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: Articles
Weekly Warp-Up: A Big Week for Bethesda…
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 a big week for Bethesda as the publisher celebrated a big win for Fallout 4 at the 2016 BAFTA Games Awards. The post-apocalyptic RPG was named “Best Game” by the British Academy, beating out The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
Bethesda is also gearing up to release their next big hit, Doom, and we thought last week’s Closed Beta was a huge success. If you weren’t able to secure a beta key, you’ll get another chance to chaingun a demon on Mars next week with the Open Beta. Bethesda’s post-launch DLC plans for Doom were also revealed earlier this week.
Elsewhere around Warp Zoned this week, the staff got together to discuss What We Played In March and our picks for The Games of April. You can also spend this Sunday with a review of multiplayer physics puzzler Dreii.
More news from the week that was can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Dark Souls III, Bravely Second, Ratchet & Clank
Just three new games will be available on store shelves this week… but they’re three of this Spring’s biggest.
Leading the way, of course, is Bandai Namco’s Dark Souls III. Available this week for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, developer From Software and Director Hidetaka Miyazaki are back to tell another story in their crumbling, yet strasngely beautiful, world. Players who purchase the “Day One Edition” will get a head start on the uber-difficult game thanks to the included Prima Starter Guide and soundtrack CD.
Gamers on the go will get the chance to try out a very different RPG this week, as Square Enix will team up with Nintendo to release Bravely Second: End Layer for the 3DS. This turn-based sequel will explore more of Luxendarc as players attempt to rescue Agnes Oblige from the evil Kaiser Oblivion.
Finally this week, Sony and Insomniac Games will bring back Ratchet & Clank in a reimagining of the duo’s original adventure. These reimagined elements (including new characters, new bosses, and new weapons) will also be on display later this month when an animated adaptation of Ratchet & Clank warps its way into theaters.
We’ll be back soon with a closer look at all of this week’s downloadable titles for the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Bravely Second: End Layer, Dark Souls III, Ratchet & Clank
Insert Quarter: What Does the Return of Nintendo’s Red Logo Mean?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
During the Wii’s heyday, Nintendo dropped the iconic red coloring from their logo and switched to a sleek silver shade. Combined with the smooth white of the Wii chassis, the rebranding gave Nintendo an air of cool that is typically reserved for the design-obsessed Apple. But after a while, many fans began to feel that draining the color out of the logo drained some of the fun out of Nintendo.
Nintendo Enthusiast’s A.K. Rahming is one of those fans and he argues that Nintendo’s red resurrection might be a signal that the company is getting ready to bring back that fun-loving spirit with the upcoming launch of the NX:
Nintendo is known for dropping major surprises, but the company’s latest surprise has a lot of folks in the gaming community quite pleased. Nintendo of America has recently done a full re-branding of their logo back to the classic red and white. The whole company transformed to the minimalist gray-white color scheme with the dawn of the Wii and DS era, and this branding went on to continue for the current Wii U and 3DS era (albeit with a little hint of color provided from the logos of both systems).
The full article is available for your perusal at Nintendo Enthusiast.
Register for the Pit People Closed Beta at PAX East 2016
Just as they do every year, The Behemoth plans to set up shop at the 2016 PAX East expo to show off their latest projects. This year’s show kicks off on April 22, and the developer has announced plans to bring their upcoming turn-based strategy game, Pit People, to Boston.
In addition to hosting a playable demo of the game’s Co-Op Mode for the heaving crowds, The Behemoth will also give attendees the chance to sign up for the Closed Beta, which is expected to begin this Summer on the Xbox One (and later on Steam). If you’re unable to attend PAX East, the developer plans to open registration up to the rest of the world sometime after the convention is over.
We still don’t know when Pit People will be released for the PC and Xbox One, but Microsoft thinks it’ll be available sometime this year.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2016, Pit People
Xbox Store Today: Letter Quest Remastered, Tron Run/r, Stikbold!, more
Travel through the decades with five new Xbox One games now available to download through the Xbox Games Store…
Let’s start in the 2010s, with a pair of titles that don’t have any connection to a previous decade. Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey Remastered is an RPG where you create words to cast spells, use items, and deliver dictionary-sized attacks to an opposing force of monsters. Meanwhile, Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek is a hidden object game about a missing girl and g-g-g-ghosts!
After that, we can skip back to the 80s for Tron Run/r, an “endless runner” reinvention of the radical sci-fi film. And if we hustle back another decade, we’ll find the inspiration for Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure, a 70s-themed dodge ball game featuring funk and disco and mustaches!
Finally, Xbox One owners can 23-skidoo their way to the 1930s to try out Blues and Bullets: Episode 2, an adventure game starring ex-Untouchable Eliot Ness.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Fallout 4 wins “Best Game” at 2016 BAFTA Games Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held their annual Games Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 looted the trophy for “Best Game.” Surprisingly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4’s main rival throughout the 2015/2016 awards season, came away empty-handed.
The same doesn’t need to be said for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Her Story, and Rocket League, each of which won three awards last night.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’s accolades all revolved around its excellent use of sound as the post-apocalyptic title won for “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” and “Best Performance” (which went to Merle Dandridge). Rocket League’s universal appeal informed its three award including “Family Game,” “Multiplayer,” and “Sport.” Finally, Her Story’s unique storytelling structure lead to wins in the “Best Debut,” “Game Innovation,” and “Mobile & Handheld” categories.
Other winners during last night’s ceremony include Ori and the Blind Forest, Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Until Dawn, Prison Architect, and Life Is Strange.
Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Game & Watch Gallery 4, Super Robo Mouse, Epic Dumpster Bear, more
Fans of weird and wacky games will likely find something of interest in the quintet of new titles that’s now available to download through the Nintendo eShop…
First up is Game & Watch Gallery 4, a minigame collection that attempts to recreate several of Nintendo’s Game & Watch handheld devices. Originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, Game & Watch Gallery 4 is now available to download for the Wii U. It includes both the original minigames, as well as “Modern” versions starring Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and others.
Also available for the Wii U this week is Super Robo Mouse, an overhead game where you navigate a robotic mouse through a maze; Epic Dumpster Bear, a platformer where you control a “dumpster bear” who is very angry about humans messing with his forest; and Mojikara: A Clever Emoji Match Game, a puzzler about matching emojis.
Owners of the 3DS handheld will be able to download a single new game this week, Doll Fashion Atelier. It’s a dollmaker game where players can choose from five different doll types (Pretty, Gothic, Victorian, Princess, or Antique) and customize them to their heart’s content.
More information about all of these slightly-left-of-center games can be found after the break. (more…)
Dreii Review: Puzzling, But Not In a Good Way
I first got word of Dreii a couple of months ago and I’ve been quite frankly jazzed about it ever since. A physics-based puzzle game! With Journey-style invisible matchmaking and limited communication! And that art style! Dreii almost seemed like it was designed just for me. It pains me to report then that, in spite of all of these things, Dreii is mired in an indecisiveness about what it wants its puzzles to be that makes it at best, boring, and at worst, infuriating. (more…)