Bigben Interactive Secures Rights to Test Drive Unlimited; New Game in the Works

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Very cool, the original TDU was one of my favorite racing games when it was out. I'd like to see an open world racing game with a large map, houses, and no silly festivals. :lol:

Forza Horizon is good and all, but come on, the festival stuff is the worst part about it. And the map is just so small.
 
I would love to have another test drive, I've been waiting forever. I'm be of my favorite game franchises
Especially since I have all the cars in TDU2
 
Hopeful news.
I hope they faithfully follow the TDU formula. The next island should be also be a 1:1 scale. Oahu was only 600mi squared, so they could make an island larger than that like Jeju, New Caledonia, Grand Bahamas Island, or hell Bali. Or a pocket island to compliment the large island like what Ibiza is. I'm thinking Phuket and Singapore fit the TDU style.
 
The two problems with the past games were glitches and the physics. They sort that out and they've got a money printer on their hands. Think somewhere halfway between The Crew and Forza Motorsport. Simcade sort of stuff.

The next big question is where will it be located? Has to be somewhere fairly exotic, good driving roads, and small enough to be able to be 1:1 without being incredibly boring 90% of the time. I can only think of 4 places that really fit that description. Sicily, Isle of Man, Okinawa, and northern New Zealand.

Edit: the more I think about it, the more Okinawa makes sense. It's about 500 square miles or thereabouts. Just a little bit less than Oahu. But it's much denser in roads. It's mountainous, tropical, an extremely popular summer holiday destination. Good mix of city and wilderness. Due to American military influence most signage is in English. And they drive on the correct side of the road. It also gives the devs a reason to add more Japanese cars, something the prior two games severely lacked. It's pretty much Hawai‘i with teriyaki sauce on it.
 
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Big shoes to fill with this franchise; literally, the maps are gigantic.

The first game is still one of my all time favorites though, & I followed it religiously through its development. My old Atari forum name is even in the manual. So, I'll be watching this title with big expectations. :)
 
I didn't know until after I bought The Crew that it was developed by former Eden employees, but now that I've tried it I think that's really the latest TDU game in spirit, and so much better than TDU2. I haven't played one of Bigben's games before, but looking at them, I don't expect much from this.
 
Wolfe
I didn't know until after I bought The Crew that it was developed by former Eden employees, but now that I've tried it I think that's really the latest TDU game in spirit, and so much better than TDU2. I haven't played one of Bigben's games before, but looking at them, I don't expect much from this.
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As someone who has never played TDU2, The Crew definitely does feel like what everybody has described. It has a little less Sims-like features, but I'm okay with that. It's a perfectly acceptable cruising game with a surprising amount of customization, so I imagine this new title has its work cut out for it if it wants to challenge the establishment.
 
Interesting news, I will be looking forward to hearing more on this as the title progresses. I haven't played a WRC game in years but I have enjoyed them in the past and I recall them having decent physics that were more sim oriented. I can already hear the Hardcore physics crowd shouting now and seeing them angry with the result when the game doesn't cater to the 5% that want hardcore physics in an open world game (this should be fun....not really). I would be happy with physics similar to FH3, not sim but not arcade, happy in middle.

Seems some people are already skeptical that Bigben is handling this. I see this as positive news, Atari no longer owns the rights and it's now in the hands of an experienced racing game developer, overall this is great news for fans of the series which was basically dead until now.
 
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I will be keeping a sharp eye on the new sequel to the TDU series. I played the original TDU with my brother with his old 360 that's dead in the waters by now, but it had a lot prestigne elements that most games don't have nowadays.

I just hope they learned something from TDU2, the way how it was developed or came to be. The game had the most obnoxious voice acting I have ever seen, and the handling could use some improvement. The DLC was a pretty horrid when it had "day one DLC". The Casino DLC was well worth the $20 I spent on it, I wasted some of my money while gambling with the slot machines trying to win the convertible R8. I think the Casino should be in the next sequel, in my opinion it was somewhat entertaining.

I wouldn't mind them putting in a little more classics and some more JDM, EDM, and USDM cars to add a much more bigger list. Since it's the PS4 and Xbox One they should be able to handle the game better then they did before.
 
I'm pretty pumped about this. TDU2 was flawed in some really frustrating ways but it was still fun at times, and certainly ahead of its time. I'd kill for a proper follow up that unlocked that formula's full potential and did so without being annoying.
 
TDU2 is 1 of the 7 PS3 games I didn't put in storage in the attic. I loved it and started playing it again for a weeks back in the Spring. Hearing the series is coming back is terrific, and I only mentioned my desire to see it again to my brother on Tuesday, but I won't get too excited as it is a way off and BigBen have a very chequered portfolio.
 
I played TDU1 on the PlayStation 2. It was a great game despite what it didn't have opposed to the XBOX 360 and PC versions. TDU2 actually had me wanting more when I played it for the PlayStation 3. So while I'm excited to see what becomes of Test Drive Unlimited 3, I also feel that a whole lot needs to be done to get over the flaws of TDU2. And I'm not just talking about the so-so storyline and the Solar Crown. For my experiences, TDU2 was basically PlayStation Home with cars as I got to meet MANY people on PSN, more than I ever did with PS Home.

If TDU3 maybe wants to introduce a third place to fully explore, I wonder where that would be. It could be a real world tour if a third venue could be included to go with Oahu and Ibiza. If you think of Ibiza covering Europe and Oahu as the Western Hemisphere, then a real "World Tour" would have to include some kind of Asia-Pacific locale. Think of some places- Dubai? Singapore? Hong Kong? Tokyo? Sydney?

Otherwise... bring on Test Drive Unlimited 3!
 
This could end up being the best thing ever and a game sold by the millions...or an absolutely depressing way to finish-off a loved franchise without it having ever realized it's true potential.

Being as pessimistic as I am, I'd go for the latter but I REALLY REALLY REALLY want a proper TDU3 that fixes all the flaws TDU2 had and still keeps the things that made it great.

JohnBM01
And I'm not just talking about the so-so storyline and the Solar Crown.
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I refuse to call the whole Solar Crown thing a story-line :lol:.
 
I just hope with the recent trends that this online-focused game doesn't become online-ONLY. TDU 2 already had some races that you could just do online, and I can't do them even in online because there's no one in them. A real shame, I loved doing those races on the first one on the PS2.

OH, there was also the car clubs. There were those car clubs that you could join and challenge its members and eventually become the president of, that was also online only on TDU 2.
 
RodSk8Dude
I just hope with the recent trends that this online-focused game doesn't become online-ONLY. TDU 2 already had some races that you could just do online, and I can't do them even in online because there's no one in them. A real shame, I loved doing those races on the first one on the PS2.

OH, there was also the car clubs. There were those car clubs that you could join and challenge its members and eventually become the president of, that was also online only on TDU 2.
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I hated how some of those Online Only features were kinda game killers.
Like the Casino.
Loved it when it worked but just annoying when it didn't.
 
Coincidence that I'm about to install TDU2 on PC when I saw this. I've never played any Test Drive game and TDU2 is about to be my first. Is it really that bad and not worth to play?
 

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