It's Unreal
E69: Unreal Engine 5 has been released by Epic Games.
Good morning gamers! Five years after the initial reveal, Epic Games has finally released Unreal Engine 5. The next-generation game engine offers tons of improvements including,
Improved 3D modeling which allows for massive amounts of detail and color
Dynamic and global illumination features where lighting dynamically adapts on the fly
Reduces the strain on rendering resources while maintaining a high resolution output
Introduces a new World Partition System which allows developers to simultaneously work on the same region, and layer different world variations in the same space (a major step towards improving open-world game development)
Artist-friendly tools that allow artists to model, animate and create new assets (including audio) directly within the Unreal Editor
A developer feedback system to help improve UE5 features over time
Now that the technical details are out of the way, which games are going to utilize the power of Unreal Engine 5?
Lyra, a multiplayer shooter developed by Epic Games which was used to showcase the power of Unreal Engine 5. It’s a living project that other developers can use to create their own games.
The new Tomb Raider game, announced by Crystal Dynamics during the State of Unreal presentation, will be using UE5. It is in the early stage of development and will unify the timelines of the original Tomb Raider games.
CD Projekt Red’s new The Witcher game, various Projects by The Coalition (likely including the rumored Gears of War 6) and Epic Games will use UE5.
Some other games confirmed to be using or switching to Unreal Engine 5 include Redfall, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Dragon Quest 12, STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl, Fortnite, Quantum Error, Layers of Fear and Ark 2 (amongst others).
Ubisoft - Work In Progress
Ubisoft Montreal is reportedly working on a brand new third-person shooter IP codenamed ‘Pathfinder’. Tom Henderson’s sources suggest that its graphics are similar to Hyper Scape but with “cartoon” style gameplay. It is currently in early development as a Battle Royale game, where teams of four are dropped into the map and must overcome a series of obstacles.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint will have no more new content. In January 2022, Ubisoft introduced in-game items as NFTs through their Quartz project. Ubisoft says that players who acquired those items “own a piece of the game and have left your mark in its history” and that they will continue to integrate NFTs in their future games. The servers for Ghost Recon Wildlands and Ghost Recon Breakpoint will continue to be maintained.
Rainbow 6 Mobile development is well underway at Ubisoft Montreal. The team is made of veterans from both AAA console and mobile games with plans of bringing the Rainbow Six universe to mobile. The game has been in development for over 3 years and they will begin testing it with real players soon.
Esports Corner
🥇 Congratulations to G2 Esports for being crowned winners of the League of Legends European Spring Championship.
The ESL One Stockholm Major has announced a major change in tournament structure for next month's event. There will be no direct playoff qualification or wild card matches; teams will instead be placed into one of two groups of 9. The top 4 teams from each group, as well as 5th and 6th seed will move on to the elimination brackets.
LGD Gaming player Chen ‘Jay’ Bo has been indefinitely banned from competing in any League of Legends Pro League (LPL) matches or from streaming League of Legends due to match fixing allegations. After an internal investigation, it was discovered that Jay was communicating with outsiders to drop matches during the 2022 LPL Spring Split.
DreamHack has partnered with Wizards of the Coast to become the official partner for all of the Magic: The Gathering Regional Championship Qualifiers and Regional Championships in the United States. Results from these events will help lead participants to the Magic: The Gathering World Championship.
Papa Johns is set to partner with 12 Super Smash Bro tournaments throughout the rest of 2022. The extent of the partnership is still unclear but the announcement also revealed 5 previously unannounced Smash tournaments, three of which are official Beyond the Smash events including Smash Ultimate Summit 5, Summit 14 and Mainstage 2022.
Gaming Roundup
The Witcher Season 3 began production last week. The Netflix original will have several unique directors throughout the new season.
Xbox is reportedly looking to host an E3-style showcase in June. Microsoft has reached out to their partners to secure big games for their event.
Remedy Entertainment have teamed up with Rockstar Games to remake Max Payne and Max Payne 2 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.
Halo Infinite’s multiplayer is getting a “Last Spartan Standing” mode. The free-for-all mode will see players' loadout improve as their score increases.
Warzone 2 will be completely different from the DMZ mode. All the maps will offer players different experiences through unique open-worlds.
Fortnite announced the arrival of Assassin's Creed Ezio Auditore and Eivor Varinsdottir. Darth Vader will also reportedly come to Fortnite soon.
Back 4 Blood announced their first expansion called Tunnels of Terror launching on April 12th. The DLC will have new characters, weapons and more.
Need for Speed’s next iteration from Criterion Games will reportedly release during the holiday 2022 season for Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC.
Sad Cat Studios based out of Belarus, released a statement this week condemning the war in Ukraine and announced plans to relocate.
LEGO and Epic Games have teamed up with the shared objective of making the metaverse a safe place for children to play.
Game Review - LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the definition of a successful LEGO game. The game has a wonderful open world filled with action and adventure with a blend of fun comedic relief. TT Games put an incredible amount of detail into the worlds, puzzles and side quests. The developer also improved the combat system that offers players more of a challenge than in previous titles, however, it is no Elden Ring. The gameplay was smooth and the ability to travel across the nine main movies and play as a variety of characters is a dream for all Star Wars fans.
The game can be improved in terms of the online multiplayer. The objective was clearly the campaign and because of that the multiplayer development suffered. The game could be successful for years if they improve the multiplayer and continue to support it with content from the Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett. If you’re a Star Wars or LEGO fan this is definitely the game for you!
We give LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga a score of B+.
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