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
XBL Store Today: The Bridge, PES 2014, Cartoon Network Punchtime XL
Microsoft has performed their latest update of the Xbox Live Game Store and three new games are now available on the digital shelves.
The Bridge is a puzzler that features gorgeous black-and-white artwork that was inspired by M.C. Escher. It’s priced at $9.99.
Also available this week is Cartoon Network Punchtime Explosion XL ($19.99), a Smash Bros-like mashup of Cartoon Network characters, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 ($59.99), the latest game in Konami’s footie franchise.
More information on all three games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Pro Evolution Soccer 2014
Secret Ponchos will be released for PS4 in April
Secret Ponchos was the toast of this year’s PAX East. Large crowds gathered around the Old West-styled arena shooter during all three days of the expo (this includes several members of the Warp Zoned Staff). In addition to the throngs of con-goers, several Sony executives were mightily impressed with the game as well. According to Polygon, the Sony crew was so impressed with the game that they signed a deal with the developers from Switchblade Monkeys that weekend.
Part of this deal included an appearance at E3 2013 and a pledge from the developer that Secret Ponchos would be released on the PS4 first. To ensure that Secret Ponchos would be the best game it could be on Sony next-gen platform, the publisher even gave Switchblade Monkeys access to their PhyreEngine rendering engine. PhyreEngine was previously used by thatgamecompany to create Flow, Flower, and Journey.
The developers hope to release Secret Ponchos on the PS4 in April. The game will also be included as a free download for PlayStation Plus subscribers when its released.
Switchblade Monkeys originally coded Secret Ponchos in the Unity engine with plans to bring it to as many platforms as possible. While an Xbox 360, Xbox One, or Wii U release remains unannounced, plans are in place to eventually bring the game to the PC.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Secret Ponchos
XCOM: Enemy Within, Injustice: Ultimate Edition, more added to PS Store
The last pre-PS4 PlayStation Store update is full of this Fall’s biggest PS3 releases…
- 2K Games released the alien invasion expansion XCOM: Enemy Within.
- WB Games released a bigger Injustice: Gods Among Us package with the “Ultimate Edition.”
- Ratchet & Clank rode off into the sunset in Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus.
- And Sony expanded the Wonderbook line of games with Diggs Nightcrawler and Walking With Dinosaurs.
Also available this week is a Cross-Buy version of Flower that will add the title to the game library on your PS3, Vita, and PS4.
More information on all of these games (and a few others) can be found after the break and a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons is available at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Diggs Nghtcrawler, Flower, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, XCOM: Enemy Within
WB Games announces Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is returning to Middle-Earth with a new game inspired by the Lord of the Rings saga. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is in development for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One at Monolith Productions. If the Monolith name sounds familiar, it should, the team was also responsible for 2012’s Guardians of Middle-Earth.
In the game, players will control a Ranger named Talion as he ventures into Mordor during the time between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. Shadow of Mordor will also appear on the cover of Game Informer‘s December 2013 issue and here’s what they had to say about the game:
While many previous games set in Middle-earth have revolved around the major events or characters depicted in Tolkien’s books, Shadow of Mordor offers a new chapter that fits comfortably between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Players control a lone Ranger by the name of Talion as he journeys deep into the heart of Mordor in the days before it transforms into a blasted hellscape. Along the way, developer Monolith is exploring a fascinating next-gen approach to enemies, encounters, and storytelling, one in which every player shapes their own story through the choices they make. The Nemesis System assures that every enemy you fight is a named foe, and if they survive their battle with you, they continue to grow, improve, and act in the world, even as you attempt to do the same with Talion. Our cover story recounts our extensive look at the game in action, from combat and leveling to story and setting.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor doesn’t currently have a release date, but I’m guessing “soon” is out of the question. One doesn’t simply develop a “fascinating” next-generation game quickly.
PS4 Trophies will also be classified by rarity
OK, this is neat. The Trophy system on the PS4 will work very similarly to the current system employed by the PS3 and the Vita. Trophies will be sorted by difficulty level (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) and earning all Trophies in a game will once again unlock a Platinum Trophy.
However, PS4 Trophies will also be classified by rarity.
In addition to their difficulty rank, Trophies will be tagged with a rarity indicator: Common, Rare, Very Rare, or Ultra Rare. A Trophy might be considered Rare, Very Rare, or Ultra Rare because its hard to obtain. But it might also receive that designation because few PS4 players have played the game it belongs to. A Trophy’s rarity will be constantly recalculated so a Trophy that’s Ultra Rare today could be Common by tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, the PS4 will officially be available when the clock strikes midnight tomorrow night.
[Source: Kotaku]
Sixth World of Warcraft expansion already in the works
The fifth World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was announced during this weekend’s BlizzCon event. Warlords of Draenor doesn’t even have a release date yet, but Blizzard’s President, Mike Morhaime, has revealed the company has already begun development on the MMO’s sixth expansion.
Speaking to Polygon, Morhaime said: “We […] have to start looking further down the road and planning further out,” he said. “We’ve already started working on the expansion after [Warlords of Draenor]. We’ve never done that in the past. We’ve been doing one expansion at a time, sort of a very linear content creation model, and we’ve looked at ways that we can parallelize that. So that while we’re working on this expansion we’re looking at the new one.”
According to Morhaime, Blizzard is undertaking this sped up development schedule to ensure WoW remains “relevant” to the game’s subscriber base, which currently stands at 7.6 million people.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged World of Warcraft
Dead Rising 3 story trailer rises ahead of November 22 launch
The Dead Rising franchise is probably best known for the copious amounts of crazy Capcom has crammed into it. So more than a few gamers have been disappointed by how straight Dead Rising 3 has played it. They ask, “Where are the zombie shenanigans?” This new “Story Trailer” for Dead Rising 3 doesn’t really change trajectory, but it does give us an idea of the sheer sense of scale of the zombie outbreak. Hopefully, Capcom Vancouver has a few surprises in store for us.
Dead Rising 3, and the Xbox One console, will be available on November 22.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Dead Rising 3
Weekly Warp-Up: PS4 Countdown 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…
We’re just five short days from the release of the PlayStation 4. But before Sony’s next-generation console takes center stage, we took a look back at The “AAA” Game. Specifically, Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going, and Did It Kill the “Mid-Tier” Game?
The answer, by the way, is no. That is, if you subscribe to the theory that “indie” games are the new “mid-tier.” Which I do.
Anyway, gamers the world over also got to experience BlizzCon this week, and Blizzard did not disappoint. They introduced World of Warcraft‘s latest expansion, Warlords of Draenor, gave us another look at Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and confirmed that the PS4-exclusive Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition will include both the main game and the expansion.
Hit the jump for more news from the final week before the PS4’s launch. (more…)
Posted in News