Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: PS3
New Releases: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 for PS3/Xbox 360
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… and you know what that means… we’re about to be in for a serious drought of new releases for the next few weeks.
Case in point, this week’s only new release is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The skateboarding series returns to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in a package that’ll look very similar to this Fall’s PS4 and Xbox One edition. Players will be able to grind through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 as one of ten pros, or they can drop themselves into the game with the Create-A-Skater mode. And if you’re feeling extra creative, players can also tap into their inner architect and build a brand new course in the game’s Create-A-Skatepark mode.
Even with the Christmas holiday right around the corner, be sure to check back later this week for a complete look at this week’s brand new digital downloads on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
Minecraft: Story Mode’s fourth episode will be released on December 22
Get ready to put some cookies and milk, Telltale Games has announced they’ll be dropping down your chimney to deliver the fourth episode of Minecraft: Story Mode for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices on December 22 (Vita and Wii U versions are also in the works). If you’ve been playing along with the first three episodes, here’s what shenanigans you can expect to get up to in A Block and a Hard Place:
In Episode Four, with the fearsome Wither Storm more dangerous than ever, Jesse, Reuben, and the crew discover there is one thing that can destroy the command block at the heart of the monster – but they’ll need to brave the perils of the Farlands to find it. As uneasy allies and ailing friends threaten to tear the group apart, can they defeat the Wither Storm in their final battle? And what sacrifices must be made to succeed? Find out in Episode Four’s epic “Wither Storm Finale” that will turn the page on one chapter, before adventures may begin anew…
According to Telltale, Minecraft: Story Mode’s fifth episode will be released sometime in early 2016.
CoD: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, SW: Battlefront lead November 2015’s best-selling games
Not surprisingly, a trio of shooters took the top three spots in the NPD Group’s recounting of November 2015’s best-selling games.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III scored another big win for Activision (and the Black Ops sub-series) with its claim on the top spot. It was followed by Fallout 4 at #2 and Star Wars: Battlefront at #3. With shooters holding on to the top of the list, sports games looked in for the next four places… Madden NFL 16 (#4), NBA 2K16 (#5), FIFA 16 (#6), and Need For Speed (#7). What? I’m sure someone, somewhere, thinks of illegal street racing as a sport.
The final three spots in the NPD’s November 2015 list include repeat appearances from Halo 5: Guardians (#8) and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (#9), along with a strong Black Firday-assisted performance from Just Dance 2016 (#10).
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, NPD’s Liam Callahan confirmed that the PS4 and Xbox One are having a monster Fall: “After 25 months, the combined sales for the PS4 and the Xbox One are 47% higher than the combined sales for 25 months of PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware sales.”
You can find the NPD’s November 2015 top ten in handy list format after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, FIFA 16, Halo 5: Guardians, Just Dance 2016, Madden NFL 16, NBA 2K16, Need For Speed, NPD, Star Wars: Battlefront
Yakuza 5, Earth Defense Force 4.1, Earth Defense Force 2, more added to PS Store
Yakuza 5 was originally released in Japan in 2012, and three years later it has finally made its way to North America courtesy of the PlayStation Store. Faster than you can say, “just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in,” Kazuma Kiryu has been pulled away from his quiet life as a taxi driver and back into the Japanese underworld in the PS3 game.
Also available to download this week is a pair of bug-hunting games in the Earth Defense Force franchise. Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair brings the series to the PS4 for the first time in an enhanced and expanded remake of Earth Defense Force 2025. Meanwhile, Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space for the Vita brings the second game in the series to North America for the first time. EDF! EDF! EDF!
You won’t find any giant bugs in Among the Sleep for the PS4, but the psychological horror game does feature frightening images from a two year old child’s vivid imagination. And finally this week, there’s nothing imaginary about the zombie outbreak occurring in Guns, Gore, & Cannoli, a cartoony side-scroller set in the gangster’s paradise of the 1930s.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
MLB The Show 16 will be released for the PS4, PS3 on March 29
Major League Baseball’s free agency period is in full swing, but Sony has confirmed that the MLB The Show series will be staying put in 2016. Announced today at the PlayStation Experience keynote, MLB The Show 16 will be released for the PS4 and PS3 on March 29, 2016. The development team at Sony San Diego laid out their plans for some of MLB The Show 16’s new features, including the slow motion ShowTime mechanic, at the PlayStation Blog:
In MLB The Show 16, you’ll experience baseball’s most epic moments like never before with ShowTime. Using ShowTime, you can slow down critical moments for maximum control. ShowTime offers gamers a powerful new tool to help them excel in those big baseball moments.
Josh Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays has been selected as MLB The Show 16’s cover athlete. The third baseman won the Anerican League MVP award earlier this year, along with the MLB Players Association’s Player of the Year award and the AL Outstanding Player award. Naturally, this gave Sony the idea to also release MLB The Show 16 for the PS4 in an MVP Edition, which will retail for $69.99 and include the following goodies:
- Limited Edition Steel Book and Packaging
- 5,000 Stubs
- 1 Sponsor Pack
- 10 Standard Packs
- 31 PS4 MLB Themed Avatars
- 1 Opening Day Pack
A Digital Deluxe Edition (priced at $99.99) for the PS4 will bump up the number of in-game extras to 11,000 Stubs, 20 Standard Packs, and three Opening Day Packs.
Sadly, it looks MLB The Show 16 isn’t in the works for the Vita, marking the first time the franchise won’t be released for Sony’s handheld.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged MLB The Show 16, PlayStation Experience 2015
Yakuza 5 will be released on December 8; Yakuza Zero NA/EU release officially confirmed
After promising that it would be released in 2015, Sega snuck in just under the wire by announcing that Yakuza 5 will be available to download from the PlayStation Store on December 8 during today’s 2015 PlayStation Experience keynote. More than a simple crime story, Sega’s John Hardin tried to explain the appeal of the Yakuza series to those who’ve never played it (and his aunts) at the PlayStation Blog:
Taking place across five different cities in Japan, Yakuza 5 follows five protagonists who have been involved with various yakuza syndicates in the past. Through a series of events, the protagonists are forcibly dragged back into the seedy underworld of Japan and will need to rely on their fighting, driving, shooting, and dancing skills to survive. Moreover, we like to call the game “The Japan Simulator” because the game’s numerous side-missions and mini-games genuinely make the game feel like being in Japan.
Hardin also revealed that a 1980s-set prequel, Yakuza Zero, will also finally make its way to North America (and Europe too). In development exclusively for the PS4, players will “witness the rise” of Kazuma Kiryu in Yakuza Zero:
Not yet the Dragon of Dojima, Kazuma Kiryu tries to regain his honor after a botched debt collection that ended in murder. Additionally, for the first time in a numbered game, gamers will be able to play as Goro Majima, the Mad Dog of Shimano, as he tries to rejoin his clan. You don’t get nicknames like “Dragon of Dojima” or “Mad Dog of Shimano” for being soft, so expect each character to have his own unique fighting style and abilities that can be unleashed on poor rival gangsters. The game is set in Tokyo, December 1988, and players will experience the cold weather and cold hard cash that is flooding the city. Cash is king and everyone, especially the yakuza, needs to have more of it. Thankfully, Kiryu and Majima are the “entrepreneurial” type and will have plenty of ways to make, spend, and take money. From telephone clubs to disco halls, there will be ample opportunities for Kiryu and Majima to flex their colorful suits, gold watches, and fat stacks.
We don’t know when Yakuza Zero will be released, but unlike Yakuza 5 and its digital-only launch on the PlayStation Store, Yakuza Zero will be available as a downloadable title and on a Blu-ray disc.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged PlayStation Experience 2015, Yakuza 5, Yakuza Zero
Telltale will release a new Batman game in 2016
Telltale released a trailer at last night’s Game Awards announcing a new Batman game set for release in 2016. This comes just a few months after they announced they’ll be also releasing a Marvel game in 2017. I can’t believe they’re able to keep such a tight lid on these! Also, they are so busy.
There’s no formal date other than “2016,” and not much other information other than that it’ll be “A Telltale Game Series.” Here’s hoping Kevin Conroy will be voicing Batman!
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: The Telltale Series, Game Awards 2015
The Walking Dead: Michonne is a standalone Telltale Games series that’ll launch in February
Originally announced as a small expansion to The Walking Dead Season 2, Telltale Games revealed that The Walking Dead: Michonne will be released this February as a standalone three-part series during last night’s Game Awards.
Set during Michonne’s previously untold absence from The Walking Dead comic book (issue #126 through #139), Telltale has said that players “will discover what took Michonne away from Rick, Ezekiel, and the rest of her trusted group… and what brought her back.” Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black‘s Poussey Washington) will portray the character throughout the series.
“We’ve been hard at work on this very special exploration of The Walking Dead universe that will further bridge together our game series with the canon of Robert Kirkman’s comic though one of its most complex characters struggling to maintain her own humanity,” said Kevin Bruner, Co-Founder and CEO of Telltale Games. “Deeply haunted by the decisions of her past, putting players in the role of a character like Michonne to navigate the broken world around her is an experience that feels uniquely Telltale, and something we simply cannot wait for The Walking Dead fans to play.”
Like Telltale’s other Walking Dead adaptations, The Walking Dead: Michonne is in development for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Game Awards 2015, The Walking Dead: Michonne