Players who stumped up the extra cash for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s “Gold” Edition, only to see key benefits go to waste, will be receiving some compensation from Nacon — but it’s both not what we’d expect and not coming particularly soon.
One of the main attractions of the $89.99 Gold Edition, as part of the $30 premium over and above the base game, was a whole week of play before the core game launched. That would allow players time to explore the map and build up their vehicle collection before — in theory — tens of thousands more players descended upon virtual Hong Kong.
However the week’s early access period was virtually inaccessible due to widespread server issues affecting all platforms, persisting through to the post-launch period too. It even affected our ability to review the game, although what we were able to play barely whelmed us and the server issues were far from the only blot.
Nacon brought up the issue in one of its early responses to fans, stating that it was “considering compensation that matches the frustration” without causing “unfairness for unaffected players” (who were few and far between) or affecting “the unique progression balance” of the game. While not going into precise details, it was stated that “it will not simply be a number of Solar Coins or an Avatar cosmetic”.
An announcement for an update launching on November 5 has now confirmed what the compensation is, and while technically meeting that definition it doesn’t seem particularly weighty. Gold players — with no mention of Silver Sharps/Streets Edition buyers, who were also supposed to get two days’ early access — will receive a car and five stickers.
The car, for what it’s worth, is an “exclusive” version of the Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe ’86 dubbed the “Adventurer” — a sort-of Baja-esque version of the classic 911 not too far removed from the Desert Flyer. That “premium” sticker pack is called “Pioneers of the Solar Crown”, though there’s no preview of these cosmetic items.
Not only that, eligible players won’t receive these items until the launch of “Season 2” of Solar Crown, scheduled for December, and if you didn’t play the game before October 15 — which is, to be fair, over a month after launch, but many players couldn’t play it at all — you won’t receive anything.
There is some hope that this won’t be the full scope of the “compensation”, with the Nacon post stating that more details will be coming in the next weeks, but at present it doesn’t seem to match up with the irritation of losing the early access benefits — especially as many players like to take time off work to enjoy a title for which they’ve been waiting a decade…
The update itself, coming at 0900 UTC on November 5, is bringing some much-needed improvements for graphics and network stability, particularly on PlayStation 5. Notably the game’s “Quality” graphics mode will step up from 1080p to 1440p, although still run at just 30fps. There’ll be no maintenance period — so no further spells offline — for the update.
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