Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Mike Ryan
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Review: The Buddy System Scuffle
We are currently in the midst of a fighting game renaissance. From the arcade cabinets in the days of yore, to the couches of the 1990s, and finally to the heated tournaments today, the genre has evolved from a casual experience to an almost chess-like battle of the intellects. Dedicated fighters spend months perfecting their move sets and combos, and study their opponents’ battles to look for any hints of weaknesses. Tournaments such as EVO are held every year, where the best players take home thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. It’s become a full-blown extravaganza.
Learning a fighting game nowadays take time and persistence. Sure, you can button-mash and win a few fights here and there; but in order to be the best, you need to learn the intricacies. One must have a detailed knowledge of hit boxes, cancels, and the like in order to get the most out of your character. This is where Tekken Tag Tournament 2 excels: not just as a fighting game, but as a game worthy of your time and commitment. Because the first time you successfully pull off a combo into a bound into a tag assault into another combo, you’ll earn yourself a well-deserved feeling of satisfaction.
And that’s just a fraction of what this game offers. (more…)
Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Drake, Cole, Sackboy battle Kratos in PlayStation All-Stars live action trailer
Today, Sony officially released a full-length live action trailer for PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale. Taking a cue from their critically-acclaimed “Michael” commercial, the ad features Sony mascots Kratos, Sackboy, Cole McGrath, and Nathan Drake duking it out in a dark alley. You got to hand it to the folks at Sony’s marketing department; they definitely know their stuff. Enjoy the show.
PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale hits shelves on November 20th.
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale
God of War: Ascension beta begins this Winter; Rise of the Warrior social game begins now
Sony announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that the multiplayer beta for upcoming God of War prequel, God of War: Ascension, will release “this winter.” There are only two ways to partake in the Spartan/Trojan war: be a PlayStation Plus subscriber, or go to GodofWar.com and participate in their social game experience, “The Rise of the Warrior.” By playing Rise of the Warrior, not only do you earn early access to the beta, but you can also earn tons of God of War goodies!
You’ll live out your warrior’s journey in an epic new graphic-novel style story. You will embark on a quest for redemption that leads you toward becoming the next Champion of the Gods.
It gives you the opportunity to align with either the Spartans or the Trojans and compete via a number of social challenges to earn your army a week of exclusive early access to the Beta this winter, and 30 days of PlayStation Plus. And that’s just the first of multiple major army rewards between now and March! If an epic new God of War story and early Beta access aren’t enough for you – you’ll also be able to earn early in-game unlocks for God of War: Ascension multiplayer to get a head-start on the competition, along with exclusive multiplayer weapons and armor for everyone who rises to Champion of the Gods! So get over to GodofWar.com and start your journey in Rise of the Warrior.
Sony has also released a new trailer for the game, starring Zeus, that you can watch above. God of War: Ascension releases for the PS3 on March 12th.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged God of War: Ascension
Fall 2012 Dashboard Update, featuring Internet Explorer, now available
Xbox 360 owners; start your systems – Microsoft has released the 2012 Fall Update for your system’s dashboard!
The most notable addition is the inclusion of Internet Explorer for the console, which was announced a few months ago during the E3 Expo.
Here’s a more complete list of dashboard changes, straight from the good people at Microsoft:
- Refreshed Xbox 360 Dashboard: We’ve updated the UI with a few things, including an updated layout with more tiles, a combined TV & Movies channel and, in the US, a Sports destination.
- Internet Explorer for Xbox: With Internet Explorer on Xbox, you can easily find and view internet content on the biggest screen in the house, including HTML5 videos.
- Recommendations and Ratings: Recommendations will allow you to discover new favorites, generated based on a number of variables including the content you previously viewed, what your friends are consuming and what is most relevant and popular with our Xbox community. You can now rate content yourself and also see Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
- Pinning: Pinning lets you personalize the dashboard by saving your favorite movies, TV shows, games, music, videos and websites right to the home screen. It’s as easy as opening an app or a favorite movie and clicking “pin.”
- Xbox Video: Formerly called Zune Video Marketplace, Xbox Video offers hundreds of thousands of TV shows and movies for buying or renting in instant HD streaming.
- Recent: Previously called Quick Play, the Recent view gives you a list of movies, games, apps or other types of content that you most recently accessed on the console.
- Enhanced Search: The last Xbox Live update brought Bing voice search to Xbox so you could use voice to search for movies, TV shows, actors, directors and artists. This year we added genre search to the list, so now you can search for action, comedy, romance, drama or sci-fi. Bing voice search now includes results for video across the Web, including YouTube.
- International Expansion of Voice Search: We’ve expanded our Kinect voice search capabilities to 9 new countries – Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Ireland.
Microsoft has also announced that a separate update, which will add Xbox SmartGlass support, will be made available on October 26th, the same day as Windows 8.
For the full press release, check out Major Nelson’s blog.
ToeJam & Earl boogie to PSN, XBLA this November
Sega announced recently that classic 16-bit characters ToeJam & Earl will be crash landing onto the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network on November 7th. Don’t get your hopes up for a new outing, though; we’re just getting emulated versions of ToeJam & Earl and its sequel, ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron. The two titles will be available separately on PSN for $4.99 each and available as a bundle, Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl, on XBLA for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Per the Sega Blog:
In the original ToeJam & Earl, players have to help the alien duo explore the craziest planet they’ve ever visited: Earth! After a rough crash landing, pieces of their spaceship have been scattered across a giant, constantly-changing landscape. Help them avoid hazards and collect all the pieces so they can get home to planet Funkotron.
Genesis sequel ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, meanwhile, has our alien heroes return safely to their home planet only to discover that their ship had stowaways! Funkotron is now infested with wild Earthlings who need to be put into jars and shipped back home.
I know a lot of people are looking for a new TJ&E; let’s hope enough people purchase these re-released games to warrant a new title.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl, ToeJam & Earl, ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
Fire Pro Wrestling Review: “Royal” Rumble or Wrestle “Meh”nia?
I feel bad for wrestling games; I truly do. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t have any preconceived notions of the genre. In fact, I enjoy it very much. I loved playing Pro Wrestling back on the NES (Starman FTW!). WWF Raw and Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game were also two of my favorites. The reason I pity wrestling games is due to WWF No Mercy. The game is over a decade old, but it was such an amazing title that every wrestling game that followed was immediately judged against No Mercy’s ridiculously high bar. While there have been some great wrestling games since 2001, only a select few were deemed good enough to be favorably compared to the N64 classic. (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Fire Pro Wrestling
Harry Potter For Kinect Hands-On Preview: Harry Potter and the Motion-Controlled Demo
Not to be hindered by such obstacles as, oh, the entire series ending, the Harry Potter video game franchise will continue when Harry Potter For Kinect releases on October 9th. At first glance, this title may seem like just another licensed minigame rush job, with little appeal to anyone other than kids and diehard Potter fans. But much like the results of a fresh mixture of Polyjuice Potion, looks can be deceiving. (more…)
Posted in Previews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Harry Potter For Kinect
Huge Rock Band DLC sale this week!
Today, Harmonix announced that they are “slashing” (it’s a Guns n’ Roses reference, people) prices of over 1,100 downloadable songs and packs in the Rock Band Store by half! Furthermore, every song is compatible with the recently-released Rock Band Blitz.
Here’s the official update schedule from the Rock Band forums:
Here is the expected timing for the roll out of discounts on different consoles in different regions. This is a HUGE update (seriously, we’re discounting more DLC than most games have ever released) so there are a lot of moving pieces and things may not go 100% to plan, but we’ll update if things look like they’re changing.
Tuesday September 18th
Xbox 360 (worldwide) will be updating in a gradual roll out, and all pricing is expected to update by noon ET.
Nintendo should be updating at the same time that Wii DLC usually goes live.
Sony America (SCEA) is expected to update at the same time that PS3 DLC usually goes live.
Wednesday September 19th
Sony Europe (SCEE / Sony International) is expected to update when PS3 DLC usually goes live.
If you check in and content is not appearing with the new pricing, sit tight and it may be updating shortly. We’ll be keeping an eye on things on our end to make sure we catch any content that slips through the cracks. Enjoy!
So get those points ready! For a list of all the songs included in the sale, click here!