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
Murdered: Soul Suspect, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate, 1001 Spikes, more added to PS Store
The release calendar for June is a bit bare, but thankfully, Sony came through with a batch of quirky new downloads in the first PlayStation Store update of the month.
The supernatural detective story Murdered: Soul Suspect is this week’s biggest new release. Available for both the PS3 and PS4, the game follows the recently departed Ronan O’Connor as he attempts to track down his murderer, a serial killer known as The Bell Killer. It’s joined by four other PS4 releases including the free-to-play World War II sim, War Thunder; the latest game in the Worms franchise, Worms Battlegrounds; an enhanced version of the fourth PixelJunk game, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate; and the latest brutal platformer, 1001 Spikes. Those last two are also available as PS4/Vita Cross-Buy games, so you can also take them on the go.
One other PS3 game was added to the PS Store this week and it’s Don Bradman Cricket 14. I’m not entirely sure, but it might be the first cricket game ever released in North America. If I cared in the slightest about cricket, I’d do some research and find out for sure.
Finally, the Vita is now home to a Sony-produced pet simulator, PlayStation Vita Pets, and a diva simulator known as Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection. Don’t let your real dog and American Idol know you’ve been cheating on them.
More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged 1001 Spikes, Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection, Murdered: Soul Suspect
Ultra Street Fighter IV upgrade now available to download on PS3, Xbox 360
If you own Super Street Fighter IV or Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Capcom wants to let you know (via the embedded launch trailer above) that you can now download the Ultra Street Fighter IV digital upgrade for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The upgrade is priced at $14.99 and includes five new characters (Rolento, Elena, Hug, Poison, and Decapre), six new stages, and a bunch of balance tweaks.
The game also has the word “Ultra” in the title now and “Ultra” is clearly superior to “Super.”
The retail version of Ultra Street Fighter IV will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 5. The PC edition (both the digital upgrade and a full game download) is set for release a few days after.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter IV
Crytek USA will release Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age as free-to-play title this Fall
Looks like we finally know what Crytek USA (the studio formerly known as Vigil Games) is up to. Crytek announced this morning that their Austin-based subsidiary is developing Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, a free-to-play third-person action game about demon hunters in the late 1800s. Hmm…
Comparisons to Ready At Dawn’s The Order: 1886 aside, Hunt seems to take most of its inspiration from Valve’s Left 4 Dead series as four players will be able to team up to cooperatively challenge the assorted monsters at the center of Hunt. Crytek USA plans to heavily focus on this type of close collaboration between players, especially in the “grueling” boss fights that will pop up at unexpected times. And speaking of the unexpected, a special content generation system will randomize the environments and enemy sets that players will encounter in Hunt, so no two games will be the same.
Crytek USA’s CEO, David Adams, said: “Players will be counting their bullets and crying out for help as they delve deeper into the shadowy world we’ve created. From the outset of the development process, we’ve poured our imaginations into the game so that everyone who plays Hunt will discover a challenging experience that feels fresh, captivating and rich in possibilities.”
Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age will be available as a closed beta this Fall for the PC and consoles. But we won’t have to wait that long to get our next taste of the game. Crytek plans to unveil a gameplay trailer during next week’s E3 Expo.
Prepare yourself… Batman: Arkham Knight release delayed to 2015
Here we go again. WB Games and Rocksteady Studios have confirmed that Batman: Arkham Knight won’t be released this Fall as previously planned. Instead, Rocksteady’s final Batman game will be released sometime in 2015 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Even with the delay, WB Games plans to heavily promote Batman: Arkham Knight during next week’s E3 Expo. Specifically, the publisher will give the world a glimpse of Batmobile Battle Mode for the first time. With the flick of a switch, Batman can transform his Batmobile from a sleek roadster into a fully-armored battle tank. Armed to the teeth with lasers, missiles, and incendiary rounds, the Batmobile’s Battle Mode will be able to take on anything The Riddler can think up. You can get a preview of the Batmobile in Battle Mode in the teaser trailer embedded above.
And don’t worry, even in Battle Mode, Batman will uphold his “no killing” pledge.
Cam Newton and Richard Sherman battle for Madden NFL 15 cover in final round of vote
It all comes down to the cornerback and the quarterback.
EA’s Madden NFL 15 Cover Vote has reached the final round and, from now until June 6, voters will have a chance to visit ESPN.com/maddenvote to cast their final ballot. In the end, both #1 seeds, Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks and Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers, reached the final vote.
The winner will be announced on Friday, June 6 during the 6:00 PM (Eastern Time) edition of SportsCenter.
New Mortal Kombat X details: Persistent online battle, “multiple character variations,” more
Now that we’ve all had a chance to digest the debut trailer for Mortal Kombat X, WB Games has revealed a few more details about the game in their official announcement. For starters, they’ve confirmed the game will be released in 2015 for the new-generation consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) as well as the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
But the big news is that this addition to the Mortal Kombat franchise will make the battle for Earthrealm truly global for the first time. According to the announcement, Mortal Kombat X will “[launch] players into a persistent online contest where every fight matters in a global battle for supremacy.” Mortal Kombat X will also give players the option to select from multiple variations of each character in this battle. Each character variation will practice a different fighting style, requiring unique strategies from the player. Presumably, the variations will also be clad in different costumes as well.
Finally, the developers at NetherRealm Studios have promised that Mortal Kombat X will include many fan-favorite characters (such as Scorpion and Sub-Zero) as well as new fighters that “tie the tale together.”
“Mortal Kombat has always been about over-the-top, visceral fighting and with Mortal Kombat X we wanted to utilise the power of new-gen consoles to give players our most intense game yet,” said Ed Boon, the Creative Director at NetherRealm Studios. “The team has worked hard to make sure Mortal Kombat X delivers everything fans expect along with new characters, new game modes and an all new graphics engine.”
Mortal Kombat X will make its first public appearance at next week’s E3 Expo.
Homefront: The Revolution will rise up in 2015
Philadelphia was at the center of the first American Revolution and, according to the storyline for Crytek’s upcoming Homefront: The Revolution, it will also be right in the thick of the second. Co-published by Crytek and Deep Silver, The Revolution is a sequel to Homefront, which was originally released by THQ in 2011. Crytek acquired the franchise in 2013 when THQ was forced to auction off their assets after a well-publicized bankruptcy. Crytek has assigned their UK team (formerly Free Radical Design) to the task of developing Homefront: The Revolution.
The second Homefront game has actually changed quite a bit since we first heard about it in late 2011. The original plan was to move the action to Europe, but an open-world Philadelphia (which can be explored as part of a single-player campaign or in a four-play co-op mode) will serve as the setting instead:
Catastrophic events have brought the United States to its knees and enabled the Korean People’s Army forces to impose a brutal military occupation. Trapped in this American nightmare, Philadelphia has become a police state, where surveillance drones and armored patrols keep her once-proud citizens at heel, crushing any dissent with totalitarian force.
To overcome their oppressors, players will have to engage in guerrilla warfare and use ambush, infiltration and hit and run tactics in thrilling un-scripted firefights. At every turn they’ll find a sprawling open-world city, in which recruiting fellow revolutionaries and building improvised homebrew weapons are just two of the keys to creating a powerful resistance force.
Homefront: The Revolution is currently set for a release sometime in 2015 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Crytek and Deep Silver plan to unveil the first gameplay trailer of the game during this year’s E3 Expo.
Forza Horizon 2 coming to Xbox One AND Xbox 360 this Fall
This is an interesting twist. First revealed this morning on IGN, Microsoft has announced they will be bringing Forza Horizon 2 to the Xbox One and the Xbox 360 this Fall.
Playground Games will handle the development of Forza Horizon 2, just as they did with the first game in the spinoff series. The Forza Motorsport team at Turn 10 Studios will be “collaborating closely” with Playground, including adapting the Forza 5‘s Drivatar system for use in Horizon 2.
Hundreds of cars will be included in Horizon 2, including the 2015 Lamborghini Huracan, which has been chosen as the cover athlete vehicle for the game. The Huracan will be battered by realistic weather effects (a first for the Hoizon spinoff series) as it drives through the game’s Southern European locales.
Finally, IGN said that music will play an important in Horizon 2, just as it did in the first game: “A music festival will be the central event around which the game’s activities revolve.”
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Forza Horizon 2