A fan lead project to remake Sonic 2 in HD complete with a brand-new vector based art style has released their first demo in over 5 years. Unlike the alpha demo of Sonic 2 HD that was released way back in 2012, version 2.0’s demo includes multiple stages and boss battles alongside a remastered soundtrack.
According to the project’s F.A.Q section, this fan game has been in development for 9 years – worked started in 2008!
“The idea of creating a high-definition version of SEGA’s classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2 first appeared on the website Alchemist Defined around 2007. An artist named “Billy” had drawn a detailed piece of artwork depicting Sonic about to fight the final boss in Death Egg Zone. The low-resolution sprites were brought to life in this recreation; both the background and the characters had been completely remastered. A number of video game websites quickly discovered the image and shared it with their readers. The question had been posed: “What would Sonic 2 look like in high definition?”
With this idea planted in the community’s mind and “Vincent” stepping forward to take the helm, the Sonic 2 HD project officially began in 2008.”
Here are the recommended specs for the 2.0 demo:
OS Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64bit
CPU Intel Core i5 2500
GeForce GTX 650 1GB
4GB RAM
400MB of disk space
Vincenzo Mastrorosato and his team are to be commended for their persistence and passion to keep this project alive and going for almost a decade. When so many promising fan remakes, sequels or tributes come to end due to burn out, project abandonment or legal issues it is refreshing when something like the Sonic 2 HD demo comes along.
Microsoft may have no public plans to mark the upcoming 10th anniversary of Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 but that hasn’t stopped a group of dedicated fans from working on a project that Microsoft themselves abandoned. For the first time in several years, the first major update to Halo Online will be made available before the end of September 2017.
Halo Onlinewas short lived free to play adaptation of Halo 3’s multiplayer component ported to modern x64 Windows operating systems and updated with original content and Sabre Interactive’s own proprietary online technology. The game was never publicly available and Microsoft only ever tested the game in a limited alpha state and beta tests in Russia between Spring 2015 and August 2016.
Fans got their hands on a leaked build of the Halo Online game client shortly after one of the initial Alpha tests in Spring 2015and quickly built the Eldewrito client/server that provided Halo 3 veterans a chance to relive the iconic multiplayer from 2007 on a brand new platform. While development slowed down and eventually splintered into two separate teams: Eldewrito and Project Anvil, things seem to have culminated behind the scenes in the first major update to the game just in time to commemorate a decade since Master Chief’s initial jump to the Xbox 360.
Eldewrito 0.60 can be expected to have three major pillars of new content and adjustments with this new patch. Dual Wielding was missing from the leaked alpha build that Eldewrito was based upon but it looks like the development team has added their own take on this Halo 3 mainstay. Another addition new to the Halo franchise that debuted in Halo 3 but has been missing from Halo Online is deployable equipment and now that alongside brand-new server settings, server browser adjustments and customization options are coming. The other two major categories for version 0.6.0 are Forge Additions and Quality of Life updates.
It would be disingenuous to write about Halo Online without acknowledging that Microsoft eventually ported Halo 5’s Forge and Multiplayer mode to Windows 10 and even eventually added a Custom Games Browser allowing players to the latest multiplayer suite and create new maps with Forge for free on PC. Despite the official backing of Microsoft and the marketing muscle that is implied – Halo Online has at least six games that are public and near full during the writing of this post. Halo 5: Forge returned just five open game sessions during the same period.
Halo Online has quite a bit of staying power, especially considering that the whole thing is community run and developed by a group of volunteers. Check out some dedicated highlights of Eldewrito 0.6 features taken from a recent Reddit post. You can also check out a preview of 0.6’s updated menu in the embedded video below.Sabre Interactive wouldn’t be shy away from the F2P online shooter genre – as they’re currently working alongside id Software on the recently launched Quake Champions.
Feature/Content Additions
Dual Wielding
Equipment Yes, we’ve completely fixed equipment (Bubble Shield, Trip Mine, ect.) and even have a couple new ones that were not in Halo 3.
Promising to allow players to “relive the era defining classic in beautiful next-generation environments” iRam Gamer’s first teaser trailer for their Shadow Moses project is a thing of beauty. Seeing iconic areas like the loading bay from the opening chapter of the original Metal Gear Solid, the chamber where your fight Ocelot for the first time and the highly decorated office that houses the fight with Psycho Mantis certainly brings back a lot of memories.
The Shadow Moses project is a fan run development effort to recreate the original Metal Gear Solid in Unreal Engine 4. This brief teaser trailer doesn’t actually contain any gameplay but we do get to see the model that the developers are using for Solid Snake. It looks like they are taking a bit of artistic liberty when it comes to the famous super soldier.
It will be interesting to watch the development of Shadow Moses over the next little while. Their public facing Facebook Page already has 12,000 subscribers and Shadow Moses has been trending on Facebook as well today. It may be only a matter of time before Konami’s lawyers sneak up behind them and pull this promising fan project away into the shadows.
It looks like one particularly dedicated The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Fan has decided to take it upon themselves to develop an updated texture pack for the nine year old Nintendo Wii / Nintendo GameCube title.
Running off of the very popular GameCube/Wii emulator Dolphin this project aims to clean up some of the standard definition textures while adding a bit of a touch of Skyward Sword’s art-style. This isn’t a complete remake but rather touching up assets that already exist.
Project developer Tomoya describes the upgrade as follows:
I’ve decided to retexture Twilight Princess GC! I wanted to keep the original textures, but convert them into HD format as much as possible, and also add a little Skyward Sword style. Twilight Princess was suppose to aim towards a dark look+feel, but failed miserably by the power of blurry/ugly textures. The game also lacks lighting effects and shadow effects, so I’m working on getting shader addons(ReShade, SweetFX, etc.) to become compatible with the game. I’m aiming to get SSAO or HBAO, and DoF to work properly. I’ve seen some people that had success with some effects, but no tutorial. I NEED SOME HELP WITH APPLYING THOSE EFFECTS! I really want to get Twilight Princess polished as much as possible. The textures, that I’ve done, are looking beautiful, but the lackluster of HBAO, SSAO, and DoF is killing the feel. I know it’s possible to get the effects working because I have successfully implemented HBAO and DoF on the Project64 ROMS(Majora’s Mask, OoT, and Conker.) So yeah…
Check out all of these visual upgrades in motion in the video below which amassed over 20,000+ views after being featured on R/Gaming. I personally think this looks absolutely amazing both in still screenshots and when streamed.
