No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
I don’t want to say that the Spike TV Video Game Awards have finally become a good showcase for the game industry, but I think they’ve reached the point where they’re no longer an embarassing one. The two-hour runtime was still mostly filled with “World Premiere” trailers (read: commercials) and the class of celebrity they trot out usually doesn’t have much to do with gaming or geekiness, but they’re trying. Look no further than this year’s Game of the Year selection, The Walking Dead, a point-and-click adventure.
Of course, the true highlight, as always, was those “World Premiere” trailers. This year, we got our first glimpse at The Phantom Pain, an intense action game that may or may not be related to the still-shrouded-in-mystery Metal Gear Solid 5. Personally, I think the dragon we saw at the end of the trailer puts the kibosh on that theory. But you never know with Hideo Kojima.
We also got new trailers for The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Gears of War: Judgment, and Halo 4’s Spartan Ops campaign. Assassin’s Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington made its debut in trailer form and Dark Souls II was announced to the shock of everyone.
One 2013 game that didn’t make an appearance at the show was Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. But we’re so excited for the Studio Ghibli/Level-5 mashup that we just couldn’t wait to reveal our hands-on impressions.
Hit the jump for more news from this past week, none of which happened at the Spike TV Video Game Awards.
The Week in Reviews…
- Assassin’s Creed III: New World, Old Problems
- Home Run Stars: Batter and Broken Ladder
The Week in New Games…
- This Week’s Releases: Far Cry 3, Mass Effect Trilogy, Resistance Collection, and more
- This Week’s PlayStation Network Update:Far Cry 3, Guardians of Middle-Earth, Uncharted: Fight For Fortune, and more
- This Week’s XBLA Wednesday: Guardians of Middle-Earth
- This Week’s Nintendo Download: Lego Lord of the Rings, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and more
- Next Week’s Releases: The Walking Dead: Complete Season, 007 Legends for Wii U, and more
Amazing Paperboy Delivers…
- Capcom will release Street Fighter X Mega Man as a free PC download on December 17.
- BioShock Infinite has been delayed again. It’ll now be released on March 26.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the best-selling game in November. Which is pretty obvious when you realize that gamers spent over a billion bucks on the game during the month.
- Retro City Rampage is almost ready to roll out on the Xbox Live Arcade and Wii Shop Channel.
- Journey‘s soundtrack has been nominated for a Grammy Award.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening and Brain Age: Concentration Training were given new release dates during the latest Nintendo Direct video.
- The second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy will begin in Spring 2013.
- The Elder Scrolls V “Dragonborn” expansion is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and will be released for the PC and PS3 in early 2013.
It’s A Secret To Everybody…
- Microsoft and 34J Studios are alreday planning the next Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition update.
- Sega and Creative Assembly have acquired the Warhammer license.
- The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Microsoft’s application to re-trademark Killer Instinct. The publisher now has six months to appeal.
And Finally…
Here’s a quick look at “What We Played in November 2012” and “The Games of December 2012” we’re looking forward to.
