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- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Warp Zoned Archives
Most Recent: 3DS
Animal Crossing: New Leaf sets up house on June 9

3DS owners will finally get a chance to purchase Animal Crossing: New Leaf when its released for the 3DS on June 9. The game, which has been available in Japan since December, will be the first game in the series available for the handheld.
New Leaf will add plenty of new things to the Animal Crossing formula including a Main Street shopping plaza and the Happy Home Place model home showcase. And, of course, this time you get to be the mayor. Bill Trinen, Nintendo’s Director of Product Marketing, had this to say: “You’re the boss now. No more doing chores for Tom Nook.”
As the boss, you also might like to know that Nintendo is adding an Animal Crossing-themed clothing line to Style Savvy: Trendsetters. The Gracie Grace line is inspired by “the fashion-forward giraffe from the Animal Crossing series” and is available for download now. Another new clothing line, based on the popular Japanese brand Liz Lisa, will be available to download later this year.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Mario Golf: World Tour coming to 3DS this Summer

Nintendo has just finishing delivering their latest Nintendo Direct address to fans and Nintendo President Satoru Iwata opened things up by declaring that 2013 will be “The Year of Luigi.”
In addition to showing some new gameplay footage from Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, Mr. Iwata announced two new games that star “Mario’s twin brother.” Did we know they were twins? I don’t think we knew that… Anyway, Nintendo revealed they’ll be bringing Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Mario Golf: World Tour to the 3DS this Summer.
As you might have guessed, Dream Team takes place in Luigi’s dreams and players will actually get to wake him by pulling on his mustache with the touchscreen. The latest Mario Golf game will once again be developed by Camelot and will include multiple courses set in and around the Mushroom Kingdom.
Doesn’t Mr. Iwata look great in a Luigi hat?
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Mario Golf: World Tour
New Releases: Aliens Colonial Marines, Brain Age 3, Omerta, More

First things first, Nintendo’s hard brain training game, Brain Age: Concentration Training, is available for the 3DS today. Dr. Kawashima, the master of brains himself, has promised that you’ll have a devilishly good time with the third game in the Brain Age series.
Moving on, this week’s other major release is Aliens: Colonial Marines. The Sega-published, Gearbox-developer continuation of the Alien saga has been in development for a long time, but if you’ve ever wanted a direct sequel to Aliens, this is your best chance. Pick it up on Tuesday for the PC, PS3, or Xbox 360.
Also available this week is Omerta: City of Gangsters. If you’ve ever thought, “a strategy RPG starring gangsters and set in the bootleggin’ Prohibition era would be a hoot-and-a-half,” then this PC and Xbox 360 game might be for you. It also might be for you if you regularly use the phrase “hoot-and-a-half” in regular conversation.
Finally, a pair of 3DS games make their belated debut on the portable platform. Both Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 3D are now available on Nintendo’s handheld.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Aliens: Colonial Marines, Brain Age: Devil Training, Omerta: City of Gangsters
Journey, The Walking Dead clean up at 2013 DICE Awards

A pair of downloadable games came away with almost half of all the awards handed out at last night’s D.I.C.E. Awards show. Journey, developed by thatgamecompany exclusively for the PS3, was the big winner of the night, nabbing eight awards including Game of the Year. Telltale’s The Walking Dead was also a multiple award winner, collecting four trophies.
Halo 4 (Visual Engineering and Connectivity) and XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Gameplay Engineering and Strategy/Simulation) were the only other games to win in more than one category.
Congratulations to the developers at thatgamecompany and Telltale Games. You can find a complete list of winners in all 25 categories after the break. (more…)
Skylanders Swap Force brings customizable figures to the franchise

Skylanders Giants is less than four months old and Activision is already ready to announce the next game in the series. Skylanders Swap Force will make its worldwide debut this weekend at the 2013 Toy Fair. Taking up residence in booth 3061, Activision will unveil Swap Force’s 16 new customizable characters at the Javits Center in New York City.
Here’s some of the new features that the kiddies can look forward to in Skylanders Swap Force:
Swap Force builds upon the success of the franchise’s signature gameplay with an all-new innovative play pattern — swapability — that gives kids more choice than ever before by letting them swap the top and bottom halves of the toys to create their own characters. The game lets Portal Masters reconfigure 16 Swap Force characters into more than 250 unique combinations. Kids can mix and match characters’ powers and moves, and then bring them to life in the game. Fans of the franchise also can play Skylanders Swap Force with their entire collection of characters from both Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Giants, now with the added capability of jumping.
Skylanders Swap Force is in development at Vicarious Visions and will likely be released this Fall for every platform imaginable.
New Releases: Dead Space 3, Sly Cooper 4, Fire Emblem: Awakening, More

This week’s biggest new release is the return of Isaac Clarke in Dead Space 3. Everyone’s favorite alien-hunting engineer (wait, was Ripley an engineer?) has help this time in the form of the appropriately named John Carver. Go grab a buddy for co-op and check out Dead Space 3 this week on the PC, PS3, or Xbox 360.
Also available this week is Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time returns in a new adventure available simultaneously for the PS3 and Vita. But remember, if you buy the PS3 version, you’ll get the Vita version for free as part of Sony’s Cross-Buy promotion.
Namco Bandai will be bringing Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage 2 to the PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 this week in a unique way. The Xbox 360 version will be available on store shelves as a disc-based game while the PS3 and Wii U versions will be released exclusively as digital downloads.
And speaking of digital downloads, you can obtain the 3DS strategy game Fire Emblem: Awakening on Monday as a download from the 3DS eShop or in stores.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360
Tagged Dead Space 3, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Console port of Resident Evil Revelations may shape the franchise’s future

Are you one of the many who cried foul at Resident Evil 6‘s rather drastic departure from what made the series so great? Do you have trouple falling asleep at night, staring at the ceiling and wishing that the series would return to the style that made “survival horror” a common household name? Then start saving your money! Your purchase of Resident Evil Revelations may help govern where the series goes next.
Masachika Kawata, who produced Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS, said that Capcom will be paying very close attention to the success of the home console port of the portable title:
“I think we’ll get a lot of input from the fanbase and the media on what it means for Resident Evil, and what it could mean for the future of the series. We’ll definitely be looking at that as a signpost for where we need to be going next.”
“Moving forward I can see us focusing even more on the horror aspect and fear in the series, and see us making something scarier than we have already.”
Vote with your wallets, people!
[Source: Eurogamer]
Nintendo Download: Puddle, Ikachan, Fire Emblem Awakening on Monday, more

A handful of new games were added to Nintendo’s download services today:
- The tilt-controlled puzzler Puddle is now available on the Wii U eShop.
- Ikachan, the latest game from Nicalis, has been added to the 3DS eShop.
- As has the NES classic Ice Climber.
- The Wii Virtual Console is still kicking as well with the addition of Metal Slug 4.
And on Monday, the next Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem: Awakening, will be available to download from the 3DS eShop.
More information on all of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)







