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
Xbox Store Today: Inside, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 7 Days to Die, more
Playdead burst onto the scene back in 2010 with Limbo, a highly-acclaimed puzzle platformer that helped define the genre during the previous generation. Almost six full years later, they’re back with Inside, another dark and moody puzzle platformer, now available to download for the Xbox One. A single cryptic sentence is all that Playdead is willing to share about Inside: “Hunted and alone, a boy finds himself drawn into the center of a dark project.”
Also available to download through the Xbox Games Store this week is Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Xbox One, Xbox 360), the latest Lego adaptation of the space saga. Featuring the vocal talents of Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), and Harrison Ford (Han Solo), players will be able to relive all the action from the film and go beyond it with never-before-seen “New Adventures.”
Finally this week, a pair of zombie games will shamble into view for Xbox One owners. In 7 Days to Die, players will need to craft a shelter to survive the encroaching undead horde. And Capcom is resurrecting Resident Evil 5 for a new generation of players with enhanced graphics and new multiplayer options.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Inside, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Resident Evil 5
Miyamoto: Nintendo hasn’t shared much about the NX because…
Nintendo has been extremely quiet about their upcoming NX console… even moreso than the notoriously tight-lipped company usually is. And though the NX is scheduled to launch in less than nine months, Shigeru Miyamoto explained to the Associated Press that that the reason for all the secrecy is because Nintendo has “an idea”:
“In terms of NX, there’s an idea that we’re working on. That’s why we can’t share anything at this point, and I don’t want to comment on the other companies. If it was just a matter of following advancements in technology, things would be coming out a lot quicker.”
Hopefully, we’ll learn more about Nintendo’s new idea when they reveal more about the NX later this year.
Halo 5’s Warzone Firefight expansion now available; Xbox Live Gold subscribers can play the full game for free through July 5
Halo 5: Guardians is about to get a lot bigger today, as Microsoft has announced the Warzone Firefight expansion is now available to download.
Billed as “the largest content update to-date,” the expansion includes three new multiplayer maps, two new Armors, the Halo 2 Beam Rifle, customization options (including HCS Pro League Skins), a Score Attack Mode for the campaign, a new Forge Canvas, a new UNSC Air Vehicle, a “hilarious” new Warzone boss and of course, and the Warzone Firefight PvE game mode.
If you’ve skipped over Halo 5: Guardians since its launch last October, Microsoft is offering a free trial of the full game (including the campaign and all multiplayer modes) to Xbox Live Gold subscribers from now through July 5. Xbox One owners who enjoy the free trial will also get the chance to purchase Halo 5: Guardians at a huge discount this week through the Xbox Games Store.
More information on all aspects of the Warzone Firefight expansion can be found at the Halo Waypoint.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Halo 5: Guardians
Lego Star Wars: Force Awakens, Star Ocean 5, 7 Days to Die, more added to PS Store
The PlayStation Store received a big update this week, so let’s dive right in…
We start things off with Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (PS4, PS3, Vita), a Lego-ized adaptation of last year’s blockbuster continuation of the Star Wars saga. Players will be able to take control of Han, Chewie, Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and many others as they recreate the film and go on “New Adventures” inspired by the Expanded Universe.
A second space adventure is available to PS4 owners this week as Square Enix has released Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness. It’s the fifth entry in the long-running Star Ocean series, and development on the RPG was once again handled by Tri-Ace.
Players looking for something a bit more earthboind will be able to download 7 Days to Die (PS4), a “survival crafting” game that asks players to build a shelter and survive for as long as they can against a rampaging zombie horde. The similarly-themed Resident Evil 5 is a PS4 remake of the zombie franchise’s first co-op adventure with improved graphics and new multiplayer options.
Speaking of remakes, God Eater Resurrection is an enhanced remake of 2011’s Gods Eater Burst, and it brings the monster-hunting franchise to the PS4 and Vita for the first time.
Vita owners will have a few more choices this week thanks to the release of Zero Time Dilemma, the trilogy-capping third entry in the Zero Escape series. It’s joined on the PlayStation Store this week by the surprise release of Adventures of Mana, which is a remake of 1991’s Final Fantasy Adventure.
More information on all of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. And don’t forget to head over to the PlayStation Blog for a rundown of new game add-ons and discounts. (more…)
CoD: Black Ops III Descent DLC Pack includes four multiplayer maps, zombies, dragons
Treyarch is back with another expansion pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The Descent DLC Pack will be available to download for the PS4 on July 12 and, as always, it’ll contain four multiplayer maps and a new Zombies episode.
Descent’s multiplayer maps will feature a favorite from Black Ops II, an isolated lab, a Viking village, and a modern-day coliseum:
- Empire: Treyarch adapts its Black Ops III movement system to the Call of Duty: Black Ops II fan favorite map Raid. The re-imagining of this classic, medium-sized map features an authentic Roman villa that has been “recreated by a modern-day eccentric billionaire,” where a classic map structure mixes with the new gameplay mechanics of Black Ops III.
- Cryogen: Located far off the coast in the Dead Sea, an isolated compound holds some of the world’s most dangerous criminals in frozen isolation. Sentry towers keep watch over the small map’s circular design as frenetic combat is funneled around the prison’s cryogenic tubes, where opportunities for wall running attacks abound.
- Berserk: Ancient sentinels from a lost civilization guard the entrance to Berserk, a Viking village frozen in time. Players will fight through blizzards, and control the center bridge as they navigate this medium-sized map’s wooden buildings, deadly rocky outcroppings, and tight chokepoints.
- Rumble: Gamers battle amongst larger-than-life mechanized warriors in Rumble, a stadium where giant robots battle to the roar of the crowd. This medium-sized map funnels high-speed combat to the central arena, where players battle their way through fallen mechs and pyrotechnics.
But things really get crazy when you dig into the new Zombies Mode map, “Gorod Krovi.” Not only will players be forced to push back an assault from a “mechanized zombie infantry,” but they’ll also have to watch out for flying fireballs from a squadron of dragons:
Descent also thrusts players to an alternate universe of Nikolai’s motherland, the 1940s Soviet Union, in the next highly-anticipated chapter of the Origins Zombies saga, Gorod Krovi. Players face-off against a swarm of mechanized zombie infantry and dodge hell-fire from aerial dragon assaults, all in the middle of a raging battle within the remnants of Stalingrad. Gorod Krovi delivers the most exciting Zombies experience yet, filled with horrifying new enemies, exciting new gameplay mechanics and an epic set of Zombie annihilating weapons.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s Descent DLC Pack will also be available to download for the PC and Xbox One sometime in August.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Han and Chewie finally star in a Lego Star Wars: Force Awakens Character Trailer
As expected, WB Games saved the best for last and released one more Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Character Trailer today, this time focusing on Han Solo and Chewbacca. There’s probably no deeper meaning behind a scene showing everyone’s favorite smuggler picking off a pair of Stormtroopers with a blaster, but it sure does look cool, doesn’t it?
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens is available today for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Tumblestone and its multiplayer action-puzzle magic will launch on July 12
If you’re old enough to remember the 90s heyday of multiplayer “action-puzzle” games, then Tumblestone should be on your radar. A match-3 puzzle game similar to Bust-A-Move, Tumblestone was by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, and it’ll be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One on July 12. Best of all, if you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you’ll be to download it for free as part of the Games With Gold program.
Tumblestone will include a massive Story Mode, online and local multiplayer modes, a trio of arcade-style modes, and a Quest Mode with hundreds of unique Quests to complete.
And be sure to watch Tumblestone’s “Cinematic” Trailer, it’s embedded above and absurdly fun. Though it doesn’t look so crazy when you compare it to the PAX East “Reactions” trailer, which is available after the break.
Batman: Return to Arkham has been indefinitely delayed by WB Games
I guess Batman wasn’t prepared for this one…
WB Games has announced that Batman: Return to Arkham, a remastered compilation of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City for the PS4 and Xbox One, will miss it’s originally scheduled July 26 release date. Steve Grayson, one of WB’s community moderators, delivered the bad news on the game’s official forum by citing concerns about the quality of the game as it exists right now:
After reviewing the progress of the project, the team at WB Games has decided to delay the release of Batman: Return to Arkham to give the team at [Virtuos] Games additional time to deliver a polished Batman Arkham game experience.
Even though Return to Arkham was announced just five weeks ago, Grayson also revealed that WB Games isn’t ready to commit to a new release date just yet:
We do not have a release date yet and will be sure to communicate that once we are sure the game will be ready. We know this is disappointing news, but we feel the extra time will allow the team to create the best gaming experience for our fans.
On a slightly different Bat-Channel, Telltale recently announced they expect to launch all five episodes in their Batman series by the end of the year.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City