If you choose to purchase any DLC packs before April 29th, they’ll still be playable as well along with the online modes. Fast and Furious Crossroads released on August 7th 2020 and faced criticism for its terrible production values, nonsensical story-telling and performance issues (among many other things). You can read our review for it here.

The developer, Slightly Mad Studios, was part of Codemasters at the time – the latter has since been acquired by Electronic Arts. It recently released GRID Legends in February 2022 and is rumored to be working on a new WRC title (in light of DiRT Rally 3 apparently being cancelled).

Nemesis (Second Form) – Resident Evil 3 Remake

For how disappointing the overall experience was compared to the Resident Evil 2 remake, seeing Nemesis’s redesigned forms in the Resident Evil 3 remake was pretty cool. However, while the second form was appropriately grotesque and menacing with its size and agility, it just couldn’t make up for the removal of the original’s clock tower sequence. At least the Nemesis climbs up on top of the clock tower at some point and mean-eyes at you. That’s kind of neat.

It’s been a busy year for Codemasters with several major releases, including the recent DiRT 5. The company revealed its financial results for the first half of the fiscal year, which is essentially the six month period ending September 30th. Releases in this period include F1 2020, Project CARS 3 and Fast and Furious Crossroads.

F1 2020 “materially over-performed” compared to last year’s iteration. The performance for Fast and Furious Crossroads and Project CARS 3 was in line with the company’s expectations. Interestingly, it noted that the critical response to the former was “disappointing” (check out our review here to find out why).

Revenue from games-as-a-service titles is “modest” at this point but should account for more of the company’s business in the future. As it stands, revenue and profits have doubled with revenue at £80.5 million while profits after taxes hit £19.9 million. The future should be interesting for the company, especially following its acquisition at the hands of Take Two Interactive (which will be finalized by next year). Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

"Oddly enough, for a game that’s marketed so much on the appeal of Vin Diesel, there’s not a lot of him on-screen."

The “story” begins with Dominic Toretto and Letty Ortiz tracking down a lead that could provide clues to a potential terrorist attack. This leads to the discovery of the Tadakhul, an ancient band of highway robbers whose name apparently translates to “Crossroads.” Before you can say “That’s the name of the game!”, you’re whisked off to Barcelona and placed in control of Vienna, a racer with a shady past whose boyfriend Sebastian is involved with the Tadakhul. Obviously, Vienna and her friend Cameron eventually team with Dom and Letty on their journey to take down Kai, the Tadakhul’s leader/figurehead.

The number of logic jumps the plot makes, both in terms of character motivation and contrivance, is fairly extensive (and that’s saying something, considering the films it’s based on). Oddly enough, for a game that’s marketed so much on the appeal of Vin Diesel, there’s not a lot of him on-screen. Instead, you’ll alternate between the other cast members, mostly Vienna and Cameron, and while the voice actors try their best, the jarring dialogue and inane plot “twists” do them no favors. Do yourself a favor and don’t quit the game after a cutscene – you’ll just have to watch it all over again before playing a mission. And no skipping allowed.

Fast and Furious Crossroads plays like an arcade racer but even that feels disingenuous. It’s too busy jamming mechanics that are at odds with its fast-paced racing. Using a grappling hook to pull gas tanks off of a flamethrower-touting armored vehicle in the opening mission should be fun. However, it’s just a throwaway mechanic with some boring button mashing and chaotic fumbling.

"Slightly Mad Studios’ racing chops shine when it comes to that sensation of speed, especially when hitting the NOS or drifting past corners."

There are a lot of these throwaway mechanics in the game, from “hacking” other vehicles by using – get this – a WiFi router attached to the roof of your car to sideswiping foes and scoring Burnout-style takedowns. All of the gameplay happens from the driver’s seat while the story plays out in extensive cutscenes that drone on and on.

Due to this approach and the general haphazard story-telling, any sense of narrative transition is eventually tossed aside. One moment you’ll meet with Letty who mentions stealing some unmarked cars and the next, you’ve already stolen the cars and need to escape from some corrupt cops at night. One mission has you speeding down a highway, conducting a “heist” that makes Need for Speed Payback look like Ocean’s Eleven. When that’s done, suddenly you’re in Morocco and sign up with Interpol to go undercover, shooting the breeze about which cars to take before being saddled with a dinky old van. This is after an important character dies during the previous heist, by the way. Who could possibly care about anything that happens in this story?

Coming back to the gameplay, it feels responsive enough during actual races, even if the track design is far from ideal. Slightly Mad Studios’ racing chops shine when it comes to that sensation of speed, especially when hitting the NOS or drifting past corners. Handling also feels decent at times though this is diminished by the ridiculous physics. Instead of realistic damage, there’s a health bar and as long as you’re in the green, you can ram through as many cars on the road as you want. Said cars go flying with the slightest nudge though and only marginally hinder your vehicle. Unless the game explicitly says so, there’s no consequence to driving recklessly. It’s less exciting than it sounds, much like everything else in this game, and so narratively dissonant that it hurts.

"Textures and character models look last generation, until you remember racing titles like Gran Turismo 6 that looked and played way better."

Mission variety further kills your enthusiasm in that regard. Many times you’re tasked with driving to a point and watching a cutscene play out. Or maybe three points, followed by three cutscenes. During another, you’re tasked with slowly pursuing another vehicle without alerting them. Or driving sanely so that your passenger doesn’t get paranoid. Because when I play a Fast and Furious game, the first thing that comes to mind is following the rules. Then again, breaking the rules doesn’t matter outside of failing whatever the current objective is (or the mission design just being poor in general). You just can’t win, no matter what the scenario has to offer.

Tracks also feel overtly restrictive – you can go off-road, sure, but most times the game wants you to follow a set path with very few alternate routes in the process. It also doesn’t help that most of the levels look and feel like the same boring roads again and again. At one point, Vienna even sarcastically comments on driving through the same roads in Barcelona during different missions. And you thought Bungie’s Destiny was super-obvious when it came to recycling content.

In terms of visuals, Crossroads doesn’t look very good by today’s racing game standards. I don’t usually care that much about graphics but it has no business looking like this while outputting such shabby performance. Textures and character models look last generation, until you remember racing titles like Gran Turismo 6 that looked and played way better. Facial animation in cutscenes is fairly wooden, causing a stoic Toretto in the movies to look plain stiff here. The lack of options for customizing the graphics is also disappointing but expected. Outside of stuttering in cutscenes and an infinite loading bug that necessitated a restart, I didn’t encounter too many bugs. The music and sound effects are fine – nothing exceptional and certainly not worth going out of your way for.

"If this had been a Need for Speed Underground-style clone with a semi-open world structure, focused more on racing and building rivalries, then one could at least stick with the racing."

I wish I could tell you how the multiplayer was but it’s dead on arrival with no matches to be found. Good thing that a lot of the extra content isn’t locked behind ranking up in multiplayer. Oh wait.

Time is a flat circle – Fast and Furious Crossroads is still a bad game, one that’s both painfully long and insultingly short. It’s a game that fails to fulfill the action adventure premise of current films with much success thanks to boring objectives and lackluster mission design. The very brief sequences that it embraces the street racing of the first few films can be fun but even those are let down by poor track design and performance. If this had been a Need for Speed Underground-style clone with a semi-open world structure, focused more on racing and building rivalries, then one could at least stick with the racing. Alas, Fast and Furious Crossroads strives for loftier heights and falls that much harder as a result.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Joining the recent parade of digital showcases, Bandai Namco Entertainment Southeast Asia has confirmed several live steams for this month. Dubbed “Bandai Namco Entertainment Fun Live”, the first stream will take place tomorrow at 5 AM PT. After that, you can look forward to streams on July 19th, 21st and 24th. All of these will be broadcast on YouTube and Facebook.

Tomorrow’s stream is relatively low-key – it features Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions – but things pick up on July 19th. Doraemon: Story of Seasons and Fast and Furious Crossroads are scheduled while The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope and Little Nightmares 2 will receive trailers. The stream on July 21st will feature Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS. Maxiboost On and Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris.

July 24th caps things off with Project CARS 3 and Scarlet Nexus. Hopefully, we’ll see new gameplay for all of the above (perhaps even some PS5/Xbox Series X footage for titles like Scarlet Nexus). Bandai Namco has already noted that there will be “exciting details” from the “producers and directors of your favorite games.” So stay tuned for more information.

Mark your calendars and join us over the next week online as we sit down with producers and directors of your favourite games to hear their passion for the games you love! #BNEFunLive pic.twitter.com/KjeV4nCye7

— Bandai Namco Entertainment Asia (@BandaiNamcoSEA) July 16, 2020

Slightly Mad Studios’ Fast and Furious Crossroads was originally set to release in May but faced a delay. This was primarily due to the upcoming movie Fast 9 being delayed because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. With the film now set to release in 2021, will we see the game even release this year?

When asked about release plans, a representative from publisher Bandai Namco told DualShockers that, “An announcement regarding the Fast & Furious Crossroads release date will be made in the upcoming weeks.” With the number of games that will have announcements or reveals over the next few months, June seems like a good time. But we’ll have to wait and see. Either way, don’t expect a release this month.

Billed as a “new chapter” in the ongoing saga, Fast and Furious Crossroads will have racing but in the vein of heists and stunts across “exotic” locations. If nothing else, it has Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto in it so that might make it worth checking out. Fast and Furious Crossroads will be coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC when it eventually launches.

Last year’s The Game Awards ended with the very (and I do mean very) unexpected announcement of Fast & Furious Crossroads. The franchise has become something of a staple in cinemas with eight mainline titles and a high profile spinoff. The game would have brought the crew into a totally new medium, but it seems that won’t happen this year.

In a statement from Codemasters to USGamer, who are the core development team behind the title, the game is being pushed back from its original May release date. The reason for the delay is because Fast 9, the latest upcoming film entry in the franchise that was to coincide with Crossroads, has been pushed back.

While there’s no indication there was a direct tie in between the two, it seems the parties involved think the synergy between the releases is significant enough for a delay. There is no new time fame given, but Fast 9 was pushed all the way back to April of 2021, so it’s very likely we won’t see Crossroads until next year.

PROJECT CARS 3

We’ve known for nearly a couple of years that Slightly Mad Studios are are working on Project CARS 3, and while we haven’t actually seen anything of the game, we’re quite optimistic that it’ll turn out great. Both previous games in the series were solid racing sims, while it’d also be foolish to doubt the chops of Slightly Mad Studios. There are never any guarantees with any game, of course, but Project CARS 3 is a game all racing enthusiasts are probably gonna want to keep an eye on.

Marvel’s Avengers

Marvel’s Avengers is promising for fans who just want to tear things up with their favourite heroes. However, it’s still hard to get a feel for the game. The campaign is single-player only while the end-game supports co-op. Also there’s a loot grind attached because of course there is. Will the post-game be substantial enough? Will the campaign be good enough to appease the masses? What about post-launch plans, matchmaking and balancing this admittedly strange combo of single-player and co-op? Hopefully the recent delay to September will let Square Enix expand on all this much more.

Project Scarlett is Officially Xbox Series X

Without question, the biggest announcement of the show was the Xbox Series X, formerly known as Project Scarlett. We finally got to see the design for both the console and controller, which is in keeping with the established Xbox One aesthetic. More details have begun to emerge about its power, the new D-Pad and how quiet it is (Answer: About as quiet as the Xbox One X) but the fact that this reveal came out of nowhere made it all the more awesome.