Ok so I really enjoyed The Crew 1, watched it evolve into the game it was meant to be, put countless of hours into it and had enormous amounts of fun with it. That being said, I was not sold the idea of The Crew 2, in fact I will admit that I went into this beta trying to find an excuse not to buy it. At first I was like ok, it's the same map but with more detail added, which is both a good and bad at the same time, depending how you see it.
I think it was my first time free-roaming in the free plane that actually sold me on this game. The flying portion is very fun and intuitive, it didn't take long to pick up the controls and soon I was Knife flying between two Sky Scrapers in Manhattan, I felt like an Ace, barrel rolls, outside Loops, and all kinds of aerial acrobats, Ivory tower really nailed it. Then I tried boats in freeroam, cruising the waterways near Miami, trying skill challenges, finding jumps, jumping over bridges, it was also great fun. The whole map is a giant playground for all kinds of vehicles, I bought a Dirt bike and barreled it up and down mountains, catching crazy air while listening to my son oh's and ah's, then I gave him a turn, at everything, boat, plane, dirt bike, car, he loved all of it and was able to grasp the controls very quickly, other than the manual shifting in cars and bikes. He wants me to buy it pretty bad now, and it something we can play together.
I think my only complaint is the controller mapping, I really don't like where the upshift and downshift buttons are located (the right and Left bumper buttons, for me this feels awkward), I hope in the final game there is an option to configure the controls to my liking.