the crew turboduck Plays The Crew - aka Climate Change of Fish Report

[Soundwave]

[headline]turboduck Plays 'The Crew'[/headline]

On the 30th March, 2014 I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Ivory Tower Games Studio in Lyon, France, as a representative of turboduck (Thanks Diablo!). There I visited the studio where I along with a select group of other community muppets played their first and upcoming release 'The Crew'. In this report you will read about my experiences of the trip and I will tell you more about the game that has been dubbed the "second-coming of open-world driving Christ"... ok nobody has said that but it has been graced with "spiritual successor to Test Drive Unlimited" which is some mighty big words to live up to. Does it do it? Well sit back, relax, and now sit forward and don't slouch as I tell you.

 

Get ready because this is going to be a long read! :duck:

 

Day 1:

 

After an hour of flying in the sky from Amsterdam I arrived at Lyon airport in the afternoon, where after 20 minutes of waiting in the Arrivals terminal I found Soufyane (Community Developer at Ivory Tower and our guide to help us survive Lyon :D). In a highly- professional standard he waited in the wrong terminal, but only because the info screen in the terminals were not showing the right flight information. When I met him, he told me that he was also waiting for the representative of the Reddit community who was coming in from Chicago. Wait what? How long is he going to be?! Well not long at all actually as thankfully he showed up only 10 minutes later and so we left the airport via a taxi and headed to the hotel. Arriving at the hotel, Soufyane said that he we would pick us up later that evening for dinner in a restaurant in the old part of Lyon and then sorted the keys for our hotel rooms. After spending 3 hours in the hotel I went to dinner with Soufyane, the guy from Reddit and also two others who were from the TDU-France community who had just arrived. At the restaurant I had a lovely dinner that was my first introduction to French food and after this we headed back to the hotel for the night because Soufyane had to pick up MadManCK of 'TDU Drive Time' and a representative of a VK.com community from the Airport.

:zzz:

 

Day 2:

 

The second day started with breakfast in the hotel, there we met a representative from TeamVVV who added to the ranks of our ever-growing group. After breakfast it was time to make our way to Ivory Tower. Soufyane was already there to greet us and paid for the taxi and we were then taken inside. We started off with a quick studio tour, first off meeting the person who played the game on stage at E3 2013 (that narrows it down Dan). We then continued with a short guide around the different departments of the studio and meeting those that are working on the game. Next we met Julian Gerighty (Creative Director) and Stephane Beley (Game Director) who gave us a short presentation about The Crew. After the presentation we went back to the work floor for a more detailed tour of the studio such as; Map Development, Car Modelling and Game Testing. Two of these departments gave us short presentations on what they are working on. After all this we left the studio for a lunch with Julian and Stephane at a nearby restaurant, where we were treated to some damn fine and delicious hamburgers. After munching these beef delights down it was then back to the studio for the playtest. After a thoroughly enjoyable four hours of play-testing we went back to the hotel. Later that evening a taxi picked us up for dinner, this time at a lovely steak restaurant with Soufyane and Stephane. Julian wasn't there because he had actually just come back that very day from a presentation in San Francisco and had understandably, immense jetlag. After dinner we returned back to the hotel for the night where we went night-nights.

:zzz:

 

Day 3:

 

 

On the last day, a taxi picked us up in the morning at the hotel and brought us again to the studio and in the studio breakfast was waiting for us. After a tasty breakfast it was time for more playing! A couple of hours had flown by playing and now it was lunch time, we went out this time for lunch at a Chinese restaurant nearby with Julian, Stephane and Soufyane. About an hour later we were able enough to sit up and so went back to the studio for yet more playing. When another number of hours had come and gone we all did an interview with the filming crew, who had been following us around during the whole trip as they were making a community video (hope you said nice things about us!). After the interview ended it was time for goodies! We took some pictures of the studio and we then left. :sulk: Again it was back to the hotel for a couple of hours before we got picked up by yet another taxi for dinner. Instead of sitting in the hotel though, we decided to look around the city and take some pictures. A short while later we started making our way back to the hotel where our taxi was already there waiting to pick us up for dinner, which was this time taking place in an Italian restaurant. After another fantastic dinner, we went back to the hotel for the night because some of us were leaving early the next day.

:zzz:

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Alright folks, that was the report about the trip itself. Now it's time to talk more about The Crew: [finally!]

 

Main Presentation:

 

Julian and Stephane started the presentation by telling us more about the history of Ivory Tower and that The Crew has been in development for more than 6 years!! Along with info regarding the features of the game. The presentation was a bit like the one they did on the Ubisoft Press Event at E3 last year (2013). They told us that the games old name was "Route 66" before it was renamed to The Crew. They renamed it because in their opinion the name will fit better with the online gameplay with other players and the storyline of the game. We were then showed how big the map really is, and damn it's huge! :eek: We saw maps of Forza Horizon, GTA5, NFS Rivals and Skyrim as a comparison for scale, and believe it or not, those maps will fit in the The Crew's USA together multiple times. Yes it really is that huge! Julian said that it takes more than four hours to drive around the map in an average car. It was then time for details about the storyline, it's made by the same person that wrote the stories for Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (yay!) and Red Dead Redemption so there is certainly a lot of pedigree behind how well it could turn out. The storyline itself is a bit like 'Fast and the Furious', but don't expect too much of it as the 'car is the character' after all. This presentation ended with a little Q&A. (Anything we should know from it?)

 

Developer Presentation (Map development):

 

The presentation started with showing us how they are creating the world. They complete one section at a time before they move on to the next one. The devs of the map development went to 'Murica for research (sight-seeing) and for taking pictures of the landmarks and infrastructure of the USA, they are also using things like Google Maps to help them in creating a realistic world to play in. The dev that was giving us this presentation told us that they can't use any real names on buildings due to licensing, so they are creating everything in their own way just like Rockstar does with its GTA titles.

 

Developer Presentation (Car Development):

 

Every car in the game takes 6 months to complete, that's because the cars are being made completely with all working components such as; working engines, driveshafts, gearboxes etc. The developer that's giving us the presentation this time showed us the Bentley Continental GT SS with its moving pistons, spinning gears in the gearbox and spinning driveshaft. And it's not just for show, it's all made for the tuning aspect capability of the car, for example; if you tune the gearbox, you will see the new part working in the gearbox. Attention to detail or what! Other reasons for the long development are the car companies, they want to check the models for licensing, the dev also said that most car companies can be a pain in the ass to work with, so to get all the cars finished in time they are working together with other Ubisoft studios. The engine sounds for example are being made by Ubisoft Reflections (who are also doing the PS4 version) and are recorded from the real cars. The car physics are made by the same guy who did them for the original Test Drive Unlimited and to help in the handling characteristics, the team has played many racing games to come up with a handling model that will work for anyone. And for the more discerning virtual driver, they also had many different gaming wheels and pedal sets from the likes of Fanatec, Logitech, Thrustmaster and more to test with, because as you would expect from this bunch, wheel support is very important to them.

 

Playtest:

 

(I played the game for the most part on the PC with the 360 gamepad. I've only played with a wheel for 20 minutes because there was only one wheel in the room and it was always wanting used)

 

I started my playtest by playing from the beginning following the main storyline, the game opened with a Ford F-150 Raptor being chased by the Police, it was a cool way to start the game. After completing the opening, I went to pick up another car for the story, it was a modified Chevrolet Camaro. I needed this car to do the first real race in the streets which happens in Detroit. After this race there was some story driven items that I won't spoil for you guys. Now finally I had the option of buying my own car. There was a choice of; 2011 Ford Mustang, 2011 Dodge Challenger, 2010 Chevrolet Camaro or a Nissan 370Z. I went for the Nissan after test driving all of the cars, I drove it stock for around 15 minutes before I went to the tuning shop in Detroit as I needed to tune the car in order to continue the story. For an hour I played some missions before I went cruising. MadManCk was sitting next to me in the test room and was already cruising. We created a crew and started playing together. We first did some story missions to see how it all works when you play in a crew, and then after a while we just went driving and took a trip from Detroit to Chicago, it was a long drive but it was damn fun because the world feels so alive. We arrived in Chicago and discussed what our next destination should be. We decided to take the in-game plane to Las Vegas and then we drove back from there to Chicago, it was really an amazing trip driving through the cities and the multiple environments. After again arriving back in Chicago, it was time to stop playing and that was the end of Day 1.

 

 

On the second day Stephane asked us if we wanted to play the game with a more completed save game, We all said "yes" to this and started playing in our own way. I did not do any missions, I only went cruising with different cars. I drove through cities like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco and Miami. I also tested some of the race tracks that are in the game like: Sebring, Pikes Peak, and a couple of NASCAR tracks. (wait what...?)

 

Even after all this time of just driving around and doing essentially nothing I wanted to test more, but alas it was time for the interview.

 

Car Handling:

 

In the 10 hours of my playing I tried all the different types of handling with the gamepad; Arcade, Sport, Hardcore. I started off with 'Arcade' but I quickly found out that it just isn't for me, mainly because I couldn't do any good power-slides or drifts. So I switched to 'Hardcore' with all the assists turned off, and damn this is really something you have to learn because you will spin out easily if you take the corner too fast, or if you accelerate too fast out of a corner. Next up was 'Sport' and this really was the type of handling that I prefer, it's a bit in-between 'Arcade' and 'Hardcore' and you can still spin out if you accelerate too quickly, I just preferred it with the pad but that's not to say that 'Hardcore' can't be used with a pad, it can it will just take more from the player to do so (sounds good to me!). I played with the wheel for 20 minutes on 'Hardcore' and in my opinion it's the best way to play the game. I was REALLY loving the Force-feedback and taking corners with the wheel is just great! All the cars feel so good, you can really feel the difference between a big pick-up and a normal sportscar.

 

Gameplay:

 

There is really a lot to do in The Crew like races, sprints, drag-racing, time attacks and much more. They are fun to do but I didn't try all of them because I enjoyed cruising around too much. There are also random challenges (Skills?) a bit like the ones in Forza Horizon. I personally found them a bit annoying because I already did them a couple of times, but you can turn them off if you want to, in fact, you can turn everything off and just cruise around if you want to. Police chases are fun too and they are hard to get rid of. The only thing I didn't like much was the traffic, it had a fair amount of bugs, but that's something they're still working on so I can't gripe too much about it.

 

Presentation:

 

The world really feels alive with pedestrians walking around in the cities and animals crossing on the country roads. The environments in the different States are realistically made and I didn't see any real copy- pasting to be honest. Unfortunately there's no rain in the game, but there is snow in the snowy mountains and there are different skyboxes to give the impression of playing in a realistic world. To be honest I found the graphics not very next-gen, don't get me wrong for an open-world racer they are good but perhaps I was just expecting more. It also probably has to do with the power on the new consoles. I played the game with a locked 30fps on the dev kit PC, and 50fps (50 really?) on the PC with the wheel setup, both ran good. However as many a gamer will tell you great looking visuals doesn't automatically mean a stellar playing game, and so it's important to state that Ivory Tower is focusing more on the driving and creating a great world than just making shiny graphics. The car models look good and they all have dynamic damage like Forza, unfortunately they can't go all the way with extreme damage like "Next Car Game" due to licensing but for what they have it will make you cringe if you crash or hit things too often. There are also different types of dirt that will get thrown up on your cars depending on which environment you are in.

 

The Wrap-up:

 

It really was an amazing trip and I enjoyed every bit of it! I really like the people working at Ivory Tower, they are passionate people and I can't thank them enough for showing how the development of a game like The Crew actually takes shape and becomes.

 

Naturally the game still needs a bit of work with the modelling and licensing of cars. The map feels quite finished to me, it only needs some polishing. And the only bugs I found were the animals crossing the road and traffic that slipped away in the corners. The build I played was also missing anti-aliasing, but they are still working on that and still have months till they release in Autumn/Fall 2014.

 

Overall the game feels close to completion and I think that it will be ripe for picking!

 

A MASSIVE THANKS to Ubisoft and Ivory Tower for giving us this opportunity, our man thoroughly enjoyed himself and was like a kid at Christmas the day before he was due to fly out and on his return.

 

Note: You are completely free to copy, distribute and quote all or parts of this report providing you link back to this thread as the Source. Thanks!

[Eudemon]

And it's LIVE! :D

[Ryzza5]

If this wasn't long enough for you, here are two other accounts:

 

TDU-France [French]

reddit: Behind The Scenes at Ivory Tower - The Full Experience : The_Crew and his Q&A My personal QA at Ivory Tower in Lyon, France : The_Crew

MadManCK: TDU Drive Time View topic - The Crew First Impresssions

 

So now you know why us staff have been more excited than the rest of you doubters about this game - the hardcore physics sound awfully promising for us wheel owners.

 

 

I would also like to point out that Diablo was offered this trip, but he selflessly offered it to the rest of us (staff). If I wasn't asleep in another time zone I might've been able to stick my hand up before Soundwave :( :lol:

[Milli]

:lol: You guys are getting important and all... going to releasing games meetings and such... all i can say is that i'm proud to be a member and to see how this forum grew so much!

 

Congratulations to people involved (staff) and thanks soundwave for writting this report! :D

 

Edit: Feels like... my internet folks are growing...

[The Compensator]

Daaayuuum, that's long! :eek:

 

*starts reading*

 

---

 

*finished reading it*

 

Wow, what a great post! Enjoyed reading it, Dan :nods:

 

Now I got excited - Pikes Peak, Sebring, drag racing, physics... All of this sounds good to me. I hope the devs made the game a bit open to be modified, too.

[MadManCK]

Hehe, nice read Soundwave ;)

 

I also read the travel story of our American friend and it seems like everybody is really pumped up for this game.

 

A good trip it was

 

:thumbsup:

[Eudemon]

It looks like it was a very enjoyable trip for all involved, it's quite something to read something where everyone is just getting along, having a laugh as well as doing what they are there to do. Seeing how the devs were watching, taking note and listening to you guys as well as you all following the PR path and such but then being able to go back to the game and just play as you wished is really refreshing. Clearly it's not an approach that can be done by typical media and it was quote surprising to hear how you guys were the first to be allowed to see the "work-floor" where obviously the game is itself being developed so no doubt some things were seen, but at that same time we have the respect to share what we can and not just blurt out everything and anything.

 

The bonding of everyone over meals and dinner was cool too, everyone just acting as themselves and having discussions about whatever while the hours just pass is really something you hardly ever get to read, and that's understandable as typically games-journos are there to find out things in what little time they have.

 

It's really something that they brought those of us from the main community side over to them and from all places of the world too. The future support that will be provided to the game looks to be strong and the willingness to hear feedback from their playerbase will only help intensify that. :D

[Dzidza1978]

Thx soundwave, really a great read. Since i'll be picking this game for PS4, and having Fanatec CSR Elite, my only concern is the wheel support on PS4, as we don't know much, do you have any info from developers.

I will distribute your report (to Croatian GT community) with link to this forum.

Once again thx.

 

This is my 12th post on this forum, so you know how much I appreciate your report :-)

[Eudemon]

I think the wheels that can be used and such will be info that is still to come, I imagine they would want to support as many as they can but it all depends on if that's possible with the drivers and relevant apis (if required) being available.

[calster17]

Ah hell yeah. Looks like I've been keeping good faith in it and looks to be it'll keep that way. :)

 

Good to see were still getting inside access to games and such.

[Eudemon]

Good to see were still getting inside access to games and such.

Yep, just goes to show that many many years of stalking and sending incoherent messages to people can pay off. :evil:

[Dzidza1978]

I think the wheels that can be used and such will be info that is still to come, I imagine they would want to support as many as they can but it all depends on if that's possible with the drivers and relevant apis (if required) being available.

Hopefully, we'll know soon. Thx Diablo

[hassan1995]

Great read and looks like you had a blast, we've gotten access to game developers now it's time this fourm takes over the world.

 

Game sound great just hope it doesn't disappoint but it looks promising :D

[Eudemon]

If there's one thing that's easy to take away from these reports from TDU vets, it's that The Crew is bringing back that TDU feeling but also still catering to those who like their driving that touch easier.

[T1M]

Race tracks!? AWW YEAH

 

Great read! :D Sounds like it's going to be an epic game.

[superhyper]

Like everyone else said, great read mate, got me excited about the game again after such a long time without any news :D

[Paladin Skylark]

Like everyone else said, great read mate, got me excited about the game again after such a long time without any news :D

 

This exactly.

Dan you've got me excited about a game I started to doubt :D

[CarMadMike]

This has made me a lot less worried about the effect of climate change on fish, thanks.

[Eudemon]

This has made me a lot less worried about the effect of climate change on fish, thanks.

I gotta hand it to you mate, that was quite good.

 

Also has anyone seen Soundy? *whistles*

[keyser92]

Hello from TDU-France :hiya:

 

3 days was very informative!

 

to later on the roads The Crew ;)

[Eudemon]

Hello to you too keyser!

 

Please be sure to let us know when TDU-F's report goes live so we can take a look and be jealous of all that you guys experienced. :p

 

And how cool is this to see the Ivory Crew posting about your report Soundy!

 

[Ozzmcom]

Amazing work guys, loved the article dan. My expectations are even higher :cool:

[Soundwave]

Thanks all! :D

 

Since i'll be picking this game for PS4, and having Fanatec CSR Elite, my only concern is the wheel support on PS4, as we don't know much, do you have any info from developers.

 

 

 

I don't have any info on that unfortunately, because Ivory Tower was still working on licensing when I was there.

 

--- Post Updated ---

 

Also has anyone seen Soundy? *whistles*

 

Soup!

[Eudemon]

Ah Dan, you're alive man! Excellent, alright let's get some of these questions asked.

 

Q: If you know, how do the borders work in regards to Canada and Mexico?

 

Q: Did you see the digital HUD's working inside the cockpit views of the cars?

 

Q: How does the land vary as you travelled the environment, I know you said you didn't see much "c&p" but what about the land itself, is it empty vast spaces of green all the time or does it properly change up and not become too samey?

 

Q: Can your driver stop and buy a bacon sandwich?

 

I'll give you those for starters mate. :)

[Soundwave]

Q: If you know, how do the borders work in regards to Canada and Mexico?

 

There are big walls at the borders like this:

 

 

 

Q: Did you see the digital HUD's working inside the cockpit views of the cars?

 

I only saw digital HUD's working in the tuned "raid" cars .

 

Q: How does the land vary as you travelled the environment, I know you said you didn't see much "c&p" but what about the land itself, is it empty vast spaces of green all the time or does it properly change up and not become too samey?

 

Some states on the map like New Mexico have empty spaces, other states have forests, hills, off-road tracks, little towns, farms and different variations of bushes and trees to make look not too samey. Ivory Tower is also adding more stuff to the lands to make off-roading as fun as driving on the normal roads.

 

Q: Can your driver stop and buy a bacon sandwich?

 

Nope. :sulk: