The trailer, coming in at just shy of 2 minutes in length, shows off some of the fast-paced racing gameplay of Gear.Club Unlimited 3. The trailer takes us through a tour of a few of its features, including 1-on-1 head-to-head races, the fact that it will feature race tracks from across France and Japan, as well as the in-depth customisation options that players will have access to for performance as well as looks. The trailer also confirms that the game will feature more than 40 licensed cars at launch.

On the multiplayer side of things, Gear.Club Unlimited 3 will offer a few options, including split-screen local multiplayer for 2 players, through which more than 50 tracks from across Japan and France can be driven through. Along with the competitive mode, there is also a Highway mode that allows for co-operative races, which will offer challenges like racing at more than 300 km/h through dense traffic on Japan’s highways.

The Highway Mode is slated to be, in general, one of the major features of Gear.Club Unlimited 3, tasking players with recruiting the best local drivers they can find across Japan and France. Introducing Japan as one of the two primary settings also means that the game puts quite a bit of emphasis on the country’s car culture. The story mode will have players travelling back and forth between France and Japan, giving players a look at how different the car cultures in both of the countries can feel.

The Nintendo Switch 2 version of Gear.Club Unlimited 3 is also available for pre-orders, which comes with its own set of bonuses in the form of two exclusive car models – the Honda S2000 GCU3 Edition and the BMW Z4 GCU3 Edition.

There is also a Deluxe Edition up for grabs which will include the Performance Cars Pack DLC that adds three cars: the Nissan GTR R-35 Nismo, the Nissan 370Z Nismo, and the Bugatti Mistral. The Deluxe Edition also includes the Career Starter Pack DLC which gives players 200,000 credits to start out with and three sets of 50 different resources, as well as two engineers for their clubs, as well as the Customisation Pack DLC that allows for more customisation options with a Carbon Pack that has three carbon hoods for seven Japanese cars, and a Neon Pack that includes 5 themed neon lights that can be applied to all cars. Two of these neon lights are themed after the flags of the game’s primary settings: France and Japan.

For more details about the Gear.Club Unlimited franchise, check out our review of the previous title in the series, which was released back in 2018.

Hong Kong Island vs. Ibiza and O’ahu

The biggest difference between Solar Crown and Test Drive Unlimited 2 is their settings. While the latter saw the return of Oahu and added Ibiza into the mix, the former features Hong Kong Island as a setting for the first time. As one of Hong Kong’s three regions, it features multiple districts and monuments to explore with numerous beaches and mountains.

Left-Hand vs. Right-Hand Traffic

Throughout the series’ history, players have usually abided by right-hand traffic, i.e. driving on the right side of the road. The one exception was 2002’s TD Overdrive: The Brotherhood of Speed, which spanned the world and thus featured left-hand traffic in places like Tokyo and London. After over two decades and some change, left-hand traffic finally returns in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, and technically, for the first time, it’s the only option for driving throughout the title.

Drivable Roads

Perhaps more notable than the settings is how much road is available to drive on. Test Drive Unlimited 2 sported 3,000 kilometers or roughly 1864 miles between its two islands. By comparison, Solar Crown only offers 550 kilometers or 340 miles of drivable roads. There’s something about attention to detail vs. scope and how much more intricate Hong Kong Island will be in-game (especially since it’s a 1:1 scale), but we’ll only know once we go hands-on with the title.

Premise

Solar Crown also features a customizable player avatar with various clothes and accessories. The main difference is in the set-up. Test Drive Unlimited 2 saw the player working their way up from lowly, down-on-their-luck valet driver to entering the Solar Crown championship and making a name for themselves. By comparison, the latest title is more about the conflict between two factions – the Sharps and the Streets – with the player choosing one and advancing through their ranks to unlock exclusive rewards. Anything beyond that remains to be seen, but you also have the option of not allying with either.

Clan HQs vs. Properties

The hotel returns in Solar Crown, but there are also HQs exclusive to clans, allowing players to check out leaderboards, and participate in live events and whatnot. Interestingly, this seemingly means no properties to purchase, like in Test Drive Unlimited 2, where you could acquire several houses and apartments across various locations.

Lack of Racing School Tests

It also seems that Racing School events have been phased out in the latest title. Test Drive Unlimited 2 featured various single-player challenges and events, including Racing School, where you had to pass tests to earn a license. You could then use this to participate at the corresponding license level. Meanwhile, in Solar Crown, players seemingly jump in and start racing. It made sense in Unlimited 2 since you were working your way up, but perhaps there are other requirements players must fulfil in Solar Crown to advance.

Traffic Density

Maybe it’s a consequence of fewer drivable roads or that Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s districts are denser, but there is a stark difference in traffic density. Unlimited 2 featured a decent amount of cars on the road. Comparatively, Solar Crown has more traffic, with developer KT Racing showcasing improvements in the lead-up to launch.

Cockpit Details

First-person view is a key factor in any racing title, which means nailing the look and feel of a cockpit. Compared to its closed betas, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown significantly improves its cockpit detail, from the camera movement and seat belts to how your character is perceived. There’s still more to be showcased, but it’s a step up from Test Drive Unlimited 2.

Sense of Speed

There’s also the sense of speed – another important factor when considering high-speed races and general runs through the city. For its time, Test Drive Unlimited 2 was good, but Solar Crown is attempting to go even further beyond. As showcased in its pre-launch development progress video, the sense of speed looks good and should make overtaking and near collisions much more harrowing.

Chase Mode

However, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown seemingly avoids Chase mode mechanics or events. Unlimited 2 would send the police after you upon violating traffic laws or straight-up ramming into a cop’s vehicle. It offered four ranks with different rewards, like Outlaw clothes and the Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Black Series “Outlaw.” As synonymous as the feature is, it won’t be in Solar Crown.

Driving Modes vs. Driving Aids

At launch, Unlimited 2 offered Driving Aids, which could customize the driving experience from Full Assistance and Sport to the more realistic Hardcore mode. In Solar Crown, you have Driving Modes – presets suited for different racing conditions. For example, Sport is meant for high-speed races and focuses on handling, Relaxed is best for simple exploration and Rain is suited for racing on wet roads. Don’t worry, though – there’s still a Stock preset, which you can tune and customize to your liking.

Live Service vs. Traditional Multiplayer

Test Drive Unlimited 2 offered several multiplayer features, like free-roam driving with up to eight players. You could also examine each other’s cars, walk around homes and lobbies, sit in other players’ vehicles, join in with chases or participate as the police. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown feels like more of a shared world racer, with Instant Challenges to race against other players with no restrictions, Live Events available weekly, and whatnot. The social aspect extends to driving together, workshopping cars as a group, and even buying vehicles at the dealership. There’s also an extensive Ranked experience, with multiple tiers offering rewards and the Solar Court representing the best of the best.

Online vs. Offline

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is online only – it can’t be played offline, like Test Drive Unlimited 2. It’s unfortunate, especially considering how titles like The Crew end up delisted and completely unplayable for long-time players. When speaking to Traxion and explaining the game’s online features, game director Guillaume Guinet revealed that the entire experience is “designed to be online” and going offline would change that.

However, the team is considering what to do when support ends and finding a solution when servers go offline. “We don’t want people to buy the game, and [then we] quit, and it’s over for them. We don’t expect to shut down the service for now. But we are already working on it. We have our solution for now, but maybe people will have an idea about it, and we will look at these. I think it’s something [we can] create with the community.”

Seasons vs. DLC

Test Drive Unlimited 2 launched at a time when live service wasn’t really a thing and, as such, offered one paid DLC (which became unavailable after servers went offline, ironically enough). By comparison, Solar Crown will take a seasonal approach. Rankings are seemingly reset each season, with players grinding to reach the Solar Court again.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is the sequel to last year’s Gear.Club Unlimited on the Switch, developed by Eden Games. Though the first Gear.Club Unlimited was and expanded port of a mobile game, this year’s entry was built from the ground up as a Switch title. These titles have been satiating simulation fans on the Switch almost without competition since their conception. But is this year’s entry worth it for racing enthusiasts looking for a fix?

Let’s start with the most important aspect of these types of racing titles: the cars. Gear.Club Unlimited 2 has 51 cars from brands renowned the world round like Porsche, Lotus, and Mercedes. This is definitely the greatest achievement of the title and it’ll give gearheads something fun to sink their teeth into. The cars are all customizable from their performance down to the types of tires you can slap on them, which are also from recognized brands. The cars all look pretty good as well, with the light bending around all the notches and crannies. Though it is disappointing that there is no noticeable damage that your car takes while driving and crashing into guard rails as well as other cars. However, the sound feedback from the cars is on point and it really helps in making you feel like you’re driving in one of these cars.

"The cars all look pretty good as well, with the light bending around all the notches and crannies."

There is a story here but it’s not much to write home about. Essentially, you’re a test driver who starts to actually race. And you’re good at racing, so you keep racing. It’s not really riveting stuff and the dialogue you get during career mode reflects that. The presentation is also lacking, with only stills of characters giving you your exposition with no emoting. This probably won’t be a deal-breaker for most of you though. No one came into this game expecting a deep and engaging storyline. Really, the racing is what you’re here for. So how is it?

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 leans on the simulation aspect of racing but without fully committing. This isn’t a huge mark against it since this is a Switch exclusive and its main competition is a kart-racing title, but it should be known before you commit to the full package. The arcade-simulation-hybrid racing mechanics of the game may leave simulation enthusiasts put off. Even though you have to account for your acceleration as well as your handbrake usage and compensation for turns, the control you have over your car is a few steps away from a true simulation experience. You have a much more responsive amount of control over your car and can deal with accelerating and decelerating much faster than you could in games of its contemporaries.

It’s strange to say that more control is a bad thing, but in this case, I think it’s a step too far. The amount of control you have over your car with no tools of assistance on is pretty absurd for a game of this type. Simulation games should be punishing affairs for mistakes and require a certain level of mastery, whereas in this title you can start driving like a pro relatively quickly. Paired with the not-so-competitive AI, this makes the game seem pretty easy at times. This ends up being a case of wanting your cake and eating it too. But you can’t cater to one demographic without alienating another in this case.

"The driving can almost feel automated at times."

There are a few different locales that all do their part to add a bit of challenge to your gameplay. Along with your standard asphalt roads through scenic greeneries, you’ll end up driving through rain storms and over snowy environments. These do end up affecting your gameplay in pretty significant ways and you end up needing to compensate harshly to make it to the finish line. These do add some variety to the gameplay and make you really evaluate whether or not you have enough time to decelerate before that next snowy turn. And then, usually after driving smack-dab into the side of a guard rail, you have your answer.

As for those assistive tools I mentioned before, you’re given plenty of them, should you need them. You’ll have turn-assists, a guiding line, and even a rewind function in order to try over and over until you figure out how best to take corners. These features are a great addition for players who need them and I’m glad they’ve become standard in simulation racing games in recent times. They can end up being a double-edged sword though since they end up making the game far too easy, to the point of gameplay being boring. The driving can almost feel automated at times. Since the game starts you with all these effects on, I could easily see plenty of players quickly getting bored without knowing about the features being togglable.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 is also wanting in the technical aspect.Load times are constant whenever you go to enter a race or go into the shop, which really get in the way of actual racing. These load times are also incredibly long, with wait times of around a minute each time. When the races themselves are so short, it really puts into perspective just how long you spend sitting there waiting for the game to let you play. Then once you finally get into a race, the framerate struggles to maintain 30 FPS. As your acceleration increases, you’ll usually find that the game chugs a bit in order to keep up with you. This issue is present when the Switch is in Handheld mode as well as Docked mode. This is pretty disappointing since that seamless feeling of speed is what racing games are all about.

"There is split-screen multiplayer and it is fun, though rendering two screens must be a Herculean task for the Switch since the frames can sometimes drop even lower than during single-player."

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 will also have multiplayer implemented at a later date via a free update. Hopefully, this aspect of the title will not suffer the same technical issues that plague the rest of the game. There is split-screen multiplayer and it is fun, though rendering two screens must be a Herculean task for the Switch since the frames can sometimes drop even lower than during single-player.

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 can give Switch fans the simulation racing fix they crave, but only for so long. After spending enough time with it, it becomes apparent that this is a title that isn’t trying to aim for a completely simulation-based gameplay style. Whether that is due to creative choices or due to the base of the game being from a mobile phone game, the fact remains that the gameplay of this title is not too far away its kart-racing brothers on the Switch.

This game was reviewed on the Switch.

Sim racers are not usually what you expect from a Nintendo platform- that’s where you go for Mario Kart and its ilk, after all- but it seems like a more grounded racer is coming to the Switch tomorrow, thanks to Eden Games and Microïds bringing their authentic racing game Gear.Club Unlimited to the platform.

Now, to be fair, Gear.Club Unlimited was originally a mobile game- but it looks like it has been cleaned up and beefed up for its release on the Switch. There will be quite a lot of content (more than 400 races), and Switch specific features, such as motion controls, will also be supported.

You can check out the trailer below for yourself to see if this is something that appeals to you. It looks alright to me- depending on how the market responds to its pricing, it might even end up doing well. It launches on the Nintendo Switch tomorrow.

Not the most visually-stunning, but a solid game experience.

“Unlimited” is a big claim to live up to. The lawyers of the world are no doubt getting the litigation-twitch after the revelation that, actually, Test Drive is not “unlimited” at all. However, when there are this many challenges, side missions, vehicles, things to buy, items to find, some 3000km of roads to explore and, no doubt, hours of downloadable extras yet to come, you can forgive a certain amount of hyperbole.

After the cult success of Test Drive Unlimited, the makers discovered that what people liked most about the game was its level of interactivity – the fact that it became an online social hub, where friends could hook up irrespective of real geography, go for a “drive”, listen to some music and have a chat. That aspect is here and has been tweaked to the nth degree: this time you can set up race clubs, compete in group challenges and hang out at each others’ virtual apartments – all of which adds many hours to an already deeply-involved game.

Sexy Cars in Sexy Locales… What more do you need?

That takes care of the 14-year-olds looking for a Facebook alternative, but what about the rest of us? Well, from a solo perspective there’s much to recommend TDU2. At the start of the game – after a dream sequence that gives you a little taste of the vehicles to come – you’re an Ibiza-based car valet with a dream and a bit of driving ability who gets a shot at the “big time” – a series of race events called Solar Crown. This throws you into various road races, time trials, speed tests – where you have to maintain a minimum speed for as long as possible to rack up points – and assorted other challenges.

There is a storyline for the player to follow. To progress through the game, the player has to earn experience points to level up through the 60 levels. These points can be earned via 4 categories:

• Competition (racing, completing challenges)
• Social (making friends in the game, race against other people, joining clubs)
• Discovery (discover all roads, take photographs of specific locations, find all car wrecks)
• Collection (buy cars, houses, furniture, clothing/basic needs)

Win those, collect cash, buy new cars, enter the next race… you know the drill. Here though there’s considerable variation, where you can ignore challenges and just cruise the island, discovering new shops, real estate agents, car dealerships, car washes, etc. Plus, in order to enter the next class of race, you’ll first need to perfect some new skills and obtain the relevant licence. And once you’ve finished Ibiza and have earned enough money to buy a yacht you can sail to Hawaii and start a whole new island full of challenges.

According to Eden Games there are 3000+ miles of driveable on-road and off-road routes

There are also an extra 10 Levels available to those who acquire the Casino Online DLC/Pre-order Bonus, these levels are achieved within the casino itself.

The player can earn extra money depending with how the player drives. Driving like a daredevil and performing stunts, drifting through turns at high speeds and evading crashes and the traffic will earn the player extra cash. Exploring the island lets the player find vehicle wrecks which will unlock exclusive vehicles at the dealerships on the island. The player can also walk out of the car in vehicle shops,player houses, clubs and the optional casino DLC.

Eden have “spent years” working on the physics model for TDU2 to give each car its own handling. Dynamic effects like weather, lighting and dirt/cosmetic damage have also been overhauled.

The player’s avatar can be altered by changing hair, clothes, physical appearance and their attitude and facial features, and they can also buy houses. Co-op will also make an appearance in the game including a Follow-the-Leader mode. In this mode, players will have to complete a route by driving through checkpoints. When a checkpoint is passed by the leader, the game promotes one of the other drivers as leader. Working together properly is made even more important as only the leader can see the route on his GPS display

Graphically, TDU2 isn’t the most elaborate thing you’ll ever see; the hardcore driving gamer will find it childish and unrealistic and yes, the car-handling isn’t as crisp and researched as, say, GT5. You’ll also probably find the odd glitch in animation and environment (particularly if you head off road) but in terms of depth of play and regular jaw-dropping moments (sunrise or a thunderstorm for example) this is a game that will keep you occupied for weeks. Thanks to three skill settings, it’s instantly accessible whatever your experience level, features tons of little touches for the completist and isn’t shy on humour either.

Now with Social Network connectivity, if that floats your boat.

I was particularly taken with the stoner who pays you just to drive fast and the way any changes you make to the look of your avatar require: a) the discovery of a plastic surgeon; b) a visit to said plastic surgeon; and c) an hour of post-op recovery during which your avatar will be wearing bandages. I think this game is great, but suffered from a low-key launch (I didn’t know a sequel had been made until it dropped through my door) and could really do with more exposure. The addition of Ibiza as a driveable location and the overhaul of Hawai’i means even if you bought TDU there’s no excuse for not buying this game too.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Anyone who was looking forward to playing Test Drive Unlimited 2 upon its release February 8th, including me is out of luck for a bit.  The game was launched with a slew of different bugs, some of them being game breaking which can occur on all different platforms it was released on.  Some of the bugs include being stuck in a permanent loading screen, have your save file corrupted for no apparent reason, not loading you save file, cannot join friends games, the Lancia loads with purple wheels, Friends Filter on map does not show friends, lost money in Casino during outages, no accessory controls (Xbox Wheel) and more.

The good news is that Eden Games is working extremely hard to fix ALL these problems and has even taking network-reliant game components offline already just to get these problems fixed ASAP. Games developers and programmers have been pulled in from other projects with the Eden Games promising that “no one is going home until we get this working”. You can check the official forums for updates of how everything is going in fact they seem close to fixing the save corruption problem and a quick fix is to exit to the Xbox Dashboard immediately without clicking “Delete” or “Retry” but it is not a sure fix. All I can say is if your a racing fanatic, stick with Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit until everything fixed with Test Drive Unlimited 2. You can also stay updated by following Eden Games Twitter Account.

The first half of the trailer shows off the car itself, while the rest of the trailer actually shows some gameplay footage of the Ferrari in action.

Watch the trailer below, and enjoy the relaxing music too!

Update: This video is no longer available.

Test Drive Unlimited 2 expands on the traditional racing experience providing gamers with M.O.O.R.: Massively Open Online Racing; immersing drivers in a persistent online environment and revolutionizing multiplayer racing communities as players compete, team up, and share their achievements and creations online. Unlike any other driving game, TDU2 blends the open world experience with realistic vehicles and performance dynamics and for the first time, TDU2 features vehicle damage, weather effects, day and night cycles, and a brand new island to explore.

“After the highly successful Test Drive Unlimited which redefined the genre with massively open online racing, Test Drive Unlimited 2 will be an innovative evolution in racing games, expanding its unparalleled multiplayer experience and immersing players in a world full of new online content and lifestyle customization.” said Jeff Lapin, CEO of Atari, SA. “The game fits squarely into our strategy of moving online and generating new revenue streams while maintaining our current retail business.”