That was a good article.
The funny thing is, the devs never anticipated a lot of players would just drive around and hang out with friends.
This was part of the reason why TDU1 became such a big success and a Classic.
There is a rosy cover-up in this article about the flaws that TDU most certainly had, but that is the way things work when something appeals or has a positive vibe around it. Small mistakes are forgiven more easily.
In TDU2 you see the exact opposite. Especially on some "fan" sites. They won't see the good things about TDU2 and are only complaining about TDU1 servers who shut down. A large part of the TDU community never really embraced the successor. And now it really doesn't matter what the devs do or don't, the initial "bad" vibe is hard to get rid of.
Fact remains, TDU2 didn't deliver what a lot of us wanted from it. Dumbing down driving dynamics is probably the worst decision the Eden team has ever made, instigated by Atari BTW.
The cool element of just driving around is one of the best parts of TDU. You don't need to do anything you don't want, unless you want to level up your XP. Yesterday morning i took the FXX and drove about 100km in 30 min, just for the driving and meeting some old friends.
What TDU needs, is some active publisher and developer, who like the concept and keep supporting it. With new content on a regular base and improved driving dynamics. And maybe a thing like the Steam Workshop, to allow the community to build a new location for example.
For me TDU2 will always be the game with the big potential and missed opportunities. Even now i still think it can be boosted, lol.
Short recipe:
TDU1 and TDU2 merger and TDFRL physics, could be fun.
All ingredients are there, all we need is a mastercook to turn it into something great.