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
Disney selects EA to develop future Star Wars games
When Disney acquired LucasArts, they assured fans that they would likely be working with third-party developers and publishers to bring future Star Wars games to store shelves. Today, they’ve announced that Electronic Arts has agreed to produce new Star Wars games through a multi-year exclusive licensing agreement. The “Evil Empire” jokes just write themselves with this bit of news.
The deal, which was likely spurred on partly by BioWare’s work with Star Wars: The Old Republic, will include multiple title for the “core gaming audience.” Disney will retain the rights to create Star Wars games for mobile and browser-based platforms.
The first EA-published Star Wars games are already in development, but don’t expect a simple Episode VII tie-in here. EA internal studios DICE and Visceral Games will create entirely original games that include “all new stories” and “new experiences [that] may borrow from [the] films”
It’s unknown if either of these titles are connected to the previously announced Star Wars 1313 or Star Wars: First Assault (or Star Wars: Battlefront III, for that matter).
Posted in News
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Visceral
Shadow of the Eternals crowdfunding campaign has begun
As promised, Precursor Games has released the first details about Shadow of the Eternals and launched the crowdfunding campaign for their spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness. In a neat twist on the crowdfunding model, Precursor has decided to independently run the campaign themselves rather than going with Kickstarter or one of its many competitors.
So if you head over to the Shadow of the Eternals website, you’ll be greeted by the campaign video above and a request for $1.5 million. As we found out Friday, the developer plans to release the game episodically, and the campaign will cover the first episode, which Precursor is calling the “Pilot Episode.” If all goes well, a Summer 2014 release for the CryEngine 3-powered game on the PC and Wii U is planned.
The “Pilot Episode” will take place at Elizabeth Bathory’s home in medieval Hungary, Cachtice Castle. The year is 1610 and the “Blood Countess” has been terrorizing her subjects with abductions and ritualistic killings for 25 years. A first look at the game, with commentary from Denis Dyack, can be found at IGN.
The Precursor team is made up almost exclusively of former Silicon Knights developers. So while Shadow of the Eternals isn’t a direct sequel to the GameCube classic, it’s probably as close as we’ll ever get.
As of 3:15 PM (Eastern Time), the campaign has been active for a little over three hours with over $31,000 (or 2.1%) in pledges. So we might just get it.
Posted in News, PC, Wii U
Tagged Shadow of the Eternals
Michael Biehn teases Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon sequel
Michael Biehn, the 80s action hero who has tangled with both Terminators and Aliens, recently sat down with Microsoft’s Major Nelson for an interview on his Major Nelson Radio podcast. During the course of their chat, the Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon star revealed that Ubisoft Montreal is considering a sequel to the well-received downloadable title:
“Dean [Evans, Creative Director of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon] was with me on the phone last night. He was pretty jacked up. He was going into a meeting today. I think he wants to turn it into some sort of franchise. He’s got a sequel in mind.”
So don’t start planning your Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon 2 party just yet, but it sounds like Ubisoft knows they have a hit on their hands. And knowing Ubisoft as I do, I’m sure they’ll ride that pony to sequel-land sooner or later.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was released for the PC, PSN, and XBLA last week. We loved it so much that it broke our review scale.
Posted in News
Tagged Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
The Sims 4 announced for 2014 release
Electronic Arts and Maxis have announced that the The Sims 4 will be available for the PC and Mac in 2014. Sadly, that’s all we know right now. According to EA’s official blog, The Beat, more details about the next game in The Sims series will be released later today.
The Sims 3 was originally released in June 2009 and was followed by 10 expansion packs (with an 11th on the way this Fall), so it’s probably time for a full sequel.
UPDATE: EA has confirmed The Sims 4 will be an “offline experience.” Thank god for small miracles.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged The Sims 4
Splinter Cell: Blacklist brings back Spies vs Mercs mode
Ubisoft has confirmed that Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist is bringing back the popular “Spies vs Mercenaries” multiplayer mode. To the dismay of many fans of the franchise, “Spies vs Mercs” skipped the last Splinter Cell game, Conviction. Here’s what Ubisoft had to say about the mode’s inclusion in Blacklist:
The stealthy and agile spies have to extract sensitive data from 3 terminals while the powerful and heavy armored Mercs must use any means necessary to stop them. Each team has different abilities and tools at their disposal to outsmart their opponents in an exciting, high stakes redefined multiplayer experience.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist will be released for the PC, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 on August 20.
Doritos Crash Course 2 available for free on May 8
Microsoft’s Major Nelson has confirmed (via Twitter) that Doritos Crash Course 2 will be available as a free download on the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, May 8. The game was developed by Behaviour Interactive, the team that also handled the original.
Doritos Crash Course 2 is inspired by the insane obstacle courses featured in television shows like Wipeout and American Gladiators… all starring your Xbox Avatar. Watch your Avatar get smashed, bashed, and crashed and battle the best times of up to three friends (thanks to an asynchronous ghost mode).
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Doritos Crash Course 2
Wii U version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been delayed
It was expected that Square Enix would release the Director’s Cut of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the Wii U this week. Instead, the game has been quietly delayed with no explanation and no new launch date.
According to a Square Enix spokesman (speaking to Nintendo World Report), Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be released for the console sometime in 2013 and wouldn’t narrow it down any more than that.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Weekly Warp-Up: Duty Calls 2013 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…
Do you hear that? It’s the Call of Duty! Will you answer? The tenth game in Activision’s gargantuan franchise was officially announced this week after a few days of teasing. First there was the European retailer leak, then there was Activision’s own countdown on CallofDuty.com, next was the official announcement of Call of Duty: Ghosts, and finally the confusion over the Wii U version of the game. Is it in development? Who knows. But we’ll get our next dose of Ghosts on May 21 during the “Next Xbox Reveal.”
Here’s what else was happening around Warp Zoned this week…
- We asked “Has THQ’s Demise Made the Game Industry Healthier?”
- We examined the Anomaly 2 Multiplayer Beta.
- And we took a look back at What We Played in April 2013 and examined the scant offerings of The Games of May 2013.
You want more news from this week? It’s after the break. (more…)
Posted in News