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
Transistor Hands-On Preview: Speechless
Supergiant’s first game, Bastion, was an action RPG in the Legend of Zelda mold that didn’t tread on any new gameplay ground. But its narrative voiceover (provided by actor Logan Cunningham), and the way it integrated music into the story, moved Bastion beyond being just an enjoyable XBLA title and pushed it into Game of the Year contender territory back in 2011.
The developer’s second game, the sci-fi action RPG Transistor, made its worldwide debut at last month’s PAX East show. Using a similar isometric view, it’s clear that Transistor shares a fair bit of Bastion’s DNA, but it is also so much more. It’s almost like Bastion turned up to 11. (more…)
Posted in Previews, Top Story
Tagged PAX East 2013, Transistor
Rumor: Xbox 720/Durango to cost $300 with a subscription, $500 standalone
Paul Thurrott is a technology journalist who runs Supersite For Windows. With his high-profile in the tech community, he’s managed to provide accurate reports about the future of Microsoft before. Now, his sources are talking about the Xbox 720/Durango, and Thurrott has appeared on the latest episode of the What the Tech videocast (embedded above) to relay what they told him.
According to Thurrott, he is hearing that the next-generation console will retail for $500, with a $300 “subscription” model also available for purchase. Details on the contract that would go with the subscription contract were unavailable, but Thurott is sure that “Durango is going to be expensive.” The journalist is also hearing that the Xbox 720/Durango will be revealed during a presentation on May 21. A more complete reveal will follow a few weeks later at the E3 Expo. Can’t say there’s anything too shocking about that.
What is surprising is that Thurrott has also corroborated the “always-online” rumor that blew up last week. Writing on his site, Thurrott said: “Folks, the next Xbox is going to require an always-on internet connection. I don’t know the specifics of what that means. […] This piece of information had been communicated to me, along with some other relevant tidbits, in January. It’s true.”
Microsoft’s official statement on the matter (via Major Nelson) is a particularly wordy form of “no comment.” But the statement did say that Adam Orth’s comments “do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products.”
I know the evidence is piling up on the “always-online,” but I’ll be very surprised if it’s present in public version of the Xbox 720/Durango.
StarCraft: Ghost officially still in development at Blizzard
The boys at Blizzard are nothing if not optimistic. Seven years after active development for StarCraft: Ghost ended (and almost a full year after last discussing the game’s status), Blizzard’s Matthew Burger confirmed that it has still never been officially canceled during an interview with a Official PlayStation Magazine UK editor at this year’s PAX East show:
OPM: Is StarCraft: Ghost still an active project for Blizzard?
Burger: It’s on hold. It has never been cancelled.
OPM: So it might still get released?
Burger: Maybe.
If you recall, StarCraft: Ghost was a stealth action game in development at Nihilistic Software (and later, Swingin’ Ape Studios) for the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. After four years of starts and stops, the game was put on “indefinite hold” in 2006. Presumably, if StarCraft: Ghost were released in the future, it would make the leap to the PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii U. But since this would require Blizzard to, more or less, rebuild the game from the ground up, I’d say there’s not much difference between “on hold” and “canceled.”
But as OPM UK’s David Meikleham says, if Gearbox can release Duke Nukem Forever, no game can ever truly be considered dead.
Posted in News
Tagged GameCube, PS2, StarCraft: Ghost, Xbox
Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist webseries hadokens Kickstarter
Have you seen the Street Fighter: Legacy fanfilm before? If not, I highly recommend checking it out on YouTube. After that, you might want to swing over to Kickstarter and check out Joey Ansah and Christian Howard’s next project: a prequel webseries known as Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist.
Ansah (the director) and Howard (who plays Ken) are seeking £625,000 (about $950,000) to produce the series with 25 days currently remaining on the Kickstarter clock. More than a mere fanfilm, this time the duo has secured the rights to create a live-action Street Fighter film from Capcom. So Assassin’s Fist will have the blessing (and marketing support) of Capcom if its successful on Kickstarter:
It is a true warrior’s tale; a coming of age story for Ryu and Ken as boys become men; told in parallel with the dark tale of the generation that came before them, filled with tragedy, loss and heartbreak.
This story really contains all the elements of universal, classic, conflict based story telling; father vs. son; brother vs. brother; a love triangle; betrayal; revenge; and the ultimate question: Can a man change his destiny? Or will the inevitable catch up with him?.
According to Ansah, the production, which has been in various stages of development for the last three years, needs to secure the rest of its budget now, or the team runs the risk of losing the financing they’ve already secured. No pressure or anything.
Halo 4: Castle Map Pack now available; Halo 4 DLC discounts coming April 12
Microsoft has announced that Halo 4‘s “Castle Map Pack” is now available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Like the previous two DLC map packs, it’s been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10). The pack adds three new maps to the game’s multiplayer mode:
- “Daybreak” is set in a military facility against the backdrop of an idyllic mountain range.
- “Outcast” plunges you into the warrens, canyons and arches of an alien edifice.
- “Perdition” takes players into the heart of an urban sprawl, with tactical speed and situational awareness its key features.
And if you haven’t completed your Halo 4 DLC collection yet, Microsoft has got a deal for you this Friday, April 12. For one day only, the War Games Map Pass and the first two individual map packs will be on sale:
- War Games Map Pass: 1600 Microsoft Points ($20) / Regular Price: 2000 Microsoft Points ($25)
- Crimson Map Pack: 600 Microsoft Points ($7.50) / Regular Price: 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
- Majestic Map Pack: 600 Microsoft Points ($7.50) / Regular Price: 800 Microsoft Points ($10)
Project X Zone crosses over to America on June 25
Namco Bandai has revealed, through the game’s official website, that June 25 will be the official release date of the 3DS game Project X Zone.
Project X Zone (which was said to be a working title at the time of the game’s announcement, but is apparently the game’s final title) is a strategy RPG crossover developed by Monolith Soft that brings together characters from Namco Bandai’s stable of games as well as those from Sega and Capcom. As you can see, this bizarre amalgam of a game will include appearances by Dante from Devil May Cry, Mega Man, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Ryu from Street Fighter, Jin Kazama from Tekken, and more than 45 others. In all, more than 200 Namco Bandai, Sega, or Capcom characters will make an appearance in the game.
That’s a lot.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Project X Zone
Torment: Tides of Numenera becomes the most funded game on Kickstrarter ever
Every time I think the Kickstarter train has come to a stop, a different project pulls into a record-breaking station. This time, inXile’s Torment: Tides of Numenera has set a new record for a video game on the site with $4,188,927 in pledges from 74,405 backers. If you missed out on backing the RPG, which was inspired by the well-regarded Planescape: Torment, there’s still time. InXile has set up a PayPal Store for last-minute pledges and pre-orders.
Torment: Tides of Numenera is a massive undertaking and to help with development, inXile has recruited Chris Avellone, the Lead Designer of Planescape: Torment. Here’s what they have planned for Tides of Numenera, which you should be able to play by December 2014:
You are the Last Castoff, the final link in the chain of the lives of the being they call the Changing God. He once was a man who discovered a way to use the relics of the ancients to cheat death and skip across the face of centuries in a succession of bodies. But he never knew that his bodies lived on as his consciousness fled, a new consciousness arising in each. Now he has awakened an age-old enemy, the Angel of Entropy, and his days of change are gone as the Angel hunts him and all his works. That includes… you.
With the ever-present threat of oblivion looming over you, you must find your sire before he—and you—are eradicated by the avenging Angel. You will find allies and enemies among the other castoffs. You might inhabit their minds for a time through the devices called “the Meres,” turning their lives to your advantage. You will travel across the face of the Ninth World, and above and below it, with your companions at your side—or alone, if you wish. Your quest will take you to alternate dimensions and distant worlds under strange suns; particular Meres might afford you even more bizarre experiences, such as folding time itself. And you will build your legacy as you find your answer to the question:
What does one life matter?
You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about Torment: Tides of Numenera by visiting the Kickstarter page and, eventually, the game’s official site.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Torment: Tides of Numenera
Weekly Warp-Up: Post PAX East/Post GDC 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…
The two biggest weeks of the Spring calendar are over and we’re still left sorting through the chaos that the back-to-back schedulding of PAX East and GDC has brought about. This week we wrote up our PAX East notes on Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs presentation and Deep Silver’s hands-on demo of Dead Island: Riptide.
We also took a look back at What We Played in March 2013 and a look forward at The Games of April 2013.
Oh, and Disney shut down LucasArts! I’m still in shock over that one. May The Force be with Star Wars 1313, which we now know would have starred Boba Fett.
No disintegrations, but plenty of news, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News