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
Street Fighter 5 is in the early planning stages
According to the Japanese newspaper Sports Nippon (via EventHubs), Capcom executives revealed that Street Fighter 5 is in the pre-production phase during an E3 2014 interview. Their report states that Capcom President and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto said that the game would include a “pay-for-advantage” model that would enable inexperienced players to compete with expert level fighting game fanatics. A Spectator Mode is also planned and Tsujimoto announced that the game will likely be developed for the PS4 and Xbox One.
As you can imagine, fighting game fans went into a rage over the “pay-for-advantage” announcement and Street Fighter Series Producer Yoshinori Ono took to Twitter to clarify that such a gameplay system is not being considered:
The SFV news today about a pay to win model is not accurate and isn't something we're planning for.
— Yoshinori Ono (@Yoshi_OnoChin) June 11, 2014
Sorry for the confusion! We're still in early planning stages and will
share more at a later date.
— Yoshinori Ono (@Yoshi_OnoChin) June 11, 2014
So that’s one crisis averted and Ono himself confirmed that Street Fighter 5 is in development. That’s all well and good, but the game is probably more than two years away at best.
Posted in News
Tagged E3 2014, Street Fighter V
Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby will be released on November 21
Finding a game showcased during this year’s E3 Expo that has been scheduled for a 2014 debut was an almost herculean task. But Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire and Pokemon: Omega Ruby as both games will be released for the 3DS on November 21.
Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire and Pokemon: Omega Ruby are remakes of the third generation of Pokemon games, Pokemon Sapphire and Pokemon Ruby, which were released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003. These new versions feature remade 3D graphics and a “Primal Reversion” to the game’s cover characters: Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon. That’s right, Pokemon has begun to de-evolve.
Be sure to check out the new trailer above, which highlights the evolutions of the game’s three starting Pokemon, and another new trailer featuring Mega Sableye, which can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged E3 2014, Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby
Did you miss the trailer for Sony’s Bloodborne? Here it is!
Another E3 Expo has ended, but you didn’t really think four days was enough to see it all, did you? I mean, have you seen Sony’s trailer for Bloodborne? The From Software-developed title is being positioned as a successor to cult favorite Demon’s Souls and will be released exclusively for the PS4 in 2015. The game’s trailer may feature beautiful gothic environments, but they hide many dark secrets:
Face your fears as you search for answers in the ancient city of Yharnam, now cursed with a strange endemic illness spreading through the streets like wildfire. Danger, death and madness lurk around every corner of this dark and horrific world, and you must discover its darkest secrets in order to survive.
Masaaki Yamagiwa of SCE Japan Studio and Director Hidetaka Miyazaki discussed more about the game’s setting and story at the PlayStation Blog.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Bloodborne, E3 2014
Code Name: STEAM brings steampunk strategy to 3DS
Nintendo had one more announcement at this year’s E3 Expo and it was Code Name: STEAM, a steampunk-styled turn-based strategy game for the 3DS. Code Name: STEAM is in development at Intelligent Systems, the same responsible for the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars games.
According to Nintendo, Code Name: STEAM was inspired by third-person shooters and it throws a few more wrenches into typical turn-based gameplay:
The game takes place in a vibrant steampunk world, weaving its globe-spanning tale in the art style of a classic comic book. The title refers to an elite team of steam-powered special-forces soldiers composed of absolutely wild and wholly unexpected characters who must battle an extraterrestrial menace. To establish a connection to the main playable characters and to emphasize the verticality and depth of the level design, the perspective of Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. uses a behind-the-shoulder perspective at the level of the players’ squad. Players outflank and outshoot the enemy in a fully 3D battlefield with a customizable four-member team. To defeat aliens, they have to take cover, set up ambushes and unleash crossfires and counter-attacks. For every move taken or action performed, a steam gauge is slowly depleted, forcing players to use strategy to achieve their objectives. Along the way, players will acquire new items and weapons that give them more strategic options and firepower.
Code Name: STEAM, like nearly every other major game showcased at this year’s E3 Expo, will be released sometime in 2015.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Code Name: STEAM, E3 2014
Nintendo Download: Pac-Man Collection, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Soccer, more
Today’s Nintendo Download selections make it a good day to be a fan of retro games.
The Wii U eShop is now home to Pac-Land, Pac-Man Collection, and Soccer. I would assume the first two are in honor of Pac-Man’s addition to Super Smash Bros. 4 and Soccer is due to today’s kickoff of the World Cup. But the addition of Double Dragon II: The Revenge to the 3DS eShop is no doubt because it’s just awesome.
Also available on the 3DS eShop today is AiRace Xeno, a futuristic racer, and Van Helsing: Sniper Zx100, a game with the most self-explanatory title I’ve ever seen.
More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Watch out for the flaming battleship hazard in the PGA Tour 15 E3 trailer
It looks like EA Sports won’t be ditching their realistic golf simulator to focus on fantasy courses. Sure, the fantasy courses will be there too, but PGA Tour 15 will also feature a heavy sim component.
The game will be the first EA Sports title to utilize the power of the Frostbite 3 engine to render stunning courses and open up the golf experience like never before. With the ability to stream full environments, players will truly be able to play the ball as it lies no matter where it lands.
This newfound freedom will come in handy not just for PGA Tour courses fans know and love, but also in the new fantasy courses that will make their debut in EA Sports PGA Tour. Why take two shots to get a ball around a beached battleship in the Battlefield Paracel Storm course when you can fire a ball right at the bow, bounce it off the deck and land on the green in one?
“One of my favorite things about the game is discovering new shortcuts and alternate routes to the hole on fantasy courses,” stated Executive Producer Brent Nielsen. “Players are encouraged to wander off the beaten path and find new roads to success. Now that the entire course is open at all times you are as free to be as creative and imaginative as you want in your pursuit of a low score.”
PGA Tour 15 is in development at EA Tiburon and will be available for the PS4 and Xbox One in Spring 2015.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2014, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
XBL Store Today: 1001 Spikes, Blood of the Werewolf
Two retro-style platformers made their way to the Xbox Live Game Store today.
Nicalis’ 1001 Spikes is a punishing platformer for the Xbox One that gives players 1,001 lives right from the start. And players will need them all to traverse the spikes, pits, and enemies that will challenge adventurer Aban Hawkins behind the Golden Door of Poko-Mum.
Also available this week is Blood of the Werewolf, a “love letter to classic platformers” from Scientifically Proven and Midnight City. Blood of the Werewolf was released for the PC earlier this year and now it’s found it’s way to the Xbox 360.
More details about both games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged 1001 Spikes
Entwined, Digital Devil Saga 2, Enemy Front, more added to PS Store
Sony’s surprise E3 announcement, Entwined, is now available to download from the PlayStation Store. The gorgeous tube flyer (seriously, check out that trailer above) will be joined by a variety of PS3 and Vita titles including Enemy Front (a WWII shooter for the PS3), Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (the PS2 Classic RPG, now available on the PS3), and Soul Sacrifice Delta (the ultimate edition of Keiji Inafune’s Vita monster hunter).
More details on all of these games can be found after the break. And a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)