Most Recent: Xbox 360

Brink Hands-On Preview: Bringing the Customizable Fun

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Brink was playable at PAX East this weekend, and it was fun. Not that I’m surprised – I’ve been kind of keeping myself out of the loop for this one on purpose because everything I hear is more of what I want, and that makes me want to remain spoiler-free. But being in the media makes it impossible to do that, and I was excited to get some hands-on time with the game. Brink is being developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda, and focuses on the acrobatic parkour style that’s becoming more common in games (see also Mirror’s Edge). There are two factions, the Resistance and Security, who are vying for control of a city called the Ark. The Ark is a floating city, built to house 5,000 people – but now, Earth has been flooded, and tens of thousands more fight to take control of the city, which is now on the “brink” (see what they did there?) of a civil war. (more…)

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

Earthquake affecting Japanese game market

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The recent earthquake in Japan has severely hurt the country. Not to downplay the gravity of the devastation, but the gaming market has been affected as well. New Marvel vs. Capcom 3 DLC, Yakuza: Of the End, and Motorstorm: Apocalypse have been delayed, the last two of which focus heavily on the aftermath of cities being destroyed. Disaster Report 4, the first entry of the series to hit the PlayStation 3, has been flat out cancelled. The game begins with an earthquake hitting Japan.

Nintendo has also delayed Steel Diver, their submarine simulator for the 3DS. It’s unknown if this delay will affect the game’s March 27 release in the US.

Many services have also been affected. Square Enix has temporarily shut down the servers for its MMO’s Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. PlayStation Info and Repair centers have been halted for now and PlayStation Network access may be iffy. If you’re in Japan right now, your focus should obviously be on getting safe, but we’ll keep up with the news on how these games and services fare throughout the crisis.

[Source: Andriasang]

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“This Ain’t No Place for a Hero” – Batman: Arkham City gameplay trailer revealed

Posted on March 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

WB Games has uncloaked the first gameplay trailer for Batman: Arkham City. The two minute clip is titled “This Ain’t No Place for a Hero” and details the dangerous days (and wide open world) of the new Arkham City. Hugo Strange, Catwoman, Two-Face, Harley Quinn and The Clown Prince of Crime himself all make an appearance in the trailer, which closes with someone telling The Joker “It was all a lie, there’s nothing wrong with you.”

Batman: Arkham City will be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 18.

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Interview: Augmenting Deus Ex: Human Revolution With Game Director Jean-Francois Dugas

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Warp Zoned Staff

One of the more high profile developers we got to interview at PAX East 2011 was Jean-Francois Dugas, Game Director on Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Eidos Montreal hopes the upcoming sequel will establish the franchise as a dominant force in gaming, but it’s been a long journey for Dugas and his team in their attempt to accomplish that. Throughout the interview we talk about the challenges of reviving an older franchise, their unique relationship with their Japanese publisher, Warren Spector’s feedback, and influences from movies to anime to Metal Gear to… Professor Layton? (more…)

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Prey 2 stalks PC, PS3, Xbox 360 in 2012

Posted on March 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Bethesda Softworks has announced they plan to publish Prey 2 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012.

First announced back in 2008, the Elder Scrolls publisher acquired the rights to Prey 2 a year later. The game is being developed by Human Head (who also worked on Prey) and will make use of the id Tech 5 engine.

“We are thrilled to be working with Bethesda on Prey 2,” said Chris Rhinehart, project lead. “Prey 2 will provide gamers the opportunity to explore a new facet of the Prey universe, one that offers fast-paced action in an open, alien world. We’re excited to show gamers the title we have been working on and hope they will be as excited by this title as we are.”

More information on Prey 2 will be revealed in the May issues of Official Xbox Magazine and PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

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Battle: Los Angeles sneaks onto XBLA

Posted on March 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

While Aaron Eckhart and the rest of the Battle: Los Angeles cast were pushing the movie to a blockbuster debut at the box office this weekend, Konami was quietly adding the film’s Xbox 360 adaptation to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Available to download for 800 Microsoft Points ($10), Battle: Los Angeles was developed by Saber Interactive as a first person shooter companion to the film. Players are placed in the boots of Corporal Lee Imlay as he fights the interstellar invasion alongside characters from the movie. Xbox 360 owners with a 3D TV will be able to splatter the aliens in style with a special stereoscopic 3D mode.

Battle: Los Angeles will be available to download through the PlayStation Network on March 22. It’ll also be added to Steam sometime later this month.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution inspired by Blade Runner, RoboCop and… Professor Layton?

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Warp Zoned Staff

Eidos Montreal set up shop at this weekend’s PAX East show to talk about their upcoming game Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The prequel to the Warren Spector-created series will be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 23.

We had an opportunity to sit down with Game Director Jean-Francois Dugas at the show. During the interview we talked about the challenges of reviving an older franchise, their unique relationship with Square Enix, Warren Spector’s feedback, and what influenced the team during the development of the game:

Dugas: [W]e look at everything around. Of course, we looked at Blade Runner, we went back even to RoboCop. We even watched Johnny Mnemonic again.

Warp Zoned: Ohhh no!

Dugas: Haha, yeah, but there are good ideas in that, even though it’s not a great movie, so you really need to have an open mind. And even the not so good stuff might be interesting anyway. We also went into Japanese anime like Ghost in the Shell, but also things like Solty Rei. I don’t know if you heard of that, it’s more obscure.

We also went into books about transhumanism, real stuff that’s non-fiction. Watched a lot of documentaries about a lot of things. So our sources of inspiration weren’t necessarily sci-fi driven, they were about everything that relates to our game. Like anticipation of the future, transhumanism, how to create good cyber punk setting, it was all over the place.

Even Professor Layton inspires me! (laughing) I love that game!

You can read our full interview with Jean-Francois Dugas right here.

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Mortal Kombat earns its Mature rating

Posted on March 13, 2011 by John Scalzo

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon has been promising that the upcoming reboot would be a brutal and hardcore return to the franchise’s Mature-rated days. Today, the ESRB revealed that he has kept his promise by awarding Mortal Kombat an M For Mature.

The rating was handed out for “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity and Strong Language,” which is about what you’d expect to see in a Mature-rated Mortal Kombat. Although the full Rating Summary makes it look like the kombatants will be allowed to swear for the first time:

This is a fighting game in which players engage in one-on-one battles against characters from the fantasy-based Mortal Kombat universe. Players compete in a series of combative rounds in order to advance to different matches throughout the game. Players use swords, guns, chains, spikes, and supernatural attacks (e.g., fire, ice, lightning) to defeat a cast of human-like characters.

After an opponent is defeated at the end of a match, players have the option to perform finishing moves called ‘Fatalities.’ Many of these finishing moves depict over-the-top instances of violence: impalement, bone-crushing body snaps, execution-style gunshots to the head; large blood-splatter effects occur during these sequences, staining characters’ bodies and the ground. Several of these exaggerated finishing moves depict characters getting dismembered, ripped or sliced in half, stabbed, set on fire, or set to explode. During the course of the game, female characters sometimes wear revealing outfits that expose large amounts of cleavage; one female fighter is depicted partially nude, covered by a costume of thin cloth strips. Language such as ‘f**k’ occasionally appears in the dialogue.

Mortal Kombat will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 19.

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