The Crew closed beta now deploying a little earlier, here's what to expect

The Crew's closed beta will be arriving a little earlier than its original July 23rd deploy date , perhaps due to opportune driving conditions, or clement weather - we just don't know. We do know, however, that the beta will now be waiting outside your house, keys in hand on July 21st, giving you a whole working week of slightly buggy open world driving fun before you have to take it back to the rental place. If you haven't signed up yet, you can still do that here , but be warned: you will need a uPlay account. You'll find details of the closed beta after the break.

The Crew's open world comprises the whole United States, only (understandably) shrunk down quite a bit. The closed beta will let you free-drive everywhere, take on skill challenges on the East Coast, and do all the game's missions and skill challenges in the Midwest. It's quite a big beta in other words, and it will be interesting to see how its open world copes under the strain of players skidding all over its once-pristine tarmac.

Alex Dale had a few concerns when he played it last year , so hopefully they've been bashed into shape since then.

TOPICS

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.