Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Retro
Battle Princess Madelyn, R-Type Dimensions EX, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, more coming to PS Store this week
As we chug closer and closer to the end of the year, the PlayStation Store is taking a trip down memory lane with a few retro-themed additions this week.
Leading the way is Casual Bit’s Battle Princess Madelyn, a side-scrolling homage to Capcom’s Super Ghouls N Ghosts that’s now available to download for the PS4. Also set to launch for the PS4 this week is R-Type Dimensions EX, a reimagined remake of Irem’s R-Type and R-Type II.
PS4 players interested in something a little more modern will be able to download Fatshark’s Warhammer: Vermintide 2, a sequel to their first-person co-op brawler.
Finally this week, Vita owners will be able to download Atari Flashback Classics, a compilation of more than 150 titles from the console’s heyday.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Battle Princess Madelyn
The first poster for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is WEIRD
The idea of a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie has always seemed a little weird, but knowing that the “Blue Blur” would be voiced by Parks and Rec‘s Ben Schwartz eased the worry somewhat.
Then Paramount Pictures had to go and release the first poster for Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic himself is shown in silhouette, but you can clearly make out his extremely muscular arms and legs. The character also seems to be impossibly tall, and his head is freakishly large compared to the rest of his body (which, again, includes an extremely muscular pair of arms and legs).
The movie also has a new tagline, and I’m not ashamed to admit that it took me a very long time to realize that “A Whole New Speed of Hero” is just a particularly bad pun and not some random gibberish.
Sonic the Hedgehog, which also stars Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, will open in theaters on November 15, 2019. I honestly can’t wait.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged Sonic the Hedgehog
The Games of December 2018
The New Releases shelf is usually a barren wasteland in December as game publishers want their hot new titles out before Black Friday. But that is definitely not the case this year, and players looking for new games to play during the next four weeks will have a healthy selection to choose from. Especially if you’re the sort of person who loves retro revivals or the slightly goofier side of gaming.
Thankfully, we here at Warp Zoned love those types of games, and you can find out exactly what we’re looking forward to this month after the break. (more…)
The Video Game Canon: Half-Life
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at how Half-Life’s opening tram ride changed first person shooters (and may even have created an entirely new genre). Here’s a teaser…
“Good morning and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel.”
It’s just another day at work for Gordon Freeman. The well-groomed scientist is running late for an important meeting and he’s forced to board the tram alone as he travels to the secure wing of the Black Mesa Research Facility.
It’s a rather lowkey introduction to one of the most ambitious games ever created, but easing the player into the game’s world was a big part of what made Valve’s Half-Life so ambitious. You’re free to move about the train car as you’re ferried from the facility’s living quarters to the research levels belowground, but for those five minutes, you’re also at the mercy of the developers and how they want you to interact with their game.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Take-Two Interactive officially abandons the trademark for Agent
It’s been a wild ride, but it looks like Rockstar’s Agent has finally been canceled.
First announced in 2009 as a PS3 exclusive, Agent was touted as an open-word spy thriller from the creators of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Rockstar eventually unveiled a pretty swanky logo for the 1970s-set story, but it was subsequently pushed to the backburner so the publisher could focus on Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto V.
Last week, Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two Interactive, officially abandoned the trademark for Agent by failing to file a “Statement of Use or Extension Request” with the US Patent and Trademark Office. It’s possible that the publisher is using this opportunity to give Agent a new title, but that seems extremely unlikely after almost a decade of silence.
While Rockstar hadn’t publicly commented on the game in years, an artist formerly employed by the publisher’s Rockstar North division posted some concept art from the game in 2015. Sadly, it now appears that those images will be our only glimpse at what Agent might have become.
Battlefield V, Farming Simulator 19, Beat Saber, more coming to PS Store this week
It’s mid-week, so it’s time for another PlayStation Store update…
Electronic Arts will do battle with other game publishers this week for your attention with the PS4 launch of Battlefield V. Developer DICE is bringing the multiplayer shooter back to the World War II era, and they’ll add a Battle Royale mode to the game sometime next Spring.
Elsewhere on the PS Store, PS4 players who opt to download Farming Simulator 19 this week won’t have to deal with a rampaging army, but they will learn how their Thanksgiving feast moves from the farm to the table. But as they say, all work and no play make Jack a dull boy, so thankfully Beat Saber launches for the PS4 this week to provide a colorful rhythm experience for PlayStation VR owners.
Finally this week, Sony and Insomniac will expand Spider-Man once again with the Turf Wars expansion.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Battlefield V, Farming Simulator 19, Spider-Man
Battle Princess Madelyn will be released on December 6
Causal Bit Games has announced that Battle Princess Madelyn, their side-scrolling platformer that was partially designed by the Creative Director’s daughter, will be released on December 6.
Battle Princess Madelyn is a modern-day homage to Capcom’s Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, and will be available for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The game is also in the works for the Wii U and Vita, and both of those versions will launch sometime in 2019.
Causal Bit’s Christopher Obritsch is incredibly proud that Battle Princess Madelyn has reached this point and can’t wait for the public to play it:
“It’s been an exciting, exhaustive, stressful, enjoyable, [and] frustrating period over the last two years developing Battle Princess Madelyn and I would do it all over again. The feedback that has been given in the creation of the game, the positive remarks, the way social media [and] the specialist gaming press have supported the game throughout this long period has been nothing short of remarkable. The end result is a game the team are all proud of and went beyond what was envisioned. Within a very short time gamers will be able to play Battle Princess Madelyn. I hope it will give them as much enjoyment as it has to the team that created it!”
In case you missed it, Casual Bit unveiled a new trailer for Battle Princess Madelyn a few weeks ago.
The first Detective Pikachu: The Movie trailer is here… and it is appropriately nuts
I still can’t believe we live in a world where there’s going to be a live-action Pokemon movie, but that world moved a bit closer to reality today with the release of the first trailer for Detective Pikachu.
Based on the 3DS game of the same name, Detective Pikachu stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular Pokemon, and Justice Smith as the only human being who can understand him (everyone else hears the customary “Pika Pika!”). They’re teaming up to find a missing private eye who also happens to be Smith’s father:
The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokemon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokemon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokemon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokemon universe.
The hyper-realistic style is not at all what I was expecting from a Pokemon movie, nor was I expecting to see Pikachu threaten to murder someone… and that happens twice! Also, what is Ken Watanabe doing in this trailer? He’s gotta be the bad guy, right?
I’ve never played a Pokemon game before, so I’m not the target audience for Detective Pikachu at all, but it actually looks kind of fun.
Detective Pikachu will open in theaters on May 11, 2019. I’m still as baffled by that as you are.
Posted in 3DS, Etcetera, News
Tagged Detective Pikachu