Test Drive Unlimited 2

As an owner of the first test drive unlimited (xbox 360 version) which i loved, i wanted this version just as much.. With the xbox version sold out in record time everywhere, i thought just grab the pc version for time being, then read nearly all reviews with how bad this is... "hmmmmmm should i??" so i tossed a coin which made me buy it.

Ok installed pretty quick to what some people were saying.. Updated 3/4 times before letting me jump in, then noticed that it was windowed mode and everything set to keyboard.. ok jump to settings etc/video/full screen.. "aha".. i got full screen... "sound?".. yep got sound... xbox controller?... found xbox controller.. so no problem so far to what ive read.

In game.. yes you can not skip the cut scenes with all the bad voice over acting (god knows where they got these voice actors from... must of been eastenders!!) then your in a ferrari (dream) and your first drive.. Ok!! controllers need sorting out, its way way to sensitive on the xbox sticks, so after a little bit of messing around with sliders, " there.. that aint too bad now" then before you know it (and a few more cut scenes)your in a race, got your first car, and getting out there with the other players.. not bad at all.

But it does have some annoying problems at the mo... First of all, the annoying cut scenes which you just dont need that keep popping up to every race series your about to start..also every bloomin american thats logged in with headsets on that just suddenly come up very loudly on the speakers with rock music playing in the back ground!! whats this, a commercial for nirvana!! (actually i had that problem in the first one). Car getting stuck on some very low kerbs. And the odd time out connection.

But besides them (what ive experienced so far) the game is almost as decent as the first one, but as ive said i played the first td-unlimited on xbox not pc and this is my first go at the pc version, and to give it credit aint too bad at all.

So im running this on a windows 64bit quad core machine 4gb ram with an nvidea gforce 9800gt and all graphics upto full with no lags in cities or when driving like a nut!!

There are patches every other day to the game so the team do seem to be getting on top of the problems and as i type the servers are down with a major update to the servers.. so at the mo you will need patience with this pc game.

But all in all im upto lvl 10 and having a blast... you decide?

After reading some of the previous reviews, I was a bit sceptical about purchasing this game. However, I am glad that I did.
The install time is not as bad as one reviewer makes out. It only took my computer 15 minutes to install the game fully. And considering that the game is over 15GB in installation size, that is fairly impressive.
After starting the game, I changed the controller type to my xbox 360 controller, and all the controls were instantly mapped to the controller, ready for use. Sound was perfect from the start. Some reviewers complain that you have to press alt+enter to get the game running in full screen mode. I found that I had to do that the 1st time, and its remembered since.
The graphics of the game are fantastic. On my system (AMD Phenom 965 @3.4GHz, 1GB HD5770, 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM), I can run the game at full graphics without the computer even breaking a sweat.
The online servers have never been down in the time I have had this game, but as I prefer to play offline, the server status is not a big problem for me.

Finally, there have been so big updates recently for the game, fixing issues and adding more features. These are a much welcomed addition to the game and give the player something more to do than just racing cars against the AI in an attempt to win the Solar Crown.

I would reccommend this game to anyone who is considering it. I've had none of the problems outlined by other reviewers.

I was skeptical before buying this game that it wouldn't necessarily be for me, that I wouldn't be enough of a 'car person' to enjoy it. After all, my knowledge of cars fades away once you start going into complicated numbers and stuff.

I enjoyed this game, though. It's slightly more centered around the racing aspect of play rather than the driving, which is good because if it were the other way round, I can't see myself enjoying the game as much. You do have to overlook some quite glaring flaws though; namely the awful voice acting (it's more funny than cringeworthy, though) and the multiplayer servers being hit and miss at the best of times. Some of the license tests can be incredibly frustrating too - asking a higher performance level of you than you would ever be required to reach during the simple races against AI.

I can't lie though, it's nice to buy big houses and ridiculously expensive cars (there's hundreds there). If the multiplayer were fully functional and I were able to play with my friends in a more streamlined experience then this game would be far better. As it is though, it's just alright.