Over the years, the Test Drive series has produced some brilliant racing games that are right up there with the big dogs like Forza, Burnout, and Need for Speed. However, while it’s incredibly ambitious and full of plenty of beautifully-recreated cars, the latest entry, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, has struggled to find its footing due to a litany of technical and server issues since it launched just over seven weeks ago. For an open-world, MMO-esque racer, these issues have seriously hampered the experience, and as a result, players are about to be awarded some compensation .
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s publisher Nacon and developer KT Racing first made promises of compensation just a few days after the game launched in a less than ideal state. Server issues saw thousands of players unable to log in and there were plenty of performance issues across all platforms that made the racing game’s recreation of Hong Kong Island a frustrating place to be.
While the issues have become less frequent and severe since then, there’s no escaping that seemingly on a weekly basis Solar Crown is still having to be taken offline for server maintenance and fixes. Now, close to two months after it launched, TDU fans finally know what compensation is coming their way – however, it’s pretty modest, to say the least.
The compensation package will include a free car and a bundle of five exclusive stickers for customizing any of your vehicles. And that’s it. The car in question is a fairly decent one – a 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe in “Adventurer” spec, meaning it’s kitted out for off-road exploration and racing. However, one car and five stickers really doesn’t feel like adequate compensation for a game that’s experienced so much down time.
To make matters worse, despite Nacon and KT Racing revealing the compensation package today, players won’t actually be able to use the 911 Carrera or the stickers for several weeks yet. “These items will be automatically added to players’ inventories in December, for the opening of Season 2,” it says in its announcement post.
There’s also some confusion over just exactly who will be getting this compensation. A press release sent to PCGamesN says that “anyone who played Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown before September 30” will receive the compensation items, however the announcement post on its Steam page says that the 911 Carrera will be awarded to “all Gold Edition players who have played the game before October 12.” I’ve reached out to Nacon for clarification, and will update this article once I hear back.
Despite there being plenty of disappointing issues with Solar Crown, there’s plenty of exciting content arriving in the near future, including a second location that’ll be a nostalgia trip for those that played Test Drive Unlimited 2.
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