So I've spend a few hours in TDU2, earned two licences, completed one championship, and done some side activities and "missions". My verdict so far is, "Full of Win!"

The physics and handling are enjoyable and, so far, consistent. I turned all the driving assists off (like I always do). It plays a bit closer to the sim-side than most arcade racers. Traction management is important. Don't jam the brake or gas while turning hard. The drift handing model is quite enjoyable and responsive (similar to IRL). Heel & toe (or handbreak) into the drift, control your drift, turn in to regain traction and accelerate out. It has an enjoyable difficulty level, through if you know what you're doing you can easily ace events on the first try (so far at least).

Back to the driving assists bit. Some arcade racers and some sims have driving assists (traction control, stability control, ABS, etc). The way they are implemented varies a lot. In some games it's near impossible to drift with them on. On other games simply having the assists on makes the handling feel wonky or unresponsive. Like their real life counterparts, they are some automated junk that gets in the way between how you command your car to handle and how it actually does. I strongly recommend turning them off (usually full-on by default) and only turning them on (a little at a time) only if you're having trouble -- say constantly spinning out. I haven't played with assists on in TDU2 but I'd guess the physics/handing complaints in user reviews are related to the assists and the importance of traction management in TDU2.

It's a really interesting take on an open world racer. The last groundbreaking open world car game I played was AutoAssault (MMO).

TDU2 seems graphically ambitious. On my GTX 260, on defaults (medium, no-AA), I'm getting 45-60 FPS. (I used SweetFX to give me some SMAA.) It looks good on medium, even better on higher settings. It has some of most detailed (non-mod) road textures I've seen. =)

TLDR TDU2 is, "Full of Win!"


Edit: I forgot to mention, the game started with my pretty and rich lesbian partner giving me a Ferrari on my Birthday. ...like reality, it turned out that I was just daydreaming. I'd also give it bonus points for a racing game that allows you to choose a female avatar -- something a lot of racing games don't.

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