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
The Crew, Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice, Secret Ponchos, more added to PS Store
Even the PlayStation Store slows down in December as Sony has added eight new titles to their digital storefront.
Leading the way is Ubisoft’s coast-to-coast racer, The Crew (PS4), which is available in both a standard edition and a “Gold Edition.” Also available this week is the first episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones (PS4) adaptation, Iron From Ice. Both games are joined by Secret Ponchos (PS4), Switchblade Monkeys’ Old West arena shooter (which is free for PlayStation Plus subscribers).
More information about all three of these games (as well as a few other new releases) can be found after the break. And as always, a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series, Secret Ponchos, The Crew
Insert Quarter: Unreleased Games and the People Who Trade Them
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Unreleased games will always be of interest to gamers. Who among us wouldn’t be interested in Nintendo’s 64DD version of Mother 3 or Free Radical’s late, lamented Star Wars: Battlefront 3. But these games have managed to live on thanks to a shadowy network of collectors and archivists who trade and preserve the neglected pieces of gaming history. Kotaku UK’s Leon Hurley sought out some of these amateur historians to get the complete story on the trading of unreleased games:
You’ve probably seen videos of unannounced or cancelled games. Not necessarily the older retro stuff, but more recent things like Star Wars Battlefront 3 or Stranglehold 2. Did you know there’s a keen, and occasionally zealous, culture of collectors and traders passing these things around?
[…]
There are many levels to all this. Some simply collect and play the games, others code and and hack, extracting fresh info from old files or reinstating missing features. There’s even a community quite happily extracting and modding Halo maps. For others it’s about preserving the often transient world of video game history.
The full article is available at Kotaku UK.
Peggle Blast launches on mobile devices today
Electronic Arts has announced that Peggle Blast, the first Peggle game built exclusively for mobile devices, is now available to download from the iTunes App Store and the Google Play store. In addition to a brand new vertical screen orientation, Peggle Blast will add a handful of new features to the franchise’s formula. At least, that’s the line that the EA Blog is selling:
1. Ready, Aim, Pop!: Easy to learn, fun to master – each level challenges you to clear all the orange pegs, rack up bonus points, and hit style shots. Earn at least one star on each round to progress to the next level.
2. Meet the Masters: In Peggle Blast, you progress through the magical Peggle world, meeting new Peggle masters along the way. Old favorites like Bjorn the Unicorn join a whole new cast of playful masters including Kablooey the Peacock and Pearl the Octopus, who are here to help you aim for greatness!
3. Devious New Challenges: Gooped pegs, time bombs, and Gnomes are all-new challenges in Peggle Blast! You’ll have to learn new techniques to overcome these obstacles.
4. Explosive Boosts: Brand-new boosts give players even more ways to spread joy – from the Egg Net and Ring of Fire, to Extra Balls and the Super Guide, peg-blasters have never had so many options!
5. Anytime, Anywhere: Peggle Blast is the first Peggle game built from the ground up for mobile. Whether you’re looking for an intense marathon session on your couch or a quick hit of fun while standing in line, it’s never been easier to get Peggleicious!
That said, it won’t cost anything to buy into their ideas as Peggle Blast has been released as a free-to-play game. But if you need additional convincing, you can find the game’s launch trailer after the break. (more…)
First episode of Resident Evil Revelations 2 will launch on February 17
Capcom has released a new trailer for Resident Evil Revelations 2 that gives us our first look at the game’s second playable character (former STARS officer Barry Burton) and its release date. Or rather, release dates, as Revelations 2 will be released episodically before getting a retail disc compilation:
He’s back! Fan favorite and classic STARS member Barry Burton will be returning in Resident Evil Revelations 2. Headed for the remote prison island in search of his missing daughter, Moira Burton, Barry meets brand new character Natalia Korda, a little girl who has a strange power that allows her to sense enemies and hidden items. Using this skill alongside Barry’s proven combat abilities, players will need to alternate between the two to survive the mysterious island and find Moira.
The first episode will be available on February 17, 2015 for PS3 and PS4 owners in America. PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One owners (as well as PlayStation users in Europe) will get it a day later. Four episodes will be released in total with a new episode scheduled to launch every week thereafter until March 10. Each episode has been priced at $5.99 apiece, but a Complete Season pass will also be available for $24.99.
The Complete Season pass includes all four main episodes as well as two spinoff episodes focusing on Barry Burton’s daughter Moira Burton and the mysterious Natalia Korda. Everybody’s favorite Umbrella employee, Hunk, will also be included in the game’s Raid Mode. If you opt for the retail disc version, you’ll receive all that as well as four alternate costumes, the option to play as Albert Wesker in Raid Mode, and the Raid More Throwback Stage Pack.
Not surprisingly, the retail disc version will be released on March 10 as well.
Threes creator will bring Close Castles to PS4 in 2015
Asher Vollmer, the creator of the mobile game sensation Threes, has announced that his next game, Close Castles, will be released for the PS4 in 2015. According to the developer, Close Castles is a real-time strategy game for people who hate real-time strategy games:
The premise of Close Castles is simple: You and your greatest rival have built your castles WAY too close to each other. Your job is to build up your kingdom (despite the cramped quarters) while simultaneously sending out your loyal citizens to tear down the enemy’s vulnerable castle. We plan to have an amazing, harrowing story that somehow justifies the fact that all these castles were built in such proximity.
You can read a bit more about how to play Close Castles (as well as Vollmer’s deep-seated hatred for RTSs) at the PlayStation Blog. And if you plan to attend the PlayStation Experience this weekend in Las Vegas, you’ll be able to play Close Castles for yourself.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Close Castles, PlayStation Experience 2014
Double Fine delays Broken Age Act 2 into early 2015
Double Fine Productions had hoped to release the second half of Broken Age by the end of the year. But according to a post on the company’s official forums by Greg Rice, the game won’t be ready until early 2015:
The goal now is to get all the finale work done so we can hit Alpha on all of Act 2 by the end of the year. That means, as you may have guessed based on recent updates and documentary episodes, the Act 2 ship that will deliver the complete adventure is now looking like it will be early next year. The game is looking really good and the team is working super fast, but we just gotta give the game the time it needs to really deliver on everything we’re hoping it will be.
Broken Age’s first act was released in January and we liked it quite a bit.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Broken Age
Weekly Warp-Up: Thanksgiving Hangover 2014 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…
It was another slow week for game news, but not for Ubisoft and they’re continued problems with Assassin’s Creed: Unity. The publisher just released a third patch in an attempt to fix some of the game’s nagging issues, but it doesn’t appear to be enough. While they continue to tinker with the game, they’ve decided to give away “Dead Kings,” the game’s planned downloadable expansion.
On a more positive note, our monthly Kickstart This! column, focusing on interesting Kickstarter projects, has become our weekly Kickstart This! column. In our first weekly installment, we take a look at Hollow Knight, Skies, and That Dragon Cancer.
You can find more news from this week after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, The Crew, Kingdom Hearts 2.5 ReMix, More
Welcome to December, ladies and gentlemen! On the average, December is a month that doesn’t see many new releases, but 2014 appears to be different. Six major releases will be available in stores this week, which is extremely atypical for the the first week of the final month of the year.
We start things off with the delightful and adorable Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for the Wii U. Based on the Captain Toad sections found in last year’s Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo may have outdone themselves with their latest attempt to cram a ton of cuteness into a game while keeping the gameplay appropriate for all ages. Yup, I thinkl Toad in an archaeologist costume searching for lost treasure means we’ve finally reached “Maximum Nintendo.”
Next up is Ubisoft’s cross-country racer The Crew. Available for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360, Ubisoft held several beta tests to ensure that The Crew’s online modes work like a charm. Also available this week is Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix, a new Kingdom Hearts compilation for the PS3.
Speaking of compilations, Nintendo has smushed together both NES Remix games into a Wii U retail disc known as the NES Remix Pack. It’ll be joined by Ultimate NES Remix, a 3DS edition of the NES-based minigame collection.
Finally this week, Terraria will make the jump to the PS4 and the Xbox One.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix, NES Remix, NES Remix 2, Terraria, The Crew