Madden NFL 25 Super Bowl XLVIII simulation comes up short as Seattle Seahawks win

Posted on February 2, 2014 by John Scalzo

Sometimes the Madden Super Bowl prediction is scarily accurate. Other times… it’s not.

Super Bowl XLVIII ended just moments ago and not one of Madden NFL 25‘s predictions came true. The game didn’t go into overtime. Peyton Manning didn’t throw three touchdowns (and he definitely wasn’t the MVP). There was no snow. And the Denver Broncos did not win their first Super Bowl since 1998. Instead, the Seattle Seahawks crushed their opponents 43 to 8.

In the real game, Russell Wilson threw a pair of touchdowns (one to Doug Baldwin and one to Jermaine Kearse). Marshawn Lynch added a rushing touchdown and Seattle’s special teams added two more (one pick six from Malcolm Smith and a kickoff return from Percy Harvin). In case you were curious, Smith also took home MVP honors as well.

With the loss, the Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation drops to 8-3 over the last 11 years. The last failed prediction was in 2011 when the Packers defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

Better luck next year, EA.

Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Plague Inc: Evolved infects Steam on February 20

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Nicole Kline

Plague Inc., the popular mobile game that simulates the spread of diseases, is graduating from the mobile realm and coming to the PC (via Steam) in the form of Plague Inc: Evolved. The evolution has tons of new features, including:

  • Infectious Multiplayer – Cooperative and competitive gameplay modes let you team up to fight the cure with friends, or compete in a race to kill the world.
  • Contagious Content Creator – Hit the lab and develop your own custom scenarios – creating new plague types and worlds. Bring your deadliest ideas to life and share them with Steam Workshop.
  • Blinding Graphics – Including full 3D disease models taking you closer to your plague than ever before, city-cams showing humanity’s struggle at street level, and the body scanner highlighting the full effect of your mutations, organ by organ.
  • Deadly Data – Predict government responses with priority indicators, geek out with loads of new stats and graphs, and analyse your best strategies with end-of-game replays.

Plague Inc: Evolved will be available on Steam Early Access on February 20.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Catch up on the Final Fantasy XIII saga with this Square Enix-produced 16-bit recap

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Nicole Kline

I’m one of the few people who will say – or at least, who will admit – that I love the Final Fantasy XIII games. Well, I love the first one – the second one is more than a little convoluted. If you didn’t like the gameplay, or aren’t interested in the games, but really want to know the plot of both of them, you’re in luck: Square Enix has created a recap. And it’s not just any recap – it’s all 16-bit (AKA Final Fantasy VI-style) and has the soundtrack redone in the old chip style as well. This little video will tell you everything you need to know (super abridged, of course) to play Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

I am so excited right now that I’m bouncing up and down in my seat. February 11 cannot get here fast enough!

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

Master Reboot coming to PS3 this month

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Nicole Kline

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Wales Interactive is releasing their very first PlayStation 3 game this month, Master Reboot, which the developers describe as “a haunting first person sci-fi adventure game.” In the game, a giant server called the Soul Cloud holds the data from people’s souls once they die. But, of course, something goes wrong, and after your soul has been uploaded, you wake up with no memories. Now you must “explore, solve puzzles, and try to piece together your life and death.”

The Soul Cloud itself is populated “with floating islands, each island looks like a town, village, or city filled with rooms, skyscrapers and houses that hold people’s memories.” So there will be lots of nooks and crannies, giving plenty of room for that psychological horror to take hold.

Master Reboot will be launching on the PlayStation 3 later this month. For more details and some great screenshots, check out the PlayStation Blog.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

Yoshi lays an egg in a new Yoshi’s New Island trailer

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Anthony Amato

There is a lot of cute happening in this trailer for Yoshi’s New Island. Fans of the original game are sure to be excited about not just the things that feel warm and familiar, but also the crazy new features (eating giant enemies and laying giant eggs that break so much?!?!) that run rampant here. It’s A Shell of a Time!

Yoshi’s New Island will be available on March 14 for Nintendo’s 2DS and 3DS handheld systems.

Posted in 3DS, News | Tagged

Namco Bandai is changing their name to Bandai Namco

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Nicole Kline

namcobandaibandainamcoThe publishing company we all know and love, Namco Bandai, is changing their name globally to Bandai Namco, which is currently their name in Japan. The change will start on April 1, and will apply to all 31 of their subsidiaries, locally and abroad.

According to an article at Gematsu, “The reason for the change, the company said, is to elevate the appeal and value of the Bandai Namco brand overseas.”

If you’re curious as to the names of all 31 of the subsidiaries, you can find that – and what the new names will look like – on the second page of this PDF.

Posted in News |

Weekly Warp-Up: No Snow Bowl Edition

Posted on February 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…

Super Bowl Ex-Ell-Vee-Eye-Eye-Eye begins in a few hours and it looks like all the gloom and doom a few weeks ago about fans freezing to death in their seats was a little overblown. The current weather forecast calls for a high of around 50 and a little bit of rain. It’s definitely a far cry from the blizzard Bowl that EA Sports and Madden NFL 25 predicted, so perhaps the Seahawks can defy the simulation and pull out a win.

But the biggest spectacle in sports has got nothing on the news that Microsoft has obtained the rights to the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games. They’ve entrusted the future of the franchise to Black Tusk Studios, though this deal may have killed their in-development “AAAA game.”

And speaking of business deals… Nintendo has a plan! It involves releasing Mario Kart 8 in May, DS games on the Wii U’s Virtual Console, and more third party licensing deals like Hyrule Warriors. That… that actually sounds a lot like their old plan.

But you can read all the rest of the new news after the break.

Press Start to Continue →

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New Releases: Bravely Default, Fable Anniversary, The Lego Movie, More

Posted on February 2, 2014 by John Scalzo

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This week’s New Releases Report kicks off with the long-awaited 3DS RPG Bravely Default. If you like your RPGs Japanese and old school, you’ll want to give Bravely Default a look. And in fact, the game is a semi-sequel to another throwback RPG, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. And speaking of throwback RPGs, Microsoft plans to release Fable Anniversary, their Xbox 360 remake of Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, this week.

Also available this week is the “Videogame” adaptation of The Lego Movie. You can hear a Lego version of Chris Pratt say “awesome” a lot on the 3DS, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Finally, a trio of PC simulation games will soon be available for your purchasing pleasure including Civilization V: The Complete Edition, Airport Simulator 2014, and Professional Farmer 2014.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , ,