Before 2020, I did know of Nacon, but it was unlikely that I’d recognise anything that released from one of their studios. That all changed with three simple letters. TDU. It had been almost ten years since the last Test Drive Unlimited game, with one final Test Drive game releasing in 2012 (Ferrari Racing Legends) until silence for the series. So to see that a new one was coming – and it being a new game in the Unlimited branch of the series, I was bound to follow whatever studio it was coming from.

So there I was watching the Nacon Connect of 2020, just awaiting that reveal. There were plenty of other games shown off, but while I showed interest in some of them, none mattered when compared with Test Drive Unlimited. It wouldn’t be until the next Nacon Connect in July of 2021 where the location would be revealed, along with the curious announcement of the Life brand of games.

Or at least a showing of them, as the actual announcement had been in March of that year. That announcement revealed five of them. Chef Life, Architect Life, Surgeon Life, Hotel Life, and Train Life were set to be the first five games of this new label. When it came to showing them during the Connect, only Chef, Hotel, and Train were shown off within the minute long trailer. And those other two have yet to surface to this day.

Of the five, I’ve been looking forward to getting stuck into Hotel Life. That original announcement came with a trailer showing off a bit of the game (which I’d given a look at after the Nacon Connect), showing off a simulator I haven’t really seen a lot of. There’s plenty of building sims, chef sims, train sims, and hospital sims, but nothing really in terms of holiday resort sims. And that was the hook right there.

It takes players to an idyllic location by the sea, and tasks them with building a place for a nice relaxing holiday to take place for visitors. Freedom to put facilities where you want, decorating them how you want. The on-the-ground management style of the game is something I haven’t seen from this type of simulator since Thrillville, and that was the second hook. It’ll be some time before we see more on this one, but I’m hoping it will be good when we do.

As for why I don’t think we’ll be seeing it soon is thanks to Chef Life. Of the two, Chef Life was set to be released first. Never mind that they have different developers working on them, Chef Life stood the best chance of success, being something people were familiar with. With new information and a release date of February 2023 for it, I think there’ll be information on other games of the Life brand soon.

As for Chef Life, you’re managing a restaurant. Same as Hotel Life, customisation is key as you place and decorate the essentials to running the restaurant, then take a hands-on approach preparing the menu of that restaurant. All in the aim of getting a Michelin star and running the best restaurant you can. The usual management systems are here, so you won’t be running this place by yourself (same with Hotel Life), which means you can’t be going wild gunning for the best things straight away.

Train Life is a PC-only release, having spent the last year as part of Early Access on Steam, receiving plenty of support from a small fanbase so that when the full release comes later this month, the railway simulator is the best it can be. Being both company director and driver, Train Life sees you building up a railway empire from scratch, travelling its rendition of Europe while managing a company dealing in passengers and freight.

Developer Simteract say that while Train Life will be coming out of Early Access, the updates for it won’t be stopping. They want the game to have a long life, so have more content planned to be coming along with bug fixing and implementing other improvements where needed. Along with that, development on their second Life game will be full steam ahead. Except it’s a taxi, so there’s no steam. Unless it were to be set alight.

Yes, the second Life game of Simteract will be Taxi Life, and this is the second of my most wanted from this list of Life games. With this one, we’ll be managing a taxi company around Barcelona, freely exploring the open world and seeing more than 200 of the city’s iconic places of interest faithfully reproduced in the world. I’m ready to see it in action and get driving those streets when it releases.

A second new Life game had also been announced this year. That being Garden Life – which bring stillalive studios into the fold of those developing Life games, presenting us with a sandbox with no limits on creativity. Utilising procedural generation and advanced growth visualisation simulation technology, the game should present a garden where no two plants look exactly alike.

Time to bring this back to Test Drive Unlimited, however. Since as much as I’m looking forward to those Life games, there’s nothing as good as an open world driving game. And this Test Drive Unlimited is bringing a 1:1 scale Hong Kong Island to play around on. Supposedly similar to the old games, but bringing the series to the modern age, that means a championship to be running through and various other challenges to tackle.

The Solar Crown competition has brought two clans to the fore, each with a different vision of luxury and each wanting to impose that vision upon the city. You’ll be joining one of those two clans, helping them to become the superior clan of the city. While rivalries are there, each show respect to the other, so you can still hang with those of the other clan even after beating them repeatedly on the track.

What little we’ve seen of it has me excited to explore this world, but as yet I’m unsure of everything else. We’ve heard but not seen quite a bit, but with a release for next year (assuming there’s no more delays) we should start seeing more of it in action. And hopefully not just at the next Nacon Connect. This is one of my most anticipated games yet to release. I want it to be the best it can be.

Images Taken From:
Hotel Life: A Resort Simulator – Reveal Trailer
Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator | Commented Gameplay Trailer
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown Steam Store Page