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
Ex-Rare devs announce spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie
Before Rare became known as Microsoft’s Kinect team (though that’ll be changing soon), they developed a whole slew of well-received platformers for Nintendo. Now, the core developers behind those titles have left Rare and struck out on their own as Playtonic Games. Their first project? A spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie.
This project is currently known as Project Ukulele, and Playtonic plans to pull back the curtain on it in this month’s issue of Edge Magazine, which will be available on newsstands tomorrow. The team has also written a bit about Project Ukelele on their official website:
We’ve got the bloke who programmed Donkey Kong Country, the character designer behind Banjo and Kazooie, and the artist who made your console fit to burst with lavish environments across a decade’s worth of adventure games.
Together, our all-star ensemble is aiming to build its debut game, Project Ukulele, into a worthy spiritual successor to those fondly remembered platforming adventures we built in the past.
I highly recommend a visit to PlaytonicGames.com as the site also includes biographies of the team members and the first piece of concept art from Project Ukulele.
Things get a little hairy in the first Hitman: Agent 47 film trailer
It hasn’t been an easy production for Hitman: Agent 47, the latest film adaptation of IO Interactive’s game franchise. Fast and the Furious actor Paul Walker was originally set to star as the titular assassin before his untimely death in 2013. 20th Century Fox continued their search for a new 47 (Timothy Olyphant first played the character in 2007’s Hitman) before settling on Homeland‘s Rupert Friend.
But filming seems to have gone smoothly and Hitman: Agent 47 is now on track for an August 28 opening. However, you should be warned, Agent 47 isn’t sporting his signature bald pate in the movie’s first trailer. Aside from that rather glaring error, Hitman: Agent 47 doesn’t look too bad. There’s some decent action and Zachary Quinto (Star Trek‘s Spock) is also along for the ride.
If you’re looking for a more authentic Hitman experience, you might need to wait for IO Interactive’s next game in the series. However, the untitled Hitman 6 is currently without a release date.
David Jaffe’s Drawn To Death will be free-to-play… but not in the traditional sense
Did you catch the unveiling of David Jaffe’s arena shooter Drawn To Death during December’s PlayStation Experience event? The game’s world is created entirely using a graphical style that can best be described as “the notebook doodles of a 12-year-old boy.” Pairing an experimental art style with an experimental price, Jaffe has confirmed (via Reddit) that Drawn To Death will be available as a free-to-play game… though not in the traditional sense:
Hey- yes, our game is Free To Play. But note that it’s done by a team that dislikes traditional free to play games very, very much. We don’t like pay to win and we don’t like taking play mechanics away from Players simply to have them earn them or pay for them. That said, we LOVE the discoverability (as PowerofX says) of free to play and the very wide net it creates, allowing us to get many more folks giving our game a shot. We also love the idea of running a service based title, constantly staying engaged with the fans of the game and adjusting aspects of the game on the fly to allow the game to hit the game’s sweet spot.
It’s currently unknown how Drawn To Death’s developer, The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency, will make any money off of the game without using traditional free-to-play methods. Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Drawn to Death
PS Store Today: Evolve, Super Stardust Ultra, Minutes, more
Evolve (PS4) roars onto the PlayStation Store today as Turtle Rock’s “4v1” shooter asks players to choose a side between four human Hunters and one massive Monster. It’s joined this week by Super Stardust Ultra, a space shooter with a big history on PlayStation platforms; Minutes, “a twisted form of bullet hell” (also Cross-Buy on the Vita); and Unmechanical: Extended, a puzzle platformer staring an adorable robot (also Cross-Buy on the PS3).
Speaking of the PS3, it’s now home to the multiplayer medieval brawler Chivalry: Medieval Warfare as well as the “cross-dimensional” space shooter Hyper Void.
Finally, the Vita will receive the fantasy platformer AeternoBlade, and the monkey rhythm game Jungle Rumble: Freedom, Happiness, and Bananas.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. And, as always, a complete list 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 Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Evolve, Super Stardust Ultra
Did You Hear? Video Game Release Calendar Update #1
Don’t Forget! Warp Zoned’s complete calendar of release dates for 2015, 2016, and beyond can be found right here: Video Game Release Calendar.
Welcome to Warp Zoned’s first “Video Game Release Calendar Update.” We’ve collected all the latest announcements and date changes from the last six weeks and added them to one of the most accurate game release calendars out there.
The month of March is filling out particularly well…
- It starts with the March 5 launch of Mario vs Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, Nintendo’s first 3DS and Wii U Cross-Buy game.
- And then there’s the March 6 release of Zombie Army Trilogy (PC, PS4, Xbox One) and its supernatural WWII shenanigans.
- A week later is the March 10 launch of the PC version of Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, which now features eye-tracking technology for camera control.
- A day after that, on March 11, the “Metroidvania” Ori and the Blind Forest will be available for the PC and Xbox One.
- Finally, the Borderlands: The Handsome Collection closes out the month with a March 24 release on the PS4 and Xbox One.
The Spring and early Summer is also beginning to fill up with the announcement that Xenoblade Chronicles 3D will be available for the New 3DS XL on April 10. Nintendo will follow their massive action RPG with the puzzle-RPG styling of Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (3DS) in May, which will launch alongside Splatoon, a shooter for the Wii U. And in June, we’ll get the chance to try out The Elder Scrolls Online on the PS4 and Xbox One (on June 9) and Lego Jurassic World (which will be released for every system under the sun).
Speaking of Lego adaptations, Lego Avengers will be available this Fall. As will Skylanders 5, which is currently in development for unannounced platforms.
And lastly, Blizzard has said that Overwatch (PC) and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void (PC) will likely launch in 2016 after each receives a beta test in 2015.
The complete list of updated release dates can be found after the break. (more…)
The future of the Killzone franchise will be revealed “Soon”
It looks like Sony and Guerrilla Games are getting ready to announce the next entry in the Killzone series. Today, an image of a Helghast soldier and the word “Soon” were posted to the franchise’s official Twitter account:
Soon. pic.twitter.com/SikOKnRXK3
— Killzone (@killzone) February 10, 2015
It’s been a little over two years since we last saw a new entry in the Killzone series. Sony and Guerrilla released Killzone: Shadow Fall as a PS4 launch title. But 2013 also saw the release of the Vita-exclusive Killzone: Mercenary, and its possible that this image might portend a sequel to that game. According to Polygon, Mercenary used a “V and parallel bars” symbol to represent currency. The same symbol that’s seen in the eyes of the Helghast soldier above.
How soon is “Soon”? Hopefully we’ll find out… um, soon.
Alien: Isolation bursts ahead of the field with six nominations at 2015 BAFTA Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for the 2015 BAFTA Games Awards and the British-born Alien: Isolation leads the way with six nominations. Creative Assembly’s sequel to the 1979 film is up for “Best Game” as well as “British Game,” “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” Game Design,” and “Game Innovation.”
It will be competing for the top prize against some of last year’s most-honored titles including Bungie’s Destiny, BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, Nintendo’s Mario Kart 8, Monolith’s Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordorm, and ustwo’s Monument Valley.
Monument Valley’s presence in the “Best Game” category is rather fitting as it lead all other games with five nominations. Far Cry 4, which is not competing for “Best Game,” also managed to score five nominations. 80 Days, Destiny, Mario Kart 8, and Shadow of Mordor all took up residence on the next level with four nominations apiece.
The winners of the 2015 BAFTA Games Awards will revealed on March 12. The full list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monument Valley
Evolve has launched and so has its launch trailer
2K Games has released a bevy of trailers for Evolve over the last year, but I guess there’s room for one more. Turtle Rock’s “4v1” shooter launches today and this “Launch Trailer” showcases exactly how the four Hunters square off against a single player-controlled Monster. If you’ve somehow avoided every mention of Evolve during the last 13 months, this trailer should still get you pretty excited.
Evolve is available now for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.