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: PS4, XCOM: Enemy Within, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, More
Part One of this year’s next-generation console extravaganza begins this week with the launch of PlayStation 4. If you haven’t already ordered one, Sony’s new machine may be hard to find, but peripherals like the PS4 Camera are plentiful. However, if you have the next-gen plunge, here’s what gaming opportunities you can expect to see on store shelves this week:
- Angry Birds Star Wars
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Battlefield 4
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- FIFA 14
- Injustice: Gods Among Us – Ultimate Edition
- Just Dance 2014
- Killzone: Shadow Fall
- Knack
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes
- Madden NFL 25
- NBA 2K14
- Need Foe Speed: Rivals
- Skylanders Swap Force
If the next-generation of consoles is still a bit too expensive for you (or you’re waiting for the impending Xbox One launch), there’s also a few current-generation games to keep us busy this week. XCOM: Enemy Within, the expansion to last year’s massively well-received XCOM: Enemy Unknown, will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. And the possibly final voyage of Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, will be released for the PS3. Finally, Mario & Sonic square off again in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games on the Wii U.
There’s more new games where those came from and you can find a complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, XCOM: Enemy Within
PS4 will receive Diablo III/Reaper of Souls “Ultimate Evil Edition” bundle
We all expected it, but Blizzard has confirmed that next year’s release of Diablo III on the PS4 will include the Reaper of Souls expansion. The BlizzCon 2013 announcement also confirmed that the bundle will be known as the “Ultimate Evil Edition.”
Players of Diablo III on the PS4 can look forward to experiencing the revamped loot system, same-screen co-op, direct character control, and online play of the PS3/Xbox 360 version. And the new Reaper of Souls content (including the Crusader character class, Adventure Mode, the Mystic Artisan, and Nephalem Rifts) will make the “Ultimate Evil Edition” the most complete version of Diablo III available for consoles.
Blizzard has yet to announce if Reaper of Souls will be released for the Xbox 360 or if Diablo III will be available on the Xbox One in any form. Even if the game is coming to Microsoft’s console, due to Blizzard’s deal with Sony, the publisher’s radio will likely stay silent for the forseeable future.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Diablo III
XBL Store Today: Angry Birds Star Wars, WWE 14, Pac-Man: Ghostly Adventures, Final Exam
The Xbox Live Game Store expands again with the addition of three new Games on Demand and one new Xbox Live Arcade title today.
The three new Games on Demand include the Star Wars-themed airborne avian attack of Angry Birds Star Wars; The first 2K-published wrestling game, WWE 2K14; and Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, the latest starring role for one of gaming’s earliest characters.
Over on the Xbox Live Arcade is Final Exam, a 2.5D side-scrolling beat ’em up that takes place in the Obscure universe.
More details on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Angry Birds Star Wars, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, WWE 2K14
New Diablo III: Reaper of Souls trailer shows off the expansion’s many features
BlizzCon opens today in Anaheim, California and to get you in the right mood, Blizzard has released a new trailer for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls highlighting the expansion’s many new features:
- Collect Bounties in “Adventure Mode.”
- Battle a seemingly unending wave of enemies emerging from “Nephalem Rifts.”
- Organize your friends in “Clans and Groups.”
- Visit a new Artisan, “The Mystic,” to enchant and transmorgrify your gear.
- And become even more of a Paragon with the “Updated Paragon System.”
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls will be available sometime next year for the PC and PS4.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Diablo III
See BioWare developers working on Mass Effect 4
BioWare likes to refer to November 7 as “N7 Day.” It’s an excuse to celebrate and an excuse to share their love for the Mass Effect franchise with their fans. During this year’s celebration, a quartet of developers took to Twitter to show off a few images from Mass Effect 4.
It’s very early stuff, but hit the jump to look over the shoulders of Producer Mike Gamble, Studio Director Yanick Roy, Level Designer Gary Stewart, and Gameplay Designer Manveer Heir as they work on the next installment in the series. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Mass Effect: Andromeda
Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin “won’t rule out” Call of Duty IN SPACE
While they were riding high off the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2010, Activision filed a trademark application for Call of Duty: Space Warfare. The publisher let the trademark lapse last year, but with the genie out of the bottle, fans and the press have been asking about a sci-fi-tinged Call of Duty ever since.
Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin had to field another of these queries while speaking to the Metro newspaper about the recent launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts. The question is especially relevant now as Ghosts featured several missions on a space station high above the Earth. While it looks like Call of Duty: Space Warfare isn’t happening right now, Rubin wouldn’t rule it out completely:
Metro: The space levels got me thinking about all the rumours that you or Treyarch were going to do a space marine type game and this really convinced me it would work. You could play it straight, it doesn’t need to be Warhammer or have aliens even. But you could have levels with different gravity, different weapons and it would still be perfectly grounded in realism. Perhaps ironically, more so than the current games.
Rubin: Yeah. It makes sense. I wouldn’t count it out. Everything’s on the table. When we start a new game every possibility’s on the table. If we think that it’d be cool to have a battle over Jupiter, sure. Why not?
The rest of the interview is definitely worth a look as Metro’s David Jenkins spends his time hammering Rubin with more questions about “Call of Duty IN SPACE” and about the perceived graphical differences between the PS4 and Xbox One. Rubin doesn’t say anything about that, but it’s a fun read all the same.
Until Dawn is still in development at Supermassive Games
Like a masked killer stalking nubile teens in a wooded area, Until Dawn creeps around the corners of Sony’s future plans for the PS3. Sony hasn’t made an official announcement concerning the game in over a year, but the development team at Supermassive Games has assured Polygon they are still hard at work on the horror title:
“Until Dawn is very much still in development, going really well, and without any deliberations of possible cancelation that I’m aware of,” Supermassive’s Pete Samuels said. “We’re very pleased with the way it’s going. I’m sure that there will be more news soon, but I couldn’t say exactly when.”
Back in April, Sony released Until Dawn’s official box art. The image claimed that the title would be “Move Compatible” instead of “Move Required” as Sony originally announced. It’s unknown if that change is behind the release date delay (Until Dawn is still officially listed as a 2013 title on PlayStation.com) or if Supermassive is preparing to bring Until Dawn to the PS4.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Until Dawn
Nintendo Download: Wii Sports Club, Toki Tori, Kid Icarus: Uprising, More
Wii Sports is back! Wii Sports Club: Tennis and Wii Sports Club: Bowling, the high definition and online-enabled remakes of the Wii’s flagship pack-in game, are now available as individual downloads. Each Wii Sports Club title is priced at $9.99, but if you’d rather not own each individual sport, Nintendo plans to also offer a Wii Sports Club “Day Pass.” Priced at $1.99, the Day Pass will give players access to all available Wii Sports Club sports for a 24-hour period. Baseball, Golf, and Boxing will be available at a later date.
Also available on the Wii U eShop today is Toki Tori. Based on the popular Game Boy Color title of the same name, Toki Tori was a puzzle platformer that was originally released before puzzle platformers were cool.
Over on the 3DS side of the store is the long-awaited digital release of Kid Icarus: Uprising. I could have sworn this happened months ago, but I guess not. If you haven’t picked up Pit’s latest adventure yet, now’s your chance to do it without leaving the house.
More details on all of these games, as well as many more (including Wario’s Woods), can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Wii Sports Club: Bowling, Wii Sports Club: Tennis