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
Ace Combat: Infinity is Free-To-Play and will be available this year
Namco Bandai has released a few more details about Ace Combat: Infinity, including a release date (sometime in 2013) and whether or not it’s a free-to-play game (it is). Yes, you read that right, the next Ace Combat game will be free-to-play and, as of now, available exclusively on the PS3.
Namco Bandai isn’t looking at Infinity as some free-to-play cash grab. The game will be developed by Project Aces, the same team that has been responsible for the rest of the titles in franchise. It will also include a large Story Campaign Mode for solo players and a 2v2 multiplayer mode where teams will compete to inflict the most damage on a common enemy.
“The Ace Combat franchise has evolved dramatically over the years, but never before have we been able to offer its amazing graphics and tactical action for free,” said Olivier Comte, Senior Vice President at Namco Bandai Games Europe. “The team at Project Aces listens very carefully to its players, and is bringing the best the series has to offer to Ace Combat: Infinity, with plenty of new surprises too.”
Namco Bandai has released a new teaser trailer for Ace Combat: Infinity, which you can find after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Ace Combat: Infinity
Nintendo Download: Pikmin 3, Cloudberry Kingdom, Planes, more
Nintendo has updated the Wii U eShop and 3DS eShop with a ton of new games today, but this week’s biggest release, Pikmin 3, won’t be available until Sunday. If the further adventures of Captain Olimar and his little companions doesn’t interest you, Pwnee’s insane platformer, Cloudberry Kingdom, is available for the Wii U today. And if neither of those games are of interest to you, 3DS and Wii U adaptations of Disney’s Planes will be available to download on Tuesday, August 6.
Virtual Console fans will be interested in knowing that Harvest Moon (originally released for the Super NES) has been added to the Wii U eShop and Kirby’s Dream Land 2 (originally released for the black-and-white Game Boy) has been added to the 3DS eShop.
More information on all of these games and a few additional releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Square Enix confirms that a next-gen Tomb Raider sequel is in the works
Phil Rogers, the CEO of Square Enix Europe, wants to set the record straight. In an open letter to fans on their official blog, the executive discussed the company’s strategy for publishing games on next-generation systems and promised, “[W]e’re not abandoning core, triple-A console and PC games.”
To prove his point, Rogers reaffirmed that games such as Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, and Thief are still in development. He also confirmed that a sequel to this year’s Tomb Raider reboot is officially in the works, backing up comments Gail Simone made at Comic-Con two weeks ago.
Rogers didn’t confirm which platforms the untitled game will appear or even if Crystal Dynamics is developing it. But he did say, “I am also excited to reveal that we are well into development on a next-generation Tomb Raider sequel.”
So now we can all start speculating what “well into development” means.
Posted in News
Tagged Rise of the Tomb Raider
Legend of Dungeon beta is now available
Robot Loves Kitty has announced that their “roguelike beat ’em up,” Legend of Dungeon, has entered the beta phase. The developer began selling the game in “Nearly Beta” form earlier this Spring (it was also available to play at PAX East) and has since followed it up with two further iterations: “Alpha Minotaur” and “Alpha Nymph.”
The “Beta” version of the game is available to purchase from RLK’s official website for $10, but everyone who bought the “Nearly Beta” version will receive a free upgrade. The “Beta” adds a bunch of new features to the game including local and online scoreboards, NPCs, secrets, flame throwers, and “baby gerbil throwing gerbil hats.” Um… OK.
The full list of changes can be found at Robot Loves Kitty’s Tumbler. If you’d like to see the new version of Legend of Dungeon in action, the developer is hosting a livestream tonight at 9:00 PM (Eastern Time) on Twitch.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Legend of Dungeon
EA expects to release Star Wars: Battlefront in 2015
In the run-up to this year’s E3 Expo, Electronic Arts broke our hearts and confirmed that the DICE-developed Star Wars: Battlefront wouldn’t be released this year. It looks like it won’t be released next year either. The publisher held their Annual Meeting of Stockholders yesterday and CFO Blake Jorgensen told the assembled crowd that EA plans to release the next Battlefront alongside the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode VII in 2015:
“We have partnered with Walt Disney and LucasFilm to develop a whole new generation of Star Wars games for the console as well as for mobile and handheld devices. The first game that we’re focused on is Battlefront. It’s a traditional game that’s done extremely well and this will most likely come out around the same time as the Star Wars movies start to come out, probably in the Summer of [2015].”
Jorgensen didn’t mention the company’s other Star Wars project, an untitled game in the works at Visceral, but presumably it’ll be released after Battlefront.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront
Rise of the Triad now available… check out the ludicrous launch trailer
Interceptor Entertainment’s reboot of Rise of the Triad is now available to download from your favorite digital retailer (for $14.99) and here’s the ludicrous launch trailer to prove it.
Flying eyeballs, spider women, enchanted baseball bats, a gun that shoots a literal wall of flame, and the ability to play as a dog. Yup, this is Rise of the Triad alright.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Rise of the Triad
Rockstar renews trademark for Bully… but what does it mean?
It looks like yet another long-dormant series has been given a chance at new life thanks to a recent trademark application. Rockstar Games has followed up last week’s filing for Agent with another application, this time for Bully, with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Bully was originally released for the PS2 in 2006 (it was also ported to the Xbox 360, Wii, and PC in 2008) and generated controversy for some of its content. In addition to teen-on-teen violence, the game was criticized by some conservative pundits because the main character was able to enter into a same-sex relationship with another boy. In spite of, or perhaps because of, these controversies, Bully has gained a sizable cult following.
This new trademark filing doesn’t guarantee that Bully 2 is in the works, but you can count Rockstar co-founder among its fans. In 2011, he told Gamasutra, “[W]e knew that we didn’t want to start doing the Bully sequel instantly at that second with those guys — even though it is a property that, like Max, we adore and might come back to in the future.”
Rockstar’s Vancouver team was the original developer behind Bully, but they have since merged with Rockstar Toronto. The Canadian team is currently hiring for an unannounced next-generation project, so perhaps this is more than just a routine trademark extension…
Posted in News
XBLA Today: Cloudberry Kingdom, Narco Terror
If you paid attention to yesterday’s PlayStation Store update, you should be familiar with today’s new Xbox Live Arcade offerings. First up is Pwnee Studios and their procedurally generated platformer, Cloudberry Kingdom:
Unhappily ever after. That’s how it starts. The Orb resurfaces and the classic characters return. Kobbler with his mania, Princess with her endless boredom. It’s only a matter of time before Bob, our hero, shows up to restore order back to madness. Three powers struggle for victory and the fate of Cloudberry Kingdom hangs in the balance. What will become of the retired hero, Bob? Will saving Princess one last time win her love? Could true love ever stop Kobbler and the power of the Orb?
Next we have Narco Terror, a twin-stick shooter from Deep Silver:
Dishing out justice, one grenade at a time! Narco Terror combines the good of the old and the amazing of the new in an action-packed twin-stick shooter about an over-the-top one-man war against a drug cartel. In true arcade-style, it is filled with unlimited ammo, ear-splitting grenades, huge explosions, massive tanks, armed helicopters and fast planes.
Both games have been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10).
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Cloudberry Kingdom