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
Register for the Pit People Closed Beta at PAX East 2016
Just as they do every year, The Behemoth plans to set up shop at the 2016 PAX East expo to show off their latest projects. This year’s show kicks off on April 22, and the developer has announced plans to bring their upcoming turn-based strategy game, Pit People, to Boston.
In addition to hosting a playable demo of the game’s Co-Op Mode for the heaving crowds, The Behemoth will also give attendees the chance to sign up for the Closed Beta, which is expected to begin this Summer on the Xbox One (and later on Steam). If you’re unable to attend PAX East, the developer plans to open registration up to the rest of the world sometime after the convention is over.
We still don’t know when Pit People will be released for the PC and Xbox One, but Microsoft thinks it’ll be available sometime this year.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2016, Pit People
Xbox Store Today: Letter Quest Remastered, Tron Run/r, Stikbold!, more
Travel through the decades with five new Xbox One games now available to download through the Xbox Games Store…
Let’s start in the 2010s, with a pair of titles that don’t have any connection to a previous decade. Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey Remastered is an RPG where you create words to cast spells, use items, and deliver dictionary-sized attacks to an opposing force of monsters. Meanwhile, Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek is a hidden object game about a missing girl and g-g-g-ghosts!
After that, we can skip back to the 80s for Tron Run/r, an “endless runner” reinvention of the radical sci-fi film. And if we hustle back another decade, we’ll find the inspiration for Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure, a 70s-themed dodge ball game featuring funk and disco and mustaches!
Finally, Xbox One owners can 23-skidoo their way to the 1930s to try out Blues and Bullets: Episode 2, an adventure game starring ex-Untouchable Eliot Ness.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Fallout 4 wins “Best Game” at 2016 BAFTA Games Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held their annual Games Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 looted the trophy for “Best Game.” Surprisingly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4’s main rival throughout the 2015/2016 awards season, came away empty-handed.
The same doesn’t need to be said for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Her Story, and Rocket League, each of which won three awards last night.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’s accolades all revolved around its excellent use of sound as the post-apocalyptic title won for “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” and “Best Performance” (which went to Merle Dandridge). Rocket League’s universal appeal informed its three award including “Family Game,” “Multiplayer,” and “Sport.” Finally, Her Story’s unique storytelling structure lead to wins in the “Best Debut,” “Game Innovation,” and “Mobile & Handheld” categories.
Other winners during last night’s ceremony include Ori and the Blind Forest, Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Until Dawn, Prison Architect, and Life Is Strange.
Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Game & Watch Gallery 4, Super Robo Mouse, Epic Dumpster Bear, more
Fans of weird and wacky games will likely find something of interest in the quintet of new titles that’s now available to download through the Nintendo eShop…
First up is Game & Watch Gallery 4, a minigame collection that attempts to recreate several of Nintendo’s Game & Watch handheld devices. Originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, Game & Watch Gallery 4 is now available to download for the Wii U. It includes both the original minigames, as well as “Modern” versions starring Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and others.
Also available for the Wii U this week is Super Robo Mouse, an overhead game where you navigate a robotic mouse through a maze; Epic Dumpster Bear, a platformer where you control a “dumpster bear” who is very angry about humans messing with his forest; and Mojikara: A Clever Emoji Match Game, a puzzler about matching emojis.
Owners of the 3DS handheld will be able to download a single new game this week, Doll Fashion Atelier. It’s a dollmaker game where players can choose from five different doll types (Pretty, Gothic, Victorian, Princess, or Antique) and customize them to their heart’s content.
More information about all of these slightly-left-of-center games can be found after the break. (more…)
The size of each Final Fantasy VII Remake episode will be comparable to Final Fantasy XIII
The cover of the latest issue of Game Informer is currently adorned by Final Fantasy XV, but that didn’t stop the magazine’s reporters from asking Square Enix about the status of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
When we last checked in with the publisher in December, the Final Fantasy VII Remake was said to be a “multi-part” release that would eventually “go beyond” the original game. That’s still true today, but now we’ve learned that each part will be equivalent in size to a regular game. Producer Yoshinori Kitase got a bit more specific and said that each episode will be roughly similar in size to the entirety of Final Fantasy XIII:
“It will essentially be a full scale game for each part of the multi-part series […] if we’re just looking at each of these parts, one part should be on par with the scale of one Final Fantasy XIII game.”
“In XIII, each instalment told the story from a different angle. It was kind of like approaching an unknown territory in a sense. Whereas with Final Fantasy VII Remake, we already have a preexisting story, so it wouldn’t really make sense if that isn’t encompassed in a multi-part series.”
Kitase also confirmed that Final Fantasy fans should prepare themselves for the “dramatic changes” that were previously hinted at:
“I, along with [Tetsuya] Nomura-san and [Kazushige] Nojima-san–who are involved with the remake–were also involved with the original Final Fantasy. We were the people who created it, so in that sense, we don’t think anything is untouchable. That isn’t to say we’re changing everything!”
I’ve got to admit, I admire his willingness to blow up everything about his most beloved creation and use the parts to start over. Thanks to IGN for digging these juicy bits out of the Game Informer cover story.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Final Fantasy VII
Second Overwatch short features a very Batman-like Tracer/Widowmaker rooftop fight
Blizzard has released the second animated short based of their upcoming shooter Overwatch, and it should give everyone watching a Batman: The Animated Series flashback.
Fan favorite Tracer and deadly assassin Widowmaker dash through London in a rooftop fight that stands with the best the Caped Crusader had to offer in the mid 90s. Also, there’s a Robot Pope who preaches peace and love (and possibly love) between humans and machines. Be sure to check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
Blizzard plans to release two more Overwatch animated shorts before the game’s May 24 launch on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And don’t forget the Open Beta kicks off on May 3.
Developers of Friday the 13th will let us peer under Jason’s hockey mask at PAX East 2016
It looks like we’re going to get our first extensive look at Gun Media’s Friday the 13th game on a Friday… Friday, April 22, to be exact.
These secrets will be revealed during a PAX East panel for the game, “Friday the 13th: The Game – Pushing the Boundaries of Horror,” which will take place on the expo’s first day at 8:30 PM. Developers from Gun Media and Illfonic will be joined by former X-Play host Adam Sessler as they deliver their vision for the future of survival horror to the public:
Friday the 13th: The Game – Pushing the Boundaries of Horror
How do you shake up the horror genre while staying true to source material? Join Friday the 13th: The Game Co-Creators Ronnie Hobbs and Wes Keltner, Head Consultant Adam Sessler, Executive Director Randy Greenback, and Illfonic CEO Chuck Brungardt as they discuss how Friday the 13th: The Game plans to push the video game horror genre in new directions.
According to the game’s Twitter feed, codes for the upcoming beta test will also be given out during the panel.
And in other Friday the 13th news, it looks like the developers have partnered with the Friday The 13th Props Museum to ensure that Friday the 13th: The Game features a “screen accurate” depiction of Jason’s iconic hockey mask.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th, PAX East 2016
Fallout 4: Wasteland Workshop will be available next week
Bethesda has said they will release Fallout 4‘s next add-on, Wasteland Workshop, on April 12. The PC, PS4, and Xbox One download will be part of the Fallout 4 Season Pass, but all players can pick it up as a standalone download for $4.99.
Wasteland Workshop will add a number of new design options (nixie tube lighting, letter kits, taxidermy, and more) to the game, along with a series of creature cages that can be used to capture anything from a tiny kitty cat to a raging Deathclaw. Players will be able to tame these fearsome beasts (I’m referring, of course, to the cat) or force them to fight in your own version of Thunderdome.
A new trailer for Wasteland Workshop has been embedded above.