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
Assassin’s Creed: Unity pushed back two weeks to November 11
Ubisoft has announced they’ve been forced to delay Assassin’s Creed: Unity to add a final level of polish to the first Assassin’s Creed game released exclusively for new-gen consoles. Thankfully, the delay is only two weeks, so Unity will now launch alongside Assassin’s Creed: Rogue on November 11.
“Making games is not a precise science. It’s a leap of faith. There’s a good level of subjectivity and creativity,” Senior Producer Vincent Pontbriand said to the UbiBlog. He also talked a bit about some of the little things that need tweaking in the final days of development:
It’s the little things. A tiny gesture that Arno makes as he’s racing across the Parisian rooftops. A barely noticeable reaction from a solitary NPC in a crowd 3,000 deep. The subtle swaying motion of an opulent chandelier in a lavish ballroom. It’s these little things, multiplied by the thousands, that a development team focuses on during the final push to ship a game. And with a massive open-world title like Assassin’s Creed Unity, all those little things add up fast.
To ensure that Assassin’s Creed: Unity is the best game it can be, Ubisoft will also release a “Day 1” patch that will include additional tweaks and improvements.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Unity
Harmonix reveals side-scrolling shooter A City Sleeps
While Harmonix keeps teasing the eventual return of Rock Band, that hasn’t stopped them from exploring other projects and concepts. For proof, just look at today’s announcement of A City Sleeps. The game is a side-scrolling shooter of the “bullet hell” variety that also mixes in music (of course) and an interesting art style.
A City Sleeps follows Poe, youngest member of The Silk, an ancient clan of dream exorcists that can enter the minds of sleeping hosts to rid their dreams of demons. When the residents of SanLo fall into an endless slumber, only Poe can rescue them from a never-ending nightmare. Equipped with her legendary Koto-sword “Heartstrings”, and flanked by her stable of powerful ghost familiars, she must cleanse their dreams, and uncover the city’s dark secrets.
As with all Harmonix games, music drives much of the gameplay including “player projectiles, enemy spawning, movement, and bullet patterns.” For the more traditional shooterati, Poe’s trio of ghosts will offer offensive and defensive bonuses including powerful “damage bursts” and “healing bullets.”
And we won’t have to wait long to get a chance to play it. A City Sleeps will be available to try out during this weekend’s PAX Prime convention and the game will be released on October 16 via Steam for Windows PC and Mac.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged PAX Prime 2014
XBL Store Today: Madden NFL 15, Metro Redux, Walking Dead S2E5, Under Defeat HD
If you’ve been keeping track of the recent retail releases and yesterday’s PlayStation Store update, then most of today’s Xbox Live update should look pretty familiar:
- There’s the annual gridiron football simulation from EA Sports (better known as Madden NFL 15) for the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One.
- Deep Silver and 4A Games have also made their Metro re-do, Metro Redux, available for download on the Xbox One (individual downloads of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light are also available).
- Telltale Games has finished up The Walking Dead Season 2 with the fifth episode, “No Going Back.”
- And finally, Rising Star and GRev have released the Dreamcast update, Under Defeat HD.
More details on all of these titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Madden NFL 15, Metro Redux, The Walking Dead Season 2
Allons-y! Doctor Who Skin Packs coming to Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is about to get a whole lot bigger thanks to at least two Skin Packs featuring The Doctor. Make that Doctors, as all 12 will eventually make their Minecraft debut this Fall.
According to the Play XBLA blog, the first Doctor Who Skin Pack will be available next month. The first pack will include six Doctors (including the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi), their companions, several of the series most famous villains, and the Daleks. Other adversaries and other Doctors will appear in future Skin Packs, which are currently without a release date.
The first Doctor Who Skin Pack (and presumably all the rest) will be available to download for $2.99 each.
Deep Silver wants you to Escape Dead Island on November 18
Deep Silver has announced that their Dead Island spinoff, Escape Dead Island, will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 18. The game, which was partially inspired by Eternal Darkness, will question your sanity as you attempt to escape from an island paradise overrun by zombies. To really showcase Escape Dead Island’s mind-altering setpieces, Deep Silver has released a new trailer that has been embedded above.
The publisher will also give gamers a chance to demo the game for themselves this weekend at the PAX Prime convention in Seattle.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Escape Dead Island
Deep Silver bringing Escape Dead Island, Dead Island 2, Metro, a few surprises to PAX 2014
Deep Silver has more than one surprise planned for this weekend’s PAX Prime convention. Besides the previously announced unveiling of Volition’s next project, the publisher will offer the following playable demos at its booth in the South Hall:
- Dead Island 2: Experience the first hands-on in the United States for the upcoming AAA zombie blockbuster from Yager Development.
- Escape Dead Island: The world’s first consumer hands-on for the third person survival mystery spin-off, set in the Dead Island universe.
- Metro Redux: Play Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light together with all DLC now on new-gen consoles running at a seamless 60 frames per second.
Deep Silver also plans to showcase at least one secret title at their booth. So it seems likely that if you miss the Volition panel on Friday morning you’ll still get a chance to get a good look at their next game. And who knows, perhaps Deep Silver has a few other surprises up their sleeve…
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Dead Island 2, Escape Dead Island, Metro Redux, PAX Prime 2014
InFamous: First Light, Madden 15, Walking Dead S2E5, more added to PS Store
Sony’s latest PlayStation Store update is now available and it features a ton of great new releases such as…
- Madden NFL 15 (PS3, PS4), it’s football time, so you can count on a new Madden game for your PlayStation platform of choice.
- InFamous: First Light (PS4), a standalone expansion to Second Son that stars Fetch.
- The Walking Dead Season 2: No Going Back (PS3, Vita), the final entry in Telltale’s second Walking Dead adaptation.
- Metro Redux (PS4), a next-gen re-release of 4A’s underseen shooters Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. Both games are also available to download separately.
- OlliOlli (PS4/PS3/Vita Cross-Buy), Roll7’s skateboarding game is now available on the PS4 and PS3 too.
There’s more information on all of these games (and even more new releases) to be found after the break. And be sure to head over to the PlayStation Blog for a rundown of this week’s new game add-ons. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged InFamous: First Light, Madden NFL 15, Metro Redux, The Golf Club, The Walking Dead Season 2
Mario Kart 8 DLC packs add 16 new courses, Link, Animal Crossing Villager, and more
A word of advice, if you ever find yourself playing poker with the Director of Mario Kart 8, Kosuke Yabuki, just walk away. The man will take all of your money and probably bash you over the head with a Blue Shell for good measure.
Back in May, Yabuki hinted that a Super Smash Bros.-like expansion of the Mario Kart character roster was something that he “wouldn’t rule out” for the future. Apparently, the future is now as Nintendo UK has announced two DLC packs for Mario Kart 8 that will add The Legend of Zelda‘s Link and a pair of Animal Crossing characters.
“The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 Pack” will be available in November. It will include four new courses (including at least one that takes place within Hyrule), four retro courses (including Wario’s Gold Mine from Mario Kart Wii), four vehicles (including a Blue Falcon kart from F-Zero), and three new characters (Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach, and Link).
Meanwhile, the “Animal Crossing X Mario Kart 8 Pack” will be available in May 2015 with the same variety of add-on content: four new courses (including at least one that takes place within the world of Animal Crossing), four retro courses, four vehicles, and three new characters (Villager, Isabelle, and Dry Bowser).
Each pack will be priced at £7.00 (about $11.60). And if you purchase both packs, you’ll receive eight rainbow-colored Yohsis and eight rainbow-colored Shy Guys as well.
“Super Smash Kart” is coming and it looks glorious. Lets-a-go!
UPDATE: Nintendo of America has confirmed that each pack will be priced at $7.99 on this side of the Atlantic and a special $11.99 bundle including both packs will also be available.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8