Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Mobile
Breakout Boost Review: Boost Breaks Bricks Brilliantly
Call it Breakout. Call it Arkanoid. Call it Brickles. Whatever title you use, everyone is familiar with the “bricks-and-balls” genre.
A small paddle is located at the bottom of the screen while a large wall of bricks is located at the top. Using the paddle, players must knock the ball back into the wall until all the bricks are destroyed. It’s such a simple design that the genre is often referred to as “one-player Pong.” (more…)
Catball Eats It All Review: A Purr-fect Game on the Go
The iOS marketplace is full of crazy games, and I haven’t even come close to scratching the surface. But there’s one game I’ve discovered that fulfills almost every single thing I love about video games: it’s fun, it’s cute, it’s addictive, it’s smooth, and most of all, it works. That game is called Catball Eats it All, and it’s available for the iPad and iPod Touch. Imagine if you married Katamari with LocoRoco and plopped it down on the iPad. That’s the adorable union you’ve got with Catball. (more…)
Skyrim, Portal 2, Bastion nab 5 nominations at 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards
The Game Developers Conference has handed out nominations for their 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and, prepare to be shocked, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bastion, and Portal 2 each scored five nominations apiece.
Wait a minute, that’s not shocking at all! Those three games have been sweeping every Game of the Year contest of 2011.
Skyrim and Portal 2 will be joined by Batman: Arkham City, Dark Souls, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the coveted GDCA Game of the Year category. Bastion will battle it out against From Dust, Frozen Synapse, Outland, and Stacking for the honor of Best Downloadable Game.
Skyrim, Bastion, and Portal 2 will fight it out in many of the same categories throughout the rest of the awards show. Skyrim and Portal 2 were both nominated for Best Game Design while Portal 2 and Bastion will go head-to-head for Best Narrative and the Innovation award. Meanwhile, all three games were nominated for Best Audio.
Bastion developer Supergiant Games is also up for Best Debut.
The Game Developers Choice Awards will be given out on March 7. You can check out the complete list of nominees after the break. (more…)
The Official Mega-Super-Awesome Video Game Release Calendar for 2012
Dick Clark is in Times Square and the big ball will drop in less than 36 hours. That’s right folks, 2011 is coming to an end. But all that means is that 2012 is (quite literally) right around the corner. And with it comes a huge new year of gaming. In 2012, we’ll witness the launch of the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Wii U. We’ll also welcome back the bullet-time action of Max Payne, the knee-cracking excitement of NFL Blitz, and a rousing return to the world of BioShock. There’s also the tomb raiding rebirth of Lara Croft, another count of Grand Theft Auto, the first Kid Icarus game in over two decades, and the gravity-defying feats of Inversion.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s what else we’ll be playing in 2012 (Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments)… (more…)
Sega reveals Tails, Metal Sonic to return in Sonic 4 Episode 2
Ken Balough, Sega’s Digital Brand Manager, recently sat down with GameSpot to reveal that the publisher is still hard at work on Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II. What’s been taking so long? Apparently Sega is listening to the fan complaints and creating all-new graphics and physics engines for the game.
Oh, and they’re also inserting Miles “Tails” Prower as your sidekick and they’ve resurrected Metal Sonic to be the villain. Hit the break to view the entire interview.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II will be coming to the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and mobile platforms like iOS, Windows Phone, and Android in 2012 (sorry Wii owners). (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II
Rockstar answers your questions: Is GTA3’s Claude a mute?
In honor of Grand Theft Auto III‘s release on iOS and Android devices, Rockstar has decided to answer your burning questions about one of the most famous video games ever. They even reveal that truth about Claude’s lack of vocality. Turn back now if you don’t want to know THE TRUTH…
Rockstar says:
It may now seem obvious that people should all talk in games, but this was not necessarily the case in 2001, certainly not in an open world game. We were making up a lot of procedures as we went along, and we decided that the NPCs (Non Playable Characters) should talk and we would have to figure out how to make them talk (using motion captured cutscenes, something that had never really been done before, at least not on the scale we were doing it). So we decided that the game’s protagonist would not talk, partly to aid people identifying with him, but mostly because we had so many other problems to solve and this did not seem like a major issue. […] Oh and in San Andreas, CJ calls Claude a mute because he does not talk and CJ finds this unnerving.
So there you have it. Claude isn’t a mute, he just the original Johnny Tightlips.
Rockstar also confirmed that the three GTA “eras” are completely separate universes and will never cross over. So if you’re hoping to see Claude again, you can forget it:
[T]he “universes” are the worlds interpreted at different definitions, 2d, 3d and high definition, so we felt brands and radio / back ground characters would exist in both, but 3 dimensional characters would not. This is the logic (as far as it could be considered logical) behind it – so no, we don’t believe any GTA3 characters could exist in the GTA4 universe.
But following Rockstar’s logic, this means that Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V will take place in the same “universe.” So who knows, we might get to see Niko one more time.
Posted in Mobile, News, PS2
Tagged Grand Theft Auto III
Minecraft tops Time Magazine’s top 10 video games of 2011
Time Magazine has announced their “Top 10 Everything of 2011” lists, which of course contains a list of video games. Did your favorite games of this year make the list? Number 10…
10. Battlefield 3
9. Sword & Sworcery
8. Dark Souls
7. The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim
6. Bastion
5. Batman: Arkham City
4. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
3. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
2. Portal 2
1. Minecraft
My favorite game of 2011, Dead Space 2, did not make that list – nor have I seen it on any other lists. That’s what happens when games get released at the beginning of the year, I suppose. Ah well. For full commentary, check out the Time Magazine article.
Doink-Doink! Telltale announces Law & Order: Legacies
There’s been a murder in the offices of adventure game specialists Telltale Games. Don’t worry, all the developers are fine. But their episodic adaptation of Law & Order: LA is dead. In fact, Law & Order: LA is so dead that Lennie Briscoe was heard making one of his trademark quips about its demise from beyond the grave.
Speaking of Lennie Briscoe… he’ll be making an appearance in Telltale’s new “Law & Order” game, Law & Order: Legacies. Legacies brings together an all-star lineup of detectives and DAs to investigate a case that spans from 1999 (Briscoe’s heyday) all the way up to 2011. Besides Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), players will be able to play as Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt), Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Mike Logan (Chris Noth), Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson), Adam Schiff (Steven Hill), Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon), Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) and Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston).
Law & Order: Legacies will be released in seven episodes with the first two episodes available to download from the iTunes App Store on December 22. Additional episodes and a PC/Mac release will follow in 2012.
You can check out a behind-the-scenes look at Law & Order: Legacies after the break. Doink-Doink! (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Law & Order: Legacies