The Crew Motorfest Year 3 Begins November 5, Season 9 to Add Track Creator, NASCAR, & More

[Terronium-12]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

The Crew Motorfest Year 3 Begins November 5, Season 9 to Add Track Creator, NASCAR, & More​

Year 3 of The Crew Motorfest officially kicks off with Season 8 this November, and is packed with content for players to discover. However, that’s just the beginning of what looks to be a very promising third year for the open-world racer, as the subsequent Season 9 promises to be the “most ambitious season ever released”...

 

[sirjim73]

"Not Wheels" Island TM looked good in the trailer and the TrackForge will only be limited by the tools and the size of the canvas available.

The RC cars footage really sent me back to the glorious days of Burnout Paradise 😭
It looks like the RC playlist will be exclusive to the paid pass, but the websites are not clear about this.

I suspect the BMW playlist will be the usual fare, but when the rest of the additions are this creative and varied, I will give them a pass for that.

Year 3 looks like Ivory Tower are playing a blinder! Yes it's all "inspired" by other games, but they're picking the best bits to be inspired by, so I can't fault them for that 👏

 

[EngieDiesel]

Hopefully they have a good built-in content discovery system set up for Trackforge so the more quality stuff is easy to find, particularly after the initial "kitchen sink" phase where everyone is cramming every loop and ramp they can find into their tracks to figure out the limits of what it can do. I'd definitely be up for having some purpose designed race tracks to get proper use out of all those Alpha GP cars. Also gotta admit that I'm more interested in the NASCAR stuff than the RC cars, but that's largely because I'm curious what the physics reworkings are going to be like.

That said, I'm glad the game is still getting substantial updates despite Ubisoft's best efforts to collapse in on itself.

 

[Ryan81]

See, TCM in theory is a fabulous open world racer. Updates regularly, really listening to the fanbase, looks beautiful etc. But for some reason, I find myself never playing it. Don't really understand why.

 

[evldave333]

See, TCM in theory is a fabulous open world racer. Updates regularly, really listening to the fanbase, looks beautiful etc. But for some reason, I find myself never playing it. Don't really understand why.

Each to their own... I have 1400 hours on it & fully engaged still after 2 years., easily the best arcade racing experience by far. Yeah driving street tier 1 cars is bland, but this game is remarkable when driving the ragged edge with hyper cars on a wet road. This game will never win around a sim elitist granted, but its a fine driving game nontheless. Perhaps has some of the best customization options, and easily the most user friendly/egonomic photomode to show them off.

Thanks for article this game needs more love on here.

 

[Ryan81]

I think my issue is how 'busy' the game looks. The UI seems all over the place and then the whole "Jack-of-all-trades" vibe with cars, bikes, planes, boats, monster trucks etc. On the other hand, even though TDU SC is an inferior game, I play it more regularly because it doesn't seem to cram so many different things in one game.

 

[evldave333]

I think my issue is how 'busy' the game looks. The UI seems all over the place and then the whole "Jack-of-all-trades" vibe with cars, bikes, planes, boats, monster trucks etc. On the other hand, even though TDU SC is an inferior game, I play it more regularly because it doesn't seem to cram so many different things in one game.

I agree about the interface the map is too busy, a menu list like GT7's or main stage replay style menu options would be easier. Still its way more ergonomic click/time wise to access races than Forza's turgid drive to each race across a bland map.
Its interesting what we categorise as most important in games, for me its always been gameplay as an 8bit veteran.

 

[breeminator]

I think my issue is how 'busy' the game looks. The UI seems all over the place and then the whole "Jack-of-all-trades" vibe with cars, bikes, planes, boats, monster trucks etc. On the other hand, even though TDU SC is an inferior game, I play it more regularly because it doesn't seem to cram so many different things in one game.

The irony of the game is that it might seem casual friendly because it's "arcade", but it's actually an insanely hardcore game in terms of the time you have to spend playing it to get the most out of it.

 

[Ryan81]

I agree about the interface the map is too busy, a menu list like GT7's or main stage replay style menu options would be easier. Still its way more ergonomic click/time wise to access races than Forza's turgid drive to each race across a bland map.
Its interesting what we categorise as most important in games, for me its always been gameplay as an 8bit veteran.

I agree driving across FHs landscape can be annoying and time consuming but it's only until you have accessed the areas and then use fast travel. I love GT7's UI far more than any other racing games tbh. There's something very user friendly and calming about the music, the way everything is laid out, everything in its place just right etc. Almost like it was designed for people with serious OCD and obsession at being organised.

TCM just bombards you with bright lights, loud and obnoxious music, loud and obnoxious in-game characters. You're driving along and suddenly the GPS tells you "There's a new championship for classic American muscle cars in Wakiki, would you like me to set a waypoint?" It's just a bit too much in your face constantly. Then it bombards you with the Summits and so much more.
I'm just thinking to myself Jesus H Christ, stfu 🤣😂😅 I'll do it when I'm good and ready.

The irony of the game is that it might seem casual friendly because it's "arcade", but it's actually an insanely hardcore game in terms of the time you have to spend playing it to get the most out of it.

I can believe you- I'm sure it's very challenging. TC2 I remember being very hardcore as far as difficulty went. I actually love the whole concept of championships for different regions, cars etc where it gives you a running history of everything. I just wish it had been implemented a bit differently...

 

[evldave333]

I agree driving across FHs landscape can be annoying and time consuming but it's only until you have accessed the areas and then use fast travel. I love GT7's UI far more than any other racing games tbh. There's something very user friendly and calming about the music, the way everything is laid out, everything in its place just right etc. Almost like it was designed for people with serious OCD and obsession at being organised.

TCM just bombards you with bright lights, loud and obnoxious music, loud and obnoxious in-game characters. You're driving along and suddenly the GPS tells you "There's a new championship for classic American muscle cars in Wakiki, would you like me to set a waypoint?" It's just a bit too much in your face constantly. Then it bombards you with the Summits and so much more.
I'm just thinking to myself Jesus H Christ, stfu 🤣😂😅 I'll do it when I'm good and ready.

Yeah I turned off the voices day 1, use my own music... really no need to suffer cheese!. Totally disagree about GT7 interface its not efficient in click through or distribution of its features (an objectively strange take that).

 

[sirjim73]

I agree driving across FHs landscape can be annoying and time consuming but it's only until you have accessed the areas and then use fast travel. I love GT7's UI far more than any other racing games tbh. There's something very user friendly and calming about the music, the way everything is laid out, everything in its place just right etc. Almost like it was designed for people with serious OCD and obsession at being organised.

TCM just bombards you with bright lights, loud and obnoxious music, loud and obnoxious in-game characters. You're driving along and suddenly the GPS tells you "There's a new championship for classic American muscle cars in Wakiki, would you like me to set a waypoint?" It's just a bit too much in your face constantly. Then it bombards you with the Summits and so much more.
I'm just thinking to myself Jesus H Christ, stfu 🤣😂😅 I'll do it when I'm good and ready.

You can switch off the GPS voice altogether, as well as the music. There is even an "immersion mode" now which removes everything from the HUD. Some of the "noise" can't be avoided but they do allow you to tone it down some.

 

[breeminator]

This game will never win around a sim elitist granted, but its a fine driving game nontheless.

I feel like most of the issue with the game's physics is just the physics tick rate, which I think must be no more than 60hz. I'm basing this on how it feels to me when playing it, and also a content creator said it's the reason why the game can't run at a higher frame rate than 60fps, because the physics is tied in with the graphics frame rate. I think all serious sims run the physics at 240hz or higher, and this gives a feeling of much greater fidelity when driving.

The other big difference compared to sims is the grinding for cars.

But overall, I can switch back and forth between TC2, TCM and RaceRoom, for example, and do absolutely fine apart from the immense difficulty of driving cars in RaceRoom without ABS (with a controller), but that isn't a physics difference as it's hard to drive without ABS in TCM, too, it's just that you can be competitive using ABS in TCM, but in RaceRoom you really need to use "Get Real" mode, and that means if a car doesn't have ABS in real life, it doesn't have ABS in the game.

I can't comment on how similar it is to sims if you play with a wheel, but with a controller, it feels pretty close to me apart from the massively lower physics tick rate and differences in assists.

 

[NotThePrez]

The big things holding TCM back for me is the grinding, the amount of cheese required to be competitive in Summits (espescially for Summits that introduce new cars), and the lack of substantial PvP.

The PvP is honestly the big thing for me. The main PvP race mode are Grand Races, and quite frankly, those events are cancer (Demo Derby sucked in TC2, so I have not interest in touching that in Motorfest). I know that there are occasionally GRs where contact is disabled, but those don't happen enough for it to make me like the mode, and it's honestly kinda boring to play over and over as a mode. Some of the track and vehicle combos are also just nonsense (pretty much anything involving Alpha GP cars on narrow roads), which creates a new kind of frustration when you're race is ruined by someone who isn't prepared for those combos.

With how many vehicles, events and layouts are present in this game, I don't get how there still isn't a regular 8- or 12-player PvP mode present after 3 years of the game being out. Copy/Pasting TC2s PvP architecture with no changes would honestly be enough for me to give the game another chance, and that was pretty barebones, too.

Also, I'm one of the few who doesn't like the games handling. While it's objectivley better and more realistic than TC2s, I've never been able to mesh with it, as it feels like the maps shorter, narrower and more winding roads are at times not completly suited to the slower, more involved handling model.

 

[breyzipp]

Looking forward to year 3!

Most exciting things I’ve seen :

• new fictional playground island
• two new real world inspired Hawaiian islands
• RC cars
• improved customisation
• new cars, especially the older BMWs and classic VW Golf

There is just one thing I couldn’t care less about:
- NASCAR

I didn’t even care for the NASCAR expansion in FM6 back in the days, I certainly don’t care for it in TCM.

 

[breeminator]

The PvP is honestly the big thing for me. The main PvP race mode are Grand Races, and quite frankly, those events are cancer (Demo Derby sucked in TC2, so I have not interest in touching that in Motorfest). I know that there are occasionally GRs where contact is disabled, but those don't happen enough for it to make me like the mode, and it's honestly kinda boring to play over and over as a mode. Some of the track and vehicle combos are also just nonsense (pretty much anything involving Alpha GP cars on narrow roads), which creates a new kind of frustration when you're race is ruined by someone who isn't prepared for those combos.

For what it's worth, I did quite a bit of grand racing in TCM at one time, and it was some of the best racing I've ever had in any racing game. It was cleaner than A+/S Gran Turismo Sport lobbies. I never encountered a single genuinely fast player who wasn't clean. What caused me to stop was there used to be a working schedule, so you knew that at a specific time there would be a no collisions race with tarmac only vehicles, but it stopped working when they introduced all the restrictions, so I stopped doing them. Maybe the schedule is working again now, I'll have another look when the ranked grand racing starts. But I always seemed to do roughly equally well in collision and no collision races. The good thing about grand races is they don't dilute the player base across lots of options, so you can very quickly get into a full or almost full grand race lobby 24/7, at least you could when I last did one. The main negative of grand races for me is that you need to play them a lot to learn all the routes and the little tricks needed in key places to be competitive. The win rate of the best players who play for hours every day is extremely high, it's absolutely possible to be a clean driver and almost always get to the front despite the slower players who are dirty.