Not a "review," just some thoughts.
First up front let's not beat around the bush, there's no nice way to say and there's no denying it:
this game is broken. Severely,
irrefutably, unforgivably broken. At the very most, this game should still be in beta testing, in an ideal world the person(s) who
made the decision to release this in its current state should get brutal buttsects with a barbed-wire telephone pole.
Now that I got that off my chest, let's get to it.
Opinions on the graphics are as widely varied as the as the number of unanswered trouble-shooting threads in the official forums.
Some people say the game looks dated compared Gran Turismo 5. Other people point out that GT5 is a bad game to judge against
because it is designed to be a simulation. I say they are both right. This game is absolutely beautiful... if you've never seen Gran Turismo.
The colors are sharp and crisp but still manage to be deep and realistic enough that it looks like a serious car game. A great deal of
detail was put into the car models. Landscapes are very pretty and draw-distance is insane, especially considering at any time you
can be blasting at 200+ mph and the game never stutters and you can see clearly a mile and a half down the road. I don't care what
the critics say, that shit is impressive.
In contrast to the great car models and beautiful landscapes, the character models are a different story.
At the start, you are asked to choose a character from a group of people at a pool-party. What you are really choosing is a gender and
race that will be the base of your character. After you pick one, the game begins and gives you a short crash course in how to control
the options in your car (stereo, doors, windows, turn-signals, etc). Then you're given your first "driving mission" which results in being
introduced to the world of racing.
You interact with people by visiting them or by cell-phone. Eventually a friend will call you and suggest you go clothes shopping and
another call will give you "the name of a good doctor."
Forget the clothes shopping for now, just go find the doctor: she, a plastic-
surgeon, is the games character creator and it costs money.
My little Waifu waiting for her car at the mechanic.The character creator is actually extremely good if you have the patience for it. It's more detailed than a few RPG's I've played.
NPC characters with names are fairly unique, at least enough that they don't look like everybody else, but the voices get repetitive.
When the game launched, there was a glitch that allowed you to get a large amount of stunt money by simply doing burnouts and
donuts until the multiplier capped out. They attempted to patch it and the games online servers have been shutdown since, so I
don't know how the online features are because no one can get online.
In offline mode (cleverly named Single-Player), Test Drive U2 becomes half racing game and half driving game. There are NPC's
driving around that act in place of online players. They will challenge you, accept your challenges, crash in stupid places, piss off cops,
and everything that real players do, but as far as I can tell you can not invite them to your home, so eventually you'll need a working
server and friends to get a social status. Single player also has "driving games" to keep you busy and most are really fun, like this game
where you pick up a late night hitch-hiker on her way home from the club. She needs a ride home, and she's ready to upchuck at any moment.
Oh yeah, the road she lives on usually looks like this:
Good luck not getting that half million dollar Ferrari covered in puke.
There are a lot of cars to choose from and your collection is only limited by how much money you have. You can freely drive any car
regardless of your drivers license, but you are restricted when you enter a race. Speaking of collections, get ready to yank your hair
out and kick a puppy. Take a good look at my garage.
It took me
three days to do that: not to buy them, three days to get them in the damn garage! Three actual days!!!
There is no straight forward way to move your cars between properties, so you have to spend time juggling them around one
car at a time using an empty parking slot to hold the car you're currently driving: not the temporary "hot spot," an actual empty
slot, and the more cars and properties you own, the harder it is to do.
Also be careful of taking (pink-slipping) cars in the game because as of now you can never get rid of them. You can not sell them
or trash them. That pink GTO is going to haunt you until there is a patch.
All said and done, and trying not to be too pissed off about all the broken features and the complete lack of any kind of
support, I am having a lot of fun with the game. Just don't go in expecting a rival to Gran Turismo. If you already have it, try to make the best of it, and ask for help anywhere other than the official forums. If you do not have it but are curious, don't buy it yet. Wait for the patch and see if it fixes anything.
Subject: Test Drive Unlimited 2 
Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:56 pm
