Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: PS3
Shadow of the Colossus, Seven Deadly Sins, Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late[st], more coming to PS Store this week
It’s time for another PlayStation Store update, and you might say that this one is colossal-sizrd…
Sony and Bluepoint previously remastered Shadow of the Colossus in 2011, and now they’re returning to Wander’s world for a “built from the ground up” remake on the PS4 that includes completely redone visuals and a brand new control scheme.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia, an RPG from Bandai Namco based on The Seven Deadly Sins anime.
And finally, Aksys Games will launch the newest version of the Under Night In-Birth series, Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late[st], for the PS3, PS4, and Vita.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Shadow of the Colossus
The Video Game Canon: 2018’s “Version 2.0” Update
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The Video Game Canon has been upgraded to “Version 2.0” thanks to the addition of four new lists that were published throughout the last year. Edge Magazine’s “100 Greatest Videogames” issue, Jeux Video’s “Top 100 Best Games of All Time,” Polygon’s massive “500 Best Games of All Time,” and Stuff UK’s “50 Greatest Games of All Time” have reshuffled the ranking in a big way.
Let’s take a look…
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
John Cena might star in a Duke Nukem movie
Duke Nukem’s brash and cocky persona (which was borrowed wholesale from Bruce Campbell’s appearance in Army of Darkness) made him the quintessential 90s hero. But even though we’re more than two decades removed from the character’s heyday (Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996), Hollywood has finally come calling for Duke.
A film adaptation is currently in the works at Paramount, and The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the WWE’s John Cena is in talks to play the intergalactic alien hunter:
The wrestler-turned-actor is negotiations to star in Duke Nukem, a big-screen adaptation of the popular video game franchise featuring the politically incorrect action hero that is set up at Paramount.
Platinum Dunes, the company run by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller, will produce the movie.
Cena certainly looks the part, I’ll give them that much. But giving Duke the same outdated shtick in 2011’s oft-delayed Duke Nukem Forever definitely didn’t win him any new fans.
That said, any Duke Nukem movie adaptation is likely years away because there’s currently no script or director attached to the project.
Call of Duty: WWII was the best-selling game for all of 2017
Call of Duty: WWII earned a spot at the top of The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games for both November and December, and now the tracking firm has confirmed that Activision’s shooter was also the best-selling game for all of 2017.
It looks like Activision had a pretty good year, especially with Destiny 2 checking in at the #3 spot, but Nintendo was the publisher with the biggest presence on the NPD’s Top 10. The consolemaker can claim three games in the Top 10 including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#5), Super Mario Odyssey (#9), and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (#10).
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, The NPD Group also confirmed an uptick for the industry as a whole. Gamers spent $14.59 billion on their favorite hobby in 2017, an increase of 11% over 2016.
Sony’s PS4 was the best-selling console of the year, but the Switch and Xbox One have also benefited from brisk sales:
“Combined sales of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One continue on a record-setting pace,” [NPD Gaming Analyst Mat] Piscatella said. “Over the first 50 months in market for each console, the combined hardware installed base of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One now exceeds that of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by 18 percent, and that of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox by 4 percent.”
The NPD’s Top 10 best-selling games for 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)
Call of Duty: WWII repeats as the best-selling game of December 2017
Activision’s Call of Duty: WWII has reenlisted for a second tour of duty as the best-selling game of the month. According to The NPD Group (via GamesIndustry.biz), the shooter was the best-selling game in December 2017, besting Star Wars: Battlefront II (#2) and Super Mario Odyssey (#3).
The holiday season dominated last month’s list, as several games that were tailor-made for gift-giving ranked high in the Top 20 including NBA 2K18 (#4), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (#5), Madden NFL 18 (#6), and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#9). But perhaps most surprisingly, the Xbox One debut of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds landed at #7 after just a few weeks on sale (PC sales weren’t included in the NPD Group’s calculations).
You can find The NPD Group’s complete list for the Top 20 best-selling games from December 2017 after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed Origins, Call of Duty: WWII, Destiny 2, FIFA 18, Grand Theft Auto V, Just Dance 2018, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, Madden NFL 18, Mario Kart 8, NBA 2K18, Need For Speed Payback, NPD, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Pokemon Sun/Moon, Splatoon 2, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Sims 4, Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Call of Duty: WWII leads a huge month for game sales as best-selling game of Nov. 2017
Fans have been asking to send the Call of Duty franchise back to the European Theater for years, and now that Activision has finally delivered, those same fans have gleefully opened their wallets. According to The NPD Group, Call of Duty: WWII was the best-selling game in November, as well as the best-selling game in all of 2017 (so far).
Call of Duty: WWII’s launch helped push November 2017’s total game, hardware, and accessory sales to $2.7 billion, an increase of 30% over last year. Other big performers that fuled the last four weeks of sales included Star Wars: Battlefront II (#2), Assassin’s Creed Origins (#3), Super Mario Odyssey (#6), and a big debut for Need For Speed: Payback (#8).
The complete Top 20 from last month can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed Origins, Call of Duty: WWII, Destiny 2, FIFA 18, Grand Theft Auto V, Just Dance 2018, Madden NFL 18, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, NBA 2K18, Need For Speed Payback, NPD, Pokemon Sun/Moon, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Sims 4, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, WWE 2K18
Staff of Polygon name their “500 Best Games of All Time”
Polygon recently celebrated its fifth birthday with a weeklong countdown of their choices for the “500 Best Games of All Time.”
Along with a high-profile roster of special guests (including Jeremy Parish, Susan Arendt, Jon-Paul Dyson, and Benj Edwards), the site’s staff put together this massive ranking of games that includes titles from nearly every platform and stretching back to the very beginning of the medium. They even set some ground rules:
We asked everyone to vote based on innovation, polish and durability, rather than simply personal taste. We cut games released in 2017 to eliminate recency bias. And we left out sequels that we deemed too similar to the games that came before them.
Collecting all those votes together, we then combed through the data for anomalies and came up with the final order you see here.
Polygon’s final tally looks very similar to our own “Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time,” and this includes their selection of Tetris as the #1 game of all time.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Assassin’s Creed Origins, and Super Mario Odyssey are October 2017’s best-selling games
A northeastern cold snap proves that Fall is all… as does the massive number of new releases that cracked The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from October 2017. WB Games’s Middle-Earth: Shadow of War lead the way at #1, but it was closely followed by Assassin’s Creed Origins at #2, Super Mario Odyssey at #3, and South Park: The Fractured But Whole at #4.
Nintendo actually had a huge month, placing four titles in the Top 20 (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (#15), Mario Kart 8 (#16), and Fire Emblem Warriors (#17) were the others), as well as owning the top two hardware platforms. However, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that overall industry sales still dropped 11% versus October 2016 to $825 million:
With interest in the Switch and the Super NES Classic still sky-high, Nintendo hardware managed to account for two-thirds of the hardware sales generated. That being said, NPD noted that Sony’s PlayStation 4 is still the best-selling hardware platform year-to-date. Furthermore, in the accessories category, the black DualShock 4 wireless controller was both the best-selling accessory of October, and the best-selling accessory year-to-date.
The complete Top 20 from October 2017 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed Origins, Destiny 2, FIFA 18, Fire Emblem Warriors, Forza Motorsport 7, Gran Turismo Sport, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 18, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, NBA 2K18, NHL 18, NPD, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Super Mario Odyssey, The Evil Within 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, WWE 2K18