|
    
|
Silent Hill 8 is no more! Don’t worry, it wasn’t canceled, but the Vatra Games-developed PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title finally has an official title: Silent Hill: Downpour.
The February 2011 issue of Game Informer will have more information, but they promise that water will be everywhere in Downpour: “It’s falling from the sky! It’s running from the ceiling! It’s in puddles on the ground!”
Game Informer’s February issue should be arriving in subscriber’s mailboxes now.
EA has teamed up with independent developer Funcom to release their new MMO, The Secret World. This upcoming MMO on the PC is set in the modern days, and allows players to become members of one of three secret societies – the Illuminati, the Dragon, and the Templar. The struggle for power will cross many locations, including Egypt, London, Seoul, and New York, and will include monster battles. Sounds like National Treasure meets World of Warcraft, if you ask me.
Funcom has previously developed more than 20 games, including MMOs Anarchy Online and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. There’s no release date yet on The Secret World, but the community currently has hundreds of thousands of beta players, according to a new press release. Seems like a smart move for all parties involved.
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…
Get Warp Zoned!
It’s been a week of firsts for Warp Zoned. Our readers got a chance to duck down the green pipe into the minds of our staff eight days ago. And in this inaugural edition of the Weekly Warp-Up we highlight another first, the premiere episode of our podcast, the creatively named Warp Zoned Podcast, which was uploaded yesterday.
We also took a look at brain training games this week. Where they’ve been, if they really make you smarter, and where they’re going in the future in X-Raying the Brain Training Trend.
Reviewed!
It’s a Secret to Everybody
Get New Games!
Just Plain Awesome
Announced!
The Download
And Finally…
“What would you do on a night out with Mileena?”
This question was recently posed to the developers of Mortal Kombat at NetherRealm Studios and this new trailer proves that they know how to show a girl a good time. Especially a girl with razor sharp fangs and demonic blood flowing through her veins.
In addition to getting an inside look at the twisted minds that make Mortal Kombat, the trailer features plenty of gameplay footage of Mileena doing what she does best. NetherRealm has really played up the demonic angle to the character for the upcoming reboot and you can expect lots of blood and lots of boobage from Mileena.
April (when Mortal Kombat is released on the PS3 and Xbox 360) can’t come soon enough.
One of the big hits of Nintendo’s “Nintendo World” show has been Dead or Alive Dimensions. The fighting franchise will make its handheld debut this year on the 3DS (not counting the PSP spinoff Dead or Alive Paradise) and fans are lining up to get a look at all the 3D action.
The game’s five-minute Nintendo World trailer was released online by Tecmo Koei and you can watch it yourself right here, as long as you’re OK with ninjas jumping out at you!
Do you love RPGs? If you said yes, then you’ll definitely want to head to your favorite retailer this week.
On the DS, Square Enix plans to release the latest entry in the Kingdom Hearts series, Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded. And over on the PS3, Sony’s MMORPG DC Universe Online will cross over into stores (its coming to the PC as well).
Also available this week is Venetica (PS3, Xbox 360), an RPG where the Grim Reaper’s daughter hunts down a necromancer. And finally, there’s Prinny 2, the latest Disgaea spin-off from Atlus.
If RPGs aren’t your thing, Capcom will be releasing the latest game from the Phoenix Wright team, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, on the DS.
The full list of the rest of this week’s new releases can be found below.
Press Start to Continue
Nintendo is holding a special “Nintendo World” 3DS event in Tokyo right now and the handheld’s launch is starting to become a little bit clearer. First, the hardware maker revealed that the 3DS’ battery will last between 3-8 hours. According to Nerd Reactor, playing a 3DS game on the dim backlight setting will give you 3-5 hours of playtime, on average. Swapping in a regular DS cartridge will allow players to reach the upper end of the playtime limit, with the 3DS’ battery lasting between 5-8 hours. These are just averages and turning the backlight off (or cranking it up to high) will obviously alter the battery life. It might be a good idea to keep a lamp handy… at least until the 3DS Lite arrives (you know Nintendo is working on one).
Now then, on to the good stuff. In addition to revealing the battery life, Nintendo used the event to announce the 3DS’ Japanese launch lineup. The American launch lineup will be revealed at a similar event in New York on January 19th, but here’s what the people of Japan will be able to play on the 3DS on February 26 (thanks Kotaku):
Though it’s been done time and again, it’s hard to go wrong with the classic Cinderella story of an underdog standing up to the big guy and coming out on top. This certainly isn’t the premise of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it is for its indie game developer Frictional Games. These underdogs released their fourth PC game in their fourth year of business, and it has proven to be a game that won’t be forgotten.
Before releasing their most recent game, Frictional’s “dream estimates” of sales hovered around 100,000 units. In reality, that figure has doubled, with Amnesia selling almost 200,000 units after four months. The average daily unit sales for the game have not dropped below 200 units, which is impressive for an indie game in an age where anything can be found for free if a user knows where to look. Frictional has stated that they know these sales aren’t typical, and they may be right, especially considering their marketing plan.
“While we tried to make as much noise as possible at the release of the game, our marketing efforts have been far from big,” explained Frictional on their blog. The indie company released movie clips of the game, made demo versions available and sent out review copies for feedback, but the real marketing magic seems to have come from the users themselves.
Players spread their tales of playing one of the scariest games of all time, inspiring reaction videos to be made, one of which received about 775,000 views. And really, what better promotion is there for a horror game than a video titled “Holy shit, Amnesia WHAT THE [F—]”?
The most encouraging part of Frictional’s story is their new-found financial confidence.
“We are now completely financially stable and have enough money to complete our next game without any problems,” read Frictional’s blog on Friday. Because a publisher was not hired for Amnesia, Frictional was able to keep all the royalties earned from their game without having to first pay back an advance and subsequent royalties due to a third party. Most independent developers and artists in the creative world won’t see a penny of their royalties from just one album or term of contract for years. Frictional did it in four months.
Becoming a financially sound company may mean more risks taken by Frictional in the future, ranging from more frequent game releases to experimentation on console platforms.
Video Game Canon
Video Game Research Library