Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The first TDU was a spirited effort that featured excellent multiplayer, a huge island to explore, and plenty of decent cars. It also had some dodgy handling, and some uninspired races. How does the sequel fare?

 

 

Finally, a racing game with some kind of story that kind of works. Whilst its relatively uninspired, the fact that you start out as a hotel valet, with a dream of becoming a racer of the highest order works out pretty well.

 

After a few minutes in a Ferrari California, you get smashed back to earth in an ancient classic. However, you’ll use your prize money to progress up the ladder, buying new cars, and getting new licenses in order to compete in different types of race all around Ibiza, before eventually you also get to go back to Hawaii to compete in later rounds. The poor voice acting and generic branding of everything does take the sheen of a lot of the story, but as a concept, it far betters pretty much anything else out there in terms of the racing genre.

 

 

TDU2 is exactly the same as its predecessor in terms of scope- described on the press sheet as a ‘MOOR’, or massively online open racer, and the ‘open’ part is where the biggest increase is. In TDU2, you now get the entire island of Ibiza to drive across, in addition to Hawaii, making over 1000 miles of roads to drive along- 10 times that of NFS Hot Pursuit. In addition, there are now off-road races as well to add into the mix, whilst other cars have been better categorised, with on-road racing now split into asphalt and classic classes, so that older cars are not outgunned.

 

 

The handling model, widely panned in the first game, has also been given an upgrade, and there are now also three levels of driving assists to help people out, and by gaining licenses for the different championships, you also get a little bit of a tutorial as to how some of the vehicles you’ll be driving handle.

 

Additionally, the lifestyle part of the game has been given an overhaul. You can now wander around in first-person mode the various different buildings, whilst you can spend your hard-won cash on a bewildering array of clothes, furniture, houses, garages and the like, not to mention the cars, of which there are plenty, including a nice selection of SUVs.

 

 

On the PS3, loading times aren’t bad, but there is a minimum 2.3GB install, but the interface in general seems to be nicely speeded up. This is important due to the sheer amount of content. The first TDU was a huge game, but the amount of racing action on offer here is simply mind-blowing, with hundreds and hundreds of different races and events, from traditional track-based racing with some decent, although predictable AI, to time trials and speed camera trials.