The Crew Motorfest

I was looking for years now to get a title on Playstation which holds up to the latest Forza Horizon. Motorfest was a good candidate but slightly falls behind FH in terms of visual fidelity on release. It just couldn’t meet my expectations. But playing on PS5 Pro nicely improves visuals. Also, a lot of enjoyable content was added since release. This is one of the best arcade racing game for the current generation.

“A very generous evolution of what The Crew 2 had been. A good game to have fun and pass the time; it’s also a great game for trophy hunters who love earning platinum.”

The game has some massive improvements over The Crew 2 (better interface, racing lines, much better graphics, lap times actually exist, more enjoyable physics), even does some things better than Forza Horizon 5 (rewinding, progression, car customization), but still doesn't reach the level of FH. Also it seems like the entirety of singleplayer campaign you are forced to use loaned cars, it's certainly a game design decision that splits the opinions.

Decided to try out this game, I had already played all modern NFS games and absolutely loved them, so I thought I’d try out The Crew. I had never played any of them before. I really hate the understeer on these cars, it doesn’t seem as smooth as NFS, it either wants to steer completely, or not at all. The graphics feel a little poor, almost cartoony, whilst NFS is more realistic. The car showroom thing is a complete mess, I can’t find anything at all, everything takes ages to load and requires this loading after every action you take. The “AI companion” is incredibly annoying, it’s not AI at all, just some robot talking. The physics feel completely off, I’d either go spinning out of control or not steer at all. Finally, all the cars are loaned until you complete the series which feels like an absolute chore. Overall, I completely regret purchasing this game, there’s not much I can say about it that’s good, it just angers me every time I go on the game, whereas NFS feels more fluid. I’ll definitely be sticking with their titles, not this.

This game is possibly the funnest racing game that I've ever played. So, you'd think that my score would be higher... The Good: 600+ vehicles at launch with the most versatility I've ever seen. The map is smaller than The Crew 2, but it looks way better with a very vibrant and rich Hawaiian island landscape. The graphics are not the best I've ever seen, but are more than enough to enjoy at 60fps with HDR popping those vibrant colors out. The ability to switch between air, land, and sea is new to me and only adds to the freedom and versatility of exploring an open world map. The driving physics, although not quite as realistic as Forza or Grand Turismo, are a significant upgrade from The Crew 2 as an arcade-racer with more semi-realistic physics. The online content is packed each week and with new themes each month. They've already added a small island with a new racing playlist and it seems like the game is going to be pushing new content every month. The vehicle customization is versatile enough to enjoy and feel unique. The Bad: The upgrade system for vehicles parts is probably the worst that I've ever used, plagued with overcomplexity and tedious grinding. This game claims to be crossplay, but that only works in the grand race, not in free drive. "Pay to Play" is definitely involved with the very special customizations like underglow kits, tire smoke, etc. You cannot earn enough to buy more than a few major items unless you drop your credit card and buy more "Crew Bucks" and this game was already $70 at launch. It's called "The Crew", yet whenever you're in a crew, your buddy might just randomly disappear in front of you which is defeating the entire premise. It also feels like its development is held back by constantly catering to last-gen consoles instead of only focusing on new consoles and PCs with updated hardware.