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
Xbox Store Today: Project Spark, Alien: Isolation, NBA 2K15, more
Are you ready to make your own games? Microsoft hopes so because Project Spark is now available to download through the Xbox One Games Store. The Project Spark “Starter Pack” includes a pre-built adventure as well as a variety of characters and game-creation pieces. Happy building!
Alien: Isolation is also new to the Xbox One Games Store today. Sega and Creative Assembly took a different tack with the game than the usual Aliens adventure and attempted to bring the quieter, but still frightening, “haunted house in space” atmosphere of 1979’s Alien to the video game realm. It’s joined by NBA 2K15 (Xbox One, Xbox 360), the latest game in 2K’s long-running sports simulation series, and Divekick (Xbox One), Iron Galaxy’s two-button fighting game. Finally this week, Styx: Master of Shadows, an RPG from Focus Interactive, is available to download for the Xbox One.
More information on all four games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Divekick, NBA 2K15, Project Spark
PS Store Today: Alien: Isolation, NBA 2K15, DriveClub, Vib-Ribbon, more
The Fall gaming avalanche comes to the PlayStation Store this week. Some of the biggest games of the season are now available to download on the PS3, PS4, and Vita as well as a bona-fide classic, and a handful of smaller titles as well.
A trio of AAA release are now available as of today. Alien: Isolation (PS3, PS4) is Sega and Creative Assembly’s attempt to bring the “haunted house in space” atmosphere of 1979’s Alien to the video game realm. It’s joined by DriveClub, Evolution’s ambitious PS4 racer, and NBA 2K15 (PS3, PS4), the latest game in 2K’s long-running sports simulation series.
Even though all these new titles are now available to download, today’s real surprise if the release of Vib-Ribbon, a PSone Classic that was originally only available in Japan and Europe. Vib-Ribbon is a rhythm game from the creator of PaRappa the Rapper that uses a unique line-drawing art style. It has appeared on multiple “Best of” lists and is considered by many to be one of the best games never to come to America. Thankfully, that changes today.
Finally this week, a few indie games that are definitely worth a look have popped up on the PlayStation Store. Dust: An Elysian Tail, a side-scrolling action-RPG that was originally released for the Xbox 360 in 2012, is now available on the PS4. Dust’s hand-drawn artwork would serve as a nice complement to Spelunky, which has also been released for the PS4 today. Divekick, a rather unique fighting game (“First You Dive, Then You Kick!”), rounds out this week’s batch of indie PS4 ports.
A complete look at all of this week’s new releases (including a few additional titles) can be found after the break. And a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Divekick, DriveClub, Dust: An Elysian Tail, NBA 2K15
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be released on December 5
Nintendo hasn’t said much about Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker since they announced the game at this year’s E3 Expo. But today, the publisher confirmed that Captain Toad will march on to the Wii U on December 5 with a budget price of $39.99.
Captain Toad is based on a series of minigames that originally appeared in last year’s Super Mario 3D World. But for Captain Toad, they’ve expanded beyond those simple rotating levels and will now include bigger adventures like “exploring a haunted house or escaping a smoldering volcano.” I gotta admit, I didn’t think little Toad had it in him.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be the first game released by Nintendo with Toad in a starring role. And the game will get even bigger in 2015 when Nintendo will patch in support for their upcoming line of Amiibo figures.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Super Smash Bros. For Wii U gets November 21 release as Smash 3DS sells almost 3 million
As expected, Nintendo has announced that Super Smash Bros. For Wii U will be released on November 21.
In addition to announcing the release date for Smash’s Wii U debut, the publisher has also confirmed that the first wave of Amiibo figures will be available in stores beginning on the same day. This first wave will consist of twelve figures: Mario, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Fox, Samus, Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, Pikachu, Kirby, and Marth. It will be followed by a second wave of figures (Zelda, Diddy Kong, Luigi, Little Mac, Pit, and Captain Falcon) in December. In addition to Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, Amiibo figures will work with Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10, Yoshi’s Woolly World, and more games to be announced. Of course, how they’re going to “work” is still a mystery.
Nintendo will also use the 21st of November to relaunch the GameCube controller, which will be compatible with Super Smash Bros. For Wii U with a special adapter. The Smash-themed GameCube controllers will retail for $29.99 each while the adapter has been priced at $19.99. A special bundle that includes the game, the adapter, and one GameCube controller will also be available for $99.99.
Finally, Nintendo also announced that more than 2.8 million copies of Super Smash Bros. For 3DS have been sold worldwide. The game has been available throughout North America and Europe for less than a week (it was released in Japan on September 13), so that’s pretty impressive.
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U
Hear yourself scream after watching the Alien: Isolation launch trailer
Today is a great day for space exploration, both real and fictional. In the real world, NASA is exploring the use of stasis tubes (better known as “torpor”) for a possible manned mission to Mars. And in the fictional realm, Sega has released the launch trailer for Alien: Isolation, their deep space survival horror game that is in stores tomorrow.
Developed by Creative Assembly, Alien: Isolation uses the same “lo-fi sci-fi” aesthetic seen in 1979’s Alien and sticks to a single Xenomorph instead of the hordes of alien monsters typically found in games based on the 1986 sequel, Aliens.
Alien: Isolation will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The first run of copies have been given a “Nostromo Edition” tag and will include a bonus mission that will allow players to take control Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and other characters from the original film.
The Crew’s release date skids onto December 2
Ubisoft has announced that The Crew, their open-world racer for the PC, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, will now be released on December 2. Previously scheduled for a November 11 launch, the publisher pushed the game back so they could conduct another closed beta sometime in November. This will be the fourth closed beta for The Crew after two separate tests on the PC and another exclusively for PS4/Xbox One players.
“We received a lot of valuable information from the recent PC and console betas,” Creative Director Julian Gerighty told Ubisoft’s UbiBlog. “We are now scrutinizing all of the player feedback so we can ensure that The Crew delivers the seamless open-world experience that meets everyone’s high expectations.”
According to Gerighty, feedback from the betas has resulted in several substantial changes to the game including “the option to fully remove the HUD so players can enjoy the scenery as they roam freely through a massive re-creation of the United States, to fine-tuning the collisions to be even more realistic and adding in new visual effects.” The Ubisoft Reflections developer has also tweaked police AI and improved the game’s voice chat after the first three rounds of player feedback.
There’s also a good chance that Ubisoft moved The Crew to ensure the game wasn’t overshadowed by the November 11 launch of Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and Assassin’s Creed: Unity, the company’s flagship titles for the Fall.
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will sneak onto Steam in December
Konami has announced that Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will be released for the PC (through Steam) on December 18. The port will be prettied up for its PC debut as Konami has confirmed Ground Zeroes on Steam will be 4K Compatible (4096×2160) and include “an increase in the number of simultaneous light sources, the number of models that can be displayed on-screen, and increased shadow resolution.”
For those who bypassed Ground Zeroes when it made its console debut this past Summer, the game will serve as a prologue to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and features Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Snake:
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes takes place in 1975 and sets in motion a series of events that culminate in the stunning plotlines of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Ground Zeroes centers on Big Boss – legendary hero and mercenary – as he infiltrates a sprawling secret prison base called Camp Omega in Cuba on a rescue mission. He soon finds himself alone behind enemy lines with a truly non-linear mission that showcases key advances to the series made possible by its use of Kojima Productions’ Fox Engine.
Once you complete Ground Zeroes (which you can do in about an hour), the long wait for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain begins. And The Phantom Pain is expected to be released sometime in 2015 for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
Weekly Warp-Up: First Week of October 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…
The Warp Zoned staff was just full of opinions this week. Mike Ryan laid out his plan for how to fix Club Nintendo in an editorial titled Nintendo of America Needs To Fix Club Nintendo. And one of our UK lads took in the sights at EGX London 2014 and filed an Dan Hobbs EGX London 2014 Report talking about Batman: Arkham Knight, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, WWE 2K15, and many more.
With the calendar flipping over, the Warp Zoned staff also got together to discuss What We Played in September 2014 and The Games of October 2014 that we’re most looking forward to. Thanks to a pretty great pre-release demo, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS appeared in both discussions.
More news from the week that was can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News