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
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: Xbox One
Hyper Light Drifter gets a new trailer as Spring 2016 release date is confirmed
First, the bad news… Hyper Light Drifter won’t be released before the end of the year as originally planned. Instead, Heart Machine announced today that their dreamy action RPG will be released for the PC in Spring 2016 with a console release to follow “as quickly as possible” after that.
So what’s the good news? Well, the developer did release a beautiful new trailer for the game, which has been embedded above. They’ve also confirmed that a playable demo of Hyper Light Drifter will be available in the Indie Megabooth at this weekend’s PAX Prime expo.
It’s always disappointing when a game is delayed, but you can read more about Heart Machine’s reasons behind the decision in the latest Kickstarter update from Lead Developer Alex Preston.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Hyper Light Drifter, PAX Prime 2015
Mega Man Legacy Collection Review: A Potent Mixture of Retro Perfection
The Mega Man series is built on patterns. Every time out, a robotic warrior clad in blue battles eight “Robot Masters” in an order chosen by the player. As he pushes through the game, Mega Man acquires an arsenal of new weapons from the vanquished Robot Masters. And after defeating all of them, he challenges the evil Dr. Wily in a fiendishly hard multi-leveled fortress. After delivering the final blow (usually with the game’s worst weapon), Mega Man rides off into the sunset, ready to return if the world needs him again.
I know these patterns. I first learned them in 1987 with the release of Mega Man for the NES, and I received a refresher course roughly every year thereafter thanks to the five sequels that followed. Through trial and error (and believe me, there were many, many trials), I eventually learned how to traverse each game’s set of levels with near flawless accuracy.
After ignoring the series for several years, Capcom decided to compile the first six entries into the recently released Mega Man Legacy Collection. I still know the patterns, but even two decades removed from their original release, the games included in the Mega Man Legacy Collection hold up in a way that few do. (more…)
More tracks announced for Rock Band 4 as Harmonix opens standalone game pre-orders
I haven’t had the best track record when it comes to recognizing a lot of the performers Harmonix has picked for Rock Band 4‘s soundtrack. But that changed today as the developer revealed that songs from Cake (“Short Skirt/Long Jacket”), The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (“The Impression That I Get”), Soundgarden (“Superunknown”), and Arctic Monkeys (“Arabella”) will be included in the game when it launches this October. In fact, they’ve announced ten new tracks, which you can find right here:
- .38 Special – “Caught Up In You”
- Arctic Monkeys – “Arabella”
- The Both – “Milwaukee”
- Cake – “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”
- Little Big Town – “Little White Church”
- Lucius – “Turn It Around”
- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get”
- The Protomen – “Light Up The Night”
- Soundgarden – “Superunknown”
- Tijuana Sweetheart – “Pistol Whipped”
Harmonix also confirmed that players who are uninterested in the $200 “Band In-A-Box Bundle” will have the option to purchase Rock Band 4 as a standalone disc on the PS4 and Xbox One. PS4 players will be able to get the game for just $59.99 because all of their old instruments will work right out of the box. However, Xbox One owners will have to spring for a $79.99 pack that includes the game and a “Legacy Game Controller Adapter” to ensure compatibility with their old instruments. Players can pre-order the standalone version on either platform beginning today.
Rock Band 4 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on October 6.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rock Band 4
Madden NFL 16 launch trailer is an insane action movie spoof that forever raises the bar
Do you hear that? That’s the sound of the bar for video game launch trailers being raised. And that sound can only be vocalized as “Hoo-Ah!”
The launch trailer in question belongs to Madden NFL 16, which has been refashioned by EA Sports into a Summer blockbuster known as Madden: The Movie. Taking more than a few cues from the Fast and the Furious franchise, Madden: The Movie features Dave Franco as Blade Johnson, a star of the underground Madden circuit. His girlfriend has been kidnapped and its up to him and his gang of “Playmakers” to bring her back. Thankfully, said Playmakers include Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Janet, Rob Gronkowski as Half Top, Julio Jones as Trick Montelban, Antonio Brown as Sticky Bun, Coach Rex Ryan as Lil Pepper, and Colin Kaepernick as Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman. In addition to its star-studded cast, Madden: The Movie has plenty of deception, intrigue, rampaging dinosaurs, and even a Bollywood-style dance number.
Madden NFL 16 will be released for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One tomorrow. Which means you have enough time between now and then to watch Madden: The Movie more than 100 times. You didn’t have anything better to do today, did you?
New Releases: Madden NFL 16, Disney Infinity Star Wars, Until Dawn, More
Do you feel that nip in the air? And surely you’ve noticed that kids are gearing up for “back to school” time. And that can mean only one thing… the Fall gaming rush is upon us! While these tell-tale signs of the Fall are out there, the Summer’s not over quite yet. It’s still pretty warm in most of the United States and a majority of kids get to enjoy a few more weeks of Summer vacation.
And even though it’s still August, I think the Fall gaming rush has officially begun…
Everything begins, as it always does this time of year, with the release of Madden NFL 16 (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One). The latest entry in EA’s long-running football simulation series features Odell Beckham on the cover and improved passing/receiver controls.
One of this Fall’s biggest “all ages” titles, Disney Infinity: Star Wars, will also be available this week. As the title says, Star Wars characters have been absorbed into the Disney Infinity universe for the first time. If you’ve already got a shelf of Disney’s popular figures, prepare to build a second one. And if you haven’t caught the Disney Infinity bug yet, you’re probably going to need a sturdy shelf to hold all your Star Wars figures.
On the complete opposite end of the age appropriateness spectrum is Sony’s Until Dawn. Available exclusively for the PS4, Until Dawn is one of the first games that attempts to recreate the horror (and excitement) of watching a slasher flick. Until Dawn’s star, Hayden Panettiere, even has plenty of experience running from crazed killers on screens both big (Scream 4) and small (Heroes).
Finally this week, a pair of remasters will give a new generation of players the chance to check out (or revisit) two PS3/Xbox 360 era classics. Dishonored: Definitive Edition brings its stealthy steampunk aesthetic to the PS4 and Xbox One, while Gears of War: Ultimate Edition upgrades the popular Xbox 360 shooter for the Xbox One. Microsoft will also release an Xbox One 500GB + Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Bundle if you haven’t picked up an Xbox One yet.
A complete list of all of this week’s new releases (which also includes the PS3/Vita debut of the SteinsGate visual novel) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Dishonored, Disney Infinity: Star Wars, Gears of War, Madden NFL 16, SteinsGate, Until Dawn
Xbox Store Today: Clash, Bridge Constructor, Adventures of Pip, Pure Hold ‘Em
Four new Xbox One games are now available through the Xbox Games Store…
- Clash is a four-player “fantasy arena fighter” that forces players to dash at each other for the big kill, or hide behind a magical shield. Also… there’s adjustable gravity!
- Bridge Constructor is exactly what it says on the box… a game where players become “an appraised bridge engineer and architect.”
- Adventures of Pip is a puzzle platformer that asks players to grow by absorbing pixels.
- Pure Hold ‘Em is… wait for it… yet another video game adaptation of poker.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Lego Jurassic World Review: Spared (Mostly) No Expense
Jurassic Park holds a very special place in my heart. When I first read the novel at 12 years old, I remember closing it and saying to myself, “This needs to be made into a movie.” Little did I know that Stephen Spielberg was already filming the movie as I was reading it. And when the movie came out, it was an amazing experience. After seeing it in the theater, I remember being scared to death as I was riding my bike home, thinking that every noise was a Dilophosaurus hunting me down. Weeks later, I saved my Chuck E. Cheese tickets just to get a raptor stuffed animal and collected Jurassic Park trading cards. I even supersized my Extra Value Meals at McDonalds in order to get the collector’s cups. I was fully engulfed in the dino-mania that was sweeping the globe. Everything about Jurassic Park was amazing, with one exception… the video games.
The Jurassic Park games for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were completely different, but unfortunately, neither hit that high standard set by the book and movie. I rented Jurassic Park for the Super Nintendo and found the mixture of overhead exploration and first-person shooter to be quite shallow. My friend had the Sega Genesis game, and while I did enjoy the graphics, animation, and 2D style, I found it too difficult to enjoy. Since then, I haven’t really found a Jurassic Park game that I enjoyed – that is, until Lego Jurassic World. Playing it brought back fond memories of growing up watching these movies, and while it isn’t perfect, Lego Jurassic World is still a fun romp. (more…)
Square Enix is bringing playable demos of Just Cause 3, Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest Heroes, more to PAX Prime 2015
Square Enix has big plans for PAX Prime 2015 including half a dozen panels and playable demos of seven games.
A playable demo of Just Cause 3 will make its North American debut at the Square Enix booth (#3646), where it will share floor space with demos for Final Fantasy XV (Episode Duscae 2.0), Final Fantasy Explorers, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, Dragon Qest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below, Lara Croft Go, and Life Is Strange.
The publisher also plans to set up a “pop-up barber shop” in their booth to give fans of the Hitman franchise the chance to share Agent 47’s signature look. For every head they shave, Square Enix will donate $47 to the GameChanger Charity, which supports children with cancer. The shavee will even receive a Steam code for Hitman: Absolution. Though anyone who wants to donate their own money (and keep their hair) can do so at 47vsCancer.org.
Finally, Square Enix’s series of panels will fly in developers from all over the world to talk about Hitman, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Just Cause 3, and more. The publisher even plans to host a “Final Fantasy XV Active Time Report Live” panel with Director Hajime Tabata.
The PAX Prime expo will be held from August 28-31 in Seattle, Washington. More details about all of Square Enix’s panels and playable demos can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Hitman: Absolution, PAX Prime 2015