Most Recent: Articles

Dead Rising 3 story trailer rises ahead of November 22 launch

Posted on November 11, 2013 by John Scalzo

The Dead Rising franchise is probably best known for the copious amounts of crazy Capcom has crammed into it. So more than a few gamers have been disappointed by how straight Dead Rising 3 has played it. They ask, “Where are the zombie shenanigans?” This new “Story Trailer” for Dead Rising 3 doesn’t really change trajectory, but it does give us an idea of the sheer sense of scale of the zombie outbreak. Hopefully, Capcom Vancouver has a few surprises in store for us.

Dead Rising 3, and the Xbox One console, will be available on November 22.

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged

GAME announces additional next gen bundle deals for UK gamers

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Andrew Rainnie

gamegroup-logoIn addition to several previously announced packages, Video Gamer reports that UK retailer GAME has a number of new bundles they plan to make available to customers savvy enough to pre-order either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Both consoles will come with four tier options; Value, Movie, Premium, and Epic.

The Value package for the PS4 comes in at a cool £389.99 and is bundled with one additional game, with players being able to choose from the much anticipated Killzone: Shadow Fall, platformer Knack, as well as the latest entry in two of EA’s biggest franchises, Battlefield 4 and Need for Speed: Rivals. Curiously, there is also the option to take home Putty Squad, the remake of an unreleased Amiga game. There are also some sport options available, including FIFA 14, Madden NFL 14, and NBA 2K14. The Xbox One Value pack (priced at £469.99) also comes with the option of these sports titles, although gamers can get FIFA 14 or Forza Motorsport 5 free, in addition to another game. These include Ryse: Son of Rome, Dead Rising 3, as well as the EA titles mentioned above.

The Movie pack adds the option of taking home two new Blu-ray titles as well as one game for £414.99 for the PS4 or £499.99 for the Xbox One. Such titles include robot rampage Pacific Rim, hilarious cartoon comedy Despicable Me 2, and superior X-Men sequel The Wolverine. The hairy Canadian is not the only superhero in consideration, with Man of Steel and Kick-Ass 2 also on offer, along with British smash Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.

The Premium pack is where things get exciting. For the Xbox One, it removes one of the Blu-ray titles and replaces it with a 12-month Gold subscription to Xbox Live for a grand total of £509.99. The PlayStation 4’s Premium pack, priced at a cool £449.99 means you can take home two games and two Blu-ray films.

Last, and most expensive, the Epic Pack for the PS4 chucks in another Blu-ray film from the list, and includes a GAMEware starter kit including a headset, vertical stand, and a handy dual controller charging station, all for £484.99. The Xbox One Epic package comes with the same two-game, three-film combo, although no Xbox Live subscription, yet it sports a similar starter kit, but includes a Play & Charge kit, HDMI cable, and Kinect wall mount and clip, with a total bill of £549.99

The Xbox One is the first next-gen console out of the gate in the UK, releasing on Friday, November 22. The PlayStation 4 will be playing catch-up when it is released exactly one week later on Friday the 29th.

Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One |

League of Legends: What to Expect From Season 4

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Zackery Cote

leagueoflegendsseason4-header

League of Legends is the most popular video game in the world. According to a newly released infographic created by Twurdy, a League of Legends community, 32.5 million players log into Riot Games’ smash hit on a daily basis. That means that if every single World of Warcraft subscriber played Blizzard’s MMO in a single day when WoW was at its peak, League of Legends would still boast nearly three times the amount of players. In addition to its massive player base, League of Legends was recently the centerpiece of one of the largest eSports events in history: The Season 3 World Championships.

The Championship match was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the same building that hosts marquee events such as Lakers games and professional wrestling shows. If there was any question as to whether or not League of Legends could compete with such events in tickets sales, they were silenced almost immediately as the Season 3 World Championships sold out in 59 minutes. But Season 3 is coming to an end very soon, and Riot Games has been looking ahead to the next season, which starts tomorrow, November 12th. Over the past week, Riot Games employees (Rioters) have been posting numerous articles to Reddit about their plans for the new season to give players a glimpse of what’s in store. After playing League of Legends for two years with two accounts that are in Gold League, I’ve attempted to compile all the proposed changes for Season 4 along with my impressions on what these changes could potentially mean for the future of the game. (more…)

Posted in Features, PC, Top Story | Tagged

Weekly Warp-Up: PS4 Countdown Edition

Posted on November 10, 2013 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 just five short days from the release of the PlayStation 4. But before Sony’s next-generation console takes center stage, we took a look back at The “AAA” Game. Specifically, Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going, and Did It Kill the “Mid-Tier” Game?

The answer, by the way, is no. That is, if you subscribe to the theory that “indie” games are the new “mid-tier.” Which I do.

Anyway, gamers the world over also got to experience BlizzCon this week, and Blizzard did not disappoint. They introduced World of Warcraft‘s latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor, gave us another look at Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and confirmed that the PS4-exclusive Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition will include both the main game and the expansion.

Hit the jump for more news from the final week before the PS4’s launch. (more…)

Posted in News |

New Releases: PS4, XCOM: Enemy Within, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, More

Posted on November 10, 2013 by John Scalzo

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Part One of this year’s next-generation console extravaganza begins this week with the launch of PlayStation 4. If you haven’t already ordered one, Sony’s new machine may be hard to find, but peripherals like the PS4 Camera are plentiful. However, if you have the next-gen plunge, here’s what gaming opportunities you can expect to see on store shelves this week:

If the next-generation of consoles is still a bit too expensive for you (or you’re waiting for the impending Xbox One launch), there’s also a few current-generation games to keep us busy this week. XCOM: Enemy Within, the expansion to last year’s massively well-received XCOM: Enemy Unknown, will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. And the possibly final voyage of Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, will be released for the PS3. Finally, Mario & Sonic square off again in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games on the Wii U.

There’s more new games where those came from and you can find a complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , ,

Xbox One is useless without launch day patch

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Zackery Cote

xboxone-boxPatches and updates are things that gamers of all kinds have become very familiar with. In addition to major post-launch updates and downloadable content, many games receive small patches to fix bugs or tweak functionality. The seventh generation of consoles used patching quite well, as the Xbox 360 alone underwent almost three dozen software updates, and it looks like Microsoft is starting early with their newest system. A launch day one patch will be available for the Xbox One as soon as you plug it in. But this isn’t just some little update to the aesthetics of the menu screen or the functionality of the apps. This patch will be required to use the console at all.

That’s right, folks. According to Albert Penello, Microsoft’s Senior Director of Product Management, “functionally, you will be able to do very little without taking the day one update.” When asked what gamers could do with their console if, for some reason, their Internet connection wasn’t working, Penello told Engadget: “Nothing. You need the Day One update.” This means that even if you buy a hard copy of a video game, a physical disc that you can insert into the system, you will still be unable to play it.

Essentially, the Xbox One console that you break out of the box is an extremely sleek doorstop. This isn’t entirely new information, as it was mentioned back in June that there would be a day one update, but what we didn’t know was that the system would basically be useless until the update was downloaded. Apparently it’s a matter of “differences between the hardware manufacturing schedule and our software schedule,” meaning that Microsoft didn’t want to wait for the new software to start manufacturing the console, but it’s a rather sobering thought that you could buy the system and not even be able to use it. I suppose you should just call your ISP before purchasing the console and asking them outright: “Do you plan to drop service on November 22?”

Posted in News, Xbox One |

PS4 will receive Diablo III/Reaper of Souls “Ultimate Evil Edition” bundle

Posted on November 9, 2013 by John Scalzo

We all expected it, but Blizzard has confirmed that next year’s release of Diablo III on the PS4 will include the Reaper of Souls expansion. The BlizzCon 2013 announcement also confirmed that the bundle will be known as the “Ultimate Evil Edition.”

Players of Diablo III on the PS4 can look forward to experiencing the revamped loot system, same-screen co-op, direct character control, and online play of the PS3/Xbox 360 version. And the new Reaper of Souls content (including the Crusader character class, Adventure Mode, the Mystic Artisan, and Nephalem Rifts) will make the “Ultimate Evil Edition” the most complete version of Diablo III available for consoles.

Blizzard has yet to announce if Reaper of Souls will be released for the Xbox 360 or if Diablo III will be available on the Xbox One in any form. Even if the game is coming to Microsoft’s console, due to Blizzard’s deal with Sony, the publisher’s radio will likely stay silent for the forseeable future.

Posted in News, PS4 | Tagged

Blizzard announces World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor expansion

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Zackery Cote

BlizzCon 2013 started today, and Blizzard has kicked off the massive event with a massive announcement. The MMORPG juggernaut’s fifth expansion, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, will take players to the world of Draenor to battle alongside legendary Warcraft heroes. The expansion is set to take players back in time to face the likes of Grommash Hellscream, Blackhand, and Ner’zhul when they were at their most fearsome. More than just the setting, World of Warcraft‘s fifth expansion will, of course, come with all of the trappings of an expansion including new dungeons, raids, a new level cap, and much more. Perhaps the most interesting addition is that of the Garrison, which will be a personal base of operations for players to explore and expand throughout the expansion.

The level cap has come quite a way from the level 60 cap of vanilla WoW. And reaching the new level 100 from level 1 can be quite a daunting task, so Blizzard has added the option to instantly boost one character to level 90. The expansion will also add questing improvements designed to encourage exploration. This is presumably done to make the quests less linear. Another element to the expansion will be fully revamped player character models and animations for many of the older races, so that the vanilla races such as humans and orcs will be on par visually with the newer races from previous expansions.

BlizzCon attendees are currently able to play the expansion on the show floor, though there’s no official word on when the expansion will be released. But BlizzCon will continue through tomorrow, so there will surely be plenty of new announcements regarding Blizzard’s future projects.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged