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)
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Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 8 is here… and so is the Launch Trailer
Jesse and friends will ride off into the sunset this week with the release of the final episode in Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode. Players will be introduced to “The Old Builders” in Episode 8: A Journey’s End?, which might mean a way home for the adventurers:
With Harper leading them to the world of the Old Builders, Jesse and crew finally have their chance to return home… but it won’t be easy, and the stakes are high. You’ll need to take on opponents in a series of gladiatorial games to win your freedom, save your friends, and maybe, just maybe, make it back to your own world!
Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 8: A Journey’s End? is now available to download for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices. Players can purchase it as part of the Adventure Pass ($14.99) or as a standalone download ($4.99).
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue delayed to January 24, 2017
Square Enix has announced that Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue won’t be released in 2016 as originally planned. Today, the publisher confirmed that the PS4 game, which is a remake of 2012’s Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, on January 24, 2017.
While this two-month delay is disappointing, Square Enix also released a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 today. The Tokyo Game Show 2016 trailer also features footage from the included companion chapters, Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover and Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage…
[The trailer] includes never-before-seen scenes depicting a mysterious meeting of the “Foretellers,” the five Keyblade Masters from the Kingdom Hearts origins movie included in the compilation as Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover. The trailer also features HD remastered gameplay of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD and new battles scenes from Aqua’s adventures in Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage.
Through the trailer, fans can listen to the newly remixed version of “Simple and Clean” by popular singer Utada Hikaru.
Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts III remains as mysterious as ever. Hopefully, we’ll hear more about it during this week’s Tokyo Game Show.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8: Final Chapter Prologue, TGS 2016
World of Warcraft’s Lead Designer, Rob Pardo, forms Bonfire Studios
As the Lead Designer on World of Warcraft, Rob Pardo was part of the team that profoundly changed the video game industry as we know it. Now, he’s struck out on his own and formed Bonfire Studios, a new game development house located in Irvine, California.
Writing on the company’s blog, Pardo said Bonfire hasn’t started work on their first project yet (or even decided on a platform), but his desire is to to let his team stay small while still being able to create blockbuster games:
Game developers live the dream scenario where passion meets work. We don’t view our week as something to get through so we can really live on the weekend. But often, developers must compromise and decide — do I work on a blockbuster game where I have less personal impact or the gutsy indie studio that struggles to get noticed? Our vision is to create a studio that doesn’t require them to choose.
Bonfire also has close ties with Riot Games, the development team behind League of Legends. “Riot’s aspiration to be the most player-focused game company in the world, aligns very nicely with our vision to build friendships through our online games,” said Pardo. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Bonfire’s first project turns out to be an online-focused multiplayer game.
Daily Scoop: September 12, 2016 – Last day for Humble Sierra Bundle
I spent the weekend mostly sleeping, relaxing, and playing games! The game I put the most time into was probably Hyper Light Drifter, which I’ve been tearing through. It reminds me so much of Fez, with the strangeness of the lore, the thrill of adventure, and the sheer loneliness of some of the scenery. And, of course, the fact that Disasterpeace does the soundtrack adds to that as well. It’s been such a wonderful journey and I’m glad there are more secrets left to find.
Let’s get to today’s deals! There’s less than a day left to get the Humble Sierra Bundle. Pay $1 or more for Space Quest Collection, Phantasmagoria 1-2, Police Quest Collection, and Shiftlings. Beat the average to unlock Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, TimeShift, Quest for Glory 1-5, and Gabriel Knight 1-3. Pay $15 or more to unlock Caesar 3-4, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved, King’s Quest Collection, and Velocity 2X. Finally, pay $20 to unlock King’s Quest: The Complete Collection. Whew. That’s a lot of games!
Over at Steam, there are 382 new Weeklong Deals. Blood and Bacon is $0.89, Riff Racer – Race Your Music! is $3.99, Cannon Brawl is $4.94, and Pixeluvo is $15.74, among many others. The Daily Deal is Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty, which is just $6.79.
Hit the jump to see today’s t-shirts for sale! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
“Narrative and Creation are Sacrosanct” in MetaArcade’s Text Adventure Creation Tool @ PAX West 2016
PAX West 2016 was full of innovation, creativity, and, of course, fun. One of the best intersections of these three assets was at the MetaArcade booth, where they were demoing Tunnels & Trolls: Naked Doom.
“Wow, Nicole. What exactly is Tunnels & Trolls: Naked Doom?” you might be asking yourself right now. Let me start by explaining a little more about MetaArcade and their vision for the future of text adventures. (more…)
Posted in PC, Previews, Top Story
Tagged PAX West 2016
Titanfall franchise comes to mobile devices with strategy card game Titanfall: Frontline
Your Titan will soon be ready on your smartphone. Respawn Entertainment and Nexon have announced that Titanfall: Frontline will be available this Fall for iOS and Android devices. Developed by Particle City, Titanfall: Frontline is a free-to-play strategy card game where players will “face off in head-to-head combat with other players in real-time.”
Featuring hundreds of Pilots, Titans, and special ability Burn Cards, Commanders will collect and upgrade their units and build their own unique decks. Players can build their IMC or Militia squad according to their play style, whether they prefer to assemble a dropship of fast, light Pilots and Titans to deal quick damage or wear out their opponents with the addition of strong defensive units, installations, and support personnel.
“We’ve worked hand-in-hand with Respawn to weave in card battle strategy and collectibility with the iconic gameplay elements that make Titanfall so unique and that will help evolve the genre,” said Larry Pacey, Particle City’s Co-Founder. “From dropping a Titan onto the field of play to turn the tide of battle to using a combination of Parkour and Rodeo Burn Cards to take a Titan down, Titanfall: Frontline is unapologetically intense and utterly Titanfall.”
Nexon and Particle City will follow Titanfall: Frontline with a series of additional mobile games based on the franchise as part of a multi-year agreement. A small batch of screenshots and more details about Titanfall: Frontline can be found at its official website.
First gameplay trailer for WWE 2K17 is here
With less than a month to go before WWE 2K17‘s launch, 2K Games released the wrestling sim’s first gameplay trailer over the weekend.
Puff Daddy provides the soundtrack (“Bad Boys For Life”) as a string of WWE wrestlers fight it out inside (and out of) the squared circle. So be sure to check the trailer embedded above for a quick glimpse at Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and many, many, many, many more.
WWE 2K17 will be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on October 11.
Heart Machine cancels development of Hyper Light Drifter on the Wii U and Vita
In a heartfelt new update to the game’s Kickstarter page, Heart Machine’s Alex Preston has confirmed that Hyper Light Drifter is no longer in development for the Vita and Wii U.
Most of the problems with the ports can be attributed to GameMaker, the engine Hyper Light Drifter was built in. When trying to recreate the game for the Vita, Preston said they forced the engine to do things it wasn’t designed to do, making performance suffer:
With the Vita, we worked for months to get the project to run well enough on the platform. The problem is we pushed the engine incredibly far and made it do things it wasn’t meant to do. So the native port option has not been performing anywhere near our standards and would require a lot of majot reworking and downgrading to fit on a lower-powered platform.
Preston first discussed the problems his team was having with the GameMaker engine on the Wii U back in February, and it looks the engine’s lack of support for Nintendo’s console finally killed the port. The developer also cited his own health issues as a major contributing factor in dropping both versions of the game.
Preston confirmed that any Kickstarter backer who originally request the Wii U or Vita version of the game will receive a full refund. Though an option to receive a download code for the PC, PS4, or Xbox One is also available.
Finally, Preston said that “a big update” for Hyper Light Drifter will be released later this month, so we should all be on the lookout for that.
Posted in News, Vita, Wii U
Tagged Hyper Light Drifter