Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown: Third Playtest From April 22 To 24

Test-Drive-Unlimited-Solar-Crown-April-Playtest.jpg
Image: KT Racing / Nacon
The anticipation for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is still high, despite there not being a release date yet. Racers could get their hands on the title in the upcoming April 22 to 24 playtest, however.

An enormous open world on Hong Kong Island, an abundance of exotic cars and tons of things to do - on paper, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown promises to seamlessly continue the legacy of the TDU franchise players have grown to love when it was set on Hawaii. However, despite moving the supposed release date to "early 2024", Q1 of the year has already come and gone without an exact launch date for the title.

While the full version might still require more patience, an in-development build will be playable soon, though. From April 22 to 24, publisher Nacon and devloper KT Racing will hold the third playtest for TDUSC, allowing players to get a look at how the game is coming along.


It will not be an open playtest, however. As announced on the game's official social media, racers need to subscribe to the Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown newsletter and "keep an eye on your inbox in the upcoming weeks".

The most recent playtest for TDUSC was conducted in October of 2023, so half a year has passed since the last hands-on experience was available. We are curious to find out what strides the game has taken in the meantime!

Are you looking forward to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown promises to seamlessly continue the legacy of the TDU

Ah, so when will the servers be nuked? so the product you buy is no more. No offline patch.

Seriously though, this alone will make me never buy it. Even for $1 on sale. Vote with your wallet.


I was mistaken. Was thinking of The Crew
 
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It's gonna be MMO, so who cares? And to be honest I really dont think that game will be so popular so servers won't be maintained for too long.
 
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown promises to seamlessly continue the legacy of the TDU

Ah, so when will the servers be nuked? so the product you buy is no more. No offline patch.

Seriously though, this alone will make me never buy it. Even for $1 on sale. Vote with your wallet.

Both TDU 1 and 2 are entirely playable without the servers, you're thinking of The Crew.
 
I do hope that it'll be truly faithful to the original TDU as for me its strength was its realistic take of living the fantasy of owning and driving super/hyper cars in paradisiacal environments. You really felt like a rich playboy just enjoying life - it was complete escapism (for me)!

If it ends up pandering to the popularity and commercial success of Forza Horizon and The Crew and is just a clone of them, then I'm out as that's not then a TDU game.
 
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I did enjoy the Horizon series more than I thought so this looks interesting...

I haven't ever given the test drive series a lot of time, so I don't have any expectations going in...
 
I loved TDU1 and 2, and never went online with either of them (the only thing that sucked about that was some of the cars seemed to only be available online). The racing was silly, the premise was silly, physics... I suppose they were some kind, but was it fun? HELL YES! I left it installed on my old gaming laptop just so I could still cruise around Oahu in my Ferrari 328 whenever the mood struck me. Sadly, the HDD crashed last year and was unrecoverable. Still in ye olde Steam Library though - I could see giving it a go again, but ooooof I wish I still had my save game file, it took a lot of hours to build up that collection of cars, houses and yachts.

I've never played any of the Forza Horizon titles, but they seem similar? Yes - more realistic racing sims are my favorites, but I wouldn't be doing any of this if I hadn't first dreamed of driving all those cool cars I built models of, put pictures and posters of on my walls as a kid, read about in car magazines...

Side note, and maybe there are mods for this, but I wish some of the AI cars in American Truck Simulator were available with detailed cockpits and could be driven around the maps in that game with reasonably-ish correct physics. Let me rip around in the Camaro SS or Mustang GT!
 
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The HK setting is the best promise of the game, much more interesting than the environments of The Crew Motorfest and the last 2 Forza Horizon. The second one is the annoucement of relatively realistic physics. I have no doubts about the first one but maintaining a realistic level of physics in this type of game is a risky challenge. I'm not sure the main target would like that.
 
I remember enjoying TDU2. Horizon 5 has very nice handling for am arcade game but i want to work more for progression rather than having hypercars dropped in my lap from scratch. I love a long game wherei start with crap, race, earn cash, upgrade and then onto faster leauges. Real progress. Like GT4 iirc. LOVED that. :)
 
I'm hoping for VR and force feedback wheel support ... but I don't know anything about the TDU series so don't know how likely that is :D
 

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What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

  • Better graphics/visuals

  • Advanced physics and handling

  • More cars and tracks

  • AI improvements

  • AI engineering

  • Cross-platform play

  • New game Modes

  • Other, post your idea


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