Wednesday night brought the long-awaited event TDU Connect, where the first gameplay footage from the game Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was finally presented. However, I’m not sure if in the end the approximately half-hour presentation did more harm than good. First of all, it should be emphasized that we watched footage from the alpha version, but even that probably does not justify everything in the eyes of many players and potential customers.
It would be unfair to complain after several years of waiting for gameplay that the transfer focused on playing the game itself. However, I was a little surprised that we didn’t learn much new directly from the developers. Most of the description seemed like a recap of already known information that players learned when the game was introduced or from subsequent developer diaries. The authors reiterated that we will be staying in a hotel, gradually getting better rooms as our reputation grows, and also showed the lobby where the cars of the best players will be displayed. And we will also meet here. We were reminded that digital Hong Kong is inhabited by two rival gangs – the Streets and the Sharps, while the studio representatives were joined on stage by several influencers, divided into said “teams” and driven around the city.
Participants seemed to have lag and connectivity issues while playing, as other players were always quite jerky moving around on the active one’s screen.
During that time we visited both Streets and Sharps home clubs/gang headquarters, saw day and night driving and looked at things like a quick car repair at a gas station. Unfortunately, we also witnessed that the world seems empty, almost like a ghost town. We saw some very primitive collisions, reminiscent of the age-old banging of the Ridge Racer series. Additionally, participants seemed to experience lag and connectivity issues while playing, as other players were always quite jerky moving around on the active one’s screen.
On the other hand, we can appreciate that the authors were at least quite transparent when it comes to the real state of the game and apparently didn’t try to hide anything too much. Maybe not even where the scissors of a skilled cutter would otherwise hide a lot. Test Drive Unlimited fans apparently did not like the fact that the atmosphere of the game was more reminiscent of the Need for Speed series. Most of the broadcast, the actors were just fooling around in the streets, which was not very interesting, entertaining or informative. In the end, however, there was at least one regular race.
At the very end, what was already speculated about was simply stated. Namely, that the game will be released in early 2024, not this year. Without any other information.
In other words, the event was unfortunately not very successful in terms of form or content. In my opinion, it was not a very suitable way of presentation and the quality of the stream itself did not add to the overall impression. There was obvious disappointment in the chat, even if we ignore the most deliberately overly critical statements. The players did not skimp on the title, they did not leave a thread dry on the broadcast and they usually did not take napkins. It didn’t help that some of the participants seemed to struggle a lot with the controls.
In the end, however, we learned something really important. We are supposed to see a beta version soon, although we don’t know the details yet. (It was later specified that the first closed test would start on July 24 and last three days.) And at the very end, what had already been speculated about was simply stated. Namely, that the game will be released in early 2024, not this year. Without any other information.
In the shadow of the strike
I will emphasize once again that an alpha version was presented, but I feel that it did the authors a disservice after waiting so long. In addition, the entire event took place in the shade strikes some developerat. This would be a separate big topic, and maybe we will come back to the whole thing separately. There were reports on the Internet that at least some of the game’s writers went on strike just before the scheduled transfer due to budget and working conditions issues. The employees of Kylotonn studio aka KT Racing were supposed to ask Nacon management for more money for their project, but they were not to be granted. The strikers also want to negotiate over telecommuting, minimum wages or a change in overall management style.
Honestly, if the writers don’t pick up, Test Drive will have some work to do to stand up next to the current Forza Horizon or Ubisoft’s The Crew Motorfest in September. And that’s not even mentioning other expected racing games, albeit of a different concept. The question is whether it will even live up to the high expectations of fans and the reputation of the previous episodes. Will it be possible to fix and improve everything that didn’t seem optimal during the gameplay? It may also turn out that such a large open world racing game is beyond the strength of the team or publisher, when it comes to the mentioned money. I tend to be more restrained in my assessment on similar occasions and I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but as a fan I feel disappointed at the moment.
2023-07-12 18:00:51
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