The Crew Motorfest announced - Welcome back to O'ahu!
After growing rumour and speculation, Ubisoft's Ivory Tower studio revealed their 3rd game in The Crew series. First planned as an expansion to The Crew 2, the project has grown large enough to warrant a full title release.
The reveal trailer shows the return to the popular island paradise O'ahu among Hawaii's islands. A variety of vehicles were shown in the video trailer (below), and the return of boats and aircraft has also been confirmed in a developer interview. 'Hundreds of cars' will be available to players.
One notable difference compared to Test Drive Unlimited will be the adaptation of O'ahu into a smaller playable area as opposed to aiming for a 1:1 scale recreation. Key locations, such as the city of Waikiki, appear to remain close to their original size, but we imagine the long roads and highways linking these points of interest may be squished, taking inspiration from the map design in The Crew 1 & 2. The advantage of this decision, according to game director Stéphane Beley, is that environment artists can “touch every kilometre” instead of relying on procedural generation techniques, and players can enjoy a "higher density of activities and biomes".
Fans can register their interest in joining the Insider Program, which will allow for confidential play-testing and sharing of feedback prior to launch later in 2023. Four stages are planned, each inviting progressively more PC and eventually console players to join.
The Crew Motorfest is planned to launch sometime in 2023 on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. The Crew (1) launched on 2 December 2014, and The Crew 2 launched on 29 June 2017.
New content continues to be added to The Crew 2 even in early 2023, with Season 7 Episode 2 showcasing high-speed races in Blizzard conditions.
What do you think of this news? Are you excited to return to O'ahu, even if it is squished beyond recognition in places? Do you think Ivory Tower and Ubisoft will nail the physics and game progression? Have you registered for the early access closed beta test?