Long-lost animated cutscenes from Crash Bandicoot emerge

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

One of many former mascots for Sony’s PlayStation, Crash Bandicoot, was originally going to feature animated cutscenes between levels. Footage released yesterday via YouTube, thanks to a user named “9Matt2,” gave gamers their first look at the animation, which had been lost for more than 20 years.

David Siller, a Producer on Crash Bandicoot, spoke to Crash Mania about the cartoon:

“It was based on ideas for where we were going with this IP at that time. It was probably too ambitious in nature and was also trying to be humorous. It was never used or even embedded in the game as a hidden ‘easter egg’ treat.

Once UIS licensed the game to Sony for publication, Sony did not want it utilized since they were heavily pushing the ‘3D’ agenda.”

The first segment of the video was supposed to be the game’s intro, while the second part was going to be used for the outro of the game. Crash Bandicoot hasn’t been heard from in a long time, but it’s always fun to get a taste of gaming history.

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Weekly Warp-Up: Satoru Iwata 1959-2015

Posted on July 19, 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…

The only news last week was the untimely passing of Nintendo’s President and CEO, Satoru Iwata. Just 55 years old at the time of his death, Iwata wasn’t a prolific hitmaker like Shigeru Miyamoto or a big talker like Hideo Kojima, but his quiet devotion to video games has certainly made the world a better place.

Thousands paid their respects at Iwata’s funeral this weekend while thousands more have petitioned Nintendo to create an Amiibo figure to honor their late leader. After seeing Iwata perform hosting duties for Nintendo’s series of Nintendo Direct video, I think he would have enjoyed that very much.

More news from this past week, including our review of Kholat, can be found after the break.

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New Releases: Wolfenstein: Old Blood, Zombie Army Trilogy, Onechanbara Z2, F1 2015

Posted on July 19, 2015 by John Scalzo

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Two, count ’em, two games about fighting the undead in the waning days of World War II will be available on stores this week. And, interestingly enough, both are currently available to download through digital storefronts. The public has spoken, and they want discs!

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood brings B.J. Blazkowicz back to the frontlines on the PS4 and Xbox One. As a prequel to last year’s Wolfenstein: The New Order, Blazkowicz will get to do some 1940s-style Nazi hunting, but he’ll also tangle with an entire village of zombies. Ach du lieber!

But Blazkowicz won’t be fighting alone as Zombie Hitler himself is behind the undead shenanigans in Zombie Army Trilogy for the PS4 and Xbox One. A standalone spinoff of Sniper Elite III, Zombie Army Trilogy is a team-based game where the Allies have to stop this final solution for Nazi world domination. Ach du lieber, wieder!

A third round of zombie hunting is available to shoppers this week in Onechanbara Z2: Chaos for the PS4. Published by XSEED, Onechanbara Z2 features the further adventures of the “bikini zombie squad,” a group of Japanese sisters who kill zombies with swords while wearing bikinis… obviously.

Finally this week, Codemasters will release F1 2015, the latest Formula 1 racing sim, and first to be released for the PS4 and Xbox One. If you love open wheel racing, this is the game for you. But sorry, no zombies.

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Kholat Review: Lo-Fi Scares From Russia

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Sean Weiland

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I don’t normally play horror games as it’s not really a genre I enjoy. But horror games from Russian and former Soviet bloc countries are a different story. There’s something about their style that shows they really understand fear. I cannot quite explain the draw, but I really like their ability to create an atmosphere where the surroundings and my mind are working equally hard to scare me. And when I heard that Kholat was from that part of the world, I knew I wanted to give it a try.

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Posted in PC, Reviews, Top Story | Tagged

Shenmue III sets record for most-funded video game on Kickstarter with a few hours to spare

Posted on July 17, 2015 by John Scalzo

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and its record-shattering $5.545 million crowdfunding campaign was only able to hold on to the record for a month as Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter campaign surpassed it this morning. And fans still have a little more than five hours to add to its tally (currently sitting at $5.9 million), and further cement its status as the most-funded video game in Kickstarter’s history.

Game Director Yu Suzuki recorded a message for Shenmue’s many fans, thanking them for their support and inviting them to a special live broadcast to celebrate the end of the campaign. The livestream, which begins at 7:00 PM (Eastern Time), can be viewed at Twitch.TV/shenmue3official. Suzuki will be joined by Animation Producer Hiroaki Takeuchi, Main Character Designer Kenji Miyawaki, and other special guests.

And after that comes the hard part… waiting for Shenmue III’s December 2017 launch on the PC and PS4.

UPDATE: Shenmue III’s Kickstarter campaign closed with $6,333,295 in pledges, nearly a million dollars more than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Posted in News, PC, PS4 | Tagged

Daily Scoop: July 17, 2015 – Just one sad t-shirt today!

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Nicole Kline

It’s not that the t-shirt is sad, dear readers. It’s that there’s just one of them, and it’s so lonely.

There’s a Paradox Interactive weekend sale happening over at Humble. Cities: Skylines is $19.99, Pillars of Eternity is $29.99, and Europa Universalis IV is $7.99, among others.

You still have some time to get the Alien Franchise on sale over at Steam. Their Daily Deal is Out There: Omega Edition. You can pick it up for $6.69 or get the game and soundtrack for $10.04.

There’s just one lonely t-shirt today!

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Xbox Store Today: So Many Me, No Time To Explain, SlashDash

Posted on July 17, 2015 by John Scalzo

Three brand new side-scrollers for the Xbox One make the Xbox Games Store a very retro-tastic place to be today.

So Many Me, which is available for free to Xbox Live Gold members, is a puzzle platformer that puts players into the fluffy shoes of Filo and his “band of misfit clones.” Using this mass of green puffballs, players will hop from platform to platform in a fight against an “ancient, malevolent evil.”

No Time To Explain is also a puzzle platformer, but it asks players to “blast through time” to rescue their imperiled future self.

Finally this week, SlashDash stars a quartet of “adorable” ninjas in a two-on-two local multiplayer game where players will slash, dash, shoot, and teleport their way to victory.

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

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Gearbox’s post-Battleborn game is “extremely different” from everything else they’ve done

Posted on July 17, 2015 by John Scalzo

gearbox-logoRandy Pitchford continued his tear through the Develop Brighton conference by telling IGN that his company’s next game will be “extremely different” from everything else they’ve ever done:

“It depends on how you define soon,” he said when asked if a reveal was imminent. “You’ll see it before the end of the generation! In some ways it’s extremely different to what you’ve seen from us. Astonishingly so. In others, you’ll see how we’re taking advantage of what we’ve learned.”

Gearbox is currently hard at work on Battleborn and plans to release the “hero shooter” later this year. So that means this “extremely different” new project is likely a few years out, though Gearbox has been working on it since at least 2013, when it was first mentioned by Pitchford at PAX Prime 2013.

Develop Brighton has kept Pitchford very busy as the Gearbox CEO also revealed that the company has begun preliminary work on Duke Nukem 5 and Brothers in Arms 4. It’s unknown where these two games fit into Gearbox’s schedule, but they’re looking to partner with at least one outside development house to produce both titles.

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