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: PS3
The Last of Us: Grounded Bundle will be available on May 6
Naughty Dog has announced that the next downloadable expansion for The Last of Us, the Grounded Bundle, will be available in the US on May 6 and in Europe on May 7:
Our #TheLastofUs Grounded Bundle DLC is coming the week of May 5 globally. Watch our @Twitch stream for info: http://t.co/Fe0ULzlKxv
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) April 25, 2014
The Grounded Bundle is actually a collection of five separate DLC packs including a “brutal” new difficulty mode, a new set of multiplayer maps, a weapons pack, and a pair of “Skills” packs. Naughty Dog recently held their first Twitch stream to talk about the Grounded Bundle after first detailing the DLC last week.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged The Last of Us
Skylanders: Trap Team introduces a new Portal on October 5
Toys For Bob, the original development team behind the Skylanders phenomenon, will return for the next game in the series… Skylanders: Trap Team. Trap Team will be available on October 5 for the PC, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and, for the first time, the PS4 and Xbox One. A 3DS version of the game, which Activision is calling a “completely unique adventure,” will also be released on October 5.
Trap Team introduces a new gameplay mechanic to the Skylanders universe and requires a new Portal accessory for the game’s figures, the Traptanium Portal. With the Traptanium Portal, the Skylanders will turn into quasi-Ghostbusters and trap some of the game’s biggest baddies. After trapping them in the Portal using a Trap Master token, players can send the villains back into the game as reformed heroes.
In Skylanders: Trap Team, Kaos continues his ongoing quest to rule over Skylands. He has discovered the location of the legendary Cloudcracker Prison — a fortress built entirely out of the magical substance Traptanium and home to Skylands’ most nefarious baddies. In an attempt to build his own army of foes, Kaos blows up the prison, releasing the most wanted villains and blasting shards of Traptanium to Earth in the form of Traps. Now it’s up to Portal Masters to recapture all of the escaped villains using powerful Traptanium Traps and defeat Kaos before it’s too late! The new adventure delivers a diverse and dynamic story-driven gameplay experience, filled with adventure, combat, puzzles, mini-games, activities, platforming and drop-in/drop-out co-op play — all set within new compelling environments.
As you might expect, an entirely new line of Skylanders figures will be available alongside Trap Team’s October launch including a new series known as Trap Masters, new “Core Skylanders” characters, and reposed “fan-favorite Skylanders characters.” Your wallet will be sorry.
Can Watch Dogs hack it as a movie? Ubisoft and Zombieland writers think so
Even though it’s still a few weeks from release, Deadline is reporting that Sony Pictures and New Regency are collaborating with Ubisoft to produce a film adaptation of Watch Dogs. The film version of Aiden Pearce’s quest for vengeance will be written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the screenwriting duo behind Zombieland.
Watch Dogs isn’t the only Ubisoft property currently stationed in New Regency’s production office. The company is also adapting Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed. Tom Hardy is set to star as Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell adaptation while Assassin’s Creed will feature Michael Fassbender (though its unknown if he will play Altair, Ezio, Desmond, or someone else entirely).
It’s currently unknown who will play superhacker Aiden Pearce, but I could see Jim Caviezel doing a good job with the role. Oh, wait…
Rayman Legends Review: Old School Bliss
You can go ahead and keep your “Last of Uses” and your “Grand Theft Autos” – when it comes to amazing titles of the previous generation, I’d put Rayman Origins at the top of my list. The game was perfect in so many ways. The animation, the music, the gameplay – every aspect of that game was a work of art. And although it had quite a bumpy ride – going from a Wii U exclusive to being delayed to releasing on all consoles – its sequel, Rayman Legends is finally available for the next-generation consoles… and not much has changed. It’s more of the same from Rayman and his buddies, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. (more…)
The Evil Within Preview: Shinji Mikami Made A Game With Zombies In It (Again)
Marketing a horror title is tricky business. If you give away too much, that will spoil the scares and dissipate the tension. But you also don’t want to play things too close to the vest, as then your audience won’t have any clue what to expect. This has been the problem for Bethesda’s The Evil Within almost from the start.
The Evil Within is in development at Shinji Mikami’s new studio, Tango Gameworks. Mikami is most famous for creating Resident Evil and the franchise’s signature sequel, Resident Evil 4. So far, The Evil Within’s marketing has lead audiences to believe that it would be a tense and claustrophobic affair that would force players to run and hide from the imposing and seemingly unstoppable residents of the game’s sanitarium setting. But during a live demo presentation during the 2014 PAX East convention, we got to see a new side of The Evil Within that belies the game’s previous marketing approach and goes in a different (and not altogether wanted) direction. (more…)
Posted in PC, Previews, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2014, The Evil Within
Tales of Xillia 2 will be released in US in August; Collector’s Edition announced
Tales of Xillia 2 was released in Japan more than 18 months ago. Now, Bandai Namco is finally ready to announce a western release date for the game. The latest entry in the long-running Tales series will be released in North America exclusively for the PS3 on August 19. European gamers will have to wait an extra three days, until August 22, for the game to reach their shores.
The publisher also announced that a special Collector’s Edition of Tales of Xillia 2 will be available in August. The Collector’s Edition, which has been priced at $129.99, will come packaged with a ton of goodies:
- Collector’s Edition Packaging
- Ludger Kresnik Figure
- The Art of Tales of Xillia 2
- Special Music Selection CD
- Elle’s Pocket Watch (Non-Functioning Replica)
- Rollo Plushie Charm
- Classic “Tales of” Costume DLC (Yuri Lowell, Emil Castagnier, and Asbel Lhant)
Maybe it’s asking too much, but for $130, I’m a little surprised the watch doesn’t even work.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Tales of Xillia 2
Walking Dead: Season 2 Vita, Octodad, Soul Calibur: Lost Swords, more added to PS Store
The dead walk on the PS Vita this week as Telltale Games has released the first two episodes of The Walking Dead: Season 2 on Sony’s handheld. As with the PC and console editions, each episode is individually priced at $4.99 while the five-episode Season Pass is a steal at $19.99.
Other games available this week include:
- Octodad: Dadliest Catch (PS4), the only undercover octopus game on the market today.
- Cel Damage HD (PS3+PS4+Vita Cross-Buy), a new remake of a car combat game that used to be exclusive to the GameCube.
- Soul Calibur: Lost Swords (PS3), a free-to-play take on the popular fighting franchise.
- Demon Gaze (Vita), another dungeon-crawling RPG from NIS America.
Hit the break for more on all of this week’s new releases (including a few not listed above) and head on over to the PlayStation Blog for a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Demon Gaze, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, The Walking Dead Season 2
First image from Call of Duty 2014 revealed
During their Game Developer Conference panel last month, developers from Sledgehammer Games gave the attending audience a quick glimpse at an “in-game character image” from the currently unannounced Call of Duty 2014. Today, IGN revealed that image, an extreme close-up of a soldier, to the world.
Call of Duty 2014 is in development for next-generation platforms (PC, PS4, and Xbox One) and will be released this Fall. A current-generation version of the game (for the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U) is also expected, but remains unconfirmed as of now. An official announcement of the game will likely occur next month.