Daily Scoop: March 3, 2014 – More snow

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Nicole Kline

Another day, another foot of snow here in Philadelphia! The cold weather is perfect for video game-playing. What games do you like to play when you’re snowed in?

There are a few digital deals happening today, if you need some games. Receiver is the Daily Deal at Steam, on sale for $1.69. There are also some deals happening at the Humble Store – you can pre-order Luftrausers for $8.99, or get Trine and Trine 2 for $0.99 and $2.99, respectively.

Don’t forget, you’ve still got time to get in on the Humble Indie Bundle 11 as well. Pay what you want for Guacamelee! Gold Edition, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, and The Swapper. Pay more than the average for Antichamber, Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine, Fez, Starseed Pilgrim, and Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians. Seriously, scoop that up.

As always, I’ve got a few t-shirts for you as well.

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Luftrausers flies onto PC, PS3, Vita on March 18

Posted on March 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Luftrausers, Vlambeer’s side-scrolling dogfighting simulation, finally has a release date. The game, from the creators of the beloved Ridiculous Fishing, will be released for all three PC platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux), the PS3, and the Vita on March 18.

Luftrausers will be priced at $9.99 on all platforms with a special Air Raid Pack also available for PC purchasers. If you opt for the Air Raid Pack, you’ll receive one free download of Luftrausers and 100 giftable Steam keys. Purchasing 101 copies would normally set you back $1,008.99, but the Air Raid Pack will be available for the low, low price of $749.99.

If you’ve got enough fans interested in Luftrausers, it’s actually a pretty good deal.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Vita | Tagged

What? Interceptor Entertainment buys 3D Realms while lawsuit with Gearbox continues

Posted on March 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

3drealms-logoSay what you will about 3D Realms, but you have to admit, a news story about them is never boring.

The company is currently embroiled in a lawsuit With Gearbox Software over the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise. Specifically, whether or not it was legal for 3D Realms to license the franchise rights to Interceptor Entertainment to produce Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, an action RPG rumored to be in development for the PC and PS4. Now comes the news that Interceptor’s parent company, SDN Invest, has purchased 3D Realms.

“3D Realms has always been a defining part the PC games industry.” said Frederik Schreiber, CEO of Interceptor Entertainment. “Getting 3D Realms under our wings is a huge step for us and we are extremely excited about the acquisition.”

The question is, what exactly did Interceptor/SDN Invest buy? Over the years, 3D Realms has sold off the majority of their properties including the aforementioned Duke Nukem, Prey (now owned by Bethesda), and Rise of the Triad (now owned by Apogee Software). 3D Realms does still own the distribution rights to many of their past successes including Duke Nukem 3D, the Commander Keen series, and Shadow Warrior, which was rebooted last year by Flying Wild Hog. Beyond that, there’s not much value in the 3D Realms name.

But then, Atari survived for years as a name that various publishers used to prop up their video game divisions, so you never know.

Posted in News, PC, PS4 | Tagged

Warpback: What We Played in February 2014

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Warp Zoned Staff

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We were all over the place in February here at Warp Zoned! We played everything from the very old to the very new, and we had a blast doing it. There was a little overlap, but not much – we were either working our way through a backlog or celebrating video games that have been lauded. Read on to see all of the amazing games the Warp Zoned staff played in February!

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Posted in Features, Top Story |

PopCap forms “HD Team” to bring Peggle 2 and an original game to consoles

Posted on March 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

popcapThe “HD Team” within PopCap Games that produced the recently released Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will continue their work in the console realm.

“PopCap is now structured in the way we have standard PopCap mobile development and then PopCap HD, which is entirely focused on bringing games to PC and console,” Gary Clay, PopCap’s Marketing Manager said.

The team definitely has their plate full. In the near term, they plan to create new content for Garden Warfare, with the first update available in March. They are also working on an update to Peggle 2 as well as porting the game to additional consoles besides the Xbox One. Finally, PopCap HD is also developing an original console game unrelated to any previous PopCap property.

Looks like my dream of a Heavy Weapon sequel has been dashed once more.

[Source: Digital Spy]

Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged ,

Retro Studios confirms they’ve got a new Wii U game in the works

Posted on March 3, 2014 by John Scalzo

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Retro Studios recently completed development on and released Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. The developer has yet to announce their next move, but they have confirmed (via GameSpot) that they’ve got a new Wii U title in the works and that production began after development on Tropical Freeze was completed in November. However, Retro’s President and CEO, Michael Kelbaugh, couldn’t reveal any specifics about the unannounced game. And he purposely attempted to downplay its identity by stating how fun all of the company’s previous projects were:

“We love working with Donkey Kong. It’s a great character. It’s a lot of fun. We love working with Metroid Prime, with Mario Kart; those are fun, fun games to work on. So, you know, you can’t lose,” he said. “Every one of those IPs have been a lot of fun to play with and work on and [we’d] love to come back to them sometime.”

So is Retro working on the oft-rumored Metroid Prime 4/next Metroid game? Or perhaps that “American Legend of Zelda” is more than just wishful thinking. There’s even the possibility that they’re helping put a last-minute shine on Mario Kart 8. Whatever Retro’s next project is, Kelbaugh sees a lot of untapped potential in the Wii U and believes the system is a “powerhouse”:

“Unfortunately, the perception is that it’s not a very powerful machine,” Kelbaugh said about the Wii U. “That’s just not true. It’s a powerhouse. It’s more than adequate to make great games on.”

With any luck, Retro’s next game will hopefully be announced at this year’s E3 Expo.

Posted in News, Wii U |

Weekly Warp-Up: No Candy For You! Edition

Posted on March 2, 2014 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…

Ding dong! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The Bubble Witch! Look at that, it even scans correctly! King, the developer behind Candy Crush Saga has given up their crusade to trademark the word “Candy.” While I’d love to celebrate, the mobile game behemoth is still attempting to put a stranglehold on the word “Saga” (which is used in all of their other games such as Bubble Witch Saga and Pet Rescue Saga). Playing Tetris until you see the shapes in your dreams is worthy of the word “Saga,” matching three peppermints is not.

Also this week, UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie has rooted out another group of crowdfunding projects that show some promise in the latest edition of Kickstart This! And Nicole Kline has reviewed the latest Borderlands tie-in novel, Borderlands: Gunsight. Spoiler alert, it stinks!

We’ve got more news from the week that was after the break.

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Posted in News |

New Releases: South Park: The Stick of Truth

Posted on March 2, 2014 by John Scalzo

southparkgame-boxJust one game will be added to store shelves this week, but it’s a big one… South Park: The Stick of Truth.

If you recall, South Park: The Stick of Truth has been in development at Obsidian Entertainment for a long time. Originally a THQ production, the game shifted to Ubisoft after THQ went bankrupt. Then it was delayed multiple times to ensure that it lived up to all the hype. Does it? You can find out for yourself this week on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

A few more new releases will make their way to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Store, and Nintendo eShop this week. We’ll talk more about those titles over the next few days.

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