Ok, so coming from the Crew 2 this game was very fun, but there is a ton I have to say and overall I would not recommend this game.

Firstly, the map feels way smaller (probably because it is.) In The Crew and The Crew 2, the map felt vast and it was fun to just drive around and find stuff you hadn't before. Motorfest's map is just absolutely tiny in comparison.

Secondly, you don't get to really ever use your cars. Every race requires a loaned car for the first time you complete it, and that gets really old really fast. At the time of writing this review, I did not learn that I was not in the tutorial still (33 hours in) until 10 minutes ago. That's exactly what the game starts to feel like-- a glorified tutorial.

Third, the AI cars are ridiculously unbalanced, especially in some of the early races. It's probably my fault for playing on the hardest difficulty, but making the AI cars have better upgrades while you are driving a stock loaned car is ridiculously annoying. I would say this is a skill issue if it wasn't for the fact that most of the time I am being passed on straightaways by cars that should be going much slower than mine.

On the subject of difficulty, it makes the game feel lazily designed. Let me explain: After winning a few races in a row, a pop up appears saying that you seem to be winning a lot and suggesting that you up the difficulty, which makes it seem as if Ubisoft wants you to have to replay races a lot instead of playing new races.

Overall, the game is very fun and has all the ingredients to be an amazing game, but it strays too far from most other racing games in ways that make it boring and repetitive. My recommendation: only pick up this game if its on sale and you have friends to play it with, but otherwise don't even bother.

This game is completely unplayable due to constant server crashes preventing me from playing a game with no online mode. I have about 6 hours on the game now, but almost all of it was spent in the main menu trying repeatedly to connect to the servers. Even after all this time, I have barely completed the tutorial race.

I would be more understanding if the response from Ubisoft support were not to wait 3 weeks and then respond to my ticket saying "Yeah, we know that is an issue with our servers. We have been hearing about that a lot lately. I decided to check in on the game this week (almost a year later) to find out I am still one among the many who must continue to wait for the game we bought to be playable.

"We are unable to refund this purchase to your Steam Wallet at this time. Your playtime of an included product exceeds 2 hours (our refund policy maximum)."

Sorry to dislike this reskinned Forza Horizon sequel. Try the demo.

If you want a comparison to The Crew, here are a few things (apologies for the imperfect comparison as it has been years since I've played either of the games)...

Earning in-game currency has been made increasingly difficult to afford all the cars within a reasonable time. In the original Crew, I was able to afford most of the cars with less than 300 hours of playtime, because the prices were reasonable and PvP was the best way to earn the currency. Racing arcade games can present some level of grind, except in this game it gets repetitive fairly fast.

Racing back then and now still gives an unfair advantage to those with inaccessible rare parts, which you normally will grind for hours. This has nothing to do with your skills as a driver. People say they like the system but I used to do a jump skill repeatedly again and again and again to get better parts for my car in The Crew and when I saw that The Crew 2 was a repeat of that grind, it was simply too much to waste a sliver of my life on such a horrible system. Motorfest once again, we have the genius system, which wastes people's time, so they have something pointless to do while waiting for the next Summit or event.

Getting platinum sure might sound like a worthy goal, but you will need to dedicate your life to this game and play hours upon hours every day to reach those levels. The competition is welcome yeah, especially compared to FH, but it's just a little bit too much imo and btw people still buy cars for 20 mil credits in FH5 so they don't have to do any playlist events, either because they have no time, or the content is lackluster for a reason.

Such a grindy system might be worth considering when the game runs perfectly or if you just like playing one game to get exclusive cars, in a game that will eventually be shut down thanks to you not owning the game.

I did some of the playlists and well, I would prefer The Crew story mode to this CGI banger. I don't know how Gran Turismo managed to not be flashy and still be loved by players. This game lacks maturity in the very meaning of the word. You will take to the streets and landscapes of Oahu and apparently Maui to come. Yet you are driving at ridiculous speed to actually pay attention to the scenery. We have all these details in this wonderful world and yet it all vanishes in the background as you press the nitro boost to go faster to the next destination (the boost system is pretty much redundant and makes the game just a little bit more of mix and match copy of other games. I don't want to drive with a turbo on a classic car for real...)

You get to import most of your Crew 2 cars into the game. Hurray for those who did not give up on the series and stuck it through with the grind.

If you like paying once and getting all the content, this is more like FH5 as you will need to pay more money to access the newest stuff. During the original Crew game players were already pissed off at the half-assed police enforcement addition to the game and having to pay for it. You can't in any way compare it to NFS and the activities were very limited around what you could do with the DLC.

The Crew 2 brought around some new aspects to the game like Formula type cars for circuit racing, which was decent fun, and they pretty much scaled it down in Motorfest. I personally think that the boats and planes might be unnecessary altogether if they can focus on things like adding derby races (Flatout games already managed this way back when and crashing your opponent was satisfying). People like contact in races because they can't drive straight, a decent derby race mode is really the way to go.

The Crew games have excelled in making memorable scenery, and even adding easter eggs to the game like the Unicorn, Flying Cow, and that sort of thing which was really awesome! When I play Motorfest the only thing that comes to mind is how much they have tried to copy from other games, like changing the country where the game takes place, and improved driving physics which sucks (wait till you try to turn a corner) because it's still nothing like Forza games as made for arcade and yes I can forget your terrible physics for two seconds if I get to drive my favorite, customized cars around the highways and cities of The US while finding people taking a similar trek and not because they want to grind the game going from one event to the next, but enjoy going around the map with traffic and memorable locale. What else has been copied? festivals, adjusted difficulty, driving assist (AI), driving settings, Donut Media & Hoonigan, playlists (the design is similar as you will progress with a side story to explore an aspect of the game), skill scores while driving... If you keep digging then it is unfortunate to realize that everything reminds you of her.

Perhaps everything has been tried and tested in the gaming industry already and there are only limited ways to get to a certain outcome. Well, the choices you make along the way do make a difference, and choosing to copy the systems from other games in a mediocre way while failing to stay loyal to the unique aspects of the original games, I guess it has been seen enough times to know that the trajectory from here-on is linear towards profit-making schemes and not iconic games that stay relevant for the next 10 years like GTA V or Assetto Corsa.