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
Bandai Namco files trademark application for “Soldiers’ Souls”
Maybe we should start calling Bandai Namco the Grim Reaper, because they’re definitely in the business of collecting souls. More specifically, From Software’s Souls series. After publishing Dark Souls in 2011 and Dark Souls II last year, Bandai Namco will publish an enhanced version of the latter game later this year as Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. And if a recent trademark filing is anything to go by, the company is pushing the pieces into place for the next game in the Souls series.
On Friday, the publisher filed a trademark application with the European Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market for Soldiers’ Souls. As with all trademark filings, it’s possible that the development project currently connected to the Soldiers’ Souls mark will undergo a name change or may be canceled outright. Filing a trademark application is usually one of the first steps taken in creating a game and many things can complicate the development process in the meantime.
From Software’s Bloodborne will be exclusively launch for the PS4 in a few weeks. Presumably, they’ll announce their next project, even if its not Soldiers’ Souls, sometime soon.
Posted in News
Tagged Saint Seiya: Soldiers' Soul
Weekly Warp-Up: PAX East 2015 is Three Weeks Away 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…
PAX East 2015 has begun to take shape as a handful of announcements this week gave us our first glimpse at who’s coming to the largest game convention on the east coast. As of right now, the two biggest PAX East-related news stories have to be Cliff Bleszinski panel’s on his free-to-shooter BlueStreak and Avalanche’s Just Cause 3 presentation. If you like your action games big and bombastic, then both titles should be your upcoming releases radar.
In other expo news, Bethesda will hold an E3 Press Conference for the first time ever. That should be interesting.
Even more interesting news (though very little of it is connected to E3 or PAX East) from the past week can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: The Order: 1886, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Total War: Attila, More
Do you believe that a secret cabal of soldiers guards the citizenry from an encroaching force of half-human/half-beastly hybrids? And do you believe that these men and women are the only thing standing between the total collapse of society and these so-called werewolves? You do? Great! Because Ready At Dawn and Sony Santa Monica will release The Order: 1886 for the PS4 this week.
It’ll be joined on store shelves by the more colorful Kirby and the Rainbow Curse for the Wii U (no werewolves in that one) and the more vicious Total War: Attila on the PC (the strategy game from Creative Assembly stars one of the most feared warlords of the ancient world).
Finally this week, Koei Tecmo will re-release Dead or Alive 5 for the PS4 and Xbox One as Dead or Alive 5: Last Round.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Dead or Alive 5, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, The Order: 1886, Total War: Attila
WGA bestows Writers Guild Award on Last of Us: Left Behind for Outstanding Writing
The Writers Guild of America has announced the winners of this year’s Writers Guild Awards and Naughty Dog (and Neil Druckmann) has emerged victorious for a second year in a row. After taking home the statuette last year for The Last of Us, Naughty Dog and Druckmann were recognized this year for the writing in the game’s expansion, The Last of Us: Left Behind.
The Last of Us: Left Behind beat out three other games for this year’s Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing award including Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation and a pair of Assassin’s Creed titles (Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry and Assassin’s Creed: Unity).
Their 2015 win marks the fourth time a Naughty Dog-developed game has won the Writers Guild Award. In addition to Druckmann’s win last year, Amy Hennig was honored in 2012 for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and in 2010 for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind
Blizzard and Gearbox will talk about their future projects at PAX East 2015
Blizzard will make their presence known at this year’s PAX East expo with their “Blizzard Preview” panel. During this panel, which will be held on Friday, March 6, at 10:30 AM, the publisher plans to reveal new details about Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Overwatch:
Bold new heroes, exciting new cards, and epic new battlegrounds… Join a trio of Blizzard Entertainment developers for a look at just some of what’s in store for 2015, including upcoming content for Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Overwatch.
Gearbox Software will also be in attendance at this year’s show with their regular “Inside Gearbox Software” panel. At PAX East, they will likely use their time to talk about Battleborn and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, both of which will be released this year. It’s probably too early for Gearbox to talk about Borderlands 3, but you never know. The “Inside Gearbox Software” panel will be held on Sunday, March 8, at 10:30 AM:
This is your opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Gearbox Software and get the latest news and updates from the makers of Borderlands, Battleborn, Homeworld Remastered Collection and more! We will have never-before-seen reveals, exclusives and surprises, so don’t miss out!
Both developers usually have a big presence on the show floor, so expo attendees may get the chance to demo many of these games as well as hearing about them.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Battleborn, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, PAX East 2015
Xbox Store Today: The Escapists
The Escapists is now available for the Xbox One on the Xbox Games Store today. Taking a few visual cues from the NES/Super NES era, The Escapists is a top-down pixelated prison break sim from Team17 and Mouldy Toof Studios.
Does The Escapists sound like your kind of thing? Then you should check out the launch trailer and the Dashboard description right here:
The Escapists ($19.99)
The Escapists is a prison break simulation that provides players the opportunity of experiencing a light-hearted insight into everyday prison life. While the aim of the game is simply to escape, the detail is in the execution. (Don’t say the word execution too loud in a prison). Keep a low profile or go out guns blazing. As long as you escape in the end, that’s all that matters.
First Just Cause 3 trailer is on fire and the devs will answer your questions at PAX East 2015
The Just Cause series is known for its big action setpieces as Avalanche Studios has pushed protagonist Rico Rodriguez into (and out of) some of the biggest action movie-style moments ever. With Just Cause 3, the development team has made the jump to the PS4 and Xbox One for the first time and the game’s first trailer, dubbed “Firestarter,” gives you an idea of their ambition.
PAX East attendees will get an even closer look at Just Cause 3 as several members of the Avalanche team (including Chief Creative Officer Christofer Sundberg and Game Director Roland Lesterlin) will close out the first day’s festivities with a behind-the-scenes panel:
Join moderator Greg Miller (http://www.kindafunny.com/) and key members of Avalanche Studios – the makers of Just Cause – as they discuss the series’ inspiration and distinctive style and talk about the upcoming Just Cause 3. Panelists will include Christofer Sundberg (Avalanche Studios founder and Chief Creative Officer) Roland Lesterlin (Just Cause 3 Game Director) and Zach Schlappi (Art Director)
Finally, Square Enix has updated the game’s release date. Instead of “TBA 2015,” we now know that Just Cause 3 will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One this Fall.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Just Cause 3, PAX East 2015
Happy Valentine’s Day from Until Dawn… here’s a new trailer
Every horror movie begins with the doomed group of friends gathering somewhere to have a good time… and then a guy with a machete, knives for fingers, or a hook hand jumps out of the woods and slaughters everybody. That’s the vibe Sony and Supermassive Games are going for in this new “Valentine’s Day” trailer for Until Dawn:
When you start the game you will meet the characters as they couple off around the house (by choice or circumstance) before their holiday turns into an all-out fight for survival. If you’ve watched previous trailers and demos you’re already familiar with Ashley and Chris and their ‘will-they won’t-they’ friendship. One of our favorite things about this dynamic is that their relationship is not pre-defined at the beginning of the game; your choices will decide if the relationship either blossoms or wilts before the night is out. That is, if they survive.
Until Dawn will be released for the PS4 sometime this year.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Until Dawn