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
Child of Light, Daylight, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Rambo, more added to PS Store
This week’s PlayStation Store update is very thinky and very shooty. There’s definitely something for everyone… whether you love to use your head or shoot people in theirs.
The thinky side includes Child of Light (PS3, PS4), Ubisoft’s side-scrolling RPG; Daylight (PS4), Atlus’ procedurally-generated horror game; and Yu-Gi-Oh! Millenium Duels (PS3), the latest game in the popular CCG series.
The shooty side is a bit more full with vertically-scrolling shooter Raiden IV: Overkill (PS3), another game adaptation of Rambo (PS3), and the puzzle-shooting of PSone Classic Bust-A-Move 4 (PS3). Also, thugs are prone to shooting at Spider-Man, so let’s throw The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (PS3, PS4) in this category as well.
For those gamers who are looking for something completely different, this week’s final two releases don’t fit in either category. Bandai Namco’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle (PS3) is a fighting game based on the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga series and Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends (PS3) is the latest game in the hack and slash series.
More details on all of these games can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged Child of Light, Daylight, Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends, Rambo, The Amazing Spider-Man 2
XBL Store Today: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on Xbox 360 AND Xbox One
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? After announcing the Xbox One edition of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would miss it’s planned April 29 launch, Activision has gone ahead and uploaded the game to the Xbox Live Game Store. Xbox One owners are able to buy, download, and play the game, so this doesn’t appear to be an accident on Activision’s part. Microsoft’s Major Nelson even promoted the release of the game on his blog.
The Xbox 360 edition of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is also available to download through the Xbox Live Game Store:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($59.99 – Xbox One, $49.99 – Xbox 360)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 takes place outside the events of the 2nd film in a unique story where Spider-Man discovers a larger threat to NYC that has turned the underworld upside down. Villains from the film and classic Marvel characters are woven together in a twisted web of adrenaline-fueled, web-slinging action that puts players on a collision course with an evil far beyond Spider-Man’s reckoning.
Hopefully, Activision will be able to explain what happened to the retail release of of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soon.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Go on a Strike in latest Destiny gameplay trailer
Bungie’s first post-Halo project, Destiny, is screaming towards its September 9 launch on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. To better prepare the public at large for their planned E3 2014 blowout, the developer has released a new gameplay trailer showcasing the “Strike” gameplay mode.
David “DeeJ’ Dague, Bungie’s Community Manager, explained to the PlayStation Blog that a Strike is a “cooperative scenario that sends a Fireteam on a dangerous mission to defeat hostile aliens and reap sweet rewards.” In this Strike, players will battle the Fallen in the House of Devil’s Lair in an attempt to destroy a Machine Guard. If the humans win the day, it will push the aliens further away from The City.
I gotta say, the brightly-colored weapons that the humans use gives Destiny a very unique look.
Play Super Smash Bros. 4 at Best Buy during E3 2014
It looks like Nintendo’s low-key E3 showing was a hit last year as the consolemaker plans to expand on the festivities for this year’s Expo… while still remaining low-key.
Instead of a Nintendo Direct video presentation, this year, Nintendo plans to offer a “Nintendo Digital Event” on Tuesday, June 10 at 12:00 PM (Eastern). Nintendo is calling the Digital Event “a new kind of video program that will reveal and provide further detail about the gaming experiences on the way for Nintendo platforms in 2014 and beyond.” So basically, it’s exactly like a Nintendo Direct video, only bigger.
Nintendo will also add a second video program to their slate of E3 programming, “Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3.” The Treehouse team is the company’s main product development team and they will provide “in-depth game demos live and unscripted from Nintendo’s booth” throughout the entire E3 Expo.
Finally, Nintendo will install a playable demo of one of this year’s biggest games in Best Buy stores across the country. I speak, of course, about Super Smash Bros. 4 for the Wii U. A list of participating Best Buy stores will be viewable via e3.Nintendo.com very soon.
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged E3 2014, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U
Madden NFL 15 will be released on August 26
As the old saying goes… April showers bring Turduckens in May…
Wait, that’s not right. But it is sorta-accurate as EA Sports has announced that Madden NFL 15 will be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on August 26. Once again, the game’s coveted cover athlete will be chosen through a fan vote, the details of which will be announced at 8:00 PM (Eastern) on May 8 during ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft.
Madden NFL 15 delivers everything fans need to own their rivals on both sides of the field, including the most immersive defensive gameplay control in franchise history. Like the Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks, you can win championships and bask in the glory of success by building a great defense fit to challenge the best offenses in the game. Fans will also experience an entirely new broadcast presentation that delivers Madden NFL game day like never before with dramatic all-new camera angles, as well as dynamic pre-game and halftime features. It’s not just football, it’s Madden Season.
As always, Madden NFL 15 is in development at EA Tiburon. The publisher has promised that it will release a more complete look at the next Madden game in June.
First wave of Xbox Originals include Atari landfill dig documentary, Halo TV series, more
A film crew from Microsoft’s Xbox Originals production studio was knee-deep in refuse this past weekend as part of their search for the fabled burial site of “millions” of unsold E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges. The excavation of the New Mexican landfill will serve as the centerpiece to Atari: Game Over, one of the first films in development for Microsoft’s streaming video service. With the excavation a success, Microsoft has decided to unveil all 12 projects that are currently in production within the Xbox Originals office.
The first two Xbox Originals productions will be available for your viewing pleasure this June. They are Bonnaroo, a “live concert destination” for those who cannot attend the annual festival, and Every Street United, a documentary series on street soccer that will culminate in a championship match held during the World Cup this July.
Atari: Game Over will air sometime this year as part of the Signal To Noise documentary series, which will focus on “little known stories of how modern technology has radically altered the way we interact with our world.” And don’t forget, Microsoft still has Steven Spielberg’s Halo Television Series and Ridley Scott’s Halo Digital Feature in production as well.
Looking further out, the studio plans to produce Humans, a series set in a world where life-like robots co-exist with humanity; Deadlands, which is based on the popular pen-and-paper campaign; Extraordinary Believers, a new show from the Robot Chicken team; Fearless, a reality series that follows “individuals who risk their lives to make the world a better place;” Gun Machine, a series based on Warren Ellis’ hardboiled detective novel; Winterworld, a post-apocalyptic series set in an icy future; and an untitled show from the JASH comedy collective.
Every Xbox Original will be viewable through the Xbox Video app, which is available for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8. Complete details on all 12 projects can be found after the break. (more…)
Sportsfriends will bring multiplayer mayhem to PS3, PS4 on May 6
The Die Gute Fabrik collective (which is German for “The Good Factory”) has announced that their manic multiplayer game, Sportsfriends, will be released for the PS3 and PS4 on May 6. The game, a retro-styled collection of four distinct games, is priced at $14.99 and if you purchase the PS3 version through the PlayStation Store, you’ll receive an additional PS4 download for free. Strangely, it doesn’t work the other way around).
Each game in the Sportsfriends collection focuses heavily on local multiplayer play in ways that you’ve never seen before:
- “BaraBariBall” is a Smash Bros./basketball hybrid where players attempt to keep a ball away from the other team, scoring points when the balls hits the ground on their side.
- “Super Pole Riders” is competitive pole-vaulting (and yes, you can make pole-vaulting competitive).
- “Hokra” is a two-on-two soccer-style game that places four goals on the field and gives extra points for how long you keep the ball in the net.
- Finally, “Johann Sebastian Joust” is a party game that encourages players “to jostle your opponents’ controllers while protecting your own.”
Sportsfriends is also in the works for PC platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and will be available to download through Steam soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4
Tagged Sportsfriends
Challenge Carnage in this Launch Trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will launch for the PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, and Xbox 360 tomorrow (a 3DS version is also in the works), so Activision has one more trailer to show us. In addition to appearances from the Green Goblin, Black Cat, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and a surprisingly spry Kingpin, the Launch Trailer confirms that Carnage, the Symbiote-infected alter-ego of serial killer Kletus Cassidy, will tangle with Spider-Man in the game.
The film the game is adapted from, which is also known as The Amazing Spider-Man 2, will open in theaters on Friday.