It was quite unexpected but an alpha version of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was made available to everyone on Steam Thursday night. It makes it possible to explore a pretty good part of the map with up to six cars, but the catch is that the build runs quite poorly on most systems. Now we're quite used to that when it comes to preview builds, but it's rather surprising to let anyone approach the game in such a state as it's bound to draw negative attention. That said, however worrying the technical issues are, we still see a lot of potential in this new episode. The map looks interesting and it's appealing to discover, car handling is good so far and we just love the engine sounds. It's obviously still rough around the edges, it's clearly not as polished as Forza Horizon in terms of graphics and overall presentation, but it has managed to catch that TDU vibe we've been missing for so long. Let's hope Kylotonn will manage to deliver when the final version ships, even if they have to delay it a bit more.

The wait is finally over, we now know that Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on September 12. We can only hope that the final game will be convincing enough to satisfy the fans of the TDU franchise. French developer Kylotonn is now behind the wheel instead of Eden Games, but they've proven us that they could make good driving games with the WRC series. Fingers crossed!

We're running a bit late with the coverage of Nacon Connect 2024 but inside you will find what we think are the most interesting trailers to remember. Not everything is to our liking mind you, but we still have high hopes regarding Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown and GreedFall 2, despite plans for an Early Access release for the latter.

Nacon and Kylotonn had promised we would get some news from Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown this week and the new trailer entitled The Racer is now available. After The Cruiser a few months ago, we get a sneak peek at the competitive aspect and the social interactions that will be possible. Sadly, no precise release date has been announced, so we only know the game will come out sometime in 2024.
Update: High quality version now available to download.

Earlier today, Nacon unveiled a series of new trailers of upcoming games, among which RoboCop: Rogue City, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, Steelrising, Ad Infinitum and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum to name just a few. Sadly almost all of them are only available on YouTube.

Still no gameplay to be seen for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown but at least we now know that the game won't ship before September 22 in 2022. We'll have to be a bit more patient to see some real in-game sequences but it's probably best to give KT Racing (Kylotonn) all the time they need to polish the game so we won't be disappointed when we get to discover the new destination they have chosen, Hong Kong.

TDU and Gamersyde (Xboxyde actually) go way back. On the French side, the official thread is probably one (if not the) biggest one on the website and that's even where it all started for me. I had been a silent member since 2003 but in 2005/6, I started sharing my thoughts with the community. Little did I know that I would end up Gamersyde's editor-in-chief... When Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was officially announced, we were hoping to see some gameplay soon but a year later, we're still waiting, even after this week's new trailer. With Kylotonn behind the wheel, we're hopeful that the driving part of the game will be solid as we really enjoy the WRC series, but we'll have to wait until July to maybe see something to confirm our good feeling about all this.