Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Andrew Rainnie - UK Correspondent
Take “The Pledge” to join The Order 1886 in new trailer
Since its public debut, the PlayStation 4-exclusive The Order 1886 has been causing a stir amongst Sony fans looking for the system’s first truly next-gen, must-buy title. Now, the company has released a stonking new trailer that reveals more about the mysterious order of knights and their mission a technologically advanced Victorian London.
The game’s developer, Ready At Dawn, has taken a leaf from Naughty Dog with this new trailer, in which a gruff narrator talks while the camera glides through time, chasing a mysterious black ooze that seems to represent the evil forces players will face. Eagled-eyed viewers will spot various references and clues about the game hidden within the texts and newspapers that flash by. It comes to a head with a sneak peak at two of the knights, a young female and the moustached protagonist from the original reveal. As he says, “I think we should be prepared for anything.”
The Order 1886 will be released this Fall.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged The Order: 1886
Assassin’s Creed: Arena brings Ubisoft’s franchise to board games
While players await news of where the next installment in the Assassin’s Creed series will be set, Ubisoft has decided to escape the Animus and bring the franchise into the real world. The studio has entered a partnership with Cryptozoic Entertainment, the company behind board games based on The Walking Dead and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, to create Assassin’s Creed: Arena. It is described as “a strategic game of cat-and-mouse that pits 2-4 players against each other in a race for kills,” where players assassinate targets, or other players, to collect Victory Points. Set in Constantinople during the same time period as Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, players can chose various characters including Shahkulu (the Renegade), Odai Dunqas (the Guardian), Oksana Razin (the Vanguard), and Anacletos (the Gladiator).
While there are a lot of rules, Ubisoft believes that those less familiar with board games will still be able to pick it up pretty quickly, and that they’ll soon be assassinating and battling with other players in cardboard form.
Assassin’s Creed: Arena is set to be released in North America on February 26 for $50.
[Source: UbiBlog]
Posted in News
Tagged Tabletop Games
Broken Age Review: A Point-And-Click Game For A New Era
Since the introduction of crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, there have been a number of high-profile successes that have managed to capture the collective imagination of the public and skyrocket beyond their original goals. Double Fine Productions’ Broken Age is one such title, dwarfing its initial target of $400,000 by raising $3.3 million, one of the highest amounts ever raised for a game. The reason for the excitement was simple; industry veteran Tim Schafer, designer on classic point-and-click games such as LucasArts’ Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and co-designer on the incredibly funny Monkey Island series, was returning to the genre. But how does his latest endeavour stand up against these unforgettable games? (more…)
Posted in PC, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged Broken Age
Interview: Exploring the Final Frontier With Maximillian Kovtun of Space Enigma Studios
In the latest edition of Warp Zoned’s Kickstart This! column, one of the games we featured was Space Pioneer from Space Enigma Studios, an exciting fusion of space exploration, colonization, RTS, and mystery adventure. We recently spoke to Space Enigma’s director, Maximillian Kovtun, to find out more about the project, the science behind the game, and why the Wii U was chosen as one of the release platforms. (more…)
Posted in Features, Interviews, PC, Previews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Space Pioneer
10 Actors We Think Could Play Nathan Drake in the Uncharted Movie
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Seth Gordon has been chosen to helm the planned film adaptation of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted. The director, best known for the Donkey Kong documentary King of Kong as well as Horrible Bosses, steps into the role after it was left vacant by Limitless director Neil Burger, who has since moved onto Divergent, the first installment in the teen franchise. He himself had inherited the role from Oscar winner David O. Russell, who left due to the fan backlash following a leaked storyline that didn’t resemble Uncharted in the slightest.
So now that the film finally has a director locked (again), the big question remains… who will fill the well-tread boots of cheeky protagonist Nathan Drake? Here is a list of ten actors we believe could do the role justice. (more…)
EA wrangled up in “ratingsgate” controversy over Dungeon Keeper
It seems that EA Games, everyone’s favourite publishing powerhouse, is intent on winning the title of Worst Company in America for a third year running. Not content with the bug-ridden release of Battlefield 4 and the lawsuits that arrived in its aftermath, the company has been accused of rigging the ratings system for the updated mobile version of Bullfrog’s classic Dungeon Keeper. The game, which has garnered less than stellar reviews, has employed a unique ratings system. When the in-game pop-up asks you to “Rate Your Experience,” gifting the game five stars will deliver you straight to the Google Play store. However, dare you wish to give the title a star rating below five, players will be whisked away, not to the Google Play store, but to an online feedback form, circumventing the Google Play store rating altogether.
The reason for this? An EA spokesperson has issued the following statement:
“We’re always looking at new ways to gather player feedback so that we can continue to improve our games. The ‘rate this app’ feature in the Google Play version of Dungeon Keeper was designed to help us collect valuable feedback from players who don’t feel the game is worth a top rating. We wanted to make it easier for more players to send us feedback directly from the game if they weren’t having the best experience. Players can always continue to leave any rating they want on the Google Play Store.”
As they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. However, preventing players from offering a rating other than “Perfect” does not seem like a noble endeavour, no matter what the excuse is. If EA was really concerned about feedback, its developers could read the reviews left on the Google Play store. What this new feature amounts to is a deliberate circumvention of the ratings system in order to inflate the game’s score.
Players can choose to rate the game separately on the store outside the game, and as a result of “ratingsgate,” the one-star ratings are exploding. It seems that what we have witnessed is the ugly mutation of a cult classic into yet another freemium cash cow from EA’s mobile division.
[Source: Eurogamer]
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Dungeon Keeper
Fusty Game’s Hover: Revolt of Gamers aims to be a next-gen Mirror’s Edge
Developer Fusty Game and publisher Midgar Studio have released the first trailer for their new project, Hover: Revolt of Gamers. It takes the premise of Mirror’s Edge and gives it a Borderlands-style cel shaded look with dazzling techno-bubblegum colours. Also, the freerunning and grinding is reminiscent of Jet Set Radio or InFamous, but in a first person style.
The action takes place in a futuristic city filled with flying cars, bright neon lights and pumping electronica… just how the future should be! Players score points by jumping, grinding, running and bending their way through the city’s space-age architecture. The characters form part of Gamer Team, using their stunts and tricks to upset the dictatorship currently grasping the city in its iron grip, destroying its propaganda along the way.
Hover: Revolt of Gamers is still in an alpha build at the moment, so while no release date has been set, it is currently planned for a PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U release. Excitingly, the game will also support Oculus Rift, and hopefully Sony’s much rumoured PS4 headset peripheral too.
TIGA accuses EU commission of hindering UK games industry
It has not been a great time for the UK games industry, losing the likes of Blitz Games in 2013 and, more recently, Ghost Games UK being hit by a number of layoffs. Activision has also revealed it is considering closing its Leeds-based games studio Blast Furnace.
Now, the trade association known as TIGA (The Independent Game Developer Association) has firmly pointed the finger at a European Commission investigation into planned tax breaks for the industry. The new legislation was introduced to move the UK more in line with other countries where the games industry is flourishing, such as France and Canada. However, Joaquin Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, thwarted the plans introduced in 2013, which would have offered 25% tax relief on up to 80% of a game’s budget if the money was spent in the UK. Almunia argued that there was no need for aid to be given to the industry as there was, according to an EU report, “no obvious market failure.” The competition commissioner conceded he was also worried that if the UK plans were pushed through, it could start a chain reaction across Europe.
TIGA shot down Almunia’s comments, and TIGA’s chairman, Dr. Richard Wilson, said, “We have strong anecdotal evidence that this is now harming our industry.” He also lambasted the European Commission for dawdling on the matter, with no definitive deadline or time schedule for a decision to be made on tax relief. “They could reply tomorrow, next month, in six months or 12 months,” he added. “This has really gone on for a long time now.”
For the sake of Blast Furnace and other UK studios, it had best be sooner rather than later.
[Source: BBC]
Posted in News