If you’ve been contemplating picking up Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown but, after its early life issues, haven’t pulled the trigger yet, there’s a good chance to try before you buy this weekend — at least on PlayStation.
Starting from today, there’s a free trial period for the title. It’s already underway and runs through to 0900 UTC on Tuesday December 31, giving a solid four days to give it a whirl — and you might be able to keep playing if you don’t log out of the game or your console.
While many of our own comments and notes about the title remain relevant, it’s not a bad time to get a flavor of TDUSC. The situation has improved a little over the past three months too. Though the physics are still idiosyncratic, especially off-road and on jumps, at least the AI isn’t playing by a different rulebook any more.
We’re still getting occasional frame rate drops even on the PS5 Pro though, and we’ve not had a single session without the “Server Issues” note since the first day of the review period. How that’s going to be affected by an influx of players on a free trial weekend we can only shudder to think!
However the game does have its own character and recently added its first expansion by the way of the additional, free Ibiza map. This takes players to the capital of this popular Balearic island — and remember, they drive on the left in Hong Kong and on the right in Ibiza — and adds some new cars, challenges, and ranks for the Solar Crown and clans.
Handily, TDUSC is also discounted on the PlayStation Store right now. There’s 40% off both the Gold Edition and the Silver Streets Edition — but curiously not the Silver Sharps Edition or the Gold upgrade for the standard version — through to Tuesday January 7.
One odd additional side note is that the free trial is not available in Japan or South Korea, and players in Germany will require a PlayStation Plus account to take part, though we’re not quite sure why that’d be the case since it’s supposed to be a multiplayer game requiring PS+ across the board…
Additional free-play weekends will be available in the future for PC and Xbox platforms, though there’s no date announced for either as yet.
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