Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- 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
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)
Most Recent: PC
New Releases: Tomodachi Life, Murdered: Soul Suspect, WildStar, More
The new releases have begun to dry up as we roll towards the Summer and (in eight days time) the 2014 E3 Expo. Thankfully, Nintendo, Square Enix, NCSoft, and NIS America are here to give us a quartet of new games this week.
Nintendo’s 3DS life simulator, Tomodachi Life, will be available on June 6. Whether you’ve followed the debate over the game’s exclusion of same-sex relationships or not, Tomodachi Life looks like a skewed take on Nintendo’s already-established Animal Crossing franchise. Plus, it features Shaquille O’Neal as himself. If you’re looking for something a little less lighthearted, Square Enix and Airtight Games will release Murdered: Soul Suspect on Tuesday for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game follows Ronan O’Connor, a detective who has been murdered by The Bell Killer. As a ghost, Ronan has to deal with demonic spectres and solve the mystery of his own death. So like Ghost, but with less Whoopi Goldberg (Unless…).
Also available this week is WildStar, a new MMO from NCSoft that eschews the dark and gritty aesthetic of most MMOs and replaces it with colorful locales and anthropomorphized animals. And speaking of colorful, NIS America will release Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection, a diva simulator for the Vita.
Finally, Microsoft will roll out the $399 Kinect-less Xbox One this week. So if you’ve been thinking about adding a new-generation console to your entertainment center, perhaps now is the time.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Tomodachi Life, Wildstar
Steam Machines/Steam Controller release delayed to 2015
Earlier this week, Valve announced that their living room initiative, Steam Machines, and the accompanying Steam Controller won’t be ready until 2015:
We’re now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playtests, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual gamers. It’s generating a ton of useful feedback, and it means we’ll be able to make the controller a lot better. Of course, it’s also keeping us pretty busy making all those improvements. Realistically, we’re now looking at a release window of 2015, not 2014.
Their reason is, of course, something that everyone is interested in, and that is making sure that we get an amazing experience with the Machines and the crazy new Steam Controller. PC fans want this more than anything, and while this is disappointing news, we’re ready to wait the extra time to make sure it’s awesome. And knowing Valve, it will be.
If you want to get more involved in the process, check out the Steam Community discussion group, where your voice will be heard.
1001 Spikes will be released for 3DS, PC, PS4, Vita, and Wii U next week
1001 Spikes, another one of those insanely unforgivable platforming games, will be released on June 3 for 3DS, PC, PS4, Vita, and Wii U. Fans of similarly difficult Spelunky will be excited to be able to die in new and different ways!
That’s not all. Nicalis has announced that the PSN version will feature Cross-Buy, so that players will pay $14.99 to get both versions of the game. If you already own Nicalis’ Cave Story or NightSky on Steam or the 3DS, the company is offering a $5 loyalty discount as well.
1001 Spikes will have both single-player and multiplayer modes, and the multiplayer modes will include both co-op and versus. It’s also got unlockable guest characters, an awesome chiptune soundtrack, multiple possible endings, and plenty of levels to curse through.
1001 Spikes will be released for 3DS, PC, PS4, Vita, and Wii U on June 3. Hit the jump for the full press release. (more…)
Hitman 6 won’t be at E3 2014… so have some concept art instead
IO Interactive updated their blog to let their fans know that they would not be bringing the latest in the Hitman franchise to E3:
First up, we’ve seen a lot of people talking about what we might be bringing to E3 this year. We know the worst thing is to hope for something that doesn’t turn up; so we wanted to let you know that our next Hitman is going to be under wraps for a bit longer. We’re focusing all of our time and efforts into creating the best possible Hitman game. That’s our number one priority and we don’t want to divert valuable resources to show something before it’s ready.
To make up for it, though, they’ve shared some absolutely gorgeous concept art, which you can see above (and can see in full resolution after the jump). In the meantime, those of you who need your Hitman fix can pick up Hitman Go, which you can play, well, on the go. (more…)
Sacred 3’s release date gets pushed up three weeks to August 5
Deep Silver’s Sacred 3, the latest addition to the Sacred franchise, will be dropping into your hands sooner than you thought. The publisher has bumped up the release date to August 5. Sacred 3 – which will be available for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 – also has new weapon enhancements, called Weapon Spirits, which you can see in action in the video above. “These upgradable and interchangeable weapon augmentations, each with their own unique buffs and debuffs.” Some of them “even take the form of previous characters from the Sacred franchise,” giving fans even more to look forward to.
Get ready to spend some time in Ancaria on August 5 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Hit the jump for the full press release. (more…)
Comcept closes out “Mighty May” with Mighty No. 9 gameplay trailer
Comcept has released a handful of trailers showcasing their progress on Mighty No. 9 since the completion of the Kickstarter campaign last Fall. But today’s new gameplay trailer, released to celebrate the end of “Mighty May,” is the most impressive yet. You might even say it is mega cool, man.
The trailer focuses on the icy locale that Mighty No. 2 calls home and the more industrial digs of Mighty No. 5. And unlike the previous “work-in-progress” trailers, this one features some beautiful backgrounds and gorgeous graphical effects, as well as a ton of enemies and environmental objects. Basically, it’s starting to look like a finished game.
According to Comcept, development on Mighty No. 9 will be completed over the course of the next 12 months and we should all be able to get our hands on it in Spring 2015. And I do mean all as Mighty No. 9 is in development for the 3DS, PC (Windows, Mac, Linux), PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
CoD: Ghosts next DLC, Invasion, coming to Xbox One, Xbox 360 next week
Activision and Infinity Ward have unveiled the Invasion Map Pack, the next downloadable expansion for Call of Duty: Ghosts. As always, the Invasion Map Pack will add four new maps and the next chapter of Extinction Mode to the game. This time, players will be able to battle killer mariachis in “Departed,” trigger booby-trapped pyramids in “Pharaoh,” and unearth angry pirate ghosts in “Mutiny.” The final map, “Favela,” is a recreation of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map of the same name.
The Invasion Map Pack will be available to download from the Xbox Live Store this Tuesday, June 3, for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. As with all Call of Duty DLC, Season Pass owners will be able to grab the pack for free while everyone else will have to shell out $14.99. The Invasion Map Pack will likely be made available to PC, PS3, and PS4 players sometime in early July.
Check out the trailer above for a sneak peek at the new maps found in the Invasion Map Pack. We’ve also got an in-depth description of each map, straight from Activision, available after the break. (more…)
Bethesda unveils BattleCry, a team-based melee combat game
Many people believe that kings of old used to wage war not with swords and soldiers, but on the battlefield of the chess board. Bethesda’s BattleCry Studios has taken this idea and expanded upon it with their debut project, a 32-player team-based melee combat game also known as BattleCry.
BattleCry’s distinctive visual look was created by Viktor Antonov, the Art Director responsible for Half-Life 2‘s futuristic locales and Dishonored‘s medieval steampunk vibe. For BattleCry, Antonov has created a world where “gunpowder [was] banned following a cataclysmic world war at the dawn of the 20th century.” Like the chess-playing kings, “traditional warfare is now a relic of the past and all conflicts are settled head-on by elite teams of chosen warriors in sanctioned WarZones.” However, unlike the carved chessmen, these battles take place between trained warriors that live for battle.
Be sure to check out some of BattleCry’s characters in the trailer above (and especially be on the lookout for a pair of mustachioed circus strongmen) as well as a stylized look at the game’s melee combat system:
Choose your faction and progress your warrior through the ranks. Each rank unlocks new abilities and effects allowing deep strategic builds for your warrior on every level. Risk life and limb as the powerful Royal Marines or the fearless Cossacks in imaginative WarZones each designed to combine positioning, spacing and verticality to redefine your core combat experience. Fight with transformative melee and ranged weapons that harness iron and energy and eviscerate your opponents with swords that transform into shields, bows that can punch an arrow straight through an armored skull or electrocute your foes with high-powered blades crackling with electro-static energy.
Bethesda will release BattleCry as a free-to-play title for the PC sometime in 2015 and will reveal more details about the game’s world at this year’s E3 Expo.