On December 2, 2014, Ubisoft will release The Crew, an open MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game where the players are cars that will drive all across the United States, facing many challenges for all kinds of experience and just plain fun.
The game allows the player to take a car and simply drive it, anywhere in the continental United States. Of course, you can get yourself a very cool car and pick something that you might not be able to casually afford like an Alfa Romeo or Corvette. Players can drive the car all across the nation in five regions to cities that look photo-realistic. (If you look closely, you might just see where you live.) Some of the shots allow you to see individual landmarks in several major cities, and there are also over 1900 square miles of roads that you can just cruise on. By the way, if you have driven to a place before, you can travel there instantaneously without a loading screen.
Of course, there are challenges such as illegal street racing or even doing stunts. Four players can also be a crew and play missions as a group or faction in this game, interacting with all of the other players online.
The Open Beta for the game took place from November 25 to the 27, and it allowed players to explore the entire United States and complete challenges in two of the five regions available in the game, the Midwest and the East Coast. It was available to all Xbox Live and PlayStation Plus members with some online features only available with an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
There is a video at Ubisoft site of The Crew that really highlights the game's features, and it looks like it is a spectacular combination of MMO with Racing. There aren't any reviews of The Crew available on any gaming site, and Gamespot has revealed that Ubisoft wanted reviews after the game's release. The reason was because the game could only be assessed when it is live, when its servers are populated by its players. This could give its audience doubt on if the game is actually good, like when studios withhold reviews of their films until after the film's release. However, many online games want the reviews up after the server infrastructure has been tested, as this is the only way to properly play the game.
All in all, The Crew is a game where you are a car living in a world apparently without pedestrians, and yet full of completely constructed buildings. It is kind of like the Cars movies that Disney/Pixar has released, but The Crew has a definite edge that Lightning McQueen would not be able to handle.
The Crew is available for pre-order now on the official website, with a release date of December 2, 2014, just in time for the holidays. There is an exclusive Limited Edition Mini Cooper S Pack with custom parts and performance parts.
