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
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
Today’s Google Doodle is a working Rubik’s Cube
Google has added another game to their growing collection of interactive Doodles… and it’s totally radical.
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 40th birthday of one of the most famous puzzles of all time. Initially known as the Magic Cube, the ingenious little contraption didn’t catch on with the rest of the world until it was rechristened as the Rubik’s Cube in 1980. From there, it grew from fad to phenomenon to an enduring symbol of the 1980s. With more than 350 million cubes sold (as of 2009), it’s considered the best-selling toy ever. And for many people, the ability to quickly solve a Rubik’s Cube is seen as a sign of a genius-level intellect. I’m not sure I’ve ever solved a Rubik’s Cube, but Wikipedia has an amazing list of speed records including:
- 5.55 Seconds: Fastest Solve (set by Mats Valk)
- 9.03 Seconds: Fastest Solve Using Only One Hand (set by Feliks Zemdegs)
- 23.8 Seconds: Fastest Solve While Blindfolded (set by Marcin Zalewski)
- 27.93 Seconds: Fastest Solve Using Only Feet (set by Fakhri Raihaan)
- 3.25 Seconds: Fastest Solve… by a Robot
If you don’t have a Rubik’s Cube lying around your house, be sure to give today’s Google Doodle a whirl. Even after it leaves the Google homepage, you’ll be able to find it in the Google Doodles Archive.
New Releases: Wolfenstein: The New Order, Drakengard 3, Mugen Souls Z, More
In Wolfenstein: The New Order, the Germans managed to win World War II through a combination of mechs and mutants. Now it’s up to William “B.J.” Blazkowicz to turn the tide and make this alternate 1960 a very Nazi-unfriendly place. Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by MachineGames and will be available for almost every current platform including the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
PS3-owning RPG fans will find a pair of interesting new games on store shelves next week as well. Square Enix will bring Drakengard 3 to Sony’s system while NIS America will release Mugen Souls Z.
Finally, a few re-releases round out next week’s batch of new games. First up, Grasshopper’s Killer Is Dead will make its way to the PC as Killer Is Dead: Nightmare Edition. Also next week, Nordic Games will re-release a few of the games they picked up from the THQ auction including the Darksiders Collection on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360; the Red Faction Collection for the PS3; and Red Faction Complete for the PC.
A complete list of next week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Drakengard 3, Mugen Souls Z, Wolfenstein: The New Order
Transistor launch trailer unmasks four villains ahead of May 20 release
Transistor will be available to download for the PC (through Steam) and PS4 next week. Supergiant Games has kept quiet about much of the game since it was announced last Spring, but a newly released launch trailer has shed a little more light on the hybrid action/strategy RPG.
Narrated by the Transistor itself (Logan Cunnignham, also the voice that guides the player in Supergiant’s Bastion), four faces are introduced as the villains of the piece for the first time. These characters don’t have names yet, but their inclusion gives a deeper look into Transistor’s dystopian world.
According to Supergiant’s Greg Kasavin, the shroud of secrecy around Transistor was deliberate. Speaking to the PlayStation Blog, he said: “Our feeling is that the less you know going into a game like Transistor, the more likely it is to surprise you. And we think experiencing genuine surprise is one of the rarest and most pleasurable sensations that games can provide.”
Kasavin also used the PS Blog post to tease Transistor’s Recursion Mode, a “New Game Plus” mode that opens after the player completes the story. In Recursion Mode, players will retain their User Level and Transistor Customization while experiencing a completely different resistance from enemies and “some new surprises” in the game itself.
Recursion Mode… a Second Quest if you will.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Transistor
TitanFall stomps the competition yet again as the best-selling game of April 2014
After selling 925,000 copies in March, TitanFall continued to roll over the competition at retail as the NPD Group crowned it the best-selling game of April 2014 as well.
The remainder of the top ten was made up almost entirely of games released last Fall including Call of Duty: Ghosts (#2), NBA 2K14 (#3), and Lego The Hobbit (#5). Amazingly, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition continues to hang out in the top five, landing at #4 for the month of April. That ranking may improve next month now that the retail version of Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition is available. And speaking of things that are amazing, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the only other April release to crack the top ten (it was #8).
Finally, according to Joystiq, Sony’s PlayStation 4 can lay claim to the next-generation consoles sales title for another month. That makes four in a row for the PS4.
The complete top ten list for April 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Lego The Hobbit, Minecraft, NBA 2K14, NPD, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Lego Movie, TitanFall
Capcom confirms digital upgrade and retail release dates for Ultra Street Fighter IV
After almost a year of teasing, Capcom has officially announced release dates for the digital upgrade and retail versions of Ultra Street Fighter IV.
If you already own Super Street Fighter IV or Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition on the PS3 you’ll be able to download the Ultra update on June 3. Xbox 360 owners of either game will be able to purchase the upgrade on June 4 (and remember, SSF4: Arcade Edition is one of June’s free Games With Gold). The update has been priced at $14.99 on both platforms.
If you’d prefer to purchase a retail copy of Ultra Street Fighter IV, you’ll have to wait until August. Capcom will release a retail disc version (priced at $39.99) for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 5. They’ll follow that up with the Steam release (priced at $29.99) of Ultra Street Fighter IV on August 8. The digital upgrade for Super Street Fighter IV and Arcade Edition players on the PC will be available on the same day.
Ultra Street Fighter IV will add five new fighters and a wide variety of balance tweaks to the game. Presumably, it’s the final update to Street Fighter IV, but you never know with Capcom.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox One
Tagged Street Fighter IV
Wolfenstein: The New Order launch trailer enters House of the Rising Sun… and the moon
Caroline Becker: “Blazkowicz! What’s your status?”
B.J. Blazkowicz: “Well… I’m on the mother****ing moon!”
Bethesda Softworks and MachineGames have given us one last look at Wolfenstein: The New Order before it launches this Tuesday, May 20, and they decided to go big… like, really big. Bang, zoom, straight to the Moon big.
B.J. Blazkowicz’s final foray against the Nazi forces of General Deathshead is set to the strains of “The House of the Rising Sun,” which was a big hit for The Animals in 1964. Of course, in the universe of The New Order, there was no group known as The Animals, so the song is in German. Just one of the many things Blazkowicz and the rest of the Resistance are unhappy about.
Wolfenstein: The New Order will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. And if you pre-order it in the next few days, you’ll receive access to the Doom 4 beta (PC, PS4, and Xbox One only.
Ubisoft officially announces Far Cry 4 will be released on November 18
I swear, the Far Cry series gets nuttier with every new release. When I look at the box art for the recently announced Far Cry 4, all I can think of is John “J. Peterman” O’Hurley in his “white poet warlord” phase shouting gibberish at an errand boy. Throw in a dash of Michael York and you’ve got yourself a villain.
He doesn’t have a name yet, but that villain is the “despotic self-appointed king” of Kryat, a mysterious (and fictional) region in the Himalayas. According to Ubisoft, players will have access to “a vast array of weapons, vehicles, and animals” as they venture across Far Cry 4’s open-world landscape.
Ubisoft Montreal is the primary developer on Far Cry 4, but the Watch Dogs studio will receive assistance from Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Kiev. Once they’re finished, this development studio Voltron will release Far Cry 4 on the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 18.
“Following the success of Far Cry 3, we wanted to take the franchise to the next level and create a game that will surprise players and exceed fans’ expectations,” said Dan Hay, Executive Producer. “Given the unique setting, we feel Far Cry 4 will stand out as a top first-person shooter and we’re eager to reveal more about the game in the coming months.”
Players who are eager to pre-order Far Cry 4 will be upgraded to the Limited Edition, which includes the Hurk’s Redemption DLC pack and access to a harpoon gun known as “The Impaler.” Hurk’s Redemption will include three single-player missions starring Hurk, a character originally found in Far Cry 3‘s Monkey Business DLC.
Ubisoft plans to give us our first look at Far Cry 4 during their E3 2014 Media Briefing, which will be held on Monday, June 9 at 6:00 PM (Eastern Time).