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
Next Need For Speed game will launch in 2015
Electronic Arts’ most recent financial report is just a treasure trove of information as EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed that the next Need For Speed game will launch in 2015:
“We also decided not to ship a Need For Speed game in [April 1, 2014-March 31, 2015]. Ghost Games in Gothenburg is working on an innovative new chapter of the storied franchise, and we’ve planned an extended development window to ensure we’re delivering a high-quality experience for Need for Speed players next year.”
It was widely rumored that the next Need For Speed game was completely canceled After Ghost Games UK underwent a round of layoffs in February. Instead, it looks like the developer just scaled back production and delayed the inevitable next installment in the long-running series.
How consistent has the Need For Speed series been for EA up until this announcement? This announcement will mark the first year in over a decade without a Need For Speed game. After releasing Porsche Unleashed in 2000, EA skipped 2001 before delivering Hot Pursuit 2 in 2002.
Posted in News
Tagged Need For Speed
A Halo/Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition crossover is in the works
Microsoft’s PlayXBLA blog is teasing a Halo/Minecraft crossover that will likely take the form of a new Mash-Up Pack (like the previously released ones based on Mass Effect and Skyrim):
We don’t have specific details just yet, but we can confirm that Halo is coming to Minecraft. Details soon.
If you can’t wait to put Master Chief into Minecraft, don’t forget that a Master Chief Skin was released as part of Skin Pack 1 back in July 2012.
EA will unveil 6 new projects, including a Frostbite 3 game coming this Fall, at E3 2014
Electronic Arts has big plans for this year’s E3 Expo. The megapublisher will showcase “at least six projects” during their E3 2014 Press Conference, which they’ll present on Monday, June 9.
Andrew Wilson, EA’s Chief Executive Officer, has confirmed that one project we’ll definitely get a closer look at during E3 2014 is DICE LA’s Star Wars: Battlefront. Speaking yesterday during the company’s quarterly financial report, the CEO said that Battlefront is “coming along very, very well.” But he was quick to reiterate that the game is still a ways off and that “there’s lots and lots of work to go.”
Another one of EA’s big E3 reveals is a bit closer to release as Wilson also confirmed that a brand new Frostbite 3-powered game from “some of our most talented teams” will be on display during this year’s Expo. The game is scheduled to be released this Fall and could be Havana, the police-themed Battlefield game from Visceral that was hinted at back in February.
EA has a very full pipeline of projects in development and the remaining four games could be anything from games we’ve seen (including The Sims 4, which will be released this Fall) to things we haven’t (including Visceral’s Star Wars game, which will launch in 2015 at the earliest). Thankfully, the E3 Expo is only a little more than a month away.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Battlefield Hardline, E3 2014, Star Wars: Battlefront
EA Sports will launch NBA Live 15 in late 2014, PGA Golf 15 in early 2015
EA Sports, specifically the Tiburon team, has several next-generation games planned for release this year and into 2015. In addition to the previously announced Madden NFL 15 (which will launch on August 26), the developer will release NBA Live 15 during the last three months of 2014 as well as an untitled PGA Tour golf game in the first three months of 2015.
It’s currently unknown if NBA Live 15 and Tiburon’s golf game are also in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but it should be noted that last year’s NBA Live 14 only launched for the PS4 and Xbox One. The next PGA Tour golf game will also be the first since EA Sports parted ways with Tiger Woods in October and the publisher may want to use this opportunity to skip the PS3 and Xbox 360.
According to Andrew Wilson, EA’s CEO, the development team at Tiburon has been using “community feedback” to fine tune NBA Live 15 and the next PGA Tour golf game will be “something entirely new.” Hopefully, we’ll learn more about both soon.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged NBA Live 15, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
XBL Store Today: Peggle 2 (Xbox 360)
After an Xbox One launch last December, PopCap’s Peggle 2 is ready to ricochet onto the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade today. Priced at $11.99, the puzzler will include all the Peggle Masters, magic powers, multiplayer modes, and levels of the Xbox One edition:
Peggle 2 ($11.99)
Everything is better with Peggle! Catch the fever now on Xbox 360 with Peggle 2, where you’ll master over 120 new levels and trials in the sequel to one of the most engaging puzzle-action games of all time. Unleash amazing magic powers as you learn from Peggle Master Bjorn, and four all-new masters like the dark and mysterious Luna, while you shoot balls at colorful, challenging boards of pegs to reach Extreme Fever. But there’s more! Unlocked costumes allow you to dress up the various masters for laughs and for multiplayer fun. And try four-player Peg Party mode or two-player Duel mode, which let you deploy your Peggle skills to the utmost against friends and family. Peggle 2 is a game for our age, and, indeed, all ages!
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire remakes coming to 3DS this November
Nintendo released Pokemon X and Y on the 3DS last Fall to critical acclaim and big sales. Today, they’ve announced that the pocket monsters will return to the handheld courtesy of a pair of remakes… Pokemon: Omega Ruby and Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire.
Originally released in 2003, Ruby and Sapphire are part of the third generation of Pokemon games and they were the first to be available for the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo has a habit of remaking Pokemon games and Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will follow in the footsteps of previous remakes such as Red/Green (Generation I) and Gold/Silver (Generation II).
Details on Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are still pretty scarce, but we know the games will be available worldwide sometime in November.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby
Sportsfriends, GoW Collection, MLB 14: The Show PS4, more added to PS Store
Gather all your friends, because its Sportsfriends time. The retro-inspired multiplayer game offers four unconventional twists on the standard sports game (including competitive pole vaulting, a Smash Bros./dodgeball mashup, and four-goal soccer) and pulls them all together in one awesome package for the PS3 and PS4. Speaking of sports, MLB 14: The Show has also been released for the PS4 and the acclaimed soccer management sim, Football Manager Classic 2014, is now available for the Vita.
The ancient sport of “killing lots of dudes” represents itself well in this week’s PlayStation Store update as God of War Collection (a compilation of God of War and God of War II) is now available for the Vita (as a PS3/Vita Cross-Buy game) and action RPG Bound By Flame has been released for the PS3 and PS4. Are you not entertained?
Finally this week, the beloved PS2 RPG Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne has been added to the PS2 Classics storefront.
More information on all of these titles (and a few additional new releases) can be found after the break. A complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Bound by Flame, God of War Collection, MLB 14: The Show, Sportsfriends
Mortal Kombat creator is secretly counting down to something on Twitter
Ed Boon loves Twitter. The Mortal Kombat maestro has had an account with the microblogging service since November 2008 and he has churned out more than 9,500 tweets in that time. Lately, he’s begun a coded countdown that is set to expire on June 2, just a week before the start of this year’s E3 Expo.
On Sunday, Boon tweeted “Square root of 841” to his followers (which is 29, by the way). Yesterday, he asked the Twitterverse to answer this question: “How many days in (non-leap-year) February?” IGN caught on to Boon’s secret countdown and, unless he’s given up, we’re all eagerly awaiting today’s veiled reference to 27.
According to previous statements made by Boon, multiple executives with WB Games, and 24‘s Kiefer Sutherland, NetherRealm Studios has already begun development on Mortal Kombat 10. Fans are definitely anxious to “Finish Him!” once more as the last game in the series, a total series reboot, was released in 2011.
Here’s hoping that the regularly playful Boon isn’t just toying with us ahead of gaming’s biggest showcase.
Posted in News
Tagged E3 2014, Mortal Kombat X