- This page contains information about the game series Ultimate Driving. For the individual games, see Ultimate Driving (disambiguation).
Ultimate Driving was a series of games founded by TwentyTwoPilots. It was established around several games from different regions created by different developers. However, this concept project came to an end in May 2022, when the Hub update was released, considering all new maps are now merged into one single game, which was once known as Ultimate Driving: Westover Islands.
Players in the Ultimate Driving series can earn in-game currency by cruising, racing and exploring around the map or by completing jobs. The game also features seven municipal teams. For example, they can enforce the law as a police officer, save the day as a fire fighter, earn cash by driving big rigs and hauling cargo as a truck driver, drive buses and taxis to safely deliver riders as a transit driver, maintain the roads as a highway worker, or deliver the mail to houses as a mailman. The game also features over 400 vehicles in a wide variety from classic to exotic. The UD series also features an open-world exploration genre with natural highways, back roads, and cities.
As of June 2023, the main game has garnered over 401 million visits, 750,000 likes, and 1.8 million favorites.
History[]
Since its creation in 2008, the UD Series had expanded with new maps and modernized due to technological upgrades throughout the years. This was unfortunately put to an end now that the Hub Update has merged every new map into one game.
Classic Games[]
The first game of the series was created all the way back in August 2008. It was one of the first games in the UD series to be released on the platform. It was released around the middle of 2010 until closing down in late 2014. During that period, it garnered over 293,000 visits and became the first UD game in the series to appear on the front page. Around late 2012, TwentyTwoPilots released the second game of the Ultimate Driving series. Since its release, it garnered over 1.1 million visits before closing down in late 2014. Around the middle of 2013, TwentyTwoPilots released the third game of the Ultimate Driving series, which garned over 194,000 vists in its run before closing down in late 2014. In early 2014, the fourth version of the Ultimate Driving series released, which managed to gain over 47,000 visits before being closed down in late 2014.
Westover Islands[]
Main article: Ultimate Driving
On June 25, 2011, TwentyTwoPilots released Ultimate Driving II, which was basically an updated version of its predecessor, Ultimate Driving I. It was completely remade in January 2015 with a completely new map (with some elements taken from Ultimate Driving II v1.0 - 1.6.5.82). Since then, the map layout has remained mainly unchanged, with a few design modifications and additions as the platform's technology and development capabilities developed. The game was then renamed to Ultimate Driving: Westover Islands in May 2015. Since then, it has become the main flagship game for the Ultimate Driving series before being renamed to Ultimate Driving 2.0 in May 2022 in regards of the Hub Update. The game was then quickly renamed to Ultimate Driving a couple months later.
Odessa[]
Main article: Ultimate Driving: Odessa
In July 2015, TwentyTwoPilots released a new map named Odessa. It was the second game to release into the Ultimate Driving series, featuring towns such as the main town of Odessa, Bordenville and Red Mill Crossroads. It was considered to be the only modern city game from the UD Series. About a year after, the map received an overhaul featuring the increased size of Bordenville and a new reversible-lane bridge on DE 72 south of Red Mill Crossroads. In August 2018, the map received an expansion to the north featuring Cape Ann (a section of an unreleased UD game) which helped expand the northern part of US 1, I-95, and DE 72. Since then, the original map has remained untouched for a long 3 years until its overhaul was announced in late August 2021. The overhauled map was finished and released in a BETA slot in early March 2022 in. The map was then officially released in May 2022, however, its overhauled map wasn't published to its own slot, but rather integrated into the Hub Update with the main flagship game, Westover Islands. Since its release, it has garnered over 11 million visits, 35,000 likes, and 162,000 favorites.
Newark[]
Main article: Ultimate Driving: Newark
On Christmas Day of 2015, a third map for the Ultimate Driving series was released. It featured a combination of a big city named Newark with rural environments outside of it. One of the most iconic characteristics that admired by players was the interstate highway, signed I-476, which went through the big city. The game ran from its release day until it was closed down in late April 2018. The reason for the closure was a regard to the announcement made back in October 2016, where TwentyTwoPilots would go on to overhaul the entire map to its modern specifications like its other counterparts. Since then, it has been closed away from the public eye for over 5 years. In its 3-year duration, it has garnered over 8 million visits, 23,000 likes and 110,000 favorites.
Delancy Gorge[]
Main article: Ultimate Driving: Delancy Gorge
In mid-December 2016, a fourth map for the Ultimate Driving series was released, named Delancy Gorge. It was a mountain based map featuring windy roads that went around the mountain. It was considered to be the first modern terrain travel game in the whole Ultimate Driving series. Although, unlike its other counterparts, most of the map has remained the same since its release. However, in mid October 2021, a teaser video of TwentyTwoPilots was released showcasing a brand-new overhauled map of Delancy Gorge. Like the Odessa Overhaul, this overhauled map may be integrated into the Hub Update with the main flagship game, Westover Islands, instead of being published on its main slot. Since its release, it has garnered over 6 million visits, 23,000 likes, and 106,000 favorites.
Currituck[]
Main article: Ultimate Driving: Currituck
In late June 2017, a new map named Currituck was released to the Ultimate Driving series. However, unlike any of the previous four maps released by TwentyTwoPilots, this map was created by Index15 and was also the first map to be based in North Carolina. It had a coastal theme somewhat near to the flagship game, featuring the main towns of Currituck, Swanquarter, Fort Landing, and Halifax. About a year after its release, Currituck was given a small overhaul in certain areas of the map such as Halifax and Fort Landing. Ever since then, the map has remained unchanged. Around the summer of 2021, Index15 had proposals to overhaul and expand the entire map to its real-life counterpart, however, this was never finished as he formally resigned from Ultimate Driving on May 23, 2022. Along with UD: Monroe, the game is no longer canon to the universe following index15's departure. Since its release, it has garnered over 5.1 million visits, 12,000 likes, and 65,000 favorites.
Monroe[]
Main article: Ultimate Driving: Monroe
On Thanksgiving Day in 2018, Index15 released another new map, named Monroe. It featured a historic themed downtown, Monroe, the towns of Waxhaw, and Council Oaks, and a small unincorporated community, White Oaks. It was the second and last official map to be released by Index15. It also held the largest city in the Ultimate Driving series since Newark's closure. Ever since its release, the map has remained untouched with any new major changes. However, on July 26, 2021, he had a proposal to revamp and expand Monroe to its real-life counterpart. Though, like Currituck, this was never finished as he formally resigned from Ultimate Driving on May 23, 2022. Along with UD: Currituck, the game is no longer canon to the universe following index15's departure. Since its release, it has garnered over 4.3 million visits, 11,000 likes, and 55,000 favorites.
Closed and unfinished games[]
There were other released maps such as Ultimate Driving: Noyan which was released by xxdebilexx in October 2016 and Ultimate Driving: Pleasant Valley that was released by BullRusterXxl15 in August 2017. Noyan was another well-known map for roleplaying and was the first map from the Ultimate Driving series to be based in Canada. It ran for about two years until it was closed down on November 1, 2018, due to him resigning from Ultimate Driving. During its two-year period, it garnered over 1 million visits, 8,000 likes, and 33,000 favorites. Pleasant Valley was also shutdown as well due to BullRuster's resignation in July 2018. Pleasant Valley during its year-long period garnered 575,000 visits, 2,000 likes, 13,000 favorites. There were also many maps that were under development such as Kent Island and Fontana Dam developed by Index15, New Charlestown developed by Repujaketion, and Johnsboro developed by marcus_dot. Though, the first three maps mentioned were never released due to reason of them resigning. As of now, Johnsboro is the only map that remains under development. It is expected that this map will be released within the new Hub system rather than in its own game slot.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
This section is a trivia section. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections of the article.
- There was a total of 8 developers or so-called "universe builders" when the UD series was created. However, most of them have resigned for their own reasons. The only universe builder that still serves the UD Series is marcus_dot.
- Out of the 6 of 8 developers that resigned, most of them have either closed down their games or refurbished them into their own projects. However, when Index15 resigned, he decided to keep many of his games open whether they were functioning or not. Those include his live games, Currituck and Monroe.
- Like any of the maps that were released in the UD series, they would most likely have a minimap created for them, however, this was not the case for Pleasant Valley when it was released.
- Most of the players that played from the years 2015-2019 considered this as the golden ages of the Ultimate Driving series due to variety of maps that were released and the simplicity of the gameplay.
- Ultimate Driving: Noyan was the only released game to feature a Police vehicle with its own unique livery.