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.

Weekly Warp-Up: PAX Prime 2012 Edition

Posted on September 2, 2012 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…

Are you living it up at this year’s PAX Prime expo? Did you get a chance to view the 11-minute Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer? How about Insomniac’s announcement of Fuse? Or Runic’s announcement of a release date for Torchlight II? Have you found the Arcadecraft devs yet? Or the big question, have you played the Wii U?

If the siren song of Seattle didn’t lure you in this year, there’s still plenty to talk about on this Labor Day weekend. Like 5 Video Game Characters Who Deserve a 3-Day Weekend or your favorite Nintendo Power Memories. We can even chat about What We Played in August 2012.

But if you’re looking for something more than that, have no fear, the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up is here (after the break)! (more…)

Posted in News |

Check out this 11-minute Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer

Posted on September 2, 2012 by John Scalzo

Hideo Kojima has invaded PAX Prime 2012 to give us a closer look at his newly announced Metal Gear title, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. The nearly 11-minute trailer above is very impressive and we now know that the game won’t star Solid Snake. Instead, the game will continue the adventures of Big Boss in the 1970s as Ground Zeroes is being positioned as a direct sequel to Peace Walker. Not only that but, according to Kojima himself, the game will serve as a prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but no release date has been announced.

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

New Releases: The Sims 3 Supernatural, Everyone Sing

Posted on September 2, 2012 by John Scalzo

We have to endure one more week of the slow Summer season before the Fall avalache covers us all in a blanket of new games.

But for fans of The Sims, this week sees the release of The Sims 3: Supernatural. The sppoky expansion adds witches, wizards, werewolves, vampires, and fairies to the Sims world as magical spells and shuffling zombie hordes.

Also available this week is Everyone Sing, which is being released for the Wii, the PS3, and the Xbox 360.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 |

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII announced for PS3 and Xbox 360

Posted on September 1, 2012 by John Scalzo

As expected, Square Enix announced a third game in the “Lightning saga” during today’s start of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary celebration. The game will be known as Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and it’ll explore the final 13 days of Lightning’s world.

Yoshinori Kitase, a Producer on the Fabula Nova Crystallis project, promises that the game will include “the answers to the Lightning saga” and we were given our first taste of those answers through a series of presentations by the game’s developers.

The game will be an open world RPG that makes use of the Paradigm Shift combat system. Players will also be able to customize Lightning’s armor and weapons as they attempt to save the world from its apocalyptic demise. You can more about the game directly from the developers themselves as Director Motomu Toriyama, Game Design Director Yuji Abe, and Art Director Isamu Kamikokuryo all gave lenghty presentations on stage in Japan.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Insomniac announces Fuse at PAX Prime 2012

Posted on August 31, 2012 by John Scalzo

Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price announced a new game during his PAX Prime 2012 keynote address. The name of the game is Fuse and Price directed audience members (and those of us watching at home) to FuseGame.com, where we were greeted by a countdown clock.

The clock expires on September 12 at 9 AM (Eastern Time). Presumably we’ll learn more about Fuse then. But if the screenshot above is any indication, Fuse is just a new name for Overstrike, Insomniac’s multiplatform “secret agents versus robots” actionfest that was first announced at E3 2011. Don’t believe, check out the official Overstrike site and compare.

Whatever you call it, we’ll have more information in a few weeks.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

Arcadecraft lets you manage an old-timey arcade

Posted on August 31, 2012 by John Scalzo

Of course, all arcades are old-timey arcades nowadays, however, that hasn’t stopped Firebase Industries from announcing Arcadecraft. The arcade management sim is currently in development for release on the PC and Xbox Live Arcade and it looks amazing.

Arcadecraft will allow players to purchase, position, and redecorate over 100 cabinets based on the 1980-1990 era of arcade games. These cabinets include a few titles clearly based on the classics including Crawlers (Centipede), Space Rocks (Asteroids), Alien Landing (Space Invaders), Gorilla (Donkey Kong), Son of Gorilla (Donkey Kong Jr.), Cybroids 1999 (Robotron 2080) and more.

Be sure to check out the trailer above and the screenshots at Firebase’s official website. As I said, they look amazing. And if you’re going to be attending this weekend’s PAX Prime expo, the guys from Firebase will be roaming the show floor as well. If you ask real nice, maybe they’ll let you have a private demo with the game.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

Skyrim’s Dawnguard DLC may not come to PS3 after all

Posted on August 31, 2012 by John Scalzo

Bethesda wants to reassure everyone that they’re still hard at work on the “Dawnguard” expansion for the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. However, a post on the official Bethesda Forums has many gamers wondering if the downloadable content will ever make it to the PlayStation Store.

A Bethesda representative said, “We have tried a number of things, but none of them solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone.” The rep also confirmed that the company is working with Sony on a solution but, “This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve.”

The developer has promised to keep the gaming world at large posted as to the progress of “Dawnguard” on the PS3, and we’ll let you if anything changes.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

Torchlight II hacks and slashes its way onto online stores on September 20

Posted on August 31, 2012 by John Scalzo

Two years after it was first announced, Runic Games is finally ready to announce a release date for Torchlight II. The dungeon-crawling RPG will be available to download from Runic Games, Steam, Perfect World, GamersGate, GameFly, and GameStop on September 20.

Runic Games’ CEO, Max Schaefer is particularly proud that the company could keep their promise of a Summer 2012 release: “We worked incredibly hard to make sure we could release Torchlight II before Summer’s official end. Development will continue right up until we ship, and we couldn’t be happier to be putting the finishing touches on a great game. We want to get it to the fans as quickly as possible. Honestly, we can’t wait.”

To celebrate the release date announcement (and today’s kickoff for PAX Prime), Runic has released a new trailer, which you can view above.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged ,