Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game 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: Etcetera
Conan goes on a crime spree in Watch Dogs
Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs is now available in stores, but Conan O’Brien gave the world its first look at the game in last Thursday’s installment of his “Clueless Gamer” segment. If you’re unfamiliar with these segments, the title of them and the fact that it’s Conan should tell you all you need to know. Watch as he plays and reviews the game, imparting words of wisdom applicable not only to video games, but to life as well, such as “…the best way to solve a crime, sometimes, is to start a new crime.”
Enjoy!
It’s not TV, it’s homoerotic Nintendo characters on HBO’s Last Week Tonight
“Virtual, eventual, equality. That’s the dream!”
As you may know, two weeks ago Nintendo upset everyone with their omission of a same-sex relationship option in the upcoming North American/European release of Tomodachi Life, a Sims-ian life simulator. Not a simian life simulator — this isn’t Planet of the Apes. But there’s a game idea, Nintendo. Trademark!
Anyway, last week on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, America’s favorite chimney sweep, the delightful Brit Mr. Oliver, discussed this story on his program. With Nintendo’s promise of future inclusion despite their massive oversight that gay people exist, watch as beloved Nintendo characters like Mario, Link, and Zelda celebrate the announcement in this clip.
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs on Sunday nights at 11:00 PM on HBO (but not tonight, he’s on vacation #FortnightOfIgnorance).
Posted in 3DS, Etcetera, News
Tagged Tomodachi Life
Listen to Transistor’s full soundtrack right now
Supergiant’s Bastion built its post-apocalyptic story on the back of an amazing soundtrack composed by Darren Korb and featuring vocals by Ashley Barrett. The duo got the band back together for the developer’s sophomore outing, Transistor, which was released for the PC and PS4 on Tuesday.
Transistor’s soundtrack is now available to purchase through the Supergiant Store, but if you’d prefer to give it a listen first, the developer has posted the entire album on YouTube. Once again, Korb’s music and Barrett’s vocals come together to create some of the best video game music that money can buy (or stream for free, in this case).
While Supergiant wants everyone to experience the game’s soundtrack, they did say that prospective listeners might be better off playing the game first: “We highly recommend playing through the game before listening to the soundtrack, since the soundtrack is deeply connected to the game’s story.” But if you’re ready to dive in, I recommend jumping straight to “We All Become,” the song used in Transistor’s debut trailer.
You can read more of Darren Korb’s thoughts on the process behind Transistor’s soundtrack at the PlayStation Blog.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, PS4
Tagged Transistor
Daily Scoop: May 21, 2014 – GameLoop this weekend
I’ve been a super busy lady the last few months, and this month is no exception. On Saturday, my friend Ray Merkler and I will be at University of the Arts for an event we co-organize, called GameLoop Philly. It’s an all-day unconference for game developers, and it’s an amazing time. If you’re local and interested, you should absolutely come!
It’s a new day, which means it’s a new Humble Daily Bundle! This one is simply called “Flying.” Pay what you want for Race the Sun; pay more than the average to unlock Guns of Icarus Online. You can get the final unlock, Strike Vector, if you pay $10 or more.
If you’re into platforming, you better hurry up and jump on the Humble Weekly Bundle! You’ve got one more day to pay what you want for Shank 2, Blocks that Matter, and Bit.Trip Runner. Pay more than $6 to unlock Bit.Trip Presents… Runner 2, Megabyte Punch, and Fly’n. And pay $10 or more to unlock King Arthur’s Gold and Mark of the Ninja: Special Edition.
As always, Steam has a few good deals as well. Their Midweek Madness sale is $14.99 for The Banner Saga (or $3 more for the deluxe). Agarest: Generations of War is their Daily Deal, on sale for $5.09.
And now, some midweek t-shirts! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Next 33 1/3 book will focus on Super Mario Bros. soundtrack
33 1/3 is a book series by Bloomsbury Publishing that focuses on albums by all manner of artists, including The Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, The Who, and more. There are 96 books in the series so far, and they’re about to announce 14 more, to be released in 2015 and 2016.
Today, they made an exciting announcement: they’ll be releasing a book in the series about Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. score!
Author Andrew Schartmann takes us through the various external factors (e.g., advances in technology, Nintendo’s marketing tactics) that coalesced into a ripe environment in which Kondo’s musical experiments could thrive. He then delves into the music itself, searching for reasons why our hearts still dance to the “primitive” 8-bit tunes of a bygone era.
Schartmann is no stranger to writing about Nintendo’s famous 8-bit scores – he’s the author of last year’s Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music into an Art. His 33 1/3 title will be out in May 2015.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Super Mario Bros.
Continue Countdown #4 – Xbox One Ditches Kinect, Halo 5, Sunset Overdrive, More
Nicole Kline dominated everyone in this episode of “Continue Countdown.” You’ll hear plenty of her big opinions as she, and the rest of the Warp Zoned staff, sat down to discuss Microsoft’s decision to unbundle the Kinect sensor from the Xbox One, Sunset Overdrive‘s less-than-impressive initial trailer, and Halo 5‘s delay.
From there we moved on to the possibility that Wolfenstein: The New Order could spark a resurgence in Doom-style first person shooters (consensus: maybe), what Naughty Dog is working on next (consensus: probably something brand new), and whether or not Dragon Quest X will appeal to an overseas audience (consensus: probably not). The home stretch of this week’s episode asked what we’d like to see from Darksiders III and Rockstar’s next-generation project.
Finally, the episode concluded with the echoing cries of “Why?” as the “Continue Countdown” crew talked about 3D Realms’ Bombshell.
9 Topics… 30 Minutes… And Go!
Posted in Etcetera, PC, Podcast, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Bombshell, Darksiders III, Dragon Quest X, Halo 5: Guardians, Sunset Overdrive, Wolfenstein: The New Order
Daily Scoop: May 19, 2014 – Birthday-filled weekend!
This weekend was an exciting one filled with birthday cake and homework! The former was delicious but the latter was tiring. I didn’t get a chance to play many video games, but I did learn a card game called 9 Holes of Golf, which was a lot of fun! I teamed up with my six-year-old cousin and we beat everyone else. Domination!
There’s a new Humble Daily Bundle, of course. This one’s called the Melee Bundle. Pay what you want for Guilty Gear Isuka. Pay more than the average to unlock Vanguard Princess. And finally, pay $10 or more to unlock Blade Symphony.
There’s also a new Daily Deal over at Steam. Today only, you can get Race the Sun for $3.39. Scoop it up!
What better way to start off the work week than with a few good t-shirts? (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Daily Scoop: May 16, 2014 – More cheap games
It’s day four of the Humble Daily Bundle, and they’re not slowing down! Today it’s the Humble Indie Re-Bundle 8. Pay what you want for Dear Esther, Capsized, Awesomenauts, Thomas Was Alone, and Little Inferno. Pay more than the average to unlock Hotline Miami, Proteus, Tiny & Big in Grandpa’s Leftovers, English Country Tune, Intrusion 2, and Oil Rush. And it includes most of the soundtracks as well.
That’s not all. Steam’s got two amazing sales going on right now. Their Weekend Deal is The Stanley Parable, on sale for $7.49. Their Daily Deal is Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut for $4.99. Scoop all of these up!
Let’s end this with some t-shirts, shall we? (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News