Author: John Scalzo

John Scalzo is Warp Zoned's Editor-In-Chief and resident retro gaming expert. You can email him at john AT warpzoned DOT com.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 tees off on March 27

Are you ready to tee off in 2012? EA Sports has announced that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 27 (sorry Wii owners).

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 will Kinect/Move support, 22 professional golfers (including Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Bubba Watson), 16 courses, and “Total Swing Control.” According to EA Sports, Tiger Woods 13 will feature the “most significant leap forward in swing mechanics in over a decade.”

In addition to enhanced controller controls and brand new motion control, Tiger Woods 13 will include several new modes. In “Tiger’s Golf Legacy,” players will be able to relive Tiger’s career on the links from his child prodigy days all the way up to the present. And with “Online Country Clubs,” players will be able to create their own exclusive country club and compete with their friends online.

Finally, players looking for an extended golf outing will be able to purchase The Masters Collector’s Edition for $69.99. It’ll include five additional courses, the Augusta National’s Tournament Practice Facility and Par 3 Course, an authentic Green Jacket Presentation, and “a chance to explore the hallowed grounds like never before.”

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Silent Hill HD Collection will now scare gamers in March

Konami has informed Game Informer that the Silent Hill HD Collection won’t be available in stores on January 24 as previously announced.

The compilation package, which contains Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, will instead be released sometime in March. This new release date will actually push the HD Collection into competition with Silent Hill: Downpour, which also has a March release date.

That’s a lot of Silent Hill for PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers to handle.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Blizzard confirms Diablo III is coming to consoles

Blizzard hasn’t been shy about telling the world they were working on a “controller test” for Diablo III. However, they have also been quick to point out that a console version of the game wasn’t being officially announced as its release wasn’t a certainty.

But as of today, it is.

Blizzard Community Manager Micah Whiple was asked to confirm or deny the existence of the console version of Diablo III by another Twitter user and, with a simple “Yup,” confirmed that the game is no longer PC exclusive:

TaNGoIX:
@Bashiok can you confirm or deny Diablo 3 coming to consoles? Thanks.

Bashiok:
@TaNGoIX Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project.

Obviously, it is much too early to speculate about a date for Diablo III’s debut on consoles (or even which consoles it’ll appear on, for that matter). But confirmation that it’s a real game and not just a test is a good first step.

Posted in News | Tagged , , ,

Alan Wake, I Am Alive lead this year’s XBLA House Party

Toga! Toga! Toga! Toga! Break out the kegs and your finest bed linens, Microsoft is getting ready to hold another Xbox Live Arcade House Party this year.

While an official announcement is still forthcoming, Microsoft has added a House Party 2012 trailer to the XBL Marketplace highlighting this year’s games. The guests are a bit of a gloomy bunch, but futuristic warzones and darkness-based demons will do that to any life of the party:

  • Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the downloadable continuation of Alan Wake’s battle against Mr. Scratch.
  • I Am Alive, the long-in-development post-apocalyptic game where you have to figure out how to survive “The Event.”
  • Warp, the story of a teleporting alien who is trying to escape from a government lab.
  • Nexuiz, a futuristic shooter taking place in a Victorian arena.

A start date for the 2012 House Party promotion wasn’t announced, but House Party 2011 ran from the middle of February through early March with one new release a week. I expect a release similar schedule this year.

And if you’re away from your Xbox, you can check out the trailer at Joystiq.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , ,

Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition kills the kompetition on February 28

We all suspected it was koming, but today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment made the Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition official.

Mortal Kombat: Komplete will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 28, presumably for a bargain price. The package will include the original, award-winning game that was first released in April 2011, all four DLC characters (Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and Freddy Krueger), 15 Klassic Skins and three Klassic Fatalities (Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile).

If that weren’t enough, the box will also include a download code for a digital copy of the “Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors” soundtrack album and the 1995 Mortal Kombat film.

Awesomeality!

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Weekly Warp-Up: Winter Isn’t Coming Edition

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…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Winter… except, not really. Winter is nowhere to be seen in my corner of the good old US of A and I bet it’s pretty warm where you live too. Take that, Game of Thrones!

But I’m sure it’s January and I’m sure I’m sure because the latest edition of Warpback, What We Played in December 2011, was published this week as well as our look ahead at The Games of January 2012.

Of course, you can also tell it’s January by all the next-gen console rumors that have begun to circulate. You can read up on all the juicy PS4, Xbox 720, and Wii U rumors after the break… along with the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up. (more…)

Posted in News |

New Releases: National Geographic Challenge! for PS3, More (sort of)

Did I not warn you last week that the month of January would be an incredibly slow time for new releases? I hope you believed me, as this week the only new releases we’re going to get are…

National Geographic Challenge! for the PS3. A National Geographic-themed trivia game that has been available on the Wii and Xbox 360 for a few weeks now…

Play 101: Premium Games Collection, a budget collection of minigames for the PC…

And My Pet Puppy 3D, a pet simulator for the 3DS (yes, another one).

Once again, the download scene will supply us with several interesting new games this week including the helicopter sim Choplifter HD and the freaky horror show that is Amy. We’ll have more on those later in the week.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3 |

Pachter predicts Wii U launch will have poor third party support

My love for this graphic overrides my hatred of Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, so here’s another article where “The Pach” says something stupid…

Speaking to Industry Gamers, Pachter has once again spouted off on his predictions concerning the Wii U. Not surprisingly, Pachter is betting against Nintendo’s next console. This time, he cites his belief that the Wii U is “all but assured of limited third party launch support,” which will, in turn, lead to poor hardware sales for the system.

By trying to be ‘different’ with the tablet controller, they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers. Nintendo made the device sufficiently different that they are all but assured of limited third party launch support, which ultimately will lead to modest hardware sales.

To be fair, Pachter isn’t the only person questioning the logic of Nintendo’s Wii U launch strategy. And the company’s typical tightlipped tactics aren’t helping that impression any. However, the third party software that’ll be available at the Wii U’s launch makes me wonder if Pachter was paying attention during E3 11.

He goes on to say that Nintendo is in for a rough time if they treat the Wii U the same way they treated the Wii:

They should stop relying upon the strategy that got them here, as it appears to no longer be working. I think their resolution should be to look outside of Nintendo for leadership in the areas of digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming.

Really? Forgive him Saint Miyamoto, he knows not what he says.

Posted in News, Wii U |