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
Weekly Warp-Up: Game Awards 2014 + PlayStation Experience Recap
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…
It was like July in Christmas this weekend as the entire game industry (except for Microsoft, curiously enough) came out for the 2014 Game Awards and the first-ever PlayStation Experience. Both events were overflowing with new information and announcements galore. At the Game Awards alone we got new looks at Mario Maker, Human Element, The Legend of Zelda Wii U, Bloodborne, King’s Quest, Until Dawn, Tacoma, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and a few others. Oh yeah, and Dragon Age: Inquisition won “Game of the Year.”
Elsewhere around Warp Zoned, we used this week to discuss What We Played in November 2014 and the games we’re most looking forward to this month in The Games of December 2014. UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie also pulled double duty by filing an interview with InnerSpace developer PolyKnight Games and the latest edition of Kickstart This! (focusing on Unsettled, Blood Star, and Waking the Glares).
An almost overwhelming amount of additional news can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Final Fantasy XIII-2 for PC
Yup, the 2014 video game release calendar is definitely winding down. We got our first look at some of 2015’s most anticipated games during this weekend’s PlayStation Experience and the 2014 Game Awards, but only two games will see a retail release this week. And realistically, both of them skate by on a technicality.
First up, isometric multiplayer puzzler Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris will receive a boxed version this week for the PC and PS4. However, the box won’t contain a game disc. Instead, Square Enix has packed in a download code for the full game and access to the game’s Season Pass. Xbox One owners will be able to download Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris through the Xbox Games Store on Tuesday.
Also available this week is the PC launch of Final Fantasy XIII-2. But again, don’t expect to find a retail disc as the game will only be available through digital storefronts.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
Final Batman: Arkham Knight Ace Chemicals trailer includes Scarecrow missions tease
In the third and final Batman: Arkham Knight “Ace Chemicals” trailer, we see Batman solving puzzles by remote-controlling the Batmobile, fighting a bunch of mercenaries, and saving Ace Chemicals employees. There’s also a quick tease of the big fight about to go down between the Batmobile and Arkham Knight’s helicopter.
Rocksteady Studios and WB Games talked about the trailer a bit on the PlayStation Blog, as well as revealing the Scarecrow Nightmare Pack, which will be exclusive to the PlayStation 4.
Batman: Arkham Knight will be released for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on June 2, 2015.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight, PlayStation Experience 2014
Shovel Knight will pledge fealty to PS3, PS4, Vita in 2015
Shovel Knight was one of this year’s best surprises and now the world’s weirdest knight is making the move to PlayStation platforms. At the PlayStation Experience today, Yacht Club Games announced that Shovel Knight will be released for the PS3, PS4, and Vita sometime in 2015.
With new platforms comes new features and the retro-inspired side-scrolling game will receive a variety of platform-specific features including back touchscreen implementation, Twitch TV integration, cross-save, and more. But all three PlayStation versions of the game will be home to Kratos, the God of War. Before he takes his new-generation bow in the just-announced God of War 4, Kratos will battle Shovel Knight as either the boss of his own castle or as one of the game’s Wandering Knights.
So… Shovel Knight on PlayStation platforms, can you dig it?
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged PlayStation Experience 2014, Shovel Knight
David Jaffe will bring the visually unique arena FPS Drawn to Death to PS4
David Jaffe’s latest studio, The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency, unveiled their first game, Drawn to Death, during the PlayStation Experience today. Bartlet Jones teamed up with Sony San Diego for the game, and Jaffe said “it feels great to be back with my Sony family!!!” in his PlayStation Blog post.
Drawn to Death is an arena shooter that takes place completely inside the notebook of a “very creative” teenage kid. The lined drawings represent the “violent and bizarre landscape filled with all of the weird, amazing, passionate, and exciting fantasies that are swimming around in the head of our teenage artist.” And all of this chaotic intensity is definitely clear in the video above.
Jaffe said they want the game to play like “an old-school arena shooter” mixed with a “brawler/fighting game.” The plan is to launch with a four-player free-for-all deathmatch, mode giving players the chance to “master advanced environment movement, learn and exploit enemy tells, and form clever strategies that pay off in big victories.”
If you like what you see, you can sign up for the game’s early access period at the game’s official website. If you do it during PlayStation Experience, “you’ll get a super rare, super limited in game mystery item,” which is only available this weekend.
Drawn to Death will be coming to the PlayStation 4 sometime in the future, but not soon enough.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Drawn to Death, PlayStation Experience 2014
Sega will release Yakuza 5 for the PS3 in US/Europe in 2015
Sega and Sony have teamed up to release Yakuza 5 digitally on the PlayStation 3 in the US and Europe. They made the announcement this afternoon at PlayStation Experience, but this news has been a long time coming for fans of the franchise. Starting today, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza: Dead Souls will also be available to download through the PlayStation Network, according to the Sega Blog.
Toshihiro Nagoshi, the game’s Executive Director and General Producer, said: “After receiving so many requests from fans of the series, we have decided to bring Yakuza 5 to the US and Europe. This title was enjoyed by over one million gamers in Japan. I’m looking forward to seeing how Yakuza 5 will be received by the gamers in the U.S. and Europe.”
Producer Masayoshi Yokoyama added: “Yakuza 5 is the largest and most definitive version of the Yakuza series. The game is filled with depictions of the Japanese way of life, culture, trends, social issues and dreams. You will play as 5 different main characters with a range of different ages, genders and professions and experience their challenges through a variety of character focused, in-depth stories. I hope you can immerse yourself in our rendition of modern time Japan.”
Yakuza 5 will be available digitally for the PlayStation 3 in 2015.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged PlayStation Experience 2014, Yakuza 5
Katamari Damacy, Journey creators developing Wattam for PS4
Keita Takahashi and Robin Hunicke are collaborating on a new game, as you can see in the trailer above. It’s called Wattam, which “is actually composed of the Tamil and Japanese words for ‘making a circle’ or ‘making a loop,'” according to the PlayStation Blog. Takahashi is best known as the creator of the much-beloved Katamari franchise while Hunicke was a producer for Journey at thatgamecompany, and is now the co-founder of Funomena.
The little guy in the trailer is a character known as the mayor of the world. Hunicke said they’ll be introducing players to more characters throughout 2015. She also gave some background on Wattam: “The idea for this game came from when Keita was playing with his two-year old son, and wondered about what if all toys lived, and connected by themselves? It would be such a fun world to explore and play with! The word ‘Wattam’ itself The initial prototype for this game was made by Keita and his friend Vikram, who are from these two cultures respectively, and this new word acknowledges one of the game’s core inspirations: making connections between different types of things.”
Hunicke also mentioned this in the comments: “Also, Keita and I will host a panel this afternoon here at PSX. We will be talking about some of the inspirations behind his work – hope to see some of you there!” Hopefully some of you got to check it out!
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged PlayStation Experience 2014