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.

Horizon: Zero Dawn’s Launch Trailer puts the game’s huge locations on display

Posted on February 27, 2017 by John Scalzo

Horizon: Zero Dawn‘s PS4 launch is upon us, so now’s a great time for Sony and Guerrilla Games to upload a Launch Trailer for the game.

According to Guerrilla’s Hermen Hulst, it was an honor to create Horizon: Zero Dawn’s expansive world, and he delivered this message to fans through the PlayStation Blog:

When we began our journey over five years ago, we wanted to have the creative freedom to imagine something fresh. As soon as we saw the enthusiasm from the team for the concept, and our lead Aloy, we knew we were on the right path.

The result of our voyage is Horizon: Zero Dawn – a game set in a lush post-apocalyptic world, in which Machines are the dominant species and mankind is propelled back to the stone ages. It is a game of exploration, not just of the perilous new world but also of Aloy’s identity.

Published by Sony, Horizon: Zero Dawn will be exclusively available for the PS4 on February 28.

Posted in News, PS4 | Tagged

CoD: Infinite Warfare’s Sabotage DLC Pack launches for PC, Xbox One on March 2

Posted on February 27, 2017 by John Scalzo

“Oh my God, it’s a mirage… I’m tellin’ y’all it’s a sabotage”

This is no mirage, Activision and Infinity Ward announced this morning that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s first expansion, the Sabotage DLC Pack, will be available to download for the PC and Xbox One on March 2.

The Sabotage DLC Pack will be available to download for $15 (or $49.99, if you opt for Infinite Warfare’s Season Pass), and it’ll include four new multiplayer maps and a new addition to the Zombies canon, “Rave in the Redwoods”:

“Rave in the Redwoods,” the next thrilling chapter of the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare zombies experience, continues the macabre narrative while transporting players into a new decade: the 1990s. Willard Wyler, the enigmatic movie director villain, returns and has trapped the protagonists inside another one of his twisted horror films. The four playable characters from the original story also return, but with fresh, over-the-top roles, as they learn more about Wyler’s evil plot while fighting all-new varieties of the undead in an abandoned, lakeside summer camp where zombie ravers have taken over and turned the grounds into a techno-fueled illusion. “Rave in the Redwoods” is a tense, spooky thrill ride with shocking twists, surprises, and a slew of new Easter eggs for players to discover.

Multiplayer Maps in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s Sabotage DLC Pack

  • Noir – A dark, grimy city map inspired by futuristic Brooklyn at night, Noir is a classic three-lane map set against a backdrop of a dystopian future, filled with cafes and parks surrounding a brutal downtown warzone.
  • Neon – A virtual training center designed for urban warfare, Neon is a unique, digitized battle arena where cars and other structures spawn out of thin air and enemies dissolve into hundreds of pixels when defeated. Middle lane sightlines will cater to long-range players while the outsides of the map allow for quick counter-attacks in close-quarter action.
  • Renaissance – Set in Northern Italy, Renaissance pits players against each other on the narrow streets of Venice surrounded by classic architecture and buildings that promote continuous action through the canals and neighborhoods of this iconic city.
  • Dominion – A re-imagining of the classic Afghan map from Modern Warfare 2, now set on Mars, Dominion retains all the memorable landmarks and gameplay of the original, anchored by the crashed ship in the center, with a few enhancements designed to take advantage of the new movement system.

A trailer for “Rave in the Redwoods” has been embedded above, and another trailer highlighting Sabotage’s multiplayer maps is also available.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox One | Tagged

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will be available as an Xbox Play Anywhere game and for PS4 on August 22

Posted on February 27, 2017 by John Scalzo

After that retailer leak this weekend, WB Games has confirmed that Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One this year. The sequel to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor will be released on August 22, and on Xbox One/Windows 10 will be able to access both versions of the game with a single purchase thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere program. And in a post on the Xbox Wire, the publisher confirmed an enhanced edition of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor will be available for Microsoft’s Project Scorpio this Fall.

Players will wield a new Ring of Power and confront the deadliest of enemies, including Sauron and his Nazgul, in a monumental battle for Middle-earth. With an original story featuring our two heroes from the first game, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will have you going deep behind enemy lines to forge an army in the hopes of turning all of Mordor against the Dark Lord himself.

Like its predecessor, Shadow of War will be developed by Monolith Productions, who want to implement an “expanded version of the Nemesis System” in the open world action game. According to the developer, “the robust personalization from the first game [will now be] applied to the entire world where environments and characters [will be] shaped by player actions and decisions, creating a personal world unique to every gameplay experience.”

An Announcement Trailer for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War has been embedded above, and stay tuned for the first gameplay trailer, which will be released on March 8.

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

Weekly Warp-Up: Countdown to the Nintendo Switch

Posted on February 26, 2017 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…

We’re in the home stretch now… Nintendo will release their Switch console/handheld hybrid later this week. The company has also decided to beef up the launch lineup by confirming that Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together, as well as Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, and FAST RMX will all be available to download for the Switch on March 3.

We’re also counting down to this year’s PAX East convention, especially now that the Indie Megabooth has announced they’ll have more than 80 games on display at the show.

Elsewhere on Warp Zoned this week, we looked at the unbelievable, and oftentimes ridiculous, origins of the Xbox in our latest Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time essay, this time focusing on Halo: Combat Evolved.

You can find more news from this past week, including the announcement of a new Futurama game and another Injustice 2 trailer, after the break. (more…)

Posted in News |

New Retail Releases: Nintendo Switch, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, More

Posted on February 26, 2017 by John Scalzo

It seems like it really snuck up on us, but “Day One” for Nintendo Switch is less than five days away. Nintendo won’t have a ton of games available alongside the launch of their latest console, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which is also coming to the Wii U this week) will surely keep most early adopters busy for quite a while.

However, a handful of other Switch titles will be available for those looking for a different kind of experience. Ubisoft and Activision will bring ports of Just Dance 2017 and Skylanders Imaginators to the Switch. Meanwhile, Nintendo themselves will also launch 1-2-Switch, a quirky multiplayer party game, and Konami will resurrect the Bomberman series with the SNES-inspired Super Bomberman R.

It’s rare to find new games for rival platforms during a new console’s launch period, but the Nintendo Switch will actually face some stiff competition on store shelves this week. Leading the way is Horizon: Zero Dawn, a visually-striking post-apocalyptic adventure from Guerrilla that’ll be released exclusively for the PS4.

Also available this week will be Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns (3DS), the latest farming sim from Marvelous; Torment: Tides of Numenera (PS4, Xbox One), a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment; The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (PS4, Xbox One), a Season Pass Disc that’ll grant access to every episode of the zombie-themed adventure; and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 + Arcade Game Series, a retail re-release of the retro reboot.

You can find a complete list of this week’s new retail releases after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Microsoft will definitely include splitscreen multiplayer in Halo 6

Posted on February 25, 2017 by John Scalzo

Many fans were disappointed in Halo 5: Guardians‘s lack of splitscreen multiplayer, and it looks like Microsoft will remedy that in future installments of the franchise.

Bonnie Ross, the Head of Halo developer 343 Industries, spoke at the 2017 DICE Summit this week as part of a session highlighting the “Stewards of a Sci-Fi Universe.” According to GameSpot, Ross confirmed during her talk that all future entries in the Halo franchise, including the upcoming Halo 6, will include splitscreen multiplayer:

“For any FPS going out forward, we will always have splitscreen in,” she said.

Halo 5: Guardians was released in October 2015, and Halo 6 has yet to be officially announced by Microsoft, so it might be a while before we don the Master Chief’s armor for a sixth time.

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged

First poster from Netflix’s Castlevania series revealed by Producer Adi Shankar

Posted on February 25, 2017 by John Scalzo

A Castlevania television series will make its way to Netflix this year, and Producer Adi Shankar recently revealed the first poster for the animated adaptation on his Facebook page. We still don’t know when the series will debut, but the gothic vibe that Shankar is going for is certainly evident in this image.

According to Netflix, the first season will be comprised of four half-hour episodes:

Inspired by the classic video game series, Castlevania is a dark medieval fantasy following the last surviving member of the disgraced Belmont clan, trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the hand of Vlad Dracula Tepe himself.

Based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, the Castlevania series will be written by Warren Ellis, and a second season is said to be in production for release in 2018.

Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro | Tagged

The Video Game Canon – Halo: Combat Evolved

Posted on February 24, 2017 by John Scalzo

Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at Microsoft’s first attempt to enter the console market and the birth of Halo: Combat Evolved. Here’s a teaser…

Microsoft is usually portrayed as the stodgy suit in contrast to Apple’s hip turtleneck, but would you believe that the first Xbox prototype was built on a whim by a quartet of guys from the company’s engineering department?

Kevin Bachus, Otto Berkes, Seamus Blackley, and Ted Hase first took their “DirectX Box” to Ed Fries, the head of Microsoft’s video game division, in 1998. Even though everyone in the world had played a dozen hands (or more) of Windows Solitaire, Microsoft wasn’t a big player in the game development arena at the time. Similar to today’s line of console-like PCs, the original “DirectX Box” was an off-the-shelf Windows PC with a video card and a hard drive that hid the Windows-ness of the system from the player.

Before the “DirectX Box” could move forward, Fries and his team had to fight off a challenge from a separate team within Microsoft that had worked with Sega to produce some of the system software for the Dreamcast. They were pushing for the company to create a more traditional console (no Windows, no hard drive), and Bill Gates himself ultimately stepped in to give his blessing to Fries and his “DirectX Box.”

[…]

[Eventually,] Microsoft toted their Xbox prototype, which was a massive X-shaped silver box with a glowing green core, to the 2000 Game Developers Conference, and officially announced their intention to take over the living room (with an assist from Bill Gates and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). A few months after that, the company purchased Bungie Studios and their upcoming game, Halo: Combat Evolved.

Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.

Posted in Features, PC, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged