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
Nintendo Download: Yoshi’s New Island, Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, Galaga, more
Sony continues to have problems with this week’s PlayStation Store update, but Nintendo has unveiled this week’s Nintendo Download right on time. This week’s new additions include…
- Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels – The formerly Japan-only Super Mario sequel is now available on the Wii U eShop.
- Galaga – One of the most popular games to riff on the Space Invaders formula is now available on the 3DS eShop.
- Yoshi’s New Island – At the stroke of midnight, players will get to help Yoshi keep Baby Mario safe once again on the 3DS eShop.
More information on all of these games, as well as a few others, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Yoshi's New Island
Capcom wants to add YOU to the next Resident Evil game
Capcom hasn’t officially announced the next entry in the Resident Evil series yet, but a new contest on the company’s Capcom-Unity blog makes me think an announcement is imminent.
From now until April 14, the Resident Evil Facebook Page will be home to a special Resident Evil Memories tab. There, you can submit your favorite moment from the long-running horror franchise and, if Capcom picks your name, you’ll be “featured in an upcoming Capcom game.”
As you can see, the contest doesn’t outright state that you’ll be featured in the next Resident Evil game because, once again, there is no next Resident Evil game yet (officially, anyway). But why would Capcom limit the contest to Resident Evil memories unless it was somehow connected to the definitely in-development Resident Evil 7?
Posted in News
Tagged Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The Last of Us takes home Best Game at 2014 BAFTA Awards
The 2014 BAFTA Awards were handed out yesterday in London and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us was crowned the big winner of the night. The Last of US was declared “Best Game” by the British Academy and also took home four additional awards: “Action and Adventure,” “Story,” “Performer” (for Ashley Johnson’s portrayal of Ellie), and “Audio Achievement.”
The Last of Us, an American game, shared the spotlight with two distinctly British titles. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V (“Best British Game,” “Game Design,” and “Multiplayer”) and Media Molecule’s Tearaway (“Mobile & Handheld,” “Family,” and “Artistic Achievement”) won three awards apiece.
The remainder of the awards were split between a handful of games and you can check out the complete list of winners after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360
Tagged BioShock Infinite, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, FIFA 14, Gone Home, Grand Theft Auto V, Tearaway, The Last of Us
Shovel Knight digs into a slight delay and will miss March 31 release date
There’s no joy in Shovelville, for Yacht Club Games has delayed Shovel Knight. Originally scheduled to be released on March 31, the developer has confirmed (via Kickstarter) that a slight delay has befallen the game. Don’t worry, it’s just a few weeks:
So, we hemmed and hawed, and made a Super Important Executive Decision. This update is to let everyone know that Shovel Knight will be missing March 31 by a few weeks to make sure it’s a world class experience, and can release on all platforms simultaneously. This isn’t a major delay, or a long one; it’s simply a stretch of time to get everything polished and aligned. While major development is quickly drawing to a close, there are still some external factors, like submission preparation, which need a little bit more breathing room before the game goes live.
In order to ensure a simultaneous release on the 3DS, Wii U, and PC, Yacht Club has decided to hold off on a new release date announcement until once they get a certification go-ahead from both Nintendo and Valve.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, Wii U
Tagged Shovel Knight
The Elder Scrolls and Theology to be released next month
Former Warp Zoned Contributor Joshua Wise has been plenty busy over the last year. In addition to working on his PhD, Wise found time to edit Past the Sky’s Rim: The Elder Scrolls and Theology. As you may have guessed from the title, the book explores the religious underpinnings of the Elder Scrolls series, giving particular emphasis to Bethesda’s 2011 smash hit, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
The Elder Scrolls series has entranced gamers for two decades with its deep mythology, complex history, and intriguing locations. Players have explored a world in The Elder Scrolls rich with kings, demons, heroes, magic, and gods. Past the Sky’s Rim: The Elder Scrolls and Theology engages with the world from the perspective of academic theology and religious studies. Within these pages, scholars ask what it means to become a god, to die alone in the solitude of Vvardenfell, and to live in a world with different afterlives for different people. Attempting to move beyond a shallow engagement, Past the Sky’s Rim considers video games as serious media capable of transmitting important ideas to those who engage with them and invites readers to think more deeply about what games can say about ultimate realities.
Past the Sky’s Rim: The Elder Scrolls and Theology will be available through your favorite bookseller (including Amazon) on April 15.
Hasbro is asking players to add a word to Official Scrabble Dictionary
Arguments over what counts as a legal Scrabble are a time-honored tradition in many households. While the rules officially forbid “slang,” those non-standard words are only removed from the board if they’re not found in the Official Dictionary after a challenge. But who among us hasn’t had the urge to throw down a well-known slang word like “ZEN”? Now, you might finally get a chance to without having to bluff your way through it.
Hasbro is updating the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary for the first time since 2005 and they are seeking suggestions from the Internet-at-large. After gathering all the suggestions, Hasbro will pit the 16 best choices against each other in the Scrabble Word Showdown bracket. The last word standing will make it into the dictionary (along with thousands of other words chosen by Hasbro). To make a suggestion, just visit the company’s official Facebook page from now until March 28 and nominate your favorite slang word for a promotion to the big time. The Scrabble Word Showdown begins on April 2.
One word can change everything. We’re updating the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online Official Scrabble Players Dictionary for the first time in 9 years with the #ScrabbleWordShowdown!
And in case you were wondering… “KWYJIBO,” “CROMULENT,” and “EMBIGGEN” have all already been suggested.
Posted in News
Tagged Tabletop Games
Angry Birds Epic is a turn-based RPG… seriously
A few weeks ago, Rovio revealed Angry Birds Stella, a girl-powered spinoff to their popular mobile franchise. While we still don’t know what kind of game Stella will be, we now know that the developer is working on another Angry Birds game that is going to be “Epic.”
Angry Birds Epic will star the titular birds and their piggie antagonists in a turn-based RPG and “an extensive crafting system.” The game will “soft launch” this week on the iOS App Store in Australia and Canada. After that, it will expand to several other countries before officially launching on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 8 devices later this year.
You have to hand it to Rovio, they know how to tick all the franchise boxes. In addition to the original Angry Birds trilogy, they’ve produced several crossover games (Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Star Wars I & II), a multiplayer-only version (Angry Birds Friends), a totally different type of game starring the swine (Bad Piggies), and a kart racer (Angry Birds Go!). Hey, it worked for Nintendo…
[Source: Kotaku]
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Angry Birds Epic
First R.B.I. Baseball 14 screenshots bring back the 80s sports game… literally
Today, Yahoo! Sports published the first screenshots of MLB Advanced Media’s mysterious R.B.I. Baseball 14. The game franchise was incredibly popular in the late 80s and early 90s, and the reboot will respect that heritage with its graphics and gameplay style. R.B.I Baseball 14 sidesteps the heavy duty simulation aspects of 2K’s defunct MLB 2K series and Sony’s upcoming MLB 14: The Show to bring video game baseball back to a simpler time.
But don’t think this means that R.B.I. 14 won’t feature realistic baseball. All 30 MLB teams will be represented and 480 players will be included in the game. And the developers will use real-life game metrics compiled by MLB Advanced Media to create each player’s digital self. But all of these statistics will be in service to a game that doesn’t include online multiplayer (it includes local “couch play” only) and only offers three modes: Season, Postseason, and Exhibition. It’s just like the 80s, but many don’t see that as a bad thing.
“There are people out there who would want by a pixel-by-pixel recreation of a game from that era, and there are people who want something that has more control and has more than eight teams,” said Jamie Leece, MLB Advanced Media’s Vice President of Gaming. “If you take a step back and just play the game, what we’re seeing and hearing is: ‘You’re taking me back,’ ‘It feels like the old games,’ ‘It’s so much fun.'”
R.B.I. Baseball 14 will be available as a downloadable game for the PS3, Xbox 360, and mobile platforms in early April (lending credence to this earlier rumor). The game will also slide onto the PS4 and Xbox One “shortly after.”