Ubisoft’s open world racer, The Crew 2, has a new update, dubbed the April Vehicle Drop, which is out for everyone now (the content has been available to season pass owners since April 3^rd).

The update, true to its name, adds two new vehicles in the the Porsche Cayman GT4 2016, a fancy new car to spin your wheels with, and the Suzuki GSX-R 1000R 2018, one of the most powerful and fastest motorcycles on the planet to drift like a madman in your races. Both vehicles are specialists in street races, so if that’s the discipline you prefer, you’re definitely in luck.

Ubisoft also recently released a trailer that went over everything of note being added with the April Vehicle Drop, so take a look below if you’re interested. The Crew 2 is available now for PlayStation, Xbox One and PC, and lets you play as a solo or with friends on your way to becoming a motorsport champion.

Of all the features that Microsoft has added to the Xbox One since release – including support for external hard drives, dedicated servers for Party Chat and even backwards compatibility in the next few months – there’s been one common complaint surrounding the user interface. That is, it’s rather slow. We don’t even mean it should be loading up in two seconds rather than three. Oftentimes there can be quite the delay in launching an app, ranging several seconds, and that extends to generally navigating the user interface as well.

However, it seems all that will finally change when the Fall update goes live. GamingBolt’s Leonid Meikhov had a chance to speak to Xbox One platform manager Richard Irving at E3 2015 about the same. During this time, a demonstration of the user interface’s various aspects was showcased and Irving revealed a wealth of new information.

Irving cut to the chase immediately when he stated that the, “Brand new Xbox One User Interface experience that will be going out this fall and is really focused around speed and getting to things faster.

“Our design point of the new Xbox experience is speed and making all of the things you do on Xbox Live, both in and out of the game much faster. What is familiar is that the user can go left and right through the categories, but we have added a vertical scroll element that takes you deeper within the category.”

“So as you can see my recently played games and apps, I can now scroll vertically through it and when I reach the end of the list, I can find another game in the collection that is ready to be launched and just below you will find pins. And remember we want everything you want to do on Xbox One to be faster so we have some great accelerators. Hold the left trigger and I’m right at the top of the list and when I hold the right trigger I am right at my pins.”

What exactly does that mean for your average gamer though? “So one scenario, I am on Fable Legends right now and I want to play Minecraft which I know is in my pins. I just pull the right trigger and I am in my pins area and I just hit A and am ready to launch Minecraft.”

There’s a lot more to the pins than just launching games though. “One of the things we are changing is that as you can see in my pins are contextual items and so the animated avatars and gamer pictures represent my friends that are online and are playing this game right now and I can join them and play. We also have a quick link to the Game Hubs.

“Game Hubs are a feature that we shipped earlier this year and they are aggregation of all the social information on Xbox Live about a particular game so activity feed, Game DVR clips, achievements, leaderboards, all of the stuff in one place. What is neat about Game Hubs is that game developers can control them and when they do that they will be able to post announcements in the activity feed and amplify content. But they will also be able to publish headlines directly on the home screen. So for example, the Fable Legends devs have released a new heroes bundle and they can announce it on the home page or the Ori development team has released a new patch and they want to reveal the details of that.

“One of the things that our fans really wanted was as they were making this content about their gaming history such as screenshots, Game DVR, achievements, leaderboards and they are making these big narratives about a particular game so they need faster access not only to the content but also be able to share them faster. So you see the link here and I can share achievements and I just press A and I see the list of content and the same goes for screenshot and GameDVR and I can even write a comment to brag about it to my friends.”

When asked if screenshots would automatically be taken when Achievements were unlocked, Irving responded, “However, it will not take screenshot automatically whenever you unlock an achievement. You would still need to double tap the button.

“So I just shared that screenshot and it will go to my activity feed. The community area includes an evolution of the friend’s area compared to the current Xbox One home. So you can see my activity feed, the screenshot I just shared and using the vertical scroll, I can see a Game DVR clip from a friend; I can see an animated text post that we have decorated with an avatar which adds more vibrancy, and even friend’s suggestion.

“So strengthening your circle of friends on Xbox Live and helping you make more friends is something that is very important to us so we are adding friends’ suggestion right in the activity feed. When I respond to those suggestions by adding them as friends, my activity feeds gets automatically updated with my friend’s content which is super cool.

“Another feature is the Trending area which is about what is happening globally on Xbox Live. So I can scroll through it and see that Fable Legends is the most talked about game right now and Minecraft is the most popular game. We are also working to amplify players that are using Xbox Live more. For example we have players who edit a lot of Game DVR clips and broadcasting very popular Twitch streams, gamers who are reaching milestones like 1 million Gamerscore so we want to amplify those accomplishments on the home page itself.

“A lot of fan requests such as ‘Hey, I checked my friends list a lot and I just want it to load faster’ or ‘I want messages to be faster’ so you will see those icons to the left of the home. So I scroll to the left and I get the guide, which is similar to the one found in Xbox 360 but it’s reimagined specifically for the Xbox One. You can see friends list, notifications, messages, and even settings that I may want to manipulate while am playing the game. Of course, I will still be able to snap apps.

“So imagine if am playing Fable Legends, I just double tap the Xbox button and it slides out on the top of the game. You will see the game did not scaled down, you did not saw any loaders for the friends list to load, and it’s instant and responsive.”

That’s some fairly good news for players who like to launch parties or send messages and play games side by side. “One of the important things is to party up with friends and play multiplayer. In my friends list I can now start a party, I can send an invite so now I have a party status so I can go back to playing my game and can check my party status. Same thing with messages, I can see my full conversation history and also record a voice message and send it across. I can go back to gameplay which is all super fast and easy.”

Though there will likely be other features added to the update as we approach the Fall, speeding up the Xbox One’s user interface in nearly every aspect and area of the Dashboard is the top priority for Microsoft right now. Whether it will catch up to the speed of the PS4’s UI remains to be seen but at this rate, it looks to be a very significant improvement over the current status quo.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Fall update for Xbox One? Let us know in the comments.

Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight might not go back on sale until September (at least if some reports are to be believed) but an interim patch is apparently on the way for PC developers in August.

According to a recent Steam forum post,

“The update for existing players will be released in August. This update will address many of the issues we listed in our June 27 update. We will provide additional details as we finalize that interim patch over the coming weeks.

“We would like to thank you for your continued patience and invaluable feedback. We are continuing to monitor and listen for any additional issues and are driving towards a full update for everyone as quickly as we possibly can.”

Batman: Arkham Knight on June 23rd to strong reviews on the Xbox One and PS4. However, the PC version was panned and eventually removed from retail due to frame rate issues, crashes and overall shoddy porting work. We’ll update you more on this interim patch when August comes around.

Like the recent PS4 and Xbox One versions of Grand Theft Auto 5, Guild Wars 2 players will be able to experience their MMO in first person mode on March 10th. The new perspective will be coming by way of a new update which promises to let you use first person mode at any point in the game. It’s completely optional though so you can still run around in third person if that makes you comfortable.

ArenaNet has promised a live stream on Twitch today for what he first person mode could look like so look out for more details on the same.

The update also adds a few more interesting features such as an FOV slider, position slider, a new collision sensivity setting, etc. Guild Wars 2 also has its first expansion Heart of Thorns releasing later this year so stay tuned for more information on that as well and let us know what you think of the upcoming update in the comments.

The next big update for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft will be going live on February 24th according to the publisher.

Update 6.1 will bring a plethora of new features. Players will be able to take selfies, add Instagram-like filters and then tweet them out. There will also be a new Heirloom System and support for colour blind players along with new character models for the Blood Elves. But wait, there’s more. Blizzard will also be updating the visuals to implement new lighting and SSAO, MSAA, SAA and much more.

This update actually follows Warlords of Draenor, an expansion pack for World of Warcraft which contains a brand new world, new missions and much more to tide players over till the next expansion several years down the line.

What are your thoughts on the newest update though? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more information in the coming week.

Microsoft will resume its major monthly upgrades to the Xbox One console this February. The new update is currently in the preview stage and some interesting new options will be added when it eventually goes live.

One of those is Game Hubs which lets you find all sorts of content around a specific game. You can view which friends are playing a specific game, their place in the leaderboards, specific clips, and even follow the progress of top players.

Another heavily requested feature was added tile transparency to allow players to better view the custom backgrounds users set. It should be noted that some items won’t be made transparent due to usage rights/restrictions.

Another new features include improved control for TVs, set-top boxes and AV receivers; OneGuide for Netherlands users; live TV streaming to Windows Phone and Android devices; and much, much more. Head on over to Xbox Wire for more information.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection has received another patch on the Xbox One. After 343 Industries announced that it would be bringing Halo 3: ODST as a free update to thank fans for their support since launch, this latest patch brings the Spartan Ops mode to Halo 4.

This co-op mode essentially acts as a separate campaign in which friends can team up and complete different episodes amounting to 50 missions. That’s a ton of co-op content for this update.

Other additions in this patch include fixes to the matchmaking and lobby system including only starting missions when teams are even, players receiving losses if they disconnect before rounds have ended and an issue where players left matchmaking once their controllers disconnect. There’s been improvements made to Halo: CE’s hit registration and a fix to Halo 2: Anniversary to properly track Achievements during one’s Career.

Check out the full patch notes here and let us know what you think of the changes in the comments.

The PS4 has got a well known problem that afflicts many gamers around the world and that problem is, you guessed it, horribly slow messaging capabilities. Many users who use the entirely text based tools for communication with their gaming friends and co-workers have found the service nigh-unusable, despite a recent firmware update that was expected to bring a fix.

Though you can rest assured that the issue is a known one and that the problem is indeed being targeted for fixing. This was confirmed, albeit rather quietly,when good old Shuhei Yoshida responded to user questions about the service. One fan in particular told him it was still slow to send and receive messages post update, to which he replied “we are aware of the issues and our team is working on them”.

And in a separate act of professionalism and common decency he apologized for any inconveniences that the user experienced whilst using the service. Props to Shuhei.

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The latest update for Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5 has served to bring some Christmas goodies for GTA Online players including the Vapid Slamvan and Bravado Rat-Truck vehicles, a homing missile launcher, three new properties to own and Christmas items like a tree, Santa outfit and much more.

Interestingly, one neat little addition that wasn’t mentioned in the update was the fact that trees now realistically respond to wind movement. Check out the video above, provided courtesy of YouTube user Lukas Japonicus. We went back and reviewed old GTA Online footage and confirmed that this wasn’t present before – if it was, it’s definitely less subtle now with the new update.

Have you noticed any other new graphical additions and changes with the latest update to Grand Theft Auto Online? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information on the game in the coming weeks, especially since the PC version of GTA 5 is due this January.

Maxis continues to update The Sims 4 after launch and gives players the chance to further dictate the lives and careers of their digital denizens. The latest version of the game, 1.3.18.1010 features some new careers and aspirations. You’ll have some new careers in business and athletics to choose from.

Furthermore, each career has unique outfits, rewards and interactions to choose from. You can also take paid holidays, either through time off earned or as leave for your family, and there are also a bunch of new Holiday items you can pick up.

Simply head over to the main menu or gallery and select the banners. Despite the checkout process, you won’t have to pay a single cent for the additions. It should also be noted that the update has tweaked some goals in the game in accordance with player feedback.

Have you gotten your hands on the new and improved The Sims 4? Let us know in the comments what you think.

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