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)
Author: John Scalzo
Square Enix taps Tales producer Hideo Baba to develop Project Prelude Rune
Square Enix will collaborate with Hideo Baba, one of the driving forces behind Bandai Namco’s Tales series beginning with 2006’s Tales of Destiny, to establish Studio Istolia. Wholly owned by Square Enix, Studio Istolia is hard at work on their first game, an RPG currently known as Project Prelude Rune:
The project aims to build a new RPG with a new fantasy: unfolding across a vast land teeming with life. Nurtured by the earth, the many peoples of this land dare to dream, fighting for what is just—and this is their tale.
For now, that’s all Square Enix and Studio Istolia were willing to share about Project Prelude Rune. However, they did reveal that “Istolia” is derived from the Greek for “Story,” adding, “The aim of the studio is to provide unforgettable stories that will inspire players in their own lives, and bring new game experiences to everyone around the world.”
Posted in News
Chroma Squad will be available for PS4 and Xbox One this May
Bandai Namco has announced that Chroma Squad, a tactical RPG inspired by Power Rangers that’s currently available through Steam, will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One in May.
Developed by Brazilian-based Behold Studios, Chroma Squad features “five high-flying stunt actors who decide to quit their day jobs and create their own Power Rangers TV show.” But somewhere along the way, they stumble into a real alien invasion and make it their job to save the Earth.
Bandai Namco had previously announced that Chroma Squad was also in development for the Vita, but the portable rendition of the game was officially canceled by the publisher today.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Chroma Squad
Get a quick glimpse at Tom Savini’s “Custom Jason” in Friday the 13th: The Game
Friday the 13th: The Game will feature several incarnations of Jason Voorhees (including “Burlap Sack Jason” from Part 2, “Original Hockey Mask Jason” from Part 3, and “Zombie Jason” from Jason Lives), but fans who pre-order the game will also receive access to a “Custom Jason” created by special effects wizard Tom Savini.
The trailer for Savini’s “Custom Jason” doesn’t reveal much about the character’s redesign, but the glowing eyes are fairly terrifying. As is the way his tattered costume seems to show a ridgeline of spikes across his shoulders and the claw-like design of his hands. The master at work, ladies and gentlemen.
Savini is best known as the make-up artist behind the original Friday the 13th, as well as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. As one of the most in-demand names in the business in the 70s and 80s, he also contributed gory make-up effects to Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and many others.
If you’re interested in playing as Savini’s “Custom Jason” in Friday the 13th: The Game, you’ll need to pre-order it now from the game’s official website.
Friday the 13th: The Game will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One sometime in the Winter/Spring portion of the 2017 calendar. But if you can’t wait that long, developers from Gun Media and Illfonic will host a panel at this year’s PAX East convention that’ll contain “brutal kills, massive reveals, and an in-depth Q/A session.”
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th, PAX East 2017
Bethesda’s Todd Howard said the developer has SEVEN projects in the works
Bethesda has always been one of the busiest studios in the business. In addition to producing multiple games at the same time, Bethesda is well known for producing each sprawling entry in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises. But they’ve taken things up a notch with their current workload.
Speaking to IGN, Director Todd Howard has confirmed the company is currently working on seven different projects, though some of these games have been discussed before.
Howard specifically cited the upcoming Switch launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 VR as two projects that were previously announced. The developer was extremely excited about Fallout 4 VR, adding that the game is playable “start to finish in VR” and is shaping up nicely:
“There’s no content that we removed or changed [for VR],” Howard explained, noting that the current work being done on it is related to how players actually interact with the experience.
“It’s interface work, it’s other things,” he said. “There are issues with locomotion, how you traverse that much space, and we’re hoping to support as many modes as possible… It’s not done yet, there’s work to do, but the parts that are there, I’m biased but it’s pretty incredible.”
Betehsda’s Director also reiterated the company is working on another mobile title that “would follow in the successful footsteps of Fallout Shelter,” though he didn’t say if it would be an original title or based on an existing franchise.
The seventh project remained a mystery, but with a final flourish, Howard told IGN that Bethesda’s two “big and crazy” projects announced during the 2016 DICE Summit are still in development, as is The Elder Scrolls VI, which was first mentioned at E3 2016 as being “a very long way off.”
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls 6, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Uncharted 4 wins “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing” from WGA
The Writers Guild of America continued their love affair with Naughty Dog last night, picking the developer as the recipient of a Writers Guild Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing” for their work on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
The credited writers on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End are Neil Druckmann, Josh Scherr, Tom Bissell, and Ryan James, and each can stake a claim on the treasure that is this Writers Guild Award.
This is the fourth Writers Guild Award for the narrative team at Naughty Dog. The developer also came out on top of the “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing” category in 2015 (The Last of Us: Left Behind), 2014 (2014 The Last of Us), and 2012 (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception).
Naughty Dog triumphed over three other highly-qualified nominees this year including Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Ubisoft’s Far Cry: Primal, and Night School Studio’s Mr. Robot: 1.51exfiltratiOn.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Weekly Warp-Up: T-Minus 12 Days from the Launch of the Nintendo Switch
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
We are T-Minus 12 days from the launch of the Nintendo Switch, so now is a good time as any to ask Is Nintendo Marketing the Switch to the Wrong Audience? For a company so closely liked with the childlike wonder that video games can create, we’ve noticed there’s been a distinct lack of kids in the Switch’s marketing materials.
But, of course, video games aren’t just for kids. And no where is there more evident than in latest Kickstart This! selection, a game adaptation of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
Finally this week, our Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time series looked at the simplicity of Space Invaders. Drop down, increase speed, and reverse direction!
You can find more news from this past week, including a recap of NIS America’s 2017 Press Event and a lost “Pac-Man” parody from Weird Al Yankovic, after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Retail Releases: Halo Wars 2, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk
It’s the calm before the (Switch) storm in the latest New Retail Releases report…
If you opted to skip last week’s release of the Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition (which includes access to the Season Pass and Halo Wars: Definitive Edition), Microsoft is giving you another chance this week with the Standard Edition launch of Halo Wars 2 for the Xbox One and Windows 10 (which also includes an Xbox One download thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere program). The real-time strategy game picks up 28 years after its predecessor and introduces players to a new enemy, Atriox, and his loyal army, The Banished. Players will be able to fight it out in the single-player Campaign, several different online multiplayer modes, and the card-based Blitz Mode.
Also available this week is Berserk and the Band of the Hawk, the latest Warriors game from Koei Tecmo and Omega Force. Available for the PS4, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is based on the Berserk manga series by Kentarou Miura and follows Guts, Griffith, Casca, and the Band of the Hawk as they battle demons.
We’ll be back later this week with a look at all the latest digital titles that’ll soon be available to download through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Halo Wars 2
Nihon Falcom and NIS America will release Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana this Fall
Publisher NIS America will team up with Nihon Falcom to release Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, the latest entry in the long-running action RPG franchise, this Fall for the PC, PS4, and Vita.
NIS’s Chris King confirmed (to the PlayStation Blog) the game will feature dual English and Japanese audio. He also revealed a few details about the game’s plot:
This will be the first brand-new Ys adventure in eight years! The story begins with Adol, shipwrecked and stranded on a cursed island. There, he and the other castaways establish a village to challenge fearsome beasts and explore mysterious ruins on the island. Amidst this, Adol begins to dream of a mysterious blue-haired maiden named Dana living in an unknown world. Join Adol as he unravels the riddle of the cursed isle and the blue-haired maiden in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana!
And over on Ys VIII’s Steam page, Nihon Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo delivered a message to fans and teased about a minute of gameplay footage.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Vita
Tagged Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana