If you’re a fan of the Test Drive franchise, or just driving games in general, it's time to get revved up. A new Test Drive Unlimited (TDU) has been announced — Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown.
Test Drive is one of my earliest memories of gaming: navigating a car around mountain passes with juddery graphics on an old IBM PC XT clone that we owned.
Oh man, TDU and TDU 2 was game I absolutely adored. They never were the best driving games, but the freedom it gave you to drive anywhere was truly amazing. Good to know there is a solid physics engine behind the driving model as well. Would be a great arcade racer if done correctly.
Forza Horizon, before it was cool
I remember this from my old Commodore days!
this is the first TD title that i remember playing
but my favourite was test drive offroad back then
Exactly a year later and Nacon have just revealed the location and release date for Testdrive Unlimited: Solar Crown with a new cinematic teaser trailer. We’re going to Hong Kong Island car lovers! 
But only in September next year. 
The scene setting teaser trailer from April:
And the location reveal trailer:
The next step in your Solar Crown adventure starts today. Kylotonn Studios and Nacon Publishing are proud to present the location of Test Drive Unlimited Solar crown as Hong Kong Island!
Navigate the bustling island in glorious 1:1 scale and be absorbed by the city. Pick your path as either STREET or SHARP and let your personality shine.
The trailer and the end credit text confirm that, in addition to the Aston Martin and Range Rover shown in the trailer itself, the game will feature cars from Audi, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, and Lamborghini.
The game will be released for Microsoft Windows (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
The game can already be Wishlisted on Steam, in case you forget about it before September next year. (You won’t. MEW driving game fans will make sure of that!)
Looks good and all, but Forza Horizon is pretty much a modern take on the TD:U formula already. I had a great time in the first game, but Forza Horizon just does everything TD:U did, but better.
100% this. And with Forza Horizon 5 coming out this year already, and (hopefully) the new Forza Motorsport next year (both of which will be Game Pass Play Anywhere titles), this new TDU game is going to have to be really solid and have some interesting features.
Personally, if the price is right, I look forward to doing the same sort of random tourist driving thing in Hong Kong that I did in Hawaii - love me some open top cruising to see the sights virtually. And I’ll probably have Google Street View open on a second screen to make comparisons as I go
I will most likely get both, with the releases of horizon 5 and TDU so far apart, by the time I am done with Horizon 5 I will then be in the mood for TDU. The only thing that could really make me think “which one is better than the other” would be customization options, I don’t recall TDU 2 having any so most likely horizon will be more fun in that regard, however, being able to race in a 1:1 scale of hong kong sounds really fun as.
I won’t say no to some virtual road trips around Hong Kong. That was the best part of TDU, the racing was rubbish.
Ill wait for the reviews once this is out, apart from need for speed the Run, TDU2 was the 2nd worse racing title i played in the last 10 ish years.
KT Racing & Nacon | 2024 | PC XBSX XBSX PS5
On Hong Kong Island, where dreams become reality, Radiant has created new standards of luxury. This little-known but highly influential organization has invited its members to compete in an extraordinary competition: the Solar Crown. Few know what the group’s motives are, but it’s clear what they value: prestige, a love of cars, and competition.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is a racing game and lifestyle experience on Hong Kong Island, recreated at 1:1 scale. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will be available in 2024 on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5. Wishlist now!
Release date and pricing details are out now, as is a limited demo via Steam so you can get a feeling for what performance you can expect in the full game.
Pre-purchase Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown on Steam (steampowered.com)
This demo version only includes a portion of the content that will be available in the final game. The cars, districts, and progression levels are limited for this time!
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
This demo takes place on a build of the game that is still in development. While the visual rendering is close to the final version, we are still refining the overall experience to ensure the best quality/performance ratio for the launch in September.
RECOMMENDED SPECIFICATIONS (Medium 1080p 60FPS)
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10
• PROCESSOR: Intel Core i7-10700K or AMD Ryzen 7 5800x
• MEMORY: 12 GB RAM
• GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, 8GB or AMD Radeon RX 6700, 10GB
• NETWORK : High-speed Internet connection
• DirectX: 12
• Disk space: 50gb
HIGH SPECIFICATIONS (High 1440 @ 60 FPS)
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10
• PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-12600K or AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
• MEMORY: 16 GB RAM
• GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, 12GB or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, 16GB
• NETWORK : High-speed Internet connection
• DirectX: 12
• Disk space: 50gb
PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS (Ultra 2160 @ 60 FPS)
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10
• PROCESSOR: Intel Core i9-14900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
• MEMORY: 32 GB RAM
• GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, 24 GB
• NETWORK : High-speed Internet connection
• DirectX: 12
• Disk space: 50gb
I put in about an hour into the demo. It’s rough but has some potential.
It’s doing the open world thing like Forza Horizon, but seems a bit more restrained. In the demo, it’s actually a bit lifeless, but that will probably change.
The cars I drove looked and sounded good. Handling was arcadey but I might prefer it to FH5.
Force feedback didn’t work on my controller and I didn’t try my wheel.
Performance on PC was iffy but expected. It feels like it’s too early to demo in some ways. Let’s see how it develops.
I tried the demo, could do a total of 1 race, because when I then tried to do other races, the servers did not work, game barely ran on my PC anyway so I just gave up, hope RAIN gets some more servers for Geforce NOW, really am itching for a new racing game and I have been looking forward to this game for a while now.
