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
PSN Today: CoD: Ghosts, Guided Fate Paradox, How to Survive, Final Exam, more
Just as in the retail world, most publishers are staying far away from the PlayStation Store this week as Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts makes its digital debut today.
It will be joined on the PlayStation Network by Ben 10 Omniverse 2, the latest game to star the Cartoon Network star; The Guided Fate Paradox, the latest RPG from NIS America; Final Exam, a side-scrolling brawler set in the Obscure universe; and How to Survive, a zombie survival sim.
Two PSN/Vita Cross-Buy titles, the puzzle platformer A-Men 2 and the physics puzzler/tower defense mashup CastleStorm, round out this week’s update. Oh, and the inexplicably popular The Adventures of Cookie & Cream has been added to the PS2 Classics store.
More details about all of these titles can be found after the break and a full list of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Infinity Ward offers up another look at CoD: Ghosts’ Extinction Mode
Call of Duty: Ghosts is available in stores today (for the PC, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360) and, as one last appetizer before the main course, Infinity Ward has released a new trailer for Extinction Mode dubbed “First Contact.” Watch as a squad of soldiers defends Earth against a slimy alien menace and then they… become an appetizer for the aliens. Whoops. Maybe the aliens can ask Kang and Kodos for some culinary tips.
The developers at Infinity Ward also sat down with GameSpot to deliver an extended look at Extinction Mode, which you can view after the break. And don’t forget, Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available for the PS4 and Xbox One later this month. (more…)
Sony will call up MLB 14: The Show in Spring 2014
Sony’s critically acclaimed baseball simulation series, MLB: The Show, will return in 2014 with its next entry (and first on the PS4): MLB 14: The Show. The game, which is scheduled for release sometime in the Spring, will also be available for the PS3 and Vita.
Naturally, the PS4 version of the game will enable the developers at Sony San Diego to create a more lifelike simulation. “The handcuffs and restraints have been taken off,” according to Game Designer/Community Manager Ramone Russell. But the next-generation system also allows Sony San Diego to add a Quick Counts mode for faster game lengths and year-to-year saves for Seasons, Franchises, and Road To The Show.
Fresh off his selection as Player of the Year at last night’s 2013 Player’s Choice Awards, Miguel Cabrera has been selected as the cover athlete for MLB 14: The Show. Cabrera has earned many awards and accolades in his 11-year career, but his greatest claim to fame is no doubt the Triple Crown he won in 2012. It was the first time a player had lead the league in home runs, batting average, and RBIs since 1967.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged MLB 14: The Show
The AAA Game: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going, and Did It Kill the Mid-Tier Game?
An edited and updated version of this article is now available at Video Game Canon.
With a new generation of consoles almost upon us, there is the worry that the spiraling budgets and massive teams required to create AAA games is hurting the industry. But for all the hand-wringing about how the AAA game is detrimental to mid-size developers, no one can seem to agree on what exactly a AAA game is or when the AAA designation was even first used. In attempting to solve this etymological mystery, I found that the AAA designation shares much in common with Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s obscenity test from a 1964 case: “I know it when I see it.” But I also found out that “Will the AAA game survive?” is probably the wrong question to ask. (more…)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will be available in Spring 2014
No more tricks and no more subterfuge, Konami has officially announced a release date for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Better known as the prequel chapter to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Ground Zeroes will be available for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in Spring 2014.
Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear Solid saga, had this to say about the Ground Zeroes prequel: “The advanced capabilities of the Fox Engine have allowed me to tell the new story in a new way. There will be a significant difference in what Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain brings to the series, so we want to ease players into the new open world environment and its potential. As such, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes has been designed to introduce key elements, allowing them to fully benefit from all that the new game will offer.”
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will receive a retail release on the PS3 and Xbox 360 (priced at $29.99) as well as a digital release (priced at $19.99). The next-generation PS4/Xbox One version will also be priced at $29.99 and will only be available as a digital download.
As for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, it currently has no official release date.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
New Releases: CoD: Ghosts, Guided Fate Paradox, Castlevania: LoS Collection, More
You hear that? That’s the sound of freight train coming down the track. It’s got “Call of Duty: Ghosts” (PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360) painted on the side and all the other publishers have gotten out of the way. Activision’s juggernaut of a franchise dominates this week’s new releases, but a few other games will find their way into stores over the next seven days.
Also available this week is The Guided Fate Paradox from NIS America. This RPG is a PS3 exclusive and, like all NIS games, it’s full of the crazy. Just how weird does it get? Well… “Players take on the role of high school student Renya Kagurazaka who has become a god by winning a lottery in a mall.”
Finally, Konami has bundled together Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (and all of its DLC) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD into a single package on the PS3 and Xbox 360. The Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection also includes a playable demo of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, which is scheduled for release next year.
You can find the complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Ghosts, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
Soul Calibur II HD Online burns onto PSN, XBLA on November 20
Namco Bandai has announced that Soul Calibur II HD Online will make its PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade debut on November 20. The acclaimed fighting game has been priced at $19.99 and, as the title states, will include online play and a high definition graphical upgrade.
Soul Calibur II HD Online will also feature two of the three console exclusive characters it was released with in 2003. Both downloadable editions of the game will include Heihachi (originally exclusive to the PS2 version) and Spawn (originally exclusive to the Xbox version). It’s unlikely the GameCube-exclusive character, Link, will ever make the jump to Soul Calibur II HD Online.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Soul Calibur II HD Online
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z embraces the crazy and will arrive in stores on March 4, 2014
Tecmo Koei has announced that Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, the wild Ninja Gaiden spinoff centering on a cyborg ninja battling zombies, will be available in stores on March 4, 2014. In honor of the finalized release date, the publisher has uploaded a new trailer for the game that introduces us to Miss Monday, Yaiba’s handler, and Yaiba’s unique sense of humor:
Step into a stylized living comic book where stunning graphics depict a world gone mad overflowing with hordes of the undead. Only Yaiba’s drive for retribution and willingness to use any means necessary to get the job done can stop the countless waves of zombies in his path. Yaiba’s lust to kill is insatiable as he mercilessly slices through masses of enemies with his sword, or the array of weapons accessible via his cyborg arm. Miss Monday is Yaiba’s virtual escort and is vital to his survival. However, not even she is safe from his brash, unbridled sarcasm.
I’m definitely excited to play Yaiba next year, but it feels like this trailer hit every trope that Suda 51 parodied in last year’s Lollipop Chainsaw.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z