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
Newton, Sherman show why they’re #1 seeds in first round of Madden NFL 15 Cover Vote
Voting is complete for the first round of the Madden NFL 15 Cover Vote. Some were close and some most certainly were not, but the higher seed came away with a victory in almost every matchup. The lone upset was Luke Kuechly’s victory over Denver’s Demaryius Thomas. His win earns him the right to go up against Colin Kaepernick, the #2 seed of the left bracket.
Cam Newton and Richard Sherman, the tournaments #1 seeds, showed why EA Sports thinks so highly of them. Sherman won his matchup against Alshon Jeffery with 73% of the vote while Newton clobbered Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown 80%-20%. Here’s what the remaining matchups look like heading into Round 2:
Left Bracket
(1) Richard Sherman (CB, Seattle Seahawks)
(4) Jimmy Graham (TE, New Orleans Saints)
(2) Colin Kaepernick (QB, San Francisco 49ers)
(6) Luke Kuechly (LB, Carolina Panthers)
Right Side
(1) Cam Newton (QB, Carolina Panthers)
(4) Jamaal Charles (RB, Kansas City Chiefs)
(2) Andrew Luck (QB, Indianapolis Colts)
(3) LeSean McCoy (RB, Philadelphia Eagles)
Second round voting will remain open until next Thursday, May 22.
R.B.I. Baseball 14 Review: Sit Me Down Coach, I’m Not Ready to Play…
Baseball video games were forever changed in 1988 when a trio of genre-defining titles were released for the NES just ahead of the World Series. That same year, Kirk Gibson of the Los Angeles Dodgers connected with one of the most famous postseason home runs of all time. While Gibson’s heroics are reexamined every October, most gamers have likely forgotten about Bases Loaded, Major League Baseball, and R.B.I. Baseball. But the developers at MLB Advanced Media didn’t forget. The league’s technology group drafted a partner, Behaviour Interactive, and recently released R.B.I. Baseball 14, a new take on the classic franchise. (more…)
Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged R.B.I. Baseball 14
Capcom confirms digital upgrade and retail release dates for Ultra Street Fighter IV
After almost a year of teasing, Capcom has officially announced release dates for the digital upgrade and retail versions of Ultra Street Fighter IV.
If you already own Super Street Fighter IV or Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition on the PS3 you’ll be able to download the Ultra update on June 3. Xbox 360 owners of either game will be able to purchase the upgrade on June 4 (and remember, SSF4: Arcade Edition is one of June’s free Games With Gold). The update has been priced at $14.99 on both platforms.
If you’d prefer to purchase a retail copy of Ultra Street Fighter IV, you’ll have to wait until August. Capcom will release a retail disc version (priced at $39.99) for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 5. They’ll follow that up with the Steam release (priced at $29.99) of Ultra Street Fighter IV on August 8. The digital upgrade for Super Street Fighter IV and Arcade Edition players on the PC will be available on the same day.
Ultra Street Fighter IV will add five new fighters and a wide variety of balance tweaks to the game. Presumably, it’s the final update to Street Fighter IV, but you never know with Capcom.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox One
Tagged Street Fighter IV
Wolfenstein: The New Order launch trailer enters House of the Rising Sun… and the moon
Caroline Becker: “Blazkowicz! What’s your status?”
B.J. Blazkowicz: “Well… I’m on the mother****ing moon!”
Bethesda Softworks and MachineGames have given us one last look at Wolfenstein: The New Order before it launches this Tuesday, May 20, and they decided to go big… like, really big. Bang, zoom, straight to the Moon big.
B.J. Blazkowicz’s final foray against the Nazi forces of General Deathshead is set to the strains of “The House of the Rising Sun,” which was a big hit for The Animals in 1964. Of course, in the universe of The New Order, there was no group known as The Animals, so the song is in German. Just one of the many things Blazkowicz and the rest of the Resistance are unhappy about.
Wolfenstein: The New Order will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. And if you pre-order it in the next few days, you’ll receive access to the Doom 4 beta (PC, PS4, and Xbox One only.
Nintendo Download: Wii Party U, Scram Kitty, Moon Chronicles, more
This week’s Nintendo Download wants you to Scram! No! Wait! Come back! I’m just talking about Scram Kitty and His Buddy On Rails, an overhead shooter from Dakko Dakko, that is now available to download through the Wii U eShop.
It’s joined this week by a trio of puzzle games as Wii Party U (a minigame collection that was originally released for the Wii U last year), Color Zen (a shape-based puzzler), and Adventures of Lolo (a great “move the blocks” puzzler from the NES era) are now also available from Nintendo’s digital storefront.
3DS owners will be able to download four new games today. The four games include Renegade Kid’s Moon Chronicles, a first person shooter that is a remake of the cult favorite DS game Moon; Mega Man IV, a Virtual Console re-release of the Game Boy platformer; Arc Style: Baseball 3D, a simplistic baseball game from Arc System Works; and Candy Match 3, a match-3 puzzler (just how many of these does the 3DS have?).
More information on all of these titles (as well as Deep Sea Creatures on the DSiWare Shop) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Moon Chronicles, Scram Kitty and His Buddy On Rails, Wii Party U
Ubisoft officially announces Far Cry 4 will be released on November 18
I swear, the Far Cry series gets nuttier with every new release. When I look at the box art for the recently announced Far Cry 4, all I can think of is John “J. Peterman” O’Hurley in his “white poet warlord” phase shouting gibberish at an errand boy. Throw in a dash of Michael York and you’ve got yourself a villain.
He doesn’t have a name yet, but that villain is the “despotic self-appointed king” of Kryat, a mysterious (and fictional) region in the Himalayas. According to Ubisoft, players will have access to “a vast array of weapons, vehicles, and animals” as they venture across Far Cry 4’s open-world landscape.
Ubisoft Montreal is the primary developer on Far Cry 4, but the Watch Dogs studio will receive assistance from Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Kiev. Once they’re finished, this development studio Voltron will release Far Cry 4 on the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 18.
“Following the success of Far Cry 3, we wanted to take the franchise to the next level and create a game that will surprise players and exceed fans’ expectations,” said Dan Hay, Executive Producer. “Given the unique setting, we feel Far Cry 4 will stand out as a top first-person shooter and we’re eager to reveal more about the game in the coming months.”
Players who are eager to pre-order Far Cry 4 will be upgraded to the Limited Edition, which includes the Hurk’s Redemption DLC pack and access to a harpoon gun known as “The Impaler.” Hurk’s Redemption will include three single-player missions starring Hurk, a character originally found in Far Cry 3‘s Monkey Business DLC.
Ubisoft plans to give us our first look at Far Cry 4 during their E3 2014 Media Briefing, which will be held on Monday, June 9 at 6:00 PM (Eastern Time).
Duke Nukem gets a sex change for Interceptor’s Bombshell
February’s non-announcement of Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, a top-down action RPG for the PC and PS4, was one of the strangest things I ever saw (or rather, didn’t see). After very publicly selling the rights to the character to Gearbox in 2010, 3D Realms launched a teaser site and countdown for a brand new Duke Nukem game. Understandably, Gearbox sued 3D Realms over this rather blatant breach of contract. The countdown was put on hold and the lawsuit pushed Interceptor Entertainment’s parent company to purchase 3D Realms (Interceptor was previously teased as the developer behind Mass Destruction).
So here we are today staring down at an official announcement for Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction. Except it’s not a Duke Nukem game anymore. Say hello to Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, the star of Bombshell and a take-no-guff intergalactic bounty hunter. She’s on a mission to save the President from an apocalyptic alien threat in a top-down action RPG for the PC and PS4.
The game’s debut trailer is above and you can practically see the seams where Duke was removed and “Bombshell” was pasted in. A news ticker even includes a dig at Duke’s penchant for chewing bubblegum and kicking ass (“Kick-Ass BubbleGum sales plummet as only customer has ‘too much ass to kick.'”). But she’s got a Skrillex-style haircut and a bionic arm, so she’s clearly an entirely new character.
Bombshell will be on display at this year’s E3 Expo and 3D Realms and Interceptor plan to release it in early 2015.
XBL Store Today: Super Time Force, Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 3, Bullet Witch
After multiple delays, Capybara’s Super Time Force, AKA “Contra with time travel,” is now available for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
On the Xbox 360 Game Store, the side-scroller will be joined by Bullet Witch, an “action girl” game that was originally released in 2007. Needless to say, it’s legacy has been eclipsed by a similarly-styled game released three years later.
And speaking of the number three, this week also marks the release of The Walking Dead Season 2: In Harm’s Way, the third episode in Telltale’s episodic adventure series. What hard decisions will Clementine have to make this time?
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Super Time Force, The Walking Dead Season 2