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.

Red Dead Redemption sells 11 million; still no release dates for Agent, Max Payne 3

Posted on August 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

Take-Two Interactive released their quarterly financial numbers yesterday along with a little (well deserved) bragging.

Calling L.A. Noire “a breakthrough for games as a whole” and a “stunning accomplishment” that “sets a new standard for storytelling,” the publisher revealed that the detective sim has sold four million copies since going on sale in May. However, this number is absolutely dwarfed by Red Dead Redemption, which has sold nine million copies since its release in May 2010 along with another two million copies of the Undead Nightmare expansion disc.

But there’s always some bad news in these financial reports and in this case it’s the continued absence of Max Payne 3 and Agent from the company’s future outlook. Within the report, Take-Two provided solid release dates or tentative dates for every one of their announced games through the end of 2012… except for Max Payne 3 and Agent.

So don’t expect to play either game for a very long time.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged , ,

GameFly adding PC/Mac games this holiday

Posted on August 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

GameFly is basically the only game in town when it comes to renting console titles by mail. But this holiday season they plan to enter the much more crowded field of online digital distribution.

Starting with a closed beta on September 8, GameFly will begin selling 1,500 PC/Mac titles through direct download. The company will also offer a variety of free PC/Mac games through their “Unlimited PC Play” service. Both of these services, along with the traditional GameQ rental list, will be managed through a new GameFly desktop client. PC/Mac purchasing, “Unlimited PC Play” and the desktop client will be available to all GameFly members by the end of the year.

“We’re thrilled to bring digital to the gaming consumer in a meaningful way, as no other service or retailer brings physical and digital gaming together like GameFly,” said GameFly co-founder Sean Spector. “With a library of over 9,500 titles from over 300 first- and third-party publishers, GameFly members have the ultimate choice of how, what, when and where they game.”

GameFly members who are interested in joining the closed beta can request access at GameFly.com/beta.

Posted in News, PC |

Nintendo rolls out a new website for Zelda’s 25th anniversary

Posted on August 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

Somebody grab the Silver Arrows, because The Legend of Zelda series is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. After the announcement of that awesome symphony tour, Nintendo has launched The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary website which includes videos of the orchestra at E3 and an interactive history of the franchise.

Nintendo has also merged The Legend of Zelda with their popular Flipnote Studio software for a new contest that’ll be judged by Shigeru Miyamoto himself:

Starting today through September 9, DSi or DSi XL owners are also invited to create their own flipnotes, or short animations, inspired by The Legend of Zelda series. DSi or DSi XL owners can use one of three flipnote templates with music from The Legend of Zelda series, then complete and upload their creations via the Flipnote Studio application. Flipnote Studio is available as a free download from the Nintendo DSiWare service, and also comes pre-installed on select DSi and DSi XL hardware. Fans can also submit a paper entry by mail. The best Zelda-themed flipnotes will be evaluated by key Nintendo developers who have worked on the series – including Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi – and posted for fans to enjoy on the 25th anniversary website, the Nintendo Channel on the Wii console and Flipnote Hatena on DSi and DSi XL systems.

Finally, no anniversary celebration would be complete without games and a ton of new Zelda titles are in the pipeline for 2011 including the recently released The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, a free DSi/3DS download of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords in September and the long-awaited The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii by the end of the year.

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii |

A Saved by the Bell interactive YouTube game! I’m so excited!

Posted on August 8, 2011 by John Scalzo

Oh “Saved by the Bell,” when I wasn’t watching “The Simpsons,” you were my television show of choice in the early 90s. I’m just sad that I never got to play out the video game adventures of Zack, Slater, Screech, Kelly, Jessie and Lisa on my Super NES.

What’s that? Thanks to The Fine Brothers, now I can? The world is a better place today my friends.

Taking a few cues from the criminally underrated Earthbound, the “Saved by the Bell” series of interactive videos tasks Zack with helping out his friends. He has to make Screech cool, he has to get Jessie to stop taking the caffeine pills (“I’m so excited! I’m so scared!”) and he has to keep that perv Jeff away from Kelly (I mean seriously, the guy was in his mid 20s and Zack was the only one who thought it was creepy that he was dating the 16-year old Kelly?).

OK, maybe I was a little too into “Saved by the Bell” back in the day.

Posted in Etcetera, News |

Weekly Warp-Up: Dog Days Are Here Edition

Posted on August 7, 2011 by John Scalzo

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…

Get Warp Zoned!
August is here and that means one thing… we’ve entered the dog days of Summer the Warp Zoned staff took a long look at The Games of August 2011.

But if you’d prefer the month of July, we also compiled our biggest stories from last month into the third issue of Warp Zoned: The eMagazine. It’s readable on your Nook, your Kindle and that Kobo you just bought from Borders at 40% off.

Hit the jump for the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up. (more…)

Posted in News |

Sony announces their own Summer promotion: PSN Play

Posted on August 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

The Summer of Arcade has been a great way for Microsoft to launch new games on the Xbox Live Arcade over the last three years. So Sony has decided to hold a Summer promotion of their with the similarly themed PlayStation Network Play.

The promotion will begin on August 23 with the release of Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition. But PS3 owners will actually be able to “pre-order” any PSN Play pick five days before each game is released (and they’ll receive a free theme as a bonus). Hothead’s DeathSpank sequel The Baconing; Majesco’s BloodRayne: Betrayal sidescroller; and Sega’s top-down vehicle combat game Renegade Ops round out the PSN Play lineup.

Like the Summer of Arcade, gamers who purchase every PSN Play offering will receive a free game. In this case, it’s Sony’s Payday: The Heist (which is scheduled for a Fall release). And that’s not all! Each game will also include exclusive DLC and PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive 20% off any of their Play purchases.

Sony has promised that the PSN Play promotion will be a yearly event, so start counting down to PSN Play 2012 now! Or get your fill of information for the 2011 lineup after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged , , , ,

Eat Sleep Play blasts Twisted Metal with a delay

Posted on August 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

David Jaffe and his cohorts at Eat Sleep Play have some bad news for you: Twisted Metal has been delayed. The development team wants more time for “tuning and polish,” so the game will now be available sometime in the first few months of 2012. Twisted Metal was previously scheduled for an October 4 release date.

Jaffe assured gamers that this delay was the right move and confirmed that attendees of PAX Prime (in Seattle) and Gamescom (in Germany) would get a chance to play Twisted Metal later this month:

It sucks bad when games miss their announced launch dates. We’re gamers too and we know how annoying it is. It’s disappointing and frustrating and it really takes the wind out of your sails if you’re a fan that has been looking forward to playing a title for a long time. Thing is, you gotta trust me when I tell you that – with this extra time for tuning and polish – the game is going to be so much better than it already is. And if you played Twisted Metal and liked it at E3 or Comic-Con, or if you get to play it (and you enjoy it) at one of the August shows, just imagine how much more fun the final game will be with some extra time, polish, and love.

He even quoted Shigeru Miyamoto’s oft-cited saying in regards to the delay: “A late game is only late until it ships. A bad game is bad until the end of time.” We’ll see, Jaffe, we’ll see.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged , ,

Bungie’s “O Brave New World” documentary reveals New Universe is codenamed Tiger

Posted on August 4, 2011 by John Scalzo

Bungie has been celebrating their 20th anniversary in style for a few weeks now. From the excellent Bungie Day festivities on July 7 to the “official Halo handover,” the company has signaled over and over again that a new era is about to begin. To cap this celebration, the lads at Bungie have put together “O Brave New World,” a nearly 60-minute documentary detailing the beginnings of Bungie all the way through to their future. Their brave new world, if you will. Featuring interviews from the team, key industry veterans and various video game luminaries, it’s worth a watch even if you hate Halo.

Why would you do that you ask? Well, the doc includes a few hints about Bungie’s next project, which we now know is codenamed Tiger.

Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged