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
Double Fine’s documentary chronicling Broken Age’s development has reached its last episode
In early 2012, Double Fine nearly broke the game industry when they introduced the words “Crowdfunding” and “Kickstarter” to many gamers for the first time. The crowdfunding model has become a fixture of the gaming landscape in the years since, and while Double Fine’s campaign may not have been the first, they certainly made it a viable option that developers such as Brian Fargo and Keiji Inafune would eventually use.
Along with the game that would eventually become Broken Age, Double Fine also produced a behind-the-scenes documentary series with 2 Player Productions known as Double Fine Adventure. In Schafer’s words, he wanted to “show us how the sausage was made.”
After more than three years of filming, and twenty main episodes (along with countless extra “Sidequest” episodes), the documentary reached it’s grand conclusion over the weekend. Originally, the series was an exclusive for Kickstarter backers, but as the game neared completion, Schafer decided to unleash the series to the public early.
Regardless of what you thought of the game, the documentary series has made the whole ordeal more than worth it. As someone who backed the Kickstarter campaign all those years ago, I can’t tell you how inspiring and informative these episodes are. Before this, the world of game development always happened behind closed doors, but no longer.
This series has been different. It’s showcased game development from the very start of the creative process to the release of the game, and it’s aftermath, and it did it with a relatively large studio as well. We like to think game development is all sunshine and lollipops and that everything is all fun all the time, but this series goes to show that isn’t the case. I heartily recommend it, even if you’re not interested in game development because it’s so much more than a behind the scenes, how-to documentary, it’s a captivating look into the creative process.
2 Player Productions recently began work on a Blu-ray release for Double Fine Adventure and you can pre-order it at adventure.DoubleFine.com.
All Street Fighter V updates will be obtainable for free with in-game currency
In addition to announcing a brand new character that goes by the name Necalli, Capcom also confirmed that Street Fighter V won’t receive any “Super” or “Ultra” disc updates. Instead, players will be obtain the base game (which will include 16 characters, four of whom will be new) with a one-time purchase and receive all subsequent updates as downloadable content. Best of all, these updates can be obtained for free with the use of an in-game currency earned through gameplay.
Taking inspiration from a variety of free-to-play games in the mobile marketplace, Capcom will include “Fight Money” and “Zenny” currencies in Street Fighter V. Fight Money is earned through playing the game and can be exchanged for post-launch content such as characters and costumes. Meanwhile, Zenny is premium currency that can be purchased using real money for immediate access to any post-launch content.
This means that Capcom is not planning to release multiple characters in a single post-launch batch. Instead, the publisher will add new characters to the roster on a “continuous basis.” More information on Capcom’s ambitious plan for Street Fighter V’s post-launch content can be found at the Capcom-Unity blog.
Street Fighter V will be released for the PC and PS4 in Spring 2016.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
Capcom adds new character Necalli to Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V finally received its first original fighter this weekend with the reveal of Necalli, a mysterious and savage fighter who reminds me a bit of Blanka. How mysterious is he? Capcom is still keeping his origin and storyline under wraps:
Possessing a wide variety of savage and close range attacks, all of Necalli’s moves have been forged through the heat of battle to ensure he’s inflicting maximum pain upon his opponents. Making full use of the Battle System mechanics, Necalli’s V-Skill allows him to pound the ground with both fists, creating an explosion that damages the enemy whereas the powerful V-Trigger allows him to channel a mysterious energy that changes his hair color and alters his personality for a short period of time. Capcom will be revealing more information on Necalli’s origin and storyline in the coming months so stay tuned for more details.
A trailer that showcases some of Necalli’s skills, which Capcom released as part of this weekend’s EVO event, has been embedded above. The character will be one of 16 (12 returning and four new) that will be available during Street Fighter V’s initial launch. Necalli joins the previously announced Ryu, Chun Li, M. Bison, Charlie Nash, Cammy, Birdie, Blanka, and Ken… so six more characters (three of them brand new) will be announced at a later date. As you might have guessed, more characters will eventually be added to Street Fighter V as post-launch downloadable content.
Street Fighter V will be released for the PC and PS4 in Spring 2016.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
Tremor will shake up Mortal Kombat X beginning tomorrow
Many seismologists believe that earthquake prediction is impossible. Someone at NetherRealm Studios clearly agrees as the developer has announced they’ll unleash Tremor, the fourth (and currently final), downloadable character for Mortal Kombat X much sooner than expected.
Kombat Pass owners will be able to download Tremor, along with Klassic Skins Pack 2, beginning tomorrow, July 21. Everyone else will get a crack at the character on July 28 as a standalone download ($4.99) or in a bundle with Klassic Skins Pack 2 ($7.99). The Skins Pack, which includes “klassic” duds for Kung Lao, Quan Chi, and Jax, will also be available by itself for $3.99.
Tremor first appeared in 2000’s Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, and has been a fan favorite ever since. It was these fans that encouraged NetherRealm to make Tremor a fully playable character for the first time in Mortal Kombat X. Able to control the earth itself, a trailer starring the latest incarnation of Tremor was unveiled during this weekend’s EVO event. It’s been embedded above.
Classic JRPG Odin Sphere getting an HD remaster in Japan on PS4, PS3, Vita
Atlus and Vanillaware, the publisher and developer of cult classic PS2 RPG Odin Sphere, announced today that a high defintion remaster is in development for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita.
According to Siliconera, this will be more than the typical paint job that many remasters from the PS2 era receive. In addition to the expected HD visual makeover, Vanillaware will add “new battle actions, maps, enemies, [and] animations” to game, along with with “an enhanced fighting system and additional features to make the overall gameplay smoother and faster than before.”
The remaster will be known as Odin Sphere: Leifdrasir, a title I’m sure many of us won’t be able to properly pronounce for some time. And we don’t have much time to figure it out as the remaster is scheduled for a January 14, 2016 release in Japan. There has been no word yet on an overseas release, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted when that changes.
The original Odin Sphere was released on the PS2 in 2007. The game was well received, and beat sales expectations in Japan. To date, Odin Sphere has never received a sequel or spinoff, making Leifdrasir a welcome return for players who have missed out on it the first time.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Odin Sphere
New Releases: Wolfenstein: Old Blood, Zombie Army Trilogy, Onechanbara Z2, F1 2015
Two, count ’em, two games about fighting the undead in the waning days of World War II will be available on stores this week. And, interestingly enough, both are currently available to download through digital storefronts. The public has spoken, and they want discs!
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood brings B.J. Blazkowicz back to the frontlines on the PS4 and Xbox One. As a prequel to last year’s Wolfenstein: The New Order, Blazkowicz will get to do some 1940s-style Nazi hunting, but he’ll also tangle with an entire village of zombies. Ach du lieber!
But Blazkowicz won’t be fighting alone as Zombie Hitler himself is behind the undead shenanigans in Zombie Army Trilogy for the PS4 and Xbox One. A standalone spinoff of Sniper Elite III, Zombie Army Trilogy is a team-based game where the Allies have to stop this final solution for Nazi world domination. Ach du lieber, wieder!
A third round of zombie hunting is available to shoppers this week in Onechanbara Z2: Chaos for the PS4. Published by XSEED, Onechanbara Z2 features the further adventures of the “bikini zombie squad,” a group of Japanese sisters who kill zombies with swords while wearing bikinis… obviously.
Finally this week, Codemasters will release F1 2015, the latest Formula 1 racing sim, and first to be released for the PS4 and Xbox One. If you love open wheel racing, this is the game for you. But sorry, no zombies.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged F1 2015, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Zombie Army Trilogy
Shenmue III sets record for most-funded video game on Kickstarter with a few hours to spare
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and its record-shattering $5.545 million crowdfunding campaign was only able to hold on to the record for a month as Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter campaign surpassed it this morning. And fans still have a little more than five hours to add to its tally (currently sitting at $5.9 million), and further cement its status as the most-funded video game in Kickstarter’s history.
Game Director Yu Suzuki recorded a message for Shenmue’s many fans, thanking them for their support and inviting them to a special live broadcast to celebrate the end of the campaign. The livestream, which begins at 7:00 PM (Eastern Time), can be viewed at Twitch.TV/shenmue3official. Suzuki will be joined by Animation Producer Hiroaki Takeuchi, Main Character Designer Kenji Miyawaki, and other special guests.
And after that comes the hard part… waiting for Shenmue III’s December 2017 launch on the PC and PS4.
UPDATE: Shenmue III’s Kickstarter campaign closed with $6,333,295 in pledges, nearly a million dollars more than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Shenmue III