It has beennine years since the release of the lastTest Drive Unlimitedgame, a unique and ambitious racing series that allowed players to drive around an open world. Once owned by Atari, the entireTest Drivefranchise was sold to France-based company Nacon (formerly known as Bigben Interactive at the time) in 2016.
The series has otherwise been completely dormant since then, though Nacon had said earlier in the year that it had a new entry in the works, with developer Kylotonn behind the wheel. A teaser video was posted recently that hyped up an announcement and, now,Test Drive Unlimited 3is confirmed, officially titled asTest Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, named after the racing tournament that featured inTest Drive Unlimited 2.
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The trailer doesn’t reveal a lot, only showing off some angles of a car and there’s currently no release date or intended platforms. According to creative director Alain Jarniou, who was also one of the leads behind the firstTest Drive Unlimitedgame in 2006, the game has only been in development for a few months, which means that we’re probably going to have to wait a while before we even see any gameplay.
Fans of the series can rest easy, though, as it has been confirmed that the game will be “keeping the DNA of the series” and players will experience “the joy of driving around a luxurious island world recreated at 1:1 scale.”
During Nacon Connect, the publisher’s own online presentation, Jarniou said:
“We developed the new Test Drive Unlimited concept by keeping the DNA of the game, but also evolving the gameplay and game modes to make them more modern and more in line with current trends and what today’s players find fun.”
Kylotonn, also known as KT Racing, has plenty of experience with the racing game genre, having worked on theWRCgames, withWRC 9slated to release this year, beforehanding the license over to Codemasters.
Jarniou continued with:
“This new Test Drive Unlimited game is benefiting from all of KT Racing’s expertise in motor racing. This includes the physics engine used to drive the car, derived from our experience creating the entire WRC series, which helped us develop and engine that can reproduce very diverse driving conditions, whether it’s gravel, asphalt, etc.”
Jarniou also mentions, aside from multiple cars that can be bought, customizations for the avatar character as well.
The future is certainly looking good for fans of racing simulators, withCodemasters’DiRT 5still on the horizon and set to launch in October for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, with a next-gen version to come later in the year.
In the meantime,F1 2020will come out in only a couple of days and has received highly positive reviews from several major outlets.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crownis currently in development.
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