Warp Zoned Presents
Author: John Scalzo
EarthNight dives onto the PC, PS4, and Switch on December 3
EarthNight is currently available to download for iOS devices through Apple’s Apple Arcade subscription service, but Cleaversoft’s hand-drawn platformer is also coming to the PC and consoles… and now we know when.
In EarthNight, dragons have captured the planet and forced the human race to take refuge on a series of massive space stations. Thankfully, a pair of heroes has emerged to take the Earth back while racing across the backs of these no-longer-mythological creatures:
Ever since dragons overtook Earth, mankind has lived in exile on space colonies orbiting the planet. Despite being faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, the unlikely duo — a sword-wielding freelance photographer and a young student blessed with ethereal superpowers — take it upon themselves to reclaim their home by skydiving through Earth’s atmosphere and striking back against the monsters below.
The two heroes approach their dragon-slaying mission with drastically different tactics. Stanley’s powerful legs allow him to make both high jumps and long leaps, while Sydney favors agility by making use of an air dash and double jump ability. Both heroes wield their bespoke skills to overcome hostile environments and push towards the vulnerable heads of their scaled serpentine foes.
EarthNight will be released for the PC, PS4, and Switch on December 3. A new trailer showcasing the game’s hand-drawn visuals and procedurally-generated dragons has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch
Tagged EarthNight
505 Games will publish Death Stranding for PC in Summer 2020
Is Death Stranding still coming to the PC? Hideo Kojima’s bizarre new game was originally announced back in 2016 for the PC and the PS4, however, any talk of a PC launch has seemed to trail off in the intervening three years. All we really know for sure is that the game will be released for the PS4 on November 8.
But that all changed this morning as the acclaimed developer confirmed that Death Stranding is on track to make its PC debut in the “Early Summer” of 2020. Publishing duties for the game’s PC release will be handled by 505 Games, and they said that “additional details” would be announced at a later date.
In the meantime, everyone seems very excited that Death Stranding is officially in the works for the PC.
“We are so thankful to all of you who have been supporting Death Stranding so far,” said Kojima. “We have been listening to feedback from our community and are excited to bring Death Stranding to PC in early summer of next year.”
“We are extremely excited and honored to be working with the supremely talented team at Kojima Productions and to bring Death Stranding to PC gamers around the world,” said Raffi Galante, the CEO of 505 Games. “Death Stranding will take gamers through a completely original experience that will delight PC gamers everywhere.”
505 Games also confirmed that Kojima’s offer to include Conan O’Brien in Death Stranding wasn’t a joke. The comedian has indeed been added to the game’s talented roster, which also includes Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, Guillermo Del Toro, Geoff Keighley, and Norman Reedus.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Death Stranding
EA unveils first gameplay footage from Command & Conquer Remastered
While Blizzard’s Warcraft franchise gets all the press nowadays, Westwood’s Command & Conquer also helped usher in the dawn of the real-time strategy genre back in 1995, and fans will get another chance to relive the GDI-Nod conflict in the upcoming Command & Conquer Remastered.
Currently in development at Petroglyph Games and Lemon Sky Studios, publisher Electronic Arts released the first Gameplay Trailer for Command & Conquer Remastered earlier this week, and confirmed the re-release will retain the original 2D visual style. More details about this decision can be found at EA’s official website for Command & Conquer:
We’re ready to share the Remaster has been developed in the classic 2D visual style, unlocking our ability to stay as authentic as possible to the original games. Below we’d like to provide more details on how we’re approaching these visuals, and why we felt the 2D style was the best fit for the project.
As you may remember from one of the first posts, our plan is to remaster (not remake) the classic games. Creatively, this means our guiding light has always been to remain authentic to the original feel, and we’re constantly on the lookout for ways to achieve that goal. When we recovered the source code to C&C Tiberian Dawn and C&C Red Alert, this gave us a viable avenue to accurately match the core gameplay, feel, and signature look of the legacy titles. We felt the 2D style was the best way to bring all these elements together, and ultimately achieve the authenticity we were looking for.
Command & Conquer Remastered will also feature a graphical toggle that allows players to switch between the new remastered high definition visuals and the original game’s mid-90s aesthetic.
EA isn’t ready to announce a release date for Command & Conquer Remastered, but you can discuss the game’s progress with the developers at the Command & Conquer subreddit.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Command & Conquer
Head back to the Dark Ages with this Launch Trailer for MediEvil
Sony introduced gamers to a lot of quirky protagonists during the PSone era, and MediEvil‘s Sir Daniel Fortesque, was definitely one of the oddest. Remade once before (for the PSP in 2005), “Sir Dan” was resurrected this week for another remake of his first adventure, this time on the PS4.
After disappearing for more than a decade, the skeletal knight will now get the chance to do battle with the evil Zarok in “eye-popping” 4K:
Re-live the original adventure on PlayStation 4. The beloved fan-favorite has been completely remade from the grave up, blending classic gameplay with stunning visuals, all in eye-popping 4K!
Step into the bones of Sir Daniel Fortesque, a slightly-inept (and long dead) knight accidentally resurrected by his greatest enemy, the evil sorcerer Zarok. With a second chance to foil his greatest foe, Dan will once again set out to save the kingdom of Gallowmere and earn his place as a true hero.
MediEvil is now available for the PS4 at your favorite establishment and as a digital download through the PlayStation Store.
Ubisoft delays Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, and Watch Dogs Legion
Ubisoft had previously announced plans to release storybook adventure Gods & Monsters, co-op shooter Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Quarantine, and the massive Watch Dogs Legion during the first three months of 2020, but that packed release schedule underwent a shakeup this afternoon.
After disappointing sales of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, the publisher decided today to devote more development time to all three titles. Each one will now be released sometime during Ubisoft’s next fiscal year, which falls between April 1st of 2020 and March 31st of 2021.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot released this statement about the delay:
In this overall context, we have decided to postpone the releases of Gods & Monsters, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, and Watch Dogs Legion until [April 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021]. While each of these games already has a strong identity and high potential, we want our teams to have more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players.
Ubisoft also said that they plan to release two additional “AAA” games during their next fiscal year, though the titles went unnamed. We know that the company is currently hard at work on Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Skull & Bones, but neither has a confirmed release date as of right now.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Watch Dogs Legion
Conan meets Hideo Kojima and gets a cameo in Death Stranding
Conan O’Brien has filmed more than a dozen episodes of Conan Without Borders, but it looks like last year’s trip to Japan is still paying dividends for the travel segment. Last night, Conan gave his viewers a tour of Hideo Kojima’s studio, Kojima Productions, and got a peek at Norman Reedus and Guillermo Del Toro in Death Stranding.
Kojima, ever the gracious host, showed Conan a trailer for the upcoming game (quoth the comedian: “What is wrong with you?”) and took him into a secret room within Kojima Productions that no one’s ever seen before. Oh, and the developer also offered to give Conan a cameo in the game.
Going just by the trailers, Death Stranding’s universe can feel unrelentingly bleak at times, so a comedic cameo from Conan might be just what the public needs to break up the tension. So let’s just hope that Conan’s appearance in the game isn’t just a bit, like his teased (but later scrapped) addition to Injustice: Gods Among Us.
Whatever happens, be sure to watch all the way to the end of the video to see Conan’s session with the 3D Scanner and his short appearance in Death Stranding.
Death Stranding will be released exclusively for the PS4 on November 8.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Death Stranding
The release of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II has been delayed to May 29, 2020
Sony and Naughty Dog recently announced a February 2020 release date for the highly-anticipated The Last of Us Part II, but here we are a month later, and the two companies have now been forced to delay the sequel. Though development is nearly complete, it looks like naughty Dog needs just a little bit to bring fans their uncompromised version of the game.
Game Director Neil Druckmann explained the catalyst for this sudden turn of events on the PlayStation Blog:
It was just about a month ago when we had our big blowout for the game, letting media play over two hours of it along with debuting our new story trailer and revealing the release date. The positive response we saw from our community was overwhelming. You can feel the energy among the team members. After working on something for so many years, it’s invigorating to get a glimpse of validation for all the hard work.
However, it was during the last few weeks, as we were closing out sections of the game, that we realized we simply didn’t have enough time to bring the entire game up to a level of polish we would call Naughty Dog quality. At this point we were faced with two options: compromise parts of the game or get more time. We went with the latter, and this new release date allows us to finish everything to our level of satisfaction while also reducing stress on the team.
Barring another delay, The Last of Us Part II will be released exclusively for the PS4 on May 29, 2020.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged The Last of Us Part II
Darksiders Genesis gets a release date for PC/Google Stadia (December 9) and consoles (February 14)
THQ Nordic and Airship Syndicate have announced that Darksiders Genesis, their top-down spinoff set within the Darksiders universe, will be released for the PC and Google Stadia on December 9.
In addition to a release date for Darksiders Genesis, we also got a new trailer that teases Strife’s confrontation with Malgros the Defiler (it’s actually an expanded version of the original Announcement Trailer). The video clip definitely has a great Jabba’s Palace vibe, and even slyly hints at the game’s co-op gameplay:
Darksiders Genesis features the debut of the fourth and final horsemen – Strife – who can battle alongside his brother and fellow horsemen WAR in the first ever Darksiders two-player co-op mode. Solo players will be able to alternate between Strife and War on the fly, taking advantage of Strife’s ranged and War’s melee style attacks. Both characters can build up a special attack meter that, when activated, temporarily turns them into a colossal creature that leaves epic destruction in its wake.
Darksiders Genesis is also in development for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, and the the Diablo-like game will make its console debut on February 14, 2020.