Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Meet the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025: Quake, GoldenEye 007, Defender, and Tamagotchi
- The BAFTA Games Awards Polled the Public and Shenmue is “The Most Influential Video Game of All Time”
- 2024 GOTY Scoreboard: Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, More
- The Strong Museum of Play Acquires Prototypes and Development Documents from Volition’s 30-Year History
- Minecraft’s Volume Alpha Soundtrack Has Been Added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Fight Club, The Game David Fincher Didn’t Want You To Play – Time Extension (2025)
- It’s beginning to feel like gaming isn’t for everyone – Digital Trends (2025)
- 22 years later, modders are keeping SimCity 4 alive – The Verge (2025)
- The B-movies of Paul W.S. Anderson double as acts of devotion to his muse, Milla Jovovich – The AV Club (2025)
- Breakout, Ripoff, Genre: How Fiction Outgrows Originality – Uncanny Magazine (2025)
Monthly Archives: October 2014
Prey 2 has officially been canceled by Bethesda
Bethesda’s Pete Hines is at PAX Australia today and one of the first things he did was tell CNET that Prey 2 has been officially canceled:
“It was game we believed in, but we never felt that it got to where it needed to be – we never saw a path to success if we finished it,” Hines said.
“It wasn’t up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it. It’s no longer in development. That wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one that won’t surprise many folks given that we hadn’t been talking about it.
“Human Head Studios is no longer working on. It’s a franchise we still believe we can do something with — we just need to see what that something is.”
Prey 2’s troubled development cycle has been rumor mill fodder for a few years now. Last year, an internal email even hinted that the game was given to Arkane Austin and that all previous work by Human Head had been thrown out.
As Bethesda is pretty tight-lipped about these things, we’ll probably never learn the real reasons behind Prey 2’s demise.
Bethesda has released a BattleCry gameplay trailer for PAX Aus 2014
Bethesda is bringing a playable build of BattleCry to this weekend’s PAX Australia, but if you won’t be in attendance at the expo, the publisher has also released a brand new gameplay trailer of the game. Not only that, but Bethesda will also livestream their BattleCry panel, “Welcome to the WarZone,” tomorrow on Twitch. Just head over to twitch.tv/pax at 11:00 PM (Eastern Time) to take in all the steampunk-style shenanigans.
A beta for Bethesda’s free-to-play MOBA will be available sometime next year.
Nintendo Download: Stealth Inc 2, Costume Quest 2, a lot more
Nintendo has got a slick and spooky update planned for the eShop this week.
The NES and Super NES adventures of Firebrand the Gargoyle will make their eShop debut this week as Gargoyle’s Quest II: The Demon Darkness was released for the 3DS and Wii U while Demon’s Crest is now available to download only on the Wii U. A terrifying Kirby game, Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land, has also been added to the Wii U eShop.
OK, so Kirby is never frightening. And neither is Double Fine’s Costume Quest 2. But the Halloween-y RPG is also new on the Wii U eShop this week. It’s joined by Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones, a Wii U-exclusive puzzle platformer from Curve Studios.
More than a dozen other titles were also added to the Nintendo eShop this week including Falling Skies for the Wii U, Duck Dynasty for the 3DS, and next Tuesday’s Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (also for the 3DS). You can read all about these games (and many more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Costume Quest 2
Daily Scoop: October 30, 2014 – Transistor on sale
The Weekend Deal at Steam is – you guessed it! – Transistor by Supergiant Games. Get the game by itself for $9.99, or get it with the soundtrack for $11.99. The deal ends on November 3, so get it while you can!
Steam’s Daily Deal is King’s Bounty: Dark Side. The game alone costs $12.49, and the premium edition is $14.99.
There’s a brand new Humble Weekly Bundle – the Humble Halloweekly Bundle. Pay what you want for Knock-knock, Home, and Vertical Drop Heroes HD. Beat the average and unlock Betrayer, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Our Darker Purpose. Pay $15 or more to unlock Among the Sleep.
Now, it’s t-shirt time!
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Destiny’s first expansion, The Dark Below, will be released on December 9
While Destiny didn’t quite set the gaming world on fire, it did sell a lot of copies. So surely someone out there will be excited to learn that Bungie will release the game’s first expansion on December 9. Priced at $19.99 (or free as part of the Destiny Season Pass), Expansion I: The Dark Below will add new weapons and armor to the game, raise the level cap to 32, and include multiple new story quests:
After years hiding amongst the Hive shadows, a new character, Eris, has come forth bearing an ominous warning: The Hive seek to summon a god, Crota, to destroy the Earth. Find Eris in the Tower to take on special quests that include three new missions where you will increase your Light and earn new rewards.
The Dark Below will also include three new competitive multiplayer maps, a new co-operative Strike, and a new Raid:
- “The Will of Crota” (Strike), pits you and your Fireteam against Omnigul as she works to expand the Hive army at the command of her master, Crota.
- “Crota’s End” (Raid), set deep within the depths of the Hellmouth.
- “Pantheon” (Competitive Map), set deep within the Black Garden in an ancient Vex temple that features Vex-designed landscapes and tight corridors
- “Skyshock” (Competitive Map), an old interplanetary defence array that offers both vehicle and infantry engagements.
- “The Cauldron” (Competitive Map), an abandoned Hive ritual site that offers close-quarter combat.
Finally, Destiny players on the PS3 or PS4 will receive access to multiple pieces of exclusive content including another Strike (“The Undying Mind”), an Exotic weapon, and more. These gametypes and items won’t be available on the Xbox 360 or Xbox One until “at least Autumn 2015.”
CoD: Advanced Warfare’s “live-action trailer” is pretty unreal
What happens when you create a live-action that is so heavily augmented by CGI that it might as well be a cartoon? If you’re Activision, you throw in an Emily Ratajkowski (the naked woman from Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video) cameo and you call it a day.
OK, that’s not entirely true. This brand new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare live-action trailer was directed by Peter Berg (Hancock) and stars Taylor Kitsch (John Cater and Battleship), so it’s actually pretty great on it’s own. And Jack White’s other band, The Raconteurs, supplied the soundtrack (“Salute Your Solution” from 2008’s Consolers of the Lonely).
If all of this has you super excited, then you likely already know that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 4.
No Kinect or Move Controller? Play Just Dance 2015 with your smartphone
Are you just dying to play Just Dance 2015 but you don’t have a Kinect sensor or a PlayStation Camera/Move Controller? Don’t worry, there’s an app for that now.
The Just Dance 2015 Motion Controller app is now available (for free) through the iOS App Store and the Google Play store. And it’s the only thing you need (besides a copy of the game, of course) if you want to play Just Dance 2015 on the PS4 or Xbox One. The game interfaces with the app through wi-fi, allowing your smartphone to track your movements and tabulate your score. Up to four players can use the Motion Controller app on the PS4 while six players can crowd around an Xbox One with it.
“We’ve always strived to make Just Dance the most accessible dance game experience on the market,” said Jason Altman, an Executive Producer at Ubisoft Paris. “With the Just Dance 2015 Motion Controller app, we’re taking that dedication to accessibility to the next level by giving our fans a way to play Just Dance 2015 on PlayStation 4 system and Xbox One by using their own smartphones to keep score.”
Head over to the UbiBlog for more details on how the Just Dance 2015 Motion Controller app works.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Just Dance 2015
Nintendo has 12 Wii U titles planned for 2015 as sales continue to rise
Nintendo announced a ton of Wii U games during this Summer’s E3 Expo. A dozen, if you’re counting along at home. And within the pages of their latest quarterly financial report, the publisher has revealed that all 12 are still on track for release next year. In case you missed it the first time around, here’s what Nintendo has planned for the Wii U in 2015:
First Half of 2015
Second Half of 2015
- Devil’s Third
- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
- The Legend of Zelda Wii U
- Mario Party 10
- Mario vs Donkey Kong
- Project Guard
- Star Fox Wii U
- Xenoblade Chronicles X
On top of this, Nintendo even has a few games currently planned for beyond 2016, such as Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem and the currently untitled Super Mario Bros. 20. It’s an ambitious scheduled, possibly the most ambitious of Nintendo’s nearly 40 years in the video game business.
Thankfully, their financials are starting to turn around. Elsewhere in their latest quarterly financial report, the publisher revealed they sold 3.22 million copies of Super Smash Bros. For 3DS in September and 3.49 million copies of Mario Kart 8 since its launch in May. These two strong software launches were complemented by sales of 1.12 million Wii U consoles, pushing its life-to-date sales total past the Xbox One to 7.29 million.
Last year might have been “The Year of Luigi,” but 2015 might be “The Year of Nintendo.”
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS