Huge The Crew 2 Update Lands Tomorrow With New Cars, Items, And More

Two years after launch, Ubisoft’s open-world racer The Crew 2 continues to receive updates. The latest one is pretty substantial and arrives on July 8 for PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One. The full patch notes have been outlined below.

Summer in Hollywood is The Crew 2’s sixth free update. It packages tons of stuff in it, including new cars, modes, vanity items, and more. For the next five weeks, Summer in Hollywood will also introduce some special themed events and live summits that will change up the overall look of The Crew 2. You can check out the announcement trailer below.

Some of the events that will be introduced include sci-fi-themed races and vehicles drenched in neon, ’70s-tinged overlays with music and vehicles to match, and more. Ubisoft shared a roadmap of what Summer in Hollywood’s next five weeks will bring to The Crew 2, which you can view below.

So much to earn and, maybe, so much time?
So much to earn and, maybe, so much time?

Ubisoft also outlined the patch notes, below, that will accompany the Summer in Hollywood update once it goes live. It’s approximately 23 GB on all platforms and makes several quality-of-life changes ranging from physics adjustments to sprucing up the main menu’s look and much more.

Full The Crew 2 Patch Notes

Features

  • Vanity Items:
    • 48 new vanity items added to be released on a weekly basis through the shop or as Live Summit rewards:
      • 9 Custom Nitros
      • 2 Horns
      • 8 Window Tints
      • 6 2D Emotes
      • 6 Smokes
      • 10 Tires
      • 7 Underglows
  • Summit
    • 17 New Live Summits added with their associated activities & rewards:

Main Menu

  • New main menu look, themed for Summer in Hollywood.
  • New boot menu video for Summer in Hollywood.

Hobbies

  • [Fixed] Action names & descriptions are broken when accessing Hobbies from the Summit menu.
  • [Fixed]  Incorrect vehicle type listed when language changed to Arabic.
  • [Fixed] A to B Actions can be completed by using the Photo Mode timeline.
  • [Fixed] Number of Stars displayed in animation when first accessing the Hobbies menu, is not the same as the Total Stars Earned number.
  • [Improved] Visual Parts Actions now require fewer parts, and are easier to complete.
  • [Improved] The “Live Battle Influencer” Action has been changed to “Live Battle Money,” and now requires the player to earn Bucks to progress rather than Followers to make it fairer to those at ICON 9999.
    • Any previously unlocked Stars from this Action will be kept, but progress will be completely reset. Tiers unlocked for a second time will still award new Stars.

Vehicles

  • 24 New Vehicles added:
    • Shop additions:
      • Koenigsegg One:1 (2014) – Hypercar (available July 8)
      • Porsche 911 Carrera 4S (2020) – Street Race (available July 8)
      • Volkswagen Beetle (1967) – Street Race (available July 15)
      • Volkswagen Kombi 21 Window Bus (1966) – Street Race (available July 15)
      • Elite Bundle 5 (available July 15)
      • Porsche 935 2.0 Coupé “Baby” (1977) – Touring Car
      • Nissan R390 GT1 Road Version (1998) – Hypercar
      • Ducati draXter (2016) – Street Race Bike
    • LIVE Summit rewards:
    • Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Rift (2017) – Street Race (Summit beg. July 8)
  • [Fixed] Incorrect power gauge animation on Bugatti Veyron.
  • [Fixed] Maserati MC12 tachometer & speedometer needles transparent/barely visible.
  • [Fixed] Yellow neon underglow cannot be applied to Mazda RX 7 Drift Edition.

Physics

  • [Fixed] Wheelie is detected after fast fav from Motocross to Monster Truck.
  • [Fixed] Ground vehicles can move forwards and accelerate to 719 km/h in reverse gear.

3C/Handling

  • [Improved] Reduced Air Nitro acceleration on all disciplines by 50%, except MT & MX which have a smaller reduction of 15%.
  • [Improved] Enhanced MX handling featuring new tire-model, improved suspensions and rider animations. New follow cameras have also been implemented, for a smoother feel and better track readability.
  • [Fixed] A water glitch can be seen in underwater tunnels while driving hovercrafts and boats.

World (Visual and Audio)

  • Events:
    • 7 brand-new events added, to be released in PvE progressively alongside the corresponding special themed LIVE Summits.
  • [Fixed] Players are able to hop over walls with TC Bikes on Miami Race Track and on The Giants Chaebung Cup.
  • [Fixed] MT event Wreck and Havoc lists “Get -1 Points” as objective.
  • [Fixed] Some bridges have Off-Road physics.
  • [Fixed] Floating objects near Little Eagle.

Miscellaneous

  • [Add] New themed weathers available in Photo Mode.

Technical

  • [Fixed] Actvities tab UI overlaps with other tabs, when skipping over it in the Main Menu.
  • [Fixed] Black dot appears after using Photo Mode or LIVE Replay.

Audio

  • [Improved] In the audio options, sliders sound changes in volume for each channel.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare And Warzone Playlist Update: Here’s What’s New For July 7

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone are mixing things up when it comes to multiplayer playlists. A series of new playlists are now in rotation for players to check out across both games, and they include new and returning playlists and modes.

For Modern Warfare, the new playlists include Gunfight Tournaments, Dirty Old Houseboat, Realism Gun Game, and Bomb Objective Mosh Pit. In Warzone, players can now try out Plunder: Blood Money Quads. With this new playlist update, developer Infinity Ward also removed the limited-time Juggernaut Royale mode.

The other existing Warzone modes–Solos, Duos, Trios, and 200-player Quads–are still available as well.

In addition to this playlist update, Infinity Ward is introducing new microtransaction bundles to the Modern Warfare/Warzone store this week, and one of them makes your gun look like a shark.

Looking ahead, Warzone’s rumored Season 5 update is set to introduce some major changes to the map. The map refresh is said to be part of how Activision will unveil the new Call of Duty game for 2020, which is believed to be Black Ops: Cold War.

Now Playing: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone – Official Season Four Trailer

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Rocket League Has Been Played By 75 Million People, And Other Amazing Stats Revealed

Rocket League is currently celebrating its fifth anniversary with an in-game event, as the game was released on July 7, 2015. Developer Psyonix has plenty of reason to celebrate, as they’ve also announced some astonishing figures showing just how many people have played the game.

An infograph released to the game’s site has revealed that since launch, 75 million different people have played the game. That’s a huge figure, higher than the total sales figures of the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One.

The game has racked this number up not just through people buying the game, but also across free-to-play weekends, Xbox Game Pass, and its initial launch on PlayStation Plus. It also likely covers people who have played local multiplayer, although those figures would be harder to track if guest accounts are used.

The infograph, below, also explains that 5 billion matches have been played, and a total of 29 billion goals scored–that’s an average of nearly six goals per match. It contains a breakdown of significant dates for the game, plus some information about player habits and the most downloaded community training packs.

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For more on Rocket League, this article from Aron Garst explores a community of players that has dived deep into the game’s ice hockey mode.

Now Playing: Rocket League With Naomi Kyle!

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Scary Movie Cast And Crew Reflect On Whether The Movie Would Be Made Today

Scary Movie debuted in 2000, earning $278 million on a $19 million budget and kickstarting a wave of parody films, few of which reviewed well or enjoyed quite the same level of success. Now, in a new retrospective oral history with Variety, many of the people involved have reflected on the film’s influences, the movie’s style of comedy, and how unpleasant the Weinsteins were to work with.

According to the report, Miramax wanted the rights to the movie because it parodied their property Scream, and they did not want anyone else to be able to do that. Co-writer Marlon Wayans calls the Weinsteins an “evil regime,” stating that “they do what they want to do how they do it–and it can be rude and quite disrespectful.”

He also recalls finding out that he was fired off Scary Movie 3 ahead of the movie’s production. “We probably could have sued or whatever, but part of us was like, ‘All you can do is allow us to create something new,'” he says. “I could write a book on that whole thing, honestly. They definitely still owe us money, lots of money. What they did was really bad business.”

Marlon’s brother Keenen Ivory Wayans directed the film, and Shawn Wayans was a co-writer. Marlon and Shawn also featured as actors in the film. Marlon says that other Wayans family members were on set, too. “The nephews will always tell us when they don’t think something’s funny,” Marlon says. “It’s cool for the youth to let them learn as well. They’ll learn what I grew up on with Keenen. I was on set since I was 11 years old.”

Anna Faris made her Hollywood debut in the film, and has some interesting memories of how she flew to Burbank and slept on a friend’s couch ahead of the audition after sending in a tape. “I started the audition with my mom recording me on one of those big, old VHS cameras hoisted on her shoulder,” she recalls. ‘And then with the second scene I went to my neighbors and I was like, “My mom can’t do this audition with me because it’s way too raunchy. Can you film it for me?'”

When the movie actually debuted, she again wanted to spare her mom from one of the film’s more graphic scenes. “I had to tell my mom to go to the bathroom before the sperm-spraying scene,” she says. Faris stayed with the franchise for some of the sequels, and admits that there were moments where she was hurt while filming. “In Scary Movie 3, there’s an airplane cart that lands on my face and we shot that the last day,” she remembers. “As that cart slammed into my face, I thought, ‘F*** these people. I’m about to break my f***ing nose.”

In the piece, Marlon Wayans, producer Bo Zenga, and actor Jon Abrahams also reflect on the parts of the movie that have aged poorly, or would not allow the movie to be made today without some changes. “I think it would be difficult to greenlight,” Wayans says. But at the same time, he stands by a lot of the movie’s humor. “I think anybody can do a joke about anything and it’s just who’s telling the joke and what’s your intention? Is your intention to humiliate, or is your intention to make people laugh? Our intention is always to make people laugh.”

Abrahams recalls a scene where he drops his pants to reveal giant throbbing blue testicles, and how the crew demanded they use a double because the audience would not want to see his butt. “I remember them being very kind in the confines of really outrageous comedy stuff,” he says. “I just can’t see how that would fly in these times.” Zenga reflects on a few elements that might or might not get a pass in a modern movie. “Anna getting knocked about might get through if it was really sold as, ‘Hey, it’s a comedy,” he says. “There’s a lot of gay humor that I don’t think would make it into a movie today. I don’t know if you could put an erect penis going through the wall and killing someone today.”

There’s plenty more insight into the film in the article. If you saw Scary Movie 20 years ago and still have fond memories of that period of blockbuster cinema, it’s a fun reflection on a movie that likely hasn’t aged well.

Now Playing: Best Shows And Movies To Stream For June 2020 – Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Shudder

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood Is Coming To PS5 And Xbox Series X, Gameplay Trailer Reveals

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood has debuted gameplay footage during a Nacon Connect stream, and revealed that the game is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X alongside current systems and PC (via the Epic Games Store). The game will launch on February 4, 2021.

The game will cast players as Cahal, a werewolf who is on a quest home to protect family and friends from the corporation Endron. It’ll be up to you to take this corporation down by using your werewolf powers to batter any and all enemies you encounter.

The trailer, below, shows Cahal in human, wolf, and werewolf forms. It looks like gameplay will differ depending on your form, and you’ll only be able to truly unleash on enemies in werewolf mode.

This single-player action game was originally announced as a 2020 release, but it has since been delayed.

A few other games were shown off or revealed during the Nacon Connect stream, and you can check them out below.

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Jude Law In Talks To Play Captain Hook In Disney’s New Peter Pan Movie – Report

According to a new report from Variety, actor Jude Law is in talks to play Captain Hook in Disney’s new Peter Pan movie, named Peter Pan & Wendy. The site reports that the deal is not closed, so things could change.

Law would follow other big-name actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Jason Isaacs who have portrayed the villainous character over the years.

David Lowery, who previously directed Disney’s 2016 fantasy movie Pete’s Dragon, is attached to direct Peter Pan & Wendy. He also co-wrote the script with his Pete’s Dragon co-writer Toby Halbrooks.

Sources told Variety that Peter Pan & Wendy is expected to be released in theatres as opposed to Disney Plus. Variety reporter Justin Kroll, who broke the news, also mentioned that Will Smith passed on the role of Captain Hook. Smith, of course, starred in Disney’s hugely successful live-action Aladdin movie as the Genie.

It’s still early days for the new movie, and there is no word yet on who will play Peter Pan and Wendy. As for Law, he has earned two Academy Award nominations over the years for his roles in Cold Mountain (Best Actor in a Leading Role) and The Talented Mr. Ripley (Best Actor in a Supporting Role).

In addition to Peter Pan & Wendy, should he get the role, Law is also attached to star again as Albus Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3 and Watson in Sherlock Holmes 3 with Robert Downey Jr.

Wreckfest Season 1 Ends With New Free Tracks And Tournament Season

Wreckfest has wrapped up Season 1 of DLC with the Banger Racing Car Pack, which includes three new cars, alongside some new free content on all platforms. Publisher THQ Nordic is also teasing a Season 2 of DLC, so the game will likely continue to receive new cars and cosmetics going forward.

Here’s the three cars included in this last wave of Season 1 DLC, as per the press release:

  • Sweeper: This midsize racer is a perfect blend of agility, speed and toughness – a great all-rounder for every type of race.
  • Hearse: This banger racing classic excels at derbies since it can both give and take serious punishment.
  • Stock Car: A versatile little rocket that feels right at home on every oval and Figure 8 track.

The game’s free update is promising a new Tournament Season, called the Banger Bash, as well as two new tracks. Kingston Raceway is a figure-8 circuit track, while Mudford Motorpark is a derby arena with a concave center point. Banger Bash will run through July, and you can earn another new car by competing.

Wreckfest earned a 9/10 in GameSpot’s review. “It’s rare when a racing game manages to modernize and reinvigorate an old formula with spectacular confidence, but Wreckfest does just that,” wrote reviewer James Swinbanks. “Minor issues with menus and its soundtrack aside, it wows with a gorgeous look and wonderful driving feel, along with a damage system that satisfies in the most brutal of fashions.”

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Marvel’s Iron Man VR Review – I Am Iron Man

Where so many VR games still fall back on restricted controls, the PlayStation VR-exclusive Iron Man VR asks you to learn and master its unique flight controls if you really want to feel like a Marvel superhero. Getting comfortable in Tony Stark’s iron skin makes you feel like you know what it’s like to “be” Iron Man in a way no standard game could. At the same time, the game around that core mechanic feels overly thin. With reused environments, recycled mission objectives, and a predictable story that overstays its welcome, Iron Man VR quickly loses its luster.

For better and for worse, Iron Man VR tells a complete ripped-from-the-page Marvel comic storyline. Tony Stark squares off with a mysterious new villain, the Ghost, who uses an army of old Stark Industries drones to systematically terrorize him and his company. The Ghost invokes Stark’s past of making weapons and selling them indiscriminately, forcing him to reckon with his past self as well.

Like Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Iron Man VR is an original variation of existing Iron Man stories, with vague allusions to moments that comic book and MCU fans will know, which makes it easy for any Marvel fan to jump in and follow along. It’s a bit too familiar, though. Retreading themes and issues you’ve already seen Iron Man work through in both the comics and films, Stark’s struggles, both internal and the threats he faces on the battlefield, feel a bit stale. And though there’s a complicated, long-winded plot, you can identify every twist from a mile away.

Much of that story is told in briefings at home-base playgrounds between each level. Before each mission, you get a chance to walk around spaces like Stark’s mansion and, occasionally, other spots like the bridge of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, picking up books, doing pull-ups, and generally interacting with the world. You also have the ability to upgrade your armor and customize your loadout on a holographic image of the Iron Man suit, which is neat, if a little slower than a plain menu. These areas are generally well made, but they’re filled with small trifles that are interesting for only a few seconds. Since you find yourself in the same area over and over, it becomes easier and easier to skip. By the end, I was tired of the downtime, even when there were new toys to play with.

Iron Man VR is, at its core, a flight combat sim. Most levels put you in large spherical arenas–cityscapes and craggy canyons–blasting robot drones out of the sky using Iron Man’s signature moves, like repulsor blasts and the Unibeam, along with a host of other smart missiles, guns, and bombs. Though there are additional objectives like defending a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier or preventing supervillain Living Laser from stealing valuable minerals from a mine, the vast majority of your tasks are ultimately giant virtual shooting galleries with some extra flourishes.

Luckily, the coolest part of becoming Iron Man is the act of flying. You control both your movement and shooting using the PlayStation Move controllers, which are mapped to Iron Man’s gauntlets. Iron Man has thrusters in the palms of his hands; you propel yourself by aiming those jets and pressing the triggers. As an example: To fly forward, you face the palms of Iron Man’s gauntlet behind you, so the thrusters propel you forward. When flying forward, you can use head tracking to tweak your trajectory. It’s unlike any movement mechanic I’ve used in a game, and allows for some creative maneuvering that allows you to take advantage of the fact that you can move in any direction at any time. Rocket headed your way? Point your hands in the air and blast down, then look up to counter with one of your own.

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You also shoot with your hands. You alternate between Iron Man’s standard repulsor blast, which you fire by shooting with your palms up, and a pair of secondary weapons like missiles and smart bombs, which you shoot with your palms down. You also have a chargeable dashing punch. All these moves are regulated with cooldowns, so you need to switch among them to keep fighting. Since all of the weapons are motion-aimed and you’re fighting in a 360-degree space, learning situational awareness and how to use your weapons efficiently makes a relatively simple shooter into something much more exciting.

Likewise, the fact that learning to fly takes time makes it interesting. Iron Man VR pushes you to learn an entirely foreign means of controlling a game, and then hone that skill so that you can dodge enemy fire coming from all sides and chase down supervillains before they can escape. There’s a surprising amount of nuance to even basic maneuvers like turning and following a winding path, so getting the hang of it takes a little time. It can definitely get frustrating at first if you’re unfamiliar with the Move wands. When you get the hang of it, though, flying and shooting with your hands feels natural and pulls you in.

It’s clear that the act of flying is Iron Man VR’s driving force…. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many ways to take advantage of those unique controls.

Though the controls feel inspired, there are some problems. Flying around–twisting and turning to dodge enemies and direct your movement–will likely trigger discomfort in players with a low tolerance for VR. I generally consider myself fairly resistant to VR motion sickness, but I still found myself heating up and getting uncomfortable. The free movement also makes it easy to twist yourself up in the PSVR’s cabling. Even with an indicator letting you know when you should untangle yourself, it’s a bit of a hazard.

In addition to the cable issue, the PS4 and PlayStation VR show their age in Iron Man VR. On my standard PS4, every level opened with a load screen–more than a minute–and many levels had cutscenes or asides that triggered similar loads. Though it’s a great chance to rest your eyes, standing and waiting for a game to load in VR very quickly breaks your connection to the experience.

It’s clear that the act of flying is Iron Man VR’s driving force. Every story mission ends with a score and ranking, pushing you to replay and improve, and each map has multiple types of optional time trials for anyone who just wants to spend more time in the armor. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many ways to take advantage of those unique controls. Aside from a single chase sequence and a story-heavy “horror ride” level, there is very little variation in the gameplay. With only a handful of weapons and enemy types, even the unique controls cannot stave off the redundancy. You’ll also replay many levels more than once over the course of the story, intensifying the feeling that you’ve seen and done everything the game has to offer long before the credits roll.

Donkey Kong Country Leads July 2020’s Nintendo Switch Online Games

July 2020’s Nintendo Switch Online Games are the SNES’ Donkey Kong Country and Natsume Championship Wrestling, and NES’ The Immortal.

Announced by Nintendo, these games will be available to all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers on July 15, 2020.

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Donkey Kong Country is one of the high-profile SNES games, alongside Final Fantasy III (VI!), and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, that have appeared on other Nintendo’s Virtual Console and the Super Nintendo Classic but had not yet made it to Switch Online.

Originally released in 1994, Donkey Kong Country starred Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as they worked to take down the evil King K. Rool and the Kremlings. In our review of its Wii Virtual Console port, we said that even though some of “your nostalgic feelings may take a hit” when replaying it, “DKC’s gameplay is still a lot of fun.”

In a special “Classified Information” video by Nintendo, it reveals some secrets players can use when playing the game, including “Diddy’s Extra Lives, Start with 50 Lives, Bonus Area Practice, and 101% Completion?!”

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Natsume Championship Wrestling was also released in 1994 and allows players to step into the ring with one of 12 fighters. It’s not a licensed game, but features such characters as the massively powerful Asteroid, the lightning-fast Viper, and the underhanded-attacker Phantom.

The Immortal was released on NES in 1991 and has you take on the role of a young wizard who is on a quest to find his missing mentor. You must head down into a labryinth and face eight levels of “deadly action, filled 50 chambers of horror, danger, and deception in the form of traps, undead monster, and other vile creatures.”

If you loved Donkey Kong Country, be sure to check out Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Nintendo Switch, which made it on our list of Best Switch Games. In our review, we said “the new Funky Mode for Tropical Freeze on Switch makes it more approachable without turning this amazing platformer into a cakewalk.”

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Donkey Kong Country And Two Other Classics Coming To Switch This Month In New NES/SNES Update

Nintendo Switch Online subscribers have three new games coming to them this month, including one of the SNES’ best classic platformers. Donkey Kong Country is joining the console’s SNES line-up, alongside SNES wrestling game Natsume Championship Wrestling and the EA-published NES title The Immortal.

These titles will join the current line-up on July 15.

Donkey Kong Country, a Rareware classic, is the highlight here–a SNES title with (for the time) jaw-dropping graphics that eventually begat the excellent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze on Switch. It’s a great platformer, although it was also included on the SNES Classic Edition, so if you own one of those you already have access to it. We’re holding out hope that Donkey Kong Country 2 will eventually make its way to the Switch.

Natsume Championship Wrestling is an adaptation of a Japanese wrestling game, featuring 12 fighters and more than 50 different moves. The Switch is light on wrestling games, and it looks like fun.

The Immortal, meanwhile, is a Diablo-style action game where you play as a wizard conquering a labyrinth. It’s something a bit different from the other titles available on the platform.

The Japanese line-up, which you can also access on Switch (as it’s region free) by creating a Japanese account to download it and then accessing from the account with your Online subscription, has an exclusive game this month too. The original SNES Shin Megami Tensei is being added, although it will likely be difficult to play if you cannot read Japanese. Gun-Dec is also coming, which is already available in English as Vice: Project Doom.

All previously released NES and SNES games remain available as well for subscribers. The last drop was in May, and included the excellent Japanese puzzle title Panel de Pon.

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