Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Author: John Scalzo
Have another look at Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII courtesy of this TGS 2013 trailer
Square Enix released yet another trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII during last week’s Tokyo Game Show. This new look at the game is pretty similar to what we’ve seen before:
Lightning attempts to save the world while others vow to stop her. There’s some Final Fantasy-esque background music and a bunch of fights and then… cut to title card.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 11.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, TGS 2013
Weekly Warp-Up: Honoring Hiroshi Yamauchi
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…
Hiroshi Yamauchi, one of the most important figures in the entire video game industry, died this past week. While Yamauchi’s name might not be as instantly recognizable as Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, or Keiji Inafune, he is likely the person most responsible for making the games industry what it is today. As the former President of Nintendo, Yamauchi steered the company (and the entire industry) out of the great “Video Game Crash of 1983” and pushed forward with the creation of the Famicom/NES. The system’s unquestioned success proved that video games would never really go away and the rest, as they say, was history. On behalf of the world, thank you Mr. Yamauchi.
Elsewhere on Warp Zoned this week, Zackery Cote looked at the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft and opined that World of Warcraft’s Next Expansion Should Be Its Last. And continuing our PAX Prime 2013 coverage, Nicole Kline previewed Transistor.
More news from last week can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Scribblenauts Unmasked, FIFA 14, Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, More
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a new release for the Wii U!
Nintendo’s next-generation system is gathering steam as we head into the Fall gaming period and it continues this week with the release of Scribblenauts Unmasked. Supposedly, the game, which will also be available for the 3DS, brings together every DC Comics character ever in a massive superhero/supervillain crossover.
Gamers will also be able to go for the goal this week as the two biggest soccer game franchises go head-to-head. FIFA 14 (EA Sports has finally dropped the “Soccer” from the title) will be released for the PS3, Vita, and Xbox 360 this week. Meanwhile, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
If soccer isn’t your thing, Armored Core, the giant mech series from From Software, is back with a new installment. Armored Core: Verdict Day will be available this week for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Finally this week, the romantic RPG Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi comes to the 3DS from Aksys in both Standard and Limited editions.
Posted in 3DS, News, PS3, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Armored Core: Verdict Day, FIFA 14, Pro Evolution Soccer 2014, Scribblenauts Unmasked
Deep Down will be Free-To-Play with an open beta available in early 2014
Capcom’s Deep Down is like an enigma that just keeps getting enigma-ier. OK, that’s not a word. But the game’s development has taken a ton of twists and turns since it was revealed earlier this year.
First, we thought it would turn out to be multiplatform. Nope. Deep Down is a PS4 exclusive. Then, we thought it was a medieval dragon-fighting epic. Nope. Turns out the whole thing takes place in New York City about 80 years into the future. Now, Shuhei Yoshida, the President of Sony’s Worldwide Studios division, has tweeted that Deep Down will be released as a free-to-play title:
Capcom just announced that "deep down" will be a f2p game on PS4, planning open Beta near the launch of PS4 in Japan. @Yoshi_OnoChin
— Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) September 21, 2013
When you stop and think about it, it actually makes a weird kind of sense. From what we’ve seen of the game so far, players in Deep Down start in some futuristic hub level and then descend into the demon-infested dungeons below. Selling some of the dungeons to players piecemeal while keeping a small selection of them free could work. If nothing else, it’s very similar to how Microsoft is handling Killer Instinct.
The PS4 is scheduled to launch in Japan on February 22, 2014. Hopefully the open beta will be available internationally so we can all find out how it works together.
New Killer Instinct trailer introduces Sadira, reintroduces B. Orchid
After a bit of teasing, Microsoft has pulled back the curtain on the first original fighter to join Killer Instinct, which will be available for the Xbox One as a digital download on November 22.
As we glimpsed in an earlier trailer, Sadira is part-Baraka (she has claws that she uses in close quarters combat and as projectile weapons) and part-Spider-Man (she has spider powers). She also may or may not have a harem. The trailer above wasn’t too clear on that.
What was clear was the stinger at the end, which revealed fan favorite B. Orchid would also join the game as part of the “Season One” character set. Jago, Sabrewulf, Glacius, and Chief Thunder were revealed earlier, so the game’s roster of eight still has two fighters unaccounted for.
Fingers crossed for Fulgore.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Killer Instinct
XBLA Today: Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death
What is this… I don’t even know…
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death, from publisher 505 Games and developer ZootFly, looks like a lost 80s movie that would have starred Steven Seagal or Wesley Snipes. There’s evil industrialists, ancient demons, voodoo, and someone telling out titular hero, “If it moves, shoot it.” Seriously, what is this… I don’t even know…
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death is now available through the Xbox Live Arcade (and Steam) for $14.99. Happy weekend everybody:
A new breed of WARRIOR returns, committed to destroying the enemies of FREEDOM! No-nonsense hero Marlow never shied away from danger or trouble. But now he faces his ULTIMATE challenge. Blasting into Central America, he has an industrial evil to defeat whilst bound to an ancient Mayan Death Mask who’s had no-one to talk to for 2000 years. With cliffhanger over the top action and cinematic gameplay, Marlow Briggs takes inspiration from the best of blockbuster films, comic book heroes, and action games with its focus on relentless high-octane combat, exotic and danger filled environments and epic set pieces.
WB Games is working on multiple DC Comics adaptations
Two years ago, WB Games Montreal studio head Martin Carrier told reporters that his team was hard at work on multiple games based on DC Comics characters. Since then, we’ve learned that WB Games Montreal was busy bringing the Bat back to his younger days for this October’s Batman: Arkham Origins. But don’t worry, Warner Bros. has plenty of other games starring DC Comics characters in the works.
Kevin Tsujihara, the CEO of Time Warner, recently gave a presentation at the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference. As he was winding up his speech, Tsujihara revealed that Time Warner’s video game arm has multiple projects in development based on DC Comics characters:
“And but we are on track to having a great year in games and we feel very good about where that’s going. And as you said it’s being driven – the new franchises that we are going to be zoning are going to be DC franchises. We think there is big opportunities to build off of what we are doing throughout the rest of the company in games as well.”
Obviously, Tsujihara didn’t reveal any specifics but Rocksteady has been awful quiet in 2013. They have to be working on something.
Posted in News
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight
ClamCase announces GameCase, the first iOS 7-powered controller
Yesterday, Apple gave users their chance to download iOS 7, the latest update to the operating system behind the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. In addition to a variety of interface design changes, iOS 7 adds controller support to your iDevice. Today, ClamCase announced the first controller attachment for iPhones and iPads… the GameCase.
Exploring the add-on’s official website gives you a pretty good idea what the GameCase is capable of. It appears to be a dock that your iPhone or iPad (no iPod Touch support at this time) sits in. The controller inputs (which are laid out in a traditional console controller pattern of two analog sticks, a D-Pad, four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons) interact with the iPhone/iPad using iOS 7’s MFi wireless controller standard. As the GameCase is considered a “wraparound” controller, it also allows players to use the gyroscope/accelerometer for motion controls and the touchscreen for, well, touching.
No release date or price for the GameCase were revealed, but it’s sure to be the first of many iOS 7-powered controllers announced in the coming weeks.