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
Sega announces a January 24, 2017 release date for Yakuza Zero
Available in Japan for over a year now, Sega has officially announced that Yakuza Zero will be released throughout North America and Europe on January 24, 2017. In development exclusively for the PS4, Yakuza Zero travels back to the 1980s to tell the story of how Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima began their rise within the ranks of the infamous organized crime syndicate:
Yakuza Zero tells the origin stories of Kazuma Kiryu, the rising Dragon of Dojima, and Goro Majima, before he’s known as the Mad Dog of Shimano, as they fight, hustle, flirt, and dance their way through the seedy underbelly of Japan. Taking place in a chilly but electric Kamurocho, Tokyo in December 1988, Kiryu’s story follows his steady ascension up the ranks of the Dojima yakuza crime family until he gets blamed for a debt collection gone wrong. Kiryu must utilize his cunning and his fists in order to regain his honor and save the reputation of his father figure, Shintaro Kazama. Meanwhile, Goro Majima is running a popular cabaret in Osaka, but he wants more than anything to rejoin the yakuza clan that ousted him. He’ll need to complete a series of impossible tasks set by his bosses, but will these tasks push Majima past the point of no return?
Yakuza Zero will be available as both a digital download through the PlayStation Store, and as a Blu-ray disc release at your favorite game retailer. In case you missed it, the game’s E3 trailer has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Yakuza Zero
Hyper Light Drifter, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1+2, Tumblestone, more added to PS Store
The PlayStation Store is now home to a massive list of new releases, including a few sought-after indies, an RPG re-release, and a pair of surprise remasters from Marvel…
Hyper Light Drifter (PS4) is an overhead action RPG from Heart Machine with a uniquely “glitched” retro style. Meanwhile, Tumblestone (PS4) is a multiplayer match-3 puzzler that also includes a massive Story Mode. And Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (PS4 + PS Vita Cross-Buy) is a challenging side-scroller from Renegade Kid.
Looking to new games we’ve seen before, Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force (PS4) is a remastered re-release of an RPG from the PS3 era. And previously available for the PS3, Activision re-released the superhero team-ups Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 for the PS4 this week as standalone downloads and a two-game bundle.
Finally this week, Telltale continues their Minecraft: Story Mode with Episode 7: Access Denied on the PS4 and PS3. This time, Jesse and friends challenge an AI that’s run amok.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. And a complete list of this week’s new add-ons and discounts is available at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Vince, Shane, and Stephanie McMahon will all appear as playable wrestlers in WWE 2K17
It’s a McMahon family reunion as Stephanie McMahon has revealed (via Twitter) that she’ll appear as a playable wrestler in WWE 2K17, alongside her brother, Shane, and father, Vince:
It's a family affair! Catch @VinceMcMahon, @shanemcmahon, and I in #WWE2K17! Check out @IGN for Roster Reveal info. pic.twitter.com/Boi89MaaMt
— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) July 26, 2016
Vince most recently appeared in last year’s WWE 2K16, but this announcement marks the first time all three McMahons will be playable wrestlers in the same game since 2012’s WWE 13.
2K Games is teaming up with IGN to unveil a large chunk of WWE 2K17’s roster over the next five weeks. Dubbed the “Suplex City Census,” the second batch of playable wrestlers will be announced next Tuesday, August 2.
WWE 2K17 will be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on October 11.
Rive might skip the Wii U and be released for NX instead
Two Tribes is putting the finishing touches on their side-scrolling shooter, Rive, but it looks like the game’s upcoming launch this September will skip the Wii U. Speaking to Nintendo Life, Two Tribes Co-Founder Collin Van Ginkel confirmed the developer is having problems getting the game to run smoothly on the Wii U:
The Nindies demo in 2015 was specifically optimized to perform well in hand-picked levels and didn’t manage 60FPS consistently. We’ve added a lot of stuff since then and we haven’t been able to reach the performance level required yet. We won’t release Rive unless it’s a solid 60FPS, and if that means delaying it to a future platform, we will make that call and make sure Nintendo fans get the perfect experience.
This performance problem, coupled with the impending retirement of the Wii U, has prompted Two Tribes to consider moving Rive to the NX:
The market has also changed. The game was supposed to ship over a year and a half ago, and things are a lot different now. Nintendo is exiting the Wii U market early in favor of the NX which means a long tail in sales is not looking likely. So that is the business part; do you release a game on a platform in its last days or on a new one that’s better suited and can reach gamers for years to come?
Two Tribes has yet to announce when Rive will be available for a Nintendo platform, but we do know the game is on track to launch this September for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Rumor: Nintendo’s NX is a handheld/console hybrid with detachable controllers
According to a new report on Eurogamer, the Nintendo NX will take the form of a handheld/console hybrid that features “detachable controllers” for multiplayer gaming on the go. The rumor report, which was compiled thanks to information from “a number of sources,” describes the NX as “a high-powered handheld console with its own display.” But the system will also be able to hook in to a dock station at home for television-based gaming.
Most interesting of all, owing to the system’s portable nature, Eurogamer has learned that Nintendo plans to ship NX games on cartridges. The NX is also said to be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra mobile processor, which is a very different from the IBM PowerPC processor that powered the GameCube, Wii, and Wii U. Due to the change in physical media and internal architecture, Eurogamer’s sources believe it’s unlikely the NX will offer backwards compatibility. And this would corroborate the earlier rumor that Nintendo is planning a rash of Wii U re-releases for the NX.
Eurogamer’s sources have also hinted at a September unveiling of the NX, and a streamlined marketing plan that positions the handheld/console hybrid as an entirely new thing, completely separate from the Wii/Wii U family. In the meantime, be sure to check out a new Digital Foundry report that explores the rumored innards of the NX.
And don’t forget, we heard a very similar rumor about the “Nintendo Fusion” all the way back in 2014.
Price of 500GB Xbox One bundles slashed to $250
Microsoft will release the Xbox One S next week, and the consolemaker needs to make room on store shelves. So you know what that means… it’s price drop time for the existing stock of 500GB Xbox One bundles.
Beginning now, any 500GB Xbox One console bundle is now priced at just $249. This includes the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Bundle, the Quantum Break Bundle with a Special Edition white console, and the “Name Your Game” Bundle that includes a full game download of one of four titles (Forza Motorsport 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, or Rare Replay).
A full list of available 500GB Xbox One bundles can be found at the Microsoft Store.
Square Enix will bring “new announcements and reveals” and 15 playable demos to Gamescom 2016
The Comic-Con booth has been broken down, so it’s on to the next Summer showcase for Square Enix. This morning, the publisher announced they’ll have 15 titles on display at this year’s Gamescom convention, which will kick off in Cologne, Germany on August 19.
Square Enix plans to have a massive presence on the show floor including multiple booths packed with more than 220 demo stations and totaling 1,100 square meters of space. These screens will be equipped with many of the company’s 2016 and 2017 offerings including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Dragon Quest Builders, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and World of Final Fantasy . A portion of the booth will also be devoted to “Square Enix Collective” titles, and another section will tout the publisher’s “new announcements and reveals.”
What are they announcing? We’ll have to wait until August to find out for sure, but for now, you can peruse Square Enix’s complete Gamescom lineup after the break. (more…)
Telltale reveals new screenshots and details from The Walking Dead Season 3
Telltale Games revealed a bit more about The Walking Dead Season 3 during their trip to the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. Creative Director Dennis Lenart was joined by Melissa Hutchison (the voice actress behind Clementine) held a panel for fans and shared a new poster, new screenshots, and new details on how the third season will play out, including a little about how the two playable characters will interact:
In [the] first shot, you’ll see Javier and Clementine making their way through a walker-infested slaughterhouse. Remember, you’ll be playing as both characters, although you may not be playing each character within the same frame of time…
Lenart also discussed the importance of playing as Javier, and how the team was able to create a character without any prior relationship with Clementine. This will provide an interesting opportunity for players to meet a character they may have helped shape. They’ll also have a chance to play as a survivor fresh to the series, who is currently struggling to keep his family together in the face of the undead apocalypse.
The panelists also discussed the story structure for Season 3 and how it’ll morph depending upon if players are new to the series versus those who have imported their choices from Season 1 and Season 2:
Another unique aspect of this third season is that while it absolutely continues the story of the previous two seasons, it also serves as a new entry point for fans who’ve yet to be caught up to speed. Players starting with this third season will be introduced to young survivor AJ, who fans will recognize as the son of Rebecca from Season Two – and we can confirm that he will be making an appearance in this season as well. So players who are new to the series will have a chance to learn more about Clementine’s backstory, while at the same time, those who have played previous seasons will have a story that’s uniquely tailored to the diverging paths they’ve taken in the past.
The first episode from The Walking Dead Season 3 will be released this Fall, but you can find the new poster and screenshots after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Comic-Con 2016, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier