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In the latest edition of Warp Zoned’s Kickstart This! column, one of the games we featured was Space Pioneer from Space Enigma Studios, an exciting fusion of space exploration, colonization, RTS, and mystery adventure. We recently spoke to Space Enigma’s director, Maximillian Kovtun, to find out more about the project, the science behind the game, and why the Wii U was chosen as one of the release platforms.
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Ah, Monday is back! It brings more snow, more sun, and more video games! Tomorrow, Lightning Returns – Final Fantasy XIII comes out, and I might be the only person buying the Collector’s Edition, but I don’t care because I am just so super excited to play as Lightning again. Woo!
There are some new deals over at the Humble Store today! You can pick up Strike Suit Zero for $9.99, Aarklash: Legacy for $15.99, and Probably Archery for $8.99, among others. Meanwhile, over at Steam, the Daily Deal is DCS: UH-1H Huey, which is on sale for $29.99. Scoop ’em up!
And now, time for lots of t-shirts!
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Good news! Ubisoft has reconfirmed that Watch Dogs is stil on track for a Spring release. The game will be available in stores during the first quarter of Ubisoft’s 2015 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2014 through June 30, 2014.
But the bad news is that this release date doesn’t apply to the Wii U version of the game. According to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, the Wii U version was delayed to provide more development resources for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One versions: “We made the difficult decision to further delay the release of Watch Dogs on Wii U to focus the team’s resources where they could have the broadest possible benefit for both our customers and Ubisoft.”
As terrible as this news is for Wii U owners, I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that the Wii U version of Watch Dogs wasn’t outright canceled.
[Source: Game Informer]
Sonic: Lost World didn’t set the world on fire when it was released for the 3DS and Wii U last year. But Sega still has at least one more game to release as part of their exclusivity agreement with Nintendo and so they’ve wasted no time in announcing that Sonic Boom will be available for the handheld and home console later this year.
Sonic Boom isn’t just a game. It is also going to be a television series (airing this Fall on Cartoon Network) and a toy line (including plush, action figures, and RC vehicles all created by Tomy). Oh, and it’s not being developed by Sonic Team. Instead, Sega has handed development duties for Sonic Boom to Big Red Button Entertainment (Wii U) and Sanzaru Games (3DS), two American developers. Though Sonic Team will supervise their progress.
Sega was also quick to point out that the Americanized makeover received by Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose will represent a “new branch” of the Sonic series. So if Sonic Boom is a bust, you can bet that Sega will hit the big red reset button and restore Sonic the Hedgehog’s classic look in his next game.
Sega will surely reveal more details about Sonic Boom soon, but until then, check out the first screenshots and some concept art at the Sega Blog.
Keiji Inafune, the creator of Mega Man and the development lead behind next year’s Mighty No. 9, is on a mighty roll. After raking in a ridiculous pile of money with one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns ever, Inafune and his design teams at Comcept and Inti Creates have released a steady flow of Mighty No. 9 details. Now, they’ve released another gameplay video, with Inafune himself holding the controller.
It’s a very brief look at the game, but the developer closes out the clip with a hearty shout of “I’m extremely satisfied!” How can you not love Inafune’s energy?
In other Mighty No. 9 news, Contradiction Films’ Tim Carter recently sat down with EP Daily and revealed that his company has been contracted to produce a live-action adaptation of the game.
“We are at the very beginning stages of creative development on a digital series for Might No. 9. We are building the story right now,” Carter said. “I was a little apprehensive about it at first until I got his notes, and thought ‘Dude, you should be working at Pixar!’ It’s so good. We’re really, really excited about it.”
It’s currently unknown how the Mighty No. 9 adaptation will be released, but Contradiction Films is best known as the producers behind 2011’s excellent Mortal Kombat: Legacy webseries. So perhaps Mighty No. 9 will receive similar treatment.
Activision is incredibly proud of the financial success of the Skylanders series. Since its debut in 2011, the publisher has released three titles in the franchise (Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, Skylanders Giants, Skylanders: Swap Force) and it appears a fourth is on the way. Toys For Bob, the developer behind Spyro’s Adventure and Giants, will take the reins on the currently untitled Skylanders 4 after allowing Vicarious Visions to handle Swap Force.
This news comes courtesy of a recently released infographic by Activision (click it to see a larger version), which also touts the franchise’s massive revenue stream of more than $2 billion. A release date for Skylanders 4 (or any other information, for that matter) is currently unknown, but an October release seems likely.
Also, allow me to also speculate that Skylanders 4 will likely appear on every platform imaginable including the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
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…
The NFL’s “Big Game,” the Super Bowl, took place exactly one week ago. EA predicted that the Broncos would win in a snowy overtime thriller, but that is not what happened… at all… not even a little bit. The real life result was almost as terrifying as that Breaking Madden video that’s been making the rounds. EA’s prediction is usually pretty spot on, but maybe we should ask Jon Bois to do it next year.
In non-football news, there were plenty of new release dates announced this week including the news that Master Reboot would be coming to the PS3 this month, Plague Inc: Evolved is coming to Steam on February 20, Hyper Light Drifter will be out by the end of the year, Murdered: Soul Suspect will be released in June, The 90s Arcade Racer is gearing up for a Summe release, Drakengard 3 will be released on May 20, and TitanFall for the Xbox 360 will be released on March 25 (the PC and Xbox One editions are still on track for March 11).
Whew. This week, the Warp Zoned staff also looked back to What We Played in January 2014 and looked forward at The Games of February 2014.
Also, we consulted our crystal ball and found 10 Actors We Think Could Play Nathan Drake in the Uncharted Movie.
You can find more news from last week after the break.
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Lightning returns this week in the accurately named Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. The Square Enix-published RPG will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Also this week, the oft-neglected Vita will receive a pair of new games this week: the action-adventure Toukiden: The Age of Demons and the uterrly bizarre DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.
And for some reason, 2K Games and Bethesda are joining forces to release an Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim + BioShock Infinite Bundle for the Xbox 360 and an The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim + BioShock Infinite + BioShock Bundle for the PS3. The publishers will also pair up to release a Borderlands 2 + Dishonored Bundle for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Why not, right?
Finally, Ubisoft will released a Far Cry Compilation for the PS3. The bundle includes Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
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