Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- 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
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: Xbox One
Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection will bring AC2, Brotherhood, and Revelations to PS4, Xbox One this November
“Batti il ferro finché è caldo.” (“Strike while the iron is hot.”)
– Italian Proverb
Ubisoft announced today that they plan to release Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection for the PS4 and Xbox One on November 15. As the name implies, the compilation will include all three adventures starring Ezio Auditore… Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. However, Ubisoft has decided not to include the multiplayer portions of Brotherhood and Revelations in The Ezio Collection.
Instead, the publisher will improve the overall aesthetic of the franchise with “enhanced graphics,” along with adding in all the downloadable content designed for the single-player Story Mode from each game. The previously-released short films, Assassin’s Creed: Embers and Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, will also be included in The Ezio Collection.
And speaking of films based on Assassin’s Creed, every copy of The Ezio Collection will include a movie ticket good for one admission to Assassin’s Creed, which opens in theaters on December 21 and stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.
Finally today, Ubisoft confirmed that the 14 titles in the Assassin’s Creed franchise have collectively sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.
“Creating an Assassin’s Creed game is no easy task. It takes the creativity and hard work of many people in many different Ubisoft studios all over the world,” Senior Producer Martin Schelling told the UbiBlog. “To have this franchise join the ranks of those that have reached more than 100 million sold is a testament to the teams that have taken on that challenge over the years.”
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment expansion will be available in Spring 2017
Yacht Club Games had previously expected to launch the Shovel Knight expansions starring Specter Knight and King Knight by the end of the year. However, that’s no longer in the cards as the release of both add-ons has been pushed into 2017.
But to make up for this scheduling snafu, Yacht Club unveiled an amazing new logo for Specter Knight’s campaign, which is now officially known as Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment. In a blog post on their official website, the developer confirmed the free expansion will be released in Spring 2017 and that it is, “a HUGE game with even more new content than Plague of Shadows.”
Shovel Knight, and the Plague of Shadows expansion, is currently available for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One.
Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 8 is here… and so is the Launch Trailer
Jesse and friends will ride off into the sunset this week with the release of the final episode in Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode. Players will be introduced to “The Old Builders” in Episode 8: A Journey’s End?, which might mean a way home for the adventurers:
With Harper leading them to the world of the Old Builders, Jesse and crew finally have their chance to return home… but it won’t be easy, and the stakes are high. You’ll need to take on opponents in a series of gladiatorial games to win your freedom, save your friends, and maybe, just maybe, make it back to your own world!
Minecraft: Story Mode – Episode 8: A Journey’s End? is now available to download for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and mobile devices. Players can purchase it as part of the Adventure Pass ($14.99) or as a standalone download ($4.99).
First gameplay trailer for WWE 2K17 is here
With less than a month to go before WWE 2K17‘s launch, 2K Games released the wrestling sim’s first gameplay trailer over the weekend.
Puff Daddy provides the soundtrack (“Bad Boys For Life”) as a string of WWE wrestlers fight it out inside (and out of) the squared circle. So be sure to check the trailer embedded above for a quick glimpse at Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and many, many, many, many more.
WWE 2K17 will be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on October 11.
Two new Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 trailers ask… “Are you a Hunter or a Runner?” and “Can you beat the Giant Ghost?”
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 will gobble up your freetime in a just a few days, but in the meantime, Bandai Namco released two new trailers for the game to get players ready for the return of video gaming’s first star.
First, the publisher asked players how they prefer to play in the “Hunter Vs Runner” trailer. If you’re someone who chases Ghosts for maximum points, that makes you a “Hunter.” But you’re a “Runner” if you like to smoothly munch on Dots while studiously avoiding the Ghosts.
All this hunting and running leads into the game’s brand new boss battles, and Bandai Namco also released a second trailer asking players how they’d defeat “The Giant Ghost.” If you said, “With an army of Pac-Men,” then you’re on the right track.
Both trailers can be found after the break, and don’t forget, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on September 13. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
New Retail Releases: NBA 2K17 Early Tip Off, ReCore, BioShock Collection, More
Ladies and gentlemen, it has begun. The “Fall Gaming Season” begins now, and publisher are flooding store shelves with more than a dozen new titles this week.
With the NFL season kicking off today, let’s start with this week’s sports offerings. EA Sports released Madden NFL 17 three weeks, but the publisher is back this week with NHL 17 for the PS4 and Xbox One. If you’re more of a basketball fan, 2K Games will release the NBA 2K17: Early Tip Off Edition this week for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Soccer supporters will also get a new simulation this week with the release of Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. And the checkered flag goes to NASCAR Heat: Evolution, which will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One this week.
Far away from Earth’s athletic fields is the planet of Far Eden, an interstellar colony that’s been overrun by villainous robots in Microsoft’s ReCore. Developed by Armature Studio, with additional idea work by Keiji Inafune, ReCore lets players fight back as Joule Adams, a resourceful woman who has her own team of robotic helpers. ReCore will be released for the Xbox One and it’ll also be available digitally for the PC as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
You know who else has access to a lot of gadgets? Batman. And Telltale Games will put the World’s Greatest Detective through the ringer this week with their Batman: The Telltale Series – Season Pass Disc for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The disc will include the first episode from Telltale’s Batman series and digital access to every subsequent episode released (the second is scheduled to launch on September 20).
Finally this week, a trio of re-releases will reintroduce gamers to a few beloved franchises. BioShock: The Collection will bring BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite together in a single package for the PS4 and Xbox One (and digitally on the PC) with improved graphics and exclusive commentary by Ken Levine and other developers from Irrational. Meanwhile, Capcom’s Dead Rising also makes the leap to the PS4 and Xbox One (and, again, digitally on the PC) with improved graphics. And Square Enix and Nintendo collaborated on a brand new localization for the 3DS release of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past.
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Xbox Store Today: Jotun, Pure Chess, Emily Wants To Play, more
Norse Gods, another Chess game, and spooky dolls are the highlights of today’s Xbox Games Store update…
In Jotun: Valhalla Edition, Xbox One owners will do battle with monsters in Norse Purgatory as Thora, “a Viking warrior who died an inglorious death and must prove herself to the Gods to enter Valhalla.”
However, if you’d prefer to wage war on a different sort of battlefield, Ripstone launched Pure Chess: Grandmaster Edition today for the Xbox One. Pure Chess: Grandmaster Edition will offer online play against up-to eight friends or local play against ten different AI opponents.
Finally today, Emily Wants To Play comes to the Xbox One and brings with it the eerie suspense of being alone in an isolated house with three terrifying dolls and a strange little girl named Emily.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Koji Igarashi delays Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s launch to the First Half of 2018
Koji “Iga” Igarashi delivered some bad news last night to fans of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The famed developer revealed that progress on the game isn’t going as smoothly as he would have hoped. To make sure it’s “done right the first time,” Igarashi announced that Bloodstained will miss its planned March 2017 launch. Instead, the game be released in the first half of 2018 for the PC, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One:
“The last thing I want to do is keep our backers waiting, but after receiving such incredible support, I feel responsible for delivering the best product I possibly can. Again, I offer my sincerest apologies.”
To help maintain his vision, Igarashi also confirmed that he’ll add a new development team so he can keep development of Bloodstained “fully on track.” Inti Creates is currently working on the game for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One (Armature is handling the Vita and Wii U port), but it’s unknown if this second team will work alongside them, or replace them.