Thankfully, there’s no dearth of options when it comes to games that just let you loose into their long winding roads that have a lot going on as you travel along vast worlds. We’ve put together titles we think fit that description and are certainly worth getting lost in. Some of your most memorable gaming moments could be waiting just around a corner in their worlds!

Let’s dive in.

1. Days Gone

A vast expanse of map waits for you and your trusty motorbike in this one. It’s a pity that its beautiful landscapes are marred by the presence of vicious zombies and humans desperate enough to forget their moral codes. But a large part of the game involves cruising along the map on your motorcycle, ensuring you have a safe way back to it if your next dangerous plan doesn’t pan out the way you wanted it to.

Play things right and you’re back on the road, albeit having to make a quicker exit than your entrance. But you never know what else you might discover as you blaze a path to safety in such situations. It’s a world that does a good job of keeping its players invested in Deacon’s melancholy tale.

2. Pacific Drive

From its riveting opening to a rather bittersweet ending, this is a journey that’s underlined by a literal bond between your Driver and the station wagon you commandeer at the start of your adventure. It’s a story beat that works well for the narrative while also giving you a reason to travel far and wide in your car.

The game’s premise provides the scope for a journey like no other along roads that want you to discover everything they have to offer. We’re not going to forget some very memorable anomalies during our time in the Olympic Exclusion Zone in a hurry. Especially the ones that messed with our car.

3. Death Stranding 1 & 2

Whether on foot or in a vehicle, Death Stranding’s trek through a very memorable adventure with Sam Porter is all about traversing a beautiful yet hostile world. Guiding Sam to his next delivery destination is all about the different things you can discover, or be forced to work around, that you can find along the way.

It’s a journey like no other, and it’s a road that’s as unpredictable as the many threats you’re likely to find before you make it to safety again. There’s always a sense of anticipation as you travel across America, Mexico, and Australia, and a sense of awe when you discover the next thing they have been hiding. The original Death Stranding and its sequel continue to evoke fond memories.

4. The Crew 2

There’s a case to be made for The Crew 2’s scaled-down take on America that really brings moments where it’s just you and your car to life as you make your way between its various activities. Although it’s meant to be played with your buddies, its persistent open world design means that it’s quite easy to just get to exploring, driving around in your favorite ride, and having some racing fun along the way.

Of course, getting to pilot aircraft and operate boats were welcome additions, but our first sight of the Grand Canyon in this massive world was definitely among the highlights of driving around in it.

5. Jalopy

Splat and Lutfi’s journey in this one was nothing short of a masterpiece as far as memorable road trips go. The Jalopy in question is almost a character on its own, requiring a fairly realistic amount of upkeep to keep players ticking along in the narrative as they discover more about what was waiting for them at the end of it.

The option to keep the adventure going after its rather sad ending just adds more intrigue to an already satisfying journey. This is one that’s all about the journey, although there’s a case to be made for that destination being a very memorable moment.

6. Final Fantasy XV

In another adventure that has its protagonist accompanied by memorable companions, Noctis Lucis, the Regalia, and the chocobos, sure make travel and discovery a very memorable part of Final Fantasy XV. It helps that your posse is right by your side for the most part, their banter and conversations making the adventure come alive as you travel across Eos.

It helps that you can customize the Regalia and chocobos, giving your adventure that personal touch that makes such experiences special. Whether you’re chugging along on the road or soaring across the skies to your next destination, this is a game that makes the journey there a very enjoyable facet of the experience.

7. Read Dead Redemption 2

Arthur’s journey is one that absolutely exemplifies the feeling of being on the road, with endless possibilities and a world where life goes on, even if you’re not a part of it, being baked into the adventure. This is a world that’s alive, and almost thrumming with activities, secrets, discoveries, and content that’s sure to make your time with this one unforgettable.

There’s nothing that beats a conversation by chance that turns into a full-blown series of side quests, or the many quirky characters the road leads you to, in this one. There’s also the fact that you need to care for your horse as you would in the real world, and a host of activities that make your time on the road feel quite authentic and immersive. As far as open worlds that put you on a long and winding road go, this one continues to be a classic.

8. Mad Max

Max Rockatansky’s determination to build the Magnum Opus and the fact that this vehicle is a very crucial part of the adventure are reasons enough to qualify this one for our list. But it’s in the way that the Magnum Opus weaves itself so naturally into the gameplay loop and combat, in particular, and makes itself a star of the show.

It’s narratively valid, and the fact that customizing its parts can force you to make trade-offs in other aspects makes for a layer of immersion and engagement that solidifies the bond between man and machine in this one. The open world is a stage just waiting for you to discover moments where you and your vehicle are given an opportunity to shine.

9. State Of Decay 2

This one’s a constant challenge due to the world around you, a tale that builds a community around the struggle, and one in which the world can get quite unpredictable from moment to moment. From the need to nurture your community and take down the area’s Awakened Heart, every zombie-infested site is a chance to take your story down a path that’s different from the one you began with.

A lot of it comes down to your fellow settlers, and weaving everyone’s journey together into a gameplay loop that’s quite addictive makes each bit of territory you free from the zombies an achievement, and a very satisfying one at that.

10. Snowrunner

This is a title where the simulation of off-roading on rough terrain is accompanied by very flavorful discoveries that spell out the stories of the regions you explore while you witness your own role in fixing them up firsthand. It’s a great way to have you braving its landscapes, taking care of your fleet of vehicles while getting invested in a progression loop that becomes quite interesting the more you make your way through a region.

It connects you to the land you’re exploring while your vehicles carry you through it all, making this a journey that just draws you into the world it presents you with. You’re the focal point of an interesting bridge between the past and the present, and it’s up to you to build it up, one success after another.

11. Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 serves up surreal beats as you roam a world filled with calamity. But it’s the people you meet and the friends you make along the way that make this a worthwhile journey.

The ability to recruit locals who resist the local militia and their rigid control over the land is a great addition to this open-world, and adds a flavor to the entire journey that’s just too great to ignore. It helps that you forge relationships to discover more of the story and side content as you go, along with helping the local resistance, you know, resist the militia’s growing influence. You’re a cornerstone of that struggle, and the journey felt personal and, as a result, memorable.

12. The Long Drive

The road goes on and on in this innovative concept that’s literally all about being on the road and letting the journey continue. With a focus on freedom, immersion, and exploring the vast desert, this one gives its players a lot of freedom to just enjoy the journey.

You’re given a lot of reasons to just hop into your car and drive along, never knowing where the road takes you in this randomly generated desert. If you’re looking to immerse yourself in a game where the adventure takes you down unpredictable paths, look no further.

13. Forza Horizon 5

Mexico proved to be a great location for this instalment to the Horizon series, and driving along to stunning vistas was both entertaining and visually memorable. Getting to drive fancy, fast cars on roads that wound between different elevations, climate patterns, and, of course, new discoveries was a treat.

There’s an active volcano, ancient structures, cities, towns, jungles, and beaches to find and explore, making this title find reasons to put you at the wheel and send you along on your journey.

14. STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Survival in The Zone and navigating the complex relationships that govern it while also ensuring that you get enough food and sleep, is quite an immersive loop in GSC Games Studio’s much-awaited return to its popular franchise.

Recruiting people to aid in your journey, while the many discoveries and anomalies that await you in The Zone give this entire world a sense of mystery, and venturing into the unknown can be quite hard to top. With the PlayStation version on its way, now might be a great time to dive into a game whose journey to its current build is as interesting as the one it presents to you.

15. Ghost Recon Wildlands

Operation Kingslayer was a brilliant stage for the adventure that awaits you in this very immersive open world. With so much variety in the terrain along with a lot of freedom with how you approach any mission you find out in cartel-controlled Bolivia, this is a world where every inch of land you capture could be one worth the memories, and even lets you disable your AI companions if you believe in taking single-player literally.

However, there is a case to be made for bringing up to three buddies along for the ride. That immediately makes this one a worthy addition, although the AI companions are always there if you’re going for a suitable middle ground. Either way, dismantling a cartel has never felt so immersive, and entertaining too.

That’s a wrap on our favorite titles that put us on the road and just let us build our best memories of them along the way. Here’s to many more such experiences on the horizon.

“Hybrid Mode is a brand-new chapter for The Crew 2, giving you the flexibility to choose how you want to explore, race, and collect vehicles across the vast open world of the United States, online or offline,” wrote Ubisoft in its announcement. “Whether you’re looking to preserve your progression for the future or simply enjoy the freedom of playing without a connection, Hybrid Mode ensures The Crew 2 remains accessible for years to come.”

The company has also confirmed that, once the update has been installed, players who aren’t already connected to the Internet will boot The Crew 2 up directly into offline mode. Those connected, on the other hand, will be offered a choice of whether to go offline or online. As for players that might want to carry over all of their progression to the offline mode, they can use the “Export to Offline Save” option while in an online session. This creates a new copy of the player’s progression that is stored locally.

It is also worth noting that progression for online and offline mode are completely separate, and any progress that is made while the player is in offline mode will not be carried over into their online save. The same is also true for online mode saves; players can, however, simply pick the “Export to Offline Save” option once more to carry over their progression. Currencies and other rewards are also treated similarly, with offline and online save files having their own instances.

Since The Crew 2 was originally developed as an online game, there are a few features that will not be available in offline mode. These include Crew Credits purchases and the Far & Beyond shop, LIVE Summits, multiplayer modes and content, user-generated content features like the Race Creator or Livery Editor, and some Achievements or Trophies that can only be completed in online mode.

The Crew 2 producer Gregory Corgie had previously spoken about Hybrid mode, describing the ability to choose between online and offline play as being a “hybrid way to play the game”. He had also noted at the time that the development team’s focus was to bring offline mode to The Crew 2 for the time being. The more recent The Crew Motorfest might also some day get such an update, but Corgie said that this was more likely to happen after Ubisoft has wrapped up its post-launch content plans for the racing game.

For more details about The Crew 2 as well as its sequel, here are fifteen ways how the two titles are different.

When it comes to the company’s progress in bringing offline modes to both The Crew 2 as well as The Crew Motorfest, Corgie has said that the initial state of development of the feature has been going smoothly.

“As you can imagine, developing an offline mode requires time and resources,” said Corgie. “We are pleased to confirm that we are aiming to deploy a new hybrid way to play the game before the end of 2025.”

This hybrid way essentially means that the studio has been working on adapting the core gameplay of The Crew 2 – originally developed from the ground up as a multiplayer game – for offline play.

“Some features will be maintained, others will be adapted,” explained Corgie. “For instance, specific parts of multiplayer modes will no longer be available when playing offline. The final list of those features will be published as soon as we can.”

Corgie also said that the development team is currently focused on bringing the offline mode to The Crew 2 first. This is because Motorfest is still a currently-supported game, and its teams are focused on the live-service aspects of the racing title. While no timeline was given for when the latter would get an offline mode, Corgie said that Ubisoft plans to release it for The Crew 2 in 2025.

“The Crew 2 will be first, allowing players to enjoy and switch between online and offline mode whenever they want,” said Corgie. “When we will deploy the version before the end of 2025.”

Corgie also revealed that Ubisoft plans to hold the first test for The Crew 2‘s offline mode on April 30. Selected players can get their hands on the feature’s early version, depending on their system configuration and previous involvement in the game’s community.

Development of offline modes for The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest was announced back in September. This was done in response to fan backlash against Ubisoft having taken the servers for The Crew down, making the 2014 racing title completely unplayable for players that had bought the game.

In the meantime, Ubisoft has also been the target of a lawsuit by fans of The Crew, who believe that the company had falsely advertised the game, pointing to its download code advertised as valid until 2099. As part of the lawsuit, Ubisoft’s lawyers have argued that players never had ownership of the game.

The most recent game in the series, The Crew Motorfest, is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game has been supported with continuous updates since its 2023 launch. For more details, check out our review from back when it came out. And while you’re at it, also check out our reviews of the original The Crew, as well as the 2018 sequel The Crew 2.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 ranked second, becoming the third best-selling new title of the year for the UK behind EA Sports FC 25 and Helldivers 2. Interestingly, The Crew 2 shot up to third place following its recent discount of less than £1.

Unfortunately, Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws hasn’t done all that well. After launching on August 30th for all players and recording disappointing sales, sales are slightly lower than Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Time will tell if sales pick up in the coming Holiday window, especially after new patches and content become available.

Finally, Astro Bot took fifth place, with sales up 24 percent compared to Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Check out the full top ten (sans digital data for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom) below.

They include Dave the Diver, Construction Simulator, Raji: An Ancient Epic, Nour: Play With Your Food and Deliver Us Mars, all playable on PS4 and PS5. PS4 players can look forward to The Crew 2, Oddballers, The Lego Ninjago Movie Videogame and Lego Marvel’s Avengers. Finally, Miasma Chronicles and Stray Blade are playable exclusively on PS5.

PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers can look forward to three classic titles – Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2: The Hidden Empire and MediEvil, all from the PlayStation One era and playable on PS4 and PS5. Stay tuned for more updates on the Game Catalog in the coming weeks.

Over 600 Vehicles at Launch

The Crew Motorfest launches with over 600 vehicles, compared to The Crew 2, which had more than 500. It’s not bad, considering something like Forza Horizon 5 offered over 500 cars (though that number has increased drastically since its release). The Crew Motorfest offers vehicles from over 50 manufacturers and across several archetypes like Drift, Hypercars, Rally, Drag and more. However, like its predecessor, it’s not limited to cars – you also have bikes, Quads, Powerboats and Planes to commandeer.

New Additions

While it’s nice that some vehicles carry over, what about new additions? Ivory Tower has confirmed +80 new cars, brands or vehicle types, including new quad bikes and SSVs. New vehicle additions include the Toyota Supra, Lotus Evija, GMC Hummer EV and even electric cars from Porsche and Nissan. Overall, you can look forward to brands like Aston Martin, BMW, Audi, Chevrolet, Ford, Lamborghini, Porsche and much more to make an appearance.

Collection Import

One area that The Crew Motorfest has over Forza Horizon 5 is that you don’t have to earn vehicles that were already in the previous game from scratch. Almost anything unlocked in The Crew 2 will carry over into Motorfest. While you can import cars and vanities, you could start from scratch and do so later.

Of course, not every vehicle – which includes certain car manufacturers, jet sprints, hovercrafts and helicopters – is available in The Crew Motorfest at launch, but it could be added later. Collection Import covers eligible vehicles released before Season 9 of The Crew 2, but some of those released in the same season are coming in December with Season 2 of Motorfest. And no, unlocking a vehicle in Motorfest doesn’t make it available in The Crew 2.

O’ahu in Hawaii

The Crew 1 and 2 offered massive scaled-down versions of the United States to explore. In the first game, it could take 45 minutes to drive from coast to coast (and if servers went down, you lost a bunch of progress, but that’s neither here nor there). The Crew 2 persisted in this fashion but leaned into different vehicle types and disciplines to mix things up.

With The Crew Motorfest, players will explore only one location – O’ahu in Hawaii, which is also scaled down. As such, the square footage is way less than The Crew 2. Nevertheless, it offers a variety of different racing sites, from the city of Honolulu to beaches and even a volcano. Before you scream, “Just like Forza Horizon,” don’t worry – it’s kind of the point.

Improved Handling

If you played The Crew 2, you may remember the overall handling and physics to be a little on the iffy side. With The Crew Motorfest, Ivory Tower has re-spec’d its vehicles to accommodate a new physics model. Each one will feel unique, and you must consider different terrain types, like mud, asphalt, dust, etc. when choosing a vehicle.

Thus far, based on the closed beta, the handling is already much better, though the Drift physics seemingly needs more work. While still not quite at the level of the Forza titles, players have reported that the driving is a big improvement over The Crew 2.

Festival Area

New to The Crew Motorfest, further nudging it towards the Forza Horizon clone status, is the Festival Area. There’s only one, and it offers several functions, including an off-road racing area, a track for Drag races, and more. You can ride on a double loop for some reason, but it looks fun. One of the biggest new additions is the Car Meet, where other players can interact and check out their vehicles. There are also weekly contests for comparing customization jobs.

Playlists vs Disciplines

The Crew 2 focused its racing activities on four Disciplines: Street Race, Pro Racing, Off-Road and Freestyle. Each Discipline had different activities, like Jetsprints and Monster Trucks in Freestyle to Hovercrafts and Motocross in the Off-Road Discipline.

The Crew Motorfest opts for Playlists, which focus on different themes, like Electric Odyssey (seemingly centred on the new electric vehicles), Made in Japan (focused on Street Racing and Japanese sports cars), Off-Roading Addict and Vintage Garage (where players progress through different eras of vehicles, starting from the ’50s). There are 15 Playlists at launch, each with unique challenges and rewards, including a Special Edition vehicle upon completing one.

Rewind

If the Forza comparisons aren’t enough, The Crew Motorfest features a Rewind function. It’s hardly new for racing games (look at GRID Legends and F1 23), but it was surprisingly absent in The Crew 2. You could go reset your position with Back on Track, losing time in the process. Going back several seconds and requesting a do-over on certain sections wasn’t possible.

Demolition Royale and Grand Race

For new modes, The Crew Motorfest offers Demolition Royale and Grand Race. The former is a Last Team Standing style race with 32 players divided into eight crews. It’s a little more straightforward than Forza Horizon 5’s The Eliminator since you essentially slam into enemy cars and pick up bonuses, like shields and damage boosts, while also charging your Ultimate.

There’s also the Grand Race, a free-for-all race where 28 players compete for supremacy. While not quite as chaotic as Riders Republic’s races, the higher player count makes it busier.

Seasons

When The Crew 2 launched, it embraced the Season Pass model with 25 additional vehicles, of which three were exclusive, a location for your collection, two avatar outfits and a 20 percent discount for the in-game store. It would adopt a seasonal approach with the Battle Pass-esque Motor Pass, adding new Summits, modes and vehicles to unlock.

The Crew Motorfest offers a Year 1 Pass with 25 vehicles, including two new exclusives, but has planned for seasons from the outset. The focus is on different “car culture” fantasies, with professional drivers, tuners and more showing up as guests, and you can expect new activities. Seasons last four months, with Season 1 focusing on the biggest car brands in the world, while Season 2 is about Hoonigan and its vehicles.

Difficulty Settings

Viewing the difficulty settings from The Crew 2 when it launched is a trip. It’s a long list of “no’s” for everything from multiple difficulty levels to aim assist (for all the….aiming you do in a race?). By comparison, The Crew Motorfest is leagues better. Experience Type allows you to set the AI difficulty to Amateur, Intermediate or Expert (with XP bonuses ranging from zero to 25 percent extra). You can set the difficulty of events, Auto Braking and Auto Steering, turn Rewind and Nitro on or off, toggle Steering Assist for airplane handling and more. It’s not the most in-depth, but still a massive improvement.

Accessibility Settings

In the same vein, the accessibility settings are a big jump forward from The Crew 2. Subtitles, color-blind modes, text size, racing line opacity, changing button holds to presses, camera shake, a high contrast HUD, motion blur – it’s all in Motorfest. Also, while The Crew 2 allowed partial button remapping (some controls couldn’t be changed, regardless of platform), The Crew Motorfest supports full button remapping for all peripherals.

Over 800 Car Parts

Ivory Tower confirmed that The Crew Motorfest would have over 800 car parts at launch, 20 percent more than The Crew 2, with options for customizing engine sounds, from the realistic to the exotic. There are supposedly “millions” of combinations, but we’ll have to wait and see just how in-depth the customization can be.

Race Creator Mode

If there’s one feature we would have loved to see Motorfest take from The Crew 2, it’s Race Creator. Introduced as part of Season 9, it allowed players to create and share their races. It allowed for modifying settings like weather, traffic, time of day, restrictions on certain brands, and even placing up to 1000 checkpoints. Hopefully, it debuts in Motorfest sometime in the future.

ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY

We’re going to be speaking about plenty of Ubisoft games in this feature, so it makes sense to start off with one- and it’s probably one that most people think of when they think of open world bloat. There’s no denying that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an excellent game, and the vast majority of the content it delivers is an absolute blast to play through- but there’s way too much of it. And that excessive size results in plenty of issues, from repetitive quests and quest design to excessively reused assets throughout the open world, and more. This is a game that can easily eat up between 80-90 hours of your time, and while most of it is a good time, by the time it’s coming to an end, it does feel like it’s overstayed its welcome a little bit.

As revealed by creative director Stephane Baley over on Twitter, The Crew and The Crew 2 have collectively surpassed 40 million players in their lifetimes across all platforms, the former having launched in 2014 and the latter in 2018.

That is not reflective of sales, especially with both games also having been available via subscription services, but it’s an incredibly impressive number nonetheless. With a new mainline game in the series also launching later this year with The Crew Motorfest, that number is bound to climb even higher in the near future.

15 years ago a group of friends dreamed of creating their own driving game. Ubisoft trusted them. Ivory gave birth to #TheCrew. 15 years later 40 million players have joined the adventure. Soon it will continues with The Crew MotorFest.Always believe in your dreams! Thank you all pic.twitter.com/zuArbN7nmN

— Stephane Beley (@__Fergus__) February 25, 2023

A special Assassin’s Creed showcase to reveal the “future of the franchise” is also promised. Assassin’s Creed Mirage, confirmed as the next game in the series after numerous leaks, will be present. It’s reportedly releasing in Spring and brings back the crowd density seen in Assassin’s Creed Unity. The gameplay also allegedly includes various stealth-focused mechanics like throwing knives, hiding spots on rooftops, and slow-mo assassinations.

In addition to the main show is a pre-show that begins at 11:35 AM PST with updates on new content coming to titles like Brawhalla, For Honor, Anno 1800 and The Crew 2. Stay tuned for live coverage when the event airs this Saturday.

New weather and color grading will be available on all platforms in the new season. Those on PS5 and Xbox Series X can also look forward to the long-awaited 60 FPS boost update. Improvements to handling and a new campaign developed with Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg are also incoming.

This season will kick off Year 5 – two additional seasons are planned with new vehicles, rewards and challenges coming. There will also be “new ways” to venture across the world and some “highly requested” features from the community. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

The Crew 2 is currently available for PS4, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia. Check out our official review for the base game here.