Warp Zoned Presents
All Articles: PC
Lady Gaga teams up with Zynga, FarmVille players get first listen to new album
In the latest of bizarre moves the eccentric artist is known for, Lady Gaga has teamed up with Zynga to celebrate her new album, Born This Way. This partnership will encompass special events in two of the developer’s biggest games: FarmVille and Words With Friends. “I want to celebrate and share Born This Way with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before,” said Lady Gaga.
The first listen of Born This Way will take place in FarmVille, when you visit the neighboring GagaVille farm. This space comes decked out with unicorns, crystals, and un-released songs from the highly anticipated album.
Words With Friends, the popular Scrabble knock-off on iOS and Android, will host a series of contests where you can win prizes like tickets for one of her upcoming concerts and a signed copy of Born This Way.
Lastly, you’ll be able to grab a free download of the album when you purchase a $25 Zynga game card at Best Buy. You gotta admit, this shows just how big gaming has become when the most popular artists are doing game deals, with exclusive first listens nonetheless.
PopCap goes experimental with 4th & Battery label
As if Plants vs Zombies wasn’t weird enough, PopCap Games has announced 4th & Battery, a new label for “smaller, simpler, and sometimes edgier games.”
“4th & Battery is a pressure valve intended to keep our heads from exploding,” explained Ed Allard, Executive Vice President of Studios at PopCap. “The PopCap brand has become closely associated with ultra-high quality, polish and attention to detail – which is a great thing. But our standard game development process is therefore long and involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th & Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops.”
“Expect weirdness,” Jason Kapalka, Chief Creative Officer at PopCap, added.
To that end, 4th & Battery has announced their first game, Unpleasant Horse. The iPhone title will be added to the App Store later this month and it definitely brings the crazy:
Players take on the role of – wait for it! – a strikingly unpleasant horse that sports wings and advances through the game by destroying small birds and landing on more pleasant horses from above. Landing atop other horses enables the player to force them earthward into a perpetual meat grinder for extra points and special bonuses.
First trailer for Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
The MTV Multiplayer blog has an exclusive first look at Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. You can follow the link to view it or you can just play the video right here.
In the video, you’ll be treated to a Lego-ized version of Jack Sparrow’s grand entrance from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The game will include levels from all three current Pirates movies as well as the upcoming On Stranger Tides.
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean will be released for the DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 this May.
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies Soundtrack available now
Say what you want about Call of Duty: Black Ops, but the game has a great soundtrack. So great that Activision has released a soundtrack of songs from the Zombies Mode on Amazon, iTunes,the Zune Marketplace and other digital retailers.
Titled Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies Soundtrack, the album includes 17 tracks of undead-themed tunes. Each track can be downloaded separately for 99 cents each with the whole album priced at $11.99.
Thirty-second samples of each track are available at Amazon.
Disney Interactive cuts jobs
Disney Interactive is currently downsizing, apparently in a pretty substantial way, as nearly half of its 700 member staff may be getting the boot. Disney calls the layoffs a “restructuring process” in its statement. Variety reports that many were anticipating the layoffs as many key players left the division last year, including Graham Hopper, who spent the last eight years building the studio into a formidable entity in the gaming industry. New talent is coming in to upper management, including John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom, which Disney acquired last year. Disney’s current CEO Bob Iger said Pleasants would “focus on turning those businesses into profitability” and “diversifying our presence in the business, so we’re not reliant on one platform that’s obviously facing challenges.”
While terms can have multiple connotations in the business context, he may be referring to last year’s Epic Mickey, which released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, a console that is notoriously difficult for third party developers to find success on. Epic Mickey was panned critically, but is apparently the fastest selling game in Disney Interactive’s history, pushing 1.3 million copies last December.
Activision wants to close Bizarre Creations
Activision has spent the last three months looking for a buyer for British development team Bizarre Creations. Yesterday, with no buyer in sight, the publisher told Develop that they’ve recommended the studio for closure. And Bizarre has responded that they’ve accepted this decision.
The future of the Bizarre team is rather murky at this point, but Coddy Johnson, Activision Worldwide Studios’ chief operating officer said, “We’re offering the studio as many resources as possible, including counselling, external placement services and external career fairs.”
Bizarre released two games in 2010 that underperformed their rather lofty expectations. Blur was pitched as “Mario Kart for adults,” but most adults indicated that they’d rather play Mario Kart. And November’s James Bond 007: Blood Stone was overshadowed by last year’s other Bond game, a remake of GoldenEye 007.
Everyone here at Warp Zoned hopes the people at Bizarre land on their feet soon.
Red Dead Redemption, Enslaved, God of War III lead 2011 AIAS nominees
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced the nominees for the 14th annual Interactive Achievement Awards (IAAs). As expected, Red Dead Redemption lead the way with nine nominations including Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design and Game of the Year.
God of War III and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (a title that is already being considered one of the best games you’ve never played) shared the second-most nominations with six apiece. Other games up for multiple awards include Call of Duty: Black Ops, Heavy Rain, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Mass Effect 2 (five nominations apiece) along with Dance Central, Limbo and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (four apiece).
The awards will be handed out by Jay Mohr at the 2011 D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit on Thursday, February 10. The hour-long show will be broadcast on G4 two days later, February 12, at 4:00 PM (Eastern Time) with a webcast scheduled for 7:30 PM (Eastern Time) at G4tv.com/DICE.
A complete list of nominees can be on the AIAS website, but the “Game of the Year” will come from this list of five: Angry Birds HD, Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption.
New Releases: LittleBigPlanet 2, Mass Effect 2, Mindjack, More
What this week’s new releases lacks in quantity, it makes up for it in quality.
Sony’s second Sackboy adventure on the PS3, LitleBigPlanet 2, will be released this week. The sequel will add even more level creation options as well as include an expanded single-player campaign.
As PS3 owners get their second crack at Sackboy, they’ll get their first chance to experience BioWare’s Mass Effect series with a PS3 port of Mass Effect 2. Sticking with the science fiction theme, Square Enix will be bringing their body-hopping shooter Mindjack to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Finally, PopCap Games has shrunk down Plants vs Zombies for a DS release.
The full list of the rest of this week’s new releases can be found below. (more…)