Daily Scoop: January 5, 2015 – Back to school/work

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Nicole Kline

Happy New Year, everyone! It’s not just a return to work for me – it’s also a return to school. That’s right – classes start back up again today. Hooray! So glad I got as much gaming as possible done the last two weeks, because I won’t have any time for the next two months. Oh, and I was super sick the last few days, too. Yay!

But hey, there are some really awesome sales today, so let’s check those out! The biggest and best one is the Humble Awesome Games Done Quick Bundle. Pay what you want for Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition, Shadow Warrior Classic Redux, Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, and Volgarr the Viking. Pay $6 or more to unlock a Twitch Turbo 30-day Subscription, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut, early access to SpeedRunners, and the SpeedRunners YouTuber Packs 1 & 2. Pay $10 or more to unlock Escape Goat 2 and a 3-month subscription to XSplit Premium. And, finally, there’s a sweet swag pack if you pay $30, which includes two t-shirts. How awesome is that?

There are tons of new deals up at Steam. The Weeklong Deals include Rock of Ages for $1.99, The Cat Lady for $2.49, and Quest of Dungeons for $3.34. And the Daily Deal is everyone’s favorite Faster Than Light, which is on sale for $2.49.

Let’s go check out today’s shirts!

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Posted in Daily Scoop |

The Games of January 2015

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Warp Zoned Staff

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Happy New Year, readers! As we all settle in to getting used to writing new numbers at the end of every date, we’ve also been thinking about what games we want to play this month. It looks like, for the most part, we’ll either be digging into our backlog or regretting all those games we got for Christmas, which have now extended that backlog. Either way, we’re going to be busy! Read on to see what our plans are for the first month of 2015.

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Posted in Features, Top Story |

Iron Galaxy will add the ghostly Omen to Killer Instinct soon

Posted on January 5, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Iron Galaxy has announced the next character to join Season 2 of Killer Instinct will be Omen, the “Herald of Gargos.” For players who have been following along with Killer Instinct’s growing mythology, Omen is the demonic presence that previously possessed Shadow Jago. According to a post on the game’s official forums, Omen “has drawn enough power through his battles as Shadow Jago to manifest physically on the mortal plane.”

Like Season 1’s release of Shadow Jago, Omen will be released as a bonus character and will only be available to players who purchased Season 2’s Ultra Edition or Combo Breaker bundle. And like Shadow Jago, Omen will not be sold as a separate download. Iron Galaxy has promised to host a livestream introducing the character this week and release a full trailer next week. Omen will be available to download sometime after that (likely in mid-January). Until then, here’s what Iron Galaxy has to say about his movest:

His moveset has some familiar normals from Jago, some new ones, and his specials are either all-new or ones that you only the boss version of Shadow Jago used. We’ll talk more about his repertoire in detail next week, so until then, here are some quick highlights:

  • 3 shadow stocks!
  • Shadow-powered ability to cancel any action, turn into shadow, and move a short distance in any direction
  • Multi-hitting close-range kick special
  • Powerful projectile zoning with some radical projectile options
  • A special move that burns all 3 stocks!
  • Aerial movement options
  • Slide

A fleeting glimpse of Omen’s arm and bat-like wings can be found at the Ultra-Combo Forum.

Posted in News, Xbox One | Tagged

Warpback: What We Played in December 2014

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Warp Zoned Staff

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Welcome to another exciting Warpback! The Warp Zoned staff found a bunch of different games under the Christmas Tree this year, so we were all over the map in December, playing everything from RPGs, to twin-stick shooters, to… well… a lot of Wii U games. Read on to see all of the crazy games we were catching up on during the holidays (and before)!

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Posted in Features, Top Story |

Sony to begin PlayStation Now streaming subscription service on January 13

Posted on January 5, 2015 by John Scalzo

Sony launched their PlayStation Now game streaming service last year on the PS4 with more than 100 PS3 games. However, each game was available to rent on a per-title basis and the prices were a little bit, well, insane. Fans of the service asked for a subscription option and it looks like Sony is finally ready to deliver.

Beginning January 13, PlayStation Now subscriptions will be available in two tiers: one-month ($19.99) and three-month ($44.99 or $15 per month). Sony will also offer a free seven-day trial in case you’re still skeptical of this whole game streaming thing.

Just like last Summer’s launch, Sony will once again offer more than 100 games through the PlayStation Now service. A few are highlighted in the trailer (Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, BioShock Infinite, Batman: Arkham City, NBA 2K14, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, Spelunky, The Last of Us, XCOM: Enemy Within, and God of War: Ascension) and a more complete list can be found at the PlayStation Blog.

The expanded list includes some of the PS3’s biggest hitters including Saints Row IV, Final Fantasy XIII, The Walking Dead, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, Earth Defense Force 2025, Killzone 3, InFamous, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and many more.

Posted in News, PS3, PS4 |

Nintendo: Mario Maker may lead to more Maker games but no new Mario game in 2015

Posted on January 4, 2015 by John Scalzo

mario-saluteBill Trinen, the Director of Product Marketing at Nintendo of America, recently sat down with the Reno Gazette-Journal to discuss the company’s plans for 2015 and their commitment to retro-styled gaming. During the course of the conversation, Trinen revealed that development on Mario Maker is going well and reveals that other Nintendo franchises could receive the Maker treatment if it sells enough copies:

Mr. (Takashi) Tezuka is working hard on Mario Maker and the game is progressing really nicely. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing what people are able to do with the game when it comes out. During E3, we had everyone from moms and kids to longtime Nintendo fans and newer folks who just got into gaming lately just having tons of fun with the way they’re able to create stages. Depending on how people react, we’ll see if the teams take a similar approach with other franchises.

The marketer also confirmed that Mario Maker is the only Mario game we’ll get in 2015 as Nintendo won’t have the next game in the series ready this year:

We don’t always put out a new version of an existing series on an annual basis, there’s always a big gap. You see that with Super Smash Bros., which has been seven years since it last came out. With Pikmin 3, you saw a big gap as well. Mario games release more frequently but we don’t have a new Mario game this year so it’s not an annual event.

I can just imagine how great a “Legend of Zelda Maker” could be, so I sincerely hope that Trinen isn’t toying with us. Make it happen, Nintendo!

Posted in News, Wii U | Tagged

Weekly Warp-Up: Welcome to 2015 Edition

Posted on January 4, 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…

Should old acquaintance be forgot and blah blah blah… Welcome to 2015, ladies and gentlemen! If you’re a video game fan, you’ll probably want to take a nap for the next four weeks as there is very little on the calendar for January. But a few things still happened this week, such as our review of The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack, the first Mario Kart 8 expansion. We also compiled our very first edition of Insert Quarterly, a quarterly look at some of the best game writing ’round the Internet.

And finally, our Fall 2014 Video Game Fantasy League has come to an end and Mike Ryan, one of Warp Zoned’s dedicated Staff Writers, is the winner. Congratulations, Mike!

The rest of the news from the rest of the week can be found after the break.

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Posted in News |

Insert Quarterly: The Best Game Writing of Fall 2014

Posted on January 2, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Have you been following along with our first batch of Insert Quarter selections? Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet. Whether its an in-depth analysis of a major issue facing the video game industry or just a fun read that’s perfect for a coffee break, you’ll find it in Insert Quarter.

Here’s some of the game writing that we loved the most over the last three months.

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Posted in Features, Insert Quarter, Top Story |