The Crew beta now open for signups

Ubisoft has opened up signups for the closed PC beta of their upcoming massively multiplayer online racer, The Crew, which will begin July 23rd. Ubisoft gave the usual warnings that go along with beta testing, informing players that bugs, glitches, and all manner of missing features as the game is desperate for feedback from players. You can sign up here, but a Uplay account is required.

The Crew, developed by Ivory Tower and Ubisoft Reflections, allows you to drive all the way through a condensed version of America with your crew, groups that you can form with other players to participate in races, marathons, and more. The game lets you customize your vehicle on the fly for different terrains and game modes. The self-proclaimed “CarPG” features a complex levelling and equipment system which treats your car like a RPG character, switching out specifications and looting for new parts. The persistent online world takes approximately 90 minutes to cross from one end to the other, and the world can apparently fit the worlds of massive open-world games Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption, Forza Horizon, Need for Speed Rivals, Far Cry 3 and Skyrim all into one map.  It also features over 1000 landmarks for players to explore.

The Crew is part of a strong industry push to include thriving persistent multiplayer worlds into console games, like Activision’s Destiny and Ubisoft’s own The Division.  While there is a single player story and campaign, the real focus in The Crew is on multiplayer. Players can move seamlessly in and out of friends and fellow player’s races, and keep tabs on their friends with the complex map feature, which also allows you to simply zoom in and teleport to any of the major cities available in the game.

There is a lot of potential in this unique gameplay style, and some of us will get to see how it all plays next month. The full game hits the streets October 11^th.