Now that we’re clear of the murky depths of August, the gaming industry is finally starting to let loose its heavy hitters. We’ve had Metal Gear, we’ve had FIFA 16 and now the folks behind the Lego games are back, with their most ambitious effort yet.
Lego Dimensions is yet another toy-to-life game, in the vein of Skylanders or Disney Infinity. Both of those have premiered new installments over the last couple of weeks, but that doesn’t frighten Traveller’s Tales, who confidently bring us their latest game on Tuesday. Lego Dimensions has an edge over the competition, in that it combines seemingly every franchise under the sun. The game features intellectual property from (deep breath now) DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings, The Lego Movie, The Wizard of Oz, The Simpsons, Doctor Who, Back to the Future, Portal 2, Ghostbusters, Scooby-Doo, and Jurassic World. As well as that, it features the voice talent of (Second deep breath) Gary Oldman, Joel McHale, Elizabeth Banks, Charlie Day, Michael J Fox, Sean Astin, Hank Azaria, Dan Aykroyd, Alison Brie, Peter Capaldi, Dan Castellaneta, Christopher Eccleston, Bryce Dallas Howard, John Hurt, Matthew Lillard, Stephen Merchant, Chris Pratt, JK Simmons, Matt Smith, David Tennant and many… many more.
NBA 2K16 features none of those people. Nor does it have a scene in which Gandalf, Shaggy and Marty McFly share the screen. So I don’t really know why you’d bother. I guess maybe if you like Basketball. The game will similarly be released on Tuesday, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3. One curious tidbit, is that the games career mode was developed in conjuncture with film director Spike Lee. So expect a more story/character heavy experience than most sport games offer, as the filmmaker worked with real world basketball players, documenting their personal lives, in order to more accurately depict the athletes’ lifestyles.
Also out this week is the Fallout Anthology. No Fallout 4 is not hitting shelves over a month earlier than expected, but in anticipation of that game’s release, Bethesda have released all of the games in the series so far in one PC collection. That’s right, this is a bonafide collectors bundle, not like that PES one on Steam that contains only ONE game. So that’s the original Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition and Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition, all in one package. That should be enough to tide you over until 11th November right? The PC collection is available from 2nd October.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a 3DS release out on 2nd October. It’s a spin-off of the Animal Crossing series, which has you design homes for the cute and cuddly animal characters. The traditional life-sim elements of the game have been mostly jettisoned in favour of this new focus on interior design, which may set off alarm bells for some. As well as this, the game has received generally mixed reviews for critics.
Did you know that they still make Tony Hawk games? Well now you do! Tony Hawk’s Pro Scater 5 (confusingly enough the 10th game in the series) is making its PS4 and Xbox One debut on 2nd October, with a last gen release scheduled for November. The game boasts improved multiplayer and an extensive level/ skate-park builder for you to share your creations with friends.
