Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Monthly Archives: November 2013
Nintendo’s interactive Louvre musuem guide is coming to 3DS eShop
Nintendo has announced that the interactive museum guide they created for The Louvre (and which was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself) will soon be added to the 3DS eShop. The downloadable app, known as Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre, will be released on December 2 with a $19.99 price tag.
The Louvre app includes “more than 600 images of artwork from the famed French museum” as well as 400 3D pictures of famous sculptures. Each images can be zoomed in so users can closely examine works of art that are actually located thousands of miles away. More than 30 hours of commentary will complement the images for a complete learning experience.
An “artwork slide show,” which isn’t available through the 3DS app provided at The Louvre, has been added to the 3DS eShop version. And as the museum’s exhibits change, Nintendo plans to make updates to Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre app available to the app’s users.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Nintendo 3DS Guide: Louvre
PS Store Today: Ys Vita, MGS: VR Missions, Painkiller PS3, more
Here’s your PlayStation Store update for today. We got some Painkiller: Hell & Damnation and some Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory on the PS3 as well as the Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions expansion in the PSone Classics section. Vita owners will even get a chance to play Ys: Memories of Celceta.
There’s more information on all of this week’s releases down below and a list of this week’s new game add-ons at the PlayStation Blog…
PS3 Games
Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory ($39.99)
Join Neptune as she is thrust out of the peaceful Gamindustri she loves to be lazy in and finds herself in an alternate dimension—the Gamindustri of the 80′s! Fast-paced combat, several dozen dungeons to explore, and improved battle mechanics, oh my! Complete unique Challenges to boost stats, or call on Scouts to seek out new dungeons for you! Help Neptune get home in this over-the-top comedy RPG!
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation ($29.99)
Heaven’s Hitman is back… With a Vengeance! Demonic powers are manifesting, fighting over the fates of imprisoned souls caught in Purgatory. Once again, Daniel Garner, the Curse of Darkness and the Toy of Light, has to fight his way past hordes of demons. Can he stop the powerful creatures that stand in his way?
Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers ($59.99)
The ultimate Saint Seiya fighting game! Battle your way through 3 famous Chapters (Sanctuary, Poseidon and Hades) with over 50 playable fighters. Discover the most complete Saints experience with character customization, new battle systems and 3 online modes to fight against players all over the world. Save Athena, Save the World!
Super Motherload ($14.99)
Set on Mars in an alternate Cold-War era, Super Motherload is a 1 to 4-player couch co-op digging adventure with branching storyline choices, a fully voiced cast of Soviet and American characters, and a procedurally-generated world that changes each time you play. (Includes PS4 Version Download)
PS3 – PSone Classics
Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions ($5.99)
Metal Gear Solid is one of the most successful, and maybe one of the best, PlayStation games ever. These virtual reality missions expand on the training of the special forces unit your character in MGS came from.
Oddworld: Abe Boxx ($9.99)
Hey, remember that quirky demo that came with your original PlayStation®, something about an alien escaping a factory? Did you never get the chance to finish that tough-as-nails game or its sequel? Now’s your chance to play Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and continue the story in Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus.
Run, jump and possess your way across seven levels of legendary platforming action in the first Oddworld game, freeing 99 of your fellow Mudokons. Then join Abe again in taking down SoulStorm Brewery across eight even bigger levels, and free another 300 Mudokons from a life of gruelling “employment”.
PS Vita Games
Ys: Memories of Celceta ($39.99)
World-famous adventurer Adol Christin awakens in the land of Celceta, remembering only his own name. Eager to unravel the mystery of his past and the cause of his predicament, he sets off to map the uncharted wilderness that claimed his memories in this latest action RPG offering from Nihon Falcom. Join Adol as he traverses the largest overworld in the series with many new friends at his side!
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, Painkiller Hell & Damnation
Xbox One TV input has no love for British framerate, workaround found
It looks like the much lauded live TV integration feature of the Xbox One has hit a tiny snag in the UK.As reported by numerous sources (including The Escapist, VideoGamer, and OXM UK), Xbox One owners have said that when watching their Freeview or Sky feeds through the system, the image was “juddering” so much that it was unwatchable.
The issue has since been identified by HDTVtest to be the small, yet significant, difference between American and British television framerates. Just like the spelling of certain words differs between the two countries, US TVs refresh at a rate of 60Hz, while in Britain, the standard rate is 50Hz. The Xbox One has been set to the American standard, even those units being sold in the UK, making the signals almost incompatible.
Not content with pinpointing the kink in Microsoft’s new multimedia-focused box, HDTVtest has since come up with a solution.
“First, set your Xbox One to auto-detect HDMI (under Display settings). Then, toggle the resolution from 1080p to 720p (or vice versa), which should trigger a prompt window asking if the screen is displaying correctly, and if you want to keep the new resolution. Select “No” before the 15 seconds is up. This seems to trick the Xbox One into thinking that the TV is not compatible with 60Hz signal, and voila! 50Hz output. Depending on your television set, you may need several attempts to succeed.”
Alas, while this solves the issue when watching television, it screws up the console’s primary function… playing games. Xbox One games are designed to be played at 60Hz, which means that users will have to switch between 50Hz and 60Hz depending on what they want to do. This seems like a far cry from the “All In One” experience Microsoft had promised. In fact, rather than having to mess about with the framerate settings, players may find it easier to bypass the Xbox One altogether, and have their TV feed piped into, gasp, the TV itself.
Daily Scoop: November 26, 2013 – Don’t Starve Chester Plush
I’m not sure if you’ve checked out Kickstarter lately, but one just launched that you might have some interest in. There’s an adorable Chester Plush from the indie game Don’t Starve. It is so, so adorable, and it’s already been completely funded – unsurprisingly! If you loved this game, you should definitely think about funding this project.
Poking around for early Black Friday sales? Well, check out Amazon’s Gold Box deals (filter by Video Games!) and see if there’s anything you like today. I’m hoping against hope that someone will have the Wii U Wind Waker Bundle on sale, but I’m not sure if that will happen! It was Black Friday a few years ago when I got my special edition red Wii, after all… this would be a great tradition!
Let’s talk t-shirts, people! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Microsoft publishes 2013 Black Friday/Cyber Monday XBL Game Store deals
The deals are upon us and Microsoft has gotten in on the act with their annual Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal-travaganza on the Xbox Live Game Store. You can find the complete list of deals at Major Nelson’s blog, but here’s a few highlights:
The “Week-long Offers” begin today and include big discounts on downloadable versions of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (67% off), The Cave (75% off), Wolfenstein 3D (75% off), Tomb Raider (50% off), and Motocross Madness (75% off). All “Week-long Offers” are good until December 2.
Black Friday deals are limited to November 29 only, but if you’re looking for a Spider-Man game, you can pick up the following four at 67% off: Edge of Time, Friend or Foe, Shattered Dimensions, and Web of Shadows. Another comic book adaptation from Activision, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, will also have its price slashed by 67% on Friday.
Finally, Microsoft’s Cyber Monday deals will only be offered on December 2, but if you can keep your wallet full until next Monday, you can grab a few bonafide classics for 75% off including Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Red Dead Redemption, The Witcher 2, Dark Souls, and L.A. Noire. The ridiculously good BattleBlock Theater will also get a price cut (sadly, just 67% off) on December 2.
Once again, be sure to head over to Major Nelson’s blog for the complete list of Black Friday/Cyber Monday discounts on the XBL Game Store.
GTA: San Andreas comes to mobile devices this December
Grand Theft Auto III received a mobile re-release in 2011 and it was followed by Vice City last year. Today, Rockstar Games collected the the hat trick by confirming that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will also be made available for mobile platforms in December.
The mobile edition of GTA: San Andreas has been completely reworked to create the best-looking version of the game yet with “newly remastered graphics including dynamic and detailed shadows, greater draw distance, an enriched color palette, plus enhanced character and car models.” This enhanced graphical presentation means that the game will only be released for “select” iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, and Windows Mobile devices. Rockstar has said that they will confirm exactly which devices will be able to handle the San Andreas re-release at a later date.
However, they were able to announce that in addition to the touchscreen controls, GTA: San Andreas on iOS 7 devices will include support for all “Made For iOS” controllers. Wow, that’s just awesome… you know, maybe there is something to this notion that gamers will abandon consoles for mobile devices.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Assassin’s Creed: Pirates will launch in December
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is pretty incredible when you think about it. Back in 2007, the first installment received good reviews, but also had many well-documented shortcomings such as faulty AI and repetitive gameplay. But five “main series” installments and ten handheld spinoffs later, it has become a veritable juggernaut of branding. The Assassin’s Creed universe encompasses books, comics, short films, and even an upcoming feature-length film.
Now, fresh off the successful release of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Ubisoft is doing what it does best… capitalizing on Black Flag with another spinoff. The publisher has released a new gameplay trailer for the franchise’s next mobile game, Assassin’s Creed Pirates. Featuring slick visuals and naval combat with upgradable ship parts and crew members, players will be able to live out their pirate fantasies with ship battles all across the Caribbean.
Assassin’s Creed: Pirates is slated for a December 5th release and has been priced at $4.99 on both the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play store.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Pirates
Operation Dead Angels launches “Bayonetta on Wii U” campaign
With Bayonetta 2 soon to be shooting and slicing its way onto the Wii U with a sexy smile, many have been wondering if the 2010 original would find its way onto Nintendo’s new platform. After a teasing tweet from Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya suggesting he could port the original to the Wii U before the sequel’s release…
We can. RT @lightningboltac If Nintendo decided to release Bayo1 on WiiU, will u be able to port it in time before Bayo2's release? Or later
— 神谷英樹 Hideki Kamiya (@PG_kamiya) November 22, 2013
…the Internet has done what it does best, created an online petition to demand something.
The group behind the “Bayonetta on Wii U” campaign is known as Operation Dead Angels. Originally released on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to rave reviews, unfortunately, they did not translate into amazing sales figures. Kamiya has said in the past that if Nintendo had not acquired the rights to publish the sequel, it never would have seen the light of day.
It makes sense for all parties involved to release the original on the Wii U. For one, it will give Wii U fans a better sense of continuity for the sequel. But also, it will allow gamers a chance to revisit what should have been a better selling title, much in the same way Capcom’s Okami found new life on the Wii and PlayStation 3 after its original PlayStation 2 debut.
So if you want to see Bayonetta’s first outing on the Wii U GamePad, join up with Operation Dead Angels and start hounding Nintendo’s various Twitter accounts today!
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2