Crew 2 Cross-Country Sandbox is an American experience that should probably end

Crew 2 was always going to have trouble getting into the race area. Forza has already set the bar incredibly high, and any arcade runner must also deal with Burnout Paradise's legacy. Yet, The Crew has not been easy on itself.

Despite the promises that The Crew 2 had drawn from the mistakes of its predecessor, the press and the general public again became lukewarm on the Ubisoft runner. In his review for USgamer, Mike wrote, "Like the first game, The Crew 2 at launch feels like a bunch of ideas looking for a firmer run. This is not a bad game because I have never had the impression of clenching my teeth. play it, but it lacks a solid hook for you to play without this hook, you spend your time noticing all the little things that experience lets you down. "

The missing hook that Mike described was originally supposed to be the ability to drive through America." The original idea of ​​The Crew was to take the concept of open world racing presented at Burnout Paradise and to blow it up in a gigantic sandbox from one ocean to the other.His pure scope was supposed to be his main selling point

But the reality is that it is almost impossible to adequately replicate three million square miles.It is inevitable.It will inevitably feel small, compromised and skewed towards the big cities and The America of The Crew is a funhouse mirror that distorts, eliminates and sometimes eliminates entire states (including mine).

To his credit, Ubisoft seems to have realized that the whole idea to "drive through America" ​​does not ller, and took steps to minimize it later. The original game has forced you to drive from one event to the next while piling up a hackneyed story that has been used as an excuse to travel around the country. The Crew 2 drops all that, with events appearing on your map while you race. It is still possible to drive from California to New York if you wish, but this has little influence on the gameplay.

This is mostly for the better, but that makes America look more like a series of disconnections. can do basic shopping. Worse, the attempt to turn the United States into a bizarre and compromised sandbox has the effect of undermining the resources of the rest of the game, resulting in less satisfying graphics and racing. It's a game that tries to be everything and ends up being nothing.

In fact, Forza Horizon is also built around the vanity of racing across a country. Forza Horizon 3 is located in Australia, but instead of trying to replicate the whole country, it focuses on the coast and a handful of inland areas. He's not afraid to take creative liberties in the name of a good open world race, and many of his cities are fictitious. Playground Games understands that the main priority should be to capture the look and feel of a locale while keeping the setting tight and focused. As a result, Forza Australia's version feels real, vibrant, and alive.

In contrast, America's The Crew 2 feels, well, dead. He is married to an idea that looks good on paper, but is almost impossible to implement in practice. It might have been interesting to focus on a specific region, California, the Northeast or even the Appalachians. But the idea of ​​turning the whole country into a sandbox was always weird; and for the second game in a row, it did not really work.

If there must be a Crew 3, I think it will take a little rethinking. The boat and the events of the plane should probably be abandoned in favor of the development of street racing, which is still not very good. And Ubisoft needs to know if it's worth retaining what has been one of the biggest weaknesses of The Crew: the sandbox.

To be clear, I hope that there is a Crew 3. I like arcade racing and even Forza Horizon has not yet managed to complete the Burnout waist hole in my heart. But if The Crew comes back, I hope Ubisoft will find a new hook. As clean as it sounds, it's an American experience that should probably end

look towards the rest of the week

• Guerilla Red Faction: Re-Mars-tered Edition (PC, PS4, Xbox One ) [July 3]: We are officially in the teeth of the dead period. The only major note output is a Red Faction 2009 remaster: Guerilla (sorry, "Re-Mars-tered"), which was very entertaining in its day, but otherwise went missing in the dark. If you pick it up, a fun game is to pbad the controller and see how many buildings you can destroy in five minutes or less. Believe me, it's an explosion.

Nadia Block's Note Beat Box: The Lunars of Final Fantasy IV

I'm nostalgic for summer games, and one of my favorite summer games is Final Fantasy IV. I first played Final Fantasy IV in 1995 while it was Final Fantasy II on SNES. I stayed until dawn to have as many hours as possible, which lent a disturbing and lonely atmosphere to the last part of the game: The Moon.

Some critics of Final Fantasy IV think that the game also moves places. often, and by the time the party reaches the Moon, the experience is out of date. I do not agree, if only because the moon holds the best music of the game (I am superficial). Lunarians, for example, is one of my favorite pieces in a video game, period. You hear it for the first time when Cecil becomes a Paladin through a mysterious voice – and you no longer hear the music for a long time before crossing the tunnels of the Moon. The connection, which has everything to do with Cecil's legacy, follows shortly.

It's hard to articulate, but when I heard the Lunarians, it even seemed to me to go beyond video game music. I still think it is one of the best composed rooms of Uematsu. The DS version of Final Fantasy IV also has a great remix.

Mike's Media Minute

Ah, the things we do for ourselves. Jurbadic World: Fallen Kingdom had its second week at the national box office, bringing its US total to $ 264 million. This is only a drop of water in the bucket because Fallen Kingdom had already fallen into international territories a few weeks ago. With the United States taking this weekend, the world number stands at $ 933 million, digging distance of one billion.

Fallen Kingdom will probably experience a fall of the first Jurbadic World which ended its race with $ 1.67 billion, but it is enough that Universal feels very confident in the last film of the franchise. Colin Trevorrow, the director of Jurbadic World and the author of both films, will return to the presidency of the director for the latest film of the trilogy planned. Of course, if the franchise continues to make money, Universal will continue to manufacture them. (See also: Fast & Furious and Despicable Me )

Incredibles 2 completed its third weekend with a worldwide take of $ 647 million . On the domestic front, it is only about $ 50 million of the biggest film of all time, the 19459026 film, Finding Dory . Worldwide, there are ways to make it the Top 5 of Pixar, which starts at $ 806 million with last year Coco . This is probably what strikes at least because it still has international markets it has to open.

Sicario: The day of the Soldado might not be the same type of film as Denis Villeneuve-2015 original, but it currently surpbades its predecessor. He brought in $ 19 million for his national opening weekend, and $ 27 million worldwide. It's a good start and the movie's budget is only $ 35 million, so it does not have to go that far. The top 5 of the weekend was completed by the basketball comedy Uncle Drew and Ocean & # 39; s 8 in its fourth weekend. This latest movie had a budget of $ 70 million and has already reached the global business figure of $ 209 million.

Caty's AltGame Corner

Thanks to Patreon, the independent developer of Sokpop Collective does a lot of games. Like two a month, at least . The latest project of the team is adorable too, like all its games. Zoo Packs is an online strategy game similar to Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, with the exception of anime heroes, this is a group of cute lions and elephants and other critters. of zoo.

Zoo Packs is a strategy without any filler between like in Fire Emblem. If the animals die, they can still be restored. But there is a trap: when they die in battle, they lose all their equipped objects, so even after resuscitating them, they will be almost naked. This is not quite permadeath, but in a way, it is like its own version of permadeath. Zoo Packs is available for $ 3 on itch.io, or via a $ 3 subscription via Patreon, where Sokpop releases a new game every two weeks.

News and Notes of this Week

• As I mentioned earlier, we are officially in the middle of the summer dead period. This is the right time to review your backlog games, which we all do here at USgamer. I personally try to eliminate God of War so that I can make a solid run at Persona 5. That badumes that Smash Bros does not go in the way, of course.
• Fortnite's intriguingly fascinating narration continued over the weekend with a rocket launch and a tear appearing in the sky. This is how you keep a cool game and in titles. Are you paying attention, PUBG?
• Starhawk's servers officially shut down during the weekend, ending its useful life as a game (unless you want to play a mediocre solo campaign). I must confess, I had completely forgotten that Starhawk even existed. I prefer that PlayStation focus on prestige single player games on its multiplayer platforms (remember MAG?)
• The NES Clbadic is officially back in stock, triggering a new race on the Nintendo Clbadic console. I am taking mine for the sole purpose of having easy access to Super Mario Bros. 3. Ninja Gaiden, and Tecmo Bowl on a clean collectible. Do not even talk to me about Raspberry Pi.
• If you're looking for a long read, take a look at Piotr Bajda's profile of two independent developers who use games to fight Taiwan's national trauma and d & # 39; Iran. It's fascinating to watch the game from a very different point of view.
• The World Cup advanced in the round of 16, with Russia scoring a huge surprise against Spain on Saturday. Of course, Street Fighter applies perfectly here.
• We are halfway through the year, which means it's time to highlight our favorite games from 2018 until now. God of War and Monster Hunter: The world is there, obviously, but so are Into the Breath and Forgotton Anne. Look at the full list because there are a lot of good games.
• I recently interviewed Tetsuya Nomura about Kingdom Hearts 3, and now the full interview is available for your reading pleasure. We are talking about Pirates of the Caribbean the ship Gummi, Aqua, and the sometimes difficult task of working with Disney.
• Blood God's Ax: Jeremy Parish returns to extol the virtues of number 24 on our Top 25 RPG Countdown: Ogre Tactics! In addition, we are talking about the early days of teletype RPGs as Jeremy launches his 12-story series of RPGs.

This article may contain links to online retail stores. If you click on one and buy the product, we can receive a small commission. For more information, click here