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
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: Articles
The Last of Us Review: Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave
When Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was first unleashed upon the PlayStation 3, Naughty Dog managed to take the best aspects of the Tomb Raider formula and made it better by building on it with likable characters and Indiana Jones-esque hijinks. With The Last of Us, they have once again reinvigorated a flagging genre, the third-person survival shooter, by making it serious, personal, and scary.
Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged The Last of Us
The Walking Dead: 400 Days gets a release schedule and a launch trailer
During this year’s E3 Expo, Telltale Games revealed that a new downloadable expansion bridging The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Season Two would be available this Summer. Little did we know that “this Summer” actually meant “early July.”
The Walking Dead: 400 Days will be available to download from the PlayStation Store for the PS3 today in North America. It will be followed by PC, Xbox 360, iOS, and Vita versions over the next week and into August:
- Tuesday, July 2 – PlayStation Store (North America)
- Wednesday, July 3 – PC/Mac (Steam, Telltale Games Store)
- Friday, July 5 – Xbox Live Arcade
- Wednesday, July 10 – PlayStation Store (Europe)
- Thursday, July 11 – iOS App Store
- August – PS Vita (The Walking Dead: Season One retail release)
Aside from the Vita version (which includes the entirety of Season One), 400 Days will be priced at $4.99/400 Microsoft Points on all platforms and will require a copy of The Walking Dead: Episode One. Also, be sure to check out the brand new launch trailer for The Walking Dead: 400 Days above.
The Games of July 2013
We’re all in agreement here at Warp Zoned: it’s a slow month for game releases. But this is a great thing, because it means we can stop beating our wallets to death, and also catch up on some of our backlogs. It also means we can save up money for the months to come, which promise to be expensive. Read on to see what we’ll be doing during this slow summer month! (more…)
Xbox head Don Mattrick leaves Microsoft for Zynga
Well this was unexpected. And it just might explain why Mattrick has been unable to give reporters a straight answer about anything over the last month.
According to a report on AllThingsD, Don Mattrick, the President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment division, is leaving the company. This comes on the heels of an absolutely disastrous E3 outing for Mattrick and Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox One console. Was he fired? Did he quit in disgust? Did he purposely tank attempt to make things better with the gaming public? The world may never know.
What we do know is that the report comes from “multiple sources close to the situation” and that Mattrick’s new home may be as the CEO of Zynga. The troubled casual/mobile developer would certainly be a new challenge for Mattrick, but it is positively low-stakes compared to spearheading a major new console launch.
An announcement on Matttrick’s future could come as early as today. And if the reports are true, his Microsoft career will have culminated with the reversal of the Xbox One’s much-hated DRM policy.
UPDATE: It’s official.
Posted in News
Warpback: What We Played in June 2013
June was a pretty great month for video game releases, as you can see by the eclectic mix of what we were playing here at Warp Zoned. We played a wide range of games across several systems – even one on the NES! Read on to find out just what we were doing the last 30 days… (more…)
Rise of the Triad reboot to be released on July 31, includes free download of original ROTT
Prepare to get ludicrous! Apogee and Interceptor Entertainment have announced that the Rise of the Triad reboot will be released on July 31.
The Unreal Engine 3-powered PC exclusive has been priced at $14.99 and all pre-orders will come packaged with the “Apogee Throwback Pack,” a four-pack of classic Apogee titles including Rise of the Triad: Dark War, Extreme Rise of the Triad, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Blake Stone: Planet Strike.
You can also check out the new trailer (which features plenty of gibs) above.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Rise of the Triad, Rise of the Triad (1995)
Beatbuddy slides onto Steam on August 6
A few days after the release of last week’s very amusing new edition of Threaks News, the developers of Beatbuddy have announced that the game has a new name (Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians) and an official release date (August 6). The PC, Linux, and Mac title will be available to download exclusively from Steam for $14.99.
Beatbuddy was included in our Best of PAX East 2013 roundup and we’re thrilled the game will be available to everyone soon. Are you unsure what Beatbuddy’s all about? It’s all about the beat…
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians tells a story of an ethereal, blue creature who is awoken from his eternal slumber in order to save the world of Symphonia from losing music forever to Prince Maestro. Beatbuddy’s quest takes him to a series of worlds where he encounters vibrant characters, such as Harmony, Clef, Trebble, and Quaver, who aid him as he opens paths and solve puzzles on his journey. Threaks has created a rich, interactive experience utilizing its patent-pending sound technology that syncs in-game animations with the beat, enabling players to experience music that is woven into the fabric of this action-adventure.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians
Weekly Warp-Up: The Annual “It’s Too Hot” 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…
Does everybody remember the “Rent is Too Damn High” guy from the 2010 New York governor’s debate? I’ve been thinking about him again recently, not least of which because it’s been too damn hot this week. Yup, that’s how little is going on in the game industry this week, I referenced the “Rent is Too Damn High” guy and the weather.
Anyway, UK Correspondent Andrew Rainnie looked at Nintendo’s performance during this year’s E3 Expo and has put together a few thoughts on what he considers “The New Conservatism of Nintendo.” And speaking of E3, the Game Critics Awards got together and announced the nominees for their annual Best of E3 2013 awards. This year, a trio of games (TitanFall, Destiny, and Watch Dogs) came away with more nominations than all the rest.
So cool down and take a gander at the rest of this week’s big news stories, after the break. (more…)
Posted in News