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
New Releases: TitanFall, Dark Souls II, Yoshi’s New Island, More
It’s finally here. After a boatload of E3 awards and a hugely successful beta, Respawn’s TitanFall is ready to bring man versus mech multiplayer to the PC and Xbox One this week. And if you haven’t picked up an Xbox One console yet, don’t forget that the Xbox One + TitanFall Bundle will also be available on Tuesday.
If you haven’t upgraded to a next-generation system yet, you’ll probably be pleased to know that From Software will bring Dark Souls II to the PS3 and Xbox 360 next week. If you’re waiting on the PC version, it’ll be available at the end of April.
Finally, Nintendo will make the 3DS a Yoshi-er place this week with the release of Yoshi’s New Island and Tecmo Koei will continue the popular Atelier with the release of Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky on the PS3.
A full list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Dark Souls II, TitanFall, Yoshi's New Island
Tales From the Borderlands will tell a two-sided Rashomon-style tale
Marge: You liked Rashomon.
Homer: That’s not how I remember it.
Developers from Telltale Games and Gearbox Software took the stage at the SXSW Festival today to talk about their upcoming collaboration, Tales From the Borderlands. During the talk, the developers revealed that the game will feature a two-sided narrative that will be told in flashback by the two main characters. Fiona, the Carmen Sandiego-like woman in red, is a con artist and Rhys, the cybernetically-enhanced dude with her, will be broody and cybernetically enhanced. Together, they’ll weave a story about their time on Pandora that won’t quite match up with the other’s retelling or with reality. The storytelling conceit, which was borrowed from Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, has been used many times over the years including the Simpsons quote above and my favorite episode of The X-Files ever (season four’s “Bad Blood”).
Tales From the Borderlands is said to be funnier than Telltale’s more recent output (it definitely won’t be like the typically dour The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us) and will feature the franchise’s signature brand of humor. There will also be some shooting sections to the game, but according to Telltale’s Harrison Pink, they’ll be controlled “in a Telltale kind of way.”
Even with all this new information, the developers did not reeval any gameplay video and we still don’t know when Tales From the Borderlands will be released or what platforms it’ll appear on.
[Source: Polygon]
Posted in News
Tagged Tales From the Borderlands
Sony is bringing The Last of Us to a movie theater near you
Screen Gems, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures, has revealed (via Deadline) that they will distribute a film adaptation of one of 2013’s best-loved games: The Last of Us. The company will partner with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures to produce the film and they have given huge amounts of creative control to Naughty Dog, the development team behind the game. Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, Christophe Balestra, and Bruce Straley will serve as “creative architects” on the film along with Creative Director Neil Druckmann, who will also write the screenplay.
Casting for The Last of Us will be crucial to the film’s success as fans have fallen in love with Joel and Ellie and the actors who provide their voices (Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, respectively). It’s unlikely that they’ll reprise their roles in the film as Baker has never acted in a live-action production before and Johnson is more than a decade older than the teenage Ellie. Ellen Page, who turned 27 a few weeks ago and bears more than a passing resemblence to Ellie, is likely also too old to portray the teenager.
A search for a director has also begun and Raimi would seemingly be a perfect fit, though its unknown if he’ll have anything to do with the film besides offering his services as a producer. Plus, he’s got Army of Darkness 2 currently in development.
In recent years, Screen Gems is probably best known as the studio behind the Resident Evil film series, so they’re certainly familiar with adapting beloved game franchises.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3
Tagged The Last of Us
A Playing Card With Fangs: How Puzzle Games Use Characters to Get in Our Heads
An edited and updated version of this article is now available at Video Game Canon.
As video games begin to resemble film and television productions more and more with each passing generation, it’s interesting to observe that puzzle games remain a vibrant genre. Puzzle games burst onto the scene at the very beginning, back when gaming was nothing more than a handful of pixels projected onto an old television. While everyone in the “real world” was attempting to master a Rubik’s Cube in as few moves as possible, gamers were tackling the line destruction of Breakout and the line construction Tetris. However, without realizing it, the puzzle genre became just as story-driven as everything else the game industry produces today. (more…)
Rumor: R.B.I. Baseball 14 will be released for PS3, Xbox 360, mobile platforms in April
Back in January, Major League Baseball announced that the R.B.I. Baseball franchise would be coming out of retirement sometime this Spring. Since then, we’ve heard absolutely nothing about the game, but R.B.I. Baseball 14 is supposedly in development for “current and next generation consoles and smartphones and tablets” at MLB Advanced Media, the league’s in-house technology group.
Even though details about R.B.I. Baseball 14 are scarcer than a Mets playoff appearance, Darren Rovell, ESPN’s Sports Business Reporter, has tweeted that the game will be released for the PS3, Xbox 360, and mobile platforms on April 10:
MLBAM has set its release date for R.B.I. Baseball. PS3 & Xbox 360 hits April 10, same for iOS and Android versions.
— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) March 7, 2014
Can R.B.I. Baseball 14 make its April release date when its little more than a logo and a teaser website right now? I have my doubts, but I guess we’ll see.
PC version of Dark Souls II will be released on April 25
Dark Souls II will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 next week, so now is the perfect time for Bandai Namco to announce that game will be available for the PC on April 25.
The PC edition of Dark Souls II will be the only version of the game to include “increased texture resolution with enhanced frame rates” as well as a keyboard/mouse control option. Players who pre-order the PC edition through Steam, GameStop, Amazon, or ClubNamco will receive a plethora of digital goodies including an Official Digital Dark Souls II Artbook (PDF), an Original Dark Souls II Digital Comic Book written by Rob Williams and Andi Ewington with art by Simon Coleby (PDF), the Complete Digital Game Soundtrack (MP3), and the five special weapons and shields found in the Black Armor Pack.
However, if you like your special editions to include tangible goodies, then the $109.99 Collector’s Edition is for you. Available only through GameStop, Amazon, and ClubNamco, the Collector’s Edition includes a digital download code for the game, a metal case, a 12″ tall Warrior Knight figurine, an exclusive hardbound Art Book, the original game soundtrack, and a cloth map.
And once Dark Souls II is released, I’m sure you can use the map to dry your tears after the brutal AI kills off your character over and over and over again.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Dark Souls II
BattleBlock Theater will jump ship to Steam soon
Friends! Gather round as I share with you the gloriously good news that BattleBlock Theater will be released for the PC through Steam sometime in 2014.
BattleBlock Theater was originally released last year for the Xbox Live Arcade and took home two Golden Pixel Awards in our 2013 year-end overview. So introducing more prisoners friends to Hatty Hattington and the S.S. Friendship is just about the greatest news you could read at 12:03 PM on a lazy Friday. OK, so my “deranged BattleBlock Theater narrator” needs a little work. Thankfully, I’ll have plenty of reasons to jump into the Steam version of the game as The Behemoth (via their blog) has announced plans to add several new features to the game:
- Weapon Switching! Players can now switch between a primary and secondary weapon in game.
- New Cat Guard Enemies! All throughout Story Mode.
- Steam Workshop Integration! For sharing user created levels.
- Steam Inventory Integration! This allows users to trade and sell weapons, prisoners, gems and yarn via Steam.
- X Input, Direct Input, and Keyboard/Mouse Support! How you can play the game.
The Behemoth will also be holding a closed beta to test out the multiplayer portion of BattleBlock Theater’s PC re-release. The beta will run from March 24 through March 31, and if you can sign up for access at The Behemoth’s official website.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged BattleBlock Theater
Forza 5 will be bundled with Xbox One console for a limited time
It looks like the Xbox One + TitanFall Bundle that launches next week won’t be the only special edition package available as Microsoft has announced they plan to release a second Xbox One bundle next week.
According to Major Nelson, Microsoft plans to bundle the Xbox One console with a download code for Forza Motorsport 5 beginning next week. The racing simulation, which was originally released on November 22 alongside the Xbox One’s launch, is one of the next-gen console’s best reviewed games.
Like the current Xbox One package and the TitanFall bundle, The Xbox One + Forza Motorsport 5 Bundle will be priced at $499.99 and it will only be available for a “limited time.”
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Forza Motorsport 5