Test Drive patch coming

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 September, 2006

Plus server upgrades.

Eden Studios, Atari and Microsoft are working on a patch for Test Drive Unlimited, aimed at fixing a number of issues discovered since the game came out on Friday on Xbox 360.

Although the game's ambitious multiplayer ideas have held up well in our experience, apparently that's not the case for all, and Eden says one of its goals is to increase server capacity within the week to sort out performance, Clubs problems and connection issues.

Headline issues to be fixed by the upcoming patch include one that loses the player's progress and has resulted in the E-trade system being suspended. That's a bug, but other problems - like Club invites getting lost, "TDU server unavailable" messages and the difficulty in finding friends - are apparently down to server saturation at peak times, and should be fixed when capacity is upgraded.

For more on the problems and specific information on how to overcome some minor issues, keep an eye on the Atari forum. That post also notes that a small patch was released yesterday fixing a few issues, mostly exploits.

There's no word, meanwhile, on those two free cars promised yesterday, but we understand they're due to appear on Xbox Live Marketplace sometime this week.

Still, don't be too put off by all this - Test Drive Unlimited is quite an excellent little computer game, as you'll know if you've read our review.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 6 years ago

    Cue pointless ranting about how patching console games is the devil's work.

  • Universal_Hamster #2 6 years ago

    Sounds very much like the problems I have been having. Good news this...

  • coojam #3 6 years ago

    "Cue pointless ranting about how patching console games is the devil's work."

    It does annoy me when they patch games because they've been released "unfinished", but in this case, it's a problem they couldn't have anticipated as there is no way of testing it until it's been released.
    Edited by 1 at 12/09/06 @ 13:34

  • ChromeMud #4 6 years ago

    I wish they wouldn't patch games.I prefer bugs because it makes games quirky.
    That's why I bought a PS2.I have many games with bugs and it's fun to see the odd
    crash and glitch.It's just a shame that they put PS2 games through quality control to erase the bestest bug's but we can't have it all I suppose!

  • X201 #5 6 years ago

    It's nice of the 360 people to bug-test Test Drive for the rest of us ;-)

  • kangarootoo #6 6 years ago

    @X201

    Is TD coming our for other platforms at some point?

  • X201 #7 6 years ago

    kangarootoo
    PC, PSP, PS2
    All on November 24th

  • Darren #8 6 years ago

    Some of the bugs like the one that causes you to lose game progress really should have been picked up during testing. I can accept that this game will need patching to address multiplayer issues just like MMORPGs in fact but I'm getting fed up of getting TDU Server Is Not Available messages while driving around. I wouldn't mind if it was a small message in the top corner of the screen but it's a whacking great big box that obscures your view and requires you to stupidly press A to get rid of it. And why can't I upload my photos to Xbox Live. Oh because the TDU Server Is Not Available. /roll

    It's a great game for sure but I can't help thinking it should have been beta tested a lot more, in a similar way to how MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI on the 360 worked. That way the final game's online component could have been so much better and less buggy.

  • markypants #9 6 years ago

    Good news!

  • kangarootoo #10 6 years ago

    On PSP? That sounds interesting.

  • kangarootoo #11 6 years ago

    @Darren

    But they did say that the "TDU Server Is Not Available" issues were related to very busy times, so I think that is to some degree forgivable. Scaling your kit is part of the deal so its unfortunate that they got it a bit wrong, but it sounds like they are responding quickly to what I guess was unexpected numbers of players.

    There are some aspects of any MMO game that you can't test properly until the "Massive" bit is put into effect. Even an open beta won't give you a true representaiton of what you might expect when the game goes live.

    I'd be more concerned with the losing of players' progress. That sounds like a real killer for anyone making early headway in the game.

  • Darkedge #12 6 years ago

    yeah ince of us to test all the xbox live features which arn't coming to other consoles...

  • paulf #13 6 years ago

    played it last night and dloaded an update, dont know whether it was the patch mentioned in this article but the custom challenges were working whereas they weren't before

  • Frogger #14 6 years ago

    The framerate has improved with the first patch ! keep up the good work !

  • afray #15 6 years ago

    And Atari's infamous QA department strikes again...

  • X201 #16 6 years ago

    "And Atari's infamous QA department strikes again..."

    What, you mean like making a patch for Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 but only releasing it for users in the US, meaning that Europeans have to hack the registry to change the game version to US just so you can install the patch?

    Nah... must be a different Atari :-(

  • neuroniky #17 6 years ago

    Atari... the company that actually managed to ruin the name of Master of Orion by releasing an incomplete version of the game with a manual from a previous version... and then canning the group that was building the patches for it.

    And, btw, if you happen to find Master of Orion 3 in a garbage bin, grab it, because with the fan patches, manual and civilopedia it has become a real masterpiece.

  • SwedBear #18 6 years ago

    FWIW - the Launch pack (the 2 new cars) is out. It's a free download.
    I got my mail today with the redeem code for my exclusive car but I'm having problems getting it. oh well, will try again tomorrow.

  • ChromeMud #19 6 years ago

    @ Hughes

    Oh my god,my game has bugs,I just can't carry on any more.
    I'm going to cry and whinge on every blog until everyone is sick of me!

    Ever heard of taking it back to the shop and getting your money back.
    Naaaaaa,that would be like too much work!

  • Hughes. #20 6 years ago

    I have nothing to take back, if a game has bugs, I don't buy it. But thanks to suckers like you who are so overjoyed with incomplete products that they actually enthuse about them and fantasize tears into the eyes of people who actually expect stuff they buy to work, they are bound to become more and more common from those of us who aren't as stupid as you.

    This patch seems pretty mild and I wouldn't have even mentioned it if the cunty club hadn't been in session, deriding people who aren't ecstatic about the idea of having £50 hoovered out of their pockets for broken products.

    Don't let me spoil your fun though, I'll leave that to the ever more buggy crap we can expect to be released in future. Enjoy.

  • Darren #21 6 years ago

    How odd... a response to someone's post that was 12 hours early!!! LOL

  • Hughes. #22 6 years ago

    I deleted the last post because I decided I just didn't care enough, but ChromeMud's hearty championing the cause of shit beta testing made me realise I do care enough after all.