I've spent about an hour so far playing around in the closed beta. I drove from L.A.to Detroit and did some of the new events/activities. So far I do not like the "followers"-style progression system from Watch Dogs 2, and I think the world map system needs some work (have to always zoom out once it opens). However, I dig flying planes and messing around in the boats. I also think that the in-game currency is supposed to be a bitcoin-type cryptocurrency which seems silly. I could be wrong about that.

I enjoyed the first game for what it was, and had a blast setting up my racing wheel to have my young cousin drive around the totally-accurate-and-to-scale representation of the US. Hopefully Ubisoft pulls a Ubisoft and makes a better sequel.

Anybody else tried out the beta?

I'm going to jump in to the PC beta when it open to the public on the 21st. I found the open world of the first one to be enough of a hook for me, so I'll probably end up buying this one too, unless it is a total shitshow.

Didn't play much of it because it feels a little dull. I like some of the flair of the menus and how it crops in on your car before the race. But the vehicles feel weird and heavy. And, wow, that announcer is terrible.

I'm not sure what was up with the Inception-style stuff where it was warping the landscape but that was the coolest part. I'm guessing that was just in the tutorial part tho... they should just make a game around that.

Made it about 5-10 mins in. Some of the visual presentation was cool. I wanted to stab my eyes out every time they mentioned social media and followers. The car didn't feel great but not the worst? Then I drove the truck and was like.. ehhh okay this is not so good.. Then I test drove the dirt bike and was like wow.. this is hot garbage. Closed Application. Oh yea, and can you not change the camera? Something so that it isn't right in the rear bumper? Geez. (Edit: I see there is a camera control on PC. Guess I couldn't find the correct button on PS4)

Anyway, MXGP Pro is coming in a couple weeks so that should be fun.

Just a heads-up to anyone who didn't particularly like the driving: by default there are a load of driving assistance tools on, and they've hidden these in the Performance vehicle section rather than in the controls. Press Start, go to the Vehicles section, and then go into the Performance option. It looks like they are now calling them "pro settings", and inside there you can turn off the settings.

I don't like the direction they've chosen for this game, but turning all the assistance settings off made the driving a lot more enjoyable.

@morello: I'll have to try that out. Also re: the menus, I had to alt+f4 to quit cause they made no sense to me.

Tell you what, I'll give this another shot on PC and try to at least get beyond the tutorial.

Edit Follow-up: Mmkay soo.. Its like.. okay? Eh. Forgot I'd have to install that malware "Uplay" to try it but whatever. Been playing it for an hour or so on PC now. Turned off the assists except for ABS, still feels not great. The street cars seem to be tolerable but like.. I tried some of the 2-wheeled stuff and I just don't like how it works. Clearly they made it handle in a way that is arcadey and sort of directly translates from a 4-wheeled vehicle.. which is not how physics work. Its the way they dart back and forth on center that bothers me. Rather than it being a gradual motion as the rider shifts the weight etc, its just push left - goes left, push right - goes right.. even when the rider is still kinda leaning the opposite direction lol Its just weird.

The announcer/narrator/story stuff is just agonizing for me, maybe not for other people. Every word is like a tiny knife cut on my body. I'm a car enthusiast or whatever. I consume content and some of the culture.. Have we not moved beyond all this dude bro street racing crap yet? I don't see it in any of the stuff I watch. "It's hard to leave all this street racing behind and go legit.. to give up all this fun" Uggghhh wtf? Is the guy in the wheelchair voiced by Danny Glover? Hearing these idiotic sentences coming from a nice voice like that sucks. And every car has to shift like its bogging/dumping the clutch between the gears.. Man that was like NFS Most Wanted era of racing. Shifting a car doesn't sound like that unless you suck.

Also, transmission upgrades give your car a horsepower bump.. Alrighty then.

I am having Test Drive Unlimited memories coming back as this whole thing feels really similar. I'm going to mess with it a bit more. See if I can unlock a boat and plane to try. Might also hook up my wheel as I see this oddly has clutch and shifter support of some kind. This game might be decent for people who really only want pure arcade racing games. I personally would be interested in a game of this format but more focused on realism. The Horizon games are decent but they don't have boats, planes, and motorcycles. And I'd like something even more realistic than that. Let me try a massive open world Project Cars 2 or something.

Edit Follow-up #2: Okay okay... I'm coming around on it a bit. I really like just free roaming with a boat or plane so far. Wish I could completely customize the controls as I'd like the flight mapping to match your standard airplane controls of other games. On the topic of controls: I tried to use my Logitech G25 and the game did not seem to like it. Button mappings were not being displayed right on the bindings list for one. It did identify all the different gears but half the buttons it just shows a little black line. Gas pedal it figured out but brake and clutch it did not. All sorts of weird stuff. Wasn't able to actually drive with it so oh well.

But yea, just cruising is pretty chill. Put on the Ambient station and pointed my boat out to sea and just went, jumping off little waves and what not until I reached the limit and it turned me around. Then went for awhile down like the grand canyon rivers, found some guy idle in the middle of nowhere doing nothing. Seamlessly swapped to the plane and was whipping through the canyons.

Kinda wanna keep playing it, but I'd probably prefer the comfort of it on PS4 and lovely TV vs my maxed out settings, 60 fps on PC.

Why does this game have loot? Why does this game have gear level requirements for races?

If you meet or are under it's suggested gear level, the game oblierates you. All that the inclusion of loot/gear does, is pad out the length of the game.

Let's say that you want to switch vehicles in the same race category, you would have to grind the same races over and over, until your gear level is high enough with another vehicle.

I tried the open beta on Xbox for a bit.

I couldn't care less about social media or having followers so that's not a great motivator for me. Yeah, it's just an excuse to fill a meter, but still. The entire premise (and the voice acting!) is just really bad. I'm done with followers and festivals and all that shit as the premise for an open world racing game. I want the glorious return of Clarence "Razor" Callahan!

The driving felt okay I guess. I'll have to try turning off the assists to see if it gets any better. I thought the planes and boats were the most fun which kind of surprised me considering they're new for the sequel.

I still don't like how they morph the States. Michigan looks particularly stupid. If they really want to be coast to coast in this huge country surely they can come up with something better.

Overall it made me want to put it down and play some Forza Horizon 3, which I did. FH3 is the superior game.

I’m giving this a shot and having a surprisingly good time with the driving. I bounce off any sim-heavy driving games, including the Horizon games, but this seems to be in my sweet spot. Looks pretty good on Xbox One X too. But oh man, the writing and voice acting is hilariously bad.

I tried it, this game is just as bad as the first. Great concept but its like they forgot they need someone on the team that understands how to develop handling for these vehicles, terrible driving in a racing game is a real problem. Too loot-centric and the cities are lifeless. Give this a pass

@gtb08: I think I could forgive the more arcadey driving if there was just more to do. I really feel like they did a better job immersing me into the world, and I think the different vehicle types are a very good idea. But they once again misuse the open world concept they have going for it thus far in my impressions as well.

If the game wasn't so hell bent on making you do "racing challenges" in an open world racing game that simply doesn't control that tight it'd be better. Like you don't see any collision stuff in this, with crashes auto loading into a reset. With all the vehicle types, this should of been fun chaos in an open world, and I think you can totally get away with arcadey controls if the point is to just romp around, explore and have fun. But they have to tailor the game and modes around that.

Is there anything to find here? I know the first game had Horizon style barn finds and badly placed challenges on the roads, but anything that you yourself can discover without having it pointed out to you?

@shivermetimbers: I actually thought the dynamic challenges appearing on the roads were one of the coolest elements the Crew did. It certainly made driving from one location to another a little less dull when those things would pop up.

I should really install it again now that we’re in the post E3 gaming drought and give it a go. The loot concept was weirdly alluring, mainly because those cars really handling like shit and with better parts they started driving better.

I played a bit of it and I like it a lot. It's much better than the first one (tho I only played the trial of The Crew 1). Handling feels better, not as crazy floaty as TC1, graphics are pretty good and there seems to be a decent selection of vehicles and events. Oh and that live map thingy is very cool too!

I have very positive feelings about it. I have too many games to play right now, but I will pick it up on some sale down the line, especially since on PS4 there's a lack of arcadey/open world racers and that's my only platform.

I played the demo of the first game and really didn't like the way the driving felt, and hearing that the story wasn't worth seeing i didn't pick it up.
I played the closed beta and the driving does feel better, the physics are still weird especially when getting air, but the appeal of the enormous map and switching vehicles on the fly is really cool. Is it Forza Horizon quality? No, but it's not bad.

I really enjoyed it, and the PC port feels pretty great, definitely picking it up.

I like peace and quiet and immersion in my open world driving. Let the world speak for itself, make discoveries worthwhile. The challenges slowed down the process of going place to place and were annoying, esp. due to the fact that you have to load out of them.

But to each their own. :)

@shivermetimbers: Haven't played it in ages but I thought they were optional things on the road you could engage with or not.

If you ran into them, you could 'technically' ignore them and fail them, but the challenge itself would still appear on the road, which I guess isn't a big deal, but if I wanted to just go place to place, it would get kinda annoying.

I tried the beta and was incredibly disappointed to see the map is basically exactly the same as the first game. I kind of thought they would build out the world a little more since that was such a big feature of the first game. Definitely going to pass on this one.