Ubisoft has announced the third installment of The Crew saga, coming this year. Developed by Ivory Tower, The Crew Motorfest it is based on what the studio describes as a “one-of-a-kind festival” of all things speed, and is set on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii. In this way, The Crew Motorfest becomes the first game in the franchise to come out of the continental United States, since the previous two were developed in reduced versions that spanned from New York to San Francisco.
Here you can see its presentation trailer:
It also makes The Crew Motorfest a potentially fascinating return to the setting of 2006’s influential Test Drive Unlimited, a pioneering MMO-inspired racing game from developer Eden Games that laid the foundation for the current genre. However, this link should not be considered an accident; Test Drive Unlimited is actually a crucial part of The Crew’s non-Ubisoft roots. In fact, Ivory Tower was founded by former Eden Games developers, including Test Drive Unlimited game director Stéphane Beley. Beley, Ivory Tower’s Senior Creative Director, seems well aware of the links racing fans will make between the two games.
The Crew Motorfest is a potentially fascinating return to the setting of 2006’s influential Test Drive Unlimited.
“I was very proud when I first launched the Test Drive Unlimited project.“It’s true that it was very innovative at the time, and the recreation of Hawaii at that time was really remarkable to everyone,” Beley tells IGN.
“I decided for The Crew Motorfest to revisit the Hawaiian island… to Help capture the Hawaiian vibe with all the latest technology. It is a beautiful island. The first time was a good choice, for Test Drive, and for The Crew Motorfest, this island is really perfect to enjoy one of the most beautiful places on Earth. There’s a lot of diversity to explore.”
The Crew Motorfest promises a wide range of racing environments, such as Honolulu’s dense city streets, deep rainforest, winding mountain roads, volcanic slopes, and idyllic beaches. Unlike Test Drive Unlimited, however, The Crew Motorfest is not a 1:1 recreation of O’ahu in its entirety.
“It’s not 1:1, but we decided to capture all the main points of Hawaii and mix it upsays Beley. “It will be shaped like the Hawaiian island of O’ahu, but with its essence. I prefer to have a higher density of activities and biomes and make it easy to go from one to the other, and you will see that every 30 seconds you will have something to do and play with your friends through this great island, which is one of the largest we have ever seen. done.”
Beley also explains that while the scope of the environments in both The Crew and The Crew 2 called for a more procedural approach to world building, a more unique approach to O’ahu in this case. has allowed The Crew Motorfest performers to “play every mile”.
Ivory Tower has confirmed that The Crew Motorfest will feature hundreds of cars, but this doesn’t mean the additional vehicle types introduced in The Crew 2 (which launched almost five years ago, in mid-2018) have been omitted.
“I call it the Motorfest; I don’t call it the Carfest,” says Beley. “Because for me It is important that all engines can be represented within this experience. I mean the car culture, but there will also be a lot of stories with ships and airplanes, and you will be able to experience this beautiful world from many points of view, from boats on the water or from the air with your plane.”
The Crew Motorfest is scheduled to launch this year on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC (through both the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Store). It will also be accessible with a Ubisoft+ subscription on PC and Amazon Luna. Ivory Tower hasn’t confirmed a specific arrival date, but those who can’t wait should note that an early access period begins tomorrow that Ivory Tower has dubbed the “Insider Program.” Those who successfully register will be able to participate in a closed test of The Crew Motorfest that will be divided into several phases. The initial phase will be limited to PC for logistical reasons (the dev team can iterate faster on PC), but later phases are promised to be available on consoles.
