Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Chris Cobb
It Came From 200X: Spider-Man
The tail-end of the 90s wasn’t a great time for superhero games. With the likes of Superman 64, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, and Spawn: The Eternal clogging store shelves, the average comic geek had few options for playable superheroics. That is, until Neversoft and Activision took it upon themselves to create one of the best comic book-based games of all time: Spider-Man!
Okay, so the title is lazy — but it also set the expectation that gamers could finally become Spider-Man like no previous video game could achieve. Launching in 2000 for the Sony PlayStation (with ports appearing over the next 12 months on the Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, and PC), this game oozed authenticity from minute one. From the very beginning, we were living an adventure narrated by Stan Lee, hanging out with the acrobatic Black Cat, swinging by the famous Baxter Building (home of the Fantastic Four), and putting an end to a daring bank robbery.
It was, quite frankly, a revelation. Suddenly, superhero games didn’t have to be cheap cash-ins like all of those terrible movie-based atrocities. There were a few pioneers on earlier consoles, to be sure — Batman on NES and Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage for SNES/Sega Genesis come to mind — but this gem captured my imagination like no other. However, does it hold up to those sugary-sweet memories in these darker modern times? (more…)
Gravity Rush 2 Hands-On Preview: Stylishly Falling Under the Spell of Sony Japan’s Sequel
I have no real familiarity with Gravity Rush, a gravity-defying action game first released for the PS Vita in 2012, and later remastered for the PlayStation 4 in 2015. I had heard it was a Japanese superhero game with a unique style, but never took the time to look into it further. With the Gravity Rush 2 demo now available on the PlayStation Network, I decided to jump in blind and see what awaited. (more…)
Posted in Previews, PS4, Top Story
Tagged Gravity Rush 2
Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour “Midnight Version” Hands-On Preview: The Witching Hour Gives Us Our Best Look at RE7 Yet
I’ve gone hands-on with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard twice now, first with the original Beginning Hour demo and then with the VR Lantern demo. Both left me with very different impressions, but since the Beginning Hour demo received one last update following Sony’s PlayStation Experience event, I decided to jump back in with high hopes. How did it go? (more…)
Warp Zoned Wish List: What We Want From the Resident Evil 2 Remake
Resident Evil 2 fans rejoice! Capcom finally got the message and decided to give us the remake we’ve been begging for since 2002… but what direction will it take? The Resident Evil remake on the GameCube remained incredibly faithful to the original, but Resident Evil 4 later introduced an all-new style which catapulted the series to new popularity. Now, Resident Evil 7 seems poised to go in another direction — even while Capcom embraces the past. While we await any potential news on this exciting remake, we here at Warp Zoned have compiled a list of updates we would love to see! Don’t be afraid to read more… (more…)
Posted in Opinions, Top Story
Tagged Resident Evil 2
It’s In Your Blood: A History of Horror Games (Part Five)
The survival horror genre has traveled a long road since its infancy. What began with a frantic retreat from a pursuing dinosaur eventually gave way to ghosts, mutants, beasts, and countless hordes of zombies. Alas, the genre’s fiercest foes may have been those it relied on most: the developers overly reliant on sequels and spinoffs, and the gamers who would soon lose interest.
For those who’ve been following this series from the beginning, we’ve previously reached back to the birth of survival horror, charted its rise in popularity and a sudden onslaught of sequels, as well as its golden age. So now, join us for a look at survival horror’s last gasp in the spotlight… before it’s currently-ongoing resurrection, of course. (more…)
Posted in Features, PC, PS2, Retro, Top Story
Tagged Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 4
It Came From 19XX: Silent Hill
Horror games have changed in recent years. As “walking simulators” like Layers of Fear and hide-and-seek tributes such as Outlast have risen in popularity, old-school survival horror titles have become increasingly scarce. So join us, zombies and ghouls, as we revisit one of horror gaming’s classics in time for Halloween. (more…)
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on PlayStation VR Hands-On Preview: A Resident Evil 20th Anniversary Tour Report
Surprisingly enough, Capcom’s Resident Evil 20th Anniversary Tour rolled into Cleveland, Ohio to mark the halfway point of its trip around the country. Intended to promote the upcoming Resident Evil 7 while also driving extra business to local GameStop locations, the tour promised to be a good time for fans to come and hang out. But did it live up to those expectations? (more…)
Posted in Features, Previews, PS4, Top Story
Tagged Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Outlast II Hands-On Preview: Red Barrels Returns With More Unsettling Found Footage Horror
Outlast garnered a lot of attention and praise back when it was released in 2013. Inspired by what Penumbra: Black Plague and Amnesia: Dark Descent did so well, Outlast was basically a first-person hide and seek simulator set within an insane asylum. With no means of fighting off the deranged patients and mutants that hunted you, there was a lot of hiding inside lockers and under beds while eluding capture. Does the sequel hold true to that formula? I played the recently released demo to find out. (more…)