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Test Drive Unlimited 2

Test Drive Unlimited 2

Realistic racing takes to the console tracks again as Eden's sandbox title returns to continue its attempt at dominance in the genre. As we discover, while it's looking for pole position, we're lucky to make it the first corner.

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Due to a technical hitch at Namco Bandai's offices today we're not, as planned, cruising around Ibiza with developer Eden Games, a passenger to its personal tour of the island and its racing delights. Multiplayer has been curtailed in favour of a brief look under the hood of the single player's opening hours. It's comparable to the differences between masturbation and sex; fun on a solo jaunt, but all the more enjoyable in company.

To continue the metaphor, it's also something that the enjoyment of increases the more you practice working the curves and becoming confident in the handling. There's more to the sex references than the ease of a simple simile. The biggest hook of Test Drive Unlimited has always been the car pornography and the excitement of bragging rights over a better ride than your competitors. It was hammered home in the original and continues here - a sandbox racer in which off and online integrate smoothly.

You know the drill. Slow progression on a sun-kissed isle populated by NPCs or online players depending on whether you've merged your island with TDU server. Flash your lights to signal a challenge to passing riders and beat them, work your way up to earning new and more exciting rides and generally massage your ego into to believing you're the Don of both party and anything with four wheels. It just doesn't carry the same kick when you're acing a solo run and no one to share it with.

Test Drive Unlimited 2
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But practice does make perfect, and the initiation of the single player is tough going. Amateurs will become frustrated quickly, casuals turned off easily. Arcade fanatics might find little fun in applying more thought and handling going into a corner than a just the quick one-two of brake into accelerator for a power slide. Test Drive knows its audience, and for those Xbox owners hankering after a simulation experience, this might be the closest thing you get to Gran Turismo on the system.

You got to be willing to sink in the time though. The initial licence test, taking you through the likes of braking and overtaking, easy anywhere else, requires some degree of concentration, and the time limits are tight enough that winging it isn't an option. Different licences earn you the right to take part in their equivalent Championships. These days, any other game would let you breeze through these. We spend the majority of our time in this late afternoon session trying and retrying the first Championship, which marks but a small corner of the island-wide map.

Championships set you against a race rival. There'll be other cars on the starting line, but for the most part these rivals that will be shooting up the points-based leaderboard, and also give you someone to focus on in your time out on the track. - beat them and you're likely to keep your score on top of the pack. The AI at this early stage is forgiving. What isn't is your car.

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You've a choice of three at the game's start, once you awake from a cheeky dream sequence that teaches you the bare basics behind the wheel of a Ferrari. Ford Mustang, Lotus Esprit and Lanica Delta are up for grabs. Now we know you're going for the Mustang - the others are as appealing as cardboard boxes with drawn-on wheels compared to some Ford muscle - but it's worth test driving all three. It'll give you a feel for the different handling of each, and as all are used in the first of your driving lessons, it might stop you failing your tests as much.

Lessons are split between three types and teachers, each with their own charismatic characteristics. We'd argue that hardcore fans will care little for the personalisation Eden has afforded the NPCs here, but it's a nice touch and attempts to give the TDU universe a sense of robustness.

Classic is where you'll start, but there's also the opportunity to try out Asphalt and Off-road as well. As expected there's a lot locked on your first few hours of touring, but there's plenty of discoverable places packed into the roads your first Championship takes your through. Once found they're marked on your map and open up further opportunities to explore the island, uncovering other sites and challenges until the island's webbed with pinpoints for your GPS.

The island is an artistic interpretation of the real thing, but there's enough detail in the broad strokes to be evocative of the locale. We can attest to the realism; as we whisk past a beach-side town it reminds us heavily of a rather ill-fortunate trip of our own to Ibiza a few years back.

Test Drive Unlimited 2

As before you can free-ride if you so choose, and it in itself can open up some choice challenges. An accidental (well, okay, we aimed straight for it) nudge of a police car sets off a chase sequence in which the local fuzz congregate on our position. That our control is as assured as a drunk's walk means the action is halted prematurely as we get stuck spinning in a circle on a dirt track just off the road and are hemmed in by wailing sirens. However, a pop-up menu acknowledging our arrest also points out two different divisions and their own progression bars. That we have the option to play as Outlaw or Cop - of which we're firmly in the former this time, suggests the sort of rides we'll be able to buy or unlock over our time on the island.

More simulation than instant thrills this may be, but it does mean hard-earned wins taste even better. And the range of that is massive. Be it snagging the cup of our first championship before the TDU event is called to a close for the day, or simply managing to steer out Mustang out of a nasty slide round a corner into the finishing straight, which had screwed us all afternoon. If Eden can make an arcade racing fan punch air with glee at sailing the back end of an entry-level car just past the corner kerb then levelling it back onto the road without loss of speed, it must be doing something right.

Now imagine that thrill, but shared in good company. Sadly, we'll have to wait a bit longer to experience that. For now, we'll have to settle for solo pursuits.

Test Drive Unlimited 2
Test Drive Unlimited 2Test Drive Unlimited 2Test Drive Unlimited 2Test Drive Unlimited 2

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Test Drive Unlimited 2

REVIEW. Written by Gillen McAllister

"If TDU2 let you approach driving the world's most coveted cars with as much ardour as it does with life's other excesses, we'd be happy to toss the keys to our other racing titles into the toilet."

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Test Drive Unlimited 2

Test Drive Unlimited 2

PREVIEW. Written by Gillen McAllister

Eden's sandbox title returns to continue its attempt at dominance in the genre. But as we discover, while it's looking for pole position, we're lucky to make it past the first corner.



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