Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Mobile
Multiple nominations for Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, and God of War will make this year’s Game Awards an EPIC event
It’s been a big year for super-sized games like Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 and Sony Santa Monica’s God of War, and it looks like they’ll be front and center (alongside a few other epic titles) at this year’s Game Awards show on December 6.
Rockstar’s western and Sony’s Norse fable tied for the most nominations (eight apiece), and they’ll both be competing for “Game of the Year” against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Capcom’s Monster Hunter: World, and Matt Thorson’s Celeste.
This year, fans will be able to make their voices heard in the balloting by joining the official The Game Awards Discord server, and voting for their favorites in all categories. Voting through the Discord server is now open and will be available through December 5.
The Game Awards will kick off at 9:00 PM (Eastern Time) on December 6, and fans can watch the show through their favorite video streaming service or at TheGameAwards.com. As usual, we can also expect to see “exclusive game world premieres” and “new game announcements.”
The full list of nominees can be found after the break.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, Celeste, Dead Cells, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Florence, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4, Game Awards 2018, God of War 4, Into the Breach, Monster Hunter: World, Overcooked 2, Overwatch, Red Dead Redemption 2, Return of Obra Dinn, Spider-Man, The Messenger
Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”
Fortnite will add NFL-themed Outfits on November 9
Are you ready for some Football Royale? Epic Games and the NFL have announced that NFL-themed Outfits will be available to download in Fortnite beginning this Thursday, November 9, at 7:00 PM.
According to an update on Epic’s official website, jerseys will be available for all 32 NFL teams, plus an additional Fortnite-styled jersey:
Each Outfit can be swapped to any of the thirty-two NFL teams, plus an additional unique Fortnite team. You’ll also be able to choose any number from 1-99 to place on your jersey to complete the official NFL look.
A trailer for the “Fortnite X NFL” crossover has been embedded above.
Blizzard co-founder reiterates that multiple Diablo projects are currently in the works
Diablo fans hoping to get a glimpse of Diablo IV at this year’s BlizzCon did not react well after the developer unveiled the mobile-exclusive Diablo Immortal on Friday. Angry fans pushed into BlizzCon’s Q&A sessions to vent directly to the development team, while others flooded the company’s social media channels with comments in an attempt to be heard.
Needless to say, no one from the company expected such a vitriolic response, though Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham told Kotaku that the backlash wasn’t a complete surprise:
“We know our audience here is passionately PC- and console-focused,” he said. “We’ve also seen this before. We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console, and we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone.”
[…]
“That being said, we knew our audience here desperately wants to see and hear about one thing in particular.”
Later in the interview, Adham calmly reiterated that Blizzard has multiple Diablo projects currently in development, which is something we’ve all known for a long time:
“At Blizzard, we don’t announce things until we’re ready. It’s all about game quality, less about timing, all about delivering an overwhelming experience to our players,” he said. “We tried to get ahead of that a little bit with the blog post to let that group know that we are working on multiple things and continue to work on multiple things.”
[…]
“There are actually two distinct teams,” Adham said. “That’s something we tried to communicate. I know our community here, there’s a concern that we are focused on this instead of that. The truth is that we have multiple Diablo teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects even after announcing [Immortal].”
So there you have it. Diablo Immortal is in development for mobile devices and Diablo IV is unofficially (though definitely) in development as well. We’ll continue to learn more about both games in the future, as soon as Blizzard is ready to talk about them.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Diablo 4, Diablo Immortal
Blizzard announces Diablo Immortal for mobile devices at BlizzCon
It’s BlizzCon time, and Blizzard has used their annual convention to announce a rather unexpected new entry in the Diablo franchise. We all know that Diablo IV is in the works (the developer more or less confirmed the existence of a new numbered sequel back in August), but Blizzard threw us a curveball today with the announcement of Diablo Immortal for mobile devices.
In development at NetEase, Diablo Immortal is described as a “Mobile Massively Multiplayer Online Action Role-Playing Game” (or MMMOARPG for short), and players will be able to join the fight against evil as a Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, or Wizard. Don’t worry if your favorite isn’t listed, more playable classes will be added to the game in a future update.
Diablo Immortal takes place between the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and Diablo III. The “Herald of Terror,” Skarn, is massing an army to resurrect Diablo, and players must band together to stop him. To do this, they’ll need to master the game’s new touchscreen controls:
The transition from mouse-and-keyboard or controller to mobile touchscreen device was designed to feel completely natural, intuitive, and fun in Diablo Immortal. Directional controls make it easy to move heroes around the world, and activating a skill is as easy as holding a thumb down on a skill to aim, then releasing it to unleash hell on your foes. And reinforcements are always only a tap away thanks to the native Blizzard Battle.net UI designed specifically for Diablo Immortal, which allows you to chat and form groups with ease in the middle of the most frantic battle.
Diablo Immortal is currently in development for iOS and Android devices, and prospective players can sign up for updates about special rewards and a Beta Test for the game at DiabloImmortal.com. After its release, Blizzard and NetEase plan to support the game with “new storylines, new playable character classes, new loot, and all-new challenges” on a regular basis.
Finally, you can sneak a peek at a Cinematic Trailer and a Gameplay Trailer for Diablo Immortal, both of which are available after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Diablo Immortal
EA will launch Command & Conquer: Rivals for mobile platforms on December 4
Aside from a browser-based spinoff from 2012, the Command & Conquer franchise has been silent since the release of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight way back in 2010. But that all changes this December with the launch of Command & Conquer: Rivals for mobile devices.
Available to download for iOS and Android devices on December 4, Command & Conquer: Rivals is a 1v1 strategy game that, according to EA, will be “true to [the] RTS classics”:
In Command & Conquer: Rivals, a real-time player versus player (PVP) game, players lead their faction to victory in the war for Tiberium. True to RTS classics, preparation and planning are as pivotal to matches as tactical execution. Unlike games with “drop-and-watch” mechanics, players in Rivals maintain 100% control of their units at all times, adding immense strategy and depth to a fun, frenetic and fair gameplay experience.
“We set out to build an RTS game for mobile players that thrives on head-to-head competition and where strategy and skill matter. With continuous unit control and intense battles where comebacks are possible, Command & Conquer: Rivals delivers this and more,” said Michael Martinez, Redwood Studios GM. “We’ve been thrilled to see the early response from players during soft launch. Player feedback has made the game stronger for our launch in December and we’ll continue to work with the community as we accelerate into esports next year.”
Players who sign up through the game’s official website before December 4 will receive a special Early Bird Bundle after Command & Conquer: Rivals is released.
Epic delays free-to-play version of Fortnite: Save the World into 2019
Fortnite was a very different game when it was first released in July 2017. Originally, the game was developed as a team-based shooter where players would battle zombies and rescue survivors (not unlike Left 4 Dead) while also crafting and building weapons and defensive fortifications.
That all changed when Epic Games launch the Fortnite: Battle Royale expansion. Very quickly, the 100-player free-for-all was all anyone was talking about, and the main game (which was retroactively retitled as Fortnite: Save the World) was moved to the back burner.
But Epic always planned to offer a free-to-play version of Fortnite’s Save the World mode, and it was expected to launch before the end of this year. However, the developer has now confirmed (via their official website) that it won’t be available sometime in 2019:
We decided to move the free-to-play launch of Save the World out of this year. We’re working on a broad set of features, reworks, and backend system scaling we believe are needed to go free-to-play. Save the World has grown consistently since our launch in July 2017 and Fortnite overall has experienced unprecedented growth. Scaling up for the legions of player heroes who will be joining the fight is key to providing an excellent experience. This applies to all of our players, old and new, so we’re taking the time to get this right.
To make amends for this delay, Epic also announced that players will be able to pick up Fortnite: Save the World for 50% off beginning this week when they buy one of the game’s four Founder’s Packs.
Alphabear 2 is now available to download for mobile devices
Spry Fox announced Alphabear 2 almost a year ago, and just when it felt like I couldn’t wait any longer, the developer has revealed that the word-based puzzler is now available to download for iOS and Android devices:
Hey people, Alphabear 2, the bigger and better sequel to the original Alphabear, is now AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE!!! Download it! https://t.co/lqYbKbtWiU :-D pic.twitter.com/qzbXgEVfrx
— Spry Fox (@spryfox) September 4, 2018
Alphabear 2 features the same word-building gameplay as its predecessor, as well as an even bigger selection of adorable stuffed bears to collect, Daily Events, a series of standalone Time Warp puzzles, and a Story Mode inspired by Back to the Future.
Great Scott!
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Alphabear 2