Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
Insert Quarter: The PlayStation’s Face Buttons Explained At Last
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Have you ever wondered why PlayStation controllers use X-Circle-Square-Triangle for the face buttons instead of the more traditional B-A-Y-X that Nintendo has employed since the Super NES days or the mirrored A-B-X-Y that Microsoft overlaid on the Xbox controllers? It’s OK, it’s kept me up at night too. Why? Why? Why?
Thankfully, Kill Screen’s David Shimomura went looking for an answer and he found one by talking to Teiyu Goto, the developer who originally designed the PlayStation controller for Sony back in the mid 90s. Goto revealed that he named the face buttons what he did in a nod to symbolism and semiotics. However, American and European players didn’t have the same connection to Goto’s symbols as a Japanese player would and it caused all sorts of friction within Sony:
Goto wanted to be memorable but he also wanted to make sense, at least in his own mind. “I gave each symbol a meaning and a color,” he states in the same interview. “The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink.” So far so good, sort of. The triangle is reminiscent of an arrow or a direction. It has directionality to it and, even though it’s equilateral, it must point somewhere. The square is a little looser but the connection between a page and the square are strong, at least for Goto. One can construe it as a box and use it for inventory or some other kind of menus. But then things got weird.
The full article is available for your perusal at Kill Screen.
Weekly Warp-Up: Everything is Mature Edition
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…
The big “M For Mature” floated over the video game industry in a big way this week, especially after it was revealed that Batman: Arkham Knight had been given a Mature rating by the ESRB. Aside from the underrated “Uncaged Edition” of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Askham Knight will become one of the few M-rated games based on a mainstream comics character.
In other news, we got major updates on the two franchises that folks think of first when they think of the Mature rating. Rockstar informed the world that Grand Theft Auto V has been delayed on the PC once more, but that Heists Mode will be available on March 10. And over in Mortal Kombat land, NetherRealm Studios pulled back the curtain on an epic Mortal Kombat X Story Trailer, revealing a ton of new (and returning) characters in the process.
In a de-maturing, 8-Bit Cinema published a new short this week of one of the world’s greatest R-rated movies. If you ever wanted to see Al Pacino’s Tony Montana as a pixelated brawler, I highly recommend giving 8-Bit Scarface a watch.
And finally, it’s very possible that if Netflix and Nintendo move forward with their Legend of Zelda television show, it’ll take place in a “grim and gritty” world. So our own Andrew Rainnie cataloged 10 Actors We Think Could Play Link in The Legend of Zelda TV Series if the show were to go in that direction.
Hit the jump for more news from the week that was (most of it is even all ages appropriate). (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: ScreamRide
You’re going to feel a bit lonely if you head out to your local game shop this week in search of new releases. Microsoft’s ScreamRide, which will be released for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 is the only new game receiving a retail release this week.
ScreamRide is a roller coaster construction that was developed by Frontier Developments. If you recall, Frontier is also the team behind the popular RollerCoaster Tycoon series as well as the later Thrillville. If anybody could be called experts in the rather niche “roller coaster construction simulator” genre, it’s Frontier Developments.
If ScreamRide isn’t your thing, don’t worry, there are plenty of downloadable games planned for a digital release this week including the start of Sony’s Spring Fever promotion.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged ScreamRide
Xbox Store Today: Pneuma: Breath of Life
Are you ready to get philosophical at the end of your Friday? I hope so because Deco Digital and Bevel Studios have added Pneuma: Breath of Life, their first-person puzzler that explores “the fundamental nature of being” is now available to download for the Xbox One from the Xbox Games Store. You can check out the launch trailer or you can read a deeper explanation of Pneuma direct from the developer:
Pneuma: Breath of Life ($19.99)
Pneuma provides players with a sense of awe and a relentless determination to solve every puzzle and progress through a narrated story of self-discovery, exploring the fundamental nature of being. This is the first person puzzler of 2015 which is designed to force players think outside the box and explore beyond what they know as reality. This game isn’t about your skill with a controller, it’s about how you perceive and analyse situations. Push your brain to its limits in this exciting new first person puzzler as Pneuma contemplates the nature of reality and you explore the ontological mystery of the Breath of Life.
The Simpsons Skin Pack now available for Minecraft on Xbox One, Xbox 360
Are you ready to rasta-fy your Minecraft experience by 10%? Microsoft has announced that “Simpsons Skin Pack” is now available to download through Minecraft: Xbox One Edition and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. The pack includes the five members of the immediate Simpson family (apologies to Grandpa Simpson) and 19 characters you’ll often find roaming the halls of Springfield Elementary School.
The full list of characters included in the “Simpsons Skin Pack” can be found right here:
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You’d think that going for the “Sherri, but not Terri” joke would be pretty obvious. And yet, there they both are at the bottom of the list.
Sony’s Spring Fever 2015 includes Hotline Miami 2, Shovel Knight, Titan Souls, five more
This Winter has been absolutely brutal for people all across the United States, but Sony wants to remind us that Spring is almost here with their announcement of a double-size Spring Fever promotion. Beginning March 3 (take that, Punxsutawney Phil!), the promotion will run for eight weeks and include some of the most anticipated PlayStation Store releases across the PS3, PS4, and Vita.
Helldivers, a top-down shooter for the PS3, PS4, and Vita, will kick things off on Tuesday and the whole thing will wrap up on April 21 with Shovel Knight‘s PS3/PS4/Vita debut. In between, gamers will get a chance to test out six more great titles (and PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive a 10% discount on each game during its launch week):
- 3/3 – Helldivers (PS4/PS3/PS Vita Cross-Buy)
- 3/10 – Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PS4/PS3/PS Vita Cross-Buy)
- 3/17 – Jamestown Plus (PS4)
- 3/24 – Metal Slug 3 (PS4/PS3/PS Vita Cross-Buy)
- 3/31 – Axiom Verge (PS4)
- 4/7 – Bastion (PS4)
- 4/14 – Titan Souls (PS4/PS Vita Cross-Buy)
- 4/21 – Shovel Knight (PS4/PS3/PS Vita Cross-Buy)
Bastion and Axiom Verge will also launch for the PS Vita at some future date. As with the other Spring Fever releases, both will be Cross-Buy compatible.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Axiom Verge, Bastion, Helldivers, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Jamestown, Shovel Knight, Titan Souls
Mortal Kombat X adds Mileena and three entirely original characters in new Story Trailer
The Mortal Kombat franchise has always included an extensive backstory that chronicles a mythology involving hundreds of characters and stretching back several millennia. This April’s Mortal Kombat X will push the plot 25 years into the future as Mileena attempts to control Outworld in the aftermath of Shao Kahn’s defeat.
Previously, NetherRealm Studios said that this flash-forward would involve the offspring of several Mortal Kombat favorites including Cassie Cage, the daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade. In this new “Story Trailer,” we’ve learned that Cassie will lead a new generation of heroes against the forces of evil. This new generation, who will be mentored by the older generation, includes Jacqueline Briggs (the daughter of Jax), Takashi Takeda (the son of Kenshi), and Kung Jin (a descendant of Kung Lao). With the story in place, as you might have guessed, Mileena has also been confirmed as a playable character.
I’d definitely recommend watching the trailer more than once as its chock-full of little details like blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos from Sindel, Rain, and Shinnok as well as an unmasked (and human) Scorpion. At this time, it’s unknown if any of these kombatants will be added to Mortal Kombat X as playable characters.
Yesterday, NetherRealm released a separate Mortal Kombat X trailer confirming Brutalities, so be sure to check that out as well.
NetherRealm is adding “more than 100” Brutalities to Mortal Kombat X
As part of today’s “Kombat Kast,” NetherRealm Studios has confirmed that Mortal Kombat X will feature the return of Brutalities, the ultra-bloody finishers that were first included in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. However, unlike the extra-long mega-combos of old, these Brutalities more closely resemble the classic Fatalities found in the first three Mortal Kombat games. More than 100 Brutalities will be included in Mortal Kombat X, so expect each character to have at least two-to-three different ways to dispatch their opponent.
If you’re interested in learning how Brutalities work in Mortal Kombat X, I recommend watching the “Kombat Kast” above. But if you’d rather skip straight to the blood and guts, GameSpot has taken every Brutality shown during the “Kombat Kast” and re-edited them into a concise three-minute trailer.
Mortal Kombat X will be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 14. And expect the next character reveal, which might be Johnny Cage, to happen tomorrow.