Games
To celebrate the forthcoming release of open-world driving game The Crew Motorfest, we're remembering some of the greatest free-roaming racers of years gone by.
The Crew Motorfest is shaping up to be the next great open-world racer. It boasts a driver's dream recreation of the Hawaiian island of O'ahu, over 600 different vehicles, including a number of unique Red Bull rides, and a series of thematic campaigns offering unique and exciting car culture experiences.
With its release just around the corner, now is a perfect time to look into the rearview mirror as we explore, in no particular order, five of the best open-world racers to date.
01
Need for Speed: Underground 2
By far the oldest game on this list, Need for Speed: Underground 2 – released in 2004 – was the first entry in the long-running series to include the option to free roam. The game's setting was the fictional city of Bayview, which took inspiration from San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The game featured more import/sport compacts, American muscle cars and SUVs than its predecessor and really tapped into the Tuning Culture that kicked-off after the release of The Fast and the Furious in 2001.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 holds a special place in the hearts of many racing game fans because of how it perfectly captured a certain era of car culture and how cool it made them feel to be driving around the streets at night in a tricked-out Honda Civic.
02
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Another oldie, but a goodie, is Test Drive Unlimited 2. The game gave the player not one, but two islands to drive around – the Spanish island of Ibiza and the Hawaiian O'ahu. Both were modelled using satellite data, resulting in over 3,000km of roads to drive. The game also included a day and night cycle, and dynamic weather effects – not bad for a 2011 release.
What made Test Drive Unlimited 2 special was that it presented itself as an immersive lifestyle game. There were 60 levels of progression through the game and racing consisted of only one of the ways to earn XP for levelling up. Discovering roads, making friends in-game and buying stuff could all contribute. When in buying mode, the camera would switch to first-person, so you could really give a new car a good look before deciding to buy it. It's a shame that the latest game in the series, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, did not live up to the series name.
03
Burnout Paradise
The Burnout series was the definition of over-the-top arcade driving action. Races would always be point-to-point white knuckle affairs, complete with dramatic near misses, sparks flying as you shunted into other racers and a rock soundtrack to really get the adrenaline pumping. Burnout Paradise took all those things, but let the player roam free to cause havoc in the fictional Paradise City.
In Burnout Paradise, there was no longer a set course you had to take, you were told where the finish line was and it was up to you how you got there. This gave players the opportunity to try out different routes and possibly discover nifty shortcuts. This could involve driving at break-neck speeds through narrow alleys, up a hidden ramp, flying over the road where all your opponents are merrily racing and then crashing through a billboard to land on a new road a crucial few seconds ahead of the pack.
04
The Crew: Motorfest
Little of what you'll find in The Crew Motorfest is original. A lot of what you'll see is similar to what's been done in the Forza Horizon series (which we'll get to). However, that doesn’t stop it from being an excellent open-world racing package. Also, it's still getting regular updates on all platforms to this day. Just recently, various Red Bull-themed vehicles and races were added to the game.
Set in Hawaii, The Crew Motorfest is a festival-style celebration of everything fast. You’re not just racing cars, either. You'll jump into the cockpits of planes, jump on motorcycles and even try your hand at controlling a hovercraft. The island is beautiful, there's a lot to do and the playlist structure allows the game to celebrate the history of racing. Motorfest is comfortably the best The Crew has ever been, boosting Ubisoft's development team to prominence for the first time
05
Forza Horizon 5
When Microsoft’s flagship racing sim series Forza Motorsport spun-off into the more casual open-world Horizon series, it received critical acclaim and could be argued to have thoroughly overtaken its originator – and the 2021 release of Forza Horizon 5 is by far the best in this series.
Set in a fictionalised representation of Mexico, Forza Horizon 5 boasts a map 50 percent larger than the previous game and a wide diversity of locations that include an active caldera volcano, jungles and beaches, ancient Mayan temples and towns and cities such as Guanajuato.
Forza Horizon 5 also catered to all audiences, giving players many different control and accessibility options; one could go full sim and turn off all driving assists or make it super arcadey and drift until the sun goes down.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Going back in time a little once more, Rockstar Games used to develop games beyond the staples of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. The last Midnight Club game was released in 2008 and saw you explore Los Angeles.
It was very similar to the Need for Speed Underground games. It focused on the nighttime street racing scene, covering the world in neon and leaving clouds of smoke behind you. The tone of the events and the world were great, especially when playing alongside a friend. It's just a shame Rockstar left the series behind, as much as it makes a lot of sense.
We hope that this drive down racing's memory lane has stoked some memories and got you excited for the future of the genre.
