So am I the only one who's excited about his and bought 2 copies today?

I asked who was getting it for 360 a couple of weeks ago... no one replied, so I got the PC version.

Got it on 360.
It's early to form much of an opinion, it's a lot slower to get going in this one than the last one.
However, the car sounds are horrible and shifting gears is so slow I'm getting pretty frustrated with it. I shift faster than this in a parking lot, "spirited driving" in a game should be a heck of a lot faster than this. It's worse than Shift in this.

Still waiting for mine to arrive from Amazon (PS3 edition).
I noticed the PSN store has all the pre-order cars on sale already, including the Casino.

And Happy Birthday BTW.

Thanks!
Stepping up in cars made driving a lot more fun. Shifting is vastly improved.
Enjoyable game, the only problem so far being getting on the same server with friends to get "locked" so you can continue to travel together. The first TDU had this same problem at first. A lot of "server unavailable" errors, which I think is a generic error message. We got that for starting a club and 100's of times when trying to sync up 4 of us on the same server. Eventually it worked and we got locked though.
I think there is a LOT of the original game in this, bugs and all, mainly some updated graphics and map. Interesting that Hawaii is also in this, I didn't know that would be part of it. Nice surprise!
Still impressed with how improved driving is, the wheel wasn't an afterthought this time (wheel support was added to the original with a patch). Much less pinballing around, which results in fewer cop chases.

Happy b-day RaK

I loved the first one and will be picking this one up soon

I missed your post Mags re who's picking this title up, I'm still not sure as to what version I should buy

So you're saying that the first cars you get drive like crap and shift horribly, but as you get better cars, they're better and more fun?

I have the first one and am thinking about picking this one up.

Exactly. First car choices are pretty horrible, avoid the Mustang, doesn't compete well like the Lancia. At about the A2 class the cars start to get interesting.
Thing is, in this game you have to go to racing school for a license, buy appropriate car, then go run a championship, get next license, buy car, run championship...
So, I have a car I need for the championship and a Nissan GTR on the side for the fun stuff. The GTR is SWEET and well priced...about what an Audi TT Coupe was.
Pricing is odd, a car wash is $1500, a shirt $300 but a GTR is just around $50K IIRC. LOL

You can sell off cars you've bought, but apparently not any that you win. I haven't won one yet, but I think you get stuck with a pink Mustang during the storyline which takes up space in your garage.

The big put off in the game is the connection issue I mentioned. A game like this is fun for a while in SP, but needs MP cruising with buddies to keep alive. With all the trouble to connect, I don't know how long this will remain fun.

With it being near-launch day I expect their servers are getting a bit hammered but it will tail off.

Sucks about the pricing and the award cars. Sounds like they looked at money sinks and how the economy worked in the previous game and had other plans for it.

Sounds right. I never got to the top shelf rides in the last game because too much grinding was involved. I'd love to see an option to make cash by renting out properties or cars, similar to Fable. If they wanted to get real fancy, let other players on your friends list rent your rides too.

Something they have to balance though, is that some cars are "overpriced" IRL for their performance level, as auto manus' charge for both luxury and performance. For example, the STI/EVO can easily match some of the performance luxury cars nearly twice their price.

Their forums now have topics for issues on Xbox, PC and PS3.

For the PC edition, here's something posted today:

issues Being Investigated:

* Manual Unavailable - Some users have reported that the PC install did not come with a PC manual. We're working on a solution for customers affected by this issue.
* Amazon not listed at /redeem - This should be resolved now.
* Changing your account password locks out your profile - This has been escalated for investigation.
* Some users did not receive a GT500 bonus code - Soon, you will be able to claim your pre-order bonus at www.testdriveunlimited2.com/redeem. This is not live yet, and should go live around tomorrow afternoon (feb 10), pacific time.
* Disappearing friends list? - Some users have reported that their friends list is disappearing in the game. Please provide me with a link to a thread with 10 unique users reporting this issue and I will escalate accordingly.
* Wheel control issues? - Wheel control issues will be tackled once the major service items are smoothed out.

Resolved Issues:

* Wrong car image for Ferrari GTB China Ed. - This is fixed now. The correct car image now appears.
* The build title contains "QA" and "Review" - Known issue. Future versions should no longer contain the inaccurate label of "QA," but as expected the disc name will remain the same for the near future as they have already been printed.
* Version Discrepencies - This is working as designed for the moment. Depending on where and how you get the game, you will be provided with a different version number. While the version numbers differ, the game is identical. Future patches should bring all games to a unified version number.

Did this even have a beta? I mean servers being uppity on launch is forgivable, but most of the above isn't.

Well, that's PC only... lol.

I heard there was a beta but it wasn't run for very long at all... a week maybe?

Yeah, when you're dealing with the scope of a project like this, one would hope that issues of scale would be vetted. No pun intended.

I have the feeling that this was pushed out by the publisher too early, as is often the case.

I don't think this is an all new game, more an updated TDU1 with some gameplay changes. The server/connection issues were in the first game, there's no excuse for this.
Yesterday and then again today I tried playing during the day and wasn't able to do so--I mean couldn't play AT ALL. I'm guessing servers were down and that if you can't log onto the servers you can't even play single player. That's BS.

Ugh, yeah, nice coaster ya got there. Yikes.

I spent an hour walking around without a shirt. It was most embarrassing in the first driving club. Everyone was wearing the same thing except me. I felt so naked.

Really they should let you go and buy some clothes right away. Simple priorities

I kinda liked it, but then kinda hated it... did all the racing schools...was cool... but the controls are terrible, so I tried it with a gamepad, controls were worst... and now I drive around with my mustang and lose every race... ended up deleting my PC version, and pre-ordered the 360 version, which I won't pick up... with 3 or 4 nice racing titles coming in the next month or two... why waste my time with this... thou I love ibiza and the over all look and idea of the game.

and their was a one day stress test beta...thats it from what I remember.

The Mustang is horrible, or did you get a newer one?
The Nissan GTR is pretty sweet. Actually shifts well too.
That is, when I can get into the game to play it.

I tried the Mustang wobbling around like a fat whale. The Lotus was ok so long as you didn't brake on a bend. I'm going to persist with it but I sense this game has gone a bit Pete Tong.

Looking at the stats for those first cars, the Mustang was pretty pitiful. I took the Lancia since the stats were pretty well above the others and had no problems with the races. A buddy of mine took the Mustang and it was just worthless.

I took the Lancia too.

There are a few small things that need to be fixed (They've really toned down the pitching of the front end under braking/accel) other than that I am having an absolute blast.

I think this is a love it or hate it game, and I am definately loving it. Took my Camaro SS to the track last night, very cool to actually have race tracks scattered around the map.

I wouldn't go with the PC version, It's just a port and I doubt it's a good one at that. Haven't had any issues on the 360, random server switching when playin with friends but I just hammer on the 'join' button and it re-connects relatively quickly.

I just love cruising on the freeways, there isn't another game on the market with the freedom.

Ya, typical with me... I un-installed it in anger, only to re-install it this AM, lol... keep my files... got me a 2nd car... I wanted the PC version for screens and stuff, since no one seemed interested in the game when I asked a while ago...

I got a great system, but get serious pop up... is that happening with the 360 version too? I'd like to see compression shots which I'm sure someone will do soon.

So what now... whats the best way to make money... I'm just driving around, and most everything is locked... need to find me a online map, haven't seen actual race tracks yet... I need money, bigger house, and money for that Ford GT... wish I could rob a bank in game. lol

Are you gonna get the xbox version, Magnum?

If I get this, it will be on that platform.

probably not unless it becomes popular here... why? because I can't make videos like this, lol... and I'm hoping a nudity mod will come out for PC:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3206170.html#Post3206170

lol


and BTW... why in the hell would I give a stranger a ride who gets car sick easy? lol

I am liking this game more and more for the comedy and open drive fun, cars suck thou...handling wise.

BTW, anyone else expecting emiem (or whatever his name is) to start singinf on that opening music? lol

Music is off any chance I get, and the radio is horrible. LOL
Money...as far as I can tell the best way is to just get your license, run the championship and repeat. If you really need cash I *think* you can rerun a championship once you've finished it, but you can't replay a single race in it until you've finished the whole championship.
I've yet to buy a house though, I keep 1 car for championships and the other car is the GTR (class A2).
Get used to comparing car stats. Noticed with the Audi's in particular you could do very well for half the price of the most expensive one.

As for the initial cars:
Lancia > Lotus > Mustang

The Lancia isn't much fun, but all you need to do is run that championship, get some money and then you can sell it when buying your next car.

I thought you had a Black Magic capture card to get console video?

I have the PC version, and I am enjoying it for the most part. One great improvement is in the modelling of the roads. Hills and ramps no longer have really sudden angles as the pitch changes, it's pretty gradual, so that's better than TDU.

I'm not too sure why absolutely everything has to be unlockable. Why is someone with enough money to buy a Ford Mustang GT not allowed to buy some lousy sunglasses if they want to?

Man, I hate unlockables. Sure, don't give the player everything for free, make 'em earn the money to buy the Ford GT, but why the hell should our avatars have the worst bloody clothes all of the time? I dress better in real life than my avatar does, and I drive a frigging Focus with a couple of infant seats and baby spew patches on the carpets.

Reporting in on the 360 version/fanatec wheel:

The H-shifter AND clutch work...

... but the wheel doesn't.


Ok, it kind of does, if you ignore the grinding noise it makes constantly. There's a few other people on the Fanatec forum with the same issue. Something is defiantly not right with this game. I thought my wheel was busted when the game came on!


Luckily, my gamefly copy for the 360 version arrived today, so I can still return my (un-opened) copy from amazon. Atari really doesn't deserve money for this game yet.

Magnum, do the championships, and single player challenges.

There is some popup on the 360 version, but not too bad, certainly not as bad as TDU1 where if I took a fast enough cruise I could run out of road :P

PC servers were down yesterday afternoon, and still down now... what about the 360 version?

Fun fact I forgot to add yesterday: I couldn't buy the lotus when I was using the racing wheel...because there's no way for you character to look down. To be fair though, this is an issue that is more the wheels fault than the game. Still, I'd love to see racing games allow a normal controller to occupy slot two, and be used for non racing menu/world navigation, theres no reason we can't have this other than oversight on behalf of the multi-million dollar gaming company

Tried it today with the controller. Better, but still annoyed atari couldn't be bothered to make the game work with my $400 racing wheel. I'll probably do some races with the controller just to make some bank until they patch it.

XBL does seem to be working btw.

Edit: Spoke too soon. About 30 seconds after I posted the above, the game hard froze, and after a console reset, the game told me the servers were down.

You look down with the Y button (B?), or hit the gas pedal and the guy will lean down.

Hmmmm. I have both PC and Xbox for the original and the XBox was a disappointment, so have the PC version of TDU2.
Took all night to install...started by complaining the it needed at least "Windows NT 3.51 SP3"
It meant XP SP3 of course...which being a luddite I didn't have...

With patches for the consoles announced and PC not mentioned it's clear that the PC version isn't a priority...
Will try to get it running tonight.

Cheers,
Keith

Best of luck.

Thanks, but no PC problems encountered...

Still, WTFWTTO with that startup scenario...boring, unpleasant, stupid
And only one acceptable avatar and only one acceptable startup car, but why does it sound so bad?
(And are Mustangs really that bad?)
And the stupid TFIM thing.
And no on-line servers.
Force-feedback very intermittent but otherwise wheel OK (Thrustmaster Ferrari FFB, G25 still in its box for now).
Its not GTR2....but its not Need for Speed 99 either

Cheers,
Keith

That worked with the Lancia, but the Lotus is too low to the ground for that to work. It's not a "lean" button so much as a "crouch" button.

I think it was Y for down, X for up or maybe vice versa. The gas to lean or crouch was another option.
Either way, the walking around is a crappy system.
Why not use the gas and brake to move around same as the cars? It's weird to have a person walking, and use the wheel to turn him but the D pad to move forward/back.

Haven't touched this getting overly frustrated with not being able to play at all 2 days in a row so I'm letting it sit a while to see if it gets patched or more servers up. Almost shipped it off to Amazon yesterday with a bunch of other trade ins.

Just got my Ford GT and went to Hawaii... got an old bunker as a house there, lol.

Screens in screenshot forum. Love the game hate the driving model.

Totally agreed. I cannot stand the silly background story, and I really cannot stand the idiotic characters. I am beginning to have in-game fantasies of seeing a red Ferrari upside down and on fire, with Tess lying next to it (except for her head fifty metres away in a bush). That might kill the ESRB ratings, of course. Everybody else in the game are just the sort of people one likes to avoid in real life, as well. What is the target market for this game? That whole Dickwads with spiky hair and pre-worn jeans demographic?

I'd like to see a game like this, but with the Top Gear license, and the other characters would be Clarkson, Hammond, and May, and the player plays some other new Top Gear bloke (maybe as part of a trial to become the new Stig or something) taking part in some crazy challenges, as well as the usual TDU sort of gameplay. Cars could range from absolute beaters, with some crazy customization options, to Veyrons etc., and the game would be characterized by wit rather than pseudo-coolness.

As for the driving model, it does seem to vary from car to car. The Ariel Atom and the Caterham 7 both feel like big go karts. I don't know what real Atoms and Caterhams drive like in reality, but in game, they are a lot of fun.

If you could combine TDU's open world for some touring and offroad trips (ala the Top Gear Arctic and African specials etc), throw in Forza for a decent but not quite sim driving quality plus nice tracks and a healthy dash of Flatout Ultimate Carnage for the stunts....Top Gear gaming brilliance. You could even take on other show hosts from around the world and cheat your butt off. LOL

TDU2 is a douchebag simulator

It's very unpolished but still pretty fun.

I'm done till patched a few times... thou I like the game alot, hate the driving feel... now that I'm in Hawaii... every 30 mins or so i get a lock up, not one with Isbisa.

See TDU2 in a month or so.

I'm just getting warmed up with this one

Noticed on RSC they found something on the patches:
http://www.racesimcentral.com/news/2011/02/state-of-the-game-test-drive-unlimited-2/#more-5333



24 hrs isn't long for testing, might even see new issues pop up, but I suspect they've been working on this for longer than the game has been out.
Gotta love the pc for getting patches quickly due to less red tape.

The testing will be irrelevant and new issues will be pushed to another patch, if any, I would imagine.

That will be 24 hours of final acceptance testing...on top of the unit testing, system testing and regression testing performed previously....I hope
Also folornly hoping they've patched out the god-awful voices!
Cheers,
Keith

The voices aren't the worst part. That honor is reserved for the thousand mile stare fish-face look everyone in the game seems to have.

At this point I think we call agree this is pretty much a shameless cash-grab for Atari.

Agggggggggghhhhhhhhh

Patch auto-applied......deleted profiles and settings........

Going through cheesy start up for 3rd time

sheeesh
Keith
Edit: Apologies, the patch didn't delete my profile - it did crash the program immediately after applying, and on restart the profiles were gone...but it was actually the wrong user account and I leapt to the wrong conclusion!

I get a certain enterntainment value from bad voice acting, many good games have this, methinks.


While following an ambulance the back doors flew open, I was waiting for a gurney to fall out with some poor sap strapped to it lol

Took a night time cruise down a double lane highway, at 130 mph it was a blast

Bisher, hit the 5 laners on Hawaii!

What a rush, flat out.

I will venture to say that this game is not everyone's cup of tea, but look ma! I'm not driving in circles anymore!!

I love this game. I can play it all day.

I was playing it 4 to 6 hours a day, lol... In my Ford GT I was doing 212 on the highway, wow, lol... I really like/ed the game... but the hard lockups started as soon as I hit Hawaii... belive me I wanted to play it all day, but knew better... till patched, lol.

Ok, I think I'm gonna pick this one up for Xbox.

patch today...so far ok...no lock ups... still need to fixes the controls thou.

Back into it again.

Just like RDR where we spent our time collecting flowers and skinning animals... in TDU2 you have 6 to 8 or so gamers sitting for 3 hours game time (30 mins real time) just to take a dumbass picture and get 5000 bucks, lol...

Nice E-Type!

I like to see people driving cars that are not *the* fastest.

I'm surprised they added the ability to customize your paint. Very cool.

That's hilarious, but so true

I just hooked up my wheel, but is as enjoyable with a game controller, for me...................

I'm really pleased with the 360 wheel in it. The photo thing would be fun, but like Forza, not wheel friendly.

I like character cars rather than something that is merely fast, myself. That said, having test driven the top of the line Zonda Cinque...me wants it something fierce.

Come back to FM3, now that I finally got it. lmao...

I hear ya Skate. I fired up TDU yesterday to see how it was, drove about 100' then immediately lost interest and jumped over to Forza. LOL

im into forza, but im just irratated with having to use the controller until the end of april.


IM not looking to try TDU2 until I move.