Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Vita
Dark Souls III, Ratchet & Clank, Stories: The Path of Destinies, more added to PS Store
The fires of the Dark Souls saga might go dim after the release of Dark Souls III, but PS4 owners will still be able to venture into Hidetaka Miyazaki’s gothic nightmare one last time beginning today. The remainder of this week’s PlayStation Store update is a bit on the short side, but there’s still plenty to play just ahead of Tax Day…
PS4 owners will also be able to download the rebooted rendition of Ratchet & Clank, which will “take a deeper look at the characters’ origin stories.” Insomniac has also added more planets, more bosses, new Clank gameplay, new flight sequences, and “completely new visuals.” All these new features will tie in to the Ratchet & Clank animated adaptation, which will open in theaters on April 29.
Elsewhere on Sony’s digital storefront, players will be able try out Koei Tecmo’s strategy-centric Samurai Warriors 4: Empires (PS4) and Hopoo’s roguelike action platformer Risk of Rain (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy). Finally, Stories: The Path of Destinies (PS4) is this week’s Launch Party selection, and it’s an action RPG from Spearhead Games.
More information on all of these title can be found after the break. And, as always, a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons is available at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Dark Souls III, Ratchet & Clank
Dreii Review: Puzzling, But Not In a Good Way
I first got word of Dreii a couple of months ago and I’ve been quite frankly jazzed about it ever since. A physics-based puzzle game! With Journey-style invisible matchmaking and limited communication! And that art style! Dreii almost seemed like it was designed just for me. It pains me to report then that, in spite of all of these things, Dreii is mired in an indecisiveness about what it wants its puzzles to be that makes it at best, boring, and at worst, infuriating. (more…)
Tumblestone will be playable at PAX East 2016 and it’ll be released this Summer
Tumblestone is a massive match-3 puzzler from The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild that continues to get more massive with each passing day. Set to launch this Summer, Tumblestone will include a 40-hour Story Mode, an endless Arcade Mode, and over 1,000 completely unique Quests. The game will also be playable at this year’s PAX East convention, which kicks off April 22, in the Indie Megabooth area.
Naturally, such a massive game will launch on a truly massive number of platforms. Tumblestone will be released for the PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One, and the PC (Windows, Mac, and Linux) through Steam. It’ll also be available for mobile devices (Android, iOS, and Windows) and microconsoles like the Amazon Fire TV and the Ouya. A Facebook app is also in the works.
And with a little prodding, I’m sure we could get The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild to develop a version of Tumblestone for your toaster.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2016, Tumblestone
Enter the Gungeon, Mega Man Legends 2, Dirt Rally, more added to PS Store
Sony’s Launch Party promotion continues to disco deep into the night as Enter the Gungeon is now available to download for the PS4 through the PlayStation Store. The twin-stick shooter takes place in the legendary Gungeon (that’s Gun Dungeon for those who are blind to puns) and asks Gungeoneers to search the many hallways and catacombs for “a gun that can kill the past.” I have no idea what that means, but the animated Launch Trailer (embedded above) is a hoot.
Speaking of the past, Capcom will reach back into days gone by this week to release Mega Man Legends 2 on the PS3. The PSone Classic is the final game in the Legends series and a cult following has developed around the title over the years. If you’ve spent the last 15 years wondering what all the fuss is about… now’s your chance.
And in keeping with the indie theme of the Launch Party promotion, a quartet of popular indies are also available to download this week. This list includes Armature’s 10v10 multiplayer shooters, Dead Star (PS4); Quicktequila’s speedy and colorful shooter, Lovely Planet (PS4); Harmonix’s rhythm shooter, Amplitude (PS3); and Lab Zero’s cartoony fighter, Skullgirls 2nd Encore (Vita).
Finally this week, Codemasters will bring Dirt Rally to the PS4, while Ubisoft will launch the complete Assassin’s Creed Chronicles trilogy on the Vita.
More information about all of these games (and a few others) can be found after the break. And, as always, this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Amplitude, Dirt Rally, Enter the Gungeon, Skullgirls
Best Buds vs Bad Guys throws your favorite side-scrolling shooters into a blender
Best Buds vs Bad Guys is an upcoming side-scrolling shooter that references the greats of the genre including Contra, Ghosts N Goblins, and Mega Man. Set to be released for the PC this Spring, the game is in the works at Super Icon under the supervision of a father-and-son development team… oh, and the son is ten years old.
The trailer embedded above gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect from Best Buds vs Bad Guys. Retro-styled 16-bit graphics propel the story forward as players fight back against hundreds of different enemy types with a wide variety of wild weapons. Super Icon’s official website has even more screenshots of the action, including a quick look at a level built entirely out of Legos.
Best Buds vs Bad Guys will also be released for the PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One sometime this year.
New Releases: Quantum Break, Dirt Rally, RBI Baseball 16, More
Remedy Entertainment ends their hiatus this week with the release of the time-bending Quantum Break on the PC and Xbox One. The game, which also includes a series of live-action interludes starring Shawn Ashmore, Dominic Monaghan, and Aidan Gillen, will also be available as part of the Quantum Break + Xbox One 500GB Console Bundle. And all versions of Quantum Break will come packaged with a digital download of Remedy’s previous game, Alan Wake.
Also available this week is Dirt Rally, the latest entry in Codemasters’s popular offroad rally racing franchise. Available for the PC since December, Dirt Rally’s launch on the PS4 and Xbox One adds a number of new features including Classic Mini and Super 1600 series races, 21 Advanced Rally Driving Video Guides, the Pikes Peak course, and more.
Athletes of a different sort will compete in another of this week’s new releases, RBI Baseball 16. The rebooted baseball sim will get its first-ever retail release this week on the PS4 and Xbox One.
Finally this week, first-person adventure Ether One will launch for the PS4, and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Chronicles series of side-scrolling spinoffs will come to the Vita.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Dirt Rally, Quantum Break, RBI Baseball 2016
Axiom Verge will be released for the Vita on April 19
Axiom Verge made its PlayStation 4 debut exactly one year ago today. To celebrate, developer Tom Happ has announced that the award-winning Metroidvania will be released for the Vita on April 19. Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Happ described some of the difficulties in bringing Axiom Verge to the Vita:
Tom Spilman from Sickhead Games was in charge of the porting process. Porting an engine to a new platform is an incredibly complicated task, yet he was able to pull it off easily for PlayStation 4. After the PlayStation 4 version was done, however, porting it to Vita turned out to be a lot more challenging. Optimizing an engine is slow and painstaking work.
One analogy that I like to use when describing getting Axiom Verge working on PS Vita is that of a lightbulb. For months, Tom Spilman was putting in all of the wiring, but until it was fully connected, the light bulb just couldn’t turn on. And finally, about a month ago, Tom Spilman was able to make the final connection. The build went from not running at all on Vita to running almost perfectly. There were a few bugs here and there that needed to be tweaked, but most of that was fairly minor and easily handled.
Axiom Verge will be Cross-Buy compatible between the two platforms, so if you already own the PS4 version, the Vita version will be available as a free download. And if you’re new to the world of Axiom Verge, you’ll be happy to know the game will receive a 10% discount for a week after the launch of the Vita version.
Earlier this month, Happ confirmed that Axiom Verge is also in the works for the Xbox One and Wii U, and it should be available on those platforms sometime this year.
Posted in News, Vita
Tagged Axiom Verge
MLB The Show 16, RBI Baseball 16, Resident Evil 6, more added to PS Store
The smell of peanuts and Crackerjack are in the air… Opening Day 2016 is less than a week away. As we wait for that first “Play Ball!” of the season, Sony and MLB Advanced Media added a pair of baseball sims to the PlayStation Store this week.
Developed by Sony San Diego, MLB The Show 16 returns for another year on the PS4 and PS3, and promises to include “more gameplay improvements, new game modes, and a greater ability to personalize your baseball experience.” Meanwhile, MLB Advanced Media’s RBI Baseball 16 brings its retro-styled gameplay to the PS4, with the developer promising to include a “revamped defensive AI” and an “improved batting system.”
MLB The Show 16 and RBI Baseball 16 will be joined by more than a dozen other new games on the PlayStation Store this week including a Resident Evil 6 re-release on the PS4, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution 2 Plus on the Vita, and the side-scrolling shooter No Time To Explain on the PS4.
Finally this week, Telltale is pulling double duty with the release of Minecraft: Story Mode Episode 5 and The Walking Dead: Michonne Episode 2 on the PS4 and PS3.
More information on all of these games (and the rest of this week’s new releases) can be found after the break. And a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found over at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)