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.

All NGP games will be released simultaneously as digital downloads

Sony’s commitment to releasing full-sized PSP games on the PlayStation Store has been a bit hit and miss over the handheld’s life. It’s likely one of the key reasons why the PSP Go has been dead in the water for some time now. But that will all change with their Next Generation Portable.

Andrew House, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, has told MCV that all retail games released for the NGP will be available day-and-date on the PlayStation Store:

House: One thing we learnt from PSP, is that we want to have simultaneous delivery in digital and physical for NGP. Just to clarify that, all games that appear physically will be made available digitally.

House went on to say that not all digital games would receive a retail release, as digital-only games allow for more “risky experiments”:

House: Not necessarily all games have to be made available physically. And having the option of a digital-only method affords more creative risk-taking, and that’s because you don’t-have that in-built risk of physical inventory.

Well done Sony, well done.

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MotorStorm Apocalypse indefinitely delayed

After similar delays in Japan and Europe, Sony has indefinitely delayed the April 12th release of MotorStorm Apocalypse in North America. No new release date was announced, but Sony has promised to keep us posted.

The game’s delay appears to be directly tied to the recent earthquake in Japan, which has affected the release dates of other games as well.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

Captain America, Thor games go 3D, get new trailers

Captain America and Thor will be hammering into movie theaters this summer in Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor, but Sega is also giving gamers the chance to control these titans of the Marvel universe in two tie-in games as well.

Yesterday, the publisher announced that Thor: God of Thunder would be released for the DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on May 3. They’ve also given a July 19th release date to Captain America: Super Soldier, which is also coming to the DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. A 3DS version is planned for both titles, but it won’t be ready until each movie hits Blu-ray/DVD this Fall.

And speaking of 3D, Sega has also revealed that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of both games will be playable in stereoscopic 3D. Because nothing says “duck!” like seeing Mjolnir or Cap’s Shield thrown directly at the screen.

Each game will support multiple 3D viewing options including anaglyph color mode using red and blue glasses for conventional displays, Side-by-Side & Top-Bottom modes for active shutter glasses and 3D televisions, and the higher resolution Frame Packing mode for HDMI 1.4 3D displays only on the PS3.

In celebration of the release date announcement, Sega has unveiled a new trailer for each game. Check them out after the break. (more…)

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Raiden lights up this Mortal Kombat gameplay trailer

NetherRealm Studios has released over a dozen videos for Mortal Kombat since announcing the game at last year’s E3 expo, but the classic carnage never seems to get old. The subject of the latest video is the thunder god, Raiden, and he has added plenty of light to the new Nighttime Courtyard arena.

As every regular reader of Warp Zoned knows by now, Mortal Kombat will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 19.

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Peter Molyneux has Fable’s future planned

Peter Molyneux was honored at the BAFTA Games Awards on Wednesday as the latest winner of the Academy Fellowship, BAFTA’s lifetime achievement award. He joins such luminaries as Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto. But like those other gentlemen, Molyneux is not done developing games, and according to CVG, he has very definite ideas about what he wants to do next:

“I have a very clear idea where Fable will go in the future. Trying to be diplomatic, I think that whatever we do next with Fable, we should just amaze people with the quality.”

“If we go on, we’re not just going to make another Fable, we’re going to make something that stands head and shoulders up with anybody else out there – the best of the best – in terms of its technology, its drama and its storytelling.”

Molyneux deftly tiptoes around making any concrete pronouncements about Fable IV (or even admitting the game exists), but as you can see, he’s certainly thinking about it.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Mortal Kombat hooks Kabal in GTTV reveal

The latest episode of GameTrailers TV includes the reveal of another Mortal Kombat character, the masked wasteland dweller Kabal!

Kabal has dropped his Elvis impersonation, but the hook swords and the Spin Dash special move remain, as does his dusty longcoat and Darth Vader-esque breathing apparatus. It might kill any MK cred I have, but Kabal was always one of my favorite characters (Stryker too), so this is welcome news. And check out his gruesome fatality in the video above.

Mortal Kombat will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 19. Which can’t come soon enough.

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Crysis 2 “Be Fast” trailer has superspeed and superawesome

Amidst all the back and forth over graphical comparisons of Crysis 2 on the PS3 and Xbox 360, Crytek has released a new trailer for the game entitled “Be Fast.”

“Be Fast” refers to the enhanced abilities of the Nanosuit that Alcatraz, “the savior of mankind,” possesses in his battle to stop the invading aliens from annihilating mankind. After all the explosions and gunfire, the trailer ends on a rather ominous note as Hargreave, the man who created the Nanosuits, tell him: “Enjoy this power while you have it, for one day, it will be reclaimed.”

Sequel hook? Perhaps. But until then, Crysis 2 will be in stores for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 next week.

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The 2010-2011 Video Game Awards Season

Beginning with the Spike TV Video Game Awards in early December and culminating with last night’s BAFTA Games Awards, the 2010-2011 “video game awards season” has come to a close. And after four months of awards, acceptance speeches and arguments, we have a clearer picture of what really were the best games of the year.

The snobbier segments of the game community love to decry the Spike TV Video Game Awards as an embarrassment and not representative of the feelings of “real” gamers. Typically, the show’s world premiere trailers overshadow the actual awards themselves. But the event is spearheaded by Geoff Keighley of GameTrailers TV and the winners are voted on by a well-respected contingent of game journalists, so I guess it could be worse.

That said, this year’s Spike TV Video Game Awards “Game of the Year” was awarded to Rockstar’s epic western Red Dead Redemption. Keighley and company spread the love as the remaining major awards all went to other games: “Best PC Game” StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; “Best PS3 Game” God of War III; “Best Wii Game” Super Mario Galaxy 2; “Best Xbox 360 Game” Halo: Reach; “Best Handheld Game” God of War: Ghost of Sparta; and “Best Downloadable Game” Costume Quest.

If Spike TV’s annual awards attempt to reach the mainstream, Time Magazine‘s top ten is the polar opposite, reaching into corners of the gaming world that are often ignored. This year’s selections are no different, including Alan Wake being awarded the #1 spot with iOS phenomenon Angry Birds at #2. The rest of the list was pretty typical, but the lack of Alan Wake’s spiritual twin, Heavy Rain, was the baffling part. Also, Limbo received its first love of the year-end awards with a sixth-place selection. (more…)

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