i am now stuck in test drive unlimited 2.
i went and bought a ferrari gt experience steering wheel (with associated foot pedals), and i am stunned at the scope of the countryside, and the (correct) physics involved in driving many types of cars.
there are pros and cons to the game.
pros:
there is about 3,000 miles of roads to drive on.
the graphics are very good indeed, and they make one feel that they are truly looking at environments at various times of day (with various types of weather)
there are very many cars that one can eventually purchase, and they all have unique handling characteristics.
if one just wants to go for a drive in a virtual world, then that is possible because there are no obligations to head in any direction in the game.
it is exceptionally satisfying to drive as i would if i did not care about my real life.
cons:
no matter where i go, i can not get out of whatever car i am in and walk around.
i do not understand this shortfall, because when i am in any of my houses (that i purchased through game play), i can freely walk around in first person mode. why can i not get out of a car at any location other than my houses and walk around?
obviously the "walking around" code is in the game, and every location i go to is completely update-able depending on where i steer, so why can not the game developers make the tiny step of letting me get out of the car and walk around?.
a classic example of my frustration with the fact that i can not get out of the car is perfectly illustrated with my following paragraph.
there is a part of the game which requires me to locate old car wrecks, and when i locate enough of them, i can have a custom made vehicle.
there is a sensor that alerts me with a flashing icon as to the fact that i am within a short distance of a car wreck. the alert beeps faster when i am closer to where the wreck is.
i very much want to get out of the car and just walk and find the wreck, because it would be so much easier than having to drive my car (which sometimes entails having to make 9 point turns to extricate my self from a place i have found my self wedged in) to find it.
also, i do not like the fact that there is no controller gradation pertinent to acceleration.
when i first got the game, i thought it was good, but i had to steer with the left and right arrow buttons on the keyboard, and i had to accelerate using the up arrow key, and slow down using the down arrow key.
it was a jerky experience and i decided to buy a steering wheel for 2 reasons.
the first reason was that keyboard polling only yields whether the button is depressed or not, so when i press the left arrow key, the interpreter sees that as a complete turn of the steering wheel to left lock, and the car slides out of control.
i thought a steering wheel was necessary, and i was correct. i can now steer with gradation.
acceleration is another matter,
when one presses the up arrow, the car instantly attains maximum revs and takes off, and i am then responsible for controlling a hair raising ride to whatever destination i am headed to.
the only answer to this is to "prime" (ie tap it with creativity) the up arrow button, so that you get intermittent busts of full power and nothing.
i do not like having to do that. i want to depress an accelerator what is a gradual potentiometer of how fast i wish to drive.
even with my steering wheel and pedals, it remains a fact that when you are driving, you are either flooring the pedal, or you are not pressing it at all.
it is a major drawback to the game.
one saving grace is that there are very many long straight roads where you can get to top speed (if you are careful)
anyway, that is my answer
29 Oct 2011, 12:32 pm
I've completed it before, pretty damn scary!
