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
The Last of Us, Tearaway, Gone Home lead this year’s GDC Awards
The nominees for the 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced and The Last of Us, Gone Home, and Tearaway lead the field with five nominations apiece.
The Last of Us and Gone Home will be competing for this year’s Game of the Year award alongside Grand Theft Auto V, Super Mario 3D World, and Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto V are also in the running for multiple awards as each has been nominated in two additional categories.
Other multi-category nominees this year include The Stanley Parable, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Device 6, and Papers, Please.
This year’s Game Developers Choice Awards will be handed out on Wednesday, March 19 at the San Francisco Moscone Center during the 2014 Game Developers Conference. The full list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2014, Gone Home, Grand Theft Auto V, Super Mario 3D World, Tearaway, The Last of Us, Tomb Raider
2014 Independent Games Festival finalists announced
The Independent Games Festival announced the finalists for their 16th annual awards yesterday. This year, six titles will vie for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize including The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe), Don’t Starve (Klei Entertainment), Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games), Papers, Please (Lucas Pope), Device 6 (Simogo), and Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” (Deirdra Kiai Productions).
The Festival jury found a lot to like about all six of those games as they show up again and again throughout the full list of finalists. You can find the complete list of finalists after the break, including the selections for the Nuovo Award, which honors “Abstract and Unconventional Game Development.”
The IGF Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 19 at the San Francisco Moscone Convention Center, directly preceding the disbursement of this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards during the 2014 Game Developers Conference. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged GDC 2014, Papers Please
WWE Network will be available through PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, mobile devices next month
Whatcha gonna do when the WWE Network runs wild on you?
That’s the question Vince McMahon asked today at CES when he revealed the WWE Network, a streaming subscription service for original and classic WWE content.
So what can wrasslin’ fans expect to find on the WWE Network? For $9.99 per month (with a six month commitment), they’ll receive live access to all 12 WWE Pay-Per-View events (including WrestleMania XXX, Summer Slam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble). In addition to the live events, on-demand streaming of Raw and SmackDown replays will be available as well as original shows such as Countdown, WrestleMania Rewind, and Legends House. More details on these shows can be found at the WWE Network official site.
The WWE Network will be available through the WWE app on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Roku, and mobile devices beginning February 24. Users will also be able to access WWE Network content through the WWE website as well. WWE Network support for the Xbox One and selected Smart TVs will be available this Summer.
Nintendo Download: Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder, Gradius, Cocoto Magic Circus 2
Welcome to another week of Nintendo downloads. Today, the company has added a trio of games to the Nintendo eShop… There’s the real-world picture-taking quest, Chibi-Robo!: Photo Finder (3DS); the classic NES shooter, Gradius (Wii U); and a shooting gallery game, Cocoto Magic Circus 2 (Wii U).
More details on all three games can be found right here:
3DS eShop
Chibi-Robo!: Photo Finder – Become one of the world’s best tiny robot helpers by taking pictures of real-world objects using the Nintendo 3DS Camera to help open a new museum. Collect Happy Points by vacuuming, picking up trash and helping a cast of colorful characters. Collected Happy Points can be used to purchase in-game film that lets you photograph real-world objects and transport them into the game for the museum’s displays.
Wii U eShop
Gradius – In the classic game Gradius, pilot the Vic Viper through seven stages, while shooting, dodging and collecting various power-ups, including missiles, lasers and shields. The only way to end the war is to plunge deep through the enemy forces and destroy them from within.
Cocoto Magic Circus 2 – Knock out Cocoto’s enemies and save his friends!
Get Even uses photorealistic graphics to ask “What Is Real?”
Polish developers The Farm 51 are best known for budget titles like 2009’s Necrovision, last year’s Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, or the Indiana Jones-esque Deadfall Adventures. But for their first next-gen project, the company is getting a little ambitious.
Get Even plays with memories like The Matrix and drops players into a world that melds single-player and multiplayer gameplay. Which “memories” a player chooses to follow will change the how the game progresses. And, according to the developer, “[Other players] on the network can join the quest as enemies, so players never know whether their opponents are human or CPU-based.”
The game will also make extensive use of a brand new 3D photoscanning technology that will literally drop these images into the game to create “expansive and lifelike environments.” “Advanced lighting effects” will add to the immersive images to create an even more realistic world. The developer plans to combine these elements to create a unique shooter that stands out from the crowd.
Wojtek Pazdur, CEO of The Farm 51, said: “As an independent developer, it would be foolish to go head-to-head with the larger companies and create a ‘me too’ knock-off, and frankly we wouldn’t be interested in doing it. We believe that there is still a ton of content and design creativity that has yet to be explored in first-person genre, as well as an audience beyond the warfare player — those are the people we are going for with Get Even.”
Get Even will be available sometime in 2015 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Rumor: Tom Clancy’s The Division delayed into 2015
Tom Clancy’s The Division wowed attendees at last year’s E3 Expo. The MMO from Ubisoft Massive is powered by the brand new Snowdrop Engine and is expected to launch in late 2014 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. However, an anonymous developer within Massive recently told Gamereactor UK that he/she believes that is very unlikely due to the game’s current unfinished state:
“The game engine works well, it’s not done but works well. The actual game development has barely started, however,” says our source.
“The fact that Ubisoft has gone public with a 2014 release date feels laughable to be perfectly honest, we will never be able to release The Division this year. It’s a large project, and we have very far to go.”
Ubisoft hasn’t been shy about touting the technological muscle that has been poured into The Division, so if this report is true, it’s actually rather unsurprising. The Division is, quite literally, a massive game. And Ubisoft surely wants to get it right, as they’ve shown with South Park: The Stick of Truth, Watch Dogs, and The Crew.
And speaking of Ubisoft’s other games, the company has a huge slate of titles on tap for 2014. Even if The Division is ready, moving it would make sense from a practical standpoint. In addition to those three games, Ubisoft has also scheduled Child of Light, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and an untitled new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series for release this year. That’s a lot of games and giving a big new franchise like The Division room to breath makes more sense than sticking to a (possibly) arbitrary 2014 release date.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Tom Clancy's The Division
Don’t Starve, Tiny Brains PS3, more added to PS Store
Sony has posted their weekly update to the PlayStation Store and PS4 gamers now have a chance to play the acclaimed indie Don’t Starve. In addition to Klei’s survival game, this week’s update includes:
- Tiny Brains for the PS3… The puzzle game is part of Sony’s Cross-Buy program, so if you previously purchased the PS4 version, you’ll receive this one for free.
- Twisted Lands: Shadow Town… A hidden object game for the PS3.
- StreetKix: Freestyle… A street soccer game for the PSP.
More details 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…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, PSP
Tagged Don't Starve
Sony sold 4.2 million PS4 consoles in 2013
This morning, Andrew House, President of Sony Computer Entertainment, took the stage during Sony’s Keynote at CES 2014 to talk a bit about the PS4. During his presentation, Mr. House revealed a new sales milestone for the PS4. As of December 28, 2013, Sony has sold 4.2 million PS4 consoles throughout the world.
While Mr. House didn’t mime dropping a mic after his announcement, the sales total is certainly good news for Sony. Yesterday, Microsoft revealed that they sold more than three million Xbox One consoles throughout the world in 2013, so the PS4 is currently enjoying a 1.4-to-1 advantage over the Xbox One.
I’m sure that means something to someone at this point.