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
Sony officially unveils Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset for the PS4
It’s been a long time coming, but Sony officially announced Project Morpheus, their virtual reality headset for the PS4, at the 2014 Game Developers Conference last night.
Like the Oculus Rift, Sony’s Morpheus is concerned with presence, a state where “players feel as though they are physically inside the virtual world of a game.” Unlike the relatively self-contained Rift, Morpheus is a head-mounted display that uses the PlayStation Camera to track head orientation so “as the player’s head rotates, the image of the virtual world rotates naturally and intuitively in real-time.” The Morpheus headset can also connect with the PlayStation Move, allowing players to bring objects, such as a sword, into their virtual world and manipulate it using gesture controls.
The Morpheus headset also makes use of 3D sound to orient the player to the game world. Sony gave the example of sounds heard from above and below the player, such as “footsteps climbing up stairs below them, or engine noises of helicopters flying overhead.” Sound will also reach the player differently depending upon the orientation of their head in relation to where the sound came from.
If you’re attending this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Franciso, you’ll be able to test out the Morpheus headset at Sony Computer Entertainment’s booth. Four demos will be available including a virtual reality version of Square Enix’s Thief, as well as Eve: Valkyrie, a multiplayer dogfighting shooter set within CCP’s Eve universe, and two tech demos: “The Castle,” a Move-based medieval combat simulator, and “The Deep,” which places players in a sharkproof cage.
Sony eventually plans to release the Morpheus headset as a commercial product, but the release date is currently unknown and Sony would only say that development is continuing.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged EVE: Valkyrie, GDC 2014, Thief
Walmart will give you gift cards for used games beginning March 26
Walmart is one of the largest retailers of video games and video game consoles in the country. And now, they want a piece of that sweet pre-owned games pie that GameStop controls almost exclusively.
Beginning March 26, shoppers will be able to trade-in their used games at any Walmart or Sam’s Club store. Instead of cash, the retailer will offer a Walmart/Sam’s Club gift card in exchange for the games. The gift card won’t be limited to games and can be used on anything in the store or on the Walmart/Sam’s Club website. To be eligible for Walmart’s trade-in program, the games must be in playable condition and in their original box. And a Walmart employee will check them for “obvious damage such as deep scratches or cracks” before trade-in credit will be issued.
So what does Walmart plan to do with all these used games? After the company takes possession of your games, they will be shipped off to a central processing facility where they will be resurfaced and repackaged. Afterwards, they will be sold in Walmart stores as “Certified Pre-Owned” titles. The process appears to be very similar to how Best Buy currently handles used games.
Posted in News
Decapre is the secret fifth new fighter in Ultra Street Fighter IV
Capcom has finally revealed the secret fifth new character for Ultra Street Fighter IV and it’s… drum roll… Decapre! Wait… who?
According to the Street Fighter Wiki, Decapre is a Doll. The Dolls are a cadre of brainwashed teenage girls who work for M. Bison as assassins and bodyguards. The Dolls have played a part in Street Fighter’s backstory for years as Cammy is a former Doll who broke free of the mind control. Due to their similar pasts, Decapre closely resembles an “Evil Cammy” in much the same way that Akuma is considered by many to be an “Evil Ryu.”
I’ll be honest, I was expecting something a bit more than “Evil Cammy” after how secretive Capcom has been about Ultra Street Fighter IV’s fifth addition.
Ultra Street Fighter IV will be available as a DLC upgrade for Super Street Fighter IV or Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition in June with a standalone retail disc/PC download to follow in August.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter IV
Project Spark open beta now available on Xbox One
Project Spark, Microsoft’s game creation tool for the Xbox One, is now available as an open beta downloadable through the Xbox Live Store.
To celebrate the game’s availability to all, developer Team Dakota has put together the video montage above (which is scored to Linkin Park) showcasing some of the beta’s coolest creations so far. The development team plans to share more of Project Spark’s secrets during a Twitch stream they have scheduled for today, March 18, at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time).
Project Spark is also in development for the PC and Xbox 360, with a full release planned for sometime this year.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Project Spark
The first Angry Birds Epic gameplay trailer is suitably epic
Healing spells… fireballs… lightning bolts… Yup, the first gameplay trailer for Angry Birds Epic proves that the game is definitely a turn-based RPG.
The free-to-play Angry Birds Epic is available now as a “soft launch” game in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Other countries will follow with a full launch planned for later this year.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Angry Birds Epic
Gauntlet returns as a PC-exclusive this Summer
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment plans to reboot another popular Midway franchise this Summer with the release of Gauntlet. In development at Arrowhead Game Studios exclusively for the PC, Gauntlet will bring back the top-down dungeon-crawler in the most faithful way possible:
Gauntlet innovates on past titles while staying true to the brand’s legendary format. Players select from four classic fantasy-based characters: Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, or Elf. Each character has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, the Warrior does the most damage in melee combat, the Wizard has the most powerful magic, the Valkyrie has the most armor and the Elf moves the fastest. Distinctive play styles, procedural dungeons and an impressive art style keep the gameplay fresh.
Gauntlet will include a local or online four-player multiplayer mode as well as support for SteamOS and the Steam Controller. If you’re in San Francisco for the 2014 Game Developers Conference, WB Games and Arrowhead will have a playable version of the game on display at the convention all week.
Finally, we can expect more classic reboots from WB Games in the near future as Gauntlet will mark the first release from the WB Games Vault, which will reimagine “popular Warner Bros. and Midway brands” as brand new downloadable games. I hereby request a new Smash TV, please!
Here’s what the Steam Controller looks like as of March 2014
Valve revealed the first version of their Steam Controller back in September and the company’s initial vision for a PC controller featured a few unorthodox choices, such as a touchpad instead of face buttons. After undergoing a beta test in late 2013, Valve dropped the touchpad and added face buttons in a new version of the controller that debuted during the Steam Dev Days convention in January. And now, the papier-mache mockup is a real controller, as you can see to your right.
Valve plans to let developers and the media play with the prototype during this year’s Game Developers Conference, which begins today in San Francisco. And don’t go thinking this is the final, Valve’s Eric “Axiom” Hope said, “We will be posting more updates very soon about the continuing testing, development, and refinement of the controller.”
[Source: Steam Universe]
Weekly Warp-Up: Snowmapocalypseageddon 2014 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…
After being blanketed by nearly two feet of snow on Wednesday, my little corner of the northeast is almost completely snow-free this Sunday morning. Weather is werd. Thankfully, there were plenty of games to talk about this week as Mike Ryan reviewed the second episode of Telltale’s new Walking Dead series, The Walking Dead Season 2: A House Divided. And Nicole Kline tackled the final release in Level-5’s “Guild01” series, Weapon Shop De Omasse.
And over in Hollywoodland, Andrew Rainnie is once again musing about the Uncharted movie. This time he looks at 10 Actors We Think Could Play Victor “Sully” Sullivan in the Uncharted Movie.
More news from the week that was can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News