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[cormack12]

Source: https://racinggames.gg/misc/intervi...ed-solar-crown-wont-be-a-forza-horizon-clone/

We spoke with Creative Director Alain Jarniou to get the latest on KT Racing’s ambitious and long-awaited open-world racer and find out what will set it apart from Forza Horizon.

“I play Forza Horizon. It’s a very nice game. It’s also a copy of Test Drive Unlimited!” he joked. “In the beginning, they were inspired by the Test Drive Unlimited license. They’ve done a very good job of making it fun with different game modes. But it’s not the same as TDU. There’s no game like TDU even today.”

TDU isn't just a driving game. It's also about living a lavish lifestyle. You create your own avatar, meet other players, and buy extravagant houses with garages to store your dream car collection.

“In Forza Horizon, you do a Wheelspin and you get two cars. Or you do a mission and you get another car. You’ve got lots of cars in your garage. But you don’t work for it,” said Jarniou.

Forza Horizon games have hundreds of cars. TDU’s car rosters are smaller, but every car feels special. The sense of ownership in TDU games is still unmatched too: you can visit dealerships, choose paint colours, and customise the interior with factory-correct options. This sense of ownership and love for cars will continue in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

“In TDU there are fewer cars, but you choose these cars. The relationship you have with your garage is stronger in TDU than in any other game. You must earn money to buy the cars of your dreams. You spend time with your car, upgrading it, playing with it, and showing it off with other players.”

Getting the driving experience in Solar Crown right is crucial. While it won’t be a hardcore simulation, it will offer a more realistic driving experience than its rivals.

“When you are able to go off-road and climb mountains, it’s not the same level of simulation like a Formula 1 or WRC game,” Jarniou explained. “The idea is to be more simulation than The Crew or Forza Horizon, which are quite arcadey."

“Part of the enjoyment of driving is to have something that’s realistic but not too simulation. But we want to give players the freedom to tweak driving aids to get something that’s closer to simulation if they want.”

 

[Markio128]

This is music to my ears.

 

[R6Rider]

Good

 

[Skifi28]

It seems like they're trying very hard to spin that few cars cars is somehow better. Also, I don't want the cringe lifestyle crap to be a big part of the game. The Horizon festival stuff is already unbearable.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I like the idea of earning cars again instead of being showered in them for racing a couple laps.

Happy for the sim crowd, but I’ll have to bow out as I prefer arcade style.

 

[SmokedMeat]

It seems like they're trying very hard to spin that few cars cars is somehow better. Also, I don't want the cringe lifestyle crap to be a big part of the game. The Horizon festival stuff is already unbearable.

Maybe it’s because it was so fresh, but back when Gran Turismo first arrived it was pretty cool earning your first half decent car and upgrading it.
I think there was more of a connection. That was my car, and we worked through races until I could eventually afford something better.

When you just shower me with cars, I barely spend any time with them before I’m onto the next one. I might earn several cars in one night of playing, whereas in the past it took time. I had cars I never even drove. They were like trinkets to collect on a shelf.

I can see both sides of the argument, but the feeling I had back then of working towards getting a better car or improving my own isn’t there with the modern racers I’ve played.

 

[SliChillax]

It’s what I hate about Horizon, getting showered with cars that I haven’t earned devalues the experience. Also I think most cars in Horizon feel the same to drive.

 

[Rambone]

I'm down with this. I love me some Forza but the loot pinata thing with the cars is kinda true, I never feel any sense of accomplishment for anything I've earned as the game basically just hands everything out like candy. I like how Forza and Grand Turismo handles driving assists where you can kinda play how you want but I'm not going to be bothered if TDU doesn't include it but it would be nice if it did do something.

 

[Kataploom]

Well, I'm not a race sim player but to me all those look like clones of each other lol... How are they "different"?

 

[Miles708]

Is there a gameplay video somewhere?

 

[Chukhopops]

Saving this quote for the future review thread.

 

[CamHostage]

Is there a gameplay video somewhere?

Nope.

They've run a frustrating campaign so far with I think 3 teaser videos, and the closest to in-game (much less gameplay) is perhaps the cars driving straight down an alley at the end of the first video. Hopefully when they finally do show it being played and later launch it, it can live up to all the talk.

 

[fatmarco]

I honestly prefer when racing games make you earn a vehicle, and when your garage isn't full of cars you randomly were given by chance. I love Horizon but there's something about games like PGR, GT, Underground etc. where every car is important to you and your journey through the campaign. I don't want to see the high end exotic Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches until the end game.

In Horizon its all about immediate gratification, which is fine but it often means you get the dream vehicle so early that there's so few carrots it can hang in front of you to keep you playing or draw you back in, nor does this system promote customization and performance tweaks because you simply just swap to a better car.

 

[feynoob]

Give me midnight club 2 vibes.

 

[BusierDonkey]

To me the worst thing about TDU was what the studio says sets it apart. The whole social aspect, picking up chicks and role-playing as a douche-canoe turned me off the game. I wish the games stuck to showcasing the setting more like Horizon does but without the neon jizz and coke-fueled characters all over like Horizon. There has to be a market for a car game where I just get to race and explore without a shitty group of characters talking at me all the time. The first Horizon is still as close as I've seen but even that had a sprinkle of characters I'd likely murder in reality. Basically, give me PGR with an open world map.

I do prefer that the cars weren't just dumped on you in a pile like Horizon cranking my dopamine past it's limit. Eventually I wheelspin a 20-million-dollar car and don't even care anymore. Like PGR, TDUs garages and more curated car selection did make them feel a bit more special but I don't believe for a second they wouldn't have 700 cars if they could afford it.

 

[OZ9000]

To me the worst thing about TDU was what the studio says sets it apart. The whole social aspect, picking up chicks and role-playing as a douche-canoe turned me off the game. I wish the games stuck to showcasing the setting more like Horizon does but without the neon jizz and coke-fueled characters all over like Horizon. There has to be a market for a car game where I just get to race and explore without a shitty group of characters talking at me all the time. The first Horizon is still as close as I've seen but even that had a sprinkle of characters I'd likely murder in reality. Basically, give me PGR with an open world map.

I do prefer that the cars weren't just dumped on you in a pile like Horizon cranking my dopamine past it's limit. Eventually I wheelspin a 20-million-dollar car and don't even care anymore. Like PGR, TDUs garages and more curated car selection did make them feel a bit more special but I don't believe for a second they wouldn't have 700 cars if they could afford it.

The social aspect of FH5 and all its characters gave me AIDS.

 

[mansoor1980]

“I play Forza Horizon. It’s a very nice game. It’s also a copy of Test Drive Unlimited!”

 

[Big Baller]

Cant wait to race @30fps

 

[Aguero9320]

That’s some bold talk I think there’s about a 1% chance they can back it up.

And that’s coming from someone who loved TDU.

 

[Turk1993]

That’s some bold talk I think there’s about a 1% chance they can back it up.

And that’s coming from someone who loved TDU.

All they do is talk talk talk, the game supposed to launch this year but got delayed. They still haven't show any gameplay footage or even any in game footage outside that shitty 15 sec clip, which tells enough. First show something before you make big claims like that. It's been more than 2 years when they first revealed the game and we still don't know how it looks or plays. And indeed the first one was something special and one of my fav racing game. I hope they deliver and surprise me, but i keep my hopes in check.

 

[CamHostage]

All they do is talk talk talk, the game supposed to launch this year but got delayed. They still haven't show any gameplay footage or even any in game footage outside that shitty 15 sec clip, which tells enough.

Eh, I don't think it's all that telling, really? I feel like they would have marketed the game this way whether it was amazing or not-so-amazing...

The game will be on KT Engine, they've made over a dozen racing games on it and have licensed it out to even more driving games. (However, Kylotonn has not yet done or licensed out an open-world racer as far as I remember?) And their publisher Nacon is aggressive in marketing, plus the company filed the trademark in 2020 and also Alain Jarniou of Eden Games came over to the company, so an early announcement was kind of unavoidable. (All the teasers since have not been necessary, and their first release date of Sept 2022 always seemed bogus.) And the developer has said he's keeping footage out of the marketing until the game is at its expected final performance level, which sometimes is lip service or is hiding something but also is generally a smart strategy from a designer who has been in the business for decades. Trailers of racing games are easy to cut and hide all the flaws, and Nacon isn't above showing a game running better than it actually does or having it all replay footage, but they're taking this game seriously, and that's a positive. (I'm very hot-and-cold on this game and am not expecting something amazing, so I'm with you giving them limited rope but I don't have a lot of worry that KT Engine will deliver a generally functional racing game, and then we'll see if it's good after that.)

So while the waiting sucks, it'll ultimately be better this way, hopefully...

 

[Thief1987]

But it's still openworld, eh? OW is basically killed the arcade racing genre for me, to the point that I had much more fun in a pretty mediocre game like Dirt 5 than in all Forza Horizons combined.

 

[lukilladog]

I hope it's not inspired by TDU2 either. This one and Forza Horizon 5 have very bland and simplified car handling and physics designed to not displease bottom of the barrel casuals. Take the original TDU 1, and improve on it... and don't forget to allow Us to add our own (royalty free) music.

 

[lem0n]

Sounds brilliant, those are my same complaints regarding Horizon. I always loved TDU because it's more a driving game than a racing game.. if that makes sense. It's less about the actual competition but more about the cars, the setting, vibes, and cruising. I'd love more of that, please.

 

[cobaltorange]

Well, I'm not a race sim player but to me all those look like clones of each other lol... How are they "different"?

I mean, kinda tells you one major difference in OP's post.

 

[cobaltorange]

But it's still openworld, eh? OW is basically killed the arcade racing genre for me, to the point that I had much more fun in a pretty mediocre game like Dirt 5 than in all Forza Horizons combined.

Why don't you like it?

 

[IllegalLemon]

As much as I love Forza Horizon, I believe it's lost its way with the more recent entries. Forza Horizon 1 had that sense of reward & adventure. Getting your first car, upgrading and tuning it to make it truly your own, it was amazing. You had to race your way to the top and it gave that real sense of accomplishment. The second and third Horizons also did that, and the festivals were sensational, it truly set these games apart. They truly lost their balance & footing with 4 and 5.

They were great games, but had nowhere near the love and care the first 3 did. 4's rotating seasons were a novel feature and a good one at that, but 5 was just a fancy showcase, gorgeous, but flawed. Its festival left a lot to be desired and Mexico sometimes felt like it had a lot of empty and wasted space that could've been used for something, but wasn't. They also fed you cars through wheelspins, instead of having that sense of accomplishment by letting you earn them by working your way towards them. Garages were just courtyards where you could just personalise and upgrade cars, no car meets either which was a real bummer.

It's one thing having 200-220 meticulously crafted vehicles with attention to detail at every side and corner and having that sense of reward when you finally get to buy and drive them & have them sound great and unique. It's another to have 450+ that are still amazingly crafted, but over half still sound like vacuum cleaners and are spoon fed to the players through wheelspins. What's great about Tdu, is that your house is a like a living space you can go into, paint & personalise to make it truly feel like yours, it's not a static space where you can only park outside. I truly, unequivocally love forza horizon, i really do. But I can't help but feel like the devs have lost their way and don't know what they're doing ,so they're trying things at random to see what works. They managed to capture lightning in a bottle with the first 3, doesn't feel that way with the last 2 tbh.