Warp Zoned Presents
Author: John Scalzo
Half-Life: Alyx will be released on March 23
Valve will make their first foray back into the Half-Life universe this March with the release of Half-Life: Aylx. The VR-powered adventure will star resistance fighter Alyx Vance, and it’ll take place between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2 (so don’t expect to get a cameo from Gordon Freeman).
After first teasing the game back in November, it looks like Valve is finally ready to announce a official release date for Half-Life: Alyx, which they did this morning on Twitter:
Half-Life: Alyx, available March 23, 2020 https://t.co/NCOLWqSp3e pic.twitter.com/Q04EZwNfBt
— Valve (@valvesoftware) February 13, 2020
So there you have it. Now go get your VR headset ready, because Half-Life: Alyx will be released for the PC on March 23.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Half-Life: Alyx
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is the best-selling game of January 2020
We’re less than 12 months away from the launch of next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, and consumers have started to react accordingly. According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), consumers spent $678 million on video games, consoles, and accessories in January 2020, about a 26% drop versus January 2019.
But there were still a few big moneymakers in the first month of the year, starting with Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which was the best-selling game of the month. It was followed by some of 2019’s most popular titles, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (#2), Madden NFL 20 (#3), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#4).
While none of these games are available for the Switch, Nintendo’s newest console held on as the best-selling console platform during the month, besting the aging PS4 and Xbox One.
Another highlight for Nintendo from the January 2020 sales report was Ring Fit Adventure, which broke into the Top 10 for the first time (at #9). That’s impressive, but it’ll be a very long time before it catches Grand Theft Auto V, which continued to sell well in its 196th month of availability (it appeared on the list at #5).
You can find the full list of best-selling games from January 2020 after the break. (more…)
House House’s Untitled Goose Game wins “Game of the Year” at 2020 DICE Awards
I guess The Goose can cross “Win a Few Major Awards” off of its To-Do List. And that’s because House House’s Untitled Goose Game won “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game,” “Outstanding Achievement in Character,” and “Game of the Year” at this year’s DICE Awards.
While the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’s voting body (which is comprised of more than 30,000 members) loves The Goose, it was Remedy’s Control that took home the most statuettes last night. Predictably, the outstanding action game won “Action Game of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.” Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding was the only other game to win multiple awards, with the AIAS honoring it with “Outstanding Technical Achievement” and “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design.”
A nice array of other games were also big winners at the 2020 DICE Awards, including Sayonara Wild Hearts (“Portable Game of the Year”), Apex Legends (“Online Game of the Year”), Super Mario Maker 2 (“Family Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat 11 (“Fighting Game of the Year”), Baba Is You (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”), and more.
The complete list of winners and nominees for the 2020 DICE Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Batterystaple Games will release 30XX in 2021
Batterystaple Games’s 20XX launched to rave reviews when it was released in 2017, filling a gap in the roguelike platformer genre (“Mega Man but with procedurally-generated levels”) that most fans didn’t even realize was there.
But rather than rest on their laurels, the developer is travelling 1,000 years into the future to bring a sequel, 30XX, to the PC and consoles in 2021. Once again employing a procedurally-generated structure, 30XX will feature a new “hi-bit art style” from Art Director Glauber Kotaki, as well as eight new worlds to explore:
20XX heroes Nina and Ace return with a myriad of new abilities. No longer merely wielding different primary weapons, in 30XX the powerful pair possess entirely distinct move sets allowing greater freedom of expression for both exploring levels and beating back the machines holding Earth prisoner.
Nina’s new Power Fusion system allows her to meld together abilities earned from vanquishing bosses and tailor them to the situation at hand with 64 separate attacks. Meanwhile, the blade-brandishing Ace boasts a versatile set of Techniques, which can be chained together with standard attacks to unleash fierce combos, adapt to any situation, and reach new heights.
Batterystaple Games will be hitting the road with 30XX very soon. The developer plans to showcase the game at this year’s PAX East expo (February 27 – March 1 in Boston) as part of the Indie Megabooth. In the meantime, an Announcement Trailer for the game has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged PAX East 2020
The only known Nintendo PlayStation prototype is up for auction now through March 6
The failed collaboration between Nintendo and Sony to produce a CD-ROM add-on for the Super NES has become the stuff of legend. The details of the falling out have been documented pretty extensively over the years, and war stories from all the major players have appeared in both David Sheff’s Game Over and Blake Harris’s Console Wars.
While we all know the story, what became of the small batch of prototype consoles produced by the two companies has always been a mystery. More than 200 Nintendo PlayStations were reportedly produced, and it’s assumed that most were destroyed, but one managed to escape the trash heap by hiding out in “a box of junk” previously owned by former Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Olaf Olafsson.
After his stint at Sony, Olafsson would take a job with Advanta Corporation, and this “box of junk” went with him, but when the financial company went bankrupt in 2009, the Nintendo PlayStation was left behind. It was found by Terry Diebold, who worked in Advanta’s maintenance department, and eventually made its way into the hands of his son, Dan.
Now, after game historians have examined and repaired the one-of-a-kind artifact, it’s going up for auction. The Diebolds are selling the prototype through Heritage Auctions, and as of this writing, the current bid is sitting at $145,000. And it’s unlikely to stop there, as proxy bids will continue to be taken until the start of the live auction on March 6.
So what will you get for your money? According to Heritage, the console features a fully-functioning Super Famicom cartridge slot:
We at Heritage can attest the prototype is working, as we’ve played a couple of rounds of Mortal Kombat on it using a Super Famicom cartridge.
The CD drive is also functional, but as no software was produced for the Nintendo PlayStation, all it can do is play music CDs:
Though the CD-ROM drive was not currently working when it was found in 2009, it has since been repaired by Benjamin Heckendorn, a YouTube personality known for his console repair videos. It now has the ability to play music CDs like the commercially produced PlayStation, but there is no proprietary software that’s known to have been made during the prototype’s development.
Heritage refers to the Nintendo PlayStation as “one of the most notorious, mysterious, and controversial artifacts of the video game industry” and it’s hard to argue with that.
Darksburg is now available for PC in Early Access through Steam
Darksburg is a colorful “co-op zombie survival action game” from Shiro Games that is giving off some serious Diablo vibes in its latest trailer. The short video clip was also used to announce that the game is now available to download for the PC (via Steam) as an Early Access title.
Up to four players can team up to trample the undead menace ravaging the titular town in Co-Op Mode, or they can switch sides and take control of an undead Revenant and hunt down the heroes in PvP Mode. Rounding this early version of the game is a wave-based Last Stand mode:
A cooperative action game set in a medieval town overrun by hordes of shambling corpses, Darksburg tasks up to four players to band together, complete objectives across atmospheric maps, and push back against the zombie assault. Choose from one of four Survivors, including Sister Abigail, a holy nun hell-bent on saving her home, and Varag, a wolfman whose ferocity is matched only by his taste for undead flesh.
Coordinate with player or computer-controlled allies, unleashing devastating special skills and unlockable abilities to cut through Darksburg’s zombie invaders while completing objectives in co-op. Alternatively, players can take up arms as Revenants, powerful undead champions dedicated to hunting down the Survivors in a dedicated PvP mode. Then test your skills and see how long you can hold out battling endless waves of monstrosities in Last Stand mode.
Players who take the plunge on Darksburg during its first week of release will receive a 10% discount on the purchase price. According to the developer, they plan to use this Early Access to give the game time to “grow exponentially,” while also “adding content, updating features, iterating, and developing the game in order to align with community expectations throughout the whole process.”
February’s Nintendo Switch Online update includes two SNES games previously-unavailable in US and two NES oddities
Later this month, a pair of Super NES games that were previously-unavailable in the US and a pair of oddball NES titles will be added to the SNES and NES apps available to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.
Super NES fans will be able to try out Pop’n TwinBee (the sixth game in the colorful shooter series), which never made it to the US after Konami released it in Japan and Europe in 1993. It’ll be joined by Smash Tennis, a tennis simulation that was published by Namco in 1994.
Nintendo fans in North America should be much more familiar with the two NES games coming to the online service, though it’s possible you may have skipped over them in the early 90s. Shadow of the Ninja is a side-scrolling action game that has become something of a cult classic in the last three decades, while Eliminator Boat Duel is an aquatic racing game that a lot of people seem to remember but few played.
More information about all four games can be found right here:
Super NES
Pop’n TwinBee – The sixth game in the TwinBee series, this vertically scrolling shooter takes place in a cute, poppy setting. TwinBee and WinBee hear that the great Dr. Murdock has lost his wits, so they set off to return him to his normal self. This game was originally released in Japan and Europe in 1993, but this will be its first release in the U.S.Smash Tennis – In Smash Tennis, the controls may be simple, but there’s plenty of room for skill! With strong shots, weak shots, lobs and eight different court types, you can develop all sorts of approaches, unlocking the deep strategies of tennis. This game was originally released in Japan in 1993 and Europe in 1994, but this will be its first release in the U.S.
NES
Shadow of the Ninja – In the midst of disorder and oppression, two shadow warriors rise to the people’s cry for help. Choose to play as one of two ninja masters from the Iga clan as they infiltrate enemy front lines. Master tactics of stealth as you acquire additional weapons and power-ups in order to overthrow an evil emperor and destroy his wicked empire, solo or with a friend.Eliminator Boat Duel – In this powerboat racing game, get behind the wheel of one of the fastest machines on the water to earn boatloads of in-game cash. Drivers earn thousands of dollars for competing, and you’ll use your winnings to repair and upgrade your boat to push your competitive edge to its maximum. A little aggression goes a long way – just try not to get sunk yourself, or you’ll be swimming back to dry land.
All four games will be available to download through Nintendo Switch Online’s NES and Super NES apps beginning on February 19.
Super Crush KO Review: A Pretty Great Pastel Puncher
Vertex Pop is a developer that first appeared on my radar in 2015 after the release of their debut game, We Are Doomed. The excellent twin-stick shooter used a graphical style reminiscent of paper cutouts to build its unique world, and paired it with the chill soundtrack that helped slow down the often frantic action.
We Are Doomed was followed two years later by Graceful Explosion Machine, a side-scrolling shooter that cemented the papery look and relaxing tunes as something of a house style for the developer, while also breaking out as one of the first big “Nindies” on the Switch.
That house style is once again on full display in Super Crush KO, a classically-styled beat ’em up that’s been drenched in Vertex Pop’s signature pastel palette. (more…)
Posted in PC, Reviews, Switch
Tagged Super Crush KO