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
Weekly Warp-Up: Star Wars EU RIP + ET in the Desert Edition
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Our PAX East 2014 coverage continues with an analysis of Bethesda’s demo presentation of The Evil Within. We’ve also filed our first “Seen At PAX East 2014” entry with a quick look at the excellent twin-stick shooter We Are Doomed.
The Warp Zoned staff even got together to discuss PAX East 2014 in Continue Countdown #2. Our chat began with The Evil Within and quickly drifted into a discussion about Beyond Good & Evil 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Disney Infinity 2.0, The Last of Us Remastered, Super Mario Bros. 20, Super Smash Bros. 4, and The Behemoth’s Game 4. Finally this week, Mike Ryan dusted off Ubisoft’s next-gen upgrade of Rayman Legends and gave it a review.
That’s it for the big stores, but more news from the week that was can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Mario Golf: World Tour, Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Amazing Spider-Man 2, More
Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can… except not on the Xbox One. Activision will not release their game adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on Microsoft’s next-gen console this week due to unforeseen (and currently unknown) production problems. But the game will make it to nearly every other platform including the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, and Xbox 360. A mobile version for iOS and Android devices will also be available.
Also set to be released this week is a pair of 3DS games from Nintendo. Kirby: Triple Deluxe brings the pink puffball to the 3DS for the first time while Mario tees it up on the links one more time in Mario Golf: World Tour.
Finally this week, Ubisoft will release Child of Light on the PC as well as through every console download service (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U).
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Child of Light, Kirby: Triple Deluxe, Mario Golf: World Tour, The Amazing Spider-Man 2
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Atari cartridges found in New Mexico landfill
While it was long suspected that millions of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges were buried in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill after the great “Video Game Crash of 1983” an Xbox-sponsored dig has finally proven that the failed console company did indeed bury a variety of unsold cartridges in the desert. Historical sources (such as The New York Times) stated the mass burial as fact at the time, but over the years, a number of former Atari executives denied (and occasionally, confirmed) that the cartridges had been discarded.
Today’s dig is part of a planned documentary due to be distributed through Xbox Live by the newly-formed Xbox Entertainment Studios. Zak Penn, the co-writer of X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk is leading the dig as well as directing the documentary.
Before the dig began, Penn told IGN: “Other than garbage and the truth, I have no idea what we’ll find. I think that’s what’s exciting, we won’t know exactly what’s down there until they start digging.”
Well, now we know (knowing is half the battle). One of video gaming’s great urban legends is a legend no more. It is truth. And that’s kind of awesome.
Star Wars EU wiped clean; All future movies, books, games to be part of one continuity
We all expected it, but Lucasfilm made it official yesterday by doing away with the existing Star Wars Expanded Universe in preparation for Episode VII. Originally infamous for the multiple levels of canonicity it imposed on the franchise, going forward, every Star Wars project produced by Lucasfilm (including all movies, games, and books) will hold an equal place in franchise’s continuity. This includes both of EA’s in-production games: DICE LA’s Star Wars: Battlefront and Visceral’s “open world” game.
“We have an unprecedented slate of new Star Wars entertainment on the horizon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm’s President. “We’re set to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, and continue the adventure through games, books, comics, and new formats that are just emerging. This future of interconnected storytelling will allow fans to explore this galaxy in deeper ways than ever before.”
In addition to the six movies, two previous Star Wars television productions will remain valid in the new continuity: The Clone Wars and the upcoming Rebels. But that doesn’t mean that your favorite Star Wars novels will fall into the Holiday Special hole. Many of the books, including the Thrawn Trilogy, will be republished under the “Legends” banner. However, Lucasfilm was quick to point out that “the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded.” New writers may use previously published EU material in the new continuity, with the approval of the new Lucasfilm Story Group, of course.
And about those future books… io9 has revealed that the first Star Wars book in the new continuity will be September’s A New Dawn, which will serve as a prequel to Rebels. It will be followed by Tarkin on November 11, and Heir to the Jedi and Lords of the Sith in early 2015.
So say farewell to the characters from all the fantastic Star Wars games over the years. Shadows of the Empire, Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron, Knights of the Old Republic, The Force Unleashed, and many others… they may be gone, but they’ll all live on in our memory banks.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Visceral
XBL Store Today: Dustforce
Dustforce, Capcom’s janitorial platformer, is now available to download on the Xbox 360 through the console’s Xbox Live Game Store. Previously released for the PS3 and Vita in February, Dustforce carries the same $9.99 price on the Xbox 360.
Here’s what it’s all about, in case “janitorial platformer” didn’t tip you off:
Dustforce ($9.99)
Clean up the world with style! As an acrobatic janitor, you are an adept force against dust and disorder. Leap and dash off walls and ceilings, and deftly traverse precarious environments. Cleanse each level swiftly and thoroughly to achieve mastery in this 2D sweep-’em-up platformer.
Mad Max “Magnum Opus” trailer shows customizable cars and new 2015 release date
WB Games has released a new trailer for their Mad Max game that highlights the vehicles Max and the bandit gangs drive through The Wasteland. The customizable car designs shown in the trailer, including the “Magnum Opus,” a replacement for Max’s “Interceptor,” are also meant to promote a Mad Max-themed episode of West Coast Customs, which will air this Sunday, April 27, on Fox Sports 2 at 10:00 PM (Eastern).
A spearate version of the trailer was also released by WB Games UK with a troubling addendum… a new (and delayed) release date. The Avalanche Studios-developed Mad Max was originally scheduled to be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One this year, but a tag at the end of the UK trailer revealed the game’s new date: 2015. Perhaps this applies only to the UK, but that seems unlikely. Instead, we’ll have to warrior on and deal with the news that Max has been pushed down the road into 2015.
The Last of Us: Grounded Bundle will be available on May 6
Naughty Dog has announced that the next downloadable expansion for The Last of Us, the Grounded Bundle, will be available in the US on May 6 and in Europe on May 7:
Our #TheLastofUs Grounded Bundle DLC is coming the week of May 5 globally. Watch our @Twitch stream for info: http://t.co/Fe0ULzlKxv
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) April 25, 2014
The Grounded Bundle is actually a collection of five separate DLC packs including a “brutal” new difficulty mode, a new set of multiplayer maps, a weapons pack, and a pair of “Skills” packs. Naughty Dog recently held their first Twitch stream to talk about the Grounded Bundle after first detailing the DLC last week.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged The Last of Us
Unreal Engine 4 adds PS4, Xbox One support; Epic confirms next-gen game in development
Epic Games has announced that the 4.1 update to their Unreal Engine 4 subscription service will include support for the PS4 and Xbox One. To showcase the abilities of their new engine on next-generation systems, Epic founder Tim Sweeney told Edge that the company has an “ambitious” PS4 and/or Xbox One title in development: “It’s going to push next-generation graphics as you’d always expect Epic to do.”
In addition to the untitled console game, which won’t be officially announced for “some time,” Epic is also working on an Unreal Engine 4-powered mobile game and Fortnite, their PC-exclusive survival strategy game.
Developers looking to dive into Unreal Engine 4 development are encouraged to peruse all the new features found in 4.1 by viewing the Release Notes on Epic’s website. A Twitch stream with Epic developers is also available for a more in-depth look at the Unreal Engine update.