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: Vita
Nihon Falcom and NIS America will release Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana this Fall
Publisher NIS America will team up with Nihon Falcom to release Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, the latest entry in the long-running action RPG franchise, this Fall for the PC, PS4, and Vita.
NIS’s Chris King confirmed (to the PlayStation Blog) the game will feature dual English and Japanese audio. He also revealed a few details about the game’s plot:
This will be the first brand-new Ys adventure in eight years! The story begins with Adol, shipwrecked and stranded on a cursed island. There, he and the other castaways establish a village to challenge fearsome beasts and explore mysterious ruins on the island. Amidst this, Adol begins to dream of a mysterious blue-haired maiden named Dana living in an unknown world. Join Adol as he unravels the riddle of the cursed isle and the blue-haired maiden in Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana!
And over on Ys VIII’s Steam page, Nihon Falcom President Toshihiro Kondo delivered a message to fans and teased about a minute of gameplay footage.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Vita
Tagged Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is finished; Coming to Switch in March and other platforms in April
Yacht Club Games has announced (via Twitter) that they’ve completed development on Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, the latest expansion to their NES-inspired platformer, Shovel Knight. The developer expects to launch Specter of Torment first for the Nintendo Switch in March. It’ll later be available as a free update on all other platforms (3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One) in April.
The Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove compilation (as well as the Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows standalone campaigns) should also be available for the Switch in March, with additional platforms to follow a month later.
Specter Knight’s campaign will actually take place before the events of Shovel Knight, and will depict how The Enchantress was able to recruit the evil Order of No Quarter. If you’re interested in learning how it all went down, Yacht Club Games will be attending this year’s PAX East expo to give fans a taste of Specter of Torment before it launches. The Boston-based convention kicks off on March 10.
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged PAX East 2017, Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
NIS America announces release dates for Danganronpa V3, Disgaea 5 Complete, more
NIS America announced release dates for a huge batch of upcoming games last night, including their Nintendo Switch debut (Disgaea 5 Complete) and a highly-anticipated sequel on the PS4 and Vita (Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony).
Ready? Here we go…
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (PS4, PS Vita)
- North America: September 26, 2017
- Europe: September 29, 2017
- Disgaea 5 Complete (Nintendo Switch)
- North America: May 23, 2017
- Europe: May 26, 2017
- Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness (Steam)
- Worldwide: April 24, 2017
- Cladun Returns: This Is Sengoku! (PS Vita, Steam)
- North America: June 6, 2017
- Europe: June 9, 2017
- Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy (Steam)
- Worldwide: May 16, 2017
- Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy (Steam)
- Worldwide: March, 27, 2017
These release date announcements were made during NIS America’s “2017 Press Event” livestream last night. However, if you missed the big show, you can watch a replay on the publisher’s Twitch channel right now.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Vita
Tagged Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance, Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy
For Honor, Sniper Elite 4, Ride 2, more added to PS Store
Ubisoft’s epic battle between Knights and Vikings and Samurai, For Honor, is now available to download through the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Players will be able to choose their Faction and compete in the game’s online multiplayer battles or fight through the single-player Campaign to claim ultimate victory.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is Sniper Elite 4, Rebellion’s latest World War II-era shooter. This time, players will engage in missions on the Italian front and attempt to “liberate wartime Italy from the grip of Fascism.”
If you’d prefer to speed around a racetrack instead of going to war, Milestone will release Ride 2 for download on the PS4 this week. Offering more than 170 bikes, this motorcycle racing sim includes plenty of options.
Finally this week, Nidhogg developer Messhof will release Flywrench for the PS4. In Flywrench, players will need to quickly flip the color of their spacecraft to deftly maneuver around a series of obstacles.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged For Honor, Sniper Elite 4
Indie Megabooth will host 12 games in their GDC 2017 Showcase
The Indie Megabooth will once again offer a small chunk of real estate at the Game Developers Conference to up-and-coming developers this year. Their GDC 2017 Showcase will feature 12 games that are sometimes goofy (Keyboard Sports), sometimes terrifying (Perception), and sometimes without explanation.
The full lineup includes:
Indie Megabooth’s GDC 2017 Showcase
- _Transfer
- A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher
- Cosmic Express
- I, Hope
- Keyboard Sports
- Lightfield
- Monster Prom
- Perception
- Post Human WAR
- Rogue Process
- Snake Pass
- Super Slime Arena
The Indie Megabooth will set up shop in San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center on the third floor of West Hall, and more information about every game featured in the Showcase can be found on their official website.
The 2017 Game Developers Conference will begin on February 27.
Nioh, How to Survive 2, 8Days, more added to PS Store
Today’s PlayStation Store update is small, but fans of brutally-hard action games should definitely check it out…
Team Ninja is giving Ryu Hayabusa a break to bring Nioh to the PS4 this week. Nioh is an action RPG that takes place in ancient Japan, and players will have to contend with the warring factions of a civil war while also doing battle with an army of rampaging monsters.
Also available to download for the PS4 this week is How to Survive 2, a survival game where players will have to overcome a worldwide zombie pandemic by building a camp, learning skills, and foraging for food and water. You can even be neighborly and meet with other locals, but as George Romero taught us, sometimes the living are more dangerous than the dead.
Finally this week, 8Days is a retro-inspired twin-stick shooter that takes place in a dystopian future where players might not be fighting for the forces of good.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
The Video Game Canon – Madden NFL Football (Series)
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with an examination into the validity (or lack thereof) of the Madden Cover Curse. Here’s a teaser…
A gambler will tell you that they believe Lady Luck will reward them for respecting a streak, and a professional football player will tell you that he doesn’t believe in the Madden Curse. The former is a wishful thinker, and the latter is a liar.
The sports world is filled with superstitions. As a Little Leaguer growing up, I could show you what a “rally cap” was and explain the importance of never touching the baselines. I understood completely why retired Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland refused to change his underwear during a 12-game winning streak in 2011. I’ve even got strong opinions on what you say to a pitcher in the middle of a perfect game. The answer is you don’t say anything, because talking to him at all is bad luck.
For decades, the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx served as a well-known precursor to the Madden Curse. Those who believe in the Jinx are convinced that any player who appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated will experience some form of terrible luck, even though a handful of high-profile hits have obscured the long list of players who avoided the Jinx over the years. If the sheer number of cover subjects doesn’t dissuade you (more than 3,000 issues have been produced since the magazine’s launch in 1954), the illustrious career of Michael Jordan should. The basketball great has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated a record 50 times, and he’s had the kind of career that other athletes dream about… not counting his detour through Minor League Baseball and Space Jam.
But what of the Madden Curse? Although you’ll find a few executives at Electronic Arts who enjoy hyping up the current year’s game with talk of the Curse, most of them like to downplay it. In 2008, the then-President of EA Sports, Peter Moore, said, “I guess when you look back there’s a grain of truth to the Madden Curse.” At the time, he wasn’t wrong. Five of the last six offensive players on the cover succumbed to some horrible calamity. The publishing giant even considered producing a movie based on the Madden Curse in 2010, though that project seems to have fallen off the radar in the years since.
And that’s probably because the Madden Curse is as mythical as a wild turducken.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in 3DS, DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Madden NFL 11, Madden NFL 12, Madden NFL 13, Madden NFL 15, Madden NFL 16, Madden NFL 17, Madden NFL 25
Nominations now being accepted for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2017
After inducting Grand Theft Auto III, The Legend of Zelda, The Oregon Trail, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders into video gaming’s inner circle last year, the World Video Game Hall of Fame is ready to begin accepting nominations for its Class of 2017.
Any game is eligible to be enshrined in the World Video Game Hall of Fame, and gamers of all stripes are encouraged to visit the Nominate A Game page to submit any title for nomination that fits the Selection Criteria:
- Icon Status: The game is widely recognized and remembered.
- Longevity: The game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time.
- Geographical Reach: The game meets the above criteria across international boundaries.
- Influence: The game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general. A game may be inducted on the basis of this criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three.
All submissions for nominations must be made by March 6, and this year’s finalists will be announced on March 29.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2017 will be selected by an internal committee on the advice of an international team of “journalists, scholars, and other individuals familiar with the history of video games and their role in society.” This year’s inductees will be announced as part of a special ceremony that’ll be held at The Strong Museum in Rochester, NY on May 4.