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
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition coming to PS4 next week
It’s no secret that I love Housemarque, the amazing studio behind Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation, Outland, and Resogun. Anthony Amato and I played a ludicrous amount of Dead Nation on the PlayStation 3, and now that it’s been announced that Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition is coming to the PlayStation 4, well… let’s just say I really need to get that second DualShock 4.
In case you don’t know what Dead Nation is, it’s a top-down, twin-stick, shoot-em-up zombie game, where you’re fighting through hordes of the undead with tons of amazing weapons. You can play it alone or with a friend, local or online multiplayer, at night with the lights off or in the middle of the day with all the blinds up. Apocalypse is an upgrade visually – “you can now play in full 1080p HD, with improved textures, rendering, and effects,” according to the PlayStation Blog – but that’s not all. They’ve also “improved the controls, adding in a quick weapon select so your favorite zombie decimator is never out of reach.”
Not only is the DLC, Road to Devastation, included in this version of the game – and not only can you submit challenges to your friends and others on the leaderboard to beat your score – there’s also Broadcast+ Mode, which blew my mind:
In this mode, you can stream your game to the masses interactively, and your viewers can influence the difficulty of your game. Periodically all your viewers, whether they be on PS4 or a web browser, have the option to vote between a positive and negative effect that occurs in your game. There are a total of 30 different voting effects that can occur, ranging from spawning zombie packs to giving the player ammo, or even disabling the player’s ability to sprint. But don’t worry; as a player you can get back at the masses, because voters will appear in your game as named zombies for you to exact your revenge on.
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition will be available on the PlayStation 4 next week, March 4, for $14.99 for regular users, and free for PlayStation Plus members. Oh, and they also dropped a hint that there will be an upcoming announcement about the Vita version. It’s like zombie-killing Christmas in here.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Dead Nation
Warner Bros. is making a Minecraft movie
What kind of film could you create out of a video game with no characters, no plot, and no consistent world from player to player? I don’t know, but when you’re talking about the most popular game in the world, Warner Bros. is willing to give it a try. Deadline is reporting that the movie studio has reached a deal with Mojang to create a movie based on Minecraft.
The Minecraft movie will be produced by Roy Lee, who is one of the masterminds behind this year’s massively popular The Lego Movie. Jill Messick, a producer on Mean Girls, will also help bring Minecraft to the silver screen. It is much too early to discuss writers, directors, or actors, but might I suggest Quentin Tarantino for all three? Nah, I’m only joking… I think.
Warner Bros. is no stranger to the world of video games. In addition to producing the next Mortal Kombat movie, the company is one of the few to find success in game publishing thanks to its WB Games label.
Kickstart This! The Fox Force Five Edition
With the January blues firmly behind us, and the world beginning to thaw (especially in England, where flooding has put a dampener on everything), many of you may be realizing that those Dryathalon challenges have left you with some serious Bitcoin. Wallets and purses worldwide are slowly being opened after the cataclysm of Christmas, and money is pouring out. But what to invest it in? Instead of, say, a gallon of maple syrup, or an ill-advised betting spree on this year’s World Cup, why not put your money into something you can nurture, grow, and play? We’ve scoured the crowdfunding coal mines of Kickstarter to highlight five extraordinary projects worthy of praise and attention.
And money. Don’t forget money.
To begin, we have the heart-warming 2D RPG adventure Super Chibi Knight, followed by bizarre meat-infused retro experiment Hot Dog Heartache. After that, we explore the streets filled with incandescent rage in side-scrolling brawler Treachery in Beatdown City, as well as the Metroid-Contra morphgasm that is Hive Jump. Finally, to finish us off, we visit the 3D horror-exploration genre with ReLive.
Let’s put your money where your mouse is. (more…)
The Walking Dead Season 2: A House Divided will be released next week
Telltale Games has announced that the second episode of The Walking Dead Season 2, “A House Divided,” will be available to download for the PC and the PS3 (from the PlayStation Store) next Tuesday, March 4. The game’s Xbox Live Arcade and iOS App Store release date will be confirmed “at a later date.” But I’d bet good money that both versions will be available sometime around March 4.
For “A House Divided,” Telltale has tapped Michael Madsen to play the mysterious Carver. What does Carver want? You’ll have to play the game to find out. Like the previous episodic editions, The Walking Dead Season 2’s second episode has been priced at $4.99. All five episodes from Season 2 can also be pre-purchased through the $19.99 Season Pass. If you plan to follow the entire story of Clementine’s survival, it’s a good deal.
Vita owners will be happy to learn that Telltale also confirmed that The Walking Dead Season 2 will be released for Sony’s handheld. The first two episodes will be available to download in late March.
Thief, Tales of Symphonia, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, more added to PS Store
Sony updated the PlayStation Store last night and added almost all of February’s biggest releases to their digital storefront.
Leading the way are the PS4 titles Thief and Basement Crawl. One is the reboot of a beloved franchise and the other is a Bomberman-inspired in the scariest basement this side of The Evil Dead. Thief is also available to download on the PS3.
Also available on the PS3 this week is Konami’s conclusion to the Lords of Shadow saga, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Dracula’s modern day adventure is joined by Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, a high definition remake of the popular action RPGs. Bandai Namco has also released the two games in the compilation, Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, as individual downloads. Finally, the publisher is compiling several games from another of its favorite franchises with this week’s Pac-Man Museum.
More details about all of these games (and a few others) can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Pac-Man Museum, Tales of Symphonia, Thief
XSEED will bring Ragnarok Odyssey Ace to PS3, Vita on April 1
XSEED went into detail on the PlayStation Blog about all of the new features coming to Ragnarok Odyssey Ace, which will be releasing for PlayStation 3 and Vita on April 1.
The original game, which was designed to be played on the go, pits players – alone or with up to three friends – against giant bosses in a Norse-themed world. Played can “use their gravity-defying powers to fly circles around the giants and take them apart piece by piece.” Sounds amazing, right? But with Ace, there have been loads of added features, including more options for character customization, elite-level AI mercenaries, Ace skills (new job-specific powers), and even a brand new dungeon after chapter 9, which was the end of the original game. This is a lot of content: “the new Tower of Yggdrasil has 400 floors… each of which changes its layout with every visit.”
The developers have also added “a variety of enhancements that make Ragnarok Odyssey more convenient to play,” including a new, easier merchant system and new control schemes, “and, Thor’s name be praised, the benefits of weapon refining are no longer random.”
Ragnarok Odyssey Ace will be released digitally and physically on April 1 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The PS3 version will cost $39.99, while Vita owners will have two options – the physical limited edition (which comes with a soundtrack CD) for $39.99, or the digital edition all by itself for $34.99.
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Ragnarok Odyssey Ace
IndieCade East 2014 After-Report: Day 1 – The Calm Before the Storm
This year’s IndieCade East was held at the Museum of Moving Image in New York City from Friday, February 14 to Sunday, February 16. There were dozens of games available to play – some were being showcased, while others were included in installments within the museum itself. There were also talks, including keynotes, and many of the game developers were on-hand to discuss their games… and check out what other people were making. It was an exciting weekend, and Warp Zoned was there to drink it all in. (more…)
Disgaea 4 Vita and more to be released by NIS America in 2014
NIS America announced their 2014 release schedule last week, and there’s plenty for all you doods out there! President Souhei Niikawa came out with a Prinny hat on and thanked the press for their support. He went on to say that NIS is currently working on a game for the PlayStation 4, and that the full details would come out at the Tokyo Game Show later this year. After that, NIS showed trailers showcasing NISA’s upcoming projects…
- Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited, for the Vita, is a portable remake of the PS3 RPG.
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, also for the Vita, is a sequel to the recently released school-set RPG.
- Demon Gaze, a first-person RPG for the Vita.
- Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection, an “idol simulation” based on the popular RPG series based on personalities from the game industry.
- Battle Princess of Arcadias is a side-scrolling brawler for the PS3.
- Fairy Fencer F is a turn-based RPG from Compile Heart for the PS3.
- Mugen Souls Z is another RPG from Compile Heart for the PS3.
- The Witch and the Hundred Knight is an action RPG that will be available for the PS3 on March 25.
As always, it’s a huge list of quirky games, each with their own niche following.
For full details on all of these games, check out the PlayStation Blog. Or, if you just want to see the latest screenshots, check out a Flickr gallery set up by Sony.