What a busy Thursday it has been. Plenty of massive news came to light today, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even though it means I have to take a break from Tembo The Badass Elephant, I will gladly do so to discuss today’s business. In today’s Gaming Daily: Pokémon gets some Unreal Engine 4 love, Bethesda announces Fallout Anthology for the PC, Nintendo partners up with Facebook to promote the launch of Super Mario Maker, a PS4/PC release date for Rise of The Tomb Raider is announced, and we take a look at the intro cinematic for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition.
Pokémon running on Unreal Engine 4 just feels right.
The internet is now booming with videos where random characters are placed into the Unreal Engine 4 Kite demo that features grassy, majestic landscapes. It was weird to watch Mario and Sonic run around this location because of the realistic setting, but today, we may have found something that works perfectly in tandem with the world. The same YouTube creator who posted the videos of the previously mentioned characters has posted a mash-up of the Unreal Engine 4 demo and Pokémon. As it has come to be expected, everything looks phenomenal, even the three original starters, Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. This works so well because before befriending a trainer, Pocket Monsters run around the wild. They are in their natural habitat.
Peep the whole video above. There was definitely attention to detail, as the little fire monster has a burning tail and even breathes fire, making it accurate to the series. Charmander’s eyes are unsettling since there is no blinking involved. His size might be a bit off, as the average for one of these little creatures is only about 2 feet tall. Other than that, everything is spot on. It only proves that Nintendo needs to make an open world MMORPG for the Wii U or the NX. Could you imagine a Pokémon Stadium using this engine? *drool*
HT: YouTube
Bethesda announced The Fallout Anthology for PC.
Bethesda literally dropped a bomb today at QuakeCon. The company announced a $49.99 Fallout collection for PC that will come bundled in a nice Fat Man mini-nuke package, which even makes an explosion sound. The package will include, Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tacitcs, Fallout 3: Game of The Year Edition, Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition, and will release September 29. Obviously it’s an insufficient amount of time to play them all before Fallout 4 is released on November 10th, but you can at least reengage with the series. This is all levels of sweet, I only wish it would make an appearance on home consoles. Oh, well.
Nintendo partners with Facebook to celebrate the launch of Super Mario Maker.
Here’s some weird news for you: Nintendo and Facebook have partnered up to promote the launch of Super Mario Maker. How that came about beats me, but through some deleted tweets that were captured by My Nintendo News, it was revealed that Facebook employees would be creating levels that would be featured in the final release. Now the Big N has issued a statement clarifying the whole situation.
Down at the FB headquarters, a hack-a-thon event will occur where employees will compete to create the best level in the game. The winning team will have their level added to the game after it releases, for free. An interesting partnership to say the least. Either way, go buy this game when it launches. If our glowing preview pieces haven’t made it clear yet, this game is a blast.
HT: Game Informer
The duration of Rise of The Tomb Raider’s exclusivity window has been revealed.
We finally have a release window for Rise of The Tomb Raider on PS4 and PC. After much reluctance from Microsoft and Square Enix to reveal any sort of time-table for the release on other platforms, we now know that Lara will be showing up on PC in early 2016, and has a nebulous “Holiday” 2016 date for PS4. That’s a significant period of time for PS4 owners to have to wait. The only way this deal makes any sense for Square is if they gained enough funds from the deal to make the potential sales a moot point. In other words, someone had to have shelled out a whole lot of cash to make this happen. Let’s remember that the franchise has a rich history on Playstation platforms, and even the reboot did better on PS4 than on the XB1, so it’s still a weird pairing. It’s a great get for Microsoft, because One owners will have plenty of exclusives to play at the end of this year. I still don’t understand why it’s releasing on the same day as Fallout 4. The deal is very short-sighted by Square. If they considered 5 million copies of the reboot sold as a failure, you have to wonder how many copies they expect to sell now that it will be releasing on a console with a smaller install base and a horrible release date. Only time will tell.
HT: Nerdist
Gears of War intro cinematic released to celebrate the game going gold.
Today, Microsoft is celebrating Gears of War: Ultimate Edition going gold by releasing the intro cinematic of the title. Going gold simply means that the title is in its final form and ready to be mass produced. I’d say that’s something to be excited about. Furthermore, the game can be pre-download today by those that pre-ordered the game, so you won’t be waiting around like a chump on release day. There are two different editions available for purchase: the standard edition for $39.99, and the Deluxe edition for $59.99. Those taking the plunge on the larger price tagged version will have the Deluxe Weapon Skin Pack that features 10 animated weapon skins and 36 standard weapon skins. Civilian Marcus Fenix and Aaron Griffin multiplayer characters will also be included in this version.
The game is set to release on August 25th on Xbox One. That’s the same day the Xbox One/GoW bundle releases in the U.S. for $349. Furthermore, new videos will be released in the coming weeks that will highlight some footage and give us insight on the process of remastering the title. You can check out both videos above. Through my short time playing the game at E3 this year, I can tell you that it looks crisp and plays better than ever.
HT: VG 24/7
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I’d call that another successful Thursday. If you’re into classic 2D action platforms, make sure to check out Tembo The Badass Elephant, which is a fun little title from Pokémon developer Game Freak, and is available on pretty much every platform. It could be a fun way to spend your weekend. Give us your thoughts on today’s news in the comments section below. Let’s talk, @collegescrubz.
