Lovely Planet Arcade brings old school FPS action to Steam this Summer

Posted on January 17, 2016 by John Scalzo

You kids today might not believe, but the first batch of first person shooters didn’t let you look up or down. Really! It’s true! And developer Quicktequila wants to bring back this style of shooter with their sequel to Lovely Planet.

Lovely Planet Arcade will be released for the PC (via Steam) this Summer, and it’ll include the same colorful construction paper style of the original game. It also won’t let you look and down. Lovely Planet Arcade will also include more than 100 levels across four worlds, a Mirror Mode, a Fast Mode, and an original soundtrack by Calum Bowen.

If you’re planning to take a trip down to San Antonio to attend PAX South in two weeks, you’ll get a chance to try out a Lovely Planet Arcade demo at publisher TinyBuild’s booth.

Posted in News, PC |

John Romero created a new map for Doom… his first in 21 years

Posted on January 17, 2016 by John Scalzo

“Phobos Anomaly” is the memorable climax to Doom‘s first episode, “Knee-Deep in the Dead.” The map itself is pretty simple, but it ends with the first appearance of the Barons of Hell, one of Doom’s most terrifying demons. A little over 22 years later, Doom developer John Romero thought he could do better.

Romero recently uploaded the WAD file for a sprawling new version of “Phobos Anomaly” that he likes to call “Tech Gone Bad.” The map’s insane descent into Hell really delivers that grand finale feel you want for the end of an episode. But don’t just take my word for it, check out the great playthrough by YouTube user “VarianSanctuarium” I’ve embedded above. And definitely download it yourself if you’ve still got Doom installed on your machine.

“Tech Gone Bad” is the first Doom map created by Romero since 1995, and he refers to it as “a warm-up” in the WAD notes. He also wrote up a very Romero-esque description:

My boss level replacement for E1M8… 22 years later

After exiting the Computer Station you knew the worst was up ahead. You still hadn’t reached the place where the demons were coming from. The steel door shuts behind you as you realize you’re there; you’re at the Phobos Anomaly. Cracks from hell are all over the place as seepage from the portal invades the entire installation. Now it’s time to find the portal and stop the demons from coming through. You know UAC had hundreds of scientists working at a high-tech lab somewhere in this area, and the portal must be connected to it somehow. Time to lock and load.

I don’t know what “Tech Gone Bad” is supposed to be a warm-up for, but maybe Bethesda’s Doom reboot is going to have some competition this Spring!

Posted in News, PC | Tagged ,

Weekly Warp-Up: Call of Duty: Black Ops III Sells Big…

Posted on January 17, 2016 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…

The NPD Group has delivered its monthly report on the state of the game industry’s retail sales, and once again Call of Duty: Black Ops III is sitting atop the top ten. The research firm also publishing its findings for all of 2015 and Black Ops III topped that list as well. To bandwagon on all this bragging, Activision added that the Call of Duty franchise has now sold more than 250 million copies since its debut in 2003.

If you’re looking for another recap of last month, the Warp Zoned staff got together to talk about What We Played in December 2015. And then we followed that up with a discussion of The Games of January 2016.

More news from the week that was can be found after the break.

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Posted in News |

New Releases: Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Resident Evil Origins, Life Is Strange, More

Posted on January 17, 2016 by John Scalzo

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It’s been a few weeks, but welcome to the first roundup of new retail game releases for 2016!

We start off the year with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, a new RPG for the 3DS from the Nintendo. After years of keeping them separate, the publisher has finally decided to merge their Mario & Luigi series of RPGs with the Paper Mario series of RPGs. I’m a bit surprised it took this long, but maybe Nintendo felt they needed more time to prepare the world for GIANT PAPERCRAFT BATTLES.

Also available this week is the Resident Evil Origins Collection for the PS4 and Xbox One. After redoing Resident Evil last year, Capcom turned their trained recreationists towards its prequel, Resident Evil 0, which had previously only been available on Nintendo platforms. The publisher packaged both games together for a retail release, but players can also acquire them as separate downloads through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store (and Steam, for that matter).

Moving from remakes to re-releases, Dontnod has compiled their episodic game series, Life Is Strange, into a retail package for the PS4 and Xbox One. Players who missed out on Max Caulfield’s time-traveling adventures in Arcadia Bay will now be able to experience the complete story without waiting weeks between episodes. Also this week, PQube will re-release the Vita version of SteinsGate in a “Limited Edition” that includes a 2016 calendar.

Finally, get on the bus (and drive it) this week with Astragon’s Bus Simulator 16 for the PC.

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS4, Vita, Xbox One | Tagged , , , ,

Xbox Store Today: Zheros, Oxenfree

Posted on January 15, 2016 by John Scalzo

A pair of new Xbox One games are now available to download through the Xbox Games Store, so let’s get right to it…

Zheros is a colorful beat ’em up from Rimlight Studios that asks players to join the Zheros Squad and defend the universe from crime. The intergalactic action title is also the newest member of Microsoft’s Games With Gold promotion, and Xbox One owners who have an Xbox Live Gold subscription will be able to download for free until February 15.

Also available this week is Oxenfree, a supernatural adventure from Night School Studio that Entertainment Weekly called a cross between Twin Peaks and Lost with dialogue reminiscent of a Joss Whedon production.

More information on both of these games can be found after the break.

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Posted in News, Xbox One |

Daily Scoop: January 15, 2016 – Winter Sale at Humble

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Nicole Kline

Hey everyone! I’ve got a weekend full of freelance work and Dungeons & Dragons ahead of me, and I’m super excited to take a breather and work on everything. I’m also looking forward to putting aside some time to wander the Commonwealth, since I haven’t played in almost a week. Blasphemy!

There’s a huge Winter Sale happening at the Humble Store! The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is $29.99, Just Cause 3 is $47.99, and Rocket League is $13.99, among many others. Check out the deals!

The Weekend Deal at Steam is a huge sale on Rebellion games, including the Rebellion Anthology for $77.99. The Anthology includes Zombie Army Trilogy, Sniper Elite 3, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death, and much, much more. The Daily Deal is Among the Sleep for $5.99.

Just two shirts today!

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Posted in Daily Scoop |

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the best-selling game of 2015; CoD franchise sells more than 250 million copies since 2003

Posted on January 15, 2016 by John Scalzo

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The numbers have been tabulated and the Call of Duty franchise once again reigns supreme over all other video games.

According to The NPD Group’s yearly report of retail releases, Call of Duty: Black Ops III was the best-selling game in 2015, besting EA’s Madden NFL 16 (#2) and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 (#3). The Call of Duty franchise also controlled the back end of the list with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare taking the #10 spot. Activision’s Scott Lowe added (by way of the Activision Games Blog) that the entire franchise has sold more than 250 million copies since the release of Call of Duty in 2003.

Believe it or not, games outside the Call of Duty franchise found success in 2015 as well, though most of them were released after July 1st including Star Wars: Battlefront (#4), NBA 2K16 (#6), and FIFA 16 (#9). The only game to break that trend (aside from a few 2014 stragglers like Advanced Warfare) was Mortal Kombat X (#8), which was released in April. The game-playing public may not always like it, but this does explain why publishers constantly strive to release their games in the back half of the year.

On the hardware side, console sales surged in 2015, as the PS4 and Xbox One continued to outpace the PS3 and Xbox 360. The PS4 was the overall winner in 2015, but NPD analyst Liam Callahan told GamesIndustry.biz that both platforms did well: “After 26 months of sales, the combined cumulative sales of Xbox One and PS4 exceeds the 26 month total of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by 47 percent,”

The NPD’s list of the top ten best-selling games for 2015 can be found after the break.

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

Pokken Tournament will be released for the Wii U on March 18

Posted on January 15, 2016 by John Scalzo

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Nintendo has announced that Pokken Tournament, a Tekken-styled Pokemon fighting game produced by Bandai Namco, will be released for the Wii U on March 18. The publisher also revealed the first print run of the game will come packed with an Amiibo Card of Shadow Mewtwo, which can be tapped on the Wii U GamePad to unlock the character in the game.

Finally, an official website for Pokken Tournament is now online at PokkenTournament.com. It’s pretty bare at the moment, but additional information on “Games Modes,” “How to Play,” the “Amiibo Card,” and “My Town” will be available soon.

Posted in News, Wii U | Tagged