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.

Meet the Umbrella Security team in new RE Operation Raccoon City trailer

Another trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City has clawed its way out of Capcom and this one highlights the Umbrella Security Squad that’ll be hunting down Leon Kennedy and battling with the U.S. Spec Ops team in the zombie ravaged Raccoon City, circa 1998. Although why a team of badasses with cloaking devices care about a rookie cop in a town overrun with zombies is beyond me.

We also get our first closeup of the trenchcoated Bio-Organic Weapon from the game’s first trailer. Sadly, it’s not Nemesis.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will be available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this Winter.

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More Wii 2 rumors: iPad-like controller, HD graphics, 2012 release

More Wii 2 rumors have emerged, this time courtesy of French news site 01net (they were also responsible for the initial NGP leak). CVG has kindly translated the report and revealed some rather juicy details about Nintendo’s next console (which should make an appearance at this year’s E3).

According to the report, the Wii 2 is known internally as Project Cafe and will be very similar to the Xbox 360 in processing power. The technical specs bear this out as the system is said to contain “a custom IBM PowerPC CPU with three cores, a GPU from the ATI R700 family with a shader unit at version 4.1, and at least 512Mb of RAM.”

More impressive is the console’s controller, which will include “a six-inch touch screen, a front-facing camera, D-Pad, two bumpers, two triggers and ‘possibly more.'” Wow.

Finally, the system is said to be packed with backwards compatibility options. In addition to games designed exclusively for it, Project Cafe will be able to play GameCube and Wii games (along with support for all Wii peripherals).

But don’t expect to play it this year, the 01net report concluded with a release date of late 2012 for the system.

Posted in News, Wii U |

Pokemon Black/White dominate sales chart

The NPD Group has revealed the list of bestselling games for March and the latest Pokemon game, Pokemon Black/White, has caught the top of the chart.

Pokemon White Version came out on top with Pokemon Black Version just behind it in the number two slot. According to Nintendo, both games combined to sell nearly 2.5 million copies (over 1.3 million for White and another 1.1 million for Black).

New releases were well represented among last months bestsellers with Homefront (#3) and Dragon Age II (#4) both taking up residence in the top five. The bottom half of the top ten was also almost completely made up of new releases including Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (#6), Crysis 2 (#7), MLB 11: The Show (#9) and Fight Night Champion (#10).

Hit the jump for a complete look at the NPD Group’s top ten for March. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

MotorStorm Apocalypse shocks stores May 3rd

MotorStorm Apocalypse was originally scheduled to be released on April 12, but was delayed after Japan suffered a massive earthquake in March. Today, Sony announced the game’s new release date: May 3.

To celebrate, the PlayStation.Blog has posted a new interview with Game Director Matt Southern where he talks about “how the game will deliver one of the best racing experiences to date on the PS3.”

Sony has also confirmed that every new copy of MotorStorm Apocalypse will include a voucher for the Premier Pack DLC bundle, which consists of two additional (and exclusive) vehicles.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

“F**king Run!” in FEAR 3 multiplayer modes

Back when it was first announced, developer Day 1 Studios revealed that they had enlisted John Carpenter to bring some horror to FEAR 3. It looks like the famed director wasn’t only involved in the single-player campaign as his unique stamp is all over the game’s four multiplayer modes.

Check out the trailer above for some absolutely hellish (and awesome!) imagery or hit the jump for the full scoop on escaping the Wall of Death in “F**king Run!,” the Horde-like “Contractions,” the divide-and-conquer of “Soul Survivor” and the collector-fest that is “Soul King.” (more…)

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NetherRealm shows off Mortal Kombat’s King of the Hill mode

NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat is only five days away, but the studio is still showing off the game’s many, many modes. King of the Hill mode is the developer’s attempt to replicate the Mortal Kombat arcade experience through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. There’s an “I got next” line, a spectator mode with a cheering (or jeering) crowd and, according to NetherRealm, some surprises.

Awesome! And it won’t be long now, Mortal Kombat will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 next week.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Activision: “True Crime would’ve been an 85”

Activision’s Head of Developer Relations, Dan Winters, recently sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to talk a little about the megapublisher’s developer culture and possibly refute some of that “evil empire” talk. He also touched on the recently canned True Crime: Hong Kong and revealed that Activision actually had great confidence in the quality of the title. Its cancellation appears to have been strictly business (specifically, it wouldn’t have done as much business as Red Dead Redemption):

We think that the game was tracking to be a very good game. The question was really the size of the prize based on how good it could be. We are confident that thing would of been eighty plus. Eighty five maybe. […] But…The challenges in the market place right now, when you’re talking about open-world games that are going to compete with titles like Red Dead Redemption, expectations for the consumer are really high.

Winters would go on to hint that Activision might be willing to offer the nearly complete game to another publisher: “[True Crime: Hong Kong] would have been, and still might end up being, a very successful mid-tier opportunity for someone.”

Who can say whether Activision is really the evil empire or not? But if they’re cancelling a nearly complete game that they think is worthy of some great review scores, I’d say that’s pretty frickin’ evil.

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SSX to come down the mountain in January

Electronic Arts held a press event a few days ago where they revealed a little bit more about SSX. Most of the presentation should be familar to anyone who read the SSX team’s interview with Game Informer last week. But Creative Director Todd Batty did reveal one new bit of info about SSX: it’ll be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in January 2012.

Batty also confirmed that SSX will be playable at this year’s E3 Expo and that the game will feature “spontaneous avalanches,” which will no doubt make the descent down the mountain even deadlier.

I haven’t played an SSX game in ten years and this already sounds too awesome for words.

[Source: Joystiq]

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,