Weekly Warp-Up: Welcome to 2016 Edition

Posted on January 3, 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 Christmas tree has been taken down and the New Year’s confetti has been cleaned up. Yup, we are officially in the dead zone of video game news. Might as well strike up another round of “Auld Lang Syne” and take in another showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($625 million already, can you believe it?).

Believe it or not, one of the biggest stories from this past week is the announcement that another game in the Bases Loaded franchise is in development in Japan. For someone who played a ton of Bases Loaded back in the NES days, this is definitely big news. But it’s not exactly going to set the world on fire. “Auld Lang Syne” and Star Wars it is.

But before I go, I want to thank all our readers for sticking with Warp Zoned over the last five years. We love what we do and we’re going to keep doing it for as long as possible.

A small batch of news from this past week can be found after the break.

Press Start to Continue →

Posted in News |

Oculus Touch controller won’t be released until second half of 2016

Posted on January 1, 2016 by John Scalzo

oculustouch-22016 is being touted as “The Year Virtual Reality Goes Mainstream,” but the calendar changeover was a rough one for fans of the Oculus Rift. Yesterday, the development team at Oculus announced that the Oculus Touch controller has been delayed, and that it won’t be available alongside the Oculus Rift headset’s early 2016 release.

Posting on the Oculus Blog, the developer said they need more time to perfect design of the controller:

On Touch hardware, we’ve made significant advances in ergonomics, and we’re implementing many changes that make Touch even more comfortable, reliable, and natural. We’re also implementing changes that improve hand pose recognition.

[…]

The feedback on Touch has been incredibly positive, and we know this new timeline will produce an even better product, one that will set the bar for VR input. We appreciate your patience and promise Touch will be worth the wait.

In order to make these improvements, the Oculus Touch controller will now be released sometime in the second half of 2016. However, Oculus still plans to bundle an Xbox One controller with every Rift headset.

Posted in News, PC |

Square Enix: Final Fantasy XV will finally be released in 2016

Posted on January 1, 2016 by John Scalzo

finalfantasyxv-header

2016 is going to be a big year for the Final Fantasy franchise. Remakes and re-releases of both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IX are in the works, and Director Hajime Tabata is hard at work on the next game in the series, Final Fantasy XV. The fifteenth Final Fantasy game began life in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, an action-oriented (and, at the time, PS3-exclusive) spinoff to Square Enix’s “Fabula Nova Crystallis” project. But after a number of delays, a title change, and a platform change, it looks like Tabata is finally ready to release the game for the PS4 and Xbox One in 2016.

He delivered the good news to Final Fantasy fans everywhere via the Square Enix Blog this morning:

We will finally release FFXV this year, in 2016! In development, previous phases required wisdom and strength. However, moving forward the final phase will focus on effort and willpower.

I vow to you all that every member in the team will do their best to the very last possible moment taking responsibility and pride in their craft.

We will do everything we can do to finish FFXV to create an experience we are incredibly proud of and one that you will enjoy and treasure.

While we still don’t know the exact date of Final Fantasy XV’s release, we do know that Square Enix is planning a simultaneous global launch, a first for the franchise.

Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged

20 PS4 exclusives for 2016 get the spotlight in new trailer released by Sony Europe

Posted on January 1, 2016 by John Scalzo

While the PS4 continues to sell like hot cakes, the system suffered a bit of a new game drought in 2015. Everyone expected Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End to anchor the Fall, but it was eventually pushed back to March, and then again into April. But Nathan Drake will surely get his moment to shine in 2016, especially after Sony Europe put the adventurer front and center in a new video promoting 20 PS4 exclusives that’ll be released this year.

A Thief’s End is joined in the trailer by a number of other early 2016 releases including Firewatch (February 9), Street Fighter V (February 16), Ratchet & Clank (April 12), and No Man’s Sky (June). A quick glimpse of David Jaffe’s Drawn To Death has confirmed it’ll be released in the next 12 months (it previously had no release date), and the trailer promises that Media Molecule will be back this year with a beta (and possibly a full release) for Dreams.

Keep your eyes peeled for these PS4 games in 2016 as well:

  • Alienation
  • Boundless
  • Gran Turismo Sport
  • Gravity Rush 2
  • Hellblade
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn
  • The Last Guardian
  • Nier: Automata
  • Paragon
  • Shadow of the Beast
  • The Tomorrow Children
  • What Remains of Edith Finch
  • The Witness

Presumably, we’ll be hearing a lot more about all of these games in the coming days.

Posted in News, PS4 |

Square Enix will bring Final Fantasy IX to PC and mobile devices in 2016

Posted on December 31, 2015 by John Scalzo

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy IX will be the next game in the long-running RPG series to receive a re-release on mobile devices and the PC.

There’s no release date for Final Fantasy IX’s return just yet, but we do know that the adventures of Zidane and his crew will be enhanced with “high-definition graphics, newly added achievements, auto-save, high speed mode, and several game boosting features.” Square Enix also released an announcement trailer, which has been embedded above, and launched an official website with story and character details for those who missed it the first time around.

Less famous among gamers than Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX was originally released in 2000 and was the last game in the franchise to be released for the PlayStation.

Posted in Mobile, News, PC | Tagged

Nintendo Download: 1080 Snowboarding, Molly Maggot

Posted on December 31, 2015 by John Scalzo

nintendoeshop-header

Snow has been in short supply this year, but that’s not going to stop the final Nintendo Download of 2015.

For those that love the white stuff, Nintendo is closing out the year with a Virtual Console re-release for 1080 Snowboarding on the Wii U. The N64 favorite lets players tear down a snow-packed mountain at top speed while performing dozens of tricks and spins. Also available on the Wii U eShop this week is Molly Maggot, a top-down action game where players take control of a maggot who needs to munch flesh to survive. Sure… why not?

More information on both games can be found right here:

Wii U eShop

1080 Snowboarding – Get ready to experience one of the first realistic snowboarding games ever created! In this Nintendo 64 classic, select from five characters, each with his or her own attributes and special tricks. Pick a snowboard that best suits your rider, and then head down the mountain and feel the sensation of speed that’ll make you forget all about the cold.

Molly Maggot – Play as Molly the Maggot as she begins her life of decay flesh munching. See how hard maggots have it as you defend yourself against other decay eaters and the corpse’s own body fighting back. Enjoy and explore an anatomy based map in Story Mode or try to make it through Extra Mode with randomly spawning exits.

Posted in News, Wii U |

Skylanders SuperChargers figures of Bowser and Donkey Kong now being sold individually

Posted on December 31, 2015 by John Scalzo

skylanderssuperchargers

Amiibo hunters had to empty their wallets earlier this Fall when Activision partnered with Nintendo to package hybrid Skylanders/Amiibo figures of Donkey Kong and Bowser figures in the 3DS, Wii, and Wii U Starter Packs for Skylanders SuperChargers. Dedicated completionists were forced to purchase four copies of the game’s Starter Pack to obtain Hammer Slam Bowser, Turbo Charge Donkey Kong, and “Dark Edition” variants of each.

However, if you held out this long, it looks like Activision is getting ready to release the standard edition of each figure in much cheaper individual Dual Packs as readers of Nintendo Everything have found both figures on store shelves in recent days. Priced at $24.99 apiece, Hammer Slam Bowser is packaged with his Clown Cruiser vehicle, while Turbo Charge Donkey Kong rides into stores with his Barrel Blaster vehicle.

Online retailers have yet to begin selling these individual Dual Packs, but Nintendo Everything believes they’ll be widely available next week.

UPDATE: According to GameStop, the Hammer Slam Bowser and Turbo Charge Donkey Kong figures will be widely available in stores on or before January 9.

Posted in 3DS, News, Wii, Wii U | Tagged ,

Xbox Store Today: Beatsplosion For Kinect

Posted on December 30, 2015 by John Scalzo

Are your New Year’s Resolutions ready? I hope so, as time is getting short with a little over a day to go before the clock strikes midnight on 2015. But if your list includes the words “Exercise More,” Virtual Air Guitar is hoping you’ll consider their new Xbox One title, Beatsplosion For Kinect.

Available to download now through the Xbox Games Store, Beatsplosion For Kinect will transform players into a “Beat Ninja” who punches and kicks his way through a “crazy world of subatomic particles”:

Beatsplosion For Kinect ($12.99)
Step through Kinect into the crazy world of subatomic particles. Move to the beat of the music, punch your way through quarks and neutrinos, and smash everything into smithereens! Earn higher skill belts to unlock new levels that challenge your rhythm and coordination. Get your sweat on as the tempo increases, and pit yourself against the epic black belt challenge at a blazing speed of 200 bpm!

A Beatsplosion For Kinect launch trailer has been embedded above.

Posted in News, Xbox One |