Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
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
NY Court dismisses Lindsay Lohan’s lawsuit against Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto V
Hey, remember when Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games for using her image without permission in Grand Theft Auto V? I’m going to be honest with you, I completely forgot it was still an open case. Apparently, the gears of justice grind slowly, but last week, the Supreme Court of New York County dismissed Lohan’s case.
According to the Court Report, Lohan’s claim was dismissed because Rockstar did not use her name or likeness in Grand Theft Auto V. While Lohan believes that Rockstar stole her “signature style” for the bikini model featured in most of the game’s advertisements, the Court ruled otherwise.
However, the Court also said that even if Rockstar had based the character on Lohan, her claim would still be dismissed because Rockstar’s authorship of Grand Theft Auto V is protected under the First Amendment as “a work of fiction and satire.”
The Court also dismissed a similar lawsuit from Karen Gravano last week. Gravano, the daughter of famed mafia underboss Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, claimed that Rockstar illegally based the character of Andrea Bottino on her. While both women share a past entwined with the Sicilian Mafia and reality TV, like Lohan’s suit, the Court ruled that even if Rockstar had based the character on Gravano, they were protected by the First Amendment.
While this sounds like a pretty definitive end to two rather frivolous lawsuits, this might not be over for Rockstar. Both Lohan and Gravano have the ability to appeal the ruling and will likely do so.
Mortal Kombat XL will be available for PC on October 4
WB Games and NetherRealm Studios have announced that Mortal Kombat XL (and Kombat Pack 2) will be released for the PC on October 4.
Available for the PS4 and Xbox One since March, Mortal Kombat XL expands Mortal Kombat X with four new characters (The Xenomorph from Alien, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tri-Borg, and Bo Rai Cho), the Apocalypse Skin Pack, and all the previously released downloadable content that was part of the first Kombat Pack.
Like Mortal Kombat X’s original release, Mortal Kombat XL and the Kombat Pack 2 content will be ported to the PC by Qloc.
NetherRealm also plans to issue a free update for Mortal Kombat X on October 4, which will give players access to “all of the latest balance updates as well as the enhanced online experience, that was available in the recent beta test for the game.”
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Mortal Kombat X
Mario Sports Superstars takes up baseball, golf, tennis, horse racing, soccer on the 3DS in Spring 2017
Labor Day is the unofficial end of Summer, so today might be your last chance to wolf down some barbecue or choose sides for a friendly baseball game. Thankfully, it’s always Summer for Mario and friends, and they’re getting ready to take up baseball, golf, tennis, horse racing, and soccer in Mario Sports Superstars.
Set to be released for the 3DS in Spring 2017, Mario Sports Superstars will include a single-player Tournament Mode for all five sports, along with local and online multiplayer play. Its first trailer, which debuted during last week’s Nintendo Direct presentation, has been embedded above.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Mario Sports Superstars
Pikmin For Nintendo 3DS will launch in 2017
Captain Olimar and the Pikmin will make their 3DS debut next year in Pikmin For Nintendo 3DS (working title), a side-scrolling adventure that’s also full of action:
A new side-scrolling Pikmin adventure game unlike Pikmin games of the past is coming to Nintendo 3DS. Pikmin follow Olimar around, and players tap the touch screen where they want to throw them. This is designed as an action game that makes players think fast and use every Pikmin to overcome anything that stands in their way.
Famed developer Shigeru Miyamoto previously revealed that Pikmin 4, a rather mysterious sequel for the Wii U, is also in the works. However, Nintendo has yet to officially announce Pikmin 4, and it’s entirely possible the next adventure starring the helpful creatures was transformed into Pikmin For Nintendo 3DS.
But while I’m speculating, maybe Pikmin 4 got moved to the Nintendo NX. Stranger things have happened…
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Pikmin For Nintendo 3DS
Yoshi’s Woolly World will be released on the 3DS as Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World in February 2017
In case you missed it, Nintendo unveiled a ton of new 3DS titles during last week’s Nintendo Direct presentation. That includes Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World, a 3DS adaptation of the yarn-based Wii U platformer.
Containing every stage from the Wii U original, Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World will also include new stages starring Poochy, and a pack of Poochy Pups that’ll help Yoshi discover secrets. A Poochy Amiibo figure is also in the works, and 30 stop-motion shorts starring Yoshi and Poochy will be included on the game cartridge.
That is a lot of bonus material, and it’ll all be available in Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World when it launches on February 3, 2017.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Yoshi's Woolly World
Bplus announces Tank It! for Nintendo’s NX and the PC
Even though we are roughly six months away from the launch of the NX, Nintendo has confirmed exactly two pieces of information about their next console… 1) It exists, and 2) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released sometime next year.
Thankfully, third partiy publishers are going ahead and announcing their NX projects anyway. Case in point, Austrian developer Bplus recently announced that they’ll bring their next game, Tank It!, to the NX in 2017. Described as a “war simulation game” with an “anti-war” message, Bplus also plans to release Tank It! for the PC in 2016:
Tank it! is a realistic and bloody war simulation game designed to show how brutal and dangerous war really is… that it is no good… that countless civilians are killed as collateral damage.
In Tank it! you command a drone to remotely control a heavy tank. You receive the mission to travel to remote villages, find and destroy the target military camps and eliminate all terrorists. But as in real life, there are many civilians in the villages, as well. The terrorists and civilians alike are at the player’s mercy. It is up to the player alone to decide how to handle this mission.
Bplus has previously developed a number of games for Nintendo’s eShop service including Bit Boy!! (2009) and Bit Boy!! Arcade (2014).
Run the Jewels debuts “Panther Like A Panther” in Gears of War 4’s Horde 3.0 trailer
Horde Mode took the world by storm in 2009 after its debut in Gears of War 2, and The Coalition has big plans for the evolution of the co-operative survival mode in Gears of War 4. Officially known as Horde 3.0, the developer wants to give players the chance to deploy unique classes and buildable fortifications as they fight for survival against “50 Waves of Chaos.”
Here’s what they had to say about Horde 3.0 on the Xbox Wire:
In addition to ferocious new classes of enemies like the Swarm and the DeeBees, Horde 3.0 also introduces new innovations like a class-based system that lets you choose from five variations in roles – Soldier, Sniper, Scout, Heavy and Engineer – to play to your strengths and encourage teamwork. In addition, the new “Fabricator” is a deployable base of operations that allows players to build their defenses anywhere on the map and execute their defensive strategy with precision.
The Horde 3.0 trailer is also notable for its soundtrack, which features the debut of “Panther Like A Panther,” the first track from Run the Jewels’s upcoming album, Run the Jewels 3. The duo’s collaboration with The Coalition won’t end there either. Both Killer Mike and El-P will be available as playable characters in all of Gears of War 4’s multiplayer modes.
If you’re in Seattle for this weekend’s PAX West expo, you can try out Gears of War 4 (and Horde 3.0) at the Microsoft booth right now. The rest of us will have to wait until October 11, which is when Gears of War 4 will be available in stores for the PC and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Gears of War 4, PAX West 2016
Nearly complete game list for the Retro-Bit Generations microconsole announced
The Retro-Bit Generations microconsole was originally announced last month, and at the time, the HDMI-compatible device was expected to include more than 100 built-in games. Earlier this week, Innex Inc updated the microconsole’s official website and confirmed 97 of those titles with “more to be announced.”
With support from Capcom, Data East, Jaleco, and Irem, the list below includes a lot of 8-bit and 16-bit classics that were previously available on the NES, Super NEs, and Genesis. But there’s also more than a few titles that’ll surely leave you shaking your head.
The Retro-Bit Generations will launch sometime this Fall, and be available for a suggested retail price of $59.99:
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