Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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)
Author: John Scalzo
UK-developed Hellblade leads the way at 2018 BAFTA Games Awards with 9 nominations
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was developed in the United Kingdom at Ninja Theory, and this hometown advantage helped it lead the way with nine nominations at the 2018 BAFTA Games Awards.
With so many nominations, it’s no surprise that Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is up for “Best Game,” and it’ll be competing against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Origins, Guerrilla’s Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey, and Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch.
The BAFTA Games Awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 12, and hosting duties will once again be handled by comedian Dara O’Briain. If you weren’t able to score a ticket to the big show, you’ll still be able to livestream the entire ceremony through BAFTA.org and several other streaming platforms.
The complete list of nominees in all categories can be found after the break. (more…)
Geralt of Rivia officially joins the fight in Soul Calibur VI
Bandai Namco has announced that Geralt of Rivia, the “White Wolf” from The Witcher franchise, will join Soul Calibur VI. In addition to the brand new trailer embedded above, Dalton Link, the publisher’s Community Manager, teased Geralt’s inclusion in Soul Calibur VI on the PlayStation Blog this morning:
Wielding his signature steel and silver swords, Geralt is prepared to take on any opponent (man or monster) who dares cross his path. Both witcher swords are made of the finest quality alloys and precisely crafted to suit the needs of their wielder. While we don’t yet know why Geralt has entered another dimension, he was able to bring his weapons with him on the journey. The world he now finds himself in is filled with new foes and plenty of opportunities to fight!
On top of his swords, Geralt enters the ring armed with powerful Signs. From Aard to Igni, Geralt has the ability to unleash the devastating effects of Signs during one-on-one combat. Each Sign provides a different strategic opportunity to best your opponent or start powerful combos.
The Soul Calibur series famously started the guest character trend back in 2003 with the inclusion of Heihachi Mishima, Spawn, and Link in Soul Calibur II. A trio of Star Wars characters (Yoda, Darth Vader, and Starkiller) invaded Soul Calibur IV in 2008. And Ezio Auditore brought his Assassin’s skills to Soul Calibur V in 2012.
Soul Calibur VI will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2018.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Soul Calibur VI
Square Enix will launch Shadow of the Tomb Raider for the PC, PS4, Xbox One on Sept. 14
As expected, Square Enix has announced that Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on September 14. A short teaser trailer, embedded above, also gave us our first look at Lara’s next destination… the Mayan Pyramids of Central America.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is being jointly developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, and according to its official website, we’ll learn more about the game during a “Reveal Event” on April 27. Fans can also expect some kind of puzzle-based contest (with a developer meet-and-greet as a prize) to begin this Monday, March 19.
And don’t forget, the newest Tomb Raider movie, starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, opens in theaters today.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Devil May Cry HD Collection, more added to Xbox Store
Microsoft added a handful of new Xbox One games to the Xbox Games Store today, but the biggest “new” launch might just be Capcom’s re-release of the Devil May Cry HD Collection.
The HD Collection was originally made available for the Xbox 360 in 2012, and it bundles together Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, and Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition into a single package. Players will be able to take control of Dante and “stylishly” dispatch demons across the franchise’s first three games at 1080p/60FPS.
You can learn more about the rest of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store (including Q.U.B.E. 2, Beast Quest, Pure Farming 2018, and others) after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
The Arcade Crew will publish Joymasher’s side-scrolling shooter Blazing Chrome this year
Brazilian developer Joymasher will team up with The Arcade Crew, a new publishing label from DotEmu, to release Blazing Chrome, a side-scrolling shooter with a look and feel inspired by several classics of the genre (such as Contra III: The Alien Wars, Conra: Hard Corps, and Metal Slug):
In Blazing Chrome, militant AI-fueled computers rule the Earth while humans are expendable, lacking power, prestige or status among their machine overlords. Choose to play as Mavra, a super badass human resistance soldier, or Doyle, the equally groovy and deadly insurgent robot. When a small group of rebels decide to overthrow their oppressors, it results in heavy casualties and a ton of lock-and-load fast-paced action where scrapping robots and blazing chrome with your powerful weapons is the only thing standing between you and your freedom.
The Arcade Crew and Joymasher will bring a playable demo of Blazing Chrome to this year’s Game Developers Conference (March 19-23) and PAX East (April 5-8). For the rest of us, a brand new Announcement Trailer, which has been embedded above, will have to suffice.
Blazing Chrome is currently in development for the PC, and will be available sometime this year.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Blazing Chrome, GDC 2018, PAX East 2018
The 25th Ward: The Silver Case, Tesla Vs Lovecraft, Surviving Mars, more coming to PS Store this week
Sony added another big batch of new games to the PlayStation Store, and fans of the PS3’s heyday should be on the lookout for two big re-releases.
But first, NIS America and Goichi “Suda51” Suda will bring The 25th Ward: The Silver Case to the PS4 in an updated edition. Originally released for mobile phones, and only in Japan, the game’s PS4 debut is also the first time it’ll be available in North America.
Nikola Tesla famously feuded with Thomas Edison, but the inventor will tangle with a very different foe in Tesla Vs Lovecraft. Developed by 10Tons, the PS4 game is a top-down twin-stick shooter that asks players to jump in a mech and do battle with the “inhuman minions” from H.P. Lovecraft’s stories.
Also this week, Paradox Interactive and Haemimont Games will bring Surviving Mars to the PS4. The city-building simulation transports the action to the Red Planet and asks players to build a colony habitable for human life.
Finally this week, two PS3 classics will be enhanced for a PS4 re-release. Electronic Arts will bring back the wide-open racing of Burnout Paradise Remastered, and Capcom will package together the first three games from the Devil May Cry franchise for a Devil May Cry HD Collection.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Burnout Paradise, Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
Square Enix is counting down to a reveal of Shadow of the Tomb Raider on March 15
Back in December, Square Enix announced that a new game in the Tomb Raider franchise was in development at Crystal Dynamics, and a promise that we’d learn more about it this year. Today, they’ve updated the game’s official website with a countdown that’s set to expire on Thursday, March 15, at 9:00 AM (Eastern Time).
However, that’s not all Square Enix did. Digging in to the site’s source code, you can find the game’s final title (Shadow of the Tomb Raider), an announcement date for “pre-order incentives” (April 27, 2018), a tagline (“Shadow of The Tomb Raider is the climatic finale of Lara’s origin story.”), and the release date (September 14, 2018).
Whoops doesn’t seem to cover it… but we’ll probably get a nice trailer once the countdown clock reaches zero tomorrow.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Shadow of the Tomb Raider
USC and SMU once again top Princeton Review’s ranking of Game Design programs
It’s a pair of repeats for the schools at the top of the Princeton Review‘s latest ranking of Game Design programs. The University of Southern California notched its second year as the top school for undergraduate programs, while Southern Methodist University held onto its place as the highest-ranked school for graduate programs.
“Game design is an exciting field and for students aspiring to work in this field, the schools on our list offer extraordinary opportunities to launch a career in this industry, said Editor-In-Chief Robert Franek, staying on theme with a nearly word-for-word repeat of last year’s statement. “We want to help students find the best program for their needs and interests. The top schools on our lists have outstanding faculties and great facilities which will give students the skills and experience they need to pursue a career in this dynamic and burgeoning field.
You can find the Princeton Review’s full ranking of Game Design programs for 2018 after the break. (more…)