If you partake of some virtual rubber-burning, you might remember Ubisoft shuttered its open world racing game The Crew in March by turning off its servers. Given that The Crew is an online-only game, that signalled its death knell… or death horn, more accurately. Then in April, they tow-trucked the game out of people's libraries and revoked their purchases. This led to a backlash, as you'd expect, and Ubisoft are accordingly taking a different approach with The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. They're giving both an offline mode to "ensure long term access to both titles".
]]>Ubisoft’s open-world multiplayer driving game The Crew will switch off its servers next spring, just shy of the series’ 10th anniversary. The shutdown will leave the car-based MMO impossible to play, with the game pulled from sale ahead of the move.
]]>Google held another one of their Stadia Connect conferences today, and this one was meant to be all about what games you'll be playing in the "scary" cloud come November. Sure enough, there were new Stadia games aplenty announced this evening, with the biggest addition being Cyberpunk 2077.
To help keep track of them all, here's a list of every Google Stadia game confirmed so far, as well as which games are coming at launch, which ones will be arriving a little bit later, and which games you'll only be able to play by subscribing to one of the special Stadia publisher subscriptions.
]]>Cars are rubbish, what with their tires and grip and unfortunate habit of sinking in water - hovercraft are clearly better, and ready to ride today in Ubisoft's sandbox drive 'em up The Crew 2. In the Gator Rush free expansion - out now - Ubisoft have added three kinds of hovercraft and a new set of events to drive them in, wherever land meets water. Ubi also hope to get a few more people in the drivers seat over this weekend with a 45%-off sale right now, and a free weekend starting tomorrow morning, available for preloading now.
]]>Ah, the non-player character. Stoic endurer of all our sadistic whims. It’s time the monsters on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, made tribute to these humble little robots, whether they’re annoying companions, side characters, or disembodied human heads. Let’s talk about some of our favourites.
]]>My plan was to tell you all about The Crew 2's multiplayer. Last week I reviewed it as a single-player game, because the servers had yet to be populated, and indeed because I at no point encountered any option to actually take part in any. Despite being an 'always on' game, that immediately disconnects you from playing should your internet connection drop, and logs you out if you have the temerity to go downstairs to get a coffee, it just didn't seem to want me to find its multiplayer elements.
I... think I found them.
]]>Update: Ubisoft say the Steam problem is now fixed. Affected people may need to restart the Steam client but then it should work.
Ubisoft's open-world online drive-o-fly-a-boaty racer The Crew 2 launched in the wee hours and... a great many people cannot play it at all. The Steam version is currently busted (perhaps just for for folks who pre-ordered?), as attempts to launch the game lead to Ubisoft's Uplay client popping open--so far, as expected--then demanding a CD key which people don't have. Ubisoft acknowledge the problem and say "we hope to have this resolved soon" but oh dear.
]]>The Crew 2 is out proper tomorrow, at which point its servers will probably collapse for a bit, then eventually get stable as players fill up the vast amount of empty space in this miniaturised rendition of the United States. Meanwhile, I've been playing it this week to experience its vast amount of solo content, which is undeniably the focus of the game's core progression. I've reached the conclusion that, oh boy, the multiplayer aspects had better be exciting...
]]>Ubisoft's conference included everything we expected, from a closer look at Beyond Good & Evil 2, to confirmation of the leaked Assassin's Creed Odyssey, to the now traditional (and delightful) Just Dance dancy party. If you don't have time to watch the conference in its entirety however, here is a showcase of the trailers that were shown and links to the associated news from Ubisoft.
]]>A free four-day open beta is coming next week for The Crew 2, Ubisoft's open-world car/boat/plane/motorbike/helicopter/STUFF racer, ahead of the game's full launch later this month. Pre-loading for the beta has already begun, and absolutely I have it chugging away in the background right now so I can explore its recreations of some of my favourite corners of the USA. You'll find me parked amongst big trees or in a river.
]]>New modes and vehicles are coming to The Crew 2 in free updates, Ubisoft said today. With the drive-o-fly-a-sail racer launching later this month, they've started gabbing more about their plans for what comes after. Beyond the obligatory paid season pass gubbins, at least a year of regular free content updates will bring goodies from hovercraft races to loads of new vehicles. Generally I'm up for anything that will let me race hovercrafts through traffic on snowy roads like some Appalachian ruffian.
]]>I don't know about you, but there's still a little part of me that feels cut up about the fact we won't be getting any kind of RTX graphics card as soon as we'd hoped. I know, I know, no one really needs to buy a new graphics card in this day and age – especially when most of today's best graphics cards are a) finally back down to normal-ish prices and b) pretty damn fast anyway – but it wounds me, all right? Deep.
The good news, happily, is that Nvidia are finally starting to bundle games in with their graphics cards again, which was always a sweet little extra when you'd just spent hundreds of pounds / dollars on a new card. And what better way to show off your new GPU, apparently, than with Ubisoft and Ivory Tower's bananas open world racing-sailing-flying-and-biking bonanza The Crew 2.
]]>The Crew 2 is getting an closed beta soon. Ubisoft’s Red Bull open world Red Bull racer sponsored by Red Bull is once again set in the United States, as you can see in the trailer below, featuring Upbeat Sport Man telling us to "dream big, race hard!" And if you're into that, the beta might be a good chance to see if the new swap-your-car-for-a-plane-and-then-for-a-boat button brings something exciting to a racing game where the best feature was its long mutiplayer road trips. I'll tell you where to sign up down there.
]]>Ubisoft's racing game The Crew 2 is now due to launch on June 29th, Ubisoft announced today. It'll bring more open-world racing across a scale model of the USA, going by land, sea, and air in a range of vehicles - and sometimes changing vehicles mid-race. I'm a sucker for miniature countries and re-reading accounts of Adam and Brendan's cross-country race in the first game makes me quite keen to see this from new angles and new vehicles. Oh, and going fast and winning sound fine too?
]]>US-based shooter Far Cry 5 and accidental transformers racer The Crew 2 are both delayed, said Ubisoft last night, in a quiet voice. They announced the delays in the middle of their own livestream for Beyond Good and Evil 2 and shortly before the flash flood of news brought on by the Game Awards threatened to drown us all in release dates and trailers. There’s no suggestion Ubisoft has chosen this time because it will now be a quiet floater of a post in a sea of more interesting revelations. Oh wait. That's precisely what I'm suggesting.
]]>What do you mean there's a whole month of 2017 left? Well, the disembodied mouths of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, are tired of waiting. This week the team look at some of the most exciting upcoming games of 2018. Adam is looking forward to smashing big robots with other, bigger robots in Battletech. Matt wants to make trousers from dinosaur skin in Monster Hunter World. And Brendan forgot all about how much he's excited by surreal isometric detective game No Truce With The Furies.
We've also got some chat about Viking strategy game Northgard and yet more love for FTL follow-up Into The Breach. Plus, our Patch Adam quiz is back!
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
The Crew [official site] isn’t a great racing game. The car handling of this open world “MMO racer” isn’t great, there’s UI vomited at you from every corner of the screen, and it launched with so many problems that we never actually gave it a full review. It annoyed John a lot. But Ubisoft have this thing they do. Step 1: Release a mediocre game. Step 2: Make one hundred sequels of it. Thus, The Crew 2.
]]>Open-world racing game The Crew 2 [official site] will whoosh out on March 16th, 2018, Ubisoft announced today during Gamescom. The sequel will return to a miniature version of the USA, but this time with so many more vehicles. Along with the usual assortment of cars, it'll pack planes, boats, and motorcycles from sports bikes to several actual Harley-Davidsons. I'm more a wanderer than a racer so getting to explore from new angles really appeals to me - especially the network of (semi-fictional) waterways which somehow span the entire country. For now, hey, look, it's the game's Gamescom trailer:
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>If it has an engine and goes fast, it'll likely be in The Crew 2 [official site]. Ubisoft have pulled the cord to part the red velvet curtains and reveal their sequel to their 2014 open-world online racing game and coo, it's got a lot of fancy-looking fast things. Cars! Planes! Power boats! Dirtbikes! Dune buggies! Sports bikes! Helicopters! I did not expect myself to be excited about this but coo, I do like how many ways there are to see its minature USA. Have a look in this nine-minute trailer fresh out of E3:
]]>Far Cry 5 and The Crew 2, Ubisoft announced today, as if you hadn't already guessed. That's it. They have nothing of substance to say about either game. Oh, and would you believe that more Assassin's Creed is coming too? Astonishing. Ladies and germs, we truly are in the runup to E3. Ooh I swear it starts earlier and shoutier every year! Back in my day, E3 was held in secret in dark stone chambers and the only way you could tell what happened was to watch for logos forming in your tea leaves.
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