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.

Ubisoft unveils Operator System in Rainbow Six: Siege with new trailer, dev diary

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege has mostly kept to the shadows since its debut at the 2014 E3 Expo. But today, Ubisoft was ready to reveal a bit more about the game’s “Operator” character selection system.

Each of the game’s 20 Operators will serve as unique classes during multiplayer matches. Some are designed for offensive maneuvers while others are better at holding defensive positions. Each character will have their own individual style, including a variety of different skills and weapons. Players will have to figure out which Operators will work best together for Siege’s heavily team-based play.

PC players will be able to get a crack at the first ten Operators by registering for the PC-exclusive Closed Alpha at the official Rainbow Six site. The rest of us will have to read up on each Operator at the UbiBlog, watch an Operator-focused developer diary embedded after the break, or join the Closed Beta, which is scheduled for later this year. Every PC, PS4, and Xbox One player who pre-orders Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege will be able to take part in the Closed Beta.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege is expected to launch in late 2015. (more…)

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Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Jaws of Hakkon add-on coming to PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 in May

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Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s first downloadable expansion, Jaws of Hakkon, made a surprise appearance on the PC and Xbox One last week. But BioWare stayed mum on when the add-on would launch on the PS3, PS4, and Xbox 360. Until now.

Today, BioWare confirmed that Jaws of Hakkon will be available on all other platforms beginning in May:

An exclusivity contract between Microsoft and Electronic Arts ensured that the DLC would launch on the Xbox One first, but a nearly two-month delay for the other consoles is a bit on the ridiculous side.

Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Project Root flies onto PS4, Vita, Xbox One on April 28

OPQAM has announced their overhead shooter, Project Root, will be released for the PS4, Xbox One, and Vita on April 28. If you’re a PlayStation gamer, you’ll be able to pick it up on both the PS4 and Vita with one purchase through Sony’s Cross-Buy program.

In Project Root, gamers will take on the role of rebel ace Lance Rockport who pilots the advanced F-72 Zonda hover fighter against the ruthless Prometheus Corporation. Taking place across eight different, huge and open levels, Project Root has players taking on enemies both in the air and on the ground, progressing with upgrades in firepower, armor and maneuverability. Gamers will utilize special weapon drops during battle, constantly evade a hell-storm of bullets and other projectiles, engage in frenetic boss battles, and strike at the root of the evil Prometheus Corporation bent on world domination.

Pablo Testa, the Technical Director at OPQAM, is ready to bring the formerly PC-exclusive game to console players: “We are extremely proud of our first game, and think that SHMUP fans, and anyone who enjoys a fast-paced and action-packed videogame, will have a lot of fun with Project Root.”

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

We Are Doomed will blow up PS4 on April 14, Xbox One on April 17

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Vertex Pop has announced that hyper-colorful twin-stick shooter We Are Doomed will be available for the PS4 on April 14. The Xbox One release will follow three days later on April 17.

Vertex Pop’s Mobeen Fikree wishes more games were as colorful as We Are Doomed: “What’s with the lack of color in video games? It bummed me out, so I added all the colors to We Are Doomed.”

We Are Doomed will be priced at $9.99 (€9.99 in Europe) when its released.

Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged

Live-action Halo 5: Guardians trailer reveals October 27 launch date

After all the recent delays, it’s nice to see a publisher push a stake in the ground and say, “This release date is mine!” Microsoft did that tonight with a pair of new live-action trailers for Halo 5: Guardians. Each trailer ended with confirmation that the Xbox One exclusive will be released on October 27.

In the first trailer, a very angry Agent Locke strides towards an injured Master Chief and prepares the execute the famed war hero over some kind of betrayal. Is the Master Chief guilty of some horrible crime against humanity? Maybe… but maybe not. The second trailer, which is embedded after the break, shows the Master Chief as the aggressor, and in a position to murder Locke. Which one is the truth? Maybe Microsoft can help.

The publisher wants fans to dig deeper tonight into the lore of Halo 5 with a new episode in the Hunt the Truth podcast. War journalist Benjamin Giraud (Key & Peele‘s Keegan-Michael Key) attempts to go back to the very beginning with the first official episode, “A Hairline Fracture”:

The second episode of the podcast will be available next week. (more…)

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged

Bruce Campbell joins CoD Advanced Warfare as world’s grooviest pilot in Exo Zombies Ep2

John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, Rose McGowan, and Jon Bernthal aren’t loud-mouth braggarts, but they are back to kill more zombies in Exo Zombies: Infection, which is part of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s second expansion pack. This time out, they’ve got air support from the world’s greatest helicopter pilot… who’s played by Bruce Campbell! And until I’m told otherwise, I’m just going to assume he’s playing himself.

Campbell gets in a few nice words while mowing down zombies with a minigun, but this is John Malkovich’s show as he narrates the new trailer, which was released today by Activision as part of the Call of Duty Championship. In case you were curious, the winning team at this year’s competition is Denial eSports. Congratulations.

The Ascendance Pack, and Exo Zombies: Infection, will be available to download this Tuesday, March 31, for Advanced Warfare owners with an Xbox One or Xbox 360. Aside from the mighty Bruce Campbell, Infection will feature the debut of a new zombie type (a heavily-armored ghoul), a new weapon (some kind of microwave gun), and a new trap (looks like a giant crocodile). The expansion will be available for PC, PS3, and PS4 players in about a month.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Weekly Warp-Up: A Bad Week For The Legend of Zelda

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…

It wasn’t a great week for The Legend of Zelda franchise. First, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata came out and said that the Wall Street Journal on a Legend of Zelda Netflix series was incorrect. However, Iwata only said that the original rumor was wrong, not that a Legend of Zelda Netflix series wasn’t happening at all. So we can all hold on to that slim bit of hope as we slowly realize that a Legend of Zelda Netflix series isn’t actually in the works. Also this week, the next Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda Wii U, was postponed by Producer Eiji Aonuma. He and his team want to make “the ultimate Zelda game” and they will not be constrained by your pesky previously-announced release date. It should be released in 2016, but we don’t know for sure.

On the other hand, it was a good week for NetherRealm Studios. The developer once again flooded the newswire with new Mortal Kombat X information and we reported on all of it. A line of MKK action figures, bobbleheads, and plushes is planned, a “Shaolin” trailer gsave us our first look at Zombie Liu Kang, it’s television spot riffs on 1993’s “Mortal Monday” commercial, and a new Kombat Kast introduced gunslinger Erron Black as a playable character.

Also this week, the Warp Zoned staff filed a preview of PAX East-favorite 20XX, interviewed 20XX developer Chris King of Batterystaple Games, and asked a bunch of developers which games they’d like to see enshrined in the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

More news from the week that was can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in News |

New Releases: MLB 15: The Show, Story of Seasons, Toukiden: Kiwami, More

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Batter up! Opening Day is just a week away and Sony wants to make PlayStation owners are ready with the release of MLB 15: The Show on the PS3, PS4, and Vita. The franchise is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and, with the demise of 2K’s Major League Baseball 2K series, its the only game in town when it comes to baseball simulations. The rest of this week’s lineup has a little bit of something for everyone.

XSEED will release Story of Seasons, which is technically the latest game in the farm-tastic Harvest Moon series, for the 3DS. XSEED recently acquired the publishing rights to the series from developer Marvelous, unfortunately, the rights to the Harvest Moon name remain with Natsume.

But speaking of distinctly Japanese franchises, Koei Tecmo will release Toukiden: Kiwami for the PS4 and Vita. The monster-hunting game is actually an expanded version of Toukiden: The Age of Demons, which was released last year solely for the Vita.

A pair of PC games will also be released this week as EA will launch the first Sims 4 expansion, The Sims 4: Get To Work. Get To Work lets you become a doctor, a detective, a scientist, or a shopkeeper in your quest for career fulfillment. Out There: Omega Edition, a space exploration sim, will also be released this week.

Finally, Square Enix has a pair of triple packs set for release. The Ultimate Action Triple Pack will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and it’ll include Just Cuase 2, Sleeping Dogs, and Tomb Raider. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Stealth Triple Pack will also be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but it’ll contain Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Hitman: Absolution, and Thief.

Play ball!

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