Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: PC
Mojang launches browser-based Minecraft Classic so you can play like it’s 2009
Mojang didn’t call it “Early Access” when they first made an unfinished build of Minecraft available to download in the Spring of 2009, but the game’s revolutionary distribution model has certainly changed how many developers release their games and interact with players. As Minecraft’s tenth anniversary approaches, the developer is giving fans a chance to return to those exciting early days with Minecraft Classic.
Minecraft Classic is a browser-based (and free-to-play) version of the game that rolls back all the updates Mojang has applied to Minecraft over the years. Just what does that mean? I’ll let the developer’s official website explain:
You can run Minecraft Classic in your browser and you’ll soon see why. With just 32 blocks to build with, all the original bugs, and an (inter)face only a mother could love, Minecraft 2009 is even more glorious than we remembered! You’re in for a real treat, particularly if you’re really into dyed wool (and who isn’t it?).
Minecraft Classic is now available to play at Minecraft.net, but don’t get too obsessed with it, more tenth anniversary surprises for Minecraft will be revealed on May 17th.
Bruce Campbell says Evil Dead’s Ash won’t come to Mortal Kombat 11 as DLC fighter
The latest game in the long-running Mortal Kombat franchise, Mortal Kombat 11, made its way onto store shelves in late April, but we got a possible peak at the game’s upcoming downloadable characters shortly after it launched thanks to dataminers over at Reddit. At the time, the game’s code pointed towards the addition of series stalwarts Fujin, Nightwolf, Shang Tsung, Sheeva, and Sindel down the road, as well as guest characters The Joker, The Terminator, Spawn, and Evil Dead‘s Ash.
However, Bruce Campbell creatively debunked the rumor on Twitter earlier this week. According to the actor (who has starred in three Evil Dead movies and the recently-concluded Ash Vs Evil Dead cable series), he won’t be appearing in the game as Ash:
Consider this my finishing move against a certain internet rumor. pic.twitter.com/6vKPZvTfQu
— Bruce Campbell (@GroovyBruce) May 6, 2019
This is disappointing news (and it throws the rest of the DLC slate into question), but I guess Evil Dead fans will just have to be content with the character’s recent addition to Dead By Daylight.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to dig out my copy of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and perform a few Fatalities with my Kreate-A-Fighter version of Ash.
Just Shapes & Beats: Hardcore Edition will be released for PS4 on May 10
The PlayStation Store is about to get a little more radical this week, as Berzerk Studio has announced that Just Shapes & Beats: Hardcore Edition will be available to download for the PS4 on May 10.
Just Shapes & Beats originally launched for the PC and Switch in 2018, and it’s probably best described as a “dodge ’em up.” Players are attacked from all sides by a variety of Shapes, but as long as they survive until the end of each level’s chiptune-like Beat, they’ll move on. You could watch the new trailer embedded above, or see how Berzerk’s Mike Ducarme tried to explain it to the PlayStation Blog:
Just Shapes & Beats is a musical bullet-hell-ish? It’s weird to explain… you play a shape, you dodge beats, which are also shapes, you can play with up to three friends, who are also shapes. It’s not a bullet hell in the pure sense of the term since it’s a lot more based on dodging and surviving than attacking. It’s more like a dodge ‘em up I guess?
As you might have guessed from the new subtitle, Just Shapes & Beats’s PS4 debut will introduce Hardcore Mode, which ratchets the difficulty up to “dog owners not cleaning up behind their animal” level. Again, I’ll let Ducarme explain:
Of course, my good sir, you’ll be happy to know that the PS4 release also introduces HARDCORE MODE. We made our designer watch videos of things that anger him, like people cutting in line at the coffee shop because they know the staff, and dog owners not cleaning up behind their animal, and then let him loose in the wild. Every stage has been redesigned in some form or another to give you a whole new experience that will make even seasoned Souls-like players weep, longing for their mother’s warm embrace.
According to Berzerk, Hardcore Mode will be coming to the PS4 “first,” so PC and Switch owners will (hopefully) be able to try it out sometime soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch
Tagged Just Shapes and Beats
Platinum Games plans to self-publish two unannounced games so they can control the sequel rights
Platinum Games rose from the ashes of Capcom’s beloved Clover Studio, and the developer has gained quite the large following over the years thanks to a game catalog built on unique ideas and wild concepts. But the vast majority of those titles were produced in collaboration with larger publishers, and even though Platinum has been interested in revisiting those worlds in sequels and spinoffs, the contracts they signed have prevented them from doing so on their own.
This conundrum was on Executive Director Atsushi Inaba’s mind when he recently sat down for an interview with Video Games Chronicle. According to Inaba, Platinum Games has decided to begin self-publishing some of their future projects so they retain control over the sequel rights:
“It’s absolutely the truth that there are cases where you want to do a sequel but if you don’t own the IP, you can’t do it,” Inaba explained.
“It’s that simple, and quite frankly in the case of Bayonetta it took a lot of time and energy to get it to the point where sequels could be made. It wasn’t as simple as picking up the phone and asking, ‘hey, can we do this?’ There were a lot of pieces that needed to fall into place and a lot of negotiating that had to occur.
“That’s a pain. That’s a hassle. For us as creators, we want to get to the point where self-publishing allows us to own our IP and do what we want with it, including making sequels. So the faster we can have that freedom, the better if will be for all the creators here.”
Platinum Games is currently developing Astral Chain for Nintendo as a Switch exclusive, but Inaba confirmed that the company also plans to self-publish two unannounced games at some point in the future. The veteran developer later said that one of these titles goes beyond the typical Platinum weirdness and is “unlike anything else”:
“Right now we’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else,” he said.
“Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.”
Hopefully we’ll learn more about Platinum’s upcoming projects very soon.
Call of Duty 2019 will be announced sometime in the next two months
After dropping support for Destiny 2 in January and later laying off a significant portion of their staff in February, Activision has spent the majority of this year attempting to shift their efforts towards a new “franchise-focused approach.”
Naturally, a big part of that approach will include a new entry in the Call of Duty franchise this Fall, and CEO Bobby Kotick recently teased a few tidbits about that game (which is currently known as Call of Duty 2019) during the megapublisher’s latest quarterly financial report. According to Kotick, Call of Duty 2019 is in development at Infinity Ward, and Activision will announce it sometime within the next two months. With the E3 Expo scheduled for mid-June, this timetable shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Kotick also believes that after the announcement, it’ll be “really clear” why the company is so excited for Call of Duty 2019:
So we continue to feel incredibly good about this year’s game coming from Infinity Ward. The game’s going to be revealed later this quarter. I think it’s going to be really clear then why we’re really so excited about the release.
Combining a “franchise-focused approach” with Infinity Ward means it seems very likely that Call of Duty 2019 will eventually be revealed as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 in the coming weeks. But while we don’t know that for sure at this point, we do know that the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise will be released sometime this Fall.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will be released on June 18
The visuals present in the earliest demos of Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night did not receive the kindest reaction from fans. Many leveled their criticism against the “bland” environments, but others targeted the game’s “poop” presentation. Since then, the famed developer took these criticisms to heart and continued to pour his soul (and millions of dollars worth of Kickstarter funds) into the game’s presentation in anticipation of a 2019 release.
Now, Igarashi is ready to showcase just how far Bloodstained has come in a brand new trailer, which has been embedded above.
Igavania is back! With the support of the Bloodstained community, 505 Games and ArtPlay have taken the extra time and care to ensure we’re doing things RIGHT. Check out some before and after comparisons in this new video to see all the hard work we’ve poured into Bloodstained over the last year.
Publisher 505 Games also used this opportunity to announce the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s release date. It’ll be available for the PC (through Steam and GOG), PS4, and Xbox One on June 18th. A Switch launch will follow a week later on June 25.
World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019 includes Super Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, Solitaire, and Colossal Cave Adventure
The World Video Game Hall of Fame has welcomed four new games into the fold, as the inductees from the Class of 2019 were announced this morning in a special ceremony. This year, three games that practically defined gaming in the 1990s lead the way, while a groundbreaking text adventure from the 1970s also made the cut.
If you’ve ever used a PC in the last 30 years, you’re likely very familiar with Windows Solitaire. The card game was originally made available by Microsoft in 1990 to help Windows users hone their mouse skills, and it’s been a staple of the operating system ever since. No less ubiquitous was 1992’s Mortal Kombat, which helped usher in the ESRB after a congressional hearing was convened to debate the merits of it’s gory presentation. That same year, Nintendo’s Super Mario Kart proved that young players were just as ruthless, as the consolemaker introduced the franchise’s cutthroat multiplayer mode to the world.
Those three titles were inducted alongside William Crowther’s Colossal Cave Adventure, which is well-known as the first text adventure (and thus, the forerunner of the entire adventure genre).
Curators from the Strong Museum’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, which operates the World Video Game Hall of Fame, had a lot to say about this year’s inductees.
“The best games fire the imagination,” said Jon-Paul Dyson, the Director of the Strong Museum’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games. “Anyone who first typed a command like ‘Get Lamp’ into Colossal Cave Adventure could see the power of electronic games to create magical worlds of the imagination.”
“Windows Solitaire proved that sometimes analog games can be even more popular in the digital world and demonstrated that a market existed for games that appeal to people of all types,” said Jeremy Saucier, the Assistant Vice President for Electronic Games and Interpretation. “In many ways, it helped pave the way for the growth of the casual gaming market that remains so popular today.”
Digital Games Curator Andrew Borman said: “Beyond its controversial content and role in triggering debate about the role of violent video games in society, Mortal Kombat’s compelling gameplay, iconic characters, and many sequels have kept players coming back again and again.”
“Super Mario Kart truly excelled as a social game that appealed to players of all skill levels, especially with its engaging multi-player settings,” said Julia Novakovic, an Archivist. “It invited friends, family, and gaming fans of all ages along for an unforgettable ride that has made it the longest-running racing series in gaming history.”
Eight other finalists (King’s Candy Crush, Atari’s Centipede, Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution, Cyan Worlds’s Myst, Sega’s NBA 2K, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Valve’s Half-Life) will have to try their luck again next year, but you can put your support behind them now as Public Nominations for the Class of 2020 opened after the ceremony.
Posted in News, PC, Retro
Tagged Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, Super Mario Kart, Windows Solitaire, World Video Game Hall of Fame
Descenders’s 1.0 Update will leap onto the PC and Xbox One on May 7
Descenders, the downhill biking game from RageSquid, will finally exit Early Access when its 1.0 Update becomes available for the PC and Xbox One on May 7. The developer has released half-a-dozen updates for the game since it launched last year, but they plan to pack a wide variety of new features into the 1.0 Update, including online multiplayer and four new mountainous worlds:
Descenders 1.0 Update Features
- Online multiplayer
- New Destiny-styled central hub filled with players
- Ride with strangers or lobby up with friends
- Double the content, with four whole new worlds, including “Jungle” and “Favela”
- New music, new modes, new tweaks, new customization, and tons of new stuff
In addition to celebrating this major development milestone, RageSquid also confirmed that Microsoft will make Descenders available to download through the Xbox Game Pass program on May 7 as well.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Descenders