Most Recent: PS3

Hydrophobia Prophecy out on Steam today with a flood of new features

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The PlayStation Network version won’t be coming for some time due to obvious reasons, but Dark Energy Digital is proud to announce that the latest iteration of their water-obsessed odyssey, Hydrophobia Prophecy, is now available on Steam. Revealed back in April, this version is an absolute tidal wave of new content, including “upgraded graphics, brand new gameplay mechanics, exclusive new levels, a reworked back story, a dramatic new ending, recast voice acting and much, much more.” Also included is Darknet, an upgraded version of their Listening Post, which allows you to give direct feedback during any part of the game.

Dark Energy Digital has taken serious strides to augment the original Hydrophobia since it was released to mixed reviews. We at Warp Zoned wish them nothing but success with this overflowing vessel of content.

Posted in News, PC, PS3 | Tagged

Daily Scoop: May 9, 2011 – The PSN outage continues

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Nicole Kline

The ApocalyPS3 is still in full swing, with Sony now admitting the service will likely not return “fully” until May 31. In case you hadn’t noticed, May 31 is 22 days from now. That is a ridiculous amount of time for the PSN to be down, bringing their total downtime to well over a month. I’m not sure what their welcome back package is going to include, but I think for some people, it’s going to need to offer to pay for the therapy they’re in right now as they’re going through multiplayer withdrawal.

And now, onto the deals! Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is LucasArts’ Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for the Wii. It’s $34.99 down from $49.99. I would definitely recommend it for the fan of the Lego games in general – sure, if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all, but they’re really enjoyable either way. I’ve been playing the 3D version on the 3DS and it’s been a pretty fun time!

Also, Brink is coming out tomorrow, and Amazon’s running a $10 promotional credit on that, as well as cutting $5 off the price tag on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. They’ve also upped the promotional credit for L.A. Noire to $15 for both PS3 and 360 versions. Click here for a full list of all bonus offers at Amazon right now.

Today’s daily t-shirt is courtesy of Ript, and it’s called A Moogle We Can Believe In:

Can we say Moogle/Chocobo ’12?

Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 |

Saints Row 3 character creator announced

Posted on May 7, 2011 by John Scalzo

Ninja? Pirate? Ninja-pirate? Naked ninja-pirate? The choice is yours…

First off, that’s the greatest opening to a press release in… well, pretty much ever. Secondly, ninjas and pirates are almost totally identified by what they wear, so there can never be a “naked ninja-pirate.” Although, I suppose if anyone could pull it off, Johnny Depp could.

All this talk of pirates and ninjas is because THQ has revealed the Saints Row Initiation Station, a standalone character creator that’ll be made available for free ahead of Saints Row: The Third‘s holiday release. But pirates and ninjas running around Steelport will seem relatively normal next to some of the other character ideas THQ has suggested:

  • Your favorite train wreck celebrity-turned reality TV star
  • Your least favorite overpaid prima donna professional athlete
  • A cape-wearing superhero (or villain)
  • Cowboys and Indians
  • A Dominatrix and her sex slave
  • Tag-team wrestling partners with sordid pasts

Players will be able to use the Initiation Station to create as many characters as they can come up with. These characters can then be uploaded and shared with all your closest friends. You can even download someone else’s character and change it to suit your own twisted imagination.

Oh yeah, Saints Row 3 is going to awesome. Or at least awesomely bizarre.

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

New Releases: Brink, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, MX vs ATV Alive, More

Posted on May 7, 2011 by John Scalzo

After moving up its launch date up week, Bethesda and Splash Damage are ready to release their parkour-inspired shooter Brink on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

If you’d rather travel by sea, then you should know that Disney and Lego Captain Jack Sparrow will release Lego Pirates of the Caribbean on every current system (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360) this week. Perhaps wall running and boating aren’t for you. Then you’d be well to know that THQ is bringing their latest off-road racing title, MX vs ATV Alive, to the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week.

Moving on from the “ways to get around” theme, Sega has Virtua Tennis 4 set to be released on the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 while Deep Silver is bringing Duke Nukem: Critical Mass to the DS. Let’s hope it doesn’t take forever for our next helping of Duke.

Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , ,

Brink boasts 100 quadrillion unique characters

Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

Like our Weekly Warp-Up, that is definitely not a typo.

With Brink‘s release just a few days away, the Bethesda Blog has posted some interesting numbers relating to Splash Damage’s parkour shooter. It seems, that when counting all possible variations, there are over 100 quadrillion (that’s a 100 followed by 15 zeroes) unique characters. That deserves a low whistle.

Here are some more stats, courtesy of Bethesda:

  • Voice Packs: 8
  • Number of ways to die: 45
  • Individual weapon sounds: 4,500
  • Lines of Dialogue: 26,000
  • Minutes of Music: 60
  • Weapon attachment combinations –
    Not counting for Resistance variations or pre-order content:     4,963
  • Unique Security Characters
    • Not counting minor tint variations or body types): 4,530,240
    • Not counting minor tint variations but including body types: 13,590,720
    • Including minor tint variations, but not body types: 15,775,119,360,000,000
    • Including minor tint variations and body types: 47,325,358,080,000,000
  • Unique Resistance Characters
    • Not counting minor tint variations or body types: 4,530,240
    • Not counting minor tint variations but including body types: 13,590,720
    • Including minor tint variations, but not body types: 18,307,441,152,000,000
    • Including minor tint variations and body types: 54,922,323,456,000,000
  • Total Unique Characters: 102,247,681,536,000,000

Brink will be in stores for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 10.

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

Burnout Crash! outed by ESRB

Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

The ESRB has outed the next game in the Burnout series, Burnout Crash!

In development for the PS3 and Xbox 360, the game’s Rating Summary describes the title as having a “top-down perspective” and “cartoony” graphics. Also, players have to dodge “oversized airplanes, tornados, lobster monsters, and UFOs” as they race for the finish line. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to declare that Burnout Crash! is likely in devleopment for the PSN and XBLA.

Here’s the game’s complete Rating Summary:

This is an action game in which players earn points for creating traffic pileups. From a top-down perspective, players initiate crashes by driving ‘cartoony’ vehicles (e.g., cars, trucks, vans, buses) into busy intersections; multiple crashes trigger score multipliers and rack up large ‘bills’ of property damage. Each level is accompanied by crashing sounds, small explosions, and vocal encouragement (e.g., ‘Cool,’ ‘Maximum Carnage!’). In some levels, players are instructed to crash into police cars (e.g., ‘Crash them before they bust you!’); in other sequences, oversized airplanes, tornados, lobster monsters, and UFOs slide across the screen, destroying any vehicles in their path.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

The Balcony is Closed: Whatever Happened to the Licensed Game?

Posted on May 6, 2011 by John Scalzo

In case there was any doubt, Thor and his mighty hammer have officially opened the 2011 Summer movie season today. What will follow is four months of blockbusters that will be heavy on action and even heavier on reviews comparing their visuals to video games. But as Hollywood and Redmond trade ideas back and forth, the once great institution that is the licensed game has gone by the wayside.

Okay, “once great institution” might be the nostalgia talking, but licensed games were always plentiful, even if they weren’t always good games. We all know the story of Atari practically bankrupting themselves to produce the woefully bad E.T. game for the Atari 2600. And Acclaim’s history of low review scores (and eventual bankruptcy) could be attributed to the company’s string of licensed games.

But titles like GoldenEye and The Chronicles of Riddick prove that a licensed game doesn’t have to be a cheaply made cash-in. They can be classics. Yet their number is decreasing, even as gamemakers have embraced the trappings of Hollywood during the development process. (more…)

Posted in DS, Features, PC, PS3, Top Story, Wii, Xbox 360 |

Next Week on Rock Band 3: Foo Fighters! Oh, and Run DMC too!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Adam Woolcott

Long-time fans of the Rock Band franchise are well aware that the Foo Fighters are one of the most prolific bands in the game – there’s well over twenty of their songs available in the Rock Band store. That number is set to increase this coming Tuesday, as the Foo Fighters are bringing four new tracks to Rock Band 3. That’s not all, however, as hip-hop legends Run-DMC make their Rock Band debut. Previously, they were only available in 2008’s Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Anyway, here’s what’s on tap for Tuesday, May 10th:

  • Foo Fighters – “Long Road to Ruin”
  • Foo Fighters – “Rope” X
  • Foo Fighters – “Stacked Actors”
  • Foo Fighters – “Walk”
  • Lordi – “Hard Rock Hallelujah”
  • Run-DMC – “King of Rock”

“King of Rock” is an amazing pick, though hopefully this leads to their “Walk This Way” collaboration with Aerosmith. Otherwise, my only disappointment is the inclusion of just one track from the great new Foo Fighters album “Wasting Light” – hopefully more will appear in the future… like, you know, the entire album. In addition to the all-new tracks, there’s two previously available Foo Fighters songs being enhanced for Pro Guitar:

• Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
• Foo Fighters – “The Pretender”

As always, each song will retail for 160 Microsoft Points, 200 Wii Points, or $1.99 on PlayStation Network… though as I said last week, the availability on PS3 depends on whenever PSN is up and running again. The two “legacy” updates for the older Foo Fighters tracks will set you back half the cost of a full song, as will the Pro Guitar upgrade for “Rope.”

Tune in next week for another run down of Rock Band 3 goodness!

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