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
Daily Scoop: March 31, 2014 – Out like a lamb
It’s the last day of March, and according to the old saying, it’s supposed to “go out like a lamb.” It almost feels like Spring out there – with the exception of the biting wind, of course. The sun is shining and there’s that feeling in the air like it could be warm, until you get a blast of cold right in your face. Winter’s fighting to the end!
I’m excited to announce that Spriteborne is now selling amazing TowerFall designs! Pick up glasses or coasters of all of your favorite archers. These are amazing, and perfect to use while you are playing TowerFall. My favorite is the Yellow Archer! Just look at that guy.
Let’s talk about video games! Steam has a ton of brand new Weeklong Deals for you to check out. They’ve also got a new Daily Deal today – it’s The Secret World: Massive Edition for $20.39.
The Humble Store has some new deals today as well. You can pick up Solarflux for $4.99, Crea for $9.99, and Ether One for $16.99.
I’ve got lots of great shirts for you after the jump!
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Microsoft @ PAX East 2014: Project Spark, TitanFall, Super Time Force, more
Microsoft plans to have a huge presence at this year’s PAX East convention, but temper your expectations, as most of the games they’re bringing to the show are already available to all.
The centerpiece of the Xbox booth will be this Spring’s biggest game, TitanFall. It will be joined by cartoony shooter Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (originally released in February), game creator Project Spark (which is currently available in open beta), and a quartet of launch games (Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, Ryse: Son of Rome, and Killer Instinct). Early April releases Kinect Sports Rivals and Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut will also be playable at the Microsoft booth.
As of right now, the only unreleased game Microsoft plans to show in its PAX East booth is Super Time Force. This leads me to guess that Super Time Force is probably going to be added to the Xbox Live Store pretty soon. Just a hunch.
More details on Microsoft’s PAX East 2014 plans for all of these titles are available after the break. You can also read all about the panels the consolemaker will be hosting, including a Project Spark panel, a TitanFall panel, and a live recording of Major Nelson’s podcast. (more…)
CoD: Ghosts Devastation Pack gameplay trailer confirms the Predator
Activision and Infinity Ward have released a brand new gameplay trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ Devastation Map Pack, which will be available to download for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One on Thursday, April 3. The trailer gives us a more in-depth look at the add-ons four maps (“Ruins,” “Behemoth,” “Collision,” and “Unearthed”), as well as Extinction Mode’s second episode, “Mayday.”
However, most importantly, the trailer confirms that the Predator will play some part in the “Ruins” map. It’s unknown if the Predator is a playable character the way Michael Myers was in the Ghosts’ first DLC pack or an invisible assassin, but he’s definitely there. All the Predator action (all one second of it), begins at 2:23 in the video above.
PC, PS3, and PS4 players will likely receive access to the Devastation Map Pack in early May. You can expect Activision to announce the release date for those platforms soon.
Tetropolis is a literal puzzle platformer that will be playable at PAX East 2014
A few weeks ago, I mused on the characters that inhabit our favorite puzzle games, including the belief of many Tetris players that the piece randomizer secretly has feelings. Apparently, the developers at NextGen Pants operate on the same wavelength as they’ve revealed Tetropolis, a literal “puzzle” platformer that stars a sentient Tetris piece rebelling against the piece randomizer:
Tetropolis is a nonlinear puzzle platformer set in a world obsessed with falling block puzzles. In the city of Tetropolis, thousands of game pieces are manufactured every minute in order to meet the demands of “the game.” You play as a squareshaped tetromino that has failed the quality check and has been discarded for not being perfect. Unlike other discarded pieces, you obtain the ability to change into different shapes, each one possessing its own unique ability that you can use to traverse the world.
In addition to Tetris (even the rooms themselves can be realigned like Tetris pieces), Tetropolis has taken plenty of inspiration from the “Metroidvania” genre of side-scrolling exploration games. Using your ability to change into different Tetris pieces, your Tetris piece will battle enemies, solve puzzles, obtain new abilities, and advance through the world.
Tetropolis sounds like my dream come true and it’ll be playable at the Indie Minibooth during this year’s PAX East expo on Sunday, April 13.
Posted in News
Tagged PAX East 2014, PC, Refactor
Weekly Warp-Up: Virtual Insanity 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…
If you had all the money in the world, wouldn’t you buy cool stuff just because you could? But while Joe Technerd has to make do with a few gadgets, Mark Zuckerberg has enough cash to buy the companies that create those gadgets. The Zuck cracked open his piggy bank again this week and acquired Oculus VR for a cool $2 billion. With nigh unlimited resources, Oculus can now create the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset of their dreams.
Over in shallower financial waters, Andrew Rainnie dove into the crowdfunding river like a bear looking for a fish, and he came up with another entry in his Kickstart This! series. And yes, that segue does mean that Bear Simulator is prominently featured among this month’s selections. Our UK Correspondent also explored 10 Actresses We Think Could Play Elena Fisher in the Uncharted Movie and not one of them is Jennifer Lawrence.
Finally this week, our other UK Correspondent, Dan Hobbs, reviewed last week’s Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and last year’s Batman: Arkham Origins.
You can find more news from the week that was after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: The Elder Scrolls Online, MLB 14: The Show, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace
Just three new retail releases this week, but all three can be considered very important to somebody.
Bethesda will release The Elder Scrolls Online for the PC on April 4. The MMORPG, the first for the franchise, has been a long time coming and fans are eager to see if it can stack up to the Skyrim and Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls Online is also in development for the PS4 and Xbox One and will be available in June.
With 2K dropping out of the baseball simulation competition, Sony will be releasing the year’s only baseball simulation this year, MLB 14: The Show. The PS3 and Vita versions of the game will be released on April 1 with a PS4 version planned for May.
Finally this week, XSEED will bring their monster hunter, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace, to the PS3 and Vita. People like the series, so that qualifies as “important” in my book.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Vita
Tagged MLB 14: The Show, Ragnarok Odyssey Ace, The Elder Scrolls Online
Switchblade Monkeys delays the showdown between Secret Ponchos and the PS4
Sony recently revealed the April additions to the Instant Game Collection for PlayStation Plus subscribers and, sadly, Secret Ponchos wasn’t among them. We reached out to developer Switchblade Monkeys via Twitter and they confirmed the old west arena shooter won’t be released for the PS4 next month as originally planned:
@CaptWarpZoned @SwitchbladeMkys John you are correct! Hangin there SP will come to beta testing to make sure its rock solid b4 release
— Switchblade Monkeys (@SwitchbladeMkys) March 29, 2014
A new release date wasn’t announced, though as you can see, a beta for the game will be available soon. However, we’re definitely sure that the next time we’ll be able to get our hands on Secret Ponchos is at this year’s PAX East expo (April 11 through April 13). Switchblade Monkeys previously announced the game will be playable on the show floor.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Secret Ponchos
Alien: Isolation will be released on October 7
Several developers from Creative Assembly are currently on stage at the EGX Rezzed expo to give the gathered crowd a look at Alien: Isolation. In addition to showcasing their latest game, the developer has revealed that Alien: Isolation will be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on October 7.
Alien: Isolation will be published by Sega and will star Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley. Unlike most games based on the Alien saga, Alien: Isolation will skip the shooting and attempt to recreate the absolute terror of the original 1979 film. As such, the game will only include a single Xenomorph, which Creative Assembly wants to ensure is “scary.”