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: Minecraft Story Mode, Wasteland 2, Back to the Future, more
Great Scott! This week’s Xbox Games Store update is taking a trip into the past while also giving us a glimpse at the future of gaming.
The original Wasteland is one of gaming’s watershed moments. Originally released in 1988, Wasteland billed itself as “the original post-apocalyptic strategy RPG” after it inspired the release of Fallout. Now, 27 years later, original developer Brian Fargo has returned to one of his signature creations with the release of Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut on the Xbox One.
But you can’t look back on the past without an assist from Doc Brown… and Telltale agrees. In honor of the film’s 30th anniversary, they’ve re-released Back to the Future: The Game in a special 30th Anniversary Edition on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. And speaking of Telltale, the developer also partnered with Mojang to release Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 1: The Order of the Stone for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 this week. Minecraft has often been called “the future of video games,” and it’s hard to argue with that kind of statement. Who knows what the actual future of gaming will hold, but I do know one thing… where we’re going, we don’t need roads.
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 Minecraft: Story Mode, Wasteland 2
Here’s a new Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water trailer before its October 22 launch
Nintendo is all set to release Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water for the Wii U next week, but first they want to scare the pants off any prospective players with this “Extremely Spoopy” new trailer.
Maiden of the Black Water takes place on Mount Hikami, a fictional forest that’s based on Aokigahara, a Japanese region that is more popularly known as “Suicide Forest.” The creepy and terrifying woods look to be the perfect locale for the horror game, and the trailer doesn’t skimp on the scares. And things really get crazy once the heroine is given the Camera Obscura, which illuminates the spirits that haunt the mountain.
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water will be available to download exclusively through the Wii U eShop on October 22. A full-featured “Free To Start” demo will also be released on the same day.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Fatal Frame 5
Dragon Quest Heroes, Minecraft: Story Mode, Wasteland 2, more added to PS Store
Fans of epic stories will find a lot to like in this week’s PlayStation Store update.
First up, Square Enix and Koei Tecmo have teamed up to create Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below (PS4), a Warriors-style game that’s based on the popular Dragon Quest franchise and features the beloved monster designs of Akira Toriyama.
Also available this week is the first episode of Minecraft: Story Mode (PS4, PS3), Telltale’s recent collaboration with Mojang. Combining Minecraft’s distinctive visual style with an original story and an accomplished voice cast, Episode 1: The Order of the Stone should ensnare fans of Minecraft as well as Telltale’s patented brand of adventure gaming.
Finally this week, Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut (PS4) is a strategy RPG that’s also a direct sequel to the 1988 game that served as the inspiration for the Fallout franchise. That’s like a double dose of epic.
More information on all of these games (and the rest of this week’s new releases) can be found after the break. And, as always, a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Dragon Quest Heroes, Minecraft: Story Mode, Wasteland 2
Watch the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses performance from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert right here
Nintendo’s promotional push for The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes began last night with an appearance by the Symphony of the Goddesses orchestra on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. In addition to performing music from the upcoming 3DS title, the orchestra ripped through a medley of music from the entire series including The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.
The producers even transformed Colbert’s famous “stained glass” ceiling into a fresco depicting Link and Zelda over the years. “Rejoice, nerds! This is the music that awaits you in heaven,” Colbert added when a video of the performance was uploaded to YouTube.
The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes will be released for the 3DS on October 23.
Posted in 3DS, Etcetera, News, Retro
Tagged The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Gun Media resurrects Summer Camp as Friday the 13th: The Game
Absolutely nothing can kill Jason Voorhees. In fact, not even a starring role in a terrible NES game from 1989 can keep the machete-wielding monster down. So it should come as no surprise that Gun Media has announced a brand new Friday the 13th game, which is slated to be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in October 2016.
Friday the 13th: The Game is actually an expanded and reworked version of Gun Media’s previously announced horror game, Summer Camp. Friday the 13th creator Sean S. Cunningham offered the license to the developer (and stealth announced it) earlier this year after Gun Media secured the services of special effects wizard Tom Savini, composer Harry Manfredini, and stuntman Kane Hodder. Now, the developer and their who’s who of horror have turned to Kickstarter to help fund the most authentic Friday the 13th game possible.
Gun Media isn’t “starting from scratch” and a lot of what made Summer Camp interesting will also be present in Friday the 13th. The game is being designed as a 7v1 asymmetrical multiplayer title. Up to seven players will be able to control the counselors, each of which has their own personality and special abilities. But one player will be able to slip into the hockey mask of Jason Voorhees and stalk these teens throughout a semi-open world version of Camp Crystal Lake. A single-player campaign where players can control either Jason or the counselors in scenarios based on scenes from the classic film series will also be included.
A lot more information on exactly how Friday the 13th will work is available on the Kickstarter page. Gun Media is seeking $700,000 to fund the game, and as of this writing, they’ve already received pledges totaling $111,000.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th
Allison Road’s Kickstarter campaign canceled after developer signs contract with Team17
Allison Road, a terrifying first-person trip through a haunted house, was originally created as a hobby project by developer Chris Kesler. After a strong reply from the gaming community (and many comparisons to Hideo Kojima’s PT/Silent Hills), Kesler announced his intentions to build a team and release Allison Road as a full game.
Kesler’s team, Lilith, launched a Kickstarter campaign on September 21 to help fund the game’s ongoing development. But here we are three weeks later and the team is ready to deliver some good news… they’re canceling the campaign! In a Kickstarter Update posted yesterday, the developer revealed that they’ve signed a publishing agreement with Team17. The UK-based publishing label will provide Lilith with funding and development support, as well as giving Kesler and his team every opportunity to make Allison Road the best game it can be.
With a publisher in place, Lilith plans to “go quiet for a while,” but we’ll surely hear more about Allison Road before its late 2016 release on the PC.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Allison Road
Treyarch delivers a thick coat of pulpy noir in this prologue to CoD: Black Ops III Zombies
The hardboiled detectives and wicked dames of noir fiction have lead to the genre’s continued popularity for more than 90 years. And why not? Noir films and books all feature bad people doing bad deeds before meeting a bad end… which makes it the perfect environment for an undead uprising.
Treyarch came to the same conclusion when developing Call of Duty: Black Ops III as the franchise’s famed Zombies Mode will flashback to the 1940s in “Shadows of Evil,” a morally ambiguous tale of good and evil that stars Jeff Goldblum (as The Magician), Heather Graham (as The Femme Fatale), Ron Perlman (as The Boxer), and Neal McDonough (as The Cop). The developer recently screened the co-op mode’s prologue at the New York Comic-Con, and yesterday, they released it for public consumption. Film noir fans will enjoy the period touches, but like I said, these are bad people people who’ve done bad deeds. Can you keep them from a bad end?
Be sure to watch the prologue again and let’s all find out together when Call of Duty: Black Ops III is released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 6.
EA is offering a Season Pass (with four expansions) for Star Wars: Battlefront
Star Wars: Battlefront will be released on November 17 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. But if you want to take part in even more battles from that far away galaxy, you’ll have to pony up for the game’s Season Pass, which is now available for pre-order.
Electronic Arts has announced (via the game’s official website) that the Star Wars: Battlefront Season Pass will include four expansions and an exclusive “Shoot First” emote. Players who purchase the Season Pass will also receive access to the expansions two weeks before the rest of the world.
Priced at $49.99, the publisher has said that we’ll learn more about the Star Wars: Battlefront Season Pass “in the coming weeks,” so I’d keep your wallet tightly closed until we find out some real details about these four expansions.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront