Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: News
Mages of Mystralia will cast a spell on the PS4 (and maybe the Xbox One) in Spring 2017
Earlier this week Borealys Games announced their upcoming action RPG, Mages of Mystralia, will also be released for the PS4 in Spring 2017. Already in development for the PC, the announcement was made on the PlayStation Blog, along with the release of a new trailer and a bit more information about the game’s backstory:
To feel powerful and wise, you must first know what it’s like to be weak and unwise. In Mages of Mystralia, you play as Zia, a young girl who discovers one day that she has the gift of magic. In the Mystralia universe, magic is known to exist, but it is rare — and illegal. Zia goes into exile on a quest to learn the ways of magic and master her skills. Along the way, she discovers runes which can be combined in different ways to create new spells.
Mages of Mystralia’s spellcasting is said to give players “potentially millions of ways” to craft new spells, and PS4 fans will get the chance to test out a demo of the game’s magic system next month at the PlayStation Experience in Anaheim.
Dan Adelman, Mages of Mystralia’s PR Guru, also revealed that Borealys is in discussions with Microsoft to bring the game to the Xbox One. While Adelman didn’t have anything official to announce just yet, he said on Twitter that the talks have produced “positive vibes all around.”
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Mages of Mystralia, PlayStation Experience 2016
Batman: The Telltale Series – Episode 4 gets the last laugh on November 22
Ladies and gentlemen, The Joker has arrived. The Clown of Crime will make his Batman: The Telltale Series debut in Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham, which asks players to help Bruce Wayne attempt to escape from Arkham Asylum:
In Episode 4, Penguin has taken control of Wayne Enterprises, and the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane has a new guest – you – Bruce Wayne. With the Batman removed from the streets of Gotham City, Harvey Dent’s forces and the Children of Arkham are at war, with innocent citizens caught in the crossfire. To escape the “comforts” of your padded cell, you must choose allies to aid in your escape, even if they aren’t the sort to put a smile on your face. How far are you willing to go for justice? For vengeance? What now, Dark Knight?
Batman: The Telltale Series – Episode 4: Guardian of Gotham will be available to download for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices on November 22. You can get a sneak peek at Episode 4 in the embedded above, but beware of spoilers if you’re not caught up to the latest chapter.
GamePump will bring classic games to Steam starting in January 2017
Are you in the market for another monthly blind subscription service for games? While IndieBox and Humble Monthly are already familiar names to many gamers, GamePump will soon enter the crowded space with a unique gimmick that just might help them stand out.
According to the service’s official website, GamePump will team up with veteran developers to bring “gaming artifacts” to Steam for the first time. This includes classic PC games from a bygone era, as well as games that were only released for consoles during their original run. GamePump also plans to publish original games and work with developers who are interested in creating spiritual successors to their retro hits.
How GamePump Works
We partner with video game veterans of today and yesteryear to reclaim lost gaming artifacts.Which is a really fancy way of saying, we revive classic game libraries from the proverbial basements of some of the top video game publishers in the world and help bring them to modern hardware.
How Can We Make This Promise?
We only publish games that have never been on Steam. This includes bringing classic console exclusives to the PC for the first time ever by partnering with the premiere indie developers. In addition, some games are developed exclusively for GamePump as spiritual successors to your favorite game franchises of the past.
Because GamePump is a blind subscription service, the company doesn’t want to pre-announce any of the titles they’ve got lined up for their first year. However, IndieDB recently sat down with founder Robert Bowling (that’s right… the Call of Duty guy), and he revealed that WayForward is developing one of GamePump’s first offerings.
GamePump currently offers three subscription tiers on their website including 12 Months ($20), 3 Months ($15), and 1 Month ($5). The company’s first game will be available in January 2017.
Microsoft is repackaging backwards compatible Xbox 360 games in Xbox One cases
More and more Xbox 360 games are added to the Xbox One Backwards Compatibility list every week, and now Microsoft has figured out a way to extend the retail life of some of their previous console’s biggest hits.
Recently spotted by NeoGAF user “Xyrmellon,” Xbox 360 games that are also playable on the Xbox One are now being sold in Xbox One cases with a banner that reads “Plays On Xbox One & Xbox 360.”
It’s an ingenious bit of marketing and I hope more Xbox 360 games from yesteryear stay in print this way.
Xbox Store Today: Watch Dogs 2, Assassin’s Creed Ezio Collection, more
Two big new releases are now available from Ubisoft, and both are available to download through the Xbox Games Store.
Leading things off is Watch Dogs 2 for the Xbox One, Ubisoft’s second open world game starring the “hacktivists” attempting to take down the invasive ctOS operating system. “Brilliant young hacker” Marcus Holloway will try to save San Francisco from this criminal organization that wants to “monitor and manipulate citizens on a massive scale.”
Also available today is Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection, a remastered collection for the Xbox One featuring Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Sharpers graphics and more detailed textures await players who want to dive into the intrigue and subterfuge found in Renaissance-era Italy… and the eternal battle between the Assassins and the Templars.
You can find the rest of today’s new additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Watch Dogs 2
Persona 5 pushed back to April 4; Dual Japanese/English audio announced
Today has been a big day for fans of the Persona franchise… and not all of it has been good news. That’s because Atlus announced today that Persona 5 will miss its previously-scheduled February 14 launch date. Instead, the game will now be available for the PS4 and PS3 on April 4, 2017.
However, it’s not all bad news. Atlus also announced that everyone who purchases Persona 5 will have the option to download a Japanese voiceover for the game. And whether you buy Persona 5 at launch, or years from now, Atlus will offer the Japanese voiceover as a free download.
But wait, there’s more. The publisher also unveiled a new trailer for Persona 5, “Learn How the Phantom Thieves Live Dual Lives,” which has been embedded above. And if you want to outfit your PS4 in Persona 5’s rather distinctive red and black color scheme, a free Theme is available to download today only from the PlayStation Store.
Finally, Atlus is hosting a Persona 5 livestream on Twitch, so tune in now or catch up with the replay later. And if you’re planning to attend next PlayStation Experience event in Anaheim, be sure to head down to the Atlus Booth to try out a playable demo of Persona 5.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged Persona 5, PlayStation Experience 2016
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End leads the way at 2016 Game Awards with eight nominations
We’re rapidly approaching the end of the year, and that means the 2016 Game Awards are right around the corner. The Game Awards will once again be produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley, who will honor this year’s best games and look to the future with a number of huge World Premieres, including the first gameplay footage from BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Before we blast off to a far away galaxy, let’s stop and recognize Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which received eight nominations this year from the Game Awards Advisory Board. In addition to “Game of the Year,” Nathan Drake’s final adventure is also up for “Best Game Direction,” “Best Art Direction,” “Best Narrative,” and “Best Action/Adventure Game,” along with a “Best Performance” nomination for all three of the game’s main performers.
Uncharted 4 will compete with some of 2016’s biggest titles for “Game of the Year” at the 2016 Game Awards including Doom, Inside, Overwatch, and Titanfall 2.
“The Game Awards is all about celebrating the state of video game art,” said Keighley. “In just a few short weeks we will recognize the most outstanding games of 2016 in unexpected ways, and preview the most anticipated games of 2017 and beyond with the longest, most in-depth world premieres we’ve ever attempted… including surprises and new game announcements.”
The Game Awards will be held on December 1 at 9:00 PM (Eastern Time), and fans can watch the show through their favorite video streaming service or at TheGameAwards.com. The full list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Doom (2016), Game Awards 2016, Inside, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Overwatch, TitanFall 2, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Nintendo is taking a Legend of Zelda Escape Room on tour in 2017
It looks like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won’t be the only new Hyrulian adventure that Nintendo has planned for 2017. The consolemaker has teamed up with Scrap, the winner of USA Today’s “Best Escape Room of 2016” award, to create a Zelda-themed live puzzle experience known as Defenders of the Triforce:
While the words “escape room” might come to mind when describing this new experience, Defenders of the Triforce is so much more than that. Instead of escaping from a locked room, participants work in teams of six to solve a mystery in a huge area, all within a set time limit. The experience will let guests interact with classic items and characters seen in The Legend of Zelda series like the Goron, Zora, and Kokiri tribes. Discovered items can be used to solve puzzles and move forward into other areas, just like in The Legend of Zelda games.
The Defenders of the Triforce Puzzle Tour is currently scheduled to hit eight cities next year, and tickets can be purchased at ScrapZelda.com:
Defenders of the Triforce Puzzle Tour
- San Francisco: January 31 – February 5
- Los Angeles: February 10-12
- San Diego: February 24-25
- Seattle: TBA
- Phoenix: TBA
- Houston: TBA
- Chicago: TBA
- New York: TBA
Hopefully, more dates will be added to the Defenders of the Triforce Puzzle Tour soon.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild