Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Meet the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025: Quake, GoldenEye 007, Defender, and Tamagotchi
- The BAFTA Games Awards Polled the Public and Shenmue is “The Most Influential Video Game of All Time”
- 2024 GOTY Scoreboard: Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, More
- The Strong Museum of Play Acquires Prototypes and Development Documents from Volition’s 30-Year History
- Minecraft’s Volume Alpha Soundtrack Has Been Added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Fight Club, The Game David Fincher Didn’t Want You To Play – Time Extension (2025)
- It’s beginning to feel like gaming isn’t for everyone – Digital Trends (2025)
- 22 years later, modders are keeping SimCity 4 alive – The Verge (2025)
- The B-movies of Paul W.S. Anderson double as acts of devotion to his muse, Milla Jovovich – The AV Club (2025)
- Breakout, Ripoff, Genre: How Fiction Outgrows Originality – Uncanny Magazine (2025)
Most Recent: Articles
Guns, Gore & Cannoli brings zombie-killing mobsters to Kickstarter
There are too many zombie games. You know it. I know it. Actual dead people know it. But there are still ways to make zombie games interesting. For example, you could do what Crazy Monkey Studios did and create a hand-drawn side-scrolling shooter where 1920s mobsters shoot zombies while spouting wiseguy catchphrases. To finance their project, Crazy Monkey has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Guns, Gore & Cannoli that concludes on November 17. They’re seeking $30,000 and, as of this writing, have currently collected a little under $800.
Need more convincing? The developer has also made a demo version available on the game’s official website and released this fantastic plot summary:
Welcome to Thugtown in the roaring twenties. A city run by two rival mafia families who skirmish over every inch of the city to distribute their illegal liquor. Meet Vinnie Cannoli, a hard-boiled gangster who comes to Thugtown to straighten a few things out. Vinnie is sent to a messed up city, looking for a “goodfella” who’s gone missing since the zombie-outbreak. Nothing that can’t be solved with a kind word with the local gangsters though. Especially when you’re packing a Tommy gun and a double barrel shotgun to be a little more persuasive. There’s only one thing that’s holding him back… Every friggin’ lowlife in the city turned into a flesh-eating maniac. This is survival horror, wiseguy style… Capiche?
If they reach their goal, Crazy Monkey plans to release Guns, Gore & Cannoli for the PC, PS4, Wii U, and Xbox One in early 2015.
Hyper Light Drifter Beta Impressions: How To Do A Beta the Right Way
Who doesn’t love the sweet, slick, retro style of Kickstarter darling Hyper Light Drifter? This 2D action RPG took the indie world by storm last year, ultimately collecting more than $640,000 from backers during its Kickstarter campaign. Watching the videos and seeing the magic unfold as developer Heart Machine met its goal, beat it, and then left it in the dust was a joyful experience. I got a chance to play Hyper Light Drifter at PAX East this year and the staff loved it so much we chose it for our PAXpocalpyse list. And now I’m getting the chance to play it early in my living room thanks to a backers-only beta. The PC beta was originally supposed to be available from October 3rd through the 5th, but after some “internal discussions, the team decided to extend the beta to the 31st. I couldn’t be happier, and I’ll admit – I’ve had a hard time putting it down. (more…)
Daily Scoop: October 20, 2014 – Huge Humble Bundle
I’m still feeling a bit under the weather, but a weekend on the couch with Anthony Amato and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was pretty awesome. We curled up with Wilhelm and Nisha and brought the law to some mangy scavs. It was awesome!
But let’s talk about the best deal of the day: the Humble Flash Bundle, which benefits Extra Life! Pay what you want for Potatoman Seeks the Troof, the closed beta for Trove, Defiance, Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut, a one-week closed beta key for Landmark, a 30-day subscription to Twitch Turbo, and a 30-day subscription to reddit gold. Pay $6 or more to unlock You Don’t Know Jack Classic Pack, King Arthur’s Gold, early access to Speedrunners, and Rift. Finally, pay $13 or more to unlock early access to Nom Nom Galaxy and four copies of King Arthur’s Gold (called the “Squad Pack”). That’s a LOT of games!
Steam has over 60 games that will be on sale in their Week-Long Deals, including Rock of Ages for $1.99, OTTTD for $6.59, and Crystals of Time for $0.99. Their Daily Deal is one I’ve been enjoying on the PlayStation 4, and that’s Road Not Taken, which is on sale for $7.49. It comes from the same company that made the adorable (and addictive) Triple Town, a developer called Spry Fox. Give them your money!
Finally, let’s check out some t-shirts!
Posted in Daily Scoop
US, European release of Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea planned for 2015
Koei Tecmo has confirmed that the third game in the “Dusk” sub-series of Atelier RPGs from Gust, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea, will be released for the PS3 in the US and Europe in 2015. The publisher wouldn’t get any more specific than that, but the previous two games in the series took about nine months to go from Japan to the west. If the pattern holds for Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea, so we should see it on store shelves sometime in April.
Here we confirm that Atelier Shallie is coming in 2015. You can buy the items at our @MCMExpo sales desk! #KTfamily pic.twitter.com/NrRy0WVbhL
— KOEI TECMO EUROPE (@koeitecmoeurope) October 20, 2014
Once its released, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea will be the 16th entry in the overarching Atelier series.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea
Activision releases CoD: Advanced Warfare launch trailer two weeks before its launch
Activision is not bound by your plebeian idea of a calendar with its rigid structure of months and days… they’ve got a new Call of Duty to sell. So if they want to release Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s “Launch Trailer” more than two weeks before its actual launch, then they can. This trailer, like all the others released for the game so far, opens with a snarling pronouncement from Jonathan Irons (Kevin Spacey), the head of Private Military Contractor that seems to be equal parts Tony Stark and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Advanced Warfare was developed by Sledgehammer Games and is the first game to be released as part of Activision’s new three-team development rotation. Treyarch will get their turn next year with Infinity Ward coming back around in 2016.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be released on November 4 for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Here’s a complete timeline of everything that’s happened in the Borderlands franchise so far
Some franchises produce a tangled timeline due to a gaggle of sequels, prequels, and side stories mingling with time travel, alternate realities, and cross-dimensional rifts.
Through three games, the storyline in Gearbox’s Borderlands franchise doesn’t do this. But the developer still felt the need to create an official timeline to map the major events of Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (which takes place between the first two games but is presented as a flashback from after Borderlands 2). With the official timeline in place, everyone will be on the same page ahead of the release of Tales From the Borderlands, which should launch before the end of the year.
You can find the timeline after the break, but beware, it contains quite a few spoilers from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Savage Goliath roars as a pre-order bonus for Evolve in new trailer
2K Games wants you to know that you’ll receive the Savage Goliath skin if you pre-order Evolve The “4v1” shooter will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 10 and you can catch a glimpse of the red-skinned brute in the brand new trailer above.
Pre-ordering Evolve will also unlock access (at launch) to an exclusive fourth Monster character as well as the upcoming “Big Alpha” test, which will begin on October 31 and run through November 2.
Weekly Warp-Up: Customer Appreciation Edition
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Senior Editor Nicole Kline is surely spending her lazy Sunday morning blasting away at the denizens of Pandora’s Moon in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. This is all thanks to a “Customer Appreciation Certificate” good for one free copy of the game that she was given during the Gearbox Panel at this year’s PAX East expo. But before she got to play, she had to deal with Gearbox’s less-than-stellar customer service team, who weren’t able to distribute the free game codes by the promised date. You can read all about her experience in Gearbox’s “Customer Appreciation” Debacle: A Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Non-Review.
Elsewhere on Warp Zoned this week, Dan Hobbs reviewed Pure Pool, a game simulation of the sport of pool. Yes, it sure is.
Finally this week, scores for the first two games in our Video Game Fantasy League have been locked in. After one month on the market, Destiny achieved a rating of 76 on Metacritic while Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Curtain Call scored an 82. So right now, the standings look like this…
1. Nicole Kline (82)
2. John Scalzo (76)
3. Allen Jenkins (–)
3. Andrew Rainnie (–)
3. Mike Ryan (–)
Looking for more news? Then I suggest you look for it after the break. (more…)
Posted in News