that can be painted over, like the thin paint found on the Ferrari F40's body in real life).
***NOTE***** There seems to be a bug with metallic paint not showing up at the moment (when you choose metallic, the paint looks exactly like gloss)
The carbon paint job is just visual and has no effect on performance, which sucks
Leveling up in TDU2
The game's leveling system is seperated into 4 parts:
1. Competition - Complete more races and this will go up (max level of 19)
2. Discovery - Explore the world and look for junk cars hidden throughout the map(s) (max level of 17)
3. Social - Get friends on TDU2, Own a nightclub, create a car club and this level will go up (max level of 17)
4. Collection - Buy houses & cars, buy furniture, this level will go up (max level of 17)
All of these 4 seperate progression systems help raise your main level (called "Global Level") to a maximum level of 70.
MOOR (Massively Open Online Racing)
Although i have never played TDU1, i find MOOR to be an awesome concept, to be able to cruise with your friends, show off your houses and the cars you've bought, buy a clubhouse to create your own club, i think it's a fantastic concept.
Dislikes
Some things that i don't like about TDU2, so far:
1. The fact that the voice acting is horrible.
2. There's only 2 radio stations (i was expecting more) and there's no way to get custom music to play on the PS3. (If anyone knows how, i'd love you forever if you told me how).
3. I don't like the engine/horn sounds in this game. Although i enjoy listening to some of the horns/engines in the game, they ALL feel...copied & pasted..if that makes sense.
4.TDU, at this point does not work online for me (PS3) Trying to find out the actual problem on the official TDU forum is impossible due to the kids spamming "change the handling" or "the physics are azz" or "this games broke" which is why i'm really glad to have found a haven called GTPlanet.
TDU2 Online works after a patch from Eden Games, but the online service goes down once in awhile (this affects only NA PS3 users, EU PS3 users are safe, apparently)
5. I dislike that there are more avatar customization options than car customization options. Test Drive should be about the cars first and the avatar's second. Not vice versa.
6.(Just In)
7.(Case i find more things i don't like)
In Comparison
Compared to an Arcade Game (Mainly Compared to Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit [III]), this game is truely a work of art.
Compared to a simulation (GT5), this game is crap.
All in all, i find this game worth the $50 I paid for it, although many many people won't agree, i think this game's worth picking up or at least renting.
Ok, I lied, it's not crap.
As a first timer to the TDU Series (and coming out of a GT5 stint), I find TDU2 Easy to pick up and play. Granted, the DS3 (DualShock 3) controls are a little funky and weird, after a little over an hour, I found the controls comfortable.
Graphics
The graphics on TDU2 is just plain spectacular. There's no other way of describing it. Both islands feel lush and full of life and to have no almost loading times on both islands (not including entering/exiting accessible buildings and races, just plan driving aimlessly around) makes enjoying the game, to me, more amazing.
The Cars
The game's car collection is diverse spanning classic road cars of yesterday to the modern sports cars of yesteryear like the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe to the modern Hypercars of today, like the Bugatti Veyron SS. The cars are split up into 3 categories (Asphalt "A", Dirt "B" and Classic "C" and you need to get licenses to participate in racing events of each class (the license tests aren't hard at all and only have around 7 per license and each test is short).
The Car sounds, are...not realistic, but try to be somewhat realistic.
That being said, though, some of the car sounds is amazing, for example, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe sounds wonderful (To me) while others... sound like death.
The car handling, which 3/4 of the people are complaining about, to me, feels pretty good. The cars do handle weirdly, but that's somewhat exprected of an arcade racing game. If i had to sum the physics up in one word, it'd be..."different". (Once can put assists on if he/she cannot control a car, it helps.)
The interior view of cars is not as good as some other games (Namely GT5) but the interior isn't bad either. I enjoy the interiors of each car.
Customization Elements
I have not yet dive very deep into customization yet as i'm busy either just exploring the map or doing races to raise my driver level (maximum level is 70) but from what i've done so far, it's actually not bad.
I have NOT visited the plastic surgeon or the hairdresser yet. (to be edited later).
Clothes for your avatar is..diverse.. i find this part of the game pointless and could've been limited to add to more personalization options for your car. The same goes for the plastic surgeon option.
Vehicle Customization is pretty good for this type of game,
Vinyl/Sticker placement on the cars is different from other games like nfs where it's a grid sticker setup, on TDU2, it's a "Free" camera where any part the car the camera's centered at, you can place a sticker (well almost any part).
Lining up stickers is INDEED quite annoying with this camera, but not impossible. Once one can properly line stickers up, the sticker shop begins to be pretty darn cool (minus the prices for some of the stickers..20k for tribals? GTFO.)
Performance modifications can be added to a number of cars (not all) in the game. To those cars that can recieve an upgrade, the performance upgrades are seperated into 3 categories:
1. Acceleration
2. Speed (Top Speed of a car)
3. Braking (includes handling i guess)
All 3 categories have 4 tiers of upgrades which is unlocked when you obtain higher discovery levels (I think)
You can change your car's color to just about any color on the color spectrum (including pink, purple, ruby, lemon, etc.) and also add two tone colors. So far i've unlocked Matte (which is oddly called Matt.), Metallic, Gloss (which is called Glossy) and Carbon (which is actually a full carbon body that can be painted over, like the thin paint found on the Ferrari F40's body in real life).
***NOTE***** There seems to be a bug with metallic paint not showing up at the moment (when you choose metallic, the paint looks exactly like gloss)
The carbon paint job is just visual and has no effect on performance, which sucks
Leveling up in TDU2
The game's leveling system is seperated into 4 parts:
1. Competition - Complete more races and this will go up (max level of 19)
2. Discovery - Explore the world and look for junk cars hidden throughout the map(s) (max level of 17)
3. Social - Get friends on TDU2, Own a nightclub, create a car club and this level will go up (max level of 17)
4. Collection - Buy houses & cars, buy furniture, this level will go up (max level of 17)
All of these 4 seperate progression systems help raise your main level (called "Global Level") to a maximum level of 70.
MOOR (Massively Open Online Racing)
Although i have never played TDU1, i find MOOR to be an awesome concept, to be able to cruise with your friends, show off your houses and the cars you've bought, buy a clubhouse to create your own club, i think it's a fantastic concept.
Dislikes
Some things that i don't like about TDU2, so far:
1. The fact that the voice acting is horrible.
2. There's only 2 radio stations (i was expecting more) and there's no way to get custom music to play on the PS3. (If anyone knows how, i'd love you forever if you told me how).
3. I don't like the engine/horn sounds in this game. Although i enjoy listening to some of the horns/engines in the game, they ALL feel...copied & pasted..if that makes sense.
4.
TDU2 Online works after a patch from Eden Games, but the online service goes down once in awhile (this affects only NA PS3 users, EU PS3 users are safe, apparently)
5. I dislike that there are more avatar customization options than car customization options. Test Drive should be about the cars first and the avatar's second. Not vice versa.
6.(Just In)
7.(Case i find more things i don't like)
In Comparison
Compared to an Arcade Game (Mainly Compared to Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit [III]), this game is truely a work of art.
Compared to a simulation (GT5), this game is crap.
All in all, i find this game worth the $50 I paid for it, although many many people won't agree, i think this game's worth picking up or at least renting.
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