Eudemon

Power Up Ready! The ‘Calling All Units’ expansion for The Crew which puts cops against street racers is less than three weeks away from release and it is time to learn about the abilities that both cops and racers will have to themselves as well as those they will share the use of. Starting with the tricks that the Street Racers will be able to pull to evade capture there is “Flash Bang”, this will temporarily blind and disorientate opponents and is likely to cause some havoc if used at the right moment. “Unlimited Nitro” should need no explanation whereas “Guardian” will remove any negative effects on you or nearby allies, while also providing a short period of protection. Police have “Jammer” which will remove the UI of the Street Racer making for map knowledge a much needed skill especially when racing around the urban environments. Not sure if that is the only police specific ability but it is the only one mentioned in the source. Both factions can use “EMP Shock”, this common power-up messes up the direction and steering of the one hit with it and will be most useful when employed in a way that will make the victim crash or fly off a cliff. Only 2 abilities can be equipped at a time so there will be some strategy involved in picking what will work best for the situation ahead. Joining up with others will make this easier and is something that is definitely encouraged. Making for what should be a number of fun and frantic occurrences. The Crew ‘Calling All Units’ is out November 29th on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. [via The Crew blog]

Premium Price At Its Apex PC players finally got Forza on their platform with the release of the free-to-play Forza Motorsport 6: Apex for Windows 10 back in September. Apex was the first of the highly-acclaimed Forza series’ of games to hit PC, closely followed with Forza Horizon 3 a couple of months later. Apex has been getting some updates hear and there, with the latest helping with performance issues and bringing even more wheel compatibility to the title. Apart from this it’s been fairly quiet on how the game will be expanded with new content and how. Being free-to-play it is a no brainer that real money will be involved in some way and the release of Apex Premium Edition (let’s call it APE for short) is what Microsoft have come up with. So what is so Premium about this version and why should you go APE? Well for starters, for the small price of about 25% of a normal Forza Motorsport you will receive 1 track pack and 2 car packs with 7 cars each, making for a massive 14 cars added to your virtual garage. A lot less than the amount that the standard game on the Xbox One delivers. The track pack contains none other than the legend that is the Nürburgring and has the Nordschleife, GP Circuit and the 24Hour layout which is a layout made up when the previous two are combined, making for one hell of a road roller-coaster. All layouts are available in day, night and wet making the pain of the price perhaps that bit easier to swallow. Full contents of what buyers will get for their money is shown below: Forza Motorsport 6: Apex Premium Edition Power to Weight Car Pack (7 Cars) 2016 Ford Mustang GT350R 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat 2015 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 2013 SRT Viper GTS 2013 Caterham Superlight R500 2013 KTM X-Bow R 2014 BAC Mono Hyper Endurance Car Pack (7 Cars) 2016 #66 Ford Racing GT LeMans 2013 #91 SRT Motorsport GTS-R Viper 2016 Nissan #1 NISMO MOTUL AUTECH GT-R 2014 Mazda #70 SpeedSource Lola B12/80 2015 Koenigsegg One:1 2012 Hennessey Venom GT 2013 Lamborghini Veneno Nürburgring Track Pack Nürburgring Nordschleife GP Circuit Full Circuit (24H Layout)

Better sound? That would be Grand With every new Gran Turismo there is always that inevitable wait, delay and disappointment felt due to the lack of attention in the areas that have been cried out to be improved by its community and fans. GT Sport was looking to continue this tradition on – and may still do so – but with the announcement recently that the new GT will support 4K, HDR and in a rather surprising admission, not have VR being fully-playable but instead having a ‘VR Tour’ mode, it certainly seemed to be more of the same with little attention not being paid again to those areas that need it. However off-screen videos captured at Paris Games Week and the Paris Motor Show are showing a cause for excitement as an area that has been sorely lacking for the series, sound, is showing a real sense of improvement. Gone is the super screechy tyre squealing, replaced instead with a real-world noise that is more authentic and hints to what the car is doing. And when you have reports like this by Eurogamer showing their surprise at the sound being thrown out by what they are playing, there has to be something going on that people are noticing. Engine notes are starting to properly resemble those of the real thing – the Mercedes-AMG GT S seen in the video by PlaneteGT above has that throaty angry sound that AMG Mercs are known for and the Dodge Charger shown in the video by MotoGamesTV below has a real grunt to it. It’s not perfect but it is an improvement for sure. There is still work to be done but it does suggest that the grab of the former Forza Audio technician was a damn good one, and that they are showing Polyphony Digital how to do what has been asked for so long. If Kaz and co can see just how much accurate sound means to people then there is a real hope that GT Sport, even if not a proper GT title (that will be GT7) because of its more esports focus could be the game to take the GT series out of the shadows that it is, in my opinion, now in due to titles such as Forza Motorsport, Assetto Corsa (though still needing work on the multiplayer side) and even Project CARS. Considering how long it has taken to get into and tackle this area, I guess we might see accurate damage represented in GT8 ??? GT Sport is due out in 2017 for PlayStation 4 and will be enhanced for PS4 Pro along with some doodads for PS VR.

Forza Horizon 3 PC Demo Is Here! They said a Forza Horizon 3 PC demo would come after release and they were right, as it has just become available on the Windows Store. Yes we repeat, the Forza Horizon 3 PC demo is OUT NOW! Already deemed to be one of the best racing games ever, the third in the Horizon series is the first to make its way onto the PC and it does so in fantastic style. With the extra horsepower available, the graphics are crisper and the frame rates are faster, as well as increased wheel support over Microsoft’s own gaming console. (yeah makes perfect sense that one??) So if you have not bought into the hype and glowing opinions from many a player and reviewer, now is the time to try it out for yourself and see what the whole fuss of a glorious recreation of an environment that takes the best parts of Australia and allows you to drive around it in hundreds of different vehicles, which you can modify and tune to make them as unique as you would like, is all about. And do not forget those amazing screens you can take too. What you waiting for? Go get it now! Forza Horizon 3 PC Demo - Windows Store