14 DAY TRIAL // The Crew, the upcoming open world online racing game from Ubisoft, places a big emphasis on players forming crews and doing different events or races together but doesn't force them to do such a thing, as all of the missions can be completed alone.
The Crew was one of Ubisoft's big games at this month's E3 2013 press conference, showing off an open world experience that's constantly online and allows the customization of cars in many different ways for various events.
According to the game's Production Director, Pete Young, the game encourages players to race alongside others.
"We’re making it extremely easy to see the players that are around you, quickly group up with those guys, make new friends and take on missions cooperatively," he told UbiBlog.
According to Young, The Crew's story missions can be tackled alone or cooperatively, and people can either go for Player-versus-Player experiences or just drive around the massive open world.
Forming crews can be temporary or permanent, according to Young, who emphasized that the system is completely optional.
"If you want to group up, you send your friends an invite. It’s up to them to accept. If someone wants to do a mission, they propose it to the group. If your crew accepts the mission proposal then that’s that," he added.
As seen in the cinematic trailer and the gameplay video, players can customize their cars in many different ways in The Crew, as this focus on personalization is critical to the game.
"We’re trying to treat the vehicles as almost an extension of your character. We want you to develop a real attachment to the vehicles, so of course you’re going to be able to customize it. You can strip it bare and then tweak all the internals to boost the performance. There’s almost an RPG progression to the game."
The Crew is set to go online for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2014.