Hell. Yes. [Subtitles by danielsangeo] Hey everyone! Welcome to the Game Dungeon! Now last time I said we'd have a
movie-based game, and that was the plan, but whoops! Looks like it's the 4th of July! So I
guess we're having the 4th of July episode instead! Uhm... Uh-oh. Yeah, I couldn't do it,
guys. America was too big. So we're having the American
Independence Day episode instead. Yeah, let's go with that. You know how a night or two
after the 4th, you sometimes hear a firework
or two that people forgot about? Well that's what this is. This episode is a Roman candle
that's rolled under the car seat. So with that, we're looking at "The
Crew", an open-world driving game where you get to drive all across America. Now where to start with
this game. It's not obvious. I mean, normally you start
at the beginning, right? Well, that's not going to
happen. Look at the menu here. Notice how there's no "new game" option? Well this game follows in the footsteps
of "Darkspore". That's not a good sign. That means you get exactly
one character slot, you can't delete it, and there's
no backwards progression. Why? Now the good news is, you can still access about 95% of
the campaign content as a flashback, but not the entire start of the campaign. So I literally cannot show
you the beginning of this game without buying another
copy. I'm not doing that. So I'm going to have to rip
somebody else's recording, who had the foresight to grab
it the first time around. And this system is all made possible
because this is an online-only game that relies on a central server. Uh-oh! UH-OH! I'm not a fan of that! Okay, I know I've pulled
this trick on you before, but at the time of this video,
this game is not being shut down and it's not happening next week or
anything. But...eh, we'll get to that later. Let's get started! Sort of... So we begin the game--or rather, we
watch someone else begin the game-- and we're running from
the cops cross country. And the first thing I immediately
notice is the gameplay. Now fans of driving games will
like them for different reasons, so let's get this out of the way. If you're a fan of believable
physics and car handling that's just like the real thing,
there is nothing for you here. This has arcade physics all over. The game likes to play it fast and
loose on the jumps and the collisions. Hey, watch me run into this tree! Boink. Oh good. I bounced off. Let's run into a mailbox. Boink. What if I brush against
a wall at 90 miles an hour? Boink. Look at that recovery!
I'm such a good driver. What if I hit a telephone pole? Boink. Oh good.
It was made out of cardboard. I've read about people complaining
about the handling in this game. I didn't have a problem with it, but that's because the game showed
me what to expect right away. I think the problem is, people are comparing the car driving
in this game to driving a car, and instead need to look at them like
rubber erasers strapped to bottle rockets. So back to the beginning, you play as... Uhh... Uh-oh. All right, we have another situation
like "Dungeon Siege" again. I have played through this entire campaign, I've driven through every stage, and for the life of me, I do not
remember the main character's name. And that's exactly how memorable he is. ["Where the hell are you, Alex?"] Okay, Alex. His name is Alex. Rrrrrrghh... Where do I
start with this story? Okay, so you play Alex and
are running from the cops, who all happen to be equipped with
pickups for an off-road chase. I find it amusing that,
to get away from them, you just have to cross the finish line. Then they all stop and this
peaceful music starts playing. That wouldn't stop me if I was a cop. After that, your handler, or whoever, starts
bugging you to show up to the next race. So we show up to the big race. The guy we're watching aces it, naturally. Then your brother has to
show up for some shady deal, and BLAM! HE'S SHOT! DEAD! And the police are on the scene ready
to arrest...uh, you. Yeah, you'll do. Case closed. And uh... Oh yeah, five years later. An FBI agent shows up and tells us this
is all the doing of her corrupt FBI boss that likes his street racing, and has a national racing gang
all working for him: The 510s. So what's-her-face here needs
me to infiltrate the gang, then work my way up the ladder until I'm
the kingpin, literally the head of the gang, since that's the only one who gets
close enough to get dirt on the FBI boss. And I get immunity to any street laws I
break as a way of not blowing my cover. So, um...uh, Alex puts on
a canned tough guy routine about getting revenge about
his brother and he accepts. And from here, the rest of the campaign
really is just about running missions to prove my worth and making
it to the top of the gang. Okay, what to say about this story. I
have such mixed feelings about this. See, I'm used to driving
games having no story at all, So, the fact this game even
has one is a treat for me. Uh... Yeah, sort of. That's
what I thought going in. Well now that I've played through it
and I've seen what they've done with it, it's making me reconsider everything. The problem with this game's
story is it's so incredibly bland. It's not bad. It's not good. It feels like a TV show you watch
to sort of put yourself to sleep, that's going to get
canceled after one season. Everything is safe, no one is memorable, I don't even know how you
make something like this; it's like there's no vision at all. Part of the problem is...uh,
Alex, our protagonist here. When you're making a driving story, you can play your protagonist
a couple different ways. You can make them cocky,
play them off smooth, or maybe quiet, but intense. Well The Crew opts for
another option: cardboard. Alex has almost no personality at all. I don't know his quirks,
his likes and dislikes, his approach to life...
If I had to describe him, I'd say he's kind of like a boring dad
that works in Accounting or something. Yeah! That's who I want to see behind
the wheel of my driving action game. He wants to be number one
in the race, because... Well actually, he really
doesn't act like that. It always feels like Alex is indifferent
as to whether he wins the race or not. That's what real racers are like...right...? See, another part of the problem
is the story isn't stupid enough. I want to say a gold standard for story in racing games is "Need
for Speed: Most Wanted". ["First, I'm gonna take your ride, then I'm
gonna take your girl! Get ready for that!"] Boom. That is perfection. That tells
us all we need to know. Let's race. The Need for Speed series has a much
richer reputation in this sort of thing. Ubisoft just doesn't have as
much experience being stupid. They're still trying to figure
that out and it shows here. That's not to say they don't try. I mean this plotline, how you have to
become the head of a national gang? That's like saying you have
to join the Colombian cartel and become Pablo Escobar's right hand man. Oh yeah. That'll happen. So that's a good start. And we also have a sexy lady,
who's the best hacker in the world, despite never using a computer and
just her smartphone. So that's good. And I like how the game feels compelled
to make a race out of everything. Like, if you drive to a new territory, your
first supposed to check in at your hideout. Except there's a timer! Better hurry up! Dadadada-dadadada-DADA--oh
wait. Nobody cares. I'm just in Miami driving to some garage. Or my favorite example of this is: At one point, you need to get a
friend of the family out of town because the local gang may be onto them. Now they're not chasing you, nor
are they even coming after you yet, you just suspect it. So the game emphasizes we want
to be inconspicuous leaving. So let's drive at 200 miles an hour in
the city to keep up with your friend so that nobody suspects anything. And...I don't have anything
else to say about the story. It feels very uninspired and doesn't
really distinguish itself in any way. It ends with you getting the bad
guy in a very convoluted way. First you race him, but then he
cheats, so you hold a gun to his head, then you race him again, but then he
cheats again, so then you finally race him. Uh... I don't... Anyway, the story's not
horrible. It's just...cardboard. And you know what? I feel
like this is my fault. When I heard about this
game having a storyline, I thought, "Oh good. Even if it's not
that great, I'll play it." And I did. And now I see this was a mistake; they
should've put the resources elsewhere. I'm sorry, everyone. So what about the gameplay itself? Well...it's unremarkable. You mostly race people. Sometimes they want you to run into things. You can drive around and do some stunts
for money, and use money to buy cars. It has a part tuning thing
which I never messed with and I beat the game so I
guess that didn't matter. I will say, for the campaign
they went easy on the difficulty. If you can't beat this campaign, you're gonna
have trouble beating a lot of driving games. And that is not a complaint. I will take too easy any day over too hard since there is NO ceiling as to how
hard a driving game can get. None. So the campaign's just okay, nothing special. The gameplay's okay, nothing special. The graphics...aaaaaahhh! We'll talk about
that. Uh, mixed bag. Yeah, that works. So why even talk about this game at all? Well maybe because it's the [deep distorted voice]
biggest driving game world ever! [screech] Okay, sorry. The SECOND biggest driving game world ever. [deep distorted voice]
he SECOND biggest driving game world ever! And I could be wrong, but I think this
is the ONLY open-world driving game where you drive across
the entire contiguous US! So we have Florida swamps,
California vineyards, Illinois cornfields, most major cities... It has the United States! Seriously. It's not an easy
thing to put a number on, but this may have more
variety in the environment than any other open-world
driving game out there. That's because it has the
whole country to work with. Now I'd say the map quality isn't the best
compared to a lot other driving games, but what makes this such an enigma, is it's just sort of okay, nothing
special, in every single category, except it aims for the
friggin' stars in the scale! So how do you rate a game like that? So many reviews chalk this
up as a mediocre game, but when I see I can drive all over the US, I'm wondering why there wasn't a
parade in the streets over this. Every criticism you may hear
about this game is probably true. It's just that the answer to everything is that you can drive all
across the United States. Oh, the handling's not the best? Oh, well you can drive all
across the United States. There's not enough cars to choose from? Well you can drive all
across the United States! Now I have a lot more to say
but I can do that on the road! So let's go on a 4th of
July road trip across the US! Now the game's campaign starts in Detroit
and you spiral around until end up in LA. No, that's no good.
I don't want to go to LA. Well, in "Arcade America", the last
4th of July episode on the show, Joey started in LA
and ended up at Woodstock. Well, this game doesn't have Woodstock
but this route looks way better. We'll end up someplace good. Let's go! So here we are in Los Angeles. I lived here briefly for a job and, yeah,
the game sort of feels like the city. I used to work somewhere around here. Here's the Basket Center. Lots of
exclusive baskets there. Too pricey for me. Downtown still looks kind of neat,
and of course you have the canals. Ah! An ad for our own game inside the game. This is what corporate insecurity looks like. The Griffith Observatory. I haven't confirmed if a
Terminator will show up if you wait here long enough at night. Ngah... Night... All right. Let's talk about night. Night in this game is horrendous. Or rather, not night, but your headlights. Driving in the city is okay since
you have lampposts everywhere, but let's look at an open road here. Here is night driving in The Crew, "Need for Speed III",
a twenty year-old game, and ACTUAL night driving. Your visibility is absolute garbage. Not only do you not seem to have high beams, but you can't even turn your
headlights off--they're automatic. No headlights at all
would be better than this, because then at least my eyes could adjust. This game has trained me
to never play it at night. So good job, game. You ruined night. It blows my mind something this basic made
it past testing with a budget this big. And I have no control over the
day or night cycle, either. I figured it out: One hour of game time
equals 4 minutes and 48 seconds of real time. I even have a chart to try and
figure out when I can play this game, because if it's night or late
evening, I may as well not even play. This sucks because I would
love more night driving, but I kind of need to see more
than fifteen feet in front of me. Well at least the day is good
because it has sun, right? Uhh... We'll get to that. Don't worry!
We're going to talk about the sun! [muzak] So back to LA. Long Beach
looks neat and, really, this is the story with most
of the cities in the game. They're not going to get every last detail, but they get enough right
to give it a similar feel. Anyway, I don't like LA.
Let's get out of here. I have nothing against you if you're
from LA--I just hate your city. In fact, if you live in LA, good for you. You're living out there so
the rest of us don't have to. You're taking one for the team. So, following Joey's route,
we get to see some oil fields, those vineyards I talked about earlier, the Vandenberg space complex, and here we are in San Francisco. We naturally have the Golden Gate Bridge, those roads you see used
in a lot of cop movies, and I couldn't find
Alcatraz. I guess it escaped. And before we leave, we stop
by the Circular Dots store, which is conveniently located
next to the Weird Store. I'd better pick some up. You go through
a lot of these in my line of work. On the way out, Bodega Bay is scenic, and driving along the coast here in
the evening can look really nice. Though, sometimes... Dammit, I'm not going to be
put this off much longer. Let's talk about the sun! Okay, so here's the problem with the sun: It was designed by maniacs.
That's the problem. Let's look at the light in early morning. Hey, that looks pretty good, huh? Oh wait. No, back up. I forgot to mention I've been
tweaking the color in editing here. This is what it ACTUALLY
looks like in the game. GOD FORBID we release a game
that took six years to make with millions of dollars worth of art assets without slapping a brown tint
filter on top of everything first. You're pushing my buttons, game. So back to morning, it looks nice. Hey, look at that sunrise! Beautiful! Oh, keep it coming! Yuck! What happened? Oh, now it's mid-day. Okay, I get that it's sunny, but why is
it bleaching out the color everywhere? This game's style is to take
realistic mid-day lighting, cross it with an overexposed photograph, then slap a brown tint filter on there. Do you hate me, game? Is that what this is? Why is it the exact same light
color across the entire USA? I guess I wouldn't care about that,
but this isn't a good one! It's ugly! Why do we have these complete
gamma blowout settings while surrounding by forest shade?
Or in the middle of a swamp? Ehhh... Okay, it's evening again. Jesus! Is there a nuclear bomb going off?! Ah, now that's gorgeous. Beautiful. And that's still nice, but
now I can't see the road. I mean, am I crazy? I
didn't think I was so picky. Hell, I was happy with Need
for Speed III's lighting. This game had three art directors. I
think someone should've been fired. And that's all I have to say about the sun. Okay, back to the road. Now in Arcade America, Joey
skipped Washington altogether, but we'll make a quick stop in Seattle. On the way there, we pass
through the giant Redwood Forest, and we arrive in Seattle. There's the Space Needle, and over here is Pioneer Square. I've never been to Seattle but it looks nice. I'm sure real estate prices reflect that. And another city, another criticism. Actually, wait. We can
hold off a little longer. So on the way out, we pass by Lake Tahoe, there's some posh estate
out in the forest here, and we HAVE to check out Yosemite
National Park. This is great. Okay, time for the criticism. This game is just not smooth. For starters, it's impossible to run the game at 60 frames a second without stuttering. Seriously. It's impossible. Any
system on the planet. Doesn't matter. Oh, it'll hit 60, most of the time even, but if you put a gun to your head that's
rigged to go off if it ever dips below that, then you'd be a dead man playing The Crew. But even at 30, something looked off to me. So just to reduce the variables, I put all settings on minimum,
something I should be overspecced for. Now I'm playing this back at half
speed, so this is 15 frames per second, but notice how it will lurch
forward slightly in spots? Are you seeing that? Is that microstutter? I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy, but I've played a lot of other racing games
that didn't make me think I was crazy. And we're still in the park
heading out to Las Vegas. I remember in Arcade
America, I ran into a bear, but we probably don't have to worry
about that out in the woods here, because the--BAM! INVISIBLE ROCK! TOTALED! Yeah! Invisible rocks! You just
can't be too careful when driving. And here we are in Las Vegas. Las Vegas didn't really win me
over. It just looks gaudy to me. Now despite this being an online game
that lets you buy credits with real money, you cannot gamble and lose all your
money immediately in Las Vegas. So what's the point of staying? Moving out! All right. While we're
here on the salt flats, I guess I should explain
my anti-desert bias. I've heard that the
environment you grow up in can determine what sort of
places you feel comfortable in. Well, this is the part of
the world I grew up in: So when I see desert, it's
just like, what the hell? How does anything live out here? Yeah, that's what out here. Dead things. So after leaving the desert, from here
we get some of the Rockies. That's nice. And the game sort of does what
it wants with the geography, so half the time, you're never
completely sure what state you're in. So it appears all of North
Dakota is covered in snow. Sure. Why not? We get some scenic views here and if we head a little over to the east,
we come across Yellowstone National Park. And just a little bit of trivia: Since
this is actually on top of a supervolcano, if Yellowstone ever erupts, that might actually end most life
on Earth, including humanity. Hey look! It's Old Faithful! From here we head to the Grand Canyon, but not without passing through Salt Lake
City, since we're taking the scenic route. I'm trying; Joey's route is tricky to follow. And that means it's time
for another criticism. How about rain? That's a good one. When you're driving, it can sometimes rain
and it comes with the subtlety of a brick. I'm not time lapsing anything.
This is exactly how it happens. But it doesn't affect your
driving, best I can tell. Plus, pedestrians don't seem
to care about it either. Like the night driving, I'd love to do some
driving in the rain to add to the mood, but it's just unsatisfying here. It rains every single day cycle,
too. It's just a matter of when. I prefer slow and gradual shifts
to both the day and the weather, if not just keeping them frozen. I don't like this light-switch flipping crap. To steal from another game, "Burnout Paradise" has an option
to set your own time scale. I cannot tell you how much I wish ALL games
with day cycles had something like this. This is What Everybody Wins looks like. And here we are the Grand Canyon. And I have to dock points here. Listen, I realize this is a miniaturized
version of the United States, and can't all be to scale, but come on,
the Grand Canyon is so incredibly huge. Sure, they weren't going to make it as long, but couldn't they have made it as deep? I've seen it before, and it's one
of the few things I can remember to mess with my perception as
to how large something can be. My brain wasn't really ready for it. Part of the problem may
be the field of view here. You notice that I've been using mostly
third-person views in this video. That's because everything just
feels too narrow in first-person. This is one of the few games I've played where I've found myself really wanting
one of those triple-widescreen setups. W-I-D-E! Anyway, leaving the Grand Canyon, from
here we have some desert attractions, like the giant thermometer, the airplane graveyard, Roswell, New Mexico--again, I don't
know if actual UFOs come out at night-- and I admit, even though
I'm not big on deserts, some of the mesas out here look pretty neat. You have to respect a giant rock. Well, I do. Moving on, we head up through Colorado, then of course, Mount Rushmore! This isn't really how the
visitor's center is laid out, but... I guess they tried. Also, I'm sad to report that there
are natural barriers on all sides. So best I can tell, it's impossible to do
stunt jumps off of George Washington's head. Come on, game. You can't pretend you didn't
know people were going to want to do that. And as a side note, I feel like
we have a missed opportunity since just down the road in reality, there's actually a giant monument
of Crazy Horse being constructed that's going to be TEN TIMES the size
of Mount Rushmore once it's done. There's no telling when
that's going to happen, but they've got the face
done. So c'mon, game! And continuing Joey's route, I
guess we're heading to Chicago next. But, first! [dramatic choir music] First! [dramatic choir music] We have! [dramatic choir music] Salem Sue! The biggest Holstein
cow statue in the world! [percussion music] America, everyone. And in Chicago, I found the game's
portrayal pretty impressive. Maybe it's because it's angled
against the sun in a good way. We have the Cloud Gate, I think, Buckingham Fountain, and just the whole
downtown area in general looks like a great place
to set off fireworks to me. Now moving back south, we
have a lot of farmland, and oops! I guess it's
time to complain again. Well starting with the positive, I actually think the Midwest here is one
of the better areas portrayed in the game. Driving on a country road out in the
middle of nowhere kind of feels like this. So what's the problem? Well the problem is every dirt
road in this game is terrible. See, exploring back roads out in the
country is what I want out of this game. I want to get lost here thinking
it's a little like the real thing. Well that illusion is destroyed
every time you go on a dirt road. That's because they are too damned wide! Look at how wide this road this!
That is seven car-widths across! Yeah, let's have an unpaved
dirt road full of potholes be the same size as, what, a five lane road? See, that's my problem. I've
driven on too many REAL roads so this is a constant wakeup call
that keeps me from being immersed. They've somehow fallen into
the uncanny valley of roads. ...which I didn't even
know existed until now. And there are THOUSANDS of
miles of these. THOUSANDS. And to pile on the...dirt, any time you're not on a paved road,
they fling dirt on the camera. Anywhere. It doesn't matter your speed or
which direction you're facing either. This would be okay if this
was a single-track racer where it's just a brief effect. But on a giant open-world like this? And I can't turn it off for
thousands of miles of road? Did anyone in development play this
for more than ten minutes at a time? Okay, that may sound nitpicky, but I've
put...uh...a few hours into this game, and in my opinion, they've
ruined dirt roads. All of them. But to say something positive again, the Midland here is full of hidden statues. We have a waitress statue,
an astronaut statue, a cowboy statue, of course, a giant donut... hmm.... Hm... Actually, LA has a giant donut
too. I forgot to mention that. A giant fish, and a classic Greek
statue in a rural suburbs. Works for me. Pick your own corn! Oh boy! Now from here, Joey went to Oklahoma next, but I'm not sure Oklahoma
exists in this game, so we'll settle for St. Louis instead. While we head down there, I will say though, the more I play this game,
the more I want...more. There's such an incredible amount of work
that's gone into creating America here, and can so easily be the foundation
to another game on top of it. I mean sure, the game has road challenges
and crap that I didn't care about, but it also has factoids that you can
find scattered across the country. Like, hey, Monument Rocks! This was the
first national natural landmark in America! Or hey! This was the first mile
of concrete paved road in the US! I didn't realize that. ["I did not realize that.
Russell, did you realize that?" ["No, I did not realize that."] That's a good start, but
this could be so much more. In retrospect, I think they
should've just axed the story and developed this sort of thing instead. So we could get a cutscene
of Alex picking oranges, walking around a construction
site with a hardhat, or shucking corn. I mean, that's the appeal of a roadtrip: You travel on the road, then
you get out and do something. Between power plants, farming,
commerce, and residences, there's so much infrastructure,
I feel like there's potential for almost a ground-level "Sim
City"-inspired game here, except with a driving core. I want to say the sky's the limit for
what you can do with assets like this. I don't exactly know what
I'm looking for here, but I bet some modder does;
it's giving me that feeling. There is so much potential in
this game that's being squandered. And for that, I'm giving this the
"Screaming to be modded" award. Some games, you play through
them, then you're done. Others are practically a lifestyle change. This is the latter--
or it WOULD be with mods. If this had the moddability of something
like the "Elder Scrolls" games, then this would honestly make it
to "Dream Game" status for me, because I'm sure someone would come
up with all the basic mods I want, and great things I haven't even thought of,
that could leave me playing this for years. But, it doesn't, so on we go. And here's St. Louis. We have the Arch! Yeah! And on we go down to Texas. While we're heading there, let's
talk about the map a minute. I still think, for its size, this is the most diverse
open-world driving game out there. But the more you travel, the more
you start to see what they're doing. I'd say the maps are only about 15%
original fresh content and models, and about half the game is a remix of those, but one they did a good job on. See, this house probably
used somewhere else, but it looks like it
belongs here, so good job. But about a third of the game is where
they just copied and pasted too much. For example, almost every
switchback feels exactly the same! And if we back up a little bit,
look at this redwood forest. Sure the models are impressive, but this
is very basic from a mapping perspective. You have your basic geometric hill, a
repeated tree model, and that's sort of it. To me, that says the game is just too
big. They should've made it smaller. They couldn't fill everything
without cutting corners. BIGFOOOOOOO-- Now one of the strengths of the game is you get glimpses of it
being like the real thing. And approaching cities like Dallas
here is a good example of that. If you're driving up in the evening, it gives that on-the-highway
outskirts-of-the-city feel, which is a hard thing to put into words and
I don't really see much of in other games. These moments never last very
long--yeah, see what I mean? But this game keeps giving
me hints of what could be. And here we are in Dallas. It's pretty impressive. And of course we have some landmarks like
the Reunion Tower or the Old Red Courthouse. Despite still being in the desert, I like Dallas more than the other
southwest cities in the game. I think because the architecture
tries to make up for it. I feel like at least somebody knew what
they were doing when they made Dallas. I didn't get that feeling
from LA or Las Vegas. As we head out of Dallas, it's worth addressing that we are
missing out of Hawaii and Alaska. Now Hawaii isn't such a big loss because the "Test Drive Unlimited"
series has you covered there. So that really just leaves Alaska. But Alaska is, uh, pretty big so I
can see why they decided to pass. I'll be honest, though, given the choice, I think I would gladly trade in
the entire southwest for Alaska. Alaska has lush forests.
The southwest has scorpions. But there's still some left to
see in it, like a dinosaur park. And in case, you're wondering, no, this is not the same dinosaur park
as the one in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure". Moving on, we pass by Buchanan Dam, the
golden horse statue in Fort Stockton, beautiful Port Arthur...uh... We also swing by Port Isabel which has
kind of a nice tourist trap feel to it. And that is it for the desert! We are
leaving and heading on to Nashville. Hey, why don't we talk about the music? The music falls into two categories: The first is music on the radio
which is just top chart stuff. About 60% of it didn't bother me so that's
above average compared to actual radio. I was surprised by one track, though, which is easily the most intense song
I've heard about kids playing at a beach. ["The breeze is nice yes ["I think I better go ["Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh..."] The other is the score
composed for the campaign. Some of it is good. [synth rock] Some of it is forgettable. [light synth rock] Then there's the menu music
and OH MY GOD is it good! [heavy synth rock] This music gets it! This is
what the game should be about! Just cruisin' by, seeing America,
being awesome in your car. [heavy synth rock] That is what the heart and
soul of this game SHOULD be! Not this sad boring guy, mourning your
dead brother, getting all dramatic... This is the wrong game for that! Thinking about somebody's dead brother
doesn't put me in the mood for stunt jumps. How can they not understand that
there's--So here we are in Nashville. Now I have to say. I realize this
is a scaled down version of America, but it is kind of hilarious seeing Nashville reduced to a two-block podunk town
that happens to have a skyscraper. So that's Nashville, everyone.
Guess we're heading to New Orleans. And back to the menu music for a second, let's talk about the menu. Now when this game came out,
the menu music was awesome. Then they released an expansion: Wild Run. That menu music was different
and it was also awesome. Then they released Calling All Units, and the menu music is just
very aggressive in a bland way, and not very nice to listen to. And that's it. That's what we're stuck
with. You can't go back to the old version. And to add insult to injury, I
don't even own these expansions. All they did for them was add
some more cars and events. I didn't really care
enough to spend more on it. If they had added Alaska, that
would be a different story, but no, it felt pretty barebones. And that's where it ends, with this stupid music theme for
an expansion I don't even own, when I could've been hearing
the sweet original theme. And I HAVE to hear this menu music. Look. I have the music turned
off in game. Doesn't matter. You still hear this dumb theme every single
time. Even with the music turned off. Again, this is a small thing, but it adds up BECAUSE YOU'LL BE HEARING IT EVERY
SINGLE TIME YOU PLAY THE GAME! WHY IS--Oh, hold on. We've
made it to New Orleans. New Orleans was a little bit of
a disappointment to me actually. I mean, they have some landmarks
and the above-ground cemetery and some of the architecture you'd expect, but there weren't any people
in costumes, corner musicians, drunks passed out in the street... It just felt kind of sterile to me. Yep. Well, onto Miami. So back to the menu, let's
talk about this damned intro. You have your opening logos which they
make you wait through EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's not loading the game.
It's just making you wait. Listen, I understand if a
game needs time to load; texture sizes are only getting
bigger, and hey, this is a huge world. But that's not what this is.
This is JUST wasting your time. It's 30 seconds every single time, and
that's 30 seconds on TOP of loading times. Now this is by no means the worst
offender of games that do this. In fact, I'm curious which game is
actually the WORST for this sort of thing. And you might think 30 seconds is nothing,
but you have to consider the frequency. If this was an 8-hour single-player campaign where I play it through once, then
I'm done, this wouldn't be a big deal. But no, this is a game they want you
to play game again and again and again. They even give you game
cash every day you log in. So whose decision is it to
make this utterly unskippable? This is how you build resentment. Some games cut you a break and make
the video clips easily accessible so you can circumvent them manually. Not here. This is just a dick move. Ubisoft has said that The Crew has been
played by over five million people. So that means that 4.75 YEARS were
wasted every time the player base ran it. See, it's the little things that take 15
minutes of work for the developer to fix, that have such a colossal impact that it makes you want to
burn the studio to the ground. But hold that thought
because we are in Miami. It's got palm trees, yachts,
beaches and Spanish architecture, so I guess they did a fair job. If you're from Miami, you probably
see a lot of problems with it. I've never been to Miami
so I don't know any better. On the way out,
we get to see the Everglades. I do like how they have swamp
ranger stations you can check out. I thought something like this must've
been made up, but nope. They're real. See, that's the beauty of a game like this. I'm an American and I
didn't know about these. I can't paint my pickup red? Are you serious? And now we're heading to DC, but we'll
make a stop through West Virginia first. I guess that means it's time
to criticize the map again. This part of the world rarely
feels believable at all. I'm not sure anyone on the development team
has ever been to this part of the country. Okay, first we have these ridiculously
wide country roads, so that's a problem. Plus let's not forget
ridiculously wide UNMARKED roads. This just isn't what streets
look like in America. Next are the trees. They are way too sparse. Look at the gaps in the--OH! ONLINE-ONLY
GAMEPLAY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I'd like to remind everyone that
this is an online-only game. And this totally had nothing to
do with this video being late. Okay, so uh... Hm... All right, well, with the
magic of editing, let's resume. As I was SAYING, forests like this
are extremely rare in America. West Virginia is more like
a temperate jungle with every plant fighting
for its inch of space. I know why they did this, though:
It's so you can drive through it. Because realistically, you're not
driving through this without a tank. So what are we getting from this? This. This is what we're getting. Endless copy-paste forests. This is no good. Even though this is the second
largest driving game out there, they should've gutted all of this,
and focused on the roads instead. It would've been a better game. The size of your game is pointless if
it's all just the same junk over and over. There's nothing wrong with reusing
assets, but you have to be smart about it. Also, despite having hills, I'd say the terrain is more
smoothed out than it really is. That could be an engine limitation since racing games don't want
jutting angles everywhere, but that, combined with
the forests and wide roads, constantly gives me, uh, a
LITERAL uncanny valley feeling I just can't shake off. Well, here's a giant strip
mine to make things better. Those excavators should be able
to fix our terrain problems, huh? I dunno. I've seen giant
quarry driving games before. [hard rock music] And that reminds me. Let's talk
about the rating of this game. This is rated "T" for "Teens", I think entirely because of
the forgettable campaign. They murder your brother and use some
language, and I think that's about it. I feel like this is so wishy-washy. They should either just drop the pointless
drama and make the game rated for Everyone, because, why not? or else give us more
mileage for our Teen rating. I could think of one thing I
want to see: ragdoll physics. See every pedestrian just
gets out of your way, even when they don't. Now these reactions are good. I like these. Especially when they drop
something they're holding. It reminds me of a prank video where this guy rigged speakers so
his roommate heard a car screeching. But, c'mon! If this is Teen rated,
can't we have some ragdoll action, too? We don't have to kill them. They can get right back up; I just
want to see them roll off my hood. But let's check out DC. On the way up, we see the Pentagon, which isn't as impressive from
the ground as it is from the air. But in DC, yeah, this kind
of feels like Washington DC. I really am impressed how mappers
can recreate the feel of a place by just grabbing the right
details and scaling it down. I wouldn't know where to begin
with that; it really is a skillset. We have many of the usual monuments: The Washington Memorial, the
White House, the Capitol... Although the Lincoln Memorial looks a
little different than I remember it. Hm. And with that, we head to New York. I guess I'm running out of
criticisms, but I have a few left, so let's talk about other drivers. I don't like them. This is an online-only game,
but it's so rich in content it may as well be a single-player game also. The developers of this created
the Test Drive Unlimited games, and those are great single-player games
if you just wanted to drive around. The Crew is practically the same thing. Well other players in this game
are kind of like players in "DayZ". They may leave you alone, but there's a good chance they'll
try to kill you for no reason. I would be cruising along, then
bam. Someone's determined to ram me. Bam, bam, bam. Yeah, I see you. The only thing you can do is to run
away to another part of the country and hope they don't find you. Come get me now, punks! I'm in Nebraska! And here we are in New York. They do not hold back on
the copy and pasting here, but I admit, it really is huge. You get a good sense of scale looking
at it from a highway faraway actually. And I realize this is the
case in every major city, but in New York especially,
the traffic density is amusing. I don't think there are ever this
few cars on the road in New York without something involving
the National Guard. Anyway, here's Washington
Square Arch, the Unisphere, and Coney Island.
Boop-deet-boo-deedoo-deet... What's interesting about New York
is, I was trying to see everything, and the more time I spent in New York, the
more I started feeling a little depressed. So I think they must've done a pretty
good job on portraying the city. And from here, Joey went on to Woodstock, but since we don't have that, I
guess we'll check out the Northeast, then we'll end up in my favorite spot. Now even though I'm probably only one of
five people that have this association, I like how we have the Cape Cod area because it reminds me of the "Test
Drive III" Cape Cod expansion. And, y'know, as much crap as
I've talked about this game, it's still better than Test
Drive III in every way, really. Well, except the night driving.
That's still better in Test Drive III. And the mid-day lighting. Look out, Amish! Beep beep! We have some coastal towns
in Maine that look nice. And I hope you like Paul Bunyan because the
northeast is littered with statues of him. It makes me wonder if there's a state code
somewhere where if you open up a lumberyard, you're required to have a Paul Bunyan
statue somewhere on the premises. And of course, we have Niagara Falls which is a little underwhelming
compared to the real thing. But, again, compared to Test
Drive III, we're looking good. Finally, I like the location of this
bus stop. This is for the forest bus. And that almost concludes our
trip so I have another award: America the Beautiful. Again, there are many other games
out there that look better than this, but nothing even comes close to giving
you the full USA experience like The Crew. Even if it's a cardboard
cutout with a lot of problems, it's the best cardboard cutout out there.
This game is King of the Cardboard. But I guess we need to get the
dark and ugly part out of the way. Yes, this game is going to die. It relies on a central server, and
neither Ubisoft nor Ivory Tower have made any statement
regarding an end-of-life plan. So without divine intervention, in the future, you're never going
to be able to play this game. Now how long do you have? Well at the time of this video,
"The Crew 2" has just released so there's no way they're going
to shut it down this year. That would be a little too bold. Now this is tricky to calculate, but
we can make some educated guesses. The only non-free-to-play game I know of that Ubisoft has currently killed
100% has been "Shadowbane". That lasted six years before going down. However, Ubisoft had a crapload of
online multiplayer shutdowns last year. The longest running one
being seven years, I think. So if we want to be generous and say eight, that puts The Crew's current lifespan
at anywhere from one to four years. At my maximum estimate, I believe that
will be the longest online support of any game Ubisoft has published so far. Shadowbane didn't make it to
seven years even with a petition. Y'know, once upon a time,
a company dropping support didn't mean the game stopped working. All it meant was they dropped support;
you had to troubleshoot it yourself. Boy, I'd love to go back to THAT model. And they are going to kill this game. In 2016, less than two years after release, they gave away this game for
free for everyone who grabbed it. Then they did it AGAIN later that year. That is not something you do with
a high-status well-performing game. Now I was a sucker. I
bought a copy for 12 bucks. I didn't expect them to
just give it away for free. Some people ask me why I care so
much about dead games, this is why. I saw this coming. I knew eventually it was
going to affect a game I really cared about. And now it's just a matter of time. I consider it a gaming tragedy to make something with so much
effort and content behind it only to intentionally kill it so
no one will ever play it again. Y'know, the Statue of
Liberty is a gift from France and is still one of the most
iconic monuments of America. I want to say The Crew is another
national treasure from France. But y'know what? France didn't take
the statue back and dismantle it. But that's what Ubisoft is
going to do with this game. So, in a way, they're killing America. On the plus side, I'm slowly
working on a legal campaign to make this business practice
of taking people's money, then intentionally destroying
their product illegal. Because I think it already is in various
countries and just isn't being enforced. But that's going to be a long
process if it even works. I'll have videos on that later. So what about The Crew 2? Well, I haven't really followed it since
I'm not sure if I want another game to give me an existential
crisis like this one has. I know they're improving the water
and adding boats for river racing. Yeah. Okay, I can go with that. They're also adding planes, though,
which I'm not sure is a great idea, because then you're literally
turning America into flyover country. The entire strength of this game is
soaking up the US, not skipping over it. PCGamesN had an article on how to
quit the game. That's not a good sign. Ultimately it's hard for me to
get excited about the sequel when I know they're going
to kill off the original. And the sequel too, for that matter. But as for the original,
every time I play this game, I'm fascinated and given a sense of wonder of wanting to explore
all across the America. And every time, I'm also constantly reminded how horrible some of
these design choices are. It's like watching an Olympic athlete
train vigorously, eat a perfect diet, only to watch him forget to
tie his shoes before the race. I wanted to give this game
the All-Time Favorite. It was close, but I can't.
There are too many problems. If I could control the day cycle, and I knew they weren't going to kill the
game permanently, that would be enough. But instead, it gets the Love & Hate award. I have so many delusions
of grandeur for this game. I won't go over it all. Here's
my list if you're interested. Like those glimpses of greatness
I see on the road sometimes, The Crew has given me a window
of looking into what could be, though it's still leaving
me stuck on the other side. All right! So let's finish the road trip. I said I'd take you to my favorite
spot. Well, it's a three-way tie! First, we have the Illinois
Fairgrounds, since I already love fairs, but how can I say no to one where you
go in a giant clown mouth to enter? Next, we have Punxsutawney, which I'm sure only even exists in
the game because of "Groundhog Day". Now I'm skeptical if there are this many
statues of Punxsutawney Phil in town, but it's nice. I like it. And finally, we have Salem, Massachusetts, which The Crew has decided is
Halloween Town all year long! I doubt that's true, but sign me up! And that's the game!
There's a lot I left out, but I think we still had a good
taste of America in this game. I mean, damn. How much would it have
cost to actually drive this much? A lot, that's how much. Uh, actually I'm confused
by their math here. Oh well. I hope everyone has a happy 4th of
July--uhh, HAD a happy 4th of July, and stay tuned for the next episode
for, uh...a movie-based game. Yeah. [music] Oh, you know what? We forgot about Detroit. So here's Detroit. See, there's the sign. Over here's the auto industry. So, uh...
Yeah, welcome to Detroit, everyone!
[removed]
I want to have a huge open-world game like this but with physics of a proper sim. It could be a bit like Euro/American Truck Simulator, but with cars instead of trucks.
Forza Horizon is the closest, but it doesn't even try to pretend that the map is based on some real area and the physics are just slightly less arcadey than other arcade driving games.
[removed]
This video has sold the game for me better than any other video. I didnt even realize how much I wanted a game where I can just drive across the US looking for landmarks. A virtual tourism sort of thing. Sadly though the game is full of stuff that would prevent me from actually enjoying it. Its a game that tries to appeal to too wide of an audience so it becomes bland in anything that would actually appeal to me.
A lot of the issues that Ross talked about I wholeheartedly agree. The whole driving through forests should have been completely cut from the game. Forests are not groves that you can drive through and it makes the world a bit too open for my tastes. Focus on the roads and create some off road paths or open fields instead.
Watching this made me want a videogame version of the blues brothers. Like Driver (the first one) but with the whole US to drive around in. No getting out of cars or warping to other cars, but instead just you chased by the police across the US.
after watching this, the overall impression I get from this game is 'Bleh'
How did he not comment that whole time on how surreally bad all the stuff in the air was? Planes and helicopters always flying way too low to the ground, individual birds out of a V formation randomly freezing in place, hang-gliders where there was no conceivable spot for them to have jumped from, pop-in that would've been unforgivable in an N64 game, and I'm pretty sure I saw a plane pan with the screen while he turned once.
Is this the freeman's mind guy?