I donβt know about you, but I could do with a vacation while playing The Crew Motorfest. Work has been tough the last few weeks, so I packed my virtual bags and set my sites on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Oβahu. Sadly, I donβt have the time nor money to physically go there but an invitation to the Closed Beta of The Crew Motorfest was all I needed to go from a dull and rainy British weekend to a paradise abroad in my living room.
I have played the previous two games in the series and thoroughly enjoyed them, I loved their huge open-world environments and the Crew feature. When I saw that there was a new addition to the series, I was eagerly awaiting release but thanks to some luck I managed to get into the Closed Beta and experience the next instalment two months in advance. This little article will cover my time playing the closed beta, my likes, dislikes, and what I look forward to in the full release.
Welcome to Hawaii
Β The Crew Motorfest is the upcoming racing game from the successful series The Crew. Ubisoft has done a brilliant job in the past with the likes of The Crew and The Crew 2, so it was highly likely that I would have picked up The Crew Motorfest when it releases in September. Thanks to the closed beta it solidified my decision, and I will be picking up this instalment in the series. It will be available at launch on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox series X/S.
This will be the third game in the series and one that takes us away from the United States and to the lovely scaled-down version of the Hawaiian island of Oβahu. One thing I noticed from the get-go was that the map was smaller compared to the previous two games. However, after hours of driving around, and taking part in the different events and races, I felt like the map sizing was perfect and had just as much going on compared to the previous two games.
The landscape and dirty trails were so much nicer to drive through and I loved the party vibes you get with Motorfest. It felt like it was leaning towards the Forza Horizon vibes which Iβm all for as I love Forza too. It was a clever idea to go in a new direction with the third game and pick a gorgeous location to go with it. Like in The Crew 2, I got to control cars, planes, boats, and motorbikes which is a huge range of vehicles to have access to. The beta had a huge amount available, but it wasnβt anywhere near the amount that will be in the full game.
600+ will be on offer upon release and this is just the start as you can import your collection from The Crew 2 into The Crew Motorfest. That way you donβt have to leave your hard-earned cars, they can come along for the ride. This game does everything it can to celebrate car culture and we get this in the form of Playlists, short thematic campaigns that cater to a certain part of car culture and allows you to experience select themed events and races based on the Playlist.
There will be 15 of these at Launch that will offer challenges and exclusive rewards. Thatβs not all, The Crew Motorfest has Live Game Modes that offer endless hours of racing, carnage, and bragging rights to your fellow racers. Summit Contest will offer weekly ranked events that by climbing the leaderboards will earn you big prizes. Custom Show is where you show off your best vehicles and have other players vote on them to earn exclusive rewards. Though my favourite Live Game Modes were the Grand Race and Demolition Royale.
Grand Race pits 28 players against one another in intense races to show see who the best drivers are and Demolition Royale I will cover later in the article as this one was by far my favourite.
Demolition Time
One of the playlists that I found myself playing a lot was Demolition Royale, imagine Fortnite with cars. It was a pleasant take on the battle royale experience in the form of a demolition derby. Itβs online multiplayer and can be up to 32 players. When you join the session, you will be randomly assigned into crews, it will then select a portion of the map and after a short interval, youβll be loaded into the match where you get to fly to the location where your crew would like to drop and let the chaos unfold.
The aim is to be the last crew standing but also inflict damage upon rival crews. This was a brilliant playlist to stumble across and one that stole the show for me in the beta. The premise was one that we have seen done time and time again, but it was executed perfectly. It was chaotic and fast-paced which meant you could get through games quite quickly. I canβt wait to see if they expand on this mode more in the full release, but I hope it is a permanent playlist and not just a timed one.
Conclusion
The Crew Motorfest is another solid entry into the Crew series. From what I played in the closed beta, it has hyped me up for the full release on 14 th September 2023. Hawaii is a stunning setting and I loved driving, riding, and flying around this gorgeous landscape. The luscious open-world environment offers so much and whether you are doing races, taking part in playlists, or just having a leisurely drive around the island, there is plenty to do even if the map is smaller compared to the previous game.
All in all, The Crew Motorfest is setting itself up for more success and I canβt wait to come along for the drive. Keep an eye on the horizon just in case we get an open beta before release but for me, Iβm solid and canβt wait to see what else is on offer when the game drops later this year.
The Crew Motorfest Trailer
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