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
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
Most Recent: PC
Evolution Studios joins Codemasters to form “UK racing powerhouse”
Evolution Studios had been a second party developer for Sony Interactive Entertainment since 2008, but the consolemaker decided to shut down the studio at the end of March. Today, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that the entire team will be joining Codemasters to work on a brand new project.
“The core of the Evo team have been together for 15 years and we really love working together,” Evolution co-founder Mick Hocking said. “We all love racing, we’re all petrol heads. This is just an opportunity to bring those guys across, keep the team together, keep all that knowledge and all that expertise together, and combine it with the fantastic talent at Codemasters.”
“We’re looking to scale our business, we’re absolutely focused on racing, we want to only do AAA racing, which is exactly what these guys are about,” added Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier. “We share DNA, passion, talent. So it was sort of lucky that Sony took that decision, and I’m very happy about it. We were Ferrari and Mercedes, now we’re the same team.”
The rights to the MotorStorm franchise and DriveClub will remain with Sony.
Square Enix will have playable demos of Final Fantasy XV, Star Ocean 5, I Am Setsuna, more at PAX East 2016
Square Enix has announced they’ll have a big booth (#4044) at this year’s PAX East convention. The RPG specialists will have demo stations for more than ten new and upcoming titles on hand, and they also plan to host four panels focusing on their biggest franchises.
Fans of Agent 47 will find a triple shot of Hitman titles on the PAX East show floor as Square Enix will bring demos of Hitman, Hitman: Sniper – Death Valley Challenge Mode, and Hitman Go: VR Edition to Boston. A Hitman-themed panel will target congoers on April 23 as well. Attendees will also get the chance to play the action-packed adventures of Rico Rodriguez with a Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress demo.
For all the RPG fans out there, the publisher will have demo stations available for the upcoming Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness and I Am Setsuna, as well as the currently available Kingdom Hearts Unchained X and Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward (a Heavensward panel will also take place on April 23).
Finally, racing fans will be able to burn rubber through demos of this June’s MXGP 2 and the recently released Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo.
Two more panels round out Square Enix’s PAX East preparations, including one that’s all about Lara Croft, and another that’ll look at the cast of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
The 2016 PAX East expo will kick off on Friday, April 22. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Final Fantasy XV, Hitman, Hitman Go, I Am Setsuna, Just Cause 3, PAX East 2016, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness
New Releases: Dark Souls III, Bravely Second, Ratchet & Clank
Just three new games will be available on store shelves this week… but they’re three of this Spring’s biggest.
Leading the way, of course, is Bandai Namco’s Dark Souls III. Available this week for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, developer From Software and Director Hidetaka Miyazaki are back to tell another story in their crumbling, yet strasngely beautiful, world. Players who purchase the “Day One Edition” will get a head start on the uber-difficult game thanks to the included Prima Starter Guide and soundtrack CD.
Gamers on the go will get the chance to try out a very different RPG this week, as Square Enix will team up with Nintendo to release Bravely Second: End Layer for the 3DS. This turn-based sequel will explore more of Luxendarc as players attempt to rescue Agnes Oblige from the evil Kaiser Oblivion.
Finally this week, Sony and Insomniac Games will bring back Ratchet & Clank in a reimagining of the duo’s original adventure. These reimagined elements (including new characters, new bosses, and new weapons) will also be on display later this month when an animated adaptation of Ratchet & Clank warps its way into theaters.
We’ll be back soon with a closer look at all of this week’s downloadable titles for the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Bravely Second: End Layer, Dark Souls III, Ratchet & Clank
Register for the Pit People Closed Beta at PAX East 2016
Just as they do every year, The Behemoth plans to set up shop at the 2016 PAX East expo to show off their latest projects. This year’s show kicks off on April 22, and the developer has announced plans to bring their upcoming turn-based strategy game, Pit People, to Boston.
In addition to hosting a playable demo of the game’s Co-Op Mode for the heaving crowds, The Behemoth will also give attendees the chance to sign up for the Closed Beta, which is expected to begin this Summer on the Xbox One (and later on Steam). If you’re unable to attend PAX East, the developer plans to open registration up to the rest of the world sometime after the convention is over.
We still don’t know when Pit People will be released for the PC and Xbox One, but Microsoft thinks it’ll be available sometime this year.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2016, Pit People
Fallout 4 wins “Best Game” at 2016 BAFTA Games Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held their annual Games Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 looted the trophy for “Best Game.” Surprisingly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4’s main rival throughout the 2015/2016 awards season, came away empty-handed.
The same doesn’t need to be said for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Her Story, and Rocket League, each of which won three awards last night.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’s accolades all revolved around its excellent use of sound as the post-apocalyptic title won for “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” and “Best Performance” (which went to Merle Dandridge). Rocket League’s universal appeal informed its three award including “Family Game,” “Multiplayer,” and “Sport.” Finally, Her Story’s unique storytelling structure lead to wins in the “Best Debut,” “Game Innovation,” and “Mobile & Handheld” categories.
Other winners during last night’s ceremony include Ori and the Blind Forest, Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Until Dawn, Prison Architect, and Life Is Strange.
Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find after the break. (more…)
Dreii Review: Puzzling, But Not In a Good Way
I first got word of Dreii a couple of months ago and I’ve been quite frankly jazzed about it ever since. A physics-based puzzle game! With Journey-style invisible matchmaking and limited communication! And that art style! Dreii almost seemed like it was designed just for me. It pains me to report then that, in spite of all of these things, Dreii is mired in an indecisiveness about what it wants its puzzles to be that makes it at best, boring, and at worst, infuriating. (more…)
The size of each Final Fantasy VII Remake episode will be comparable to Final Fantasy XIII
The cover of the latest issue of Game Informer is currently adorned by Final Fantasy XV, but that didn’t stop the magazine’s reporters from asking Square Enix about the status of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
When we last checked in with the publisher in December, the Final Fantasy VII Remake was said to be a “multi-part” release that would eventually “go beyond” the original game. That’s still true today, but now we’ve learned that each part will be equivalent in size to a regular game. Producer Yoshinori Kitase got a bit more specific and said that each episode will be roughly similar in size to the entirety of Final Fantasy XIII:
“It will essentially be a full scale game for each part of the multi-part series […] if we’re just looking at each of these parts, one part should be on par with the scale of one Final Fantasy XIII game.”
“In XIII, each instalment told the story from a different angle. It was kind of like approaching an unknown territory in a sense. Whereas with Final Fantasy VII Remake, we already have a preexisting story, so it wouldn’t really make sense if that isn’t encompassed in a multi-part series.”
Kitase also confirmed that Final Fantasy fans should prepare themselves for the “dramatic changes” that were previously hinted at:
“I, along with [Tetsuya] Nomura-san and [Kazushige] Nojima-san–who are involved with the remake–were also involved with the original Final Fantasy. We were the people who created it, so in that sense, we don’t think anything is untouchable. That isn’t to say we’re changing everything!”
I’ve got to admit, I admire his willingness to blow up everything about his most beloved creation and use the parts to start over. Thanks to IGN for digging these juicy bits out of the Game Informer cover story.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Final Fantasy VII
Second Overwatch short features a very Batman-like Tracer/Widowmaker rooftop fight
Blizzard has released the second animated short based of their upcoming shooter Overwatch, and it should give everyone watching a Batman: The Animated Series flashback.
Fan favorite Tracer and deadly assassin Widowmaker dash through London in a rooftop fight that stands with the best the Caped Crusader had to offer in the mid 90s. Also, there’s a Robot Pope who preaches peace and love (and possibly love) between humans and machines. Be sure to check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
Blizzard plans to release two more Overwatch animated shorts before the game’s May 24 launch on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And don’t forget the Open Beta kicks off on May 3.