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.

Fear Effect Sedna, Scribblenauts Showdown, more added to Xbox Store

Posted on March 7, 2018 by John Scalzo

It’s time for today’s Xbox Games Store update, and it looks like two big franchises have returned to the spotlight on the Xbox One.

The Fear Effect franchise got its start in 2000, and the third-person action game was best known for its unique cel-shaded graphics and high-tension Fear Meter… which makes Fear Effect Sedna completely different. Sedna is an isometric Strategy RPG, and players will need to think tactically to defeat enemies and solve puzzles.

Also available today is Scribblenauts Showdown, which has stepped away from the dictionary-based puzzle-solving of the earlier games in the franchise. Instead, Showdown is a multiplayer-focused minigame collection for up to four players.

You can learn more about the rest of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged

Fragile Equilibrium is a side-scrolling shooter that also asks players to rebuild the world

Posted on March 7, 2018 by John Scalzo

MAGIC Spell Studios, one of the only publishing labels to publish student-created games, has announced they’re bringing Fragile Equilibrium to this year’s Game Developers Conference. Students from the Rochester Institute of Technology are developing the side-scrolling shooter, but players will also need to balance their attacks with rebuilding the decaying game world:

Fragile Equilibrium is a game about the imperfection and impermanence of life. It is a reflection on transience, a balancing act between progress and regrowth, and a reminder to find beauty in decay and inevitable destruction.

Using old-school shmup mechanics and form, Fragile Equilibrium invites the player to explore a world of quick actions, forced decisions, and subtle strategy: will you engage every enemy you can? Will you pass over a difficult encounter? Will you fire or dodge? But with each action or inaction, the player falls ever out of balance – too aggressive, too passive, too quick, too slow. And as balance decays so does the world, eroding over time and out of space, compressing the player to a smaller and smaller area, pressing in upon the mind. Built upon layered interactions, a Wabi Sabi aesthetic idealism, and a rich, broken world of times long past, Fragile Equilibrium invites the player to reflect on their play, their world, their nostalgia, and themselves.

Fragile Equilibrium is currently in development for the PC, and a playable demo will be available for attendees of GDC 2018.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged ,

Fear Effect Sedna, Scribblenauts Showdown, Bravo Team, more coming to PS Store this week

Posted on March 7, 2018 by John Scalzo

Welcome to this week’s PlayStation Store update, which sees the return of two classic franchises in radical new guises.

Square Enix will resurrect the Fear Effect franchise this week with the PS4 launch of Fear Effect Sedna, an independently-produced sequel that ditches the run-and-gun gameplay of the original games from 2000-2001 and replaces it with a slower-paced strategic style. Meanwhile, WB Games is bringing back the Scribblenauts franchise after a slightly shorter absence in Scribblenauts Showdown, a multiplayer-focused minigame collection for the PS4.

Also this week, Supermassive will release Bravo Team for the PS4. The PlayStation VR headset is required for The co-op shooter, which tries to immerse players deeper into a war-torn Eastern European city.

You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, PS4, Vita | Tagged

Outlast II will arrive on the Switch eShop on March 27

Posted on March 6, 2018 by John Scalzo

Red Barrels brought Outlast, their first-person horror experience, to the Switch eShop last week. Today, they confirmed that the sequel, Outlast II, will be available to download for Nintendo’s newest console on March 27. The sequel introduces new characters and a new locale, but it’s just as terrifying as the original:

Set in the same universe as the first game, but with different characters and a different setting, Outlast II is a twisted new journey into the depths of the human mind and its dark secrets.

Outlast II introduces you to Sullivan Knoth and his followers, who left our wicked world behind to give birth to Temple Gate, a town, deep in the wilderness and hidden from civilization. Knoth and his flock are preparing for the tribulations of the end of times and you’re right in the thick of it.

You are Blake Langermann, a cameraman working with your wife, Lynn. The two of you are investigative journalists willing to take risks and dig deep to uncover the stories no one else will dare touch.

You’re following a trail of clues that started with the seemingly impossible murder of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe.

The investigation has lead you miles into the Arizona desert, to a darkness so deep that no one could shed light upon it, and a corruption so profound that going mad may be the only sane thing to do.

Beginning today, Outlast II can be pre-ordered through the Nintendo eShop for $29.99.

Posted in News, Switch | Tagged

New Retail Releases: Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition, Scribblenauts Showdown, Bravo Team, More

Posted on March 5, 2018 by John Scalzo

Big sales and critical acclaim greeted the launch of Final Fantasy XV back in 2016. But if you skipped Square Enix’s epic RPG, the publisher is trying again with Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition. Coming to stores this week for the PS4 and Xbox One, the Royal Edition will include a new dungeon, new features (including a First Person Mode), and all content from the game’s Season Pass.

Square Enix is also bringing Final Fantasy XV to the PC for the first time this week with the release of Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition. Like the Royal Edition, it will also come packaged with the content from the game’s Season Pass.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, WB Games will release Scribblenauts Showdown this week for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Showdown takes the tried-and-true gameplay from the Scribblenauts series (including a dictionary with more than 60,000 words) and grafts it on to a multiplayer minigame competition.

Supermassive is one of the biggest names behind Sony’s VR push, and the Until Dawn developer is back with another PSVR-powered title for the PS4 this week, Bravo Team. In Bravo Team, players will need to make “constant split-second tactical decisions” as war rages all around you in a fictional Eastern European city.

And bookending this week’s batch of big new games, Square Enix and Deck Nine will release a Retail Edition of Life Is Strange: Before the Storm for the PS4 and Xbox One. The prequel includes the three-part game, as well as a bonus episode starring a younger Max Caulfield.

Finally, PQube will release Island Flight Simulator, 3D Mini Golf, and 3D Billiards: Billards and Snooker for the PS4. And Maximum Games will bring TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge, a motorcycle racing sim, to the PS4 and Xbox One.

And that’s it for this week’s New Retail Releases report, but we’ll be back in a few days with a look at all the upcoming additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One | Tagged , ,

Pit People: Full Version, Turok, Turok 2, more added to Xbox Store

Posted on March 2, 2018 by John Scalzo

Strange worlds full of bizarre creatures are the highlight of today’s Xbox Games Store update.

Developers don’t get much more bizarre than The Behemoth, and the “Full Version” of their turn-based RTS, Pit People, is now available to download for the Xbox One. Available through the Game Preview program since last year, the game’s final update will pit players against “sinister electrobots, deadly vampires, and brutally adorable cupcake people” as they travel across an apocalyptic wonderland.

Compared to a cupcake packing heat, a dinosaur with a gun seems almost normal. But there’s nothing normal about Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil. The late 90s shooters have been remastered by Nightdive Studios, and they’re also available to download for the Xbox One beginning today.

You can learn more about the rest of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged , ,

Detroit: Become Human will become self-aware (on store shelves) on May 25

Posted on March 2, 2018 by John Scalzo

In a new post on the PlayStation Blog, Quantic Dream’s David Cage has announced that Detroit: Become Human will be released for the PS4 on May 25:

Detroit is by far the most ambitious title ever created by Quantic Dream; with this game, we wanted to push our limits by creating the most bending game we have ever made. Your actions have real and spectacular consequences: there are entire scenes that you can see or miss based on your actions, your closest allies may help you until the end or die just after you meet them, your destiny itself can be totally different depending on your choices. You must also be very careful with your three main characters, because any of them may die at any time.

Cage is very proud of all the work his team put into Detroit, but he seems most impressed by the technical hurdles they were able to conquer on the PS4:

In order to depict the world of Detroit, we have also developed the most spectacular 3D engine we have ever created. We tried to push the limits of the PS4 as far as we could, with hundreds of highly realistic characters, full performance capture, scenes featuring crowds, all with a level of quality that we had never reached before. We have also imagined a new way of playing a story where you are in direct control of a complex story where any of your choices may have consequences.

In addition to the release date announcement, a handful of new screenshots from Detroit: Become Human have been attached to the PlayStation Blog post.

Posted in News, PS4 | Tagged

Outlast, Subsurface Circular, Scribblenauts Showdown, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week

Posted on March 1, 2018 by John Scalzo

The Nintendo Switch’s eShop got a little scarier this week.

With the launch of Outlast: Bundle of Terror, which contains the original game and its Whistleblower expansion, players can take Red Barrels’s demented romp through an insane asylum on the go for the first time. Also now available for the Switch is Subsurface Circular, a text-based detective game from Mike Bithell (the creator of Thomas Was Alone).

And on Tuesday, Switch owners will be able to download Scribblenauts Showdown, a multiplayer party game spinoff of the long-running franchise.

You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break. (more…)

Posted in News, Switch, Wii U | Tagged ,