Major Improvements And New Cars Dropping In The Crew This Week

Ubisoft’s arcade racer, The Crew, launched at the tail end of 2014 with mixed reviews. Critics who wanted the realistic handling of a simulator felt it didn’t meet the mark. Others pointed to poor physics, unimpressive graphics and the in-game purchases as major flaws. The most pleasing aspect of the game at its launch was the open world set in a scaled down version of the United States. The great part of game development in this era is being able to fix some of the initial shortcomings with regular DLC release. The Crew could possibly convert some of those release day critics into fans after they see what’s included in the new DLC and update.

Season Pass owners already have access to the new cars in the Vintage Pack, but everyone else can begin purchasing them today (Tuesday 17th March) as a pack or individually. All three cars come in Full Stock and Performance tuning specs. Here’s what you’ll see:

• Chevrolet Corvette C3
• Chevrolet Corvette C2
• Spyker C8 Aileron

Four new Faction Missions are also unlocked with the Vintage Pack. The Score is a Collect Mission, and the Route 66, Bayou Brawl and A Fist Full of Dirt are all Race Missions.

New tuning specs have been added in the patch, available on the 18th, to six cars as follows:

Dirt

• 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500

Circuit

• 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS
• 1967 Shelby GT 500
• 1967 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan
• 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi
• 2010 Ford Focus RS 2010

Developers also added the usual improvements to AI, camera views and a few fixes in searching and joining lobbies. Some of the changes are rather rewarding for players. Now, aside from Jump and Climb, all skills will earn you double the experience and Bucks. The last Story Mission in each region will also double your rewards.

A significant part of the update is the new Blitz Brawl PvP mode. In this game mode, a scoring zone will appear, and players must race to activate it by entering. The zone only remains active for ten seconds, and the players must fight each other to stay within the zone. After the ten seconds expire, a new zone appears randomly, and the race to activate it continues. This new mode can be played in teams who will work together to win the most total points. Blitz Brawl adds two new missions in each region.

After the update is installed, you should immediately notice an improvement in some areas of the physics. The developers have lowered the impact of breakable objects and improved the realism in collisions with traffic cars. Some of the environment has been toned down to help with handling, like the removal of excessive bumps in the snow. Triggering a crash sequence, although at one time it was amusing, now only happens at high speeds. Handling has been improved on a slew of cars at top speeds, but changes to overall handling can be felt in the following cars that players said needed the most improvement:

• 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS - Street Spec
• 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 392 - Street Spec
• Ford Mustang GT 2011 - Street Spec
• 1967 Shelby GT500 - Performance Spec
• 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS - Full Stock, Street and Performance Specs

There will be a live stream on Twitch today at 7pm CET to show off all the changes before they drop. It sounds like the team behind The Crew put a lot of work into this update, so here’s to hoping it does well. Sadly, I think the first thing I’ll do is roam the streets ramming into other cars and the surroundings to see if they’ve actually improved the physics. It’s frustrating when you can clip a bus with little consequence, but hitting some small roadside object sends you flying even at low speed.

Who’s getting the Vintage Pack, and who’s ready for this update?