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
The icy Kolin will be second character available as part of Street Fighter V’s Season Pass 2
As promised, Capcom has announced the next character that’ll be available to download as part of Street Fighter V‘s Season Pass 2. Kolin, a “Phantasm of Snow and Ice,” first appeared in Street Fighter III as a background character, and fans will be able to select her as a playable character for the first time on February 28.
In addition to the trailer embedded above, the publisher also shared a few details about Kolin’s arctic abilities on the Capcom-Unity blog:
Character Overview
Kolin excels in the Russian martial art of Systema, utilizing the opponent’s momentum against them and executing various slash-like attacks and knife hand strikes. Gill has bestowed upon her the power of ice, allowing her to augment her fight style with frigid blasts and deadly icicles. She is often heard speaking condescendingly towards her opponents, knowing they don’t stand a chance before her, let alone Gill.V-Skill: Inside Slash
Kolin’s unique counter allows her to deflect and automatically punish incoming moves with ease.V-Trigger: Diamond Dust
With a full V-Meter, Kolin can slam the ground twice with her foot, each time shooting out a path of sharp icicles across the floor. In addition to damage and stun, this move freezes the opponent’s stun gauge. While in this special state, the stun gauge will not deplete and if Kolin is successful in stunning the opponent, they will be frozen in place.Critical Art: Frost Tower
Kolin dashes forward with a slice of her hand. If the attack connects, she’ll continue summoning large icicles from the ground, throwing the opponent into the air and shattering the ice to drop them to the ground.
In addition to Kolin’s debut, Capcom also confirmed today that Street Fighter V’s third new character of 2017 will be unveiled in April.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
South Park: The Fractured But Whole will be released sometime between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018
Ubisoft has quietly delayed South Park: The Fractured But Whole for a second time.
Originally scheduled to launch on December 6, 2016, the game was later pushed back to Early 2017 before being delayed again as part of their quarterly financial report. The publisher confirmed the comedic RPG will now launch on some to be determined date during their next fiscal year (April 1, 2017 – March 31, 2018).
According to a short post on the UbiBlog, the delay is designed to give the development team more time “to deliver the best experience possible”:
The teams at South Park and Ubisoft San Francisco are committed to pushing the envelope during development to deliver the best experience possible, and this additional time will allow them to do so.
Presumably, a final release date for South Park: The Fractured But Whole will be announced soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged South Park: The Fractured But Whole
At long last, the E3 Expo will be open to the public for the first time ever in 2017
The Entertainment Software Association first opened the doors to the annual E3 Expo in 1995, and gamers have been clamoring to get a glimpse at the industry-only event ever since. This year, they’ll finally get a chance as the ESA announced (via GameSpot) that a limited number of tickets will be sold to the public beginning this Monday, February 13, at noon (Eastern Time).
A total of 15,000 tickets will be available, and they’ll be priced at $250 apiece (though early bird buyers on the 13th will be able to buy them at a discount). The tickets will include access to the show floor, panel discussions, and other events for the duration of this year’s expo. Ticketholders will also be able to sit in on Geoff Keighley’s live studio show during the expo, which will include interviews with game developers and executives.
One major part of E3 that fans will miss out on is the various Press Conferences that take place in the days preceding the expo. These tickets won’t act as an invitation to those presentations.
“The feedback we heard was clear… they wanted to play the games inside the convention center. In addition, exhibitors inside the convention center wanted to have access to the fans. So this year we’re bringing the two together,” Rich Taylor, the ESA’s Senior Vice President of Communications, told GameSpot.
Taylor later said the ESA is always looking for ways to make the E3 Expo more relevant and useful for game industry professionals, journalists, and the public:
“I think asking, ‘How can we improve?’ ‘Where are video games headed?’ ‘How do we connect with fans?’ are all healthy questions, and that helps ensure E3 stays current and meets exhibitors’ needs,” he said.
“It’s a changing industry, and E3 has always evolved to meet industry needs and anticipate where we’re heading together–as an event, as an industry, and as fans. The decision to open our doors to 15,000 fans was a strategic decision. It is thanks to our members and their vision and leadership that made this possible. We have a model that allows the business of the industry to continue for our business and media attendees and provides an opportunity for video games’ biggest fans to experience the latest in innovative, immersive entertainment.”
The 2017 E3 Expo will kick off on June 13.
Metrico+ Review: This Visually Unique Puzzle Platformer Charts Its Own Course
Graphic designers who spend their days translating statistical findings into a series of colorful bars and charts are working in the interesting new field of infographics. And if you’ve opened an Internet browser at all in the last five years, you’ve more than likely seen dozens of them.
Companies love infographics because they’re able to distill complex statistical studies down into an image that is easily shareable across Facebook and Twitter. Audiences love them because they provide easily digestible primers on subjects as frivolous as the many on-screen deaths of Sean Bean to serious societal problems like income inequality.
Dutch development studio Digital Dreams used this same philosophy to create Metrico, a puzzle platformer that was released for the Vita in 2014. The team expanded on their original concept, and launched Metrico+, a remake/sequel, for the Xbox One last month. (more…)
Xbox Store Today: Fallout Shelter, 8Days, Adventure Pop, more
Today’s Xbox Games Store update is brought to you by dangerous dystopias…
While some players venture out into the irradiated aboveground to battle Deathclaws and Ghouls, others are content to spend their time in the Fallout universe managing their own Vault. If that sounds appealing, then you’ll be happy to know that Fallout Shelter is now available as a free download for the Xbox One. Vault-Tec will provide players with their own state-of-the-art Vault, but it’ll take a good manager to survive underneath The Wasteland.
Also available to download for the Xbox One today is 8Days, a retro-themed twin-stick shooter that takes place in a dystopian future of corrupt mercenaries and even more corrupt mass media.
Finally today, players looking for their next bubble shooter obsession will be able to download Adventure Pop, which is also now available for the Xbox One. It might not be a dystopia per se, but their are pirates and puzzles galore.
You can learn more about all of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Fallout Shelter
Puyo Puyo Tetris will be released for Nintendo Switch and PS4 on April 25
After revealing the game last month during Nintendo’s Switch Presentation, Sega has announced that Puyo Puyo Tetris will be released for Nintendo’s next console and the PS4 on April 25. To go along with this good news, the publisher also released a new trailer highlighting the puzzle mashup’s many multiplayer modes:
Puyo Puyo Tetris Multiplayer Modes
- Versus – Players compete head-to-head in either Puyo Puyo or Tetris to fight in the puzzle fight of their life.
- Swap – Players’ abilities are put to the ultimate test when they compete on both Puyo Puyo and Tetris boards, which switch back and forth at set intervals.
- Fusion – A true hybrid game where players compete with Puyos and Tetriminos together on the same board, requiring deft, on-the-fly thinking to become victorious.
- Big Bang – It’s a race to the finish as players compete against each other to clear unique challenge boards as quickly as possible to win.
- Party – Players compete on Puyo or Tetris boards, but the puzzles feature special items that when activated either help players or harm their opponents.
Puyo Puyo Tetris will be released for the Switch as a digital download through the Nintendo eShop ($29.99) and in a special retail edition containing Puyo Puyo and Tetris-themed keychains ($39.99). Unfortunately, PS4 owners won’t be able to purchase it digitally through the PlayStation Store, and will have to settle for a limited retail edition with no keychains ($29.99).
Posted in News, PS4, Switch
Tagged Puyo Puyo Tetris
Bill Nye is back to talk about video games… and Save the World
Calling all “90s Kids,” Bill Nye the Science Guy is coming back to TV! His upcoming talk show, Bill Nye Saves the World, will makes its Netflix debut on April 21.
Nye’s show will introduce the amazing world of science to a new generation (or rather, the same generation that grew up idolizing him a few decades later), and he’ll be joined by a ragtag team of correspondents including model Karlie Kloss, Xploration Outer Space host Emily Calandrelli, comedian Joanna Hausmann, science reporter Derek Muller, and actor Nazeem Hussain. Celebrity guests such as Zach Braff, Rachel Bloom, Tim Gunn, Wil Wheaton, Joel McHale, and more will also show up to lend their expertise to the show.
Bill Nye Saves the World will cover a wide variety of topics in its first 13-episode run including sex, alternative medicine, global warming, and video games.
Nioh, How to Survive 2, 8Days, more added to PS Store
Today’s PlayStation Store update is small, but fans of brutally-hard action games should definitely check it out…
Team Ninja is giving Ryu Hayabusa a break to bring Nioh to the PS4 this week. Nioh is an action RPG that takes place in ancient Japan, and players will have to contend with the warring factions of a civil war while also doing battle with an army of rampaging monsters.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is How to Survive 2, a survival game where players will have to overcome a worldwide zombie pandemic by building a camp, learning skills, and foraging for food and water. You can even be neighborly and meet with other locals, but as George Romero taught us, sometimes the living are more dangerous than the dead.
Finally this week, 8Days is a retro-inspired twin-stick shooter that takes place in a dystopian future where players might not be fighting for the forces of good.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)