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
Skulls of the Shogun Review: Tactically Storming the Samurai Afterlife
General Akamoto is having a pretty bad day. Just as he’s about to become Japan’s new Shogun, he’s betrayed by one of his own and killed. The icing on the cake? Someone is impersonating him. Skulls of the Shogun features fantastic art and sound design that marry themes from ancient Japanese art style with Cartoon Network style. The aesthetic attention to detail by 17-Bit is remarkable. The whimsical Japanese fantasy setting is brought to life by magnificent character and level design, and accessible, progressive tactical strategy gameplay. (more…)
XBLA Today: Skulls of the Shogun
The first cross-platform Xbox Live Arcade game is here. 17-Bit’s tactical action game Skulls of the Shogun can be synced with your Xbox 360, Windows Phone, Windows 8 PC, and Windows RT tablet so that you can always get a game in.
It’s available for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) and features, I swear I’m not making this up, vibrant ghost-samurai warriors:
Skulls of the Shogun is a mashup between classic turn-based strategy and fast-paced arcade gameplay. Washing up on the shores of the afterlife, players meet and join forces with vibrant ghost-samurai warriors, magical animal-monks, and mustachioed samurai generals on the way to recapturing lost honor! Boasting an easy to play interface while retaining compelling depth, Skulls of the Shogun is a challenging test of skill for veteran gamers, but friendly even to players new to the genre.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, Xbox 360
Tagged Skulls of the Shogun
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 coming this Spring
It’s been a long-time coming, but Zeboyd Games has announced that we’ll finally get a chance to play Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 this Spring. The final game in the four-part series will be available for the PC and Xbox Live Indie Games and Zeboyd promises it’ll be “the largest Precipice of Darkness game yet!”
You can find the first screenshots of Rain-Slick 4 at the game’s official website and an in-depth interview with Zeboyd’s Robert Boyd and Bill Stiernberg at IGN lays out even more details about the RPG event of the year. For example, we now know that Rain-Slick 4 will carry the same $4.99/400 Microsoft Points price as Episode 3.
Are you ready to punch the final ancient god in the face? I hope so, because it won’t be long now.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360
Tagged Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4
Crytek plans to release first Homefront 2 details soon; release date delay likely
Crytek’s purchase of the Homefront franchise hasn’t impacted the development of Homefront 2. In fact, Crytek UK General Manager Nick Button-Brown confirmed (in an interview with VG247) that executives within the company want to unveil a more revealing look at Homefront 2 sooner rather than later. But, Button-Brown also confirmed that the title might be delayed due to Crytek’s desire to create the best game possible:
“Crytek’s focus is fairly similar to THQ’s -namely to make the best game possible. So this will not have too much impact on the development itself. However, we might change the release date that we haven’t announced, and move this to another release date we won’t announce yet either.”
THQ originally revealed Homefront 2’s existence (and Crytek’s involvement with the sequel) back in September 2011. At that point, the game had a late 2013/early 2014 release date. But due to THQ’s financial problems and the title’s eventual acquisition by Crytek, it’s now best to think of Homefront 2 as a “when it’s done” game.
BioShock Infinite will receive an e-book prequel
BioShock Infinite‘s Columbia seems like a complex world, and fans of the series are clamoring for more information. Lucky for us, Irrational Games wants to feed that need, and has announced an e-book prequel called BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt, available on February 12.
The book, written by Joe Fielder (writer at Irrational Games) and Ken Levine (creative director) will be $2.99, unless you pre-ordered the game from Amazon, in which case you get it for free.
Fielder said, “Since we first announced BioShock Infinite, our fans have asked for more information about Columbia and the complex cast of characters that inhabit the floating city… After reading the e-book, players will have a better understanding of BioShock Infinite’s world, the struggle between its factions, and the motivations of key characters, like rebel leader Daisy Fitzroy, without spoiling the mysteries of BioShock Infinite.”
Hopefully since it’s done in-house, BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt will be better than that terrible book, BioShock: Rapture. They would have to really, really try.
New Releases: Hitman HD Trilogy, More
Here we are at the end of January and the end of the new release drought. This week is still a little short on new releases (next week will be much better), but this is what’s new in stores:
Hitman HD Trilogy: Agent 47’s second, third, and fourth adventures (don’t ask) come to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in high definition.
Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear: The latest game in Mastiff’s budget line of first person shooters is also available on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
And the Rest: Three download-only games are available for PC players this week including Kalypso’s bootleggin’ strategy RPG Omerta: City of Gangsters, Paradox’s fantastical strategy RPG DungeonLand, and Sega’s kart racer Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Hitman HD Trilogy, Omerta: City of Gangsters, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed
Rockstar forces Frank Darabont to change the name of L.A. Noir, his upcoming TV show
Last year, Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption and the the creative force behind the first season of The Walking Dead, announced that his next television production would revolve around the cops and criminals of 1940s Los Angeles. Oh, and he planned to name his show L.A. Noir, after the John Buntin book its based on.
Needless to say, Rockstar Games was less than pleased.
Speaking to io9, Darabont revealed the show’s new name, Lost Angels, and described exactly how less than pleased Rockstar was with the original title:
[I]t was going to be called L.A. Noir, based on the book by John Buntin. But the video game company with the video game called L.A. Noire (with an e!) threatened to sue the **** out of me, TNT, every company that actually ever worked in Hollywood. And they have the billions of dollars to back it up, apparently. So we’re changing the title.
The first season of Lost Angels will air on TNT sometime this Summer.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged L.A. Noire
Journey nabs six nominations at 2013 GDC Awards
Journey continues its amazing end-of-the-year award run with six 2013 Game Developers Choice Award nominations, more than any other game.
Journey is up for Game of the Year, as well as Best Audio, Best Game Design, Best Downloadable Game, Best Visual Arts, and the Innovation award. The four other nominees that Journey will be competing against for Game of the Year include Dishonored (four total nominations), The Walking Dead (three total nominations), Mass Effect 3 (two total nominations), and XCOM: Enemy Unknown (two total nominations).
The 2013 GDC Awards will be handed out on Wednesday, March 27 during this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. You can find the complete list of nominees after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Dishonored, Journey, Mass Effect 3, The Walking Dead, XCOM: Enemy Unknown