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
- 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
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
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: PS4
New tracks from Van Halen melt your face off in today’s Rock Band 4 DLC Update
Harmonix wants to take us back to school with today’s Rock Band 4 DLC Update. Van Halen’s eternally popular “Hot For Teacher” headlines the Van Halen Hits Pack 01, which will include five additional songs from the band’s David Lee Roth era. If you’ve got it bad… got it bad… got it bad… you’ll also be able to play along with “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “And the Cradle Will Rock…,” “Dance the Night Away,” “Runnin’ With the Devil,” and “Unchained.”
The Van Halen Hits Pack 01 is available to download now on the PS4 and Xbox One for $9.99. Individual songs can also be purchased for $1.99 apiece.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rock Band 4
Capcom will also release a GameStop-exclusive Street Fighter V Collector’s Edition in February
Fans of the Street Fighter franchise are a special breed. Capcom and GameStop are hoping to tap into that strain of fanaticism with an absolutely massive Street Fighter V Collector’s Edition, which will be available in February.
Retailing for $347.97 (though currently discounted to $329.98), the Collector’s Edition will include a Street Fighter V game disc, a 48-page Art Book, a Soundtrack Sampler, a Chun-Li Arcade FightStick, and a 10-inch statue of Ryu. I’m not usually one to go gaga over statues, but I have to admit, this one looks pretty sharp. The package will also include a three-month subscription to PlayStation Plus, a one-month subscription to the Capcom Fighter Twitch channel, and a downloadable sample of Udon’s Street Fighter comic.
The Street Fighter V Collector’s Edition will be available exclusively for the PS4 through GameStop.com on February 16, 2016. The game will also be released for the PC in a standard edition on the same day.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
Bombshell will be released for the PC on January 29; “Retro FPS Prequel” announced
3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment have announced that Bombshell, an isometric action RPG that began life as Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, will be released for the PC on January 29, 2016.
Bombshell stars Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison, a one-armed mercenary who has been enlisted to fly across the galaxy and save the President. And in Duke-like fashion, she’ll do it with a scowl and plenty of sarcasm.
Players interested in joining her on this adventure will be able to purchase Bombshell through Steam or GOG.com in a standard edition ($34.99) or a Digital Deluxe Edition ($39.99). The Digital Deluxe Edition will include the game, as well as a Digital Soundtrack, Digital Art Book, Digital World Maps, and beta access to Bombshell: The Washington Project, a “retro FPS prequel” built from the ground up with the Build Engine. The Build Engine was used to create Duke Nukem 3D, so you know Bombshell: The Washington Project will be authentically retro.
Bombshell is also in development for the PS4 and Xbox One and it’ll launch sometime in 2016.
Capcom plans to support Street Fighter V for five years
Capcom supported Street Fighter IV for roughly six years when the final bell rang. Three major updates (and several smaller ones) were released for the fighting game, including Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, and last year’s Ultra Street Fighter IV.
Though Street Fighter V is still a few months out, the publisher has already confirmed that its update schedule will look a little different. Rather than launch a major “Super” or “Ultra” update every year or two, Capcom will instead offer a single new character for the game roughly every two months, with six planned for release next year. And if all goes according to plan, this schedule will be in place for five years, ultimately allowing the game’s roster to grow from 16 to nearly 50.
Franchise Producer Yoshinori Ono recently sat down with Eurogamer and laid it all out:
Eurogamer: Street Fighter IV ended up with 44 characters, you’ve got 16 in V with six coming in the first year. My maths is terrible so I can’t figure out how long it’d take you to get to 44…. How long will you support it for?
Ono: A lot of it will depend on once the game’s out in the wild, and if the model we make comes to fruition and I can be proven right about it being the right choice. Simple maths suggests it’d take five years to get to the roster of Street Fighter 4, and we want to keep the game going for that amount of time. We want to support it as long as we can, we honestly will have to see – we don’t know anymore than anyone else does how it’s going to turn out next February, once we do this completely new way of doing things.
Street Fighter V will be released for the PC and PS4 on February 16, 2016.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
New Releases: WRC 5, Let’s Sing 2016
The Fall gaming rush is coming to an end. Just two new titles will be available on store shelves this week and neither is likely to set the world on fire.
First up is WRC 5 from Bigben Interactive. Set to be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, WRC 5 is billed as “the only rally game this year” on consoles. The developer also promises a “new physics and rendering system,” as well as an “entirely overhauled Career Mode.”
Also available this week is Let’s Sing 2016 for the PS4 and Wii. Published by Maximum Games, Let’s Sing 2016 is yet another karaoke game that features 35 hit songs from some of today’s biggest artists including Laday Gaga, John Legend, Avicii, Sam Smith, Sia, Ariana Grande, Lorde, and Meghan Trainor.
That’s it for this week’s retail releases, but more details on this week’s digital releases will be available in a few days.
Earth Defense Force 4.1 and Earth Defense Force 2 will be released on December 8
XSEED Games has announced that the Earth Defense Force will make its glorious return on December 8, 2015 with the re-release of two games in the cult favorite series.
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair will be available for the PS4 and its an enhanced and expanded remake of 2013’s Earth Defense Force 2025. In addition to improved graphics, players will get to battle the alien menace in a series of brand new levels and control a squad of NPC soldiers that respond to commands.
The publisher will also release Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space on December 8 for the Vita. Originally released in Europe in 2007 as Global Defense Force, this re-release will mark the first time the second game in the series is available in North America.
Would you like to know more? XSEED recently launched a new website for both games at TheEDFDeploys.com.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space, Earth Defense Force 2025
Atlus will also release Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir in a special Storybook Edition
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir is a side-scrolling RPG with a tale that unfolds through chapters in a magical storybook. So it seems rather fitting that Atlus will also release a special Storybook Edition of the remake. Available exclusively for the PS4, Leifthrasir’s Storybook Edition will be available in Spring 2016 for $79.99.
The Storybook Edition will include:
- Premium Outer Box – All the contents in the premium edition will be packaged in a large, sturdy outer box.
- Collector’s Metal Slipcase – The PS4 game will come nestled in a special metal slipcase with the game’s key art on the front, and a not-yet-revealed image on the reverse.
- 64-Page Hardcover Art Book – Filled with the original drawings from the legendary George Kamitani and Vanillaware.
- Potion Recipe T-Shirt – This large-size t-shirt is emblazoned with a helpful reminder of one of the more common uses of Alchemy in Odin Sphere Leifthrasir: turning the living Mandragora plant creatures (Habaneristos, in this case) into potions vital for survival.
- Art Print – Also included with the game will be a high-quality art print with another not-yet-revealed (but different) design.
A softcover version of the Art Book will be bundled with the PS3 and Vita editions of Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, which will also be available next Spring.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Odin Sphere
Beyond: Two Souls will be released for PS4 next week; Heavy Rain delayed to March 1, 2016
Sony has announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that Quantic Dream’s Beyond: Two Souls will make its PS4 debut on the PlayStation Store next Tuesday, November 24. The supernatural adventure game, which stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, was originally released for the PS3 in 2013.
Quantic Dream has made a number of changes to the PS4 re-release, including:
- Enhanced 1080p graphics including motion blur, bloom, and depth of field effects, as well as improved lighting and shadows. The game also makes use of the DualShock 4 speaker to improve immersion when playing as the Entity.
- Decisions are highlighted at the end of each scene and compared with those made by other players.
- You can now play the game in chronological order right from the start.
- Increased difficulty in certain fight scenes, combined with improved controls for action sequences.
- Includes the “Enhanced Experiments” downloadable expansion.
In the same post, Sony confirmed that Heavy Rain‘s PS4 re-release has suffered a slight delay. Originally expected to be available by the end of the year, Heavy Rain will now be released through the PlayStation Store on March 1, 2016. A retail release containing both titles will be available in the European region on the same day, but it’s currently unknown if Sony will make the same deal available to North American PS4 owners.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Beyond: Two Souls, Heavy Rain