Most Recent: News

Weekly Warp-Up: Better Than Football Edition

Posted on February 6, 2011 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…

I think there’s some kind of football match going on today in Dallas. Madden NFL 11 says that the Steelers are going to win it all, so if you need some last minute gambling advice, you could do worse than making a deal with the devil that is Peter Moore (and his maniacal Satan-like grin).

Michael Pachter is a name that needs no introduction among gamers. The man considers himself the world’s premier video game analyst, but his track record at reading the industry is probably partially responsible for investor’s continued wariness when it comes to game publishers. Watch him embarrass himself yet again by stating that the “Wii 2 will fail” even though Nintendo hasn’t announced the Wii 2 yet or even released a “failed” home console. Pack it up Pachter, we could provide better commentary on the game industry than you can. That said…

Get Warp Zoned!
The third episode of the Warp Zoned Podcast is live for your listening pleasure. Mike Gutierrez, Nicole Kline, and Ryan Littlefield talk about the games they’re playing, the games they’ve been busy reviewing, and the games they worked on at last week’s Global Game Jam. They also talked about the 3DS vs. the NGP and why they are – or aren’t – going to be buying those systems on launch day.

We also dug through hundreds of YouTube channels to creat the definitive list of official publisher/developer channels that we call the Guide to Gaming Videos on YouTube.

Hit the jump for the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up. (more…)

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Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood wins Writers Guild Award

Posted on February 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and its writing team of Patrice Desilets, Jeffrey Yohalem, Corey May (Story); Jeffrey Yohalem (Lead Script Writer); Ethan Petty, Nicholas Grimwood and Matt Turner (Script Writers) won the Writers Guild Award for Videogame Writing last night.

Facing stiff competition from Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, God of War III, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Singularity, the Ubisoft Montreal-developed Brotherhood has been praised for the way it wove real-life political figures into its story and its shocking ending.

Interestingly enough, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood wasn’t even nominated in the Best Writing category for the Game Developers Choice Awards or the Outstanding Achievement in Story category for the AIAS’ Interactive Achievement Awards.

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Angry Birds flying onto 3DS this year

Posted on February 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

A series of tweets on Rovio’s Twitter account have revealed that the publisher is bringing all three versions of Angry Birds to the 3DS this year.

The games (Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio) will be downloadable through the 3DS’ eShop (which doesn’t come online until May). It’s unknown if they’ll be bundled together, or sold separately as individual games. This news comes one day after Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime slammed $1 mobile games, though he referred to Angry Birds as “a great piece of experience.”

Hit the break for all the non-angry Rovio tweets that confirm this news. (more…)

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Pac-Man and Galaga reimagined for 3DS

Posted on February 5, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Namco Bandai announced yesterday that two of their most legendary franchises will see new treatments taking advantage of some of the Nintendo 3DS’ more distinctive features. No specific release date was mentioned, but sometime this year the publisher will release Pac-Man and Galaga Dimensions, one package including the new Pac-Man Tilt and Galaga 3D Impact. Both games heavily utilize the 3DS’ gyroscope; Pac-Man Tilt has players, you guessed it, tilting their 3DS from side to side to work Pac-Man through 2D platforming levels while Galaga 3D Impact has you play from the seat of a turret, moving around to locate and shoot down the Galaga forces coming at you.

Both games seem to deviate greatly from from the formulas we’ve all grown accustomed to, but it’s definitely a cool thing to see them make new gameplay types using all the 3DS has to offer, instead of just giving us the same game from the 80’s in 3D.

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New Releases: Mario Sports Mix, Test Drive Unlimited 2, You Don’t Know Jack, More

Posted on February 5, 2011 by John Scalzo

After you’re done watching the Packers and Steelers in tomorrow’s Super Bowl, Mario and friends has five more sports for you to enjoy with Mario Sports Mix on the Wii.

Also available this week is Atari’s open world racer Test Drive Unlimited 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) and the return of the irreverent trivia series You Don’t Know Jack (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360).

Speaking of returns, Dr. Kawashima is back in the brain training game with Body and Brain Connection, an Xbox 360 Kinect exclusive. And finally, Tecmo Koei plans to release Trinity: Souls of Zill O’ll, an action RPG for the PS3.

The full list of the rest of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)

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Pink Knight coming to PSN Castle Crashers February 8, XBL later

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The Behemoth announced that the most requested playable character will soon be joining Castle Crashers – the pink knight. She (or he) comes bundled with a lollipop and four other new weapons to form the Pink Knight pack, which will be available for $1.99 (ok, not so cool) from the PlayStation Store. All sales will be donated to Breast Cancer Research (ok, this is actually pretty cool). The DLC hits PSN on February 8th and XBL at a later date.

It’s great to see this game making waves, even three years after its initial release. Senior Editor Nicole Kline and I have been eagerly waiting throw down on some co-op in this beat ’em up ever since the PSN version was announced, but for some reason we never took the plunge. I’d be willing to bet money (and possibly my life) this announcement is more than enough to push her over the edge, as The Behemoth properly noted “Warning: Adorable.”

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Dirt 3 getting global release May 24

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Codemasters announced via Facebook today that the latest entry in their acclaimed rally racing franchise, Dirt 3, will be launching in all regions on May 24, 2011. The franchise previously went by the title Colin McRae: Dirt in European countires, but this is the first game in the series to completely drop McRae, the Scottish racer who died in 2007, from the title.

Dirt 3 will feature split screen, cockpit view, and a new racing mode, gymkhana. The game will be available on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

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Ridge Racer Unbounded burns out on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 in 2012

Posted on February 4, 2011 by John Scalzo

Everyone seems to love the Burnout series. And Namco Bandai seems to love it so much that they’ve decided the next entry in the Ridge Racer series should follow in the tire tracks of one of Burnout’s famous wrecks.

Ridge Racer Unbounded is their Burnout-inspired racer and it’ll be released in 2012 on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The game will be developed by Bugbear Entertainment, the team behind the equally irresponsible FlatOut series.

For a sneak peak at all the Unbounded racing action, hit the break for a teaser trailer featuring Ridge Racer’s famous race girl Reiko. (more…)

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