As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, Ubisoft has already released 2 betas of The Crew for the PC. You might be wondering what a beta is. A beta is simply a copy of a game in development that is not finished yet, but released for a certain amount of people or to the public in order to test out the game and see if there are any bugs or things that could be improved upon before the game is fully finished and released. A lot of game companies do this so they can improve the experience when the final version is released. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to my experiences with both betas that I was a part of.
The first PC beta was released around the end of July. You had to register for that one and if you were accepted, they would send you a confirmation email with a key that you would enter once you downloaded Ubsisoft’s UPlay and created a (free) account. Once that was done and after the key was entered, you could begin the download. Let me tell you, the download was pretty hefty. It was a little over fifteen and a half gigs and if you have an internet connection that is below at least 12mbps, it would take you hours to download. Fortunately for me, I have a pretty fast internet connection (50mbps) and it only took me around 30 minutes to download.
Once I finished downloading, I had to find a certain file online because it was having an issue installing without this particular file. I was able to research it and fix the issue pretty quickly and then get the game installed. I was so happy and excited to play this game and was ready to explore the HUGE map of the US in the game and be amazed at all I would see. Sadly, on the first beta, that didn’t happen. Once you start up the game, there is a mission you have to play which basically gets you ready for the game’s different modes and driving style. You have to drive this truck in a Get Away mission from the cops. The thing is though, you have to go through these checkpoints and reach them before time runs out. Since this is a beta and the developers were wanting to see what issues needed to be fixed, you can imagine what happened next.
Since so many people have different specs in their PCs, a lot of people were having major issues just passing this first opening mission. The truck you were driving was supposed to get up to 130mph with really no problems ensuring that you should be able to reach all of the checkpoints with no problems. Sadly, a lot of people that had game controllers for their PCs were having issues with this as the truck was not getting up to the adequate speed needed to pass the mission. The furthest I got was just a little past the second to last checkpoint in the mission with nowhere near enough time to reach the final checkpoint, thus failing the mission. You can imagine how frustrated I was. I do know another issue with this was my graphics card. While my PC met nearly all the specs required to play the beta, my graphics card is a little over 2 years old and sadly is not up to snuff to have the full settings on so I had to have it to the lowest settings. Also with the beta only being available for a week, my first go around with this beta was a bust. I was definitely disappointed.
Not long after the first beta had ended, Ubisoft announced a second beta for the PC that was coming around the end of August. If you took part in the first one, you were automatically accepted in the second one and didn’t have to register again for the second one. This time, the game developers had optimized some things and once again, I had to complete the first mission to fully get immersed in the game. This time, I used the keyboard and am happy to say I was able to pass that mission without any problems. After a few more missions you had to complete to understand, the races, story, and game modes and how you can purchase and modify/upgrade your cars, you were pretty much free to roam the entire map of the US in the game, though some missions and game modes were only available in the Midwest and East Coast sections of the map.
The car I chose to drive was a new Chevy Camaro that was modified for street racing (you can modify cars for different types of terrain the game such as off road). Let me tell you, while the map is not a truly accurate recreation of the US, the different regions, terrain, and cities felt like their real counterparts. Detroit looks like a very gritty, older industrial city that has seen better days. Dallas looks like a bustling massive metropolis that Texas cities are known for (The city’s skyline looks almost identical to its real life counterpart especially with the Reunion Tower). New Orleans looks like the city that rises out of the Louisiana swamps complete with the Superdome and the 2 large bridges that cross the Mississippi River in the downtown area. Basically just driving all over the different areas of the map felt like you were really driving in certain sections of the US in real life. There’s not a lot of repeated buildings and settings and it didn’t feel boring driving around the map. There are many different kinds of roads, from dirt roads, to two lane roads that twist up and down mountains, to interstate highways with exits and large interchanges in some of the cities. You can go completely off road, explore at your leisure, drive off a cliff, explore forests, drive on the beaches and so on.
Playing The Crew PC beta the second go round had gotten me really excited for the game and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be accepted to play the beta for the PS4 that is said to start next week. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get any pics or videos of my time with the beta on the PC, but I definitely plan to if I’m accepted for the one on the PS4. Stay tuned folks, this is definitely a game that is worth playing and I plan to have more stuff about The Crew in the future.