Red Ash anime funded on Kickstarter as game falls well short

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

redash-logoAs expected, Comcept’s Kickstarter campaign for Red Ash: The Indelible Legend has failed to reach its goal. The project’s $519,999 total fell quite short of the developer’s $800,000 target. The campaign was poorly run from the start, banking on nostalgia for Mega Man Legends, Kenji Inafune’s name recognition, and the success of Mighty No. 9‘s campaign. That’s game recent which was stealth delay probably didn’t help.

However, Comcept also had a second Kickstarter campaign related to Red Ash in the works at the same time. Red Ash: Magicicada is an anime short film produced by Studio 4°C, and unlike the game’s campaign, the anime has been fully funded, surpassing its $150,000 goal. The production company is proud of Magicicada and call it “a fast-paced, entertaining film in which unique characters explore various stages.” The anime won’t be released until 2017, to coincide with the release of the Red Ash video game.

Red Ash, the game, will continue development with Chinese publisher Fuze holding the purse strings. However, coupled with the announcement of the Might No. 9 delay days before the end of Red Ash’s Kickstarter deadline, and Comcept announcing they secured a publisher well into funding, they’re going to have to do a lot to win back consumer trust.

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Star Wars: Battlefront has captured the most nominations at 2015 Gamescom Awards

Posted on August 3, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Germany’s Digital Gaming Culture Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur) has announced the nominees for this year’s Gamescom Awards… and Star Wars: Battlefront has Force Pushed its way to the top of the pack. DICE’s shooter sequel was able to collection four nominations including “Best Console Game – PlayStation 4,” “Best PC Game,” “Best Action Game,” and “Best Online Multiplayer Game.”

Battlefront was able to move slightly ahead of the pack, as a small handful of games received three nominations apiece. Final Fantasy XV, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Super Mario Maker, Skylanders SuperChargers, and Guitar Hero Live are all up for three awards.

Even if you’re not one of the jury members for the Gamescom Awards, you can have an influence on the results. The general public can vote for any game on display at the expo for a Most Wanted Consumer Award using the Gamescom app.

The winners of this year’s Gamescom Awards will be announced on August 7. The full list of nominees can be found after the break.

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Splatoon’s third North American Splatfest pits Hot Dog lovers against Marshmallow fans

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Holly Scalzo

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In the tradition of history’s great fights — Rocky versus The Big Russian, Ali versus Frazier, Arnold versus The Predator — comes the next Nintendo-sponsored Splatoon Splatfest this weekend. The third North American event hopes to put to rest the great debate over Hot Dogs versus Marshmallows as the best thing to roast over an open fire. Previous bouts have settled Dogs and Roller Coasters as superior to Cats and Water Slides, respectively.

The next North American Splatfest runs for 24 hours and is scheduled to start on Saturday, August 8th at 12:00 AM (Eastern Time) and will end when the clock strikes midnight (Eastern Time) on August 9th.

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Behind-the-scenes article paints Konami executives as Orwellian dictators

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

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UPDATE: Nikkei has released an official English translation of the article.

Nikkei, a Japanese financial newspaper, recently published an article that delves into the struggles and horrible working conditions of employees at Konami. Basically, it is not pretty, and if anything, Hideo Kojima’s rumored departure can only be seen as a good thing.

The article is entirely in Japanese, and the website requires a subscription to fully access it, but volunteer translators have been working on the article and released some highlights this morning through NeoGAF. Additional translations are available at GamesIndustry.biz and Kotaku.

A number of anonymous employees spoke to Nikkei about life at Konami, describing a prison-like environment. Employees who are deemed “useless” are either sent to the assembly line to work on pachinko machines, or are reassigned to become security officers. Some are even forced to clean up the gym located in Konami’s headquarters. And this punishment isn’t just limited to low-level workers, producers and other prominent creators have also had this type of grunt work hoisted on them.

Lunch breaks are said to be regulated via time cards, and any employee who runs late is “outed” from the company. Konami’s employees are also said to be under heavy surveillance at all times. Even Solid Snake himself couldn’t dodge all the security cameras and punch clocks that line the company’s halls.

All these measures allegedly stem from the success Konami had with a mobile game known as Dragon Collection, which has made far more money and was much cheaper to develop than any console game the company produced in years. This news is certainly in line with Konami’s recent attitude, which has led to the cancellation of the majority of their console projects, including Silent Hills.

Nikkei’s report also states that, as of April 2015, Konami had spent $80 million on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Coupled with the publisher’s desire to move towards mobile games, this astronomical budget likely had something to do with Konami’s rift with Kojima.

Konami has already stated they plan on continuing with the Metal Gear series, as well as Pro Evolution Soccer, but beyond that, much of the company’s plans remain a mystery.

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Vega claws his way into Street Fighter V and is playable at Gamescom 2015

Posted on August 3, 2015 by John Scalzo

Vega’s vain and dandyish style are on full display in his debut trailer, as Capcom has confirmed the character has officially joined the ranks of Street Fighter V‘s roster. Announced as part of the publisher’s pre-Gamescom activities, Capcom has even given “The Spanish Ninja” a no-claw fight style for the first in the franchise’s history:

Vega brings with him a brand new set of tricks, as well as a new appearance. Still possessing his trademark speed and quickness, he now has access to two distinct fighting modes: claw or no-claw. With the no-claw style giving him access to command grabs as well as new attack properties, players will need to toggle between both styles to pull off that winning KO at the end of the fight. Vega’s powerful V-Trigger is the Bloody Kiss, which sees him throw a rose at high velocity towards his opponent, before he charges at full speed right behind it, delivering a series of brutal attacks. This Spanish matador is definitely a fighter to keep your eye on, if you can.

Vega will be part of Street Fighter V’s playable Gamescom demo, which is available at Sony’s booth (C-020) in Hall 7. We’ll all get a chance to play the game when its released for the PC and PS4 in Spring 2016.

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The Long Dark’s “Deep Forest” update changes everything

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

The Long Dark, Hinterland’s open world survival game (you know, the one without zombies), has received a lot of updates since it’s successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013. Along the way, it’s become a great example of Early Access done right. The developer is at it again with the newest update, “Deep Forest,” which provides a lot of changes to the game on the PC and Xbox One. Though these changes are designed to make the game easier, which could make hardcore survivalists unhappy.

The changes are designed to make the game easier to understand, and make it easier to survive it’s harsh world by making it more realistic. For example, there’s now a wind shield icon to indicate when you’re shielded from the wind, and there are new modes that allow you to instantly counteract freezing via campfires. You can now break down furniture and even curtains to use as fuel for a fire. The developer also made a few little tweaks to the game such as an updated sprinting animation and enhanced graphical settings.

You can check out the full changelist at Hinterland’s official website. It’s mostly small changes that fans have been complaining about, small changes that usually add up over time that make a game much better.

Now if only Hinterland would give us an update on the highly touted story mode that hasn’t been mentioned since 2013…

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If you buy Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, you’ll get Gears 1-3 + Judgment on Xbox 360 for free

Posted on August 3, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Before Microsoft officially revealed Gears of War: Ultimate Edition at this year’s E3 Expo, there was a rumor floating around that the publisher was actually working on a multi-game Marcus Fenix Collection. That rumor was quickly shot down by The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson, but today’s announcement might be the next best thing.

Writing on the Xbox Wire, Microsoft has announced that everyone who purchases Gears of War: Ultimate Edition before December 31, 2015 will receive Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3, and Gears of War: Judgment for the Xbox 360 for free. And with the Xbox One’s upcoming backwards compatibility update, all four games will be playable on the publisher’s newest console this Fall:

All Gears of War titles will be supported on Backward Compatibility when it launches publicly this fall. This means if you own Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Gears of War 3 or Gears of War: Judgment on Xbox 360, you’ll be able to play them on your Xbox One and utilize some of your favorite next-gen features like Game DVR, Snap, screenshots and more. You can even keep all your previously-saved files, game add-ons, Achievements and play with friends on Xbox Live no matter which Xbox console they’re on. For those of you in the Xbox One preview program who just can’t wait, the original Gears of War is available today in Backward Compatibility.

This is just the first of many Gamescom announcements Microsoft has on tap for this week, so stay tuned for more.

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Weekly Warp-Up: Gamescom 2015 Countdown

Posted on August 2, 2015 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…

Gamescom, the biggest video game convention in all of Europe, kicks next week in Cologne, Germany and game publishers are preparing for the big show. Most expo announcements are still a big mystery, but we did learn this week that Blizzard plans to announce the sixth World of Warcraft expansion in Germany.

In other news, UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie has published the latest edition of Kickstart This!, which focuses on the crowdfunding efforts of Soul Keepers, XO, and The Wizards of Trinity Bellwoods.

Finally this week, Josh Griffiths has published an editorial digging into the Frames Per Second Fight. Spoiler Alert: People who demand 60 frames per second are often a tad unreasonable.

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

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