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
Insert Quarter: Everyone Loves Overwatch… But Why?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Blizzard’s Overwatch unveiling got the game industry and gamers everywhere buzzing like they haven’t in a long time. But what’s the source of all this good will? Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett believes that it’s due to the fact that Overwatch, above all else, looks like fun. When so many other so-called “AAA” games are exploring the darkest recesses of the human mind, Blizzard is running in the opposite direction to deliver a game that evokes the best Saturday morning cartoons without being childish:
Consider the vast majority of blockbuster video game releases. They usually star men. Those men are scowling. They’re involved in bloody violence of the grimmest sort. The lighting is dark, and smoky, and hostile. From Call of Duty to Battlefield, Assassin’s Creed to Far Cry (and most games in between), the big games from big teams share a very similar tone. And that tone isn’t very fun.
Now consider Overwatch’s reveal. Happy kids, a talking ape, a very chirpy British girl. It didn’t really seem like a video game trailer at all, did it? People compared (wrongly, I think) the art design to Pixar, but they’re close: it felt like a Pixar movie, with a youthful sense of joy and excitement.
In this business, that’s pretty rare!
You can read the rest of the article at Kotaku.
Posted in Insert Quarter, PC
Tagged Overwatch
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea will be released on March 10
Are you still on the fence over which next-generation console to purchase? If so, don’t worry, several third-party publishers still have plans to support the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2015. Case in point, Koei Tecmo has announced that Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea will be released on March 10:
Atelier Shallie release date set on March 10th, 2015 for PlayStation 3! http://t.co/IFNL9y4Gvt pic.twitter.com/byOHeKhIkB
— KOEI TECMO AMERICA (@KoeiTecmoUS) November 11, 2014
Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is developed by Gust and is the third entry in the “Atelier Dusk” sub-series of RPGs. But believe it or not, it’s actually the 16th game in the main Atelier series, which began all the way back in 1997.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea
Check out the first Tekken 7 gameplay trailer right here
Bandai Namco is planning a limited location test for Tekken 7 later this month and they’ve decided to celebrate by releasing the arcade fighter’s first gameplay trailer. Unfortunately, the tests will only take place in Japan, and therefore, that means this trailer is entirely in Japanese.
Thankfully, the language of kicks and punches is a universal one and Tekken fans will certainly get an idea how the new game in the series works from the trailer. We even get a fleeting glimpse at two brand new characters, Claudio and Katrina.
Tekken 7 will be available to play in Japanese arcades in early 2015. It is expected to launch on home consoles across the world sometime after that, however, Bandai Namco has yet to make an official announcement concerning Tekken 7’s console release.
Xbox Store Today: AC: Unity, AC: Rogue, Halo Master Chief Collection, Lego Batman 3, more
After the delay of Halo 5: Guardians earlier this year, Microsoft didn’t have any kind of big shooter on their Fall 2014 schedule. Thankfully, Microsoft put out something else today that will surely make all the little Halo fans out there squeal with delight… an Xbox One-exclusive compilation of the first four games in the series known as Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Improved visuals and a complete “Anniversary” makeover for Halo 2 make this the biggest re-release the series has ever seen.
Elsewhere on the Xbox Games Store today is a pair of new Assassin’s Creed games (the Paris-set Assassin’s Creed: Unity on the Xbox One and the Revolutionary Assassin’s Creed: Rogue on the Xbox 360), Konami’s latest soccer sim (Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One), and WB’s latest whimsical Lego adventure (Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One)
More information about all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Creepy Mario meets Peach and Luigi in new commercials for the Mercedes GLA in Japan
Remember the creepy live-action Mario Kart 8 commercial promoting the Mercedes-Benz GLA downloadable content? Well… Mercedes-Benz Japan is back with two new entries in the series and they’re just as crazy as the first one.
In these new spots, live-action Luigi emerges victorious against Mario and decides to do some kind of not-quite robot dance in celebration. Meanwhile, Peach stares down the plumber and then does a dainty hop-step to avoid a green shell. That stare… she’ll stare into your soul.
You can check out the Luigi commercial above while the Peach advertisement is available after the break. Don’t say you weren’t warned. (more…)
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Sony has announced Bloodborne’s due date is now March 24
Bad news for PS4 owners… Masaaki Yamagiwa, a Producer at SCE Japan has confirmed (via the PlayStation Blog) that Bloodborne will miss its previously announced release date of February 5, 2015. The game has been pushed back almost two months and will now be released on March 24. According to Yamagiwa, SCE Japan and From Software made this decision due to a desire to implement some of the things they learned during the game’s recent alpha test.
And keep an eye out for more information on the game to be revealed soon as Yamagiwa also announced that “exciting Bloodborne news” would be revealed in December.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Bloodborne
Telltale’s Game of Thrones will span six episodes and begin with “Iron From Ice”
After announcing it almost a year ago, Telltale Games is finally ready to talk about their Game of Thrones adaptation on their official blog. The first episode, “Iron From Ice,” will debut on the PC (Win/Mac), PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and iOS App Store “soon.” Telltale said that it will also appear on “additional platforms,” but that’s most likely just confirmation that the episodic series will eventually appear on the many, many Android devices out there.
Unlike previous episodic games from Telltale, Game of Thrones will take place over six episodes and will initially take place towards the end of the third season of the show. Future episodes will push the narrative through to the beginning of the fifth season (which will begin airing on HBO in Spring 2015). However, the members of House Forrester that Telltale will spotlight in the game have yet to appear on the popular show:
House Forrester is a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Bannermen to House Glover, they have always offered unswerving loyalty to the ruling great house of the North – the Starks. The Forresters are seated at Ironrath, an imposing stronghold surrounded by towering ironwood trees. Built over fifteen hundred years ago by Cedric Forrester and his triplet sons, Ironrath is a testament to the strength and endurance of Ironwood. The Forrester house words are “Iron from Ice,” which echoes their belief that – like the ironwood itself – the adverse conditions and unforgiving landscape of the North only makes them stronger.
Ironrath sits on the edge of the largest ironwood forest in Westeros, which has proven to be a strategic advantage for the House. The trees are a valuable commodity; many of the best weapons, ships, and defensive structures include the use of ironwood. House Forrester controls the majority of the ironwood forests in the Wolfswood, much to the chagrin of their bitter rivals, House Whitehill.
All told, players will control five different characters throughout the series, which Telltale promises will up the complexity considerably: “Playing as five characters not only reflects the epic scope of Game of Thrones, but is also something that the player needs to be mindful of. This is because the actions of one character can ripple out to affect the rest of House Forrester. Multiply the actions of one character by five, and you’re truly playing the Game of Thrones… where you win, or you die.”
Game of Thrones: Iron From Ice is expected to be available before the end of the year, but only Telltale knows how soon is “soon.”
AC: Unity, AC: Rogue, Lego Batman 3, PES 2015, many more added to PS Store
It’s another big week for the PlayStation Store. These words could probably be etched to the top of this column every week and still be true, but today that sentence is especially apt as Ubisoft, WB Games, and Konami added a bunch of eagerly anticipated titles to Sony’s digital storefront alongside a passel of big indies.
Ubisoft leads the way with a double shot of their famed Assassin’s Creed series. The franchise’s first next-generation exclusive, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, takes the action to Paris and is now available to download for the PS4. Meanwhile, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue for the PS3 closes out the “Americas” saga and allows players to play as a Templar for the first time. Also available this week is WB Games’ Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. The latest Lego title from TT Games blasts Batman into outer space on the PS4, PS3, and Vita. And Konami’s contribution to this week’s PlayStation Store update is Pro Evoltuon Soccer 2015 (PS4, PS3), the latest game in the soccer simulation series.
Finally this week, Bandai Namco released Tales of Hearts R, a new action RPG in the long-running Tales series, for the Vita. It was joined by a pair of indie favorites: Vblank’s overhead actioner Retro City Rampage DX (Cross-Buy on the PS4, PS3, and Vita) and side-scrolling world-builder Terraria (PS4, but includes Cross-Buy access to the previously released Vita version).
More information about all of these games can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)