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
Orchid and Spinal have a bone to pick with the latest Killer Instinct trailer
With less than three weeks to go before the Xbox One is available in stores, Microsoft continues to tease characters from their upcoming free-to-play reboot of Killer Instinct. In the latest trailer, B. Orchid puts the moves on Jago through a combination of high kicks and her tonfas. And be sure to stick around until the end as Spinal, the living skeleton, makes a quick appearance.
Killer Instinct, and the Xbox One console, will be available on November 22.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Killer Instinct
Weekly Warp-Up: Next-Gen November is Here 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 have officially reached November and that means that next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony are just two weeks (PS4) and three weeks (Xbox One) away. Woohoo! The Warp Zoned staff broke down some of our most anticipated next-gen (and current-gen) titles in our look at The Games of November 2013.
But you can’t have a console transition without feeling a little nostalgic for the previous generation. Thankfully, that’s what our “Warp Zoned Rewind” series is for. This week, Staff Writer Mike Ryan looked back at some of the people that could be considered the Jackasses of the 7th Generation and, in honor of Halloween, he embraced his inner serial killer to create a catalog of the Scariest Games. And don’t worry, we’ll continue to look back at the Wii/PS3/Xbox 360 era throughout the rest of the year.
More news from the week that was (including Typing of the Dead: Overkill!) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: CoD: Ghosts, Guided Fate Paradox, Castlevania: LoS Collection, More
You hear that? That’s the sound of freight train coming down the track. It’s got “Call of Duty: Ghosts” (PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360) painted on the side and all the other publishers have gotten out of the way. Activision’s juggernaut of a franchise dominates this week’s new releases, but a few other games will find their way into stores over the next seven days.
Also available this week is The Guided Fate Paradox from NIS America. This RPG is a PS3 exclusive and, like all NIS games, it’s full of the crazy. Just how weird does it get? Well… “Players take on the role of high school student Renya Kagurazaka who has become a god by winning a lottery in a mall.”
Finally, Konami has bundled together Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (and all of its DLC) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD into a single package on the PS3 and Xbox 360. The Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection also includes a playable demo of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, which is scheduled for release next year.
You can find the complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Ghosts, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
XBLA Today: Blood Knights
In case you missed it, Blood Knights was added to the Xbox Live Arcade today:
Two deadly enemies. One blood bond. No mercy. Fight with Alysa and Jeremy against hordes of enemies. Carnage for two: play solo or with a friend! The hack’n’slay offers single and multiplayer modes that allow you to play solo or with another player at any time. Co-op mode opens up a range of different tactical combat options: capture enemies with the vampire grip and drink their blood to increase your strength. Share your blood with your fellow player and support them.
Blood Knights is priced at $14.99 and will also be released for the PC and PS3 at a later date.
Bethesda, Microsoft announce MInecraft: Skyrim Edition for Xbox 360
Microsoft and Mojang have teamed up to announce their next Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition “Mash-Up.” Following on the heels of September’s “Mass Effect Edition,” Minecraft players can now look forward to Fus Ro Dahing their way through Skyrim with the “Skyrim Edition” add-on.
The Skyrim Pack will appropriate many elements from Bethesda’s ultra-popular Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim when its released “soon.” The pack will include a Skyrim-themed texture set, 40 character skins, 20 selections from Skyrim’s score, and a pre-made world that recreates Whiterun, Riverwood, and Bleak Falls Barrow in Minecraft.
If you’re in attendance at this weekend’s Minecon in Orlando, you’ll get a chance to play Minecraft: Skyrim Edition for yourself. If not, head over to the Bethesda Blog for more details on the mash-up’s content and a look at the first screenshots.
Soul Calibur II HD Online burns onto PSN, XBLA on November 20
Namco Bandai has announced that Soul Calibur II HD Online will make its PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade debut on November 20. The acclaimed fighting game has been priced at $19.99 and, as the title states, will include online play and a high definition graphical upgrade.
Soul Calibur II HD Online will also feature two of the three console exclusive characters it was released with in 2003. Both downloadable editions of the game will include Heihachi (originally exclusive to the PS2 version) and Spawn (originally exclusive to the Xbox version). It’s unlikely the GameCube-exclusive character, Link, will ever make the jump to Soul Calibur II HD Online.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Soul Calibur II HD Online
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z embraces the crazy and will arrive in stores on March 4, 2014
Tecmo Koei has announced that Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, the wild Ninja Gaiden spinoff centering on a cyborg ninja battling zombies, will be available in stores on March 4, 2014. In honor of the finalized release date, the publisher has uploaded a new trailer for the game that introduces us to Miss Monday, Yaiba’s handler, and Yaiba’s unique sense of humor:
Step into a stylized living comic book where stunning graphics depict a world gone mad overflowing with hordes of the undead. Only Yaiba’s drive for retribution and willingness to use any means necessary to get the job done can stop the countless waves of zombies in his path. Yaiba’s lust to kill is insatiable as he mercilessly slices through masses of enemies with his sword, or the array of weapons accessible via his cyborg arm. Miss Monday is Yaiba’s virtual escort and is vital to his survival. However, not even she is safe from his brash, unbridled sarcasm.
I’m definitely excited to play Yaiba next year, but it feels like this trailer hit every trope that Suda 51 parodied in last year’s Lollipop Chainsaw.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
Trio of new Wonderbook games will arrive on PS3 on November 12
Prepare to crack open the PS3’s Wonderbook peripheral again. Sony has announced that three new titles that use the magic book will be released on November 12. Here’s what you can expect from each title, courtesy of Sony:
The action-packed detective story Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler, follows the journey of a loveable bookworm super-sleuth in his crime-busting quest to restore harmony to the film noir inspired world of Library City. Help Diggs in his pursuit for justice, and find out who really bumped Humpty from his wall in this intriguing tale.
PlayStation teamed up with BBC Worldwide to bring you Wonderbook: Walking with Dinosaurs, which sets giants like T. rex and Stegosaurus loose in your home.
Wonderbook’s launch title, Book of Spells, brought wizardry to life in your living room, allowing you to cast spells just like a student at Hogwarts. Now you can also try your hand at potion-making with Wonderbook: Book of Potions, the second Wonderbook title to result from Sony’s partnership with Pottermore from J.K. Rowling. You’ll brew magical potions from the Harry Potter stories, compete to win the elusive Golden Cauldron, and find out whether you really have what it takes to become a potions champion.
There will even be a new character, created by J.K. Rowling herself, especially for Book of Potions. In the story, you’ll meet Zygmunt Budge, one of the most accomplished Potioneers ever known — an eccentric, unstable, and vengeful wizard who left Hogwarts at the age of 14 as an act of protest. We had lots of fun bringing his character to life through a number of J.K. Rowling’s delightful stories, and hope you’ll have as much fun meeting him.
Walking With Dinosaurs will be the easiest Wonderbook title to obtain as it will be available both in stores (packaged with the Wonderbook peripheral) and downloadable through the PlayStation Store. Book of Potions will not be available on the PSN and can only be purchased in stores as part of a Wonderbook bundle. Finally, Diggs Nightcrawler will be released as a PSN exclusive. Got all that? Because that kind of complicated sales strategy isn’t complicated at all.
Trailers for Book of Potions and Walking With Dinosaurs can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Diggs Nghtcrawler