The Crew

So i just sank about 4 1/2 hours into this. Completed the prologue, and 2 main missions. The rest was spent driving around the Midwest region, finding the wrecks (20 in each region) and ended up with a lovely Hotrod, which i immediately sprayed black, put on massive fenders, flame stickers, yellow interior and red skull wheels. And now i need to sleep.

As for the game, i absolutely love it. It's the next game in the NFS: Underground series as far as i'm concerned. I can see myself sinking a crazy amount of hours into it, when it's finally released that it.

Pros:
- MAHOOOOSIVE map. No exaggeration. It takes 40 minutes to drive across the map, with loading!!!
- Lots to do - As in, a stupid amount. Each region has satellites which you drive to in order to display the skill challenges, landmarks and general locations of the hidden car in that region. But it doesn't automatically unlock the map, so if something you want is in a grey area, you have to drive to it.
- Fast Travel. Unlike other fast travel systems, you can fast travel to any road which has been discovered. This means, if something you want is greyed out, you can fast travel to the nearest available bit of road/land and go from there, rather than certain locations like in other games.
- Challenges. It's littered with them, but they're not pointless. Completing a challenge unlocks an upgrade for the car you completed it with. So instead of just showing off your times/skills, you actually get to upgrade your car by doing these, and they can be done on the fly, no loading, or even leaving your current course.
- Graphics. I know some people don't think it looks great, but it looks absolutely fine in my opinion. Yeah, it's no premium cars and tracks from GT6, or Forza level of detail, but when you take into account the absence of loading in free roam, and the amount of little things like the planes flying in real time above you, hangliders, people, animals, crops (there's something satisfying about driving through corn and leaving a big track behind you), you tend to appreciate it more.
- Upgrades. All visual upgrades available right from the start. For example, there are 5 or 6 different categories of rims, and each one (aside from the "official" category) has 50+ in each (road has 80+). And you can have whatever ones you want (if you have the money!).
- Upgrade style. There's a con to this as well, but the pro is the way it's presented also. Performance upgrades takes away everything but the mechanics of the car, and you're left looking at the engine, drivetrain, wheels, suspension, etc. No chassis. It's a neat way of doing it.

Cons:
- The cars all handle like boats. Well, the ones i've driven anyway. I know there's options in the menu to change the handling settings, and i did, but it will take a bit of tweaking to get it to feel right.
- Pop ups! Yeah, pop ups. When you complete a skill challenge, it fills the screen with big boxes of information, all while you're still driving! You can stop, but it would be nicer to have them smaller and up top, rather than covering your car.
- Your information. Constantly on the left hand side, in the middle of the screen, is the information about you. Nothing you need to see, and i can't seem to hide it. It's distracting, and should be up higher in the corner if it's needed at all.
- Dark Garage. The garage, where you apply your visual modifications is way too dark, and it makes it hard to see what the upgrades will look like. It needs to be well lit, but it's not the first game to do this.
- Upgrades. While there is a vast amount of upgrades immediately available for whatever car you have, the way they're applied doesn't look well. When you're visually upgrading the car, each component separates from the rest of the car, even the ones you're not currently upgrading. So the new upgrade is floating in front of the car, and it makes it hard to judge. This can be overcome with a demo (preview) mode, but it would have been easier to just see the upgrade there and then.
- Upgrade camera. It's locked into position unless you go into the aforementioned demo mode. And even then you've to hit another button to get free view.
- Demo mode. You can't change the part while in demo mode, you have to exit out, select a different part, and then go back into demo mode. Should be able to change parts in demo mode.

Yeah, so stuck into this until Monday, Advanced Warfare won't get a look in! It'll suck to play so much and then have to wait for the official release. At least it'll only be a month (hopefully!).

Edit: Just realised the save won't carry over to the full release! Think it's time to start messing and not trying to complete anything!!!

Cars dont handle like boats when you get to level 7 or so and you put the right mods on your car. This is a MMO style game what will happen is you will spend 20 hours in one car unlocking 15 others but 30 mods for the car your driving. Switching cars mean you will start from zero in the new car.

PC beta was longer and almost everyone was driving the 1st car they had and had loads of **** unlocked, which means you will form an attachment of sorts. i played 2 betas and 2nd one with the Z it was a beast by level 10.

Yeah, after the Beta, this is definitely a Day 1 purchase for me. I will definitely lose so much time in this, and that's without even considering Crewing up and doing MP missions/races. From my last post, the only thing that's still bothering me is the lighting in the garages. I hope they brighten them up a bit, especially when trying to put on black/carbon skirts, and they're impossible to see.

Anyway, bring on the release!

Not a happy camper. Have this on PC, started the 2.5 hour Faction Mission (drive the circumference of the map). 58 Minutes in, 21/30 checkpoints, and i hit an invisible barrier. AI car 2, 3 & 4 all hit the same invisible barrier. My car slowly tips backwards until a crash scene, and back into the invisible barrier again. Car tips again, stuck on a loading screen. Alt+Tab to the desktop, game keeps trying to bring me back, took 5 minutes of Ctrl+Alt+Del over and over and attempting to end the program before it tries to bring the game back up. Eventually get to close the game. Extremely annoyed.

Also, the rubberbanding in this game is shocking! Still enjoying it, but this crash has put me off for a few days me thinks!

Jerichoholic wrote: »

On PC too, enjoying-ish it. PVP and Multiplayer is pathetic though, still haven't got a session going. Terrible for a game that's about "connectivity".

Reminds me of TDU 2 on launch. That actually killed the game and studio who made it. I really liked that game.

I Dont think the graphics have Improved all that much from TDU2. Kinda just part three of the TDU story without any real next gen feel.

Liking it now but not living it... Yet

Its a decent game, shame i cant play it with people i want to.

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I loved TDU but hated TDU2, what's the story with The Crew?
It is in the sales but I'm in two minds about it on the PS4, it's this or Drive Club.

I've wanted to give one of them a purchase too but Coyvb and many others seem to be of the opinion just to keep your money. In this case I've taken the warning as it seems to be pretty universal.

Most saying both games look good but just nothing to write home about in general.

I'll hold off for the next racer and play Mario kart when I want a bit of racing in the mean time.

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I loved TDU but hated TDU2, what's the story with The Crew?
It is in the sales but I'm in two minds about it on the PS4, it's this or Drive Club.

If you buy now and cant sign in, you wont be able to play the game. Online only, i managed to get on for an hour yesterday at noon, but that was it since.

All ubi games on PC drop in price fairly quickly.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I am not even talking about pc versions. Check amazon prices for xbox one and ps4. I think even argos already selling it for 40eu

Think its an all format thing EA games dont go down as quick.

Lads, Project Cars will be out soon cross platform. This will be the saviour of everything.

Pac1Man wrote: »

Lads, Project Cars will be out soon cross platform. This will be the saviour of everything.

Well, Project cars is going in to Sim racer game category, not in to Arcade racer category.

I will pick up Crew on PC at some point to have some fun with G27. That thing was not out of the box for over 4 months.

ScumLord wrote: »

It might work well with consoles as it has little competition but I don't see it doing too well against the current batch of PC sims, it might attract in a few with it's good looks but good looks usually mean poor gameplay (from a sim perspective).

If it can match a portion of Forza's gameplay then I'll be all over it. Here's hoping that gameplay/looks are not exclusive to each other like you suggest.

The developer's honesty has to be commended though. To explain the recent delay, they simply said "to avoid competition".

It's going to be immense. You heard it here first!

EdragonXX wrote: »

Not at all. Forza is super game compared with Crew.

I was referring to the upcoming Project Cars. I'm betting it will be a masterpiece.


Watching the footage and content of Horizon 2 has me longing for a One.

Pac1Man wrote: »

If it can match a portion of Forza's gameplay then I'll be all over it. Here's hoping that gameplay/looks are not exclusive to each other like you suggest.

I don't know that it's really competing with the type of game forza is. PCars is going for simulation, I don't think Forza really qualifies as a sim in the same way. So PCars will be something new that hasn't been tried on consoles in a while. It will be interesting to see how it gets on. It could end up being an excellent sim but flop because of that because the console market just isn't used to a proper driving sim.

From what I've read on the PC version it's not quite up to the highest standards of physics in other PC sims so it's getting some bad press. It could flop on PC because it's not hardcore enough and flop on consoles for being too hardcore. Or it could find the perfect balance and work well on both. With sims you really need a wheel to make the most of it which could contribute to it failing on consoles.

I'll be in no rush to buy it, I've lost all interest in other driving games since assetto corsa. It's that good.

Pac1Man wrote: »

I don't know if you remember Race Pro on the 360?

No, PC for life bro, been that way since I were a little un.

My honest feeling is that PCars may be viewed in the same light which would be fine by me. It will never be a Forza or a Gran Turismo in terms of scale but once it offers an enjoyable on-track experience I'll be happy.

They have got the track list nailed down at least!:pac:

It could be good, the PC comments I've heard on it say it's there or there about in terms of a PC sim. I've heard enough positive and negative comments to think that it's at least not terrible.

A massive list of cars at launch isn't necessarily a good thing though. It could just be the case that every car is essentially the same with slightly different parameters. Unlike other sims where each car feels completely different.

For me it would have to be something utterly fantastic to stop me playing AC. I've put over 300 hours into that sim, so at this stage I'm committed to the sim.