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
New Releases: Alien: Isolation, NBA 2K15, DriveClub, More
After a relatively quiet September, the Fall gaming rush has begun to kick into high gear now that we’ve reached October.
Sega plans to take another crack at the Alien universe with the Creative Assembly-developed survival horror game Alien: Isolation (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One). Players will attempt to help Amanda Ripley search for her missing mother while she’s stalked by a singular Xenomorph. After nearly a dozen games starring the Colonial Marines, it’s definitely a new take (on an old idea) for the franchise.
Also new this week is…
- NBA 2K15 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2K’s latest basketball sim.
- DriveClub (PS4), Evolution’s long-in-development racing game.
- Skylanders: Trap Team (3DS, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One), the latest toy/game hybrid from Activision.
- Project Spark (Xbox One), Microsoft’s game-building game.
Finally, Microsoft is reliving the Xbox One launch with newly expanded and updated versions of Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition, Forza Motorsport 5: Game of the Year Edition, and Ryse: Son of Rome – Legendary Edition.
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, DriveClub, NBA 2K15, Project Spark, Skylanders: Trap Team
Insert Quarter: “Playing A Game” Versus “Grinding Through Content”
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
In this installment, Kotaku’s Yannick LeJacq examines the difference between “playing a game” and “grinding through content” added by the developer to increase the hours required to reach the end in games like Dying Light and The Sims 4.
Earlier this week, Techland announced that its new zombie-killing adventure Dying Light will have “50+ hours of gameplay.” Some might considering this good news. I don’t—at least at face value.
Why? Because 50 hours is a long [*******] time to spend in any video game, and I don’t trust Techland enough as a developer to believe they know how to guide me through such a slog gracefully. I took me roughly half that time to play their last zombie game, Dead Island Riptide. I loved the first few hours, and couldn’t stand the rest.
You can read the rest at Kotaku.
Posted in Insert Quarter, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Dying Light, The Sims 4
Skullgirls Encore pushed back to early 2015 on PS4, Vita
Lab Zero Games has announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that the PS4/Vita launch of Skullgirls Encore, which was expected to be released by the end of this year, has been pushed back to early 2015. Lab Zero’s Peter Bartholow said that the reason for the delay is to pack as much new content into the port as possible: “[W]e’ve expanded the scope of the port and are adding new features with the aim of making it a better upgrade for fans and a better value for everyone.”
Lab Zero has posted a few work-in-progress screenshots of the PS4 version on their official website.
But, if you already own the PS3 version of Skullgirls Encore, Lab Zero does have a surprise for you… the third DLC character, Eliza, is now available. Eliza is an Egyptian “diva” who “constantly [shape-shifts] into a variety of Egyptian mythological symbols and cultural icons.” Lab Zero considers her Story Mode especially deep and promises that it will shed a lot of light on the lore and inner workings of the Skullgirls universe.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Skullgirls
Obsidian delays Pillars of Eternity again… this time to early 2015
Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive have announced that Obsidian’s retro-styled RPG, Pillars of Eternity, has been delayed once again. In the aftermath of the game’s highly successful Kickstarter campaign, Obsidian announced that the game would launch in Spring 2014. However, a delay earlier this year pushed the game back to “late 2014.” Now, a second delay has moved Pillars of Eternity’s release into early 2015.
A statement from Obsidian and Paradox confirmed that the delay was due to a desire to address fan feedback received during the recent beta test. The developer believes these changes are necessary to “ensure fans absolutely get the best game possible”
“Since the very beginning of this project we promised our fans and ourselves that we would release this game only when we knew it would be absolutely ready for the best experience possible,” said Feargus Urquhart, the CEO of Obsidian. “We’re very close to that point, but not quite there yet. The feedback we have received through our playtest process has been invaluable to us. We are coming into the home stretch but are pushing the release out just a bit to make sure we honor that promise we made originally. Thanks for your patience and support, it will be worth the wait.”
Pillars of Eternity will be released in early 2015 exclusively for the PC.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Pillars of Eternity
Nintendo Download: Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Castlevania: Dracula X, more
Super Smash Bros. makes its smashing debut on the 3DS tomorrow with the appropriately named Super Smash Bros. For 3DS. The final roster has been filled out with nearly 50 characters, so your dreams of a battle royale between Mario, Mega Man, Sonic, Pac-Man, Little Mac, and the Duck Hunt Dog have now become a reality.
Four other new releases dot the rest of this week’s Nintendo Download:
- Castlevania: Dracula X (Wii U) – Originally released for the Super NES, Dracula X introduces gamers to Richter Belmont.
- 99 Seconds (Wii U) – An overhead maze game with a twist… the maze moves!
- Red Riding Hood (Wii U) – A retelling of the popular tale as an “interactive story.”
- Tenkai Knights: Brave Battle (3DS) – A fighting game based on the popular anime.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Super Smash Bros. For 3DS
Quan Chi will bring his sorcerer’s ways to Mortal Kombat X
After playing a huge role in 2011’s Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm has confirmed that the evil sorcerer Quan Chi will once again play a big part in Mortal Kombat X. Described by Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick as a “trickster,” Quan Chi’s three variations will rely heavily on his magical abilities.
The “Sorcerer” variation includes a series of projectile attacks as well as buff spells that strengthen his other attacks. The “Warlock” variations allows Quan Chi to create Dark Portals that allow him to toss characters around the screen in ways that are similar to Scorpion’s Teleport and Rain’s Roundhouse Kick. Finally, the “Summoner” variation will also be projectile-based, but the projectile is actually a demon that Quan Chi summons and controls.
Also, be sure to stick around for a quick look at one of Quan Chi’s Fatalities, it’s pretty great. Mortal Kombat X will be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 14.
Kevin Smith will play himself in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
Professional fanboy Kevin Smith will get a chance to act alongside some of his favorite comic book characters next month when he gets Lego-ized for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. Smith will play himself alongside several other new characters announced by WB Games including Bruce Wayne (who is separate from Batman but still voiced by Tory Baker), Green Arrow (voiced by Arrow star Stephen Amell), and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns (voiced by the actual Geoff Johns). All four characters will be playable, so if you’ve ever wanted to recreate the “Fly, fatass, fly!” scene from Mallrats, now’s your chance.
Smith, Johns, Baker, and Amell will team-up to host a Lego Batman 3 panel at the New York Comic-Con on Saturday, October 11. The quartet (along with TT Games developers Arthur Parsons and Stephen Sharples) will reveal new characters and introduce brand-new gameplay videos of the game during their talk. And in case you miss the panel, WB Games will have a playable demo of Lego Batman 3 available at the DC Entertainment booth.
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham will be released for the 3DS, PC, PS3 PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 11.
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be available in stores on November 18
It’s funny. Even though Microsoft now owns Mojang, the PlayStation 4 Edition of Minecraft will be available on store shelves next week while Xbox One owners will have to wait until November 18. A downloadable version has been available on both consoles (with a special $4.99 upgrade offer if you already own a previous-gen version) for a few weeks now.
Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will be priced at $19.99 and will give players the ability to create worlds “up to 36 times larger” than those found in Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition.