click to zoom in on the Viper blades
After promising the addition of fancy day-night cycles to its dignified open-world driving game, Eden Games has delivered the cold, moonlit proof in a new batch of Test Drive Unlimited 2 screenshots. You see that shot above? There's the night cycle, clear as day. And all it took was for one of the designers to double-click on the sun and press "delete."
This just in: Test Drive Unlimited 2's VP of Global Illumination Aseel Houette has contacted us, castigating us for our "gross oversimplification" of the changes made to the game's lighting techniques. "Dear Joystiq," he or she wrote, "I am extremely disappointed by your recent article on our upcoming Xbox 360, PS3 and PC game. Implementing day-night cycles is not, as your gross oversimplification implies, as simple as deleting the in-game sun. That's not how game design works at all. If you delete the sun, the in-game earth is completely destroyed, as are all the beautiful vehicles we've spent months modeling."
When asked how the new effect was really achieved, Houette simply insisted that "it's all done with mirrors."
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Atari and Eden Games return to the islands for Test Drive Unlimited 2, the sequel to the hit 2006 online sandbox driving game. How does 2 compare to the original? The difference is night and day - and vehicle damage. More »
Is no one impressed by your massive stockpile of (relatively) ancient virtual cars in Test Drive Unlimited? It's almost time for you to pick up this year's model -- Atari recently announced that this coming Fall would see the release of Test Drive Unlimited 2 on PS3, 360 and PC. This sequel will offer the persistent, open-world multiplayer racing of its predecessor, while introducing new elements such as vehicle damage, day and night cycles, and weather.
The press release promises "the world's most desirable vehicles," but we all know the best part of Test Drive Unlimited was the fancy clothes you could buy for your character. We can't wait to see what exciting fashion lines TDU2 brings to the table.
