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
Threaks collaborates with Rhianna Pratchett on Beatbuddy
One of our favorite games at PAX East 2013 was Beatbuddy, a musical puzzle-platformer from German developer Threaks.
Today, Threaks confirmed that Rhianna Pratchett will help with the story and script. After her work on the Tomb Raider reboot and Mirror’s Edge, Pratchett has become the go-to name for excellent game stories, and Threaks is thrilled to have her.
“When we started with the story of Beatbuddy last year, we initially held off contacting Rhianna because we assumed that she’d be too busy or might not be interested in a small indie project,” said Denis Rogic, Threaks’ Art Director. “It turned out that it was exactly the kind of thing she was looking for. It’s truly amazing knowing that we have Austin Wintory and Rhianna Pratchett providing their talents to our game.”
Beatbuddy will be available to download through Steam in July.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians
Call of Duty: Black Ops II expands again with Vengeance Map Pack on July 2
Four new multiplayer maps are coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops II soon. The Vengeance Map Pack will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on July 2. You can check out the first trailer above for a quick look at the upcoming maps:
- “Cove” – A small island in the Indian Ocean that offers no escape.
- “Detour” – A battle both atop and below a suspension bridge.
- “Rush” – A paintball arena with a lot of different configurations.
- “Uplink” – A reimagined version of Black Ops favorite “Summit.”
The Vengeance Map Pack will also include “Buried,” a new Zombies Mode adventure. Taking place in a “lost town in the old West,” players will be able to lay waste to the zombie horde with the Ray Gun Mark II. Because when I think of Westerns, I think of Ray Guns.
A PC and PS3 release for the Vengeance Map Pack will be announced soon.
[Source: One of Swords]
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Injustice: Gods Among Us scores another sales knockout in the May 2013 NPD report
Yup, you can definitely tell we’re in a console transition period. Just a single new release was able to crack the list of the top ten best-selling games of May 2013.
Deep Silver’s Metro: Last Light was that game and the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 shooter was able to claim the sixth spot for the mutants of post-apocalyptic Russia. A pair of sorta-new releases helped push the profile of two titles that were originally released in years past. The 3DS version of Donkey Kong Country Returns lifted the game to #3 and the Wii U re-release of Lego Batman 2 helped the Brick Knight squeeze into the #10 slot.
According to Game Informer, sales of retail games are down 31% from May 2012 and retail sales are going to continue to drop as Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony move towards an all-digital future. Althugh, to be fair, May 2012 did include the release of Diablo III, which sold a ton of copies at retail.
The NPD Group’s complete report on the top ten best-selling games from May 2013 can be found after the break. (more…)
New Releases: Jak and Daxter Collection, MotoGP 13, Knights of Pen & Paper, More
It’s another slow June week as we move ever closer to the Fall gaming rush and the release of the (now fully revealed) next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. But if you’re looking for something new to play this week, your options are:
- Jak and Daxter Collection (Vita), a compilation of the first three games.
- MotoGP 13 (PC), the latest game in the popular motorcycle racing series.
- Knight of Pen & Paper: +1 Edition (PC), a retro-styled RPG with some Dungeons & Dragons flavor.
- Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PC), an action puzzle game about scientists battling Cthulhu.
- Pro Cycling Manager 2013 (PC), the latest addition to the popular (especially in Europe) sports simulation series.
Not bad, but next week’s new release slate will be much more expansive (especially with the release of the Ouya micro-console).
Posted in News, PC, Vita
Tagged Jak and Daxter Collection
The Walking Dead: 400 Days is five tales of survival that set up Season Two
Only someone with a heart of stone would say that Telltale’s The Walking Dead didn’t move them. That movement may have been something as simple as running from the horde of zombies at the game’s center or it might be something deeper. A second season of episodes, appropriately titled The Walking Dead: Season Two, is in the works for this Fall. But first, the developer wants to give players one last taste of Season One.
Known as The Walking Dead: 400 Days, the new episode will tell five tales of survival. Bonnie, Russell, Shel, Vince, and Wyatt will all come face-to-face with the undead and (hopefully) live to tell about it:
Centered on a truck stop on a Georgia highway, The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a DLC episode for Season One of Telltale’s award-winning game series. 400 Days tells five linked stories; each taking place at different points in time and from the point of view of a different survivor, from day one of the undead apocalypse to day 400.
The five stories can be played in any order and will change based on the choices that you make. Echoes of the choices you made in Season 1 will carry over into 400 Days and the choices you make in 400 Days will resonate into Season 2.
The Walking Dead: 400 Days will be available this Summer for the PC, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360, and mobile platforms. You can view the first trailer after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2013, The Walking Dead, The Walking Dead Season 2
Ubisoft announces Trials Fusion and Trials Frontier
RedLynx’s Trials series has been a massive success on current generation consoles, but the developer will be taking their motorcycle stunt show to the next-gen with Trials Fusion. Trials Fusion is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. An Xbox 360 edition is also in the works.
Mobile gamers will also be able to get in on the fun with Trials Frontier, which will be available for “smartphones and tablets.”
Both games will be released sometime in 2014. You can check the first trailer (and a few seconds of gameplay for each title) in the E3 2013 trailer above.
The Elder Scrolls Online coming to PC, PS4, Xbox One in Spring 2014
First, the bad news… the release of The Elder Scrolls Online has been pushed back to Spring 2014. Now, the good news… The Elder Scrolls Online is now in development for the PS4 and Xbox One, in addition to the previously announced PC and Mac version. I realize that this is still “bad news” to many PC gamers, and for that, I’m sorry.
But the team at ZeniMax Online Studios sounds pretty excited about it:
“We are thrilled to bring this game to consoles, in addition to the PC and Mac,” said Matt Firor, Game Director of The Elder Scrolls Online. “It’s something our fans have been requesting since we first announced the title, and something our team is excited to offer. Everyone will be able to play The Elder Scrolls Online the way they want to play.”
If you’re interested in viewing The Elder Scrolls Online’s E3 2013 gameplay trailer, you can find it after the break. (more…)
Shinji Mikami wants to scare you with The Evil Within’s gameplay
The PlayStation Blog hung out with Bethesda’s Pete Hines during this year’s E3 Expo and he proudly showed off Shinji Mikami’s The Evil Within. The Resident Evil creator is returning to survival horror in a big way and this quote from Hines sums up why that’s a very good thing:
“[Shinji Mikami’s] got some pretty twisted, warped ideas on how to scare people. And you know, that’s one of the things that he’s talked about. What used to scare people, like back when he created Resident Evil 1, doesn’t really work today. Things like blood and guts and gore… that stuff is in all kinds of games now. […] So you have to think of new ways to shake people up and some of the creations that he and his team have come up with are going to be introduced along the way so that just when you feel like you wrapped your head around it… OK, I can’t possibly see anything more horrifying than that last thing, here comes something else.”
I highly recommend watching the gameplay walkthrough/interview above. But be sure the lights are on.