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
Dragon Age: Inquisition wins Game of the Year at 2014 Game Awards
The inaugural Game Awards was held last night in Las Vegas. In between all the major announcements for future releases, Geoff Keighley and crew managed to hand out awards in 16 categories honoring 11 of 2014’s best games.
BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition took home “Game of the Year” honors as well as “Best Role Playing Game.” Three other games took home two awards including Mario Kart 8 (“Best Family Game” and “Best Sports/Racing Game”), Valiant Hearts: The Great War (“Best Narrative” and “Games For Change”), and Destiny (“Best Score/Soundtrack” and “Best Online Experience”).
In addition to Mario Kart 8’s two wins, Nintendo also collected the “Developer of the Year” award and “Best Fighting Game” for Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. The consolemaker’s four wins were matched by Ubisoft who matched Valiant Hearts’ two awards with wins in “Best Shooter” (Far Cry 4) and “Best Performance” (Trey Parker as Various Voices in South Park: The Stick of Truth).
Other winners include Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (“Best Action/Adventure”), Shovel Knight (“Best Independent Game”), Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (“Best Mobile/Handheld”), and Grand Theft Auto V (“Best Remaster”).
The full list of winners in a handy list format (including all the viewer-voted categories) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, Game Awards 2014, Grand Theft Auto V, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Shovel Knight, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Xbox Store Today: Threes, Limbo
Two highly acclaimed indie games make their way to the Xbox One today in Microsoft’s latest Xbox Games Store update.
Threes took the mobile world by storm earlier this year and now the shifty puzzler can be played in glorious high definition on your Xbox One. A massive television screen doesn’t really do much to enhance the playability of Threes, but it surely can’t hurt…
Also available for the Xbox One today is Limbo, Playdead’s haunting monochromatic platformer that was originally released for the Xbox 360 in 2010. Xbox One owners who purchased the system on “Day One” recently received a free copy of Limbo as a thank you from Microsoft.
More information on both of these great games can be found after the break. (more…)
Mysterious “Emagon” trailer is just a Spanish ad for Sony’s 20th Anniversary PS4 console
This is disappointing (although not altogether surprising). Sony Spain’s bizarre “Emagon” trailer is nothing more than a commercial advertising the PSone-themed 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 console.
Sony has a history of creating visually striking and interesting teaser trailers that invariably turn out to be teasing a new marketing campaign. Though this latest reversal was sniffed out earlier than most as “Emagon” is clearly “No Game” written backwards.
But if you happen to live in Spain, the new commercial has plenty of important information if you’re in the market for a 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 console. Sony Spain will auction off the country’s allotment of 350 consoles on three days (December 12, 13, 14) through the Playstation20Aniversario.com website. All proceeds from the auction will go to support UNICEF and Juegaterapia.
Purchasing details for the 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 console in North America will be announced during the PlayStation Experience keynote, which is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 10:00 AM (Pacific Time). PlayStation fans in Canada should keep their eyes peeled to the PlayStation Canada Twitter feed for sales details in Canada.
Only 12,300 individually-numbered 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 consoles will be produced for the entire world.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged PlayStation Experience 2014
Leaked trailer reveals Street Fighter V is coming to PC and PS4
Earlier this Summer, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono confirmed that Street Fighter V was in “the early planning stages” within the walls of Capcom. This morning, Capcom accidentally posted a teaser trailer announcing the game… which is apparently exclusively in development for the PC and PS4. That’s not to say it’ll never be released for the Xbox One, but initially, Street Fighter V will only be available on those two platforms.
Capcom’s original video has since been scrubbed from the Internet, but you can still watch it over at Polygon. It’s likely that the video was meant to make its debut at tonight’s inaugural Game Awards or tomorrow’s opening day of the PlayStation Experience (which has several “To Be Announced” slots penciled in on the schedule). Both events are promising multiple surprise announcements and trailers (though one less now).
Capcom plans to promote the game by asking gamers to “Rise Up” and the trailer heavily plays up the franchise’s connection to the fighting game community. Presumably, we’ll find out exactly what these plans are within the next 24 hours.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
Nintendo Download: Captain Toad, Ultimate NES Remix, Fire Emblem, more
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is ready to search for shiny baubles on the Wii U eShop this week. The isometric action game, which is based off a series of bonus levels from Super Mario 3D World, gets Toad (and Toadette) out into the world in his first starring role.
Toad will be joined on the Wii U eShop this week by Fire Emblem, the Game Boy Advance classic that marked the franchise’s American debut. In other Virtual Console release news, the NES version of Lode Runner is also available to download today.
Over on the 3DS eShop, a trio of new games are now available including Ultimate NES Remix, a portable NES minigame collection. Also new on the digital storefront today is Christmas Wonderland 4, a hidden object game, and Violetta: Rhythm & Music, a music game based on the Disney television series.
More details about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Assassin’s Creed: Victory will be out next year and it’s set in Victorian London
Last year, leaks forced Ubisoft to unveil Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Assassin’s Creed: Rogue a bit earlier than they wanted to. And now it’s happening again.
A rumor report on Kotaku revealed that next Fall’s Assassin’s Creed game, which is in development at Ubisoft Quebec, will be set in Victorian London in the late 1800s. Presumably, that means Jack the Ripper will be outed as a Templar before too long. Currently known as Assassin’s Creed: Victory, the game will add a grappling hook to your Assassin’s arsenal and several other English touches.
Kotaku’s full overview of Victory is definitely worth a read, especially in light of the fact that Ubisoft confirmed to Joystiq that every word of it is true:
It is always unfortunate when internal assets, not intended for public consumption, are leaked. And, while we certainly welcome anticipation for all of our upcoming titles, we’re disappointed for our fans, and our development team, that this conceptual asset is now public. The team in our Quebec studio has been hard at work on the particular game in question for the past few years, and we’re excited to officially unveil what the studio has been working on at a later date. In the meantime, our number one priority is enhancing the experience of Assassin’s Creed Unity for players.
Assassin’s Creed: Victory will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in Fall 2015.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Haden Blackman will lead 2K’s new Hangar 13 studio
Haden Blackman is probably best known as the director and writer of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. After the closure of LucasArts, Blackman bounced around the comics world (he’s currently writing for Elektra) before joining 2K Games in a secret capacity in 2012. Today, the publisher revealed that Blackman has been installed as the Director of Hangar 13, their newest internal studio.
Hangar 13 is working on a “next-generation title” (which means it is most likely in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One) that will allow players to affect the game world in meaningful ways. Yes, I realize that sounds like every open world game ever, but 2K is well known for their support of unique game worlds like those found in Borderlands and BioShock.
“At Hangar 13, our mantra is ‘Every player story is unique,’” said Blackman. “Our ambition is to create next-generation games that allow players to shape their own experiences, from the moment-to-moment gameplay, to the long-term impact on the world, characters and narrative. To realize this goal, we’re building proprietary technology and assembling a core team passionate about delivering mature experiences loaded with meaningful choices.”
Hangar 13 is currently hiring and they are collecting applications at their official website.
Xbox Store Today: The Crew, Game of Thrones Episode 1, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, more
Welcome to this week’s Xbox Game Store update, where Xbox One and Xbox 360 owners will get their first chance to try out these new games:
- The Crew (Xbox One) -, Ubisoft’s multiplayer cross-country racer.
- Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice (Xbox One, Xbox 360) – The first episode (of six) in Telltale’s Game of Thrones adaptation.
- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (Xbox 360) – The online-only medieval melee game makes its way to consoles for the first time.
- Syberia (Xbox 360) – The point-and-click classic comes to HD consoles for the first time.
More details about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series, The Crew