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
The Games of December 2017
A complete look at the games scheduled to launch in December can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Features
Soma, Hand of Fate 2, Sky Force Reloaded, more added to Xbox Store
Xbox One owners will be in for a scare this weekend, and that’s because Frictional Games has brought their terrifying adventure game, Soma, to the platform as part of today’s Xbox Games Store update.
It’ll be joined by Defiant’s board game/dungeon crawler hybrid, Hand of Fate 2; Infinite Dreams’s overhead shooter, Sky Force Reloaded; and a few other new releases.
You can learn more about all of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store after the break. (more…)
Jak II, Jak 3, and Jak X: Combat Racing will be available to download for PS4 beginning next week
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy made its PS4 debut under the PS2 Classics banner on August 22. Today, Sony announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that the next three games in the franchise (Jak II, Jak 3, and Jak X: Combat Racing) will be available to download for the PS4 (individually or as a three-game bundle) on December 6.
Originally developed by Naughty Dog, all three games will receive the full PS2 Classics treatment (including visuals up-rendered to 1080p and full Trophy support) for their re-release on the PS4. However, the online multiplayer that was originally present in Jak X: Combat Racing won’t be operational on the PS4.
A new trailer for Jak II, Jak 3, and Jak X: Combat Racing has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Jak and Daxter Collection
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Serial Cleaner, Syberia 2, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
There’s one more big game coming to the Switch this year… and Nintendo’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be available to download beginning tomorrow. The epic RPG closes out a huge first year for Nintendo’s newest console, and fans of the franchise can’t wait to explore the strange land of Alrest.
Other Switch games available to download this week include Serial Cleaner, a 70s-set crime scene cleanup simulator; Syberia 2, a Switch re-release of the classic adventure game; and Nine Parchments, a spellcasting action game from Frozenbyte.
You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including a few Wii U games) after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Serial Cleaner, Switch, Wii U, Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Super Mario Cereal is coming… and it includes an Amiibo powerup for Super Mario Odyssey
Nintendo is teaming up with Kellogg’s to create Super Mario Cereal, a new “mixed berry cereal” that also includes Mario-themed marshmallows. The “limited edition” cereal will start appearing in stores sometime around December 11.
Super Mario Odyssey fans will be particularly interested in this cereal, as each box will include an Amiibo Card that unlocks bonus Coins and Hearts in the game.
“This powered-up partnership with Kellogg’s is another exciting way for us to expand the Nintendo brand in unique and creative ways,” said Tom Prata, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. “We are always looking for new opportunities to bring smiles to people of all ages, and this is a fun way to kick off the day.”
“We are thrilled to pack so much fun into one box of cereal,” said Brad Schwan, the Senior Director of Morning Foods Marketing. “The package adds value and excitement for fans, with marshmallow shapes in the cereal inspired by Super Mario power-ups to tie the theme together.”
If you’re over 30, there’s a good chance you remember the first time Nintendo has got into the cereal business. In 1986, the consolemaker partnered with Ralston to produce the Nintendo Cereal System, which was actually two cereals in one box. After opening the top, fans found Mario-themed fruit pieces in one bag, and Zelda-themed berry pieces in another. I quite enjoyed it as a kid, and unopened boxes even appear on eBay from time to time.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Super Mario Odyssey
First gameplay trailer for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’s “Desert” map will be unveiled during The Game Awards
The 2017 Game Awards, hosted by Geoff Keighley, are just a week away. While we already got a glimpse at this year’s nominees, the elusive lineup of “World Premiere” trailers has remained a mystery.
But yesterday, Keighley confirmed that the first gameplay trailer of the “Desert” map from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will be unveiled during the Game Awards ceremony on Thursday, December 7.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was nominated for “Game of the Year” at this year’s Game Awards, as well as “Best Ongoing Game” and “Best Multiplayer.” Considering the way it has captured a huge proportion of Steam’s userbase, a win in any of these three categories wouldn’t be a surprise.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Game Awards 2017, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Bush League Hockey, Black Mirror, Outcast: Second Contact added to Xbox Store
A trio of new Xbox One games are now available to download from the Xbox Games Store.
First up is Bush League Hockey, an arcade-style hockey game that was previously released for the PC and PS4 this past Spring as Old Time Hockey. Also available to download now is Black Mirror, a spooky adventure story inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft, and Outcast: Second Contact, a remake of one of the earliest open world games.
You can learn more about all three titles after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Old Time Hockey
45 years ago today… Atari delivered and installed the first Pong arcade cabinets
November 29 is a momentous day in video game history.
It was on this day in 1972 that the founders of Atari (Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney, and Al Alcorn) delivered and installed the very first Pong arcade cabinets. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of this world-changing event, the company currently known as Atari has declared today to be “Pong Day.”
The Atari of 2017 is very different from the Atari of 1972, but both companies are still obsessed with Pong. Today’s Atari has even partnered with a group of engineers and artists to create Table Pong, a coffee table that also doubles as a real-life recreation of the classic arcade game:
Table Pong [is] an oversized Pong game embedded in a stylish coffee table, perfect for the home or arcade. Amazingly, it has no screens or digital software; instead, the game is recreated in three dimensions with motors, rails, pulleys and magnets to perfectly simulate the game’s familiar 2D movements.
Developed as a tribute to Generation X and its most iconic video game, Table Pong lets players experience the Atari Pong game on a whole new dimension that fuses the high-tech mechanical engineering of today with the beloved ‘80s game. The table easily transforms from a true-to-life mechanical game of Pong to a stylish living room accessory that features four USB charging ports, as well as a Bluetooth speaker so you can enjoy your favorite music while you play.
Table Pong will be available sometime in Early 2018, and you can learn more about the project at TablePongProject.com.
If you’d like to further explore the history of Pong, our Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time series includes an essay about the game’s creation, and you can also point your browser at Atari.com to play a few rounds in your browser.