Preview: Gran Turismo Meets NFS in Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown (2024)

I realy hope you are right and it is not just another Forza Horizon copy. If it does come as expected, then it will be a must have. Will not pre-order, but waiting on the full reviews very inpatiently

Hong Kong is such an interesting place in terms of the layout of the city. There are so many hills. I'm excited to see how they've adapted it here.

I am really interested to know if this will have a local multiplayer mode or not.

Thanks Liam, definitely one to watch, I really enjoyed the Test Drive series back in the day!! It was no Gran Turismo but it didn't try to be and was better for it, one of those games you could imagine dropping a whole lot of coins into at the arcade

Pretty excited for this as I was a huge Test Drive Unlimited 2 fan.

Very excited for this. It sounds very promising - thanks for your impressions!

How did it perform in your testing?

How's the handling model?
Is it "arcadey" or is that just referring to the gameplay loop?

Now this would be great with PSVR2 support.

Gold Edition now pre-ordered.
I'm a sucker for that early access. Terrible I know.

Driving game; meh

Driving game in HK; ZOMG!

Yeah, I am biased. Where is my Sleeping Dogs re-remaster?

Test drive unlimited had me and my PSP buddies meeting up and racing, this could be good. Forza never hooked me, GT occasionally too much. Dip in and out racing.

@Golem25 just finished SD:DE on my steam deck, it still rocks.

How's it looking and run? 60FPS? I am a gamer from the year 2024 and not from 2068 where frame rates worries have evaporated, you time lord!

"KT Racing wants you to fall in love with just a couple of the cars on the release's roster rather than amassing the entire collection."

This worries me a little bit, "built not bought" was also a big part of the marketing for Forza Motorsport 2023 and it categorically did not work at all in that game. Let's hope TDU goes about that better than Turn 10 did.

I really hope this supports racing wheels seeing as I just purchased one and I'm having an absolute blast on wrc generations and grid legends (I wish they would sort out the force feed back on grid.) I'll be all over this if it does..

@Ricky63 It didn’t work in Forza because of how grindy and laborious the upgrade system was. If Test Drive lets us upgrade cars with money and they aren’t too stingy with the race payouts I think it could be a winner. I vaguely remember the original TDU made you work for the cars and it felt good earning them however I also remember playing it religiously in Uni where I had all the time in the world to game so probably didn’t feel like a grind at the time. I hope they balance it right in this one.

GT meets NFS sounds PERFECT!
Exactly the thing that would get me back into racing games. I know the Crew has the same idea, but dear lord the clunky unfinished Ubisoft jank 🤮

Pls be good

The title is dubious for me purely because of the involvement of Alain Jarniou. The original Test Drive Unlimited was a great game on the Xbox 360, giving us an entire Hawaiian island to explore, with a balanced focus between "side quests" (pick model up here, drop her off here or pick up clients car here, drive it there without damaging it), races and social aspects. TDU2 moved away from the side quests and pushed the social aspects into hub areas, creating an experience that was far more focused on arcade races, less about social aspects and just driving, creating the framework that a lot of "social racers" now follow. Nothing released since the original TDU has had the same magic of being able to hang around in the giant crater or racing around the race course and just goofing around with other players.

If only developers started moving away from vehicle brands and returned to the design of Burnout and Split/Second, with fictional brands. Damage models are entirely uninteresting when using real brands and the restrictions that come with them.

That being said, decent racing games are few and far between these days. I'll keep my eye on it.

But does it have all that realism of TDU2? Like using headlights, indicators, raising or lowering the roof, then all the interactions in showrooms and then things like walking around with other players in houses, garages etc? Or is just like NFS or Forza Horizon where it's just racing and open world in cars only?

I’m liking the sound of this and will be another one keeping an eye on it.

Sounds terrific, hopefully it works smoothly at launch!

I loved the original Test Drive & Test Drive II on PC and C64 some 35+ years ago... Then the original Need for Speed was like a dream remake of Test Drive. Still waiting for a game like that.

Hong Kong will be an incredible city to race around in. Hope that they capture the atmosphere of the place.

Old Peak Road is narrow, and twisty, and all uphill (or down). And there are long stretches that are almost freeway, heading toward Kennedy Town.

I remember the racing through traffic in Sleeping Dogs. That was challenging, but rewarding.

This should be great fun. I’m sold.

Why is there still no gameplay footage?

Shame, wish it had a more hardcore physics and control scheme.
Seems like just a consumer living fantasy type game, nothing much endearing for me gameplay wise.
A video of 1st impression on youtube also showed it to feel very rigid, like steering with a keyboard type of feel.

Surroundings also, i mean kylotonn isn't best at optimization, having difficulty with 1 car on one road type of games, imagine an open world game..
Wont be a ton of traffic for sure.

Absolutely loved unlimited. Fond memories of flying around Hawaii with my friends. I know people talk about Horizon and this cloning it, but ironically Horizon released after unlimited and took alot of elements from it, having a huge budget and existing fanbase just helped propel that even more. Fingers crossed for this one.

"Gran Turismo and Need for Speed are two opposing extremes of a spectrum that, on the whole, isn't that wide. Yet, Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown appears to have found a pleasing middle ground between the two..."

That's now, but originally, both Test Drive and Need For Speed franchises had the same ideas in many ways, and mostly because both franchises were created by the same developer, and ironically, in NFS Porsche (the fifth game in the franchise). , Eden Games participated in the development of that game, which, from there, they learned and those ideas were passed on to what we now know as Test Drive Unlimited.
If NFS had a developer who maintained the original ideas, we would possibly have an NFS competing with TDU

Mmm not sure I wish they would stick the the original tdu. I played on c64 it was basic yeah but had something.Driving through traffic was a lot harder than say Forza and had a more realistic feel to it. I won't pre order no way as there is too many fails around, however,please pull it off as I loved the first.

@get2sammyb is there any chance that when you guys review this that you could also maybe say how it performs with a wheel. I've been playing wrc generations,dirt 5,grid legends and nfs unbound with my new steering wheel and although the learning curve is steep initially the wheel has totally changed racing games forever for me. I'm a born again petrol head 🤣

Those characters really look like they are from hk , don’t they . Another game with an agender