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
Weekly Warp-Up: Greetings From PAX West 2016…
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…
Warp Zoned is in Seattle for this weekend’s PAX West expo, and there’s a lot of news coming out of the Washington State Convention Center. First up, Telltale announced a release date for Batman: The Telltale Series – Episode 2 (September 20) and the official title for the third game in the Walking Dead series (The Walking Dead: A New Frontier). We also heard from Microsoft about the Xbox One launch of Firewatch (which is happening on September 21), and Gearbox is bringing back Duke Nukem in Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour. And speaking of blasts from the past, Gun Media unveiled a bloody new trailer for Friday the 13th: The Game.
Elsewhere on Warp Zoned this week, we put Titanfall 2‘s Technical Test through its paces, and UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie published a new Kickstart This! column focusing on Ruin of the Reckless.
We’re heading back to PAX West, but you can find even more news from the past seven days after the break. And Happy Labor Day everyone! (more…)
Posted in News
New Retail Releases: Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet, Just Sing, More
Welcome to the first week of September, the unofficial start of the “Fall Gaming Avalanche.” I guess most publishers didn’t get the memo, because only a handful of new titles will be available on store shelves this week…
Players interested in obscure Japanese RPGs will finally get the chance to play The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II on the PS3 and Vita this week. Published by XSEED and developed by Falcom, Trails of Cold Steel II is a tactical turn-based title where the fate of the kingdom is at stake and only a plucky band of outsiders can save the day.
And speaking of obscure Japanese oddities, NIS America will release Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet for the PS4 this week. The “bullet hell” shooter includes a Story Mode for one or two players, an online Battle Mode, and a punishing Boss Rush Mode.
If all this fighting has you depressed, you can always turn that frown upside down and sing your heart out with Ubisoft’s Just Sing, a singing-only spinoff from their Just Dance series. Bop along to Britney Spears, Sia, Justin Bieber, and more on the PS4 or Xbox One.
Finally this week, Bethesda will launch The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Edition for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The popular MMORPG still doesn’t require a monthly subscription, but it now comes bundled with all four downloadable expansions: Imperial City, Orsinium, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood.
We’ll be back later this week with a look at the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop. In the meantime, have a good Labor Day!
CoD: Infinite Warfare Multiplayer Trailer is here… along with the announcement of a PS4 beta and an exclusive PlayStation VR mission
The first Multiplayer Trailer for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare puts its focus on the many different Combat Rigs that players can wear into battle. From the “Mid-Range Assault” classification of the Warfighter Rig to the “Assassin” capabilities of the FTL Rig, these suits will give players plenty of options in Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer mode. Though players could also decide to dress down and go full-robot with the Synaptic Rig.
In addition to unveiling the first Multiplayer Trailer, Activision also confirmed that a beta test for Infinity Warfare will begin on October 14 for PS4 players who pre-ordered the game. An Xbox One beta test will be held at a later date.
Finally, Activision revealed that PS4 players will also get the chance to try out “Jackal Assault,” a special mission exclusively available for the PlayStation VR that “immerses fans in the cockpit and puts them in control of a Jackal, the personal fighter jet in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.”
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is in development at Infinity Ward and will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 4.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Activision unveils first Multiplayer Trailer for CoD: Modern Warfare Remastered; All 16 multiplayer maps to be available by end of year
Publishers and developers from all over the world took over Seattle this weekend to party it up at PAX West, one of the biggest gaming conventions on the calendar. Rather than join them, Activision set up their own gaming convention in Los Angeles to celebrate the past, present, and future of the Call of Duty franchise.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered hits all three rather nicely, and Activision used this weekend’s Call of Duty XP event to unveil the game’s first Multiplayer Trailer, which has been embedded above. Ten multiplayer maps from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered will be included in the game when it launches this Fall, and Activision has also promised that the remaining six maps will be made available (at no additional cost) by the end of the year.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 4, but you can only get it if you purchase the Digital Deluxe Edition or Legacy Edition of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Watch Jason Voorhees get 13 kills in Friday the 13th: The Game’s PAX West 2016 trailer
Triskaidekaphobiacs beware… Gun Media and Illfonic are back with a brand new trailer for Friday the 13th: The Game, which was unveiled yesterday at PAX West. Jason Voorhees doesn’t waste any time during the three-minute clip, as the slasher legend manages to deliver an impressive 13 kills during its running time. And yes, that means he averaged a kill roughly every 13 seconds.
All of Jason’s kills in Friday the 13th: The Game were designed by Tom Savini, the same special effects wizard who supplied the gory makeup for Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. If it’s possible, his work on Friday the 13th: The Game looks to be even more brutal and splatter-tastic than the original films. Needless to say, if you’ve got an aversion to blood and gore, I would recommend you NOT watch this trailer.
Friday the 13th: The Game is expected to be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One this October.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th, PAX West 2016
Firewatch will be available for the Xbox One on September 21
Ever since its release for the PC and PS4 back in February, people have been talking about Firewatch, a narrative-driven adventure from developer Campo Santo. Yesterday, Microsoft announced that Firewatch will make its way to the Xbox One on September 21, while also giving Campo Santo’s Sean Vanaman a chance to convince Xbox fans to to see what all the fuss is about on the Xbox Wire:
“What is Firewatch?” A great question that’s been asked many times over by folks that have come before. As I intimated above, Firewatch is a first person mystery set in the woods of Wyoming. You play as a man named Henry and you’ve escaped your messy life for some peaceful time alone in the woods. Except you’re not alone: you’re in constant contact with a woman named Delilah who works in a nearby tower and your time quickly stops being peaceful. I won’t spoil anything more than that but I’ll add that the group to came together to make Firewatch worked on games like the Bioshock series, Mark of the Ninja, Brutal Legend, and The Walking Dead Season One (if you’re mad about how that series ended, you can fill my personal emails with your complaints). Now, if the test-tube baby of all of those games sounds exciting to you, we think you’ll like Firewatch.
Campo Santo will expand Firewatch for its Xbox One debut, and the developer has revealed plans to include an optional “Firewatch Audio Tour” in the game that turns it into “turns it into one part Director’s Commentary, one part Game Dev Workshop, and wraps that all around a scavenger hunt.” A new Free Roam Mode will also let players discover additional secrets out in the woods.
You can learn even more about Firewatch from the brand new Announcement Trailer embedded above.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Firewatch, PAX West 2016
Classic Duke Nukem returns in Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
Forget Captain America, Duke Nukem is the real “Man Out of Time.” Even though nineties nostalgia has seeped into every corner of our culture, Duke has felt like a relic from a bygone era for years now…
So it makes perfect sense that Gearbox has decided to bring him back for Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour.
Originally released in 1996, Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour will bring the classic shooter to the PS4 and Xbox One for the first time (a PC release is also planned). More than a simple remake, Gearbox plans to update Duke Nukem 3D’s visuals with True3D Rendering Mode, which will deliver the game “rendered at high fidelity and [a] blistering frame rate.” However, fans will also be able to toggle between the updated visuals and the original images with the press of a button.
Do you want some more? 20th Anniversary World Tour will also include eight all-new levels created by the original designers of Duke Nukem 3D, Allen Blum III and Richard “Levelord” Gray. This new episode will be accompanied by new music from original composer Lee Jackson, and additional vocal work from Duke himself, Jon St. John. The developers will also provide behind-the-scenes commentary that’ll be accessible in-game.
The second season of Ash vs Evil Dead will air on Starz this Fall, so at the very least, the developers will have a familiar place to “borrow” Duke’s new one-liners from.
“When I first moved out to Texas to join the Duke Nukem 3D development team in the mid-nineties, I could not possibly predict that we were all going to be part of the emergence of the 3D first-person video game genre that would ultimately impact the entire video game industry,” said Randy Pitchford, the President of Gearbox Software. “Making it possible for Allen, Richard, Lee, and Jon to all come back together 20 years later to bring a whole new episode to the classic game is just one of those rare and incredible things that I hope will bring joy and happiness to hardcore video game fans new and old.”
Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour will be priced at $19.99, and it’ll be available on October 11.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Duke Nukem 3D, PAX West 2016
Rumor: Another insider is saying the NX will use cartridges instead of optical discs
Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal is claiming that games for Nintendo’s NX console will come on cartridges.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard that the NX will use cartridges instead of the currently-much-more-common optical discs (Eurogamer made a similar claim in July), but if the console is also meant to function as a handheld, it makes a certain amount of sense.
The Wall Street Journal argues that the near-indestructibility of cartridges is something the family-friendly Nintendo is very interested in:
Industry watchers said cartridges were a reasonable choice for Nintendo’s next-generation system, code-named NX, because the company targets a wider range of consumers than Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo’s core fans include small children, who might scratch discs but find cartridges tougher to damage. Cartridges also allow games to load faster, are harder to copy and can be mass-produced faster than discs, they said.
The Wii U currently uses a Nintendo-specific flavor of Blu-ray, so if the NX were to use cartridges instead of discs, it’s unlikely that the NX would have any kind of backwards compatibility features, which have become a standard part of Nintendo’s consoles over the years.
Nintendo is widely expected to officially unveil the NX sometime this month. But bear in mind that even that is just a rumor at this point.