Warp Zoned Presents
Most Recent: Vita
Far Cry: Primal was the best-selling game of February 2016
It’s time to listen to the mastodon roar as Ubisoft’s Far Cry: Primal was declared the best-selling game of February 2016 by The NPD Group. Proving that players might be in the market for more titles that feature pre-modern warfare, Far Cry: Primal beat out Call of Duty: Black Ops III, which took the #2 slot.
Several other new releases broke into the top ten last month, including Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 at #4 and Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright at #9. But the most surprising result might be the less-than-stellar debut of Capcom’s Street Fighter V. Even after a big push from Sony, the much-hyped fighting game was only able to punch its way to #7.
Sales of new PS3 and Xbox 360 games continued to drop last month, and total retail spending on new games slipped 10% from February 2015. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, NPD’s Liam Callahan said: “New physical software trends suffered due to a sharp decline in seventh generation consoles of 52% despite the 14% (or $28 million growth) in eighth generation software. Portable software also had a drop of 30% due to a poor comparison to the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, which coincided with the launch of the New 3DS.”
A complete look at last month’s top ten best-selling titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, Far Cry: Primal, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Avengers, Minecraft, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, NBA 2K16, NPD, Street Fighter V
Launch Party 2016 promo brings six PS4 titles to PS Store in March/April including Invisible Inc, Day of the Tentacle, Alienation, more
For the last few years, Sony has flooded the PlayStation Store with quality titles in the Spring as part of their “Spring Fever” event. “Spring Fever” is no more, but the spirit of that event lives on in this year’s “Launch Party,” which will deliver a half-dozen new games to the PS4 and Vita this Spring.
Head over to the PlayStation Blog (or keep reading) to find out more about each of these titles:
Salt and Sanctuary (March 15)
We’ve admired Ska Studios’ games from afar for years, and we’re so thrilled to have their latest masterpiece debut exclusively on PS4! If you’ve enjoyed games like Bloodborne or Dark Souls you’ll feel right at home in Salt and Sanctuary’s brutal but beautiful world (brutiful?). Deep combat and rich RPG elements, all set in a cursed realm of forgotten cities, blood-soaked dungeons, and desecrated monuments. What else could you want? (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy)Day of the Tentacle Remastered (March 22)
We’re so excited to be working with Double Fine on bringing another classic LucasArts adventure to PS4, after their fantastic work on Grim Fandango. Originally released in 1993, Day of the Tentacle is a mind-bending, time travelling, cartoon puzzle adventure game in which three unlikely friends work together to prevent an evil mutated purple tentacle from taking over the world! This loving remaster features all-new, hand-drawn, high-resolution artwork, with remastered music and sound effects. (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy)Enter the Gungeon (April 5)
Enter the Gungeon is the latest in our ongoing partnership (more of a kinship, really) with Devolver Digital, developed by the devious geniuses at Dodge Roll. Making its console debut on PS4, Gungeon combines The Binding of Isaac-style dungeons with an action-packed repertoire of shooting, looting, dodge-rolling, and table-flipping (and two-player local co-op!). All on a quest to reach the ultimate treasure: a gun that can kill the past! (Of course.) (PS4)Stories: The Path of Destinies (April 12)
Spearhead Games was one of the very first developers to jump on the PS4 train with their underrated multiplayer puzzler Tiny Brains. They’ve been working hard ever since on a sumptuous action-RPG called Stories: The Path of Destinies, a madcap epic fantasy where each choice you make takes you through a different story. Each story — some dark, some romantic, all action-packed — is true in its way, and will lead you to victory if you pay enough attention… (PS4)Invisible Inc (April 19)
If you’re anything like us, you’re still playing Klei Entertainment’s singular PS4 survival sim Don’t Starve, over two years later. Invisible, Inc. is a very different beast, but similarly applies Klei’s whip-smart design prowess and beautifully stylized aesthetic to a tactical turn-based adventure. Take control of Invisible’s agents in the field and infiltrate the world’s most dangerous corporations. Stealth, precision, and teamwork are essential in high-stakes, high-profit missions, where every move may cost an agent their life. (PS4)Alienation (April 26)
If you’ve ever played Super Stardust, Resogun, or Dead Nation, you know the visceral pleasures Housemarque is capable of. They’ve collaborated with SCE Worldwide Studios on another amazing PS4 exclusive, where 1-4 players can team up online against alien hoards with an array of conventional and hybrid weaponry. All taking place in massively destructible environments where collateral damage can literally bring the house down! (PS4)
All six games are currently available to pre-order from the PlayStation Store and buying any of them early will net you a 20% discount on the final price.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Alienation, Day of the Tentacle, Enter the Gungeon, Invisible Inc, Salt and Sanctuary
Broforce, Mortal Kombat XL, Heavy Rain on PS4, more added to PlayStation Store
It’s time to bro wild with this week’s PlayStation Store update as the uber-American side-scrolling shooter Broforce is now available to download for the PS4. Developed by Free Lives, a South African-based team, Broforce is also available this month as a free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers. That’s a good deal, bro!
Also new to the PlayStation Store this week, and just as violent as Broforce, is NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat XL. A super-sized re-release of a fighting game that everyone loved on the PS4 last year, the XL version adds nine new characters, a ton of costume changes, and the return of “The Pit.”
Finally, Quantic Dream’s interlocking serial killer story, Heavy Rain, will make the jump from the PS3 to the PS4 this week. The remake will include improved visuals and more realistic lighting. And NIS America will put out their own upgraded re-release with The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition, a PS4 remake of an action RPG originally released for the PS3.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. And a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Broforce, Heavy Rain, Mortal Kombat X
Disney Infinity 4.0 won’t be released in 2016, but we will get four new Play Sets this year
With Assassin’s Creed already set to sit out 2016, another major franchise has announced plans to skip 2016. The Disney Interactive Blog has revealed the publisher won’t release Disney Infinity 4.0, opting instead to expand last year’s Disney Infinity: Star Wars (AKA Version 3.0) with four new Play Sets throughout the year.
On that note, the publisher launched the “Disney Infinity Next” webseries today to discuss the new adventures for characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars found in this year’s Play Sets. But also be on the lookout for new figures based on the upcoming Zootopia (Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde) and the classic Jungle Book (Baloo), which will be released this Spring.
The first Play Set we can expect to see in stores will be Marvel Battlegrounds, a four-player brawler that’ll introduce Ant-Man, Black Panther, and Vision to the Disney Infinity universe. Black Suit Spider-Man, previously a Vita-exclusive figure, will also be released individually alongside Marvel Battlegrounds.
A trailer for Marvel Battlegrounds can be found after the break. (more…)
Neverending Nightmares will be released for the PS4 and Vita this Spring
Developer Matt Gilgenbach has announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that he’ll bring Neverending Nightmares to the PS4 and Vita very soon. Featuring a sketchbook art style inspired by Edward Gorey and a branching storyline that was “greatly influenced” by film director David Lynch, Neverending Nightmares is an atmospheric horror game that mirrors Gilgenbach’s own struggles with depression and OCD:
Neverending Nightmares is a very personal game for me because it’s meant to metaphorically express the experience I’ve had dealing with mental illness — specifically obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. It was a real challenge to develop a game to express those dark feelings, but my team and I have created a unique interactive experience. I know I called it a “game” up above, but I think “interactive experience” is a more apt description.
[…]
In the game, you play as Thomas, a weak young man with asthma who wakes up from a terrible nightmare. As you continue to progress through the game, you discover that he is trapped in a series of nightmares — each more hellish than the last. Your goal is to hide and flee from the terrifying apparitions that Thomas is defenseless against in order to finally “wake up” in the real world.
Neverending Nightmares will be available to download through the PlayStation Store sometime this Spring.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Neverending Nightmares
Far Cry: Primal, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, Hitman Go, more added to PS Store
It’s a big week for the PlayStation Store as more than a dozen new games have been added to the digital storefront.
Riding an elephant over the rest of this week’s new releases is Far Cry: Primal (PS4), Ubisoft’s prehistoric take on the first person shooter. Players will wield stone knives, spears, and bows, as they hunt wild animals and fend off attacks from other tribes. Oh, and in case you missed it the first time, they get to ride a rampaging elephant. Two other very different shooting games will also be released this week… We’ll get a chance to play EA’s colorful team-based competition, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (PS4), along with the strategic shooting of Square Enix’s Hitman Go: Definitive Edition (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy).
Finally this week, Telltale is back with another adaptation of the Walking Dead universe for the PS4 and PS3. The first episode for The Walking Dead: Michonne is now available to download with future episodes planned for release in March and April.
More information on all of these games (and a few other 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 at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Axiom Verge is “really, really close” to launching for the Vita
Axiom Verge launched last Spring to ecstatic reviews and closed out the year with a trophy case full of awards. But sadly, the promised Vita release never materialized.
But it looks like a Vita launch for the game is closer than we realized. In a lengthy update on the game’s official website, developer Tom Happ confirmed that the Vita version is “really, really […] close” to release:
The tl;dr version is this: we have a list of mostly known issues that we are working through and we really, really are getting quite close.
[…]
So here’s the good news: the game is ported. It runs and is playable! Anyone who has worked on a porting project can tell you that that represents the biggest hurdle. Going from ported game to polished and shippable ported game is much easier than going from non-ported game to ported game. In fact, one of the reasons I couldn’t give a status update on the port before was that there was nothing to show. It was all plumbing and wiring. It’s only when you get everything hooked up and hit the switch that it goes from 0-100 pretty much overnight.
Happ also shared some alpha footage of Axiom Verge running on the Vita, which has been embedded above. And don’t forget, Axiom Verge on the Vita will be Cross-Buy compatible with the already-available PS4 version when it finally does get released.
Posted in News, Vita
Tagged Axiom Verge
Fallout 4 wins “Game of the Year” at 2016 DICE Awards
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences held their annual DICE Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 emerged from The Vault to take home “Game of the Year” honors. The expansive open world RPG also won in two other categories, “Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.” However, it wasn’t a sweep for the post-apocalyptic adventure.
A trio of other games took home three awards last night including Moon Studios’s Ori and the Blind Forest (“Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” “Outstanding Achievement in Animation,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction”), Psyonix’s Rocket League (“Sports Game of the Year,” “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay,” and the “DICE Spirit Award”), and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design,” “Outstanding Achievement in Story,” and “Outstanding Technical Achievement”).
While the ceremony featured plenty of revelry and merriment, last night’s DICE Awards were also a bittersweet affair as Satoru Iwata was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished business leadership of Nintendo. And Hideo Kojima, who recently parted ways with Konami after more than three decades with the company, was named to the AIAS’s Hall of Fame.
A complete list of this year’s winners (which also includes Super Mario Maker, Mortal Kombat X, Star Wars: Battlefront, and many more) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Fallout 4, Forza Motorsport 6, Helldivers, Heroes of the Storm, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mortal Kombat X, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Star Wars: Battlefront, Super Mario Maker, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt