Level-5’s Yo-Kai Watch is officially coming to America

Posted on February 17, 2015 by John Scalzo

yo-kaiwatch-posterMake no mistake, Pokemon is still a major force in Japan and the latest games in the series, Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire and Pokemon: Omega Ruby, have sold millions of copies. But over the last few years, the franchise has had to compete with Yo-Kai Watch, an extremely popular 3DS game developed by Level-5. An ongoing manga series began in 2013 and an anime series launched last year. A 3DS sequel, Yo-Kai Watch 2, was released last year.

Recently, Hasbro has announced that they plan to bring the entire Yo-Kai Watch franchise to America (and Europe and Australia). It’s unknown when the games or the anime will make their way across the Pacific, but Hasbro said that they plan to introduce a new Yo-Kai Watch toy line in 2016, so we could be in for a long wait. In the meantime, this is what all the fuss is about:

With an imaginative plot, great characters, comedy and adventure, Yo-Kai Watch has become one of the most popular franchises of all time in Japan. The story centers around a young boy who gets a special watch empowering him to discover and summon mysterious Yo-Kai that help him solve problems in his daily life usually caused by other trouble-making Yo-Kai.

Yeah, definitely sounds a bit like Pokemon. To date, the Yo-Kai Watch games have sold more than 6.5 million copies in Japan. Will the franchise experience a similar sales surge when its released in America? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Posted in 3DS, News | Tagged

The Behemoth will have a demo of “Game 4” at PAX East 2015

Posted on February 17, 2015 by John Scalzo

behemothgame4questionmarkThe Behemoth has announced that their upcoming strategy RPG, the tentatively titled “Game 4,” will be playable on the PAX East 2015 show floor. Game 4 appears to be an amalgamation of everything that The Behemoth is known for including a hand-drawn art style, wild narration, and an even wilder sense of humor. For a better sense of what to expect, I recommend viewing this Game 4 gameplay trailer from PAX Prime 2014.

The developer will also have a huge amount of new merchandise available for purchase at their PAX East booth and you can peruse their wares before your trip to Boston by visiting their News Blog.

This year’s PAX East convention will be held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center beginning March 6 and running through March 8.

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged ,

Mass Effect 4’s single-player campaign will be “MASSIVE”

Posted on February 16, 2015 by John Scalzo

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A few days ago, BioWare Montreal uploaded a job listing looking for an Online Producer to guide the development pf Mass Effect 4‘s online multiplayer. While multiplayer is nothing new for the Mass Effect series (Mass Effect 3 featured a cooperative multiplayer mode), many fans began to worry it would be detrimental to the single-player storyline of the next entry in the franchise.

Thankfully, Chris Wynn, the game’s Senior Development Director, has popped up to calm everyone down. He also wants the world to know that Mass Effect 4’s campaign will be “MASSIVE” (yes, he used caps lock):

Presumably, Mass Effect 4 will be officially unveiled later this year. But until then, mini-updates from the developers (like this one) are all we have to go on.

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Bandai Namco files trademark application for “Soldiers’ Souls”

Posted on February 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Maybe we should start calling Bandai Namco the Grim Reaper, because they’re definitely in the business of collecting souls. More specifically, From Software’s Souls series. After publishing Dark Souls in 2011 and Dark Souls II last year, Bandai Namco will publish an enhanced version of the latter game later this year as Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. And if a recent trademark filing is anything to go by, the company is pushing the pieces into place for the next game in the Souls series.

On Friday, the publisher filed a trademark application with the European Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market for Soldiers’ Souls. As with all trademark filings, it’s possible that the development project currently connected to the Soldiers’ Souls mark will undergo a name change or may be canceled outright. Filing a trademark application is usually one of the first steps taken in creating a game and many things can complicate the development process in the meantime.

From Software’s Bloodborne will be exclusively launch for the PS4 in a few weeks. Presumably, they’ll announce their next project, even if its not Soldiers’ Souls, sometime soon.

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Weekly Warp-Up: PAX East 2015 is Three Weeks Away Edition

Posted on February 15, 2015 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…

PAX East 2015 has begun to take shape as a handful of announcements this week gave us our first glimpse at who’s coming to the largest game convention on the east coast. As of right now, the two biggest PAX East-related news stories have to be Cliff Bleszinski panel’s on his free-to-shooter BlueStreak and Avalanche’s Just Cause 3 presentation. If you like your action games big and bombastic, then both titles should be your upcoming releases radar.

In other expo news, Bethesda will hold an E3 Press Conference for the first time ever. That should be interesting.

Even more interesting news (though very little of it is connected to E3 or PAX East) from the past week can be found after the break.

Press Start to Continue →

Posted in News |

New Releases: The Order: 1886, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Total War: Attila, More

Posted on February 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Do you believe that a secret cabal of soldiers guards the citizenry from an encroaching force of half-human/half-beastly hybrids? And do you believe that these men and women are the only thing standing between the total collapse of society and these so-called werewolves? You do? Great! Because Ready At Dawn and Sony Santa Monica will release The Order: 1886 for the PS4 this week.

It’ll be joined on store shelves by the more colorful Kirby and the Rainbow Curse for the Wii U (no werewolves in that one) and the more vicious Total War: Attila on the PC (the strategy game from Creative Assembly stars one of the most feared warlords of the ancient world).

Finally this week, Koei Tecmo will re-release Dead or Alive 5 for the PS4 and Xbox One as Dead or Alive 5: Last Round.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One | Tagged , , ,

WGA bestows Writers Guild Award on Last of Us: Left Behind for Outstanding Writing

Posted on February 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

wgaThe Writers Guild of America has announced the winners of this year’s Writers Guild Awards and Naughty Dog (and Neil Druckmann) has emerged victorious for a second year in a row. After taking home the statuette last year for The Last of Us, Naughty Dog and Druckmann were recognized this year for the writing in the game’s expansion, The Last of Us: Left Behind.

The Last of Us: Left Behind beat out three other games for this year’s Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing award including Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation and a pair of Assassin’s Creed titles (Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry and Assassin’s Creed: Unity).

Their 2015 win marks the fourth time a Naughty Dog-developed game has won the Writers Guild Award. In addition to Druckmann’s win last year, Amy Hennig was honored in 2012 for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and in 2010 for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Posted in News, PS3, PS4 | Tagged ,

Blizzard and Gearbox will talk about their future projects at PAX East 2015

Posted on February 14, 2015 by John Scalzo

paxeast2014Blizzard will make their presence known at this year’s PAX East expo with their “Blizzard Preview” panel. During this panel, which will be held on Friday, March 6, at 10:30 AM, the publisher plans to reveal new details about Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Overwatch:

Bold new heroes, exciting new cards, and epic new battlegrounds… Join a trio of Blizzard Entertainment developers for a look at just some of what’s in store for 2015, including upcoming content for Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Overwatch.

Gearbox Software will also be in attendance at this year’s show with their regular “Inside Gearbox Software” panel. At PAX East, they will likely use their time to talk about Battleborn and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, both of which will be released this year. It’s probably too early for Gearbox to talk about Borderlands 3, but you never know. The “Inside Gearbox Software” panel will be held on Sunday, March 8, at 10:30 AM:

This is your opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Gearbox Software and get the latest news and updates from the makers of Borderlands, Battleborn, Homeworld Remastered Collection and more! We will have never-before-seen reveals, exclusives and surprises, so don’t miss out!

Both developers usually have a big presence on the show floor, so expo attendees may get the chance to demo many of these games as well as hearing about them.

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