New Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Trailer Reveals Hong Kong Setting

Exactly a year on from when it was originally announced, two key details for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown have dropped. We now know where it’s set, and when it’ll be out.

The former has been confirmed as the island of Hong Kong, which will be recreated at a 1:1 scale. This means you’ll be driving around a much smaller map than previous TDU instalments - the island is just over 30 square miles, compared to just under 600 for Oahu in the first game and 221 for Ibiza in the second. We’d imagine the level of detail in Solar Crown will be much higher, though.

The release date meanwhile has been set as 22 September 2022, although it’s unclear if it’ll be reaching all platforms at the same time. On that front, you’ll be able to play Solar Crown on PC, Playstations 4 and 5, Xbox One/Series S and X, and the Nintendo Switch.

As for the cars featured in the trailer, we get an odd mix of stuff you’d expect to see headlining a sandbox driving game four or five years ago. There’s a Lamborghini Huracan Performante, an Aston Martin DB11, a BMW i8, a gold-wrapped Range Rover Sport SVR, a Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes-AMG G65.

There should be plenty of motors to choose from judging by the copyright garb attached to the announcement video last year. The other brands mentioned in this were Bugatti, Dodge, Ferrari and Koenigsegg. Some individual car names were noted too, including Regera, Agera, 911, Carrera, Cayenne and 918 Spyder. There was also a development shot featuring an Apollo IE.

The cars don’t exactly move around in the most realistic way in the new trailer (which admittedly doesn’t show gamplay), but that’s to be expected - the first two TDU games were rather arcadey in their gameplay. If you want an open-world driving game that’s slightly more true to life, Mexico-set Forza Horizon 5 is out this November.

The ‘lifestyle’ aspect is going to be an important part of the game by the looks of it, with the trailer showing a nightclub plus a casino scene with a car being gambled via a game of poker. Publisher Nancon explains that you will be able to “Pick your path as either STREET or SHARP and let your personality shine.”

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The ‘Solar Crown’ bit of the name comes from a competition found in its predecessors. “We wanted to reuse this name and the championship’s concept, which is not a closed championship where the player is restricted to doing certain things,” developer KT Racing’s creative director Alain Jarniou said last year.