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
Marvel is working on a batch of “developer-focused” and “quality-focused” console games
Marvel has arguably revolutionized the modern film industry with the introducion of their layered and multifilm-spanning Cinematic Universe. Their superhero movies have consistently performed at the top of the box office charts for years, but they’ve mostly put their video game projects on the back burner. At least, until now.
During this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, Producer Mike Jones confirmed that Marvel is working on several console games, which will be announced in the coming months.
“We are very much focused on what our console strategy will be for the future. Obviously console games take a lot longer to incubate, so that will be a slower process for us,” he said in response to a question from a fan. He went on to say, “We are very much taking a controlled, less-is-more, quality-focused, developer-focused strategy, but it is very top of mind, and we’ll have a lot more announcements probably next year.”
While this is great news, this announcement opens up a lot of questions. Which heroes (or villains) will be getting their own games? And will the games be connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or will they stand on their own? Last year, Marvel executives revealed they were creating a “Marvel Gaming Universe,” so we know the games will sync up in some way.
You may also recall that Telltale Games announced an episodic series based on a Marvel property a few months ago. Could this be the start of Marvel’s big gaming push? Only time will tell.
[Source: Polygon]
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Comic-Con 2015, Guardians of the Galaxy
Harmonix adds songs from Foo Fighters, The Cure, Aerosmith, more to Rock Band 4
Harmonix announced the next batch of songs that will be included in Rock Band 4 this morning including tracks from Foo Fighters, The Cure, Aerosmith, Paramore, and others:
- Aerosmith – “Toys in the Attic”
- The Cure – “Friday I’m in Love”
- Dream Theater – “Metropolis, Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper”
- Foo Fighters – “The Feast and the Famine”
- Judas Priest – “Halls of Valhalla”
- Live – “All Over You”
- The Outfield – “Your Love”
- Ozzy Osbourne – “Miracle Man”
- Paramore – “Still Into You”
- St. Vincent – “Birth in Reverse”
- Van Morrison – “Brown Eyed Girl”
This brings the total number of tracks included in Rock Band 4 to 22, all of which can be viewed at Harmonix’s website. You can see several of the songs in action in the trailer embedded above.
Rock Band 4 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on October 6, though players who pre-order will also receive a 30-song pack of Bonus Tracks.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rock Band 4
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata dies at age 55
It’s a sad day today, as Nintendo has announced the death of President and CEO Satoru Iwata due to a bile duct growth. He was 55 years old.
“Nintendo Co. Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth,” was the company’s only statement to the public. In the hours since the news was released, Nintendo of America posted the following message to Twitter and Facebook: “In remembrance of Mr. Satoru Iwata, Nintendo will not be posting on our social media channels today.”
Iwata had been with Nintendo since the 1980s, starting out as a programmer at HAL Laboratory (where he worked on Balloon Fight and EarthBound, among others), before reaching the level of CEO in 2002. The executive also had a close relationship with Nintendo’s devoted fans. He regularly made appearances at industry events, hosted Nintendo’s monthly Nintendo Direct videos, and conducted Iwata Asks, a regular interview series in which he would talk to the developers of Nintendo’s games. Iwata had been battling this illness for several years, missing last year’s E3 Expo due to a surgery. But he made his final public appearance as part of this year’s Nintendo Digital Event @ E3 just last month.
Above all, Iwata was a principled man in an industry that’s dead set on nothing but making money and treating customers like cattle. When Nintendo failed to reach its financial projections in 2013, Iwata voluntarily cut his salary in half for the next five months.
There is no word yet who will be named Nintendo’s next President and CEO, though it will be extraordinarily difficult to replace a man like Iwata.
Weekly Warp-Up: Comic-Con 2015 Catch-Up 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…
This weekend’s San Diego Comic-Com held some big surprises, but the biggest surely had to be Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Activision revealed the game will receive three different Special Editions, including one with a working mini-fridge. The publisher also unveiled the first trailer for the game’s Zombies Mode, which stars Jeff Goldblum, Heather Graham, Neal McDonough, Ron Perlman, and Robert Picardo.
We also learned that Ken and Blanka have been added to Street Fighter V. Though we won’t get our first glimpse at Blanka until the Brasil Game Show in October.
For those of us that couldn’t attend the annual geek gathering, watching new trailers for upcoming games had to suffice and several publishers definitely delivered. The new Lego Dimensions featuring Doctor Who was insanely great, as was the new gameplay trailer for the 80s time capsule that is Transformers: Devastation. And speaking of time, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 took us on a tour of history in its new trailer.
If you are in San Diego right now, you should probably swing by the Capcom booth, because they’re selling a wearable Mega Man Helmet at this year’s Comic-Con.
Closer to home, we sat down with Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Creative Director Craig Howard to talk about the game and the developer’s future, including Lucid’s next game, which is said to be an “exciting” arcade action game.
Finally, UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie is back with another edition of Kickstart This! This time he looks at Defect, Disciples of the Storm, and The Nascent: An Anecdote of Aetherholme.
As always, additional news from this week can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
Mega Man Legacy Collection art contest launched by Capcom
Here’s something that might interest you if you’re an artist. Capcom is holding an art contest as part of their promotional efforts for Mega Man Legacy Collection. They’re asking fans to re-imagine the covers of the first six Mega Man games for a chance to win a copy of the upcoming compilation. The contest runs until August 14th, and you can find all the details at the Capcom-Unity blog.
With all the great Mega Man fan art online, I’m sure this is going to be a tough challenge. At the very least, I’m sure a lot of the drawings will be better than the original Mega Man cover. But who knows, this is the Internet we’re talking about.
Alternatively, you could go online and pick up the Mega Man Anniversary Collection on Amazon for around $10. Granted it’s not free, but it does come with Mega Man 7, Mega Man 8, and two games that were never released in the US. That’s more than you can say for the Legacy Collection, which only goes up to Mega Man 6 (though it does include HD visuals and a Challenge Mode). Not to mention Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 that came out after the Anniversary Collection.
But hey, winning a competition and getting free stuff is always great. Even if the thing you win is inferior to a product released 10 years ago.
New Releases: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, God of War III Remastered, Godzilla, More
Fore! EA Sports will bring back the PGA Tour series this week, but it’ll be sans one Tiger. Instead, Ireland’s Rory McIlroy has taken over the above-the-title credit in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour for the PS4 and Xbox One. In addition to being a traditional golf simulation, the game will add fantasy courses to the franchise for the first time. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour will be released just in time for golf fans to see McIlroy NOT play in next weekend’s British Open, as he’s been forced out by an ankle injury. Maybe he’ll spend his time recuperating with a controller in his hand.
Four! is also the number of games scheduled for release this week and the other three are definitely a mixed bag of genres…
- Sony will release God of War III Remastered for the PS4, giving the chronologically final game in the franchise a graphical makeover in the process.
- Bandai Namco will also release a game starring a world-smashing berserker for the PS4, but theirs will star a slightly cuddlier character: Godzilla.
- Finally, Koei Tecmo will release Deception IV: The Nightmare Princess for the PS4, which is an updated re-release of the fourth game in the trap-based RPG series.
That’s all for now, but remember, a number of downloadable games will be released through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam this week.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged God of War III, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
Beamdog officially announces Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion
Beamdog has been teasing a Baldur’s Gate expansion that takes place between the first and second games since January. Yesterday, they finally delivered on that promise with an official announcement.
Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is a brand new expansion pack to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, designed with an improved version of Beamdog’s Infinity Engine to capture that old school feel. Rather than create a standalone game, Siege of Dragonspear will require players to own Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition when it’s released on the PC (Windows, Linux, Mac) and mobile devices (iOS, Android). According to Beamdog, the expansion will offer more than 25 hours of gameplay, and here’s what players can expect:
Though Sarevok is dead and his plan for war averted, peace eludes the citizens of Baldur’s Gate. A crusade marches from the north, seizing supplies, forcing locals into military service, and disrupting trade along the Sword Coast. A charismatic warrior known as the Shining Lady leads this army, her background shrouded in mystery. Can the rumors be true… is she, like you, the child of a god?
The closer you get to the Shining Lady, the more you realize your father, the dead Lord of Murder still casts a long shadow upon your path. Baldur’s Gate has put its faith in you, but you must determine whose interests you truly serve before you face the Shining Lady among the ruins of Dragonspear Castle…
Beamdog has yet to announce a release date for Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, but prospective players to explore the game’s brand new website at SiegeOfDragonspear.com to find out more.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Baldur's Gate
Xbox Store Today: Spectra
Prepare to burn your brain this weekend with the neon-rimmed raceways and chiptune soundtrack of Spectra, which is now available for the Xbox One through the Xbox Games Store.
In Spectra, players whip down a procedurally-generated track as the game’s chiptune soundtrack pounds out of the speakers. Fans of video game music should especially pay close attention to that sound, as the game’s tunes were composed by Chipzel, the same musical maestro behind Super Hexagon.
More information on Spectra, which was also released for the PC today, can be found right here:
Xbox One Games
Spectra ($7.49)
Blast your nimble ship down intricate ribbons of light in time to a thumping all original soundtrack by Chipzel (Super Hexagon, Size Does Matter). Spectra will have your ears pumping and your heart racing as you drift into a trance with just one objective. Survive till the music stops! A true callback to arcade games of old; mastery of Spectra will require all your twitch skills and the beautiful retro style graphics will have you just itching to go dig up your Atari!