Really hope the new visuals are halfway decent. The original game looked horrendous.
They're nearly the same. As mediocre/passable/just enough as before. Lighting is improved....... But.... MOSTLY, it's like they only applied a different ENB filter to the game. You may, or may not, like the changes. Personally I somewhat like the lighting better. It looks more natural to me, but know that pretty much half the people love it, and half actually hate it even more now, judging by the feedback on the official forums.
It does not matter though. Because the graphics are the same, therefore, if you didn't find them good before, you won't find them good now, as lighting itself can't make up for all the other areas that are subpar. You might like the lighting much more, but everything else that you did NOT like will also be there, unimproved.
I don't want to post a really huge post, I'm on my cellphone, just know that I've been playing games, and PC games, for a loooong time, and when I say there is no overhaul, it really is because there isn't. Besides the lighting that I explained above, the biggest improvement is........... That the NPC traffic cars now have see-through windows. Before they all had pitch black windows, now they're transparent, so they look quite better, but the traffic cars are still as low poly as before. ****Edit: working mirrors is an improvement as well, but it won't make the game itself look better, and does not count if like me you play in 3rd person.
You will not see higher-poly cars, no better anti-aliasing solution(s), no better LOD, except for fixes to extremely jarring LOD in certain snowy mountains, which were so jarring before they simply are fixed now, in my honest opinion. There are no improvements on textures, or foliage, all dirt roads are still the same texture, ALWAYS the same, whether you're on Pikes Peak, Nevada, near LA or near Detroit, there's no variation still, just like every road in the game has the same texture, everywhere in the map, just like every one of these roads have the same width between them (so all dirt roads have the same one width, all main asphalt roads have only one width, etc, etc), so basically it's still a copy paste job (like in TDU 1 and TDU2). There is a very small increase in trackside objects that are smashable like garbage bags, but no improvements on overall detail whatsoever.
The rain puddles look completely out of place due to their reflections which are absolutely unnatural, and there is no dynamic whether whatsoever, there's stages, and nothing is dynamic between them. It's sunny, screen gets dark, starts raining, then it gets super clear just as quickly as it starts raining. There's no transition from sunny to cloudy to rainy. You don't see gray clouds in the skybox before it rains, it just gets foggy and dark all of a sudden. I don't need a super realistic weather system, but it was even done so much better in TDU2, which is the most incredible part of all of this. There's nothing beyond rain. No storms, no fog-only, not even cloudy, the skyboxes are still static, as they were always.
I don't even want to go on. It's not an overhaul. It's not even close. This post of mine is Ubisoft's fault, purely their fault. If they had not advertised it as an overhaul, but merely as a small improvement, I would not be posting this. They deserve that I post this right here.
This series (TDU1, 2, and The Crew) are my biggest frustration EVER in gaming. On paper, they are my dream game. TDU1 was the first so it was awesome, and their first try, so it gets a pass. The Crew has this incredibly realized world, everything I ever wanted, a huge world, detailed, varied, with actual pedestrians too, but the team that made TDU and now The Crew has always failed at making the jump between satisfactory/mild/good graphics and gameplay execution, to GREAT gameplay execution and graphics. They can't make the jump. Their racing games are like a 7/10 all across the board, in sound, graphics, gameplay, and execution, but they were never able to achieve a sequel that actually took that 7/10 as a base and improved on it. They're not bad games, but....... They are not great. And in racing games, the great ones really grab the player, the passable ones... Are completely forgotten and look completely unfavourable against the better ones.
I wanted to post because I've been supporting these guys since TDU1, which was a great game (partly because it was the first of its kind by the studio, so it had nothing to be compared with), so I've really come to know what they are (and most of all, what they AREN'T) capable of. What could have changed what they were capable of, like an acquisition and a bigger budget, actually happened, and the end result was no better, as proven by the overall reaction of the public when The Crew came out.
I wanted to post as well because I feel really disgusted that Ubisoft advertised a visual overhaul when they never, NEVER, EVER EVER even planned or thought of doing one. I knew right when they announced the expansion that there would be no overhaul. I don't say this to brag, believe me, I'm just a guy that knows by intuition and experience and hundreds of hours of playing this franchise that there was no way they would pull off an overhaul. Graphics were never the team's strong suit, they didn't pull off incredible graphics in TDU1, 2 or the original The Crew, so it was plain clear to me it was NOT gonna be now that they'd finally make the jump, not on an expansion, not for a game that didn't sell that sell. I wanted to post not because I feel cheated on by their PR because I never believed them for a single second, but for all of you that trusted that improvements would really come to the visuals, for all of you, including the poster on the quote, that are still hoping or expecting something that was NEVER gonna happen. I don't want any of you to spend money expecting better graphics. Ubisoft doesn't deserve your money.
I've never complained in my life about false advertising in games. And honestly, I'm only poiting fingers at Ubisoft. I have nothing bad to say about the team that made The Crew or TDU. I think they have passion and try their best. Not everyone can make great games or graphics because it's actually an hard thing to accomplish. And you know, I do believe they try their best. I hope, truly, one day they make a racing game like these that's truly special. I'd be so happy, and I absolutely hope they prove me wrong in the future on what I said about their ability to make really, really great games.
