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
TJ Combo to be added to Killer Instinct in Season 2
Iron Galaxy Studios took over development of Killer Instinct, Microsoft’s free-to-play fighter, after Double Helix was purchased by Amazon earlier this year. Today, the developer confirmed that the second season of downloadable characters will begin this Fall and they’ll start things off with TJ Combo.
With the announcement of Combo, only three characters from the original Killer Instinct (Cinder, Riptor, and Eyedol) have yet to be announced for inclusion in the Xbox One reboot. But with even more “Season 2” characters to announce, I’m sure they’re coming sooner rather than later.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2014, Killer Instinct
Watch this Rise of the Tomb Raider trailer… doctor’s orders
“We become who we’re meant to be.”
After what Lara Croft went through in 2013’s Tomb Raider, it’s understandable that she’d be having a hard time with things. Her legs quake… her hands tense up… and she’s hiding from the world underneath a big hoodie. But thankfully, she’s seeing a therapist and making progress. Her doctor has encouraged her to get back into the world and at the end of this trailer for Rise of the Tomb Raider, she’s done just that. Except it’s a part of the world that has been long forgotten. Some might even call it a tomb.
Crystal Dynamics is getting the gang back together for Rise of the Tomb Raider. Camilla Luddington will lend her voice (and motion capture moves) to Lara Croft and Rhianna Pratchett is again part of the writing team.
Rise of the Tomb Raider will be available in Fall 2015 and, as of right now, it’s only been announced for the Xbox One. Will it also come to the PC and PS4? A Magic 8-Ball would say, “Ask Again Later.”
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2014, Rise of the Tomb Raider
Now this is hidden treasure… Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris announced
Everyone expected to see a sequel to 2013’s Tomb Raider at this year’s E3 Expo and Crystal Dynamics did not disappoint with Rise of the Tomb Raider. However, another Tomb Raider sequel announced today is a bit of a surprise. A welcome one, but a surprise all the same.
Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have announced Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, a sequel to 2010’s much beloved Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. The overhead puzzle platformer ups the number of co-op players to four and includes bigger setpieces all around:
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris takes place deep in the deserts of Egypt. In her new adventure, Lara must join forces with rival treasure hunter Carter Bell and imprisoned gods Horus and Isis, to defeat the evil god Set. As Lara and her companions fight the elements of nature across the sands and through ancient tombs, they will battle legendary deities and creatures of myth. With the fate of the world at stake, Lara must recover the fragments of Osiris to stop Set from enslaving all mankind.
No release date was announced, but we do know that Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris will be “Coming Soon” for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
EA @ E3 14: Battlefield Hardline beta begins today on PC, PS4
It looks like EA still has one Battlefield Hardline surprise up their sleeves. After showing a very cool trailer for Visceral’s upcoming cops-and-robbers game, Sony’s Adam Boyes revealed that a multiplayer beta for the game is available RIGHT NOW for the PC and PS4. Interested players can sign up at Battlefield.com/hardline. I gotta say, this news almost makes the earlier leaks look like a very calculated marketing move on EA’s part.
Battlefield Hardline will be available for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 on October 21.
EA @ E3 14: PGA Tour 15 goes extreme
It looks like EA Sports isn’t just leaving Tiger Woods behind for their next golf game, they’re leaving behind realistic golf games as we know them. Even though it’s titled PGA Tour, the next golf game from EA Sports will include “extreme fantasy course” such as the middle of a naval battle.
Developed using the Frostbite 3 engine, PGA Tour will be available in Spring 2015. Fore! (That’s how many copies I plan to buy if this is half as much fun as it sounds).
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2014, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
EA @ E3 14: Criterion is making a game with lots of vehicles
Perhaps owing to the number of leaks EA has had to deal with in the run up to E3, Criterion Games has revealed their next game during EA’s E3 Press Conference, an untitled first-person vehicle game.
I’m not sure if it’s racing and it’s not exactly a “driving” game (there’s cars, bikes, ATVs, wingsuits, helicopters, and a bunch of other modes of transportation). In probably the quote of the afternoon, EA’s Patrick Soderlund said: “We don’t typically show things this early. And let’s be honest, we all know we couldn’t keep this a secret anyway.”
So who knows when we’ll see Criterion’s untitled next game again. At this point, who knows what Criterion’s untitled game is even about:
Posted in News
Tagged Criterion's Vehicle Game, E3 2014
EA @ E3 14: Star Wars: Battlefront will be available in Spring 2015
EA is getting the Star Wars: Battlefront reveal out of the way early with the announcement that the game will be available in Spring 2015. That’s around six months ahead of Star Wars: Episode VII‘s theatrical debut, so 2015 should definitely scratch your Star Wars itch with a bunch of new books, movies, and games.
The publisher used their 2014 E3 Press Conference to show off a quick behind-the-scenes video (DICE went poking around in the Lucasfilm archives to get the look of their game just right) and we’ll have that for you soon.
Dozens of indie games coming to Xbox One courtesy of ID@Xbox program
Before today, the indie offerings on the PS4 and Wii U were what captured every gamer’s imagination, but Microsoft wants a piece of that pie too. To let the world know just what they’ve got in the works, they turned to that staple of 80s movies, the montage. So check out just a taste of what’s coming to the Xbox One in the near (and not so near) future courtesy of their ID@Xbox program:
- Another World
- Aztez
- Below
- Calibre 10 Racing
- Chariot
- Cuphead
- Divekick
- EarthLock: Festival of Magic
- Fenix Rage
- Forced
- Fru
- The Golf Club
- Grave
- Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
- Habitat
- Hellraid
- Hyper Light Drifter
- IDARB
- Knight Squad
- Lifeless Planet
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Mighty No. 9
- Plague Inc: Evolved
- Pure Pool
- QUBE: Director’s Cut
- Riptide GP 2
- Roundabout
- Siegecraft Commander
- SlashDash
- Source
- Spectra
- There Came An Echo
- Threes
- White Night
- Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries
- Wulver Blade
Did you see Threes? Gotta say, wasn’t expecting to see that in an Xbox One montage.