Shpeshal Nick’s Top 5 – Gamescom Edition

This week, in the midst of a hectic Gamescom, I’ve decided to keep with the theme. This is my Top 5 from Gamescom 2019. This is anything that’s been shown or announced during this week.

5. Minecraft Ray-tracing preview

Look, I’m not a big Minecraft fan and I never have been. My daughter absolutely loves it but no matter how much I tried I just…didn’t get it.

However, I can appreciate beauty when I see it and what was shown of the Minecraft ray-tracing update looks fantastic. Almost like a different game. I feel like it makes a tangible and noticeable difference to how the game looks at a level even the most casual Minecraft player will notice.

I guess it’s unfortunate current generation consoles won’t see this, but at the same it’s exciting for the potential of the next generation consoles.

4. Ori and the Blind Forest for Nintendo Switch

Let’s be honest, this was one of the worst kept secrets in gaming for the last 12 months. One of the best metroidvanias ever made makes its way to Nintendo Switch. As someone who has long felt Microsoft should take their unique chance to turn the Switch into a portable Xbox, seeing games like this release on the platform is great.

While there’s nothing wrong with playing these games on a more “traditional” console, some of these games just….fit the Nintendo Switch and once they hopefully get updated to include Xbox Live integration for cross-save, there’d be no reason for Xbox owners to not double dip on these titles to be able to play them on the go.

But Switch owners would be doing themselves a disservice not picking up this modern classic.

3. Devil May Cry 5 comes to Game Pass

Game Pass continues to be the best thing to come out of this generation that isn’t a game. The sheer value it provides even if you’re only interested in Microsoft first party games is already fantastic. The fact that we’re now even getting recently released third party blockbusters is just incredible.

As someone who was looking to purchase Devil May Cry 5 soon, this was just an amazing surprise to wake up to this morning.

2. Sony Interactive Entertainment acquires Insomniac Games

While not entirely unexpected – nor surprising, this was a huge announcement. Insomniac’s track record is near flawless as far as I’m concerned and even Xbox owners got a taste of their quality with the criminally under-appreciated Sunset Overdrive.

After the runaway success of Spider-man, you have to think Sony wasn’t left with much choice. Particularly with Microsoft, Epic and other publishers currently opening their chequebooks looking for talent to acquire and Insomniac – quite frankly, was arguably the best independent developer out there.

1. Streets of Rage 4 – Cherry Hunter shown

Yes, there’s some bias attached to this choice at number 1.

Yes, I grew up a Sega fanboy and Streets of Rage 2 is one of my favourite games of all time.

Yes, I have been ridiculously excited about Streets of Rage 4 from the moment it was announced this time last year. Lizarcube did an incredible job bringing back Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap and Streets of Rage 4 looks to up the ante as the developer attempts to create a sequel to a beloved Sega franchise rather than remaster an existing title.

Those who remember the original Streets of Rage will remember Adam Hunter. Cherry, as the surname alludes to, is Adam’s daughter and she joins Axel and Blaze as the currently confirmed playable characters.

The trailer also snuck in the confirmed platforms for the game and as expected, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC are the platforms you’ll be able to pick up this hotly anticipated title on.