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
- 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
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: Xbox 360
Xbox Store Today: Project Spark, Alien: Isolation, NBA 2K15, more
Are you ready to make your own games? Microsoft hopes so because Project Spark is now available to download through the Xbox One Games Store. The Project Spark “Starter Pack” includes a pre-built adventure as well as a variety of characters and game-creation pieces. Happy building!
Alien: Isolation is also new to the Xbox One Games Store today. Sega and Creative Assembly took a different tack with the game than the usual Aliens adventure and attempted to bring the quieter, but still frightening, “haunted house in space” atmosphere of 1979’s Alien to the video game realm. It’s joined by NBA 2K15 (Xbox One, Xbox 360), the latest game in 2K’s long-running sports simulation series, and Divekick (Xbox One), Iron Galaxy’s two-button fighting game. Finally this week, Styx: Master of Shadows, an RPG from Focus Interactive, is available to download for the Xbox One.
More information on all four games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Divekick, NBA 2K15, Project Spark
Hear yourself scream after watching the Alien: Isolation launch trailer
Today is a great day for space exploration, both real and fictional. In the real world, NASA is exploring the use of stasis tubes (better known as “torpor”) for a possible manned mission to Mars. And in the fictional realm, Sega has released the launch trailer for Alien: Isolation, their deep space survival horror game that is in stores tomorrow.
Developed by Creative Assembly, Alien: Isolation uses the same “lo-fi sci-fi” aesthetic seen in 1979’s Alien and sticks to a single Xenomorph instead of the hordes of alien monsters typically found in games based on the 1986 sequel, Aliens.
Alien: Isolation will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The first run of copies have been given a “Nostromo Edition” tag and will include a bonus mission that will allow players to take control Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and other characters from the original film.
The Crew’s release date skids onto December 2
Ubisoft has announced that The Crew, their open-world racer for the PC, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One, will now be released on December 2. Previously scheduled for a November 11 launch, the publisher pushed the game back so they could conduct another closed beta sometime in November. This will be the fourth closed beta for The Crew after two separate tests on the PC and another exclusively for PS4/Xbox One players.
“We received a lot of valuable information from the recent PC and console betas,” Creative Director Julian Gerighty told Ubisoft’s UbiBlog. “We are now scrutinizing all of the player feedback so we can ensure that The Crew delivers the seamless open-world experience that meets everyone’s high expectations.”
According to Gerighty, feedback from the betas has resulted in several substantial changes to the game including “the option to fully remove the HUD so players can enjoy the scenery as they roam freely through a massive re-creation of the United States, to fine-tuning the collisions to be even more realistic and adding in new visual effects.” The Ubisoft Reflections developer has also tweaked police AI and improved the game’s voice chat after the first three rounds of player feedback.
There’s also a good chance that Ubisoft moved The Crew to ensure the game wasn’t overshadowed by the November 11 launch of Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and Assassin’s Creed: Unity, the company’s flagship titles for the Fall.
New Releases: Alien: Isolation, NBA 2K15, DriveClub, More
After a relatively quiet September, the Fall gaming rush has begun to kick into high gear now that we’ve reached October.
Sega plans to take another crack at the Alien universe with the Creative Assembly-developed survival horror game Alien: Isolation (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One). Players will attempt to help Amanda Ripley search for her missing mother while she’s stalked by a singular Xenomorph. After nearly a dozen games starring the Colonial Marines, it’s definitely a new take (on an old idea) for the franchise.
Also new this week is…
- NBA 2K15 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2K’s latest basketball sim.
- DriveClub (PS4), Evolution’s long-in-development racing game.
- Skylanders: Trap Team (3DS, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One), the latest toy/game hybrid from Activision.
- Project Spark (Xbox One), Microsoft’s game-building game.
Finally, Microsoft is reliving the Xbox One launch with newly expanded and updated versions of Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition, Forza Motorsport 5: Game of the Year Edition, and Ryse: Son of Rome – Legendary Edition.
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, DriveClub, NBA 2K15, Project Spark, Skylanders: Trap Team
Insert Quarter: “Playing A Game” Versus “Grinding Through Content”
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
In this installment, Kotaku’s Yannick LeJacq examines the difference between “playing a game” and “grinding through content” added by the developer to increase the hours required to reach the end in games like Dying Light and The Sims 4.
Earlier this week, Techland announced that its new zombie-killing adventure Dying Light will have “50+ hours of gameplay.” Some might considering this good news. I don’t—at least at face value.
Why? Because 50 hours is a long [*******] time to spend in any video game, and I don’t trust Techland enough as a developer to believe they know how to guide me through such a slog gracefully. I took me roughly half that time to play their last zombie game, Dead Island Riptide. I loved the first few hours, and couldn’t stand the rest.
You can read the rest at Kotaku.
Posted in Insert Quarter, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Dying Light, The Sims 4
EGX 2014 Report: Assassin’s Creed Unity, Arkham Knight, The Order 1886, and More
EGX London, formerly known as the Eurogamer Expo, finally gives UK players a chance to their hand at unreleased games after all the other big Summer shows: E3, PAX Prime, Gamescom, and TGS. It sits at the right time of year too! I always tend to get a bit down on games over the Summer when my consoles sit mostly unused.After playing a dozen of the biggest games scheduled to release over the next nine months, I’m excited to finally charge a DualShock 4 again.On top of that, talking to so many gamers in one place really gives you a nice vertical slice of where the industry sits at the moment. But first… the games! (more…)
Quan Chi will bring his sorcerer’s ways to Mortal Kombat X
After playing a huge role in 2011’s Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm has confirmed that the evil sorcerer Quan Chi will once again play a big part in Mortal Kombat X. Described by Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick as a “trickster,” Quan Chi’s three variations will rely heavily on his magical abilities.
The “Sorcerer” variation includes a series of projectile attacks as well as buff spells that strengthen his other attacks. The “Warlock” variations allows Quan Chi to create Dark Portals that allow him to toss characters around the screen in ways that are similar to Scorpion’s Teleport and Rain’s Roundhouse Kick. Finally, the “Summoner” variation will also be projectile-based, but the projectile is actually a demon that Quan Chi summons and controls.
Also, be sure to stick around for a quick look at one of Quan Chi’s Fatalities, it’s pretty great. Mortal Kombat X will be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 14.
Kevin Smith will play himself in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
Professional fanboy Kevin Smith will get a chance to act alongside some of his favorite comic book characters next month when he gets Lego-ized for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. Smith will play himself alongside several other new characters announced by WB Games including Bruce Wayne (who is separate from Batman but still voiced by Tory Baker), Green Arrow (voiced by Arrow star Stephen Amell), and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns (voiced by the actual Geoff Johns). All four characters will be playable, so if you’ve ever wanted to recreate the “Fly, fatass, fly!” scene from Mallrats, now’s your chance.
Smith, Johns, Baker, and Amell will team-up to host a Lego Batman 3 panel at the New York Comic-Con on Saturday, October 11. The quartet (along with TT Games developers Arthur Parsons and Stephen Sharples) will reveal new characters and introduce brand-new gameplay videos of the game during their talk. And in case you miss the panel, WB Games will have a playable demo of Lego Batman 3 available at the DC Entertainment booth.
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham will be released for the 3DS, PC, PS3 PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 11.