Was invited back for the second beta testing period for "The Crew". While I didn't post anything in the official forums, they seem to have taken into consideration anyone playing well below spec. There were quite a few players doing exactly that, and they were considerably louder than I would be. And because of that, the new build was considerably easier to play. Definitely more on the arcade-style racer. Still rather slippery, but a lot easier to control. There's still a bit of the input lag, but it's a lot better than before. My fps still sucked rather spectacularly, usually hitting around the 15~20 range. But during those few bits of running at 30fps? It felt pretty awesome.
Didn't have a lot of time to play since I was playing a little bit more Ingress than expected during the week, but I did manage a few things that I wanted to do since the first beta. One of them was actually getting past the first mission. Which I did. With time to spare even though I made quite a few mistakes. Barely played through any of the story missions, which is fine. It's not like there's much to it in the beta in the first place. Focused on the driving and a little poking at my car. Didn't get that many upgrades due to the poor performance actively screwing with adjusting and steering. Even with a few small upgrades and changing the spec on the car was enough to give it a different feel.
So where did I drive to? Hung around Detroit for a little while before checking the map to see what's available around me. Then I set off to Chicago, finding a couple of satellites along the way. The waypoint guide system is pretty broken. A lot of the time it would either disappear or tell me I'm going the wrong way even though I had been following it correctly just seconds before. It seems to have trouble when there are multiple routes you could take. After hitting Chi-town and driving around there for a few skill games, it was trying to get to Seattle. Instead, I ended up in Las Vegas. It was along the way. Struggled a bit to find the satellite there, then decided to fast travel since the beta was going to be ending quite soon. Found the Space Needle, and it wasn't marked as a landmark. And with that, I set off to San Francisco. Made it there pretty quickly and without much issue since the path was pretty straight. Found the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge. Those weren't marked either. Then again, beta. Might be marked in the final release.
I can definitely see myself liking the game quite a bit. I would've liked to have formed a crew during the beta, but what can you do. None of my friends were in it, and I don't think my laptop would've been able to keep up. At least I know 2 of my friends are interested, and one had asked what I thought of the beta when it was first available. Kinda wonder about the story... is anyone going to even bother with it?
