Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
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
Weekly Warp-Up: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is Real? 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…
Ubisoft’s neon-drenched Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It doesn’t require the original Far Cry 3 to play and doesn’t include any callbacks to its parent game beyond using the same engine. So why does it include the Far Cry 3 name? The world may never know, but the wave of 80s cliches has already turned this into a must-have game in May.
This week we also chatted with TJ Lutz of Pwnee Studios about Cloudberry Kingdom and how development is going (specifically on the Wii U) as well as his feelings on how hard a platformer should be. Finally this week, we took a look at Supergiant’s Transistor in our continuing coverage of PAX East 2013.
For more new news, hit the jump. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Injustice, Pandora’s Tower, SMT Devil Summoner Soul Hackers, More
NetherRealm Studios (the creators of Mortal Kombat) are back with their latest game, the DC Comics one-on-one fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us. Watch Superman and Batman battle it out for the soul of the DC Universe on the PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii U this Tuesday.
This week also sees the release of the final Operation Rainfall game, Pandora’s Tower. The Operation Rainfall group worked tirelessly to find a publisher for the Wii game (along with Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story before it) and it is amazing that we’ll finally get to play the fruits of their labor for oursselves this week.
A trio of other games will also be available this week:
- Atlus is returning to the world of Shin Megami Tensei this week with Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Soul Hackers on the 3DS.
- Pandora plans to release Victoria II: A Heart of Darkness, the second expansion to Victoria II.
- And the beat ’em up Sacred Citadel is coming to the PC. PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade editions should also be available this week.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Injustice: Gods Among Us, Pandora's Tower
Shovel Knight quadruples Kickstarter goal
Shovel Knight has reached the end of its Kickstarter odyssey and the retro platformer from Yacht Club Games has surpassed the developer’s wildest expectations.
Yacht Club Games, which is made up of several former members of WayForward Technologies, was asking for $75,000 to complete development on the PC, 3DS, and Wii U game. 14,749 backers responded with four times that amount and pledged a total of $311,502. The developer has set up a PayPal account for fans who missed out on the Kickstarter drive and still wish to donate and/or pre-order the game.
This outpouring of support has ensured that every stretch goal Yacht Club set for Shovel Knight will make its way into the final game including:
- Music Player
- Achievements
- New Game+
- 3 Playable Boss Knights
- Linux/Mac Versions
- Gender Swap Mode
- Challenge Mode
- 4 Player Battle Mode With All Boss Knights
- Real, Physical Box
Congratulations to the team at Yacht Club Games. Shovel Knight is currently expected to be released in September.
Official site, YouTube trailers for XCOM FPS taken offline
2K’s successful reboot of the XCOM franchise, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, brought many new fans to the series when it was released last year. The title’s classic turn-based gameplay was combined with modern production values to procude an exciting game that appeared on multiple Game of the Year lists.
But what a lot of people have forgotten is that 2K originally resurrected the series with the announcement of a 2K Marin-developed first person shooter, simply known as XCOM. But like 1984 Ministry of Truth, it seems that the publisher is trying to shove their seven-years-in-the-making game down the Memory Hole.
The XCOM official website and two YouTube videos on 2K’s channel have been removed. Rumors abound that the game has undergone a stylistic shift at 2K Marin, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s true or if the entire game has been scrapped.
[Source: Digital Trends]
State of Decay lurches onto XBLA in June
State of Decay, Undead Labs’ open-world third person zombie survival simulation, has been a long time coming. And after viewing the brand new trailer above, we now know it’ll be available on the Xbox Live Arcade this June.
The end is here. Life as you know it has gone to hell after the mother of all zombie outbreaks. Now you and the few scattered survivors must band together to survive and rebuild in a 3rd-person action game set in a dynamic open world. You choose where to make your stand, designing and fortifying your home base, performing daring raids for food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors with unique talents. The open, sandbox world develops in real-time, dynamically generating content based on your choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.
Just don’t let the armless zombies get you… they’re the worst!
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged State of Decay
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition retail version delayed until June
Microsoft has delayed the release of the retail disc version of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. The game was previously scheduled to hit stores on April 30, but has been pushed back to add in “the very latest content.”
FYI: In order to include the very latest content, the retail version for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has been delayed until June 4 (US)
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) April 12, 2013
The “very latest content” likely includes the upcoming “Title Update 10,” which will fix most of the bugs introduced in “Title Update 9.” With the delay, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition will now be available in stores on June 4.
XBLA Today: Twisted Pixel Games Bundle
Microsoft is getting into the Xbox Live Arcade bundle business and added the Twisted Pixel Games Bundle to their download service today.
The Twisted Pixel Games Bundle includes all four of the developer’s previously released XBLA games: The Maw, Splosion Man, Ms. Splosion Man, and Comic Jumper. Best of all, it’s available for the low, low price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10). If purchased separately, you’d need $45 to buy all four games. So the Bundle is a pretty great deal.
We reviewed Ms. Splosion Man when it was released back in 2011, so be sure to check it out if you’re interested in the bundle. Twisted Pixel’s next XBLA game, LocoCycle, will be released sometime this year.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Comic Jumper, Ms. Splosion Man, Splosion Man, The Maw
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon out-Rambos Rambo on April 30
Not only does Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon out-Rambo Rambo, but it makes The Terminator look like a wuss and shows Duke Nukem how **** got done in the 80s. After being the latest “worst-kept secret in gaming” for a few weeks, Ubisoft has officially announced their glorious combination of 80s cheese and modern-day game design.
Using the Far Cry 3 engine (and little else from its predecessor), Ubisoft has crafted a standalone downloadable title that stars Michael “Kyle Reese/Hicks” Biehn as Sergeant Rex Power Colt. Colt is a “Cyber Commando” who is part-man, part-machine, and all sorts of pissed off that one of his Cyber-Commando comrades has gone rogue. Taking its cues from the long-gone “VHS Era,” Blood Dragon puts an army of laser-spewing lizards and angry robots between Colt and his quarry.
I don’t know if your PC, PS3, or Xbox 360 can contain the pure righteousness that is Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, but those platforms will give it their best shot on April 30 (PSN) or May 1 (PC, XBLA).
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon