Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: Top Story
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Hands-On Preview: We’re Not on Gran Pulse Anymore
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII was quietly available to play on the show floor at PAX Prime 2013. There wasn’t a crowd around it – I didn’t even have to make an appointment or wait in a line to try it. The people who were playing it were completely engrossed, but it was a – not surprisingly – small number. With the linearity of the first Final Fantasy XIII, many fans were put off of the “Fabula Nova Crystallis” series (comprised of Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Type-0, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV, and Final Fantasy Agito). XIII-2 brought in a time travel element that changed a few things about how the first game worked, but not enough to reclaim fans. Lightning Returns, while it still continues to feel like a game in the XIII world, has taken some steps to make it stand out – and also has Lightning in it, which is a major added bonus. (more…)
Posted in Previews, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, PAX Prime 2013
Warp Zoned Rewind: HD Remakes
Well kiddies, it’s about that time… time to bid a fond farewell to the seventh generation of our favorite hobby. And what a generation it was! Lasting longer than any console cycle before it, this generation brought more than just some amazing titles. The console has become an all-in-one entertainment hub, as opposed to being “just a gaming system.” From apps like Netflix and Hulu Plus to the advent of motion control and the renaissance of indie games, there hasn’t been a better time to be a gamer. We have come so far in these past eight years, and the future looks brighter than ever.
As we play our Wii Us, and eagerly anticipate Microsoft and Sony’s consoles with bated breath, I feel it’s prudent to take a look back at this generation and discuss some of my favorite video games. Titles that left a lasting impression on us. Titles that will forever live in our collective memories as some of the most enjoyable experiences we’ve ever had.
Since there are so many amazing games, I’ve decided to list my favorites based on genre. In this article, I’m going to go with a new genre that emerged this generation: HD remakes. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, HD remakes helped older gamers relive fond memories, and gave a beautiful history lesson to people who recently discovered this hobby. Here are my favorite HD remakes of this generation. (more…)
Flashback Review: Like the Old Guy at the Disco
Delphine Software’s Flashback: The Quest for Identity, originally released in 1992, was a critical hit due to its smooth rotoscoped animation, hand-drawn backgrounds, and challenging gameplay. So it is not surprising that fans were excited about the HD remake, especially since members of the original team – including lead designer Paul Cuisset – are involved. So is the updated Flashback worth going back to the future past? (more…)
Transistor PAX Prime 2013 Impressions: The Impossible Elegance of Supergiant Games
Any fan of the hit indie game Bastion already knows the name Supergiant Games, and is probably already following their latest work of art, Transistor. In fact, Warp Zoned’s very own John Scalzo played Transistor at PAX East, and he had nothing but wonderful things to say about it. I played it at PAX Prime, after the game had been announced for the PlayStation 4, and I was ecstatic at the gameplay (and at getting my hands on a DualShock 4). I loved Transistor so much that I went straight home from Seattle and immediately began playing Bastion, from start to finish, over the course of three days. All it did was make me wish it was 2014 already so I could play the rest of Transistor. (more…)
Posted in PC, Previews, PS4, Top Story
Tagged PAX Prime 2013, Transistor
World of Warcraft’s Next Expansion Should Be Its Last
It’s no secret that Blizzard’s immensely popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WoW), has been suffering ever since the release of the game’s most recent expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Whether it’s the pandas, the retcon, or the multitude of changes to the game mechanics, World of Warcraft has lost over two million subscribers since Mists of Pandaria released last September. The most recent statistics released by Blizzard state that WoW has dropped to 7.7 million subscribers.
At one point in 2010, WoW boasted 12 million subscribers, so the number of subscribers has been steadily dropping, and is almost at only 50% of its highest number. Whether this is due to an influx of free-to-play MMOs, a lack of continued interest in the world of Azeroth, or the rise of the MOBA genre, World of Warcraft seems to be on its last leg. According to a recent comment from Game Director Tom Chilton to IGN, Blizzard may have read the writing on the wall. The announcement directly mentioned the next patch for Mists of Pandaria, stating that it would “bridge the storyline between Mists… and the next expansion.” He went on to hint that the next expansion for World of Warcraft would be announced at BlizzCon, which is set to happen this November. I personally believe that Blizzard should make this the final expansion for World of Warcraft, tying up the story of Azeroth. (more…)
Posted in Opinions, PC, Top Story
Tagged World of Warcraft
The Wonderful 101 Review: Another Golden Hit From Platinum Games
With its crazy sense of style, colorful worlds, and oddball humor, The Wonderful 101 feels like Director Hideki Kamiya’s spiritual successor to Viewtiful Joe. As the title suggests, instead of controlling just one masked superhero, you take charge of a 100-strong battalion as the 101st member of the squad. So how does controlling an army of shape-shifting warriors handle?
In a word? Viewtifully. (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged The Wonderful 101
Pokemon X/Y Hands-On Preview: The 3DS Game You’ve Been Waiting For
Pokemon X and Pokemon Y are the first “main series” Pokemon games to be rendered completely in 3D, which is something fans of the series have been waiting for since the 3DS system itself was announced. Because of this, there’s a lot of excitement about the new titles, and a lot of healthy skepticism. Pokemon Black and White (and Black 2 and White 2) didn’t really do a whole lot that was innovative, but it seems that X and Y are going places the series never has before. Nintendo has added in a lot of extra features – some obviously just there for the adorability factor – that are going to make players happy, especially players who want to interact more with their Pokemon. And I got all of that just from playing a seven-minute demo at PAX Prime 2013 – which was the first time Nintendo showed off the new game in America. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Previews, Top Story
Tagged PAX Prime 2013, Pokemon X/Y
Borderlands 2: T.K. Baha’s Bloody Harvest Preview: I Hope You Like Boss Battles
I finally got a chance to get back to PAX Prime this year after a two-year hiatus from what may always be my favorite gaming expo. And, unsurprisingly, the first thing I got to play on the show floor at PAX Prime was the new Headhunters Pack for Borderlands 2, T.K. Baha’s Bloody Harvest. This new series of smaller DLCs are heavily focused on boss fights, and that was immediately clear in what we got to play. We also got to spend some time with Josh Jeffcoat, the Game Designer on the Headhunters Pack. (more…)
Posted in PC, Previews, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands 2, PAX Prime 2013