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
Get funky with the first concept art from ToeJam & Earl 4
In 2013, Greg Johnson and HumaNature Studios released the bizarre and colorful Doki-Doki Universe on all three PlayStation platforms. An outside-the-box game like Doki-Doki Universe isn’t exactly new territory for Johnson, as he was also the mad genius behind 1991’s ToeJam & Earl on the Sega Genesis. Johnson revisited the extraterrestrial duo in two sequels (1993’s Panic on Funkotron and 2002’s Mission to Earth) and it looks like he’s set to return to his funky roots once more as the developer confirmed that ToeJam & Earl 4 is currently in development.
A more formal announcement will “probably” be made in “three or four weeks,” but for now, head on over to Facebook for a sneak peek at some early concept art.
Posted in News
Tagged ToeJam & Earl 4
Asher Vollmer’s Close Castles is on hold because it’s not very enjoyable
You might not know Asher Vollmer’s name, but you certainly know his work. Vollmer was one-third of Sirvo, the impromptu development team behind the mobile blockbuster Threes. More recently, Vollmer has been working on Close Castles, a real-time strategy game for the PS4 that he says is for people who hate real-time strategy games. But right now it looks like it’s not for anybody as Vollmer has confirmed (via Twitter) that the development of Close Castles is currently on hold.
Close Castles has been set aside for now because Vollmer believes that the game isn’t very enjoyable in its current state. The developer further states that he’s “designed [himself] into a corner” and that he’ll have to “overhaul the game” before he can release it to bring it up to his standards.
In the meantime, Vollmer has begun work on a brand new mobile game that he’s not ready to talk about yet. Hopefully we’ll learn more about it (and the future of Close Castles) soon.
Posted in Mobile, News, PS4
Tagged Close Castles
Evolve’s “Ready Or Not” live-action trailer is a big game of hide-and-seek
With Evolve‘s launch less than a week away, 2K Games has released the practically de rigueur live-action trailer for the game. Titled “Ready Or Not,” the trailer drops five teenagers into the largest game of hide-and-seek you’ve ever seen. Tack on a haunting vocal track (in this case, “Ready Or Not” by Scala and Kolacny Brothers, a Belgian women’s choir) and you’ve got yourself a trailer. Still, it’s a pretty impressive piece of footage and it definitely evokes the mood that Turtle Rock is striving for with Evolve.
Evolve will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 10.
Kane “Jason Voorhees” Hodder will portray the killer in Summer Camp
Kane Hodder wasn’t the first stuntman to play Jason Voorhees, nor was he the most recent. But he has donned the iconic hockey mask more times than anyone else, and many fans consider him the definitive Jason. So, naturally, he was one of the first people approached by Gun Media when they were looking for an actor to portray the killer in Summer Camp, their video game homage to the Friday the 13th film series.
Hodder will be joined by other icons from the Friday the 13th franchise including Tom Savini and Harry Manfredini. Savini will bring his skills as the Special Effects Supervisor on Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter to his role as a consultant to the development team. Manfredini, who created the “Ch Ch, Ch, Chhh, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ahhh” sound effect, will score the game’s soundtrack.
Summer Camp is currently without a release date, but it’ll be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One when it’s ready.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th
Xbox Store Today: Game of Thrones: The Lost Lords, Risk, SpongeBob HeroPants
A trio of new games now call the Xbox Games Store home and you can download them through your Xbox One or Xbox 360 now.
Leading the way is Game of Thrones: The Lost Lords (Xbox One, Xbox 360), Telltale’s second episode in their six-part Game of Thrones adaptation. Expect a “maelstrom of bloody warfare, revenge, intrigue, and horror” as you navigate House Forrester through the War of the Five Kings.
Also available today is Risk, an Xbox One adaptation of the game of “Global Domination,” and SpongeBob HeroPants, an Xbox 360 tie-in game based on the upcoming film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series
CoD: Advanced Warfare Havoc Pack will be released for PC, PS3, PS4 on February 26
Activision has announced that the Havoc DLC Pack will be released for PC, PS3, and PS4 owners of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on February 26. The Havoc DLC Pack will include four new competitive maps as well as the first episode of the cooperative Exo Zombies mode. In case you missed it, here’s what you can expect from Havoc’s four competitive maps:
Core: Deploy to the Gobi desert where the ravaged ruins of a nuclear fusion plant set the stage for a high-octane warzone. Take down enemies through the wreckage in long-range combat or get up-close and personal in the tunnels surrounding the central turbine. Activate decontamination drones using the map-based scorestreak to help clean out the competition.
Urban: Prepare yourself for brutal, high-speed combat in Dallas Ward 3, a future mega structure, funneling players into a close-quarters free-for-all. This modular compound’s verticality unleashes the exoskeleton’s capabilities. Stay focused during the timed event as blast doors alter the map’s flow and sightlines.
Sideshow: In the shadow of Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, this abandoned inn’s open layout amplifies its creep factor. Blast your way through the clown inn with close-quarters battles or use long-range site-lines from the mining facilities and natural terrain. Use the map-based scorestreak to activate the lights, music, and magic of the clown marquee and rain down a barrage of rainbow smoke-trailed cannonballs.
Drift: An idyllic ski resort high in the Rocky Mountains is transformed into a festive high-altitude playground, perfect for an all-out firefight. Make your way to the highly contested over watch in the glass observation deck or take a ride on the carousel to deliver 360 degrees of carnage. Players can use the map-altering timed event to their advantage as an avalanche of snow and debris disorients players, intensifying the battle.
The Havoc DLC Pack will be priced at $14.99 on the PC, PS3, and PS4. It’s also part of the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Season Pass, which will include access to all four DLC Packs for $49.99.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
2K Tidbits: Borderlands 3 only on PS4/Xbox One, GTA5 ships 45 million, Battleborn still on track for late 2015/early 2016 launch
Take-Two Interactive held their quarterly financial presentation yesterday and it looks the publisher is in a better position than ever before. In addition to reporting “strong financial results” for the quarter, Take-Two raised their yearly fiscal forecast due to the pending release of Evolve, Grand Theft Auto V on the PC, and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection.
Speaking of Grand Theft Auto V, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick announced that the company has shipped more than 45 million copies of the game to stores since its release last year, including more than ten million copies of the remastered PS4/Xbox One edition.
Zelnick didn’t discuss Rockstar’s future during the presentation or the question-and-answer period that followed, but he did say that Take-Two doesn’t believe in annualizing their big franchises. Specifically, he said, “[W]e think big tentpole releases should not be annualized except for sports titles because we think it’s valuable to build anticipation and because it takes some time to make the highest quality products in the business.”
To that end, Take-Two’s President, Karl Slatoff, reconfirmed that Borderlands 3 is in development at Gearbox. According to Slatoff, the game currently has no release date and it is being developed “specifically for next-gen consoles.” With the PS4 and Xbox One launching in 2013, this probably shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
However, one thing we do know about Gearbox is that their team-based shooter, Battleborn, is still on track for a “Fiscal 2016” release. That means it’ll launch sometime between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016… but it’s safe to assume that a late 2015/early 2016 release is much more likely.
Finally, Slatoff revealed that the publisher has numerous unannounced games in development. More details about those games will be released over the course of the year.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Battleborn, Borderlands 3, Grand Theft Auto V
Lego Jurassic World teaser trailer promises June 2015 release date
WB Games has unveiled a teaser trailer for Lego Jurassic World and it includes everything you could ever want from the intersection of Legos and dinosaurs. There’s a recreation of the famous water glass scene, funny dinosaurs, and a short-armed Tyrannosaurus gag. We’ve also learned that players will be able to play as a Lego dinosaur to (presumably) terrorize patrons of the park.
“As ardent fans of Universal’s Jurassic Park films, we are thrilled with the opportunity to finally bring Lego dinosaurs to life for the first time in a videogame in Lego Jurassic World,” said Tom Stone, the Managing Director at TT Games. “Imagine playing as the ominous Lego T. Rex, roaming the grounds of Isla Nublar, smashing Lego bricks and battling with other dinosaurs… this game is bound to bring out the kid in all of us.”
Lego Jurassic World will be released this June for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.