Telltale has released a launch trailer for Tales From the Borderlands: Episode 4

If you’ve been following along with Telltale’s Tales From the Borderlands, you’ll definitely want to watch the launch trailer embedded above. And if you haven’t been playing it, you have two options. You can either avoid the trailer like the plague, or you can use it to catch up with what you missed and pretend that you’ve played the first three episodes:

In this penultimate episode of the season, captured by Vallory and her goons, Rhys and Fiona are forced to continue the search for the Vault beacon – at gunpoint. The beacon is on the Hyperion moon base – Helios – while our heroes are on Pandora… so there’s the pesky cold void of death known as “space” to overcome. Even with assistance from a familiar face, and with a worryingly helpful Handsome Jack hitching a ride in Rhys’ head, getting on board the ominous “H” is going to take every drop of guile, and quite possibly all the spunk you’ve got. Sacrifices will be made – can you make the tough choices needed to succeed?

Whatever your choice, Tales From the Borderlands: Escape Plan Bravo will be available to download through all the major digital storefronts this week:

  • Tuesday, August 18: PC, PS3, and PS4
  • Wednesday, August 19: Xbox One and Xbox 360
  • Thursday, August 20: iOS and Android

And don’t forget, developers from Telltale will make the trip to this year’s PAX Prime expo to host a special “Crowd Play” presentation of Tales From the Borderlands: Escape Plan Bravo on Saturday, August 29 at 8:30 PM. There will be plenty of giveaways and the entire crowd is expected to help steer the events of the episode.

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Limited Edition “Darth Vader PS4” goes on sale this Fall in two different bundles

“I felt a great disturbance in The Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in joy, and were suddenly silenced (in awe). I fear something terrible (to our wallets) has happened.”

With Lucasfilm and the rest of the Star Wars family now firmly ensconced in Disney’s bosom, the biennial D23 Expo is now home to plenty of reveals related to a galaxy far, far away. But the announcement of a Darth Vader-branded PS4 bundle might do more to empty the wallets of fanboys everywhere than a billion Blu-ray re-releases.

The Limited Edition system will include a profile image of the Dark Lord of the Sith and a standard 500GB hard drive. The included DualShock 4 controller will feature a red-and-black design inspired by Darth Vader’s chest panel. Each Limited Edition will also include a download code for four classic Star Wars games (Super Star Wars, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter), all remade for the PS4 with enhanced graphics and Trophy support.

However, rather than limit this system to just one bundle, players will also receive one of this Fall’s new Star Wars titles: Star Wars: Battlefront and Disney Infinity: Star Wars. The Battlefront bundle will be available at retailers everywhere, while the Disney Infinity package (which also includes a Disney Infinity Base, the Rise Against the Empire Play Set Pack, a Luke Skywalker figure, a Leia Organa figure, and a Boba Fett figure) will be released exclusively through Walmart.

Both versions of the Darth Vader Limited Edition Bundle will be available on November 17. A third bundle, which includes Star Wars: Battlefront, the four classic Star Wars games, and a PS4 system and DualShock 4 in Jet Black, will also be available on November 17.

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Studio 4℃ is asking for more money for the Red Ash anime

redash-logoAlthough the Kickstarter campaign for Red Ash: The Indelible Legend failed, the Red Ash anime campaign (Red Ash: Magicicada) actually succeeded, reaching its goal with a day to spare, and ultimately pulling in $162,882.

Well, that just wasn’t good enough for Studio 4℃, who have now set up their own crowdfunding page to squeeze more money from fans secure more money to extend the run time of the anime film. The new campaign is asking for $127,118 and, unlike on Kickstarter, Studio 4℃ will be getting all the money donated whether or not they hit that goal.

This new campaign begins several weeks after the Red Ash video game had to be bailed out by Chinese publisher Fuze. Comcept’s first game, Mighty No. 9, has also suffered its own problems in recent days as it was quietly delayed.

People can spend their money on whatever they like, but I am not happy with the way Comcept and Studio 4℃ have handled Red Ash: The Indelible Legend and Red Ash: Magicicada. I’m sure many others agree with me.

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Extreme Fallout: New Vegas “You Only Live Once” run comes to an end

On September 7, 2014, YouTuber “Many A True Nerd” posted the first video of a Fallout: New Vegas run that he referred to as “You Only Live Once.” Yesterday, nearly a year later, the series finally came to an end.

The name of the game is simple, or rather, the rule set is simple. “Many A True Nerd” wanted to beat Fallout: New Vegas, and all of its expansions, with a single health bar. “Many A True Nerd,” real name Jon, wasn’t allowed to heal his character’s wounds or radiation once in the entire series. If he took any damage, it would be a permanent strike on his health bar. His character’s name, Please Don’t Shoot, seemed rather apt.

In the final video, Jon reminiscences about the series and how it’s helped him and his YouTube channel, which grew from 10,000 subscribers to nearly 100,000. He beat the base game in February of this year and spent the last six months completing the game’s downloadable content, starting with Honest Hearts.

Jon admitted to making several mistakes over the course of the series, including underestimating certain enemies and walking into several traps including a bear trap and tripwire rigged shotgun. But he was able to beat the first three expansions, and entered Lonesome Road with less than 100 hit points. Coming into the final battle, he had all of 23 hit points to survive, and was on the verge of getting radiation poisoning, which would have dropped him down to three hit points. After coming so far, will Jon see it through to the end? You’ll have to watch the video yourself, embedded above, to see.

As for what’s next for Many A True Nerd, he wasted no time telling us how much more difficult the next challenge will be… An “You Only Live Once” run through Fallout 3. But hven he’s convinced he won’t get far.

The game where it’s absolutely, definitely, flipping impossible. There are only about 12 weeks left until Fallout 4 […] Honestly if I can get more than 12 or 13 parts through Fallout 3 “You Only Live Once” I will have surprised myself.

He’s laughing as he says this. Granted, he and everyone else said that about New Vegas. However, Fallout 3 is a much tougher game. With no gambling to quickly make money, a limited damage resistance system, a lack of different ammo types, more random events, and Fallout 3’s heavier reliance on combat, it will be truly remarkable if he can get through ten parts, much less beat the entire game (and all its expansions).

Starting next week, we’ll all find out together. Good luck, Jon, we have faith in you… somewhat.

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More details about the Retro VGS console revealed

retrovgsRetro Media, the people behind the Retro VGS console, have updated their online FAQ and confirmed a few more details about the cartridge-based system.

On the hardware side, the Retro Media plans to eschew the use of Secure Digital (SD) cards or USB flash memory drives in the Retro VGS. Instead, the company has opted for an archival type of EEPROM cartridge that is rated to retain data for 100 years. This attempt to create a timeless console even bleeds into the system’s firmware, which will be locked and update free.

Developers will have the ability to take a Retro VGS cartridges and add additional functionality to them, similar to Nintendo’s use of the Super FX chip, to produce games not possible by the base system. This process will also allow developers to rewrite the console’s hardware configuration to more closely resemble a series of classic consoles:

The Retro VGS will have its own cool configurations (ways to make a game), and it can also be hardware-configured to be other old-school architectures that a lot of developers are used to developing for. Specifically, and at this current time, it’s an FPGA and ARM system. If a developer wants to make a Neo Geo game, they would include an HDL (Hardware Description Language) file that configures the FPGA to operate like a Neo Geo. The developer would code their game to run against the Neo Geo platform. This HDL code along with the actual Neo Geo game will be on the cartridge. Once that cartridge is placed in the Retro VGS, it will become a Neo Geo and play that game. So in this case, the language is: 68000 and Z80 code.

If you wanted to do a new Atari 2600 styled game, you’d include a 2600 HDL file that configures the FPGA to replicate the logic of the original 2600 hardware and then you’d include your new 2600 game on that cartridge too. These two files are then paired up on the cartridge and when plugged into the RETRO VGS, will turn the console into a 2600.

Finally, Retro Media confirmed that the system will come bundled with a pack-in game. Adventures of Tiny Knight, developed by CollectorVision, will be a RPG platformer that’s heavily inspired by Westone’s Wonder Boy series.

A retail price for the Retro VGS has yet to be determined, but the Kickstarter campaign to help fund the creation of the console will begin on September 14.

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Sony will host PlayStation Experience 2015 in San Francisco this December

Sony packed the inaugural PlayStation Experience with a ton of announcements and gave attendees of the two-day convention a chance to play dozens of upcoming PS3, PS4, and Vita games for the first time. While many assumed the event would be a one-time thing to celebrate the platform’s 20th anniversary, Sony has other plans. Earlier this week, the consolemaker announced that PlayStation Experience 2015 will be held in San Francisco on December 5 and December 6.

The convention will be held at the Moscone West, a tri-level exhibition hall that’s about a mile from the Bay Bridge. So it’s safe to assume that a huge number of titles will once again be on display this year.

While Sony isn’t ready to talk about which game will be on display, they have begun selling tickets to the event at the official PlayStation Experience website. Two-day passes have been priced at $75 (discounted to $60 if you buy before September 20) while single-day passes are $45 (Saturday) and $40 (Sunday). A “Capcom Cup VIP Package Add-On” is also available for $75 if you’d like front row seats for the finale of the Capcom Pro Tour.

More information about this year’s PlayStation Experience can be found at the PlayStation Blog.

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Activision reveals Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 soundtrack

tonyhawksproskater5

As with the recent musical offerings from Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4, the majority of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5‘s soundtrack looks fairly unfamiliar to me. I think I recognize maybe three or four of these bands… which is made much more difficult when none of them are Rage Against the Machine or The Ramones. But if you love Cloud Nothings, Connie Price and the Keystones, New Politics, and The Schitzophonics, there’s probably something for you to enjoy on the soundtrack.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on September 29 with the PS3 and Xbox 360 version scheduled to follow on November 10. The full soundtrack is available after the break.

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Weekly Warp-Up: Summer Dead Zone 2015 Edition

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…

With the E3 Expo and Gamescom in the rearview mirror, it’s time to enter that dead zone where there’s very little news coming down the pike and even fewer new games ahead of the Fall rush. But a few things of note did happen this week.

For example, Our own Josh Griffiths helped produce an English adaptation of the Metal Gear Solid audio drama that was first released in 1998 in Japan. Also this week, Blizzard confirmed that they are hiring for an “Unannounced Diablo Project.” And Jonathan Nolan said that his HBO-bound Westworld remake looked to Red Dead Redemption and BioShock for inspiration. There’s even the rather scandalous news that a video of Fallout 4‘s Gamescom demo is now viewable on Pornhub.

The lengths some fans will go to. Thankfully, it’s easy to find the rest of this week’s important news. It’s available after the break.

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