The Crew Motorfest is Ubisoft's attempt to overtake Forza Horizon

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if that's the case, Playground Games must surely be blushing quite a lot right now. After going hands-on with a press demo for The Crew Motorfest, I can safely say that Ubisoft's upcoming open-world racing game shares a heavy dose of DNA with the popular Forza Horizon series.

In my preview video (above or on YouTube), you can hear my thoughts on the game based on the short demo I played through last week. Although when I say 'played', I really mean 'drove around like an a-hole, crashing into everything for science'. The demo itself kicked off with a vehicular montage that, just like in the recent Forza Horizon games, sees you jumping between different vehicles as you race around eye-catching locations from the games' open-world map.

Rather than being let off the leash to explore the gorgeous looking island of O'ahu, Hawaii though, I was only allowed to try out a couple of fixed tracks on a playlist of my choice. The available playlists included Vintage Garage, which gave me the chance to race classic cars, the Legendary Playlist that featured supercars aplenty and the Motorsports playlist which had a slightly more focussed racing experience aimed at more serious racing fans. In the end, I chose to try out the neon-tastic Made In Japan playlist, but only because I wasn't given the option to play my favourite playlist, Offroading Addict which, based on the intro montage, featured longer, open tracks and some super cool stunt jumps.

In the Made In Japan playlist, I was able to get my drift on in two races, both set along Hawaiian streets that had been decorated to look like Shinjuku. They were a lot of fun and they had a Need For Speed vibe to them which meant that the racing action steered away from true simulation and towards an experience that was much more arcadey and accessible. That's great news for someone like me who prefers racing games that don't take themselves too seriously as well. You know, games like...well... Forza Horizon.

There really are so many similarities to the Horizon series here. The Crew Motorfest is set during a racing festival, much like Forza Horizon's Horizon Festival. Ubisoft's Motorfest is of course also crewed by overly enthusiastic young race fans who won't shut up - just like in Forza Horizon (although I saw no sign of Sean Maguire in Motorfest, sadly). You can even explore the open-world to find and access different events and things like feats and photo ops, which also seems very similar to how Horizon operates, although I didn't get to try this aspect out for myself. One thing I didn't spot when I saw a brief glimpse of the map screen though was any 'barn finds', but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a similar mechanic with which to earn new vehicles in Motorfest.

With all that said and done though, The Crew Motorfest actually felt really nice to play. As a fan of casual racing games, this one really hit the spot for me and, as I say in my video preview, it feels like the best is yet to come with The Crew Motorfest because a lot of the game was locked off for me. If you like the idea of Forza Horizon, mixed with the familiar Ubisoft extreme-sports vibes from games like Steep or Riders Republic, this one should be well worth keeping an eye on. Especially if you've always wanted to play Forza Horizon but have lacked the PC or Xbox needed to do so.