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Ubisoft's PC support is one area of the publisher's business that has been a regular spot of criticism. Although the PC side of things now accounts for 15% of their profits, it has taken until now for them to have simultaneous console and PC releases of their biggest games.

Along with the lengthy delays of the last three Assassin's Creed games and the recent Steam controversy, Ubisoft also once caught flak for its own attempts at DRM. Players had to log into their Ubi.com account every time they wanted to play, making true offline play unavailable.

These erroneous missteps appear to be a thing of the past, though, with the publisher stating that they are "committed to improving the optimization of our games for each platform on which they’re released — including PC". We are now seeing the fruits of that with their upcoming team racer The Crew, as the game is set to sport beefed up NVIDIA graphics capabilities.

As explained in that above trailer, The Crew will feature "exclusive visual enhancements" thanks to NVIDIA's HBAO+ and TXAA technologies. These two are responsible for ambient lighting and flickering respectively, which should mean that players on PC get smooth images with little flickering.

"Should" being the operative word. When Ubisoft's other big title of the year, Watch Dogs, was released on PC with NVIDIA boosted graphics, serious problems cropped up. Many users reported lag and sudden crashes, leading some to question whether NVIDIA was at fault or if Ubisoft's failure to optimize was the problem.

Furthermore, NVIDIA competitor AMD explained that NVIDIA's Gameworks tech (which both Watch Dogs and The Crew use) actively cripples performance on PCs using AMD. AMD makes up around 40% of the PC market meaning that there's huge potential for the same issues to crop up again.

The Crew - Racing in Miami

Ubisoft has put together lists of The Crew's PC specs which should hopefully be enough. Peep them below.

Minimum Configuration:

  • Operating System: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8/8.1 (64bit)
  • Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.5 GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 620 @ 2.6 GHz (or better)
  • RAM: 4GB
  • Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 or AMD Radeon HD4870 (512MB VRAM with Shader Model 4.0 or higher)
  • DirectX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable
  • Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers
  • Peripherals: Keyboard required, XBOX 360 controller optional (or compatible controller)

Recommended Configuration:

  • Operating System: Windows 8/8.1 (64bit)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-750 @ 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0 GHz (or better)
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX580 or AMD Radeon 6870 (1024MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or higher)
  • DirectX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable
  • Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers
  • Peripherals: Keyboard required, XBOX 360 controller optional (or compatible controller)

Optimal Configuration:

  • Operating System: Windows 8/8.1 (64bit)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8150 @ 3.6 GHz (or better)
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX670 or AMD Radeon 7870 (2048MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or higher)
  • DirectX: DirectX June 2010 Redistributable
  • Sound: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers
  • Peripherals: Keyboard required, XBOX 360 controller optional (or compatible controller)

Meanwhile, players of The Crew on all platforms can puchase the game's Season Pass DLC, which Ubisoft has detailed today. The Crew Season Pass is made of up four individual DLC packs, which as you would expect includes a range of new cars, with two exclusive vehicles being offered to Season Pass holders at launch. Other benefits include tuning packs, paintjobs and stickers so that your car will be as tricked out under the hood as it will above it.

The Crew Game Trailer Specs

Full The Crew Season Pass content is listed below

  • Two exclusive cars – McLaren 12C and Ferrari 458 Speciale -  available to Season Pass holders at launch
  • One-week early access for all add-on car packs content
  • Four packs, 12 cars total:
    • Extreme Car Pack- available January 2015, includes performance cars, perfect for exhilarating, high-octane missions
    • Speed Car Pack- available February 2015, includes sports cars, finely tuned for breakneck-speed races
    • Vintage Car Pack- available March 2015, includes vintage rides, fashionable for missions set in iconic American locales
    • Raid Car Pack- available April 2015, includes off-road vehicles, highly recommended for all-terrain missions
  • 23 additional tuning kits unlocked to spec out the Season Pass car line-up for premium performance on any terrain
  • All official paintjobs and rims for each car
  • An exclusive sticker delivered with each car pack

Each individual car pack is $6.99, while the full Season Pass is available for $24.99 (or you can get the Season Pass together with the game in The Crew Gold Edition.

The Crew is set to launch on December 2, 2014 for PC, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 360.