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
Mighty No. 9’s GDC 2014 trailer is mega-tastic
I’ve got good news! Especially if you were 10 years old in 1990… Keiji Inafune and Comcept have unveiled another trailer for Mighty No. 9 during their Game Developers Conference presentation!
After Inafune left Capcom, the publisher left Mega Man, his best-known creation, to flounder amid a sea of cancellations and cameos. But the developer has distilled the essence of Mega Man into Mighty No. 9 and produced a game that is looking less “homage” and more “unauthorized sequel” every time we see it. And that’s a good thing. He even patterned Mighty No. 9’s boss robots on the Robot Masters from the original Mega Man. My inner 10-year-old gives this trailer seven thumbs up.
Inafune funded the side-scrolling shooter last year through a mega-successful Kickstarter campaign that ensured the game will be released for nearly every platform imaginable: 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Sony: Project Morpheus won’t launch in 2014, will be priced under $1000
If you were hoping to find a Project Morpheus headset under the tree this Christmas, I’ve got some bad news for you.
Speaking to GameSpot at GDC, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida said that the virtual reality device for the PS4 will not be released in 2014. When asked why, Yoshida revealed that Sony’s engineers are still refining Project Morpheus and that the company is “still making changes to the hardware.”
While Project Morpheus currently only exists as a prototype, Yoshida is confident that the headset will eventually launch with a price tag below $1,000. Sony’s Wearable HDTV headset is currently priced at $1,000 and Yoshida said that gamers can expect a lower price for Project Morpheus because gaming consoles are typically sold at a loss.
For comparison’s sake, executives at Oculus expect the consumer version of their Rift headset to be “affordable.”
Nintendo Download: Pokemon Battle Trozei, Pure Chess, more
It’s Thursday, so that means we’re in store for another update to the Nintendo eShop.
The 3DS leads the way this week with Pokemon Battle Trozei, a strategic puzzle game that includes more than 700 Pokemon. Also available to download on the 3DS this week is Pure Chess, a chess sim, and Yumi’s Odd Odyssey, a puzzle platformer that stars a daredevil fisherwoman.
Over on the Wii U, there’s an HD version of Pure Chess, as well as the Hello Kitty Kruisers kart racer and one of the earliest NES games, Volleyball.
More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
The Last of Us wins Game of the Year at 2014 GDC Awards
The 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards were handed out last night and The Last of Us took home “Game of the Year.” Naughty Dog’s unquestioned dominance in this year’s awards season really makes you wonder, does it ever get boring for Neil Druckmann and company? I’m guessing no, but after winning several BAFTAs, multiple DICE Awards, the Writer’s Guild Award for Videogame Writing, and a Warp Zoned Golden Pixel Award, it stops being surprising. In addition to being selected as “Game of the Year,” The Last of Us was also honored with the “Best Game Design” and “Best Narrative” awards.
But The Last of Us wasn’t the only winner last night. Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was picked as the “Best Handheld/Mobile Game” while IGF darling Papers Please took home the award for “Best Downloadable Game” as well as the “Innovation Award.”
The only other multi-award winner of the night was BioShock Infinite, which was recognized for its sights and sounds with the “Best Visual Art” and “Best Audio” awards. Finally, the low-key Gone Home (and its developer, The Fullbright Company) was picked as the “Best Debut” while the bombastic Grand Theft Auto V took home “Best Technology.”
The full list of this year’s winners can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged BioShock Infinite, GDC 2014, Gone Home, Grand Theft Auto V, Papers Please, The Last of Us, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Papers Please wins big at the 2014 Independent Games Festival
Lucas Pope’s Papers Please was the big winner during last night’s Independent Games Festival. The 2014 edition of the annual awards show honoring independent games gave three awards to Pope’s game including “Excellence in Design,” “Excellence in Narrative,” and the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.” Who knew taking control of a border control agent living under a harsh dictator could be so fun?
Five other games were also honored with awards last night. The “Excellence in Visual Art” award went to Jason Roberts for his puzzler Gorogoa. If you’re more of a sound guy, you’d probably like to know that Simogo was given the “Excellence in Audio” award for their beguiling mobile game, Device 6.
The “Nuovo Award,” which recognizes “abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development,” was given to Tale of Tales for Luxuria Superbia. According to the IGF, Luxuria Superbia is “a musically and visually resplendent title that uses the player’s touch to stimulate in-game sensations of pleasure and joy. Absent any characters or underlying narrative, the game is focused entirely on the experience of traveling through a series of tunnels to make them “feel good” and affect their colors and plumage through the player’s tactile inputs.” Certainly sounds unconventional to me.
The final two awards of the night went to Hopoo Games and Galactic Cage. Hopoo Games is made up of students from the University of Washington and, obviously enough, they took home the “Best Student Game” award for Risk of Rain. Finally, the “Audience Award” went to Galactic Cafe for their work on The Stanley Parable, their heavily-narrated first-person game.
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged GDC 2014, Papers Please
Xbox 360 edition of TitanFall will now be released on April 8
The Xbox 360 edition of TitanFall has been delayed again. Originally set to launch on March 11, the previous-generation port was first pushed back two weeks to March 25. Today, it received another two-week delay and will now be available in stores on April 8.
EA’s Patrick Soderlund has confirmed that the main reason for the delay is to give the Xbox 360 version of the game a little additional polishing:
I’ve been playing the game a lot, and it is fantastic. But we see a few things that can be made even better, so we’re giving Bluepoint a little more time to do just that and deliver an epic Titanfall experience for Xbox 360 players.
You can read more thoughts from Soderlund at TitanFall’s official website.
XBL Store Today: MGS5: Ground Zeroes, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, more
The Xbox Live Store has been updated with several new downloadable offerings and if you’re looking for a few new Xbox 360/Xbox One games today, your choices include:
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Xbox One/Xbox 360) – Hideo Kojima’s latest mission for Big Boss will serve as a prequel to The Phantom Pain as well as serve as an introduction to the new. mechanics found in the game.
- Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (Xbox 360) – Tecmo Koei’s latest Ninja Gaiden game promises cyborg-on-zombie battles and the ability to wield nunchucks made from zombie arms.
- Constant C (XBLA) is a puzzle platformer that messes with gravity and time.
- And Skydive: Proximity Flight (XBLA) is a Kinect-powered wingsuit simulator.
More information on all of these titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
MGS5: Ground Zeroes, Luftrausers, InFamous: Second Son, more added to PS Store
Your eyes do not deceive you, this is reality… Sony has updated their virtual storefront, the PlayStation Store, with a ton of new games.
Leading the way is Sony’s next major PS4 release, InFamous: Second Son. Second Son will spin off with a new main character (Delsin) and a new locale (Seattle) because Cole McGrath lost his life at the end of InFamous 2. In a break from tradition, you’ll have to wait until Friday (March 21) to continue your infamous ways.
Also available for the PS4 this week is Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Hideo Kojima’s prologue to the next Metal Gear game, and Stealth Inc.: Ultimate Edition, a next-gen upgrade to the popular puzzle platformer. Ground Zeroes is also available to download from the PS3 section of the store. Finally, the mining platformer SteamWorld Dig makes the next-generation leap in a special PS4/Vita Cross-Buy edition.
But don’t think the PS3 is being left out in this week’s PlayStation Store update. The Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster has finally been released (it’s available on the Vita too), along with Tecmo Koei’s insane zombie slasher, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, and Vlambeer’s dogfighting sim, Luftrausers (which was released as a PS3/Vita Cross-Buy title).
More information 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…)