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
Odell Beckham wins Madden NFL 16 Cover Vote… and here’s a “First Look” trailer
The one-day Madden NFL 16 Cover Vote is over and New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham has emerged victorious New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. Beckham won in a very close vote (53% to 47%, according to ESPN.com/MaddenVote), perhaps due to lingering anger over “Deflategate.” Or perhaps “Deflategate” is the dumbest sports controversy in years and it had nothing to do with the vote. Yeah, I’m going with the latter.
“Odell Beckham Jr. is a true playmaker and a perfect fit for this year’s game,” said Randy Chase, Senior Director of Marketing for EA Sports. “He’s an unstoppable force out on the field, and the Madden NFL 16 cover is further vindication that the fans believe he’s a player to watch in the coming years.”
As always, Madden NFL 16 is in development at EA Tiburon and it’ll be released for the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 on August 25. You can check out a “First Look” trailer embedded above, but it is a very early look at the game, so don’t expect much insight into what this year’s Madden will look like.
Xbox Store Today: Project CARS, AirMech Arena, Lifeless Planet, more
Project CARS vrooms vrooms its way onto the Xbox Games Store today. The Xbox One title is the latest from Slightly Mad Studios, a development team that has been working hard to perfect the racing game. Working with a community of dedicated fans, its possible that they may have done it.
Also available on the Xbox Games Store this week is AirMech Arena, a free-to-play “fast-paced real-time strategy game” where players take control of AirMechs, flying jets that transform into robotic mechs. You might say they’re more than meets the eye… but I won’t say that, it might imply something untoward.
Science also plays a role in this week’s new releases as Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition and Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark can also be purchased by Xbox One owners today. Lifeless Planet is an exploration game that features a mysterious Russian town on a believed-to-be-barren rock while Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a puzzle platformer that puts its scientific cred right there in the title.
Finally, a new title will call the Xbox 360 section of the Xbox Games Store home this week. Syberia II is an adventure game that was originally released for the PC in 2004. With part three on the horizon, the second game in the series is now downloadable for the Xbox 360.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Project CARS
The Walking Dead Season 3 won’t be out until 2016 but “something BIG” is coming in 2015
Job Stauffer, Telltale’s Director of Public Relations, has some bad news for fans of The Walking Dead. Tweeting today about The Walking Dead Season 3, Stauffer revealed the first episode of the game won’t be released this year:
To re-clarify, no, TWD S3 is *not* starting in 2015. But what I am seeing this week will be, and it is insanely cool. Stay close, news soon!
— Job J Stauffer (@jobjstauffer) May 12, 2015
However, you shouldn’t despair too much. Stauffer followed that tweet with a second one promising that “something BIG for [Walking Dead] fans” would be released this year. We don’t know for sure, but Stauffer could be referring to another bridge episode, similar to the way The Walking Dead: 400 Days was released about seven months after the completion of Season 1, but five months before the beginning of Season 2.
In hindsight, its likely that Telltale never planned to launch The Walking Dead Season 3 in 2015. With multiple episodes for Game of Thrones and Tales From the Borderlands still in the works and the launch of Minecraft: Story Mode penciled in for a Fall 2015 release, Telltale’s plate was already pretty overflowing.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, The Walking Dead: Michonne
Igarashi’s Bloodstained is fully-funded and whipping its way through stretch goals
Are we in the middle of a Kickstarter renaissance? Maybe…
First there was the smashing success of Yooka-Laylee, and now, Koji Igarashi’s Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is off to an incredibly fast start. The gothic side-scroller has collected nearly $1.8 million in pledges, vaulting well past its $500,000 funding goal and obliterating a whole series of stretch goals.
These stretch goals will expand the scope of Bloodstained and add in a variety of additional features including a second playable character, a Nightmare difficulty mode, voice acting from David Hayter, a cheat codes menu, local co-op play, and a Speed Run Mode. A Boss Rush Mode has been promised if the campaign reaches $2 million and even more stretch goals are planned beyond that point.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s Kickstarter campaign still has 30 days remaining. If you’re interested in what Igarashi is doing, be sure to check it out.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Tom Clancy’s The Division + “Unannounced AAA Title” will launch in early 2016
Tom Clancy’s The Division opens with a terrorist attack on Black Friday, but the game itself will definitely miss this year’s pre-Christmas shopping bonanza. That’s because Ubisoft has announced (via their latest Investor Presentation) the PC, PS4, and Xbox One game will be pushed back to early 2016. More specifically, the game will be released during the fourth quarter of Ubisoft’s 2016 fiscal year, which runs January 1, 2016 through March 31, 2016.
Antoine Emond, The Division’s Community Development Lead, delivered this message to fans on the game’s official website: “All of us at Massive, Reflections, Red Storm Entertainment, and Ubisoft Annecy want to ensure the game not only meets our high expectations but also those of our fans and players alike. We are proud of what we have achieved so far and can’t wait to show you more next month at E3!”
In the same Investor Presentation, Ubisoft also revealed that a previously unannounced “AAA Title” will be released in early 2016. More details will surely be revealed during the publisher’s E3 Press Conference, which is scheduled for June 15.
Last of Us: Left Behind, Project CARS, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD, more added to PS Store
Have you left The Last of Us behind? Maybe the release of a standalone version of The Last of Us: Left Behind on the PlayStation Store will convince you to pick it up again. Now available for just $9.99, the game can be downloaded now on the PS3 and PS4.
Also available this week is a string of other new titles, both big and small…
- Project CARS (PS4) is a slightly ambitious car racing simulation from Slightly Mad Studios.
- Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (PS4) brings two of the best-loved RPGs in the series to Sony’s current-generation console for the first time.
- Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark (PS4) is a wacky puzzle platformer that has one of the best titles ever.
- Nom Nom Galaxy (PS4) is the latest game from PixelJunk creators Q-Games.
More information on all of these titles (and a few others) can be found after the break. And, as always, a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, Project CARS, The Last of Us: Left Behind
Gronk and Odell Beckham are the finalists for the Madden NFL 16 cover… vote now!
The preliminary round voting for the Madden NFL 16 Cover Athlete is over, which means its the end of the line for two of the four semi-finalists. The Internet has spoken and Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown and Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson won’t be part of today’s online vote.
Instead, fans are encouraged to head to ESPN.com/MaddenVote to cast their lot behind Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski or Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham. The polls are open all day and the winner will be announced during the 6:00 PM (Eastern Time) edition of SportsCenter.
Voting will surely be close as Gronk’s got a shiny new Super Bowl ring, but Beckham is the owner of the most ridiculous catch in NFL history.
These 24 songs will be featured in Guitar Hero Live
Guitar Hero Live will do battle with Rock Band 4 for the hearts and minds of plastic instrument virtuosos this Fall. However, before that we’ll have to deal with the inevitable series of announcements to reveal each game’s soundtrack. And Activision is first out of the gate with a list of 24 tunes that’ll be playable in Guitar Hero Live.
The publisher plans to announce new songs every Tuesday, but for now, here’s what we’ll definitely be rocking along with in Guitar Hero Live this Fall:
- Alt-J – “Left Hand Free”
- Alter Bridge – “Cry of Achilles”
- The Black Keys – “Gold On The Ceiling”
- Black Veil Brides – “In The End”
- Blitz Kids – “Sometimes”
- Broken Bells – “Leave It Alone”
- Gary Clark Jr. – “Don’t Owe You a Thang”
- Fall Out Boy – “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light Em Up)” by
- Green Day – “Nuclear Family”
- Judas Priest – “Breaking the Law”
- The Killers – “When You Were Young”
- The Lumineers – “Ho Hey”
- My Chemical Romance – “Na Na Na”
- Pantera – “Cowboys from Hell”
- Pierce the Veil (featuring Kellin Quinn) – “King for a Day”
- The Pretty Reckless – “Going to Hell”
- Rage Against the Machine – “Guerrilla Radio”
- Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Higher Ground”
- The Rolling Stones – “Paint it Black”
- Ed Sheeran – “Sing”
- Skrillex – “Bangarang”
- Sleigh Bells – “Bitter Rivals”
- System of a Down – “Chop Suey!”
- The War on Drugs – “Under the Pressure”
Guitar Hero Live will be released for the PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One this Fall. Prepare yourself for many more of these musical memos in the weeks to come.