My Take on The Crew: The Best Edition

Picked up this sweet,sweet racer through the Hot Summer Deals on the Playstation Store which is currently running till 24th August. While I prefer sim racing games, I'm a sucker for arcade ones and I've only just got Driveclub the previous month. FYI, I'm playing The Crew game without the Wild Run DLC.

My Take:

• This game reminds me so much of the Test Drive Unlimited series. In addition  to the open world (covers the northern USA), cars are driveable off-road which makes for some bumpy and challenging race. Not only that, if your car goes off-road and is not equipped with the specific spec (Dirt/Raid spec), its handling and speed is hampered considerably.

• There's lots to do in the open world. Peppered along routes are Skills markers when upon driving through it triggers tasks for you to perform. Exploration markers gives you points for discovering unique locales. There's also scavenging for car parts when upon completion will unlock a hidden car.

• Races are very fun to play even if most of them are a breeze. Cars handle fairly well and the sense of speed is pretty exhilarating. There's this one race where you're sprinting along the coastline for this one Cape in the East Coast, the experience is very much like the last race in the Need For Speed movie. And I did it with one crew member too (another player). Best moment so far.

• The animation when cars gets upgraded is pretty slick. The breaking apart and piecing back together car parts coupled with boltgun sound effect will never get old.

• My favorite thing to do in this game is to drive from point A to point B aka crosscountry driving. The farther those points are the better. The main story will task you to do this once you've completed all the missions in the area and its one of the joys this game has to offer.

• For the Wild Run update they're upgraded the graphics. From watching a couple of youtube videos like the one below, you can appreciate the difference. Overall visuals look sharp and weather effects are nice. Driveclub still holds the title of having the best water effect so far even beating Project Cars.

• The game would've been a lot smoother if they've done away with loading screens whenever you enter/exit garage or HQ. Also the transition to the big map seems rough as it needs to load important checkpoints first.

Screenshots:

Will update later with screenshots of my own.