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
Atlus tells players “Don’t Look Back” in new Daylight trailer
Atlus has released a new trailer for its upcoming procedurally-generated horror game Daylight. The PC and PS4 game is in development at Zombie Studios and both publisher and developer have warned “Don’t Look Back” as you watch.
The trailer shows the female protagonist waking up in a derelict hospital and being taunted by her mysterious captor, as well as other spooky voices. It certainly sells the creepiness and feeling of isolation, thanks in part to the graphics powered by the Unreal Engine 4. In addition to the randomly generated levels, the game’s main character will have to fend off the evil within using the magic of their mobile phone, which ingeniously helps players light their way through the level while also showing a map of the area. The above video also shows the main character wielding other items such as scissors and a Holy Bible.
Daylight is expected to be released in the first half of 2014, but no date has been set. When it does hit, expect it to send shivers down your spine.
Nintendo Download: Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder, Gradius, Cocoto Magic Circus 2
Welcome to another week of Nintendo downloads. Today, the company has added a trio of games to the Nintendo eShop… There’s the real-world picture-taking quest, Chibi-Robo!: Photo Finder (3DS); the classic NES shooter, Gradius (Wii U); and a shooting gallery game, Cocoto Magic Circus 2 (Wii U).
More details on all three games can be found right here:
3DS eShop
Chibi-Robo!: Photo Finder – Become one of the world’s best tiny robot helpers by taking pictures of real-world objects using the Nintendo 3DS Camera to help open a new museum. Collect Happy Points by vacuuming, picking up trash and helping a cast of colorful characters. Collected Happy Points can be used to purchase in-game film that lets you photograph real-world objects and transport them into the game for the museum’s displays.
Wii U eShop
Gradius – In the classic game Gradius, pilot the Vic Viper through seven stages, while shooting, dodging and collecting various power-ups, including missiles, lasers and shields. The only way to end the war is to plunge deep through the enemy forces and destroy them from within.
Cocoto Magic Circus 2 – Knock out Cocoto’s enemies and save his friends!
Get Even uses photorealistic graphics to ask “What Is Real?”
Polish developers The Farm 51 are best known for budget titles like 2009’s Necrovision, last year’s Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, or the Indiana Jones-esque Deadfall Adventures. But for their first next-gen project, the company is getting a little ambitious.
Get Even plays with memories like The Matrix and drops players into a world that melds single-player and multiplayer gameplay. Which “memories” a player chooses to follow will change the how the game progresses. And, according to the developer, “[Other players] on the network can join the quest as enemies, so players never know whether their opponents are human or CPU-based.”
The game will also make extensive use of a brand new 3D photoscanning technology that will literally drop these images into the game to create “expansive and lifelike environments.” “Advanced lighting effects” will add to the immersive images to create an even more realistic world. The developer plans to combine these elements to create a unique shooter that stands out from the crowd.
Wojtek Pazdur, CEO of The Farm 51, said: “As an independent developer, it would be foolish to go head-to-head with the larger companies and create a ‘me too’ knock-off, and frankly we wouldn’t be interested in doing it. We believe that there is still a ton of content and design creativity that has yet to be explored in first-person genre, as well as an audience beyond the warfare player — those are the people we are going for with Get Even.”
Get Even will be available sometime in 2015 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Daily Scoop: January 8, 2014 – Bit.Trip deals
Remember all that talking I did about Hammerwatch? Well, Anthony Amato and I beat it last night, and I can officially say that it’s one of those NES-hard games. I mean, just playing the game makes that clear, but the ending is a real punch in the face. If you’re aching for a serious challenge, you definitely should pick it up.
Speaking of games you should pick up, there are lots of Bit.Trip games on sale at the Humble Store right now, to complement Runner 2 being in the latest Humble Bundle. You can get Bit.Trip Beat, Bit.Trip Runner, and Bit.Trip Void, all for $1.99 each.
But wait – there’s more! Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs is the Midweek Madness game at Steam, on sale for $9.99. Amazon also has some good Digital Deals right now, including Borderlands 2 Game of the Year Edition for $29.99, as well as The XCOM Collection and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified for $14.99 each.
And now, time for t-shirts! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Rumor: Tom Clancy’s The Division delayed into 2015
Tom Clancy’s The Division wowed attendees at last year’s E3 Expo. The MMO from Ubisoft Massive is powered by the brand new Snowdrop Engine and is expected to launch in late 2014 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. However, an anonymous developer within Massive recently told Gamereactor UK that he/she believes that is very unlikely due to the game’s current unfinished state:
“The game engine works well, it’s not done but works well. The actual game development has barely started, however,” says our source.
“The fact that Ubisoft has gone public with a 2014 release date feels laughable to be perfectly honest, we will never be able to release The Division this year. It’s a large project, and we have very far to go.”
Ubisoft hasn’t been shy about touting the technological muscle that has been poured into The Division, so if this report is true, it’s actually rather unsurprising. The Division is, quite literally, a massive game. And Ubisoft surely wants to get it right, as they’ve shown with South Park: The Stick of Truth, Watch Dogs, and The Crew.
And speaking of Ubisoft’s other games, the company has a huge slate of titles on tap for 2014. Even if The Division is ready, moving it would make sense from a practical standpoint. In addition to those three games, Ubisoft has also scheduled Child of Light, Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and an untitled new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series for release this year. That’s a lot of games and giving a big new franchise like The Division room to breath makes more sense than sticking to a (possibly) arbitrary 2014 release date.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Tom Clancy's The Division
Don’t Starve, Tiny Brains PS3, more added to PS Store
Sony has posted their weekly update to the PlayStation Store and PS4 gamers now have a chance to play the acclaimed indie Don’t Starve. In addition to Klei’s survival game, this week’s update includes:
- Tiny Brains for the PS3… The puzzle game is part of Sony’s Cross-Buy program, so if you previously purchased the PS4 version, you’ll receive this one for free.
- Twisted Lands: Shadow Town… A hidden object game for the PS3.
- StreetKix: Freestyle… A street soccer game for the PSP.
More details on all of these games can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, PSP
Tagged Don't Starve
Square Enix Montreal’s Hitman game has been canceled
Square Enix Montreal opened in 2011 and its first mission was to create a new game in the Hitman series for next-generation consoles. It looks like that mission is a failure as VideoGamer has surmised that the project has been terminated.
According to the LinkedIn profile of Senior Game Designer Richard Knight, the new Hitman game was to be a “re-imagining” of the character, going back to the roots of the first game, echoing what happened with the new Tomb Raider. However, the news does not mean the end for the bald and barcoded Agent 47. Square Enix Montreal is still in business and has shifted its focus to the mobile games market. And one of their mobile projects is an as-yet-untitled Hitman game that will soon be making its way to a smartphone/tablet near you.
As for a next-gen Hitman game, Square Enix has handed the reins back to IO Interactive, the company that created he franchise. The company plans to focus “resolutely on the future vision for the Hitman franchise” and is already “in pre-production on a new AAA Hitman project.” However, it’s unclear whether that title is the same one that Square Enix Monreal scrapped, or if it’s something completely different.
2K Games will not produce Major League Baseball 2K14
In a move that’s just as heartbreaking as the strike of 1994, 2K Games has confirmed they will no longer continue their MLB 2K line of games. Furthermore, all online outposts for the series are gone… the Facebook page has been taken down, and the 2K website features no mention of the series (though the actual webpages remain, for now). The games have also been pulled from Steam and the Xbox Games Store.
2K told Polygon earlier today that they chose not to renew their license to produce games with Major League Baseball:
“We have decided not to renew our MLB 2K series for 2014. We are very proud of the achievements made by the MLB 2K team and look forward to their contributions to our future titles, including NBA 2K — our industry’s #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise.”
Without Major League Baseball 2K14, this leaves Xbox and Wii U gamers with no baseball title for 2014. As well as any PlayStation owners looknig for an alternative to Sony’s MLB 14: The Show, which is is set to be the only major player this season.