What we're left with is a flimsy framework - a sort of clothes horse for content - rather than a truly great racing game. DriveClub is patently intended to attract a global, interconnected audience of fiercely competitive racers but, to quote the increasingly obscure 1989 Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams: if you build it, they will come. And, unfortunately, Evolution hasn't quite built it.
It's a game that requires and occasionally enforces patience, but like all great road trips it's about the journey, not the destination.
A new and likeable story mode caps a decent if not dazzling celebration of 25 years of Codies' racing series.
A jaw-droppingly beautiful sim with an obsessive attention to detail that ensures the franchise's penchant for charming eccentricity is alive and well
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown's technical issues, both online and in performance terms, do a disservice to a novel, detailed game world.