The Crew’s first open beta announced for consoles

Publisher Ubisoft has just announced The Crew’s first open beta will run from November 25th to November 27th, exclusively on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This will be the last time consoles gamers will get the chance to experience The Crew ahead of its December 2nd release. Additionally, the French publisher has also revealed more than one million players have hit the United States roads since July 2014 in the game’s closed betas.

The open beta will allow players to explore the entire United States and complete challenges in two of the five regions available in the game – the Midwest and East Coast. “The Crew offers an enormous living, breathing open world with varied and detailed environments, full of activities to explore seamlessly either alone or with friends,” reads the game’s official description.  The PvP lobbies in the Midwest and East Coast regions will also be accessible for players who want to prove their competitive skills. For those who like to customise and fine turn their ride, two of the five spec classes – Street and Dirt – will also be available to players.

The Crew is an open and persistent world for racing across the United States; it takes 45 minutes to drive from coast to coast in-game. The single-player campaign is 20 hours long, and entails infiltrating criminal groups with protagonist Alex Taylor (Troy Baker). Players can also participate in mini-games called skills that are peppered across the world; they are triggered when a player drives through them and it involves completing challenges such as weaving through gates and staying as close to a racing line for a period of time.

Players’ scores are automatically saved so friends can try and beat their scores, in similar fashion to how Autolog works in games of the Need for Speed franchise. Missions can be played alone, with friends, or via online co-op matchmaking. The multiplayer mode lets a maximum of eight players to compete in races and other game-types. There are no in-game loading screens or pauses. Players can also build cars with a tie-in app for iOS and Android. The Crew launches on December 2nd everywhere but Japan, on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Players of the Land of the Rising Sun will get it on December 4th.