The Crew Motorfest is a curious title. For one, the studio’s clear love and passion for car culture is vastly apparent in practically every minute of gameplay with characters often dropping interesting facts and insight into the dozen subcultures represented in the game. On the other hand, The Crew Motorfest makes the attempt to deliver a pretty varied offering in terms of race types, but only a couple of them hit the mark as well as some of the game’s contemporaries like Need for Speed Unbound or the excellent Forza Horizon 5.

To the game’s credit, The Crew Motorfest feels like a joyous celebration of car culture - inviting perhaps previously uninitiated audiences to experience a sizeable vertical slice of car culture from around the world. From the drift-heavy, neon-drenched races of Japan, to the raw power and break-neck acceleration of American Muscle cars - there's a lot to like here. 

Ubisoft is one of the biggest publishers in the industry with a massive number of studios working on practically every genre and subgenre under the sun. While I personally have a decent appreciation for their biggest AAA blockbusters like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, my favorite titles from Ubisoft have been the slightly smaller budget sports and adventure sports titles like Steep and Riders Republic. While these games exhibit their fair share of silliness and trademark 'rough around the edges' feel, it's easier to overlook those shortcomings. The Crew Motorfest feels like a much bigger affair than these titles, judging by Ubisoft's commitment to marketing on this scale and the easily apparent high production value.

To the game’s credit, The Crew Motorfest feels like a joyous celebration of car culture, inviting perhaps previously uninitiated audiences to experience a sizeable vertical slice of car culture from around the world. From the drift-heavy neon-drenched races of Japan to the raw power and break-neck acceleration of American Muscle cars, there's a lot to like here. The game introduces each subculture through "Playlists," which make up the majority of the game's experiences. Playlists are a curated set of races that let players try their hand at different kinds of vehicles and race types. While there is certainly overlap in race types, each Playlist feels fairly distinct to warrant at least one playthrough.

While Playlists are a great way to learn more about specific car subcultures and try out different vehicles and get money - they are secondary to the online co-op experience of racing your cars through the scenic vistas of Oahu and battling it out with rival Crews. 

However, this is where the problems begin to appear. One of the things that bugged me throughout The Crew Motorfest was that despite the change in scenery and selection of cars in every Playlist, they all start to blend together after a point. It is then that you realize The Crew Motorfest might value co-op and multiplayer far more than it does single-player. While Playlists are a great way to learn more about specific car subcultures and try out different vehicles while earning money, they feel secondary to the online co-op experience of racing your cars through the scenic vistas of Oahu and battling it out with rival Crews. 

With that said, it was practically impossible to enter matchmaking and find a decent Multiplayer race as access was squarely limited during the time of this review. So, stay tuned for a more in-depth breakdown of the multiplayer experience later this week. The Crew Motorfest impressed the absolute heck out of me with its bombastic presentation. Packed with jaw-dropping visuals and a thunderous soundscape, it is a bit of a bummer that Playlists can quickly become an exercise in tedium rather than something you actively want to engage with. 

The Standard Edition of the game comes with the base game and the Ultimate Edition gives you a leg-up with a decent selection of vehicles at your disposal from the get-go, including:

• Honda CIVIC Type R 2021 FITTED Edition
• Porsche 718 Spyder 2021 FITTED Edition
• BMW M4 Competition Coupe
• Chevrolet Chevelle SS
• Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody

Also included in the Ultimate Edition is the Year 1 Pass, which includes 2 cars every month for the rest of the year. 

The Crew Motorfest - A Celebration of Car Culture with Overtones of Tedium 

Gameplay

Lastly, the "bikes". I say "bikes" because they felt more like small rocket ships made entirely of steel coated with several layers of oil to guarantee maximum "slick". With little to no feedback on traction or weight, bikes were easily the most unruly of the lot.

Given how well-versed Ubisoft is when it comes to developing solid racing and sports titles, I went into The Crew Motorfest expecting a solid title where the handling and car customization is outstanding. For the most part, I was decently appeased by the cars, bikes, boats, and planes controlled but it never felt quite as good as some of the other great simcade racers I've played in the past year. For the majority of the game's runtime, you'll likely be behind the wheel of a car - so it dictates that it is going to be the primary focus of the studio, and it is. Cars definitely have received the most amount of love when it comes to attention to detail, handling, and general feel. Planes and boats, on the other hand, could have used some more time in the event.

Lastly, the "bikes." I say "bikes" because they felt more like small rocket ships made entirely of steel coated with several layers of oil to guarantee maximum "slick." With little to no feedback on traction or weight, bikes were easily the most unruly of the lot. While planes get a pass for their sheer ridiculousness and ability to make traversal across the map much easier, bikes never quite had a lot going for them. While Rally bikes will feel a tiny bit better, sports bikes like the KTM RC 16 feel thoroughly weightless. With that said, the speed these things could hit felt pretty great.

There is a good selection of race types on offer, including the likes of Drift, Circuits, Sprints, and the F1-adjacent sports race. While the race type themselves can appear limited. The game shines by combining some of these race types to deliver unique experiences. For instance, the Drift Playlist includes not just drift events but combines them with the circuit and sprint race to truly test players' skill. 

While the handling and feedback on the controller weren't lacking, they weren't great either. The Crew Motorfest, for the most, isn't quite as arcadey as, say Need for Speed Unbound, yet it is not quite as tight and sim-adjacent as something like Forza Horizon 5. This leaves the game in this weird middle ground where it often feels like it is trying to be a dozen things at once without refining any single aspect. Repetition and tedium make their way into the game fairly quickly around the 3-hour mark and it's hard to shake it off without dropping a ton of in-game money on new vehicles to try out other playlists.

Despite accruing new vehicles as you play, new Playlists quickly become tiresome as race types remain pretty much identical, save for some really quality Drift tracks and Off-Road races. The F1-like sport races were easily my least favorite of the lot as even though they introduce things like Tire Wear and Pit Stops, they are simply fluff. Those gameplay elements rarely ever came into play even on the highest difficulty, which really begs the question of why they needed to be included in the first place. The race mode feels much more like a GTA Online game mode, which if you've been playing GTA Online, isn't really a compliment.  Despite the game's shortcomings in the handling department, something that really deserves massive kudos is how great the game feels on a Dualsense controller. The haptic feedback and adaptive triggers worked to near perfection. The feedback on the controller on sharp turns, drifts, and off-roading felt better than perhaps any other racing game I've tried on the PS5 so far. 

Most upgrades can only be won through the completion of events. The game keeps customization and upgrades fairly simple and I have to commend Ubisoft for not pushing players toward microtransactions. In all my time with the game, The Crew Motorfest rewarded me adequately for completing events with money and XP, letting me get my hands on new stuff through gameplay alone. While this should be common practice, it has become increasingly rare in games such as these (I'm looking at you NBA 2K). Upgrading your vehicle is pretty straightforward and most upgrades can be won by finishing relevant events. While it is slightly weird that I rarely ever got to drive my own vehicles in Playlists, it is a decent trade-off. 

Graphics, Visuals, and Sound

The Crew Motorfest is one of the best-looking and sounding racing games I've played in the past couple of years, and that is saying a lot for a game that is competing with the likes of Forza Horizon in that department. 

While I had my fair share of complaints in the gameplay department, The Crew Motorfest is nigh untouchable when it comes to the presentation side of things. The game looks drop-dead gorgeous across practically every inch of its sizeable map and sounds twice as good. Ubisoft considers music to be a vital part of The Crew Motorfest experience and it shows. The selection of eclectic tracks across a wide spectrum of genres is a breath of fresh air. From riff-heavy rock music to deep trance and ambient techno, there is a lot of music here. A lot of good music. 

The soundscape extends far beyond music with absolutely impeccable sound design and mixing. The tracks never overpower the deep rumble or high-pitch screech of the engine and the dynamic destructible environmental stuff is placed pretty well in the mix. All of the vehicles sound great, especially the muscle cars, and the little video packages for each car always did their job to perfection. I've tried the game out with a soundbar, a home theater setup, and standard 7.1 headphones. I found the game is best experienced on a set of great speakers (subwoofer highly recommended) and a decent 4K monitor to get the full breadth of detail and lighting. 

The Crew Motorfest is one of the best-looking and sounding racing games I've played in the past couple of years, and that is saying a lot for a game that is competing with the likes of Forza Horizon in that department. The game's performance never took a hit when it came to performance even when racing against several NPCs in detailed terrain. In my 16 hours or so with the game, I felt more drawn in by the visual and aural experience of The Crew Motofest than I did with the gameplay (which was just fairly decent).  

Special shotout to that one drift event, the Dream Spiral.

Final Word - The Crew Motorfest

The Crew Motorfest is a love letter to car culture and it shows in practically every minute of gameplay. While I could have used a slightly better handling system, what the game really could benefit from is shorter Playlist length.

The Crew Motorfest is a fun arcade racer with sim elements that has a lot to offer in terms of a bombastic visual and sonic experience and can offer up to 5 solid hours of racing fun. Beyond that point, only perhaps the most hardcore of racing and car culture fans will stay tuned to the game. The tedium and repetition of the Playlists are bound to start feeling grindy after a few hours. While some of that tedium is alleviated by the fantastic sound design and art style of the game, The Crew Motorfest is a game incomplete if you don't jump into co-op or multiplayer.

This review will be updated once the servers are decently populated and matchmaking is possible with other players and friends. As the name of the game suggests, The Crew Motorfest feels like a game designed fairly and squarely with the idea that you will be tagging along with friends and other players to take to the streets of Oahu in all manner of races.

The Crew Motorfest is a love letter to car culture and it shows in practically every minute of gameplay. While I would have preferred a slightly better handling system, what the game really could benefit from is a shorter Playlist length. While it is admirable that Ubisoft wants me to try out every single custom track, the tedium of it is simply too much to look past. Overall, I would recommend The Crew Motorfest to budding car enthusiasts and those on the outside looking in as this is a solid primer for those looking to learn more about car culture. If anything, you can just repeat stuff they say in the game at a party and everyone's going to assume you're a big "car guy."

Review key for The Crew Ultimate Edition provided by Ubisoft and reviewed on a PS5. 

Sega’s popular Virtua Fighter series is set to make a return, the publisher has confirmed, some 18 years after the launch of its most recent numbered installment, Virtua Fighter 5.

Since then, there’ve been numerous updated releases of Virtua Fighter 5 with 2021’s Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, itself a remaster of the earlier Final Showdown, alongside mobile installments, and even an arcade update for Virtual Fighter 3. What’s missing from the series, though, is a brand-new game.

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What To Expect From Sega’s New Virtua Game

Sega’s new global head of transmedia, Justin Scarpone, has offered some hope in an interview with VGC. "So we have a suite of titles in development right now that fall into that legacy bucket," he explained, "which we announced last year at The Game Awards; Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi."

"And we have another Virtua Fighter being developed," Scrapone added, before covering over the revelation completely, "And then in certain instances, we're also doing animation series, or live-action films to augment that and be part of those roadmaps."

Despite announcing a plethora of legacy game revivals last year - including Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, Golden Axe, “and more” - details remain limited. Sega has shared a little about its Crazy Taxi update -- calling it an open-world, massively multiplayer game that’s “AAA” in scope.

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Sega Teases Shadow The Hedgehog Design In New Sketches

One of the best parts of Sonic x Shadow Generations, released last week, is the wealth of music, stories, and art in the game’s Collection. Acquired hidden emblems throughout each stage can be used as keys to unlock treasure chests throughout the White Space central hub zone and, with a quick shift of location, Shadow can check out his history through some wonderful artwork.

Earlier, Hoshino worked as an artist and character designer on several games such as Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Heroes. Shadow the Hedgehog as a character was first launched in 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2 as the ‘Ultimate Lifeform,’ before appearing in his own standalone game in 2005 where he wields a gun. Hoshino worked as an art director on both projects. With further details provided by Hoshino, the sketches reveal early concepts for not only Shadow’s design, but the proposed weaponry, and bad guy Black Doom.

"I wanted to create a deep, mature story suited to backstory. Shadow was created with the idea of him being a lead character and not just part of a cast of characters," Hoshino tells Eurogamer of working on the Shadow the Hedgehog game, where that promise was fulfilled.

The recent Silent Hill 2 remake will be enhanced for PS5 Pro. Released for PS5 and PC in October, Silent Hill 2 sold over a million copies in its first three days, instantly becoming a huge hit. Soon, PS5 Pro users will be able to enjoy the new version of this classic title.

While some gamers were skeptical of Bloober Team’s ability to remake the classic Silent Hill 2, the game was praised for its combat and atmosphere. With Silent Hill 2 receiving mostly positive reviews from critics, it obtained an average score of 87 on the review aggregate site OpenCritic.

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Bloober Team and Konami Improving The Game

Now, the Silent Hill 2 remake has been tagged as “PS5 Pro Enhanced” on the PS Store, indicating that Bloober Team and Konami have decided to upgrade the game for the launch of Sony’s new console model. Sadly, there are currently no details on how exactly the upgraded version will work.

The current version of Silent Hill 2 for PS5 has both Performance Mode and Quality Mode, enabling gamers to run the game at 1440p with 30fps, or 1080p with 6-FPS, respectively.

Given the scenario, it’s likely that the PS5 Pro Update will make way for greater resolutions and frame rates at the same time. It’s also likely that the Bloober Team will unveil a new Silent Hill 2 update soon to implement these changes.

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When Is The Game Coming To PS5 Pro

What’s surprising about the PS5 Pro Enhanced version of Silent Hill 2 is that it was not properly announced before. Recently, Sony released a list of games confirmed to get PS5 upgrades. While the list included popular titles such as Alan Wake 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7, Rebirth, Horizon Forbidden West, and others, it did not include the remake of Konami’s classic horror game.

The PS5 Pro will break cover on November 7, and it has been a very controversial topic since its original announcement. The console is being released at a hefty price of $700 in the US, and it may be even more expensive in other countries.

Despite the new model offering a 45% faster GPU and advanced ray tracing, the high price prompted a discussion about whether the console was worth it, as a normal PS5 would still run the same games and be considerably less expensive.

Steam Game Recording is officially out of beta and available to all users, giving PC, Mac, and Steam Deck players a built-in way to record and share audio and video from their gaming sessions.

The console joins many other ways PC gamers have been able to record their highlights, including as a feature of tools like the Xbox Game bar, Nvidia GeForce, and AMD’s Adrenalin.

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Valve Updates Steam Game Recording

The version of the Steam client is also the first to drop support for Windows 7 and 8 machines, as well as Macs running macOS 10.13 and 10.14 after the company announced the move at the beginning of this year.

After an automatic update, players can start recording manually using a hotkey or set it to trigger automatically, with options to restrict the length, quality, and storage space that Steam can use. Valve says it works with any game, including now-Steam games that enable Steam Overlay to run. The recording is off by default -- users will find its settings in a new Game Recording tab in Steam’s settings.

The company has updated Steam Game Recording with a handful of new features that weren’t there when the beta period began in June, including adding “advanced” export options and the ability to configure game-specific settings. Valve also added Session View, which includes a “Recordings & Screenshots manager with game-specific tags and data.”

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Valve To Stop Releasing New Steam Deck Models Yearly

The Steam Deck will not be getting yearly updates. At least that’s what one of its designers has suggested. But a Steam Deck 2 will likely happen at some point. During an interview with Reviews.org (via The Verge), Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang said, "We’re not going to do a bump every year. There’s no reason to do that."

He explained that he thought it wasn’t fair to users to provide only incremental improvements each year. He said, "...we do want to wait for a generational leap in computing without sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck." This aligns with previous statements from Valve. On many occasions in 2023, Valve employees stated that a more powerful Steam Deck would be years away-- late 2025 at the earliest.

Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais explained that part of the Steam Deck brand is that every model can play the same games; Valve doesn’t want to change that until Steam Deck performance gets a significant jump without compromising on the battery life. During the interview, Yang did note that the company is working on a Steam Deck successor.

Users don’t have to take great pains to preserve their Switch to make sure they can still play their favorite games on it years and years from now. Nintendo has revealed in its earnings report that the upcoming successor to the Switch will have backward compatibility and will be able to run games made for the current console.

Moreover, Switch Online will also be available on the Switch 2, which means their saves stored on the cloud will be carried over and they will be able to play NES, SNES, and Game Boy games on the new console.

The company explained that it’s making Switch Online available on the upcoming console because it thinks it’s important for Nintendo’s future to "carry over the good relationship" it has built with its more than 100 million annual playing users to the new device.

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How Will Current Games Work On Nintendo Switch 2

The main way to do this is to make use of the Nintendo Account, which ties a user’s history to one account and allows the company to "maintain a continuous relationship" with them across console generations.

Before the Nintendo Account was introduced, Nintendo had no easy way to carry a user’s history and purchase the next console. "As a result, our relationship with the consumers was interrupted when a new system was purchased," it said.

The company assured to give out more information about the Switch 2 "at a later date," though it didn’t say when exactly. In a recent event where we thought the new console could be launched, Nintendo introduced an alarm clock instead.

Considering its earnings results, it looks like people could choose to wait for the new console instead of buying the current Switch. The company had to downgrade its sales forecast for the fiscal year due to a big decline in console sales compared to the same periods last year.

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Nintendo Switch 2 Launch “Very Unlikely” Before 2025

Nintendo is now “very unlikely” to launch its highly-anticipated Switch 2 hardware this year, a games industry analyst has told Eurogamer. The recent financial results from Nintendo revealed a larger-than-expected drop in hardware and software sales for the current Switch, as the console ages and its release calendar quietens.

The results also passed by without even talking about Switch 2 being shown - and perhaps with Nintendo’s new hardware not due to arrive until sometime in 2025 - for good reason.

During an interaction with Eurogamer, industry analyst Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy Kantan Games, said any mention of the anticipated Switch 2 now would only further hamper Switch 1 sales during the console’s last holiday season.

Almost a year ago, Rockstar Games released the first trailer for GTA 6, which marks the franchise’s first sequel since Grand Theft Auto 5 in 2013. Fans had been hoping that today’s fiscal report for Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, would include a new GTA 6 trailer.

While that did not happen, Take-Two did confirm that the GTA sequel is still on track for a fall 2025 release. While speaking with CNBC, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick acknowledged that some of the company’s old games have slipped from their planned release dates.

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Rockstar Confident About GTA 6 Launch Timeline

However, Zelnick expressed his confidence that GTA 6 would make its release window. Zelnick also emphasized that the extended development of the game is more centered on enhancing the experience rather than removing out.

"In the case of an extraordinary title, for which there are extraordinary expectations, it's not really about bugs, it's about creating an experience that no one's seen before, and Rockstar Games seeks perfection in what they do," explained Zelnick. "And perfection is indeed hard to measure, it is more subjective than objective."

The company noted in this year’s fiscal statements that GTA 5 has sold 205 million copies to date across all platforms, while Red Dead Redemption 2 had 67 million copies to its name.

Take-Two also revealed that Borderlands 4 and Mafia: the Old Country is set to be released during the company’s fiscal 2026, which should fall between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026. The other upcoming games mentioned by name, CSR Racing 3 and Judas, have no specific release window yet.

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Former Developer Claims GTA 6 Will ‘Blow People Away’

Game designer Ben Hinchliffe has worked at Rockstar Games for over 10 years, and he contributed to games like Grand Theft Auto V, Read Dear Redemption II, and Grand Theft Auto VI before parting ways with the company in 2022. During a recent interview, Hinchliffe briefly discussed GTA VI, saying he believes the game will “blow people away” and be a smashing success when it comes to sales.

"It will sell an absolute ton, as it always does. People will be talking about it for ages afterward, just like they do with GTA 5," Hinchliffe told GTA VI O'clock. "I think they've raised the bar again. They always do, and they have done again with GTA 6."

When asked about what he’s most excited about GTA VI, Hinchliffe said he’s keen on seeing how the game has evolved since he left in 2022. He did not give out any information, as it is expected to be a secretive project. Hinchliffe now works at Sniper Elite VR studio Just Add Water.