Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: PS4
New Retail Releases: Team Sonic Racing, More
Sonic the Hedgehog is stepping out of his famous red sneakers this week and strapping on a racing helmet in Team Sonic Racing, which will be available for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One (and as a digital download for the PC).
The Blue Blur’s latest automotive aspirations will be joined on store shelves this week by a slew of pair of less-speedy new releases. Sony and Clap Hanz will tee it up in virtual reality in Everybody’s Golf VR for the PS4. And Koei Tecmo will begin writing the next chapter in the Atelier series with the launch of Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland for the PS4 and Switch.
Elsewhere on store shelves, publishers and developers continue to fill out the Switch’s library with seemingly every game ever released. During the next seven days, Ubisoft will bring Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (which contains the original game and the Liberation spinoff) to the Switch, while Capcom will package together a Resident Evil Origins Collection (Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0) for the platform, and 11 Bit Studios will do the same for This War of Mine: Complete Edition.
And speaking of expansions, Bethesda will release The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One (UPDATE: The release of the Elsweyr expansion was delayed to June 4).
Finally this week, Oculus will expand their product line with a pair of standalone VR headsets (the Oculus Quest 64GB and the Oculus Quest 128GB), as well as the PC-powered Oculus Rift S.
You can find even more new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 0, Team Sonic Racing
Rumor: Cold War-centered Call of Duty 2020 scrapped in favor of Black Op 5
Activision has been promoting their “Three-Year Cycle” for new entries in the Call of Duty franchise for close to a decade now, but it looks like that roadmap has hit a bit of a snag heading into 2020.
With Call of Duty 2019 currently in development at Infinity Ward, it was assumed that Sledgehammer Games would take the reins on next year’s title. But if a new report on Kotaku is to be believed, Activision has decided to transfer 2020’s entry to Treyarch, who will take the skeleton of its standalone story (which would have been set during the Cold War) and rejigger it into Call of Duty: Black Ops 5.
According to the site’s Jason Schreier, the trouble began when “Call of Duty 2020” was designated as a co-production between Sledgehammer and Raven Studios. The two studios were unable to work together, and development stalled. But rather than take 2020 off, the publisher is pushing Treyarch up in the rotation to produce Black Ops 5:
For 2020, Activision had originally switched things up, assigning the Wisconsin-based support studio Raven to take a leadership role alongside Sledgehammer to make a Call of Duty game set during the Cold War (likely involving Vietnam). As of very recently, that’s changed. Now Treyarch, based in Santa Monica, California, is in charge of leading Call of Duty: Black Ops 5 for 2020.
According to those briefed on the overhaul, Treyarch will take creative leadership on this new Black Ops while Raven and Sledgehammer will serve as support studios for the game, transforming the work they’ve done on their own single-player story mode into a campaign for Black Ops 5, which will also be set during the Cold War.
Activision declined to comment on the report, as they’re busy preparing to unveil Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 2019 (widely expected to be Modern Warfare 4) sometime in the next few weeks.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty 2020
Castlevania Anniversary Collection’s Launch Trailer is here to whip your retro gaming memories into shape
Konami has released more than 30 titles in the sprawling Castlevania franchise beginning with the Akumajo Dracula in Japan in 1986, and fans will get the chance to relive some of the earliest adventures of the Belmonts (and their allies) in the newly-launched Castlevania Anniversary Collection.
Available to download now for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection includes eight games from the first eight years of the franchise. That lineup includes three games that originally appeared on the NES (1987’s Castlevania, 1988’s Castlevania: Simon’s Quest, and 1990’s Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse), two Game Boy spinoffs (1989’s Castlevania: The Adventure and 1991’s Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge), the first two 16-bit adventures (1991’s Super Castlevania IV and 1994’s Castlevania: Bloodlines), and Kid Dracula, a comedic reworking of the franchise that had never been released outside of Japan until now.
If those titles are stirring up a few nostalgic memories of pixelated vampire hunting, then you’ll definitely want to take a look at Castlevania Anniversary Collection’s Launch Trailer, which has been embedded above.
The Castlevania Anniversary Collection is part of Konami’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. An Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection was released back in April and the publisher will continue their retro rewind with the Contra Anniversary Collection later this Summer.
Ubisoft has three unannounced games coming in Early 2020 but they’ve delayed Skull and Bones yet again
Is Ubisoft hard at work on Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 7? Nobody’s entirely sure, but the publisher has confirmed that they’ve got three unannounced “AAA” games in the hopper, all set to launch sometime between January 1 and March 31 in 2020.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot spoke a bit about these games, calling them “very distinct gaming experiences,” during the company’s most recent quarterly financial report:
We are coming with three very distinct gaming experiences. We wanted to give those games the development they needed because we know they’re long-term sellers, so it’s important that they come with the best opportunity.
We won’t say anything more today. You’ll know more soon.
Sadly, the publisher also said that players hoping to sail the high seas in Skull and Bones will have to wait a bit longer. The pirate-themed multiplayer was penciled in to launch this year, but now it won’t be released until sometime after April 1, 2020. This is the second major delay for the game (it was originally scheduled to be out in 2018), but the development team provided a short update via Twitter, promising that “[their] focus remains on quality”:
We’re going to batten down the hatches and push back on the game’s arrival—this is a challenging news for us all, but it’s what’s needed to make Skull & Bones as awesome as it can be!
Our focus remains on quality first and we’re grateful for your undying support ☠️⚔️ pic.twitter.com/ZCt85tY3TG
— Skull & Bones (@skullnbonesgame) May 15, 2019
Skull and Bones will not be on display during Ubisoft’s presentation at E3 2019, but presumably the three unannounced games will be.
Konami will add Japanese variants to Castlevania Anniversary Collection in a free update after launch
Konami will make the Castlevania Anniversary Collection available to download for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One beginning tomorrow, May 16, for $19.99. The compilation will include the North American versions of eight games from the early days of the franchise, as well as The History of Castlevania: Book of the Crescent Moon, a behind-the-scenes look at the franchise in an ebook-styled format.
The publisher famously released different variants of their games in each region during the NES era, and they typically offered different difficulty options (Japanese gamers often got an easier version to play) and graphical styles. Though sometimes the changes were made to comply with Nintendo’s discomfort for religious imagery and references at the time.
Fans hoping to test out these different versions with the Castlevania Anniversary Collection were originally out of luck, but Konami has apparently had a change of heart. Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Brand Manager Benjamin Kinney said that these Japanese will be available in a free update “shortly after launch”:
Lastly, important news: we heard your calls and Konami will add Japanese title variants as a free update shortly after launch. Keep your eyes peeled for more details!
The Castlevania Anniversary Collection will include Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania: The Adventure, Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, Castlevania: Bloodlines, and the never-before-released-in-the-US Kid Dracula. It’s currently unknown which games in the compilation will receive Japanese variants in the future.
Take-Two executives discuss big sales for GTA5 and Red Dead 2 while looking ahead to 2019 lineup
Take-Two Interactive delivered another celebratory quarterly financial report last night as the publisher’s latest releases have proven very popular with players.
Leading the charge is Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. More than 24 million copies of the game have been shipped to stores since its launch last October. Take-Two executives also revealed that they’ve shipped more than nine million copies of NBA 2K19 in a similar timeframe.
But the most surprising reveal from yesterday’s report might be the news that Take-Two shipped more than ten million copies of Grand Theft Auto V during the quarter, bringing its lifetime total to 110 million copies after six years on the market.
While the company was happy with their retail performance in 2018, they’re also looking ahead to 2019 with gusto.
According to CEO Strauss Zelnick, 2K Games has already committed to launching NBA 2K20 and WWE 2K20 this Fall:
Also this Fall, 2K will launch new installments of our highly successful annual sports franchises with the releases of NBA 2K20 and WWE 2K20. As always, the development teams behind these games are hard at work to deliver our trademark array of exciting new features and innovations that keep players coming back year after year. 2K will have more to share about these titles in the coming months.
Zelnick later confirmed that Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds and Patrice Desilets’s Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One sometime this year through their Private Division label:
Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the Outer Worlds marks the reunion of Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the original creators of Fallout, who are introducing an entirely new single player sci-fi RPG experience. The Outer Worlds will be showcased behind closed doors at E3 to select media and influencers, and more details about the game will be revealed over time. Last month, Private Division hosted press events for Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, where attendees got to play the game and meet its creators at Panache Digital Games, including the studio’s co-founder, Patrice Desilets, who was the original creative director of Assassin’s Creed.
More information about Take-Two Interactive’s full lineup for 2019 (including the previously-announced Borderlands 3) will be announced at this year’s E3 Expo in June.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, Borderlands 3, E3 2019, Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K19, NBA 2K20, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Outer Worlds
Multiplayer-focused Predator: Hunting Grounds will come to the PS4 in 2020
The Predator will stalk its prey on game consoles once again in 2020 as Sony Interactive Entertainment and Illfonic have confirmed that Predator: Hunting Grounds is in the works the PS4. The two companies also announced that if it bleeds, we can kill it.
Predator: Hunting Grounds will be a multiplayer-focused asymmetrical contest where some players will take control of a group of commandos while another will strap on the infrared visor (and other assorted high-tech gadgets) of The Predator. The game was first unveiled today during Sony’s State of Play broadcast and the announcement was recapped on the PlayStation Blog:
One group of players will control members of an elite Fireteam who pack state-of-the-art conventional firepower, from shotguns and SMGs to sniper rifles and more.
Meanwhile, one player will control the Predator: a stealthy, acrobatic killing machine bristling with exotic alien technology such as the infamous Plasmacaster.
As the Fireteam attempt to carry out paramilitary missions – annihilating bad guys and recovering important items – the Predator will be closing in, using its advanced vision mode to track and ambush its prey.
Illfonic will work closely with 20th Century Fox to create an authentic Predator experience, but the team has also been empowered to “create something new for fans, while expanding the lore of The Predator.”
Predator: Hunting Grounds is still pretty early in development, but a teaser trailer has been embedded above.
Here’s a new look at Final Fantasy VII Remake ahead of a larger reveal in June 2019
Final Fantasy fans have been salivating for any scrap of information about Final Fantasy VII Remake ever since Square Enix announced it all the way back at E3 2015. But the publisher has been fairly quiet about its progress after confirming later that same year that “dramatic changes” would be be coming to the game’s combat and that it was being designed as a “multi-part series.”
That all changed today during the latest State of Play broadcast from the PlayStation Blog. A short teaser trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake was the highlight of the show, and Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase even promised that we would see more of the game in June:
We hope you enjoyed the footage shown during State of Play. It was quite short, but hopefully you enjoyed seeing Cloud and Aerith brought back to life with such realistic graphics.
And oh my god! Did you notice [Sephiroth] was there too…?
This year’s E3 Expo will be held from June 11th through the 13th, so that seems like the most logical place for the publisher to unveil their next Final Fantasy VII Remake tease. Square Enix has said that the game will arrive on the PS4 “first,” and will presumably land on other platforms sometime later.
Of course, when Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released for the PS4 is still anybody’s guess.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged E3 2019, Final Fantasy VII