So many games fail to live up to their promise, but The Crew may be one of the first to struggle to live up to its own name. Ubisoft's newly released driving game takes its title from the ability to form squads of friends to drive around the vast, open-world digest of America that developer Ivory Tower has created. It's a feature introduced in a day one patch, and - some 24 hours after the game's launch - it's one that remains temperamental at best.

The Crew is sold on the promise of epic, cross-country drives, races that take you from the bounding dunes that skirt the Great Lakes to the swamps of the south, from the evergreens of New Jersey to the dustbowls of California - marathon events that, when the server inevitably drops, can see an hour's progress wiped in one cruel disconnection.

This hybrid of MMO, RPG and pure, unabashed driving has problems, and they go beyond the teething troubles now sadly predictable at the launch of an always-online game. They're there from the very opening, an hour of cutscenes and tutorials that fail to introduce convincingly the mesh of progression, events and social interaction spread out across the map.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-03-the-crew-is-broken-but-packed-with-potential

I want PGR back. That is all my input in this thread.

This game looks like it would be fun if I could play offline with a friend on the couch. As is, I see no appeal and have no desire to ever buy this. Shame for folks losing so much progress due to connection issues.

Is there no offline mode? I love the idea of exploring a huge map, do some epic hour+ drives with my own music. TDU's 1 hour around the island race is still one of my favorites. Yet not if it can throw me out at any moment and abort the race...

The driving is far from a disaster, and the cars are imbued with a weight and sense of friction that was sorely missing from the Test Drive Unlimited games with which The Crew shares some DNA - but it all lacks a little drama.

Not sure what that means, so it's better than TDU, but what drama is it lacking?

But even when you've invested a fair amount of time in any particular ride, the handling's never anything beyond simply satisfactory. It's good enough never to get in the way, but the real thrills of The Crew are to be found elsewhere.

So too easy? No sense of speed? No feeling of danger?

*sigh

Another game ruined by online bullshit. I was so interested in this game until I found out it was online only. This is why.