Test Drive Unlimited 2 Nintendo Switch
Jarvarious Hunsaker
In addition to this, it's also been revealed the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game have been axed in order to focus on the next-generation versions. Unsurprisingly, this news has raised some concerns about the future of the Switch release.
The Nintendo version was not mentioned alongside the PS4 and Xbox One update, and it wasn't referenced in the rest of the post on the Steam community boards. So it's either still on the way, cancelled, or perhaps there's some other thing the development team can't reveal right now. One other theory is it could be getting a cloud version release.
Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. He's also got a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog.
@ATaco Well of course, they can't really do much with 2012 techs anymore. I doubt the Switch version is coming either. The Switch at this point is just a platform for last gen ports, retro remakes or remasters, re-releases, indies, and Nintendo games.
If they were facing insurmountable technical difficulties with Switch, they would be officially ditching it in the same announcement - and cloud versions are normally announced from the start. Like I said on PS last night, Switch and the Gen 8 PlayBoxes are all technically "weaker hardware" compared to PS5 and XBSX now, but Switch's nature and tradeoff strengths can justify and sell a relative downgrade where PS4 would be challenged to.
@NinjaNicky I appreciate everything you just said but it simply doesn't effect sales of these systems. Game gear and Lynx more powerful than Gameboy, PSP and Vita more powerful than DS and 3DS. The weaker system has sold more pretty much every generation with portable systems.
The Steam Deck looks great performance wise but let's not pretend it's some perfect system that has huge wide appeal like a Switch. Also the Steam Deck being able to play Nintendo games really isn't a big deal, you've been able to play 90% of their back catalog on a computer and mobile for years.
@NinjaNicky If they competed with next gen consoles they wouldn't be cheap, probably not as easily accessible or as family friendly. So the things that make them sell now would no longer be part of the product and instead they would be the same as their 2 main competitors which wouldn't be a good plan.
I just want to say Nintendo have been following this path since the Wii because their past 2 powerful consoles before that were outsold by PlayStation and quite significantly. At this point they aren't going to change so just seems redundant to complain about it.
They had a next gen console three years before Sony and Microsoft did. But what how do you picture this competition, a $500 home console vs a $600 cooking panel of a hybrid that will get all of said home console's newest AAA multiplats to run them for the grand 15 minutes undocked? Sorry, but realistic people don't quite expect that even from the Gen 10 successor. The shortcomings and compromises of Steam Deck (while a comparison of limited fairness since it's not a console per se) only drive the point further home.
The only way for Nintendo to even chase spec parity again would be to make a pure home console - which, after Switch's success and the merging of the home and handheld production domains, would come across as sheer devolution. Switch can't be weaker than PS4? Well, it is, and it will soon have sold more than PS4 in a significantly shorter while. You're suggesting Nintendo turn their backs on their golden egg goose in favour of the goals that have long left them disillusioned.
There's 1 of 3 outcomes:
1. Switch version is a cloud version
2. Studios are happy enough with PS5/Series XS stock to drop PS4/XB1 versions but will do a native Switch version because the Switch is so insanely popular
3. More powerful Switch launches before the Switch version comes out and it turns out the Switch version is only playable on the more powerful Switch
Switch cloud versions are announced when the Switch version is announced so I don't see it being point 1 and point 2 only really makes sense if it gets put on Game Pass and/or PS+ so I'm leaning towards point 3 given there's been a lot of signs recently of more powerful Switch incoming.
This is exactly how you screw up a game. I'm not sure what kind of mindset goes into this, but I'm pretty sure the PS4 and Xbox One can run a game like this reasonably fine. Just look at all the Gran Turismo and Forza games of that generation! Something isn't right here...
If you want to play this kind of games at the price of a switch just get a xbox series s, that's what I did when the switch oled was released and I don't have to wait anymore on poor switch ports or cloud games, best of both world a switch and a xbox series s.
Still find it odd that they'd cut the PS4 and XBone. They'll come up with some guff about how 'the experience wouldn't be as good' or 'ooooh, look at the raytracing!' but I bet the Pro and XOX would've put on a damn good effort.
When I started Test Drive Unlimited 2 (TDU2), I expected to play a racing game. Not necessarily just racing - I had heard stories that you could explore the whole of Ibiza. What I didn't expect to see is playing through a first-person dream sequence at your birthday party. The strangeness continued unabated - snapping me out of the dream (and first person mode, thankfully) to my real life - as a downtrodden valet. Shortly after being fired for 'dreaming on the job,' my employer immediately hired me for her reality racing show, and tested me by setting a waypoint on the map and having me drive to it in a specified amount of time. When I completed this task, inexplicably she bought me a run-down trailer to live out of, sending me back into first-person mode. This was all within the first 5 minutes of the game. What did I get myself into?
There is some variety to be had, Test Drive Unlimited 2 adds in offroad racing to the mxi, though again, you need to earn a license first to experience it. You don't always have to race against other cars as there are challenges to be had as well - race against the clock, checkpoint, etc. On top of this the social challenges make a return - picking up people and dropping them off at different locations to earn bonus cash.
I have a bad habit of biting my fingernails. Because of this, I can't get the frail rear kickstand on the Nintendo Switch to pop out. The lip of the kickstand is too thin and nestled too snugly into the body of the device. For years, I've exasperatedly asked my partner to use her long, sharp claws to pry out the pathetically small piece of plastic (after trying a dozen or so times myself with no success). I've always either had to ask her or use whatever tool I had in the vicinity. Well, I can finally say that, with the arrival of the new Nintendo Switch OLED, she can happily retire from this vital duty.
A significantly improved kickstand is one of a few updates to this new Switch model, which sits at the top of a lineup of mobile gaming consoles that includes the Switch and the Switch Lite. It still has removable Joy-Con controllers, a dock that converts it from a handheld console to a TV-tethered rectangle, and it plays the same games. It's the priciest of the lot at $350, but if you don't yet have a Switch, the OLED is hands down the model to get. If you do already own one of Nintendo's mobile machines, then the question of whether to upgrade gets a little more complicated.
First came the Switch in 2017; then an updated model in 2019 replaced it at the same $300 price, but with a modest battery life bump. It was joined by the $200 Switch Lite that year, which nixed the dock and removable Joy-Con controllers. The new Switch OLED is easily the most advanced of them all.
There are four main changes: a 7-inch OLED screen replaces the 6.2-inch LCD, there's more built-in storage, there's an Ethernet port in the dock, and there's (yes) an overhauled kickstand. The revised screen is fantastic, and I promise I'll get to it, but it's the kickstand that has me so ecstatic. Seriously, I had no idea a kickstand could be this exciting.
No need to worry about falls on turbulent planes or bumpy trains. It even passed the lap test! Like a stable laptop, the Switch OLED stayed put on my lap as I removed the Joy-Cons and sank time in ZDR, the creepy planet and setting for Metroid Dread. If you regularly use the kickstand, this change alone is worth the upgrade.
The dock, a hunk of plastic that houses the Switch OLED when you want to connect to your TV, no longer uses a hinged cover on the side where you plug everything in. Instead, this cover is removable, making it easier to deal with cables. (My colleague Cecilia D'Anastasio says the cover on her test unit kept popping off, but mine was fine.) There are two USB-A ports on the front, but behind the cover is a USB-C port for the dock's power adapter, an HDMI port to hook it up to a TV, and for the first time, an Ethernet connection. (This Ethernet port replaces an extra USB-A on the original.)
Until now, you've had to buy a dongle if you wanted to ditch Wi-Fi in favor of the faster speeds enabled by a wired connection to your router. I'll admit I was too lazy to invest in one of those dongles, but I luckily had a spare 30-foot Ethernet cable collecting dust (as you do). I hooked it up to my router and the Switch OLED hit download and upload speeds of 172 Mbps and 30 Mbps, respectively. Hooray! I rarely saw delays in online games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, though that meant I lost my usual excuse of poor internet connectivity whenever Mario decided to fly off the edge of a map.
One unfortunate snag? When you dock the Switch OLED, the system doesn't immediately switch off of Wi-Fi. I had to manually force it to use the wired connection, which is annoying. That said, Wi-Fi speeds are surprisingly better. I regularly hit around 65/32 Mbps on the OLED and 30/29 Mbps on the original Switch.
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