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
New Batman: Arkham Knight trailer lives in fear of Scarecrow
WB Games has released a new trailer for Batman: Arkham Knight, which lays out the game’s storyline in a way that I don’t think we’ve heard before. Scarecrow is using a new version of his fear toxin to blackmail the people of Gotham into leaving. As further incentive, he has recruited some of Batman’s greatest enemies (including The Penguin and Two-Face) to overrun the city with criminals. Batman, naturally, doesn’t take too kindly to this threat…
And that’s when Arkham Knight, a villain created specifically for this game by Rocksteady, shows up. Any bets on his “real” identity… A somehow still-alive Joker? Jason Todd? Azrael? Someone else entirely?
We’ll find out later this year when Batman: Arkham Knight is released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight
Rare is changing “development methodology” after layoffs
One of the great video game developers may be moving away from motion gaming. Since 2008, Rare has worked exclusively on games in the Kinect Sports series, releasing Kinect Sports in 2010, Kinect Sports: Season Two a year later, and Kinect Sports Rivals last month. But according to CVG, about 20 employees will soon be leaving Rare, which will lay the groundwork for a new “development process” at the company.
In a statement, Microsoft confirmed that changes are afoot at Rare:
At Xbox, our goal is to constantly create new fun, social and interactive entertainment experiences. As part of Rare’s commitment to this goal, we have made a decision to change our development process and methodology at Rare to best support our future projects, this has led to us reviewing the skills and the makeup of our development teams in our business. Rare continues to invest in our people and future projects.
While this statement doesn’t come right out and say that Rare is abandoning the Kinect (even though Microsoft has decided to begin selling the Xbox One without it), it does jive with Phil Spencer telling Official Xbox Magazine UK that Rare is still undecided on their next project:
“[Rare has] just come off the successful launch of Kinect Sports Rivals,” said Spencer. “I think I’ve heard a few times from people asking about Rare – they’re in the process of evaluating what they want to do next, and we’re working closely with them to see what their new project will be.”
But if they’re taking suggestions, might I suggest a Battletoads revival? The entire Warp Zoned staff seemed pretty excited about the possibility of playing as Zitz, Pimple, and Rash once more in Continue Countdown #3.
Continue Countdown #4 – Xbox One Ditches Kinect, Halo 5, Sunset Overdrive, More
Nicole Kline dominated everyone in this episode of “Continue Countdown.” You’ll hear plenty of her big opinions as she, and the rest of the Warp Zoned staff, sat down to discuss Microsoft’s decision to unbundle the Kinect sensor from the Xbox One, Sunset Overdrive‘s less-than-impressive initial trailer, and Halo 5‘s delay.
From there we moved on to the possibility that Wolfenstein: The New Order could spark a resurgence in Doom-style first person shooters (consensus: maybe), what Naughty Dog is working on next (consensus: probably something brand new), and whether or not Dragon Quest X will appeal to an overseas audience (consensus: probably not). The home stretch of this week’s episode asked what we’d like to see from Darksiders III and Rockstar’s next-generation project.
Finally, the episode concluded with the echoing cries of “Why?” as the “Continue Countdown” crew talked about 3D Realms’ Bombshell.
9 Topics… 30 Minutes… And Go!
Posted in Etcetera, PC, Podcast, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Bombshell, Darksiders III, Dragon Quest X, Halo 5: Guardians, Sunset Overdrive, Wolfenstein: The New Order
New Releases: Wolfenstein: The New Order, Drakengard 3, Mugen Souls Z, More
In Wolfenstein: The New Order, the Germans managed to win World War II through a combination of mechs and mutants. Now it’s up to William “B.J.” Blazkowicz to turn the tide and make this alternate 1960 a very Nazi-unfriendly place. Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by MachineGames and will be available for almost every current platform including the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
PS3-owning RPG fans will find a pair of interesting new games on store shelves next week as well. Square Enix will bring Drakengard 3 to Sony’s system while NIS America will release Mugen Souls Z.
Finally, a few re-releases round out next week’s batch of new games. First up, Grasshopper’s Killer Is Dead will make its way to the PC as Killer Is Dead: Nightmare Edition. Also next week, Nordic Games will re-release a few of the games they picked up from the THQ auction including the Darksiders Collection on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360; the Red Faction Collection for the PS3; and Red Faction Complete for the PC.
A complete list of next week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Drakengard 3, Mugen Souls Z, Wolfenstein: The New Order
Rumor: Halo: The Master Chief Collection will compile series on Xbox One this Fall
Did you think that Halo 2 Anniversary Edition rumor was a good idea? Well, check this out. In a new report published by Engadget, the technology blog is claiming that Microsoft will release a compilation of the four “main series” Halo games this Fall for the Xbox One. The bundle will be known as Halo: The Master Chief Collection and it’s said that it won’t include spinoff titles like Halo 3: ODST and Reach. Instead, we’ll be greeted to remastered and remade versions of the Master Chief’s four big adventures ahead of the release of Halo 5: Guardians in 2015. Engadget also notes that Saber Interactive, the developer behind Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for the Xbox 360, has an unannounced Xbox One project in the works.
It’s certainly interesting speculation and would go a long way towards filling up the Xbox One’s rather sparse Fall 2014 lineup. Microsoft has said that this year’s E3 Expo will be a “great” time for Halo fans and the announcement of a Master Chief Collection would certainly serve as an appropriate apology for Halo 5’s delay.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Gears of War 4 development is in the “prototype stage” at Black Tusk Studios
Development on Gears of War 4 (or whatever the next Gears of War game will be called) began when Microsoft purchased the rights to the franchise from Epic Games. But just how early in the development cycle is Black Tusk Studios? Studio Manager Rod Fergusson recorded the company’s first Live Podcast to tell us about it.
According to Ferguson, development on Gears of War 4 is in the “concept/prototype stage.” He further explained: “It’s only been 100 days. I can’t go into a lot of depth about a lot of things. This isn’t going to be the place where I announce the name of the next game and all these sorts of things. Obviously it’s going to take some time to get to a point where we can do some stuff like that.”
One takeaway from Fergusson’s first public address should be that Gears of War 4 likely won’t appear at this year’s E3 Expo in any capacity.
But he also sounded enthusiastic about the future of the franchise, saying that he’s a fan of the game’s universe, but that fun trumps lore established in books or comics: “I believe fun is greater than canon. That’s not to say I’m going out of my way to destroy canon, but if I get to a situation that may invalidate a comic book or a book, I’m going to make that fun decision.”
Part of this enthusiasm is due to the fact that most of the developers at Black Tusk have never developed a Gears game before. Fergusson is thrilled that they can bring a fresh eye to a franchise that is pretty set in its ways.
But the developer is also happy about Microsoft’s commitment to Gears, especially the monetary one: “We’re able to push a lot harder in a lot of bigger areas. The franchise can do a lot more now that Microsoft owns the IP; we can expand it’s breadth and do a lot more with it.”
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Gears of War 4
Microsoft reveals Halo 5: Guardians and confirms Fall 2015 release date
With this year’s E3 Expo just under a month away, Microsoft has officially re-announced the next Halo game. Halo 5: Guardians will be released exclusively for the Xbox One in Fall 2015, alongside the Steven Spielberg-produced Halo: The Television Series. This launch timeframe is technically a delay, as 343’s Bonnie Ross originally promised that our Halo journey would begin in 2014 during last year’s E3 Expo.
Apparently, we all misunderstood her meaning:
Many fans noted that I was very deliberate with my phrasing on stage at E3 last year. I spoke about a “journey,” rather than a destination – and that journey definitely begins in 2014 with a giant leap, rather than one small step. We’ll give you much more information about our plans for this year at the Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing on June 9, and we’re confident that Halo fans will be pretty excited about the special plans we have in store.
I’m not sure I believe that. But it is good to know we’ll learn more about Halo 5: Guardians, which is being built with a “brand new and more powerful” engine, during E3. Ross also stated that Halo 5 will be a bigger game, in terms of both content and scope, than Halo 4. The 343 team wants to take everything they learned in creating the Master Chief’s previous adventure, “technology, aesthetics, performance and scale,” and expand on it for Guardians.
As for Halo: The Television Series, it will stand alone, but it is also meant to “complement and enrich the game experience” of Halo 5. We may find out a bit more about it during this year’s E3 Expo, but we’ll most likely have to wait until closer to the show’s Fall 2015 debut.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2014, Halo 5: Guardians
TitanFall stomps the competition yet again as the best-selling game of April 2014
After selling 925,000 copies in March, TitanFall continued to roll over the competition at retail as the NPD Group crowned it the best-selling game of April 2014 as well.
The remainder of the top ten was made up almost entirely of games released last Fall including Call of Duty: Ghosts (#2), NBA 2K14 (#3), and Lego The Hobbit (#5). Amazingly, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition continues to hang out in the top five, landing at #4 for the month of April. That ranking may improve next month now that the retail version of Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition is available. And speaking of things that are amazing, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the only other April release to crack the top ten (it was #8).
Finally, according to Joystiq, Sony’s PlayStation 4 can lay claim to the next-generation consoles sales title for another month. That makes four in a row for the PS4.
The complete top ten list for April 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Lego The Hobbit, Minecraft, NBA 2K14, NPD, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, The Lego Movie, TitanFall