Game Bites: Pokemon’s Big Week, And Happy Trails To Dogmeat
Happy Tuesday all you lovely Nerd Caliber fans. If you are like me and got some video games during the Amazon Prime Day sale, you may have missed some news from the world of video games this week.
The Pokémon Company was in the news twice this week, once with a court case and another because of Pokémon Go. The court case was one that started in 2019 where two fans had leaked details of an unreleased strategy guide from Pokemon Sword and Shield with the court accepting a settlement in favor of The Pokémon Company. Each of the defendants, Bryan Garcia Cruz and David Andino Maisonave, will have to pay out $150,000 to The Pokémon Company for damages, legal fees, and other costs.
On to other Pokémon news, fans aren’t too happy with Niantic for changing features on Pokémon Go. Niantic will be rolling back and tweaking some of the in-game bonuses it introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s introducing some new ones in their place. Fans were upset with this since in a previous post Niantic had stated that they would be implementing these pandemic changes permanently, and with some players still in quarantine it will be hard to go out to play the game. To appease fans, Niantic will be keeping some of the bonuses and plans to implement new ones; the updates will happen first in the United States and New Zealand.
Sega had some news this week from its beloved franchise, Sonic. On its Japanese Twitter it revealed an image of what Sonic will look like as a VTuber. For those who don’t know what a VTuber is, it’s a virtual avatar that interacts with viewers in real-time by using facial and gesture recognition technology. Popular in Japan, VTubing is seen by some experts to be a possible future for content creation and the Sega team plans to use Sonic as part of a new broadcast program.
For Fallout fans, this Sunday was a sad event as River, the real-life dog that was the inspiration for Fallout 4‘s Dogmeat, passed away. River was used as the mo-cap dog for the beloved companion and even parts of her personality were used in the way Dogmeat would move and act around the character. Dogmeat easily will forever be one of the best dogs in video games.
We had a few long awaited titles come out this week. On the 22nd we had Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (Switch, PC), LEGO Builder’s Journey (Switch, PC), and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, Stadia, PC) On the 23rd we had one game released, Worms Rumble for Switch. Released on the 24th was Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC), a remastered Legend of Mana (PlayStation 4, Switch, PC), Roguebook (PC), and The Eternal Castle [Remastered] (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4). The weekend started with the release of Mario Golf: Super Rush (Switch), Scarlet Nexus (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 (Switch).
While it was a shorter week we did have some lovely new games to enjoy. Let us know which game you are most excited to play or which ones you got this week. Don’t forget to check us out every week for more news on all things nerdy and if you plan to go to the beaches this weekend don’t forget your sunscreen.
