Ramblings

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The Crew is a mediocre at best 2014 racer developed by Ivory Tower and published by Ubisoft. It's up there on the list of jankiest racing games that I have played (and that list includes Moorhuhn Kart 2) and - it's really fun. I always loved cruising around in a 1:36 recreation of the United States of America that's jam packed with long straights to speed through, evading cars, then brake testing as one enters curvy sections that require braking accuracy, and dealing with the whacky geometry issues and general physics jank that produce the funniest interactions, at times randomly flinging you across the map as you reconsider your life choices. One of the most fun things to do in The Crew is planning ahead for all the small jumps that one will be making. For example, if one wants to take the racing line around corners in The Crew's urban environments then one will be cutting over sidewalks. Sidewalks in The Crew are slightly elevated and will add upward momentum to the vehicle. Most low hanging cars will actually briefly lose contact with the ground, which means the player will have pre-empt some of the turning so that once the car regains contact to the surface it steers and brakes more. Braking early and drifting into the sidewalk to fly past the corner into the perfect race line around it is extremely satisfying, and the game is littered with these things. Even the off road cars that handle surface height differences more easily will gain that upward momentum and reduce their grip slightly, briefly.
When not going around corners, the player will be going fast, and given the right car they will be going 400km/h fast. Every car, even the slower ones, seem to have a perfect handleability, which means they feel responsive but always have a turning radius that makes it challenging - yet doable - to properly react to what's coming. Collision physics in the game is quite janky in general, but one actually gets used to it as some point and plans around it/uses it to ones advantage. It's an engaging experience in its own right.

I have been playing The Crew ever since its release and I've grown quite nostalgic to it. While The Crew was there during some of the most important phases of my life (so far), it was always there as a neverchanging, neverjudging companion. It's like that one person who was always there in your life but you never really got to meet. Now that you realize this, just their presence alone makes you feel comfortable. It's like you have shared a big part of your life with them without ever actually sharing anything with them.