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
Xbox Store Today: Wondershot
It’s time for yet another Xbox Games Store update as Wondershot is now available to download for the Xbox One. The overhead arena battler is a very crowded genre on the digital storefront, but Wondershot’s unique hook is that players are only given a single shot during battles. So if you miss with your arrow or boomerang or slingshot, you’ll have to go get it and try again. Good luck.
More information about Wondershot can be found at the Xbox Games Store or right here:
Xbox One Games
Wondershot ($12.99)
Wondershot is a local multiplayer battle arena! You have only one ammo and one life to defeat your opponent. If you miss your shot, your ammo will be lost on the map and you need to pick it up without dying. You can play one to four players. Each round, your weapon changes and the map does too.
Smite will be available for PS4 soon; Closed Beta begins in March
Hi-Rez Studios has announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that Smite, their popular PC and Xbox One MOBA, will soon be available for the PS4. Closed Alpha testing began today, and a Closed Beta will begin in early March. Players interested in joining the Closed Beta should head over to Smite’s official website for a chance to receive a beta key.
The PS4 version of Smite will include five free gods (Ymir, Thor, Neith, Guan Yu, and Ra), and any gods available in the free rotation. Currently, the game includes “more than 70 playable gods and mythological creatures from eight different pantheons around the world,” and they will all be unlockable with enough Favor (in-game currency) or Gems (real money). Smite devotees on the PS4 will also be able to receive a number of exclusive character skins such as…
- Link your PS4 account to your PC account to receive a “Worlds Collide” skin for Norse god Odin.
- All PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive a “KuKu4” skin for the Mayan snake deity Kulkulkan skin.
- And if you purchase the PS4 Founder’s Pack, you’ll receive a “C4codemon” skin for Norse god Ymir.
The Smite Founder’s Pack will be available for $29.99 after the Closed Beta begins and it’ll include 400 Gems and a “Soldier of Fortune” skin for Ares.
Let Nintendo help you decide which version of Fire Emblem Fates to buy with this chart
Fire Emblem Fates is now available on store shelves and the 3DS eShop, but it’s understandable if you still haven’t decided between Birthright or Conquest.
The story in Fire Emblem Fates will veer off in widely different directions depending upon which half of the story you play. Selecting Birthright will align your character with the Hoshido and pit you against the corrupted King of Nohr beside a family of strangers. But if you pick Conquest, you’ll side with your adoptive homeland and struggle to change it from within.
I’m sure Nintendo would prefer it if you purchased both sides to the story, but the consolemaker is realistic enough to realize that most players will make a choice when confronted with Birthright and Conquest. They even produced this handy flowchart to ensure that players make the most informed decision possible:
Can’t decide between #FireEmblemFates Birthright and Conquest? This flowchart might help…https://t.co/IBEubpwBRa pic.twitter.com/VhhcXkBdNE
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 17, 2016
Whichever path you choose, the other will always open to you as a downloadable expansion available through the 3DS eShop. And a third scenario, Revelation, will be released on March 10.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright/Conquest
Fallout 4 wins “Game of the Year” at 2016 DICE Awards
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences held their annual DICE Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 emerged from The Vault to take home “Game of the Year” honors. The expansive open world RPG also won in two other categories, “Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.” However, it wasn’t a sweep for the post-apocalyptic adventure.
A trio of other games took home three awards last night including Moon Studios’s Ori and the Blind Forest (“Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” “Outstanding Achievement in Animation,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction”), Psyonix’s Rocket League (“Sports Game of the Year,” “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay,” and the “DICE Spirit Award”), and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design,” “Outstanding Achievement in Story,” and “Outstanding Technical Achievement”).
While the ceremony featured plenty of revelry and merriment, last night’s DICE Awards were also a bittersweet affair as Satoru Iwata was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished business leadership of Nintendo. And Hideo Kojima, who recently parted ways with Konami after more than three decades with the company, was named to the AIAS’s Hall of Fame.
A complete list of this year’s winners (which also includes Super Mario Maker, Mortal Kombat X, Star Wars: Battlefront, and many more) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Fallout 4, Forza Motorsport 6, Helldivers, Heroes of the Storm, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mortal Kombat X, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Star Wars: Battlefront, Super Mario Maker, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CoD: Black Ops III Awakening Pack will be available for PC, Xbox One on March 3
Activision and Treyarch have announced (via Twitter) that PC and Xbox One owners will be able to download the Awakening Pack, the first expansion for Call of Duty: Black Ops III, on Thursday, March 3.
The Awakening Pack will include four new multiplayer maps (“Skyjacked,” “Splash,” “Gauntlet,” and “Rise”), as well as a brand new entry in the ongoing Zombies saga (“Der Eisendrache”). Players will be able to purchase the Awakening Pack as part of Black Ops III’s Season Pass (priced at $49.99) or as a standalone download (priced at $15).
The expansion has been available to download for the PS4 since February 2.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Nintendo Download: Fire Emblem Fates, Project X Zone 2, Ninja Gaiden II, Ninja Gaiden III, more
It’s been a long time coming, but Nintendo’s epic strategy game, Fire Emblem Fates, will be available to download through the 3DS eShop beginning tomorrow. Fire Emblem Fates is all about choice and players will actually have to choose between two halves of the game… they can side with their family in Birthright or fight with their friends in Conquest. Regardless of which choice you make, players will have the chance to download the other scenario through the eShop, and a third scenario will even be available in March.
If you’re looking for a different kind of epic strategy game, Bandai Namco plans to release Project X Zone 2 through the 3DS eShop this week as well. Characters from games published by Bandai Namco, Capcom, Sega, and Nintendo will battle it out in a dimension-hopping game where the fate of the entire multiverse is at stake. No pressure.
Speaking of “no pressure,” three of the hardest games ever to grace the NES are now available to download through the Wii U eShop. In Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, Ryu Hayabusa completes his journey on the NES by challenging the Emperor of Darkness and a cybernetic army bent on taking over the world. Also available this week is Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones, the final NES adventure starring the Jimmy and Billy Lee.
More information on all of these games (as well as a few other new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright/Conquest, Project X Zone 2
Tales From the Borderlands will get a retail disc release on April 26
Telltale and Gearbox have announced that all five episodes of Tales From the Borderlands will receive a retail disc release this Spring:
For those of you who’ve yet to play the critically acclaimed Tales from the Borderlands – you’re in luck! Gearbox Software, Telltale Games, 2K, and The Hyperion Corporation are bringing the whole game – all five glorious episodes – to a shiny disc format you can buy in stores!
Play across Pandora in the aftermath of Borderlands 2 as corporate-climbing Rhys – who dreams of becoming the next Handsome Jack or as Fiona, a small time grifter going after the big score.
Tales From the Borderlands will be available in stores for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 26.
Threes creator announces Guildlings, a fantasy adventure for mobile devices
Asher Vollmer was on top of the world in 2014 after he released Threes for mobile devices. The fiendish puzzler was an instant hit, and it allowed Vollmer to found Sirvo Studios last year with Ryan Sullivan and Jamie Antonisse. Today, the trio revealed their first project, a fantasy adventure game for mobile devices known as Guildlings.
Set to launch in 2017, Guildlings takes place in “a world of wizards and wifi” and asks players to join its still mysterious world with a short invitation:
We know a place where mages run raves,
harpies haunt the suburbs,
and a road trip can save the world.
Follow us.
The development of Guildlings will be funded by the FundPlus Foundation, a brand new investment fund that aims to identify and support “people that will define [the video game] industry” in the indie gaming scene.