Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game 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
Activision will reveal Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s “Multiplayer Universe” on August 1
Activision and Infinity Ward have announced that fans will get their first glimpse at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s brand new “Multiplayer Universe” on August 1. Fans are encouraged to tune in to Call of Duty’s official Twitch channel for the full reveal:
As players enlist in the heart-racing Modern Warfare story, multiplayer continues the experience as players head online into the ultimate playground for the global balance of power. Featuring unified progression across modes, Modern Warfare seeks to unite the community with plans to support cross-play across platforms and the removal of the traditional season pass in order to deliver a greater mix of more free maps, content, and community events post-launch.
In the meantime, the publisher has unveiled one piece of Modern Warfare’s new online muliplayer experience, the 2v2 Gunfight Mode, on their Activision Games Blog. Gunfight is a made scramble that features 40-second rounds which take place on a series of “custom-made [and] confined” maps. A duo is victorious after securing six wins, and Activision has described the mode as very similar to “a fighting game with armaments and set in the Call of Duty universe.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 25.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Blazing Chrome’s Launch Trailer includes one last blast of the game’s Contra-inspired visuals
The Arcade Crew and JoyMasher have finally put all the finishing touches on Blazing Chrome, and the two companies launched the side-scrolling shooter for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One earlier today. They also delivered a retro-tastic Launch Trailer for the game, which was inspired by Contra and Metal Slug, that includes a very era-appropriate live-action intro:
The Arcade Crew has released a fittingly retro gameplay trailer celebrating humanity’s uprising to properly introduce the resistance’s two leading warriors; Marva, a resilient soldier who’s here to chew bubblegum while kicking ass, and Doyle, a robot who’s had a deadly change of heart.
With a varied arsenal of distinctive weapons, badass pilotable mechs and vehicles, and unlockable characters to help curb the AI army’s ruthless oppression, Blazing Chrome plays the way you remember classic action games feeling. JoyMasher’s modern refinements to that satisfying shoot-em-up playstyle will make scrapping hordes of mechanized foes and skyscraper-sized bosses feel as comfortable as getting back on that hoverbike you haven’t rode in years.
Blazing Chrome is now available to download, but it’ll also be available this Fall as a physical release from Limited Run Games for the PS4 and Switch.
Nintendo will launch handheld-only Switch Lite on September 20
Analysts and fans alike have been waiting for a handheld-focused “Switch Mini” (and the death of the 3DS) ever since the launch of Nintendo’s newest console back in 2017. With the 3DS being put out to pasture earlier this year, Nintendo finally made good on the other half of that equation with the announcement of the Switch Lite.
Set to be released on September 20, the Switch Lite will be available in stores for $199.99 in three different colors (Yellow, Turquoise, and Gray). To reach this lower price, Nintendo crafted the Switch Lite as a system that can only be played in Handheld Mode. It features integrated controls, a smaller 5.5″ touchscreen, no HD Rumble, and no support for the Switch Dock.
Nintendo also managed to make some improvements to the platform with the Switch Lite. The handheld will be lighter (just 10 ounces) and with a better battery life (up to seven hours, according to Nintendo). By ditching the Joy-Cons, Nintendo was also able to add a real D-Pad to the left side of the Switch Lite. That said, if you’ve got a pair of Joy-Cons lying around, the Switch Lite will be compatible with the two-fisted controllers for games that can be played in Tabletop Mode (but beware, the Switch Lite won’t have a kickstand).
“Adding Nintendo Switch Lite to the lineup gives gamers more color and price point options,” said Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser. “Now consumers can choose the system that best suits how they like to play their favorite Nintendo Switch games.”
Pokemon fans interested in upgrading to the Switch Lite might want to wait until November 8, which is when Nintendo will launch a special “Zacian and Zamazenta Edition” of the handheld alongside Pokemon Sword and Shield.
You can learn more about the Switch Lite via Nintendo’s official website or by viewing the First Look video embedded above.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Pokemon Switch
Splatoon-themed Tetris 99 Maximus Cup is coming this weekend
Nintendo will host the fifth Maximus Cup for Tetris 99 players this weekend, and high-scoring participants will be able to unlock a colorful Splatoon Theme for the online puzzler. Created to celebrate Splatoon 2‘s upcoming “Final Splatfest,” the theme is dripping with ink and it even deploys the distinctive Splatoon font for in-game text.
The Splatoon-themed Maximus Cup will begin on Friday, July 12, at 3:00 AM (Eastern Time) and run for a full four days, concluding on Tuesday, July 16, at 3:00 AM (also Eastern Time). Players can expect to see the same point scale from previous Cups, and they’ll need 100 points to unlock the Splatoon Theme. Each win is worth 100 points, but participants can also nab precious points for 2nd Place (50), 3rd Place (30), 4th-10th range (20), 11th–30th (10), 31st–50th (5), and 51st–80th (2).
As always, you must be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber to compete in Tetris 99’s Maximus Cup events.
Netflix teams up with Studio MDHR to produce The Cuphead Show!
Chad and Jared Moldenhauer poured their hearts and souls into the development of Studio MDHR’s debut title, Cuphead. In the works for more than seven years, the brothers parlayed their love of 1930s animation and the gameplay stylings of Contra III: The Alien Wars to create a platform shooter for the ages.
Now, Netflix has signed on to adapt the game into a new animated series known as The Cuphead Show! The series will follow the adventures of Cuphead and Mugman throughout Inkwell Isles and, naturally, it’ll employ “an animation style inspired by the classic Fleischer cartoons from the 1930s”:
The game that has won the hearts and minds of fans with its gorgeous retro hand-animated style, crazy boss-brawls, and challenging gameplay will come to life on television for the first time ever in The Cuphead Show! The new series will expand on the characters and world of Cuphead, with an animation style inspired by the classic Fleischer cartoons from the 1930s.
The character-driven comedy follows the unique misadventures of the impulsive Cuphead and his cautious but easily swayed brother Mugman. Through their many misadventures across their surreal home of the Inkwell Isles, they’ve always got one another’s backs.
We don’t know when the first episodes from The Cuphead Show! will be available to stream through Netflix, but hopefully it’s pretty soon.
Nintendo Brought the Demo Back and I Am Thrilled
The humble game demo has been on a steady decline since the PS4 and Xbox One debuted back in 2013, pushed out of the spotlight in favor of pre-release beta tests and free weekends for older titles. But it looks like one consolemaker didn’t get the memo, as Nintendo has been doing their best to bring the demo back. And I for one couldn’t be happier. (more…)
Level-5’s Hino Yoshihiro confirms that multiple Ni No Kuni games are currently in development
Hino Yoshihiro, the President of Level-5, recently sat down for an interview with Japanese newspaper Nikkei, and he had a few things to say about the future of the Ni No Kuni franchise.
Yoshihiro told the newspaper that he wants to release multiple new games in the series after the animated film adaptation, which will be released in Japan in August. The developer will start this ambitious plan right away with the launch of a Remastered version of Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch for the PC, PS4, and Switch in September.
After that, Yoshihiro said he would like to take “a new approach” with future installments in the franchise (all but confirming Ni No Kuni 3), while also adding that Ni No Kuni games will also continue to be associated with smartphones.
Aside from Wrath of the White Witch Remastered, nothing is known about most of the new Ni No Kuni games in development, and it’s possible it could be a very long time before we learn more.
USA Network has ordered a Masters of Doom adaptation produced by James Franco
David Kushner originally published Masters of Doom back in 2003, and the book-length exploration of id Software’s early days became an instant hit with readers everywhere (it even spawned a quasi-sequel in 2012 with Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto). And now, more than 15 years later, Variety is reporting that the USA Network is looking to adapt the story as part of a new anthology series focused on video game history:
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart.
As of right now, no one has agreed to play Romero or Carmack, but we do know that James Franco will executive produce the series with his brother Dave. Both siblings worked on The Disaster Artist with writer Tom Bissell, and the three will be teaming up again for Masters of Doom. Bissell, who also wrote the book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, will serve as a writer and executive producer on the show.
USA Network wants to create a pilot for Masters of Doom before agreeing to air the series, but hopefully the story of gaming’s two most famous Johns will come to television sometime soon.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC
Tagged Doom (1993)