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
Happy Wars goes free-to-play on XBLA on October 12
The first free-to-play title on the Xbox Live Arcade, Happy Wars, will be available next Friday, October 12.
The 15-on-15 “cartoon combat” game features “madcap free-for-all battles” as players take their cute critter into battle against other Xbox Live Gold players. Players will be able to fight in open fields, seize castles, and unleash powerful magic as they fight for their piece of the happy kingdom.
And because Happy Wars is a free-to-play title, players will also be able to customize their character’s looks, outfits, and equipment with Happy Stars (the developer’s cute name for in-game collectibles) or purchase them with Happy Tickets (the developer’s cute name for real-world cash).
So you use your cash to fund your credit card which is used to buy Microsoft Points which is turned into Happy Tickets which you can exchange for a cute costume. Sounds perfectly straightforward to me.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Happy Wars
Nintendo Download: Art Academy, Crosswords Plus, Cave Story, more
Nintendo is going big with this week’s Nintendo Download with seven titles are newly available to download today, and an eighth scheduled for release this Sunday, October 7.
This week’s two biggest additions are Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone! and Crosswords Plus. The art tutor and the crossword puzzles collection are now available on the 3DS eShop… and in the same week the retail versions became available in stores. Not bad, Nintendo.
Purchasing either title through the 3DS eShop will also net you a downloadable copy of Donkey Kong: Original Edition, which features the never-before-seen-on-a-home-platform Cement Factory level.
There’s plenty of other new releases this week as well. So hit the jump for a full rundown of this week’s new Nintendo Downloads. (more…)
Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Adventure Update will include these additions, fixes, and changes
According to Microsoft, the “Adventure Update” for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition will be available “soon.” And while they refuse to give us an actual release date of the long-awaited patch, you can find a massive list of new additions to the game (Creative Mode! Survival Mode! New mobs!), bug fixes, and other changes.
And if you’d prefer to see the new features in action, Microsoft is hosting a special livestream tomorrow on their Twitch TV channel. But, and they couldn’t stress this enough, the update will NOT be available to download tomorrow.
Hit the jump for the complete list of patch notes. (more…)
Cliff Bleszinski leaves Epic Games
The man known to many as “CliffyB” has left his post as Design Director of Epic Games, the company said today in a news post on their website. According to the announcement, Bleszinski is leaving Epic to “chart the next stage of his career,” whatever that may be.
Bleszinski is best known for his role in the creation of Gears of War, famously brandishing the trilogy’s “Lancer” weapons at more than one E3 Expo. But the developer also had a hand in Unreal Tournament (and its many sequels) and Jazz Jackrabbit.
“In 20 wonderful years with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski has grown into a true design luminary, and his contributions to the Unreal and Gears series have helped shape the game industry into what it is today. Cliff leaves Epic with our gratitude for his many contributions, and our wishes for continued success in the next chapter of his life,” said Tim Sweeney, Epic’s founder, CEO and Technical Director.
Apparently, the first step in that next chapter involved a viewing of Looper.
Posted in News
Battlecry Studios, Bethesda’s new studio, opens its doors
Bethesda acquired Arkane Studios in 2010 and the developer’s first game under the Bethesda banner, Dishonored, will be in stores next week. So it seems like a perfect time for Bethesda to announce that they’ve opened Battlecry Studios, the company’s second studio in the Austin, Texas area.
Battlecry will be headed up by Rich Vogel, the former Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic. He is currently in the process of staffing the new studio and beginning work on an untitled future project that may be a free-to-play FPS for next generation consoles. At least, those are the jobs Battlecry Studios is currently hiring for.
Hopefully we’ll find out more soon.
No XBLA update today, but it would have been NBA Live 13
Microsoft’s Major Nelson has confirmed, via Twitter, that there won’t be a new addition to the Xbox Live Arcade today. It’s the first Wednesday in quite a long time that Microsoft couldn’t add a new game to its download service.
However, a new game was in the works as of last week. According to the Major, EA’s NBA Live 13 would have appeared on the XBLA today if not for the company’s plan to permanently bench it:
NBA LIVE 13 was supposed to be today’s XBLA title, but EA made the decision not to launch it today. Details here mjr.mn/VgeMlu
— Larry Hryb (@majornelson) October 3, 2012
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged NBA Live 13
John Romero’s about to make Kickstarter his bitch
I respect his contributions to gaming (he co-created Doom, after all), but John Romero will never be able to live down his infamous ad for Daikatana. Now, Romero is back, and along with his former id Software cohort Tom Hall and Wizardy developer Brenda Braithwaite, he’s going to take Kickstarter by storm. Suck it down! (Sorry).
Those three legends of game development lead Loot Drop, a studio that is hard at work on Old School Role-Playing Game, a… wait for it… old school role-playing game. Like many indie developers nowadays, Loot Drop has turned to Kickstarter to fund their new project.
The project is seeking $1 million, but the stretch goals are where the real action is. If the project reaches $1.9 million, Loot Drop will develop two old school RPGs. One will be lead by Hall, while the other will be shepherded by Braithwaite. Oh, and the two games will be linked as “the endings in one game affect the beginnings in another.”
Wow, did John Romero just make me his… huh… I think he did!
Borderlands 3 isn’t in development… yet
Randy Pitchford, the President of Gearbox Software, wants the entire Internet to calm down. In a series of posts on Twitter, Pitchford has done his best to assure everyone that Borderlands 3 isn’t in development. But just like head writer Anthony Burch, Pitchford admits that he’s “thinking about it.”
Chill out internet. No one has started working on a sequel to Borderlands 2.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) October 1, 2012
It’s fun to talk and think, but actual effort is focused on Borderlands 2 DLC, Aliens, etc.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) October 1, 2012
Anthony was speaking to his thoughts.We’re all thinking about it and it’s exciting to think. But there’s no project – no actual effort.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) October 2, 2012
Gee Randy, tell us how you really feel.
Posted in News