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
2K will continue making WWE games for many more years
2K Games and the WWE have announced that they’ve reached an agreement to extend 2K’s contract to make games based on the WWE’s patented brand of professional wrestling. The two companies have yet to officially announce that WWE 2K17 will be released this Fall, but it seems like a good bet in the aftermath of this new multi-year deal.
“2K’s partnership with WWE over the past three years has resulted in a successful and important addition to the Company’s portfolio of profitable franchises,” said David Ismailer, 2K’s Chief Operating Officer. “We are thrilled with the positive momentum of the WWE 2K series, including generating year-over-year growth, as well as the success of WWE SuperCard. We are very pleased to extend our partnership with WWE and look forward to many more years of collaboration.”
“2K’s leadership in authenticity, quality and overall brand dedication has been a perfect complement for WWE,” said Casey Collins, the WWE’s Executive Vice President of Consumer Products. “Our continued partnership ensures WWE remains at the forefront of global video game brands as we continue innovating and publishing our offerings on multiple platforms.”
The most recent game in the franchise, last year’s WWE 2K16, was co-developed by Visual Concepts and Yuke’s. While WWE 2K17 still isn’t official, the publisher did say the two teams will continue to co-develop all future entries in the WWE 2K series.
Rise of the Tomb Raider’s PC launch gets a number of graphical enhancements
Now that it’s Xbox exclusivity has ended, Square Enix is happy to announce that Rise of the Tomb Raider is now available to download on the PC (through Steam). But co-developers Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes made sure to include a number of graphical enhancements to the game (including 4K resolution support) to better harness the greater processing power of the PC.
Here’s a list of all the high-end visual tricks that have been added to the PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider:
- HBAO+, an ambient occlusion technique which reduces artifacts and produces a richer and more details ambient lighting. Implemented through a partnership with Nvidia.
- Anisotropic Filtering, which greatly enriches the quality of the textures in the distance when viewed from an angle.
- Tessellation, which greatly enhances the detail of uneven surfaces in the ground, rocks, and bricks.
- Dynamic Foliage, which takes previously static foliage and makes it react dynamically to Lara’s movements and weather effects.
Rise of the Tomb Raider players can also expand their game with the Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch expansion, which is now available to download on the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Rise of the Tomb Raider
Xbox Store Today: Lego Avengers, Sparkle 2, Roblox
A trio of titles have been added to the Xbox Games Store today, and fans of superheroes should be very pleased…
…And that’s because Lego Avengers is now available to download for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Developer TT Games dug deep into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to produce a new Lego-ized adaptation based on Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Also available this week is Sparkle 2, a puzzle game for the Xbox One that asks players to match groups of colored marbles by shooting them out of a cannon. Finally this week, Roblox will give Xbox One owners access to the Roblox game creation community. It’s free-to-play, but you’ve got to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Lego Avengers
RBI Baseball 16 will head for home this Spring
MLB Advanced Media is stepping up to the plate once again with the announcement that RBI Baseball 16 will be available this Spring. This year’s RBI Baseball 16 cover athlete will be Mookie Lynn Betts, an outfielder for the Boston Red Sox… and possibly the only “MLB” in Major League Baseball history. For their third trip to the plate, MLBAM has promised to include a number of new features in their retro-styled baseball sim including a “rebuilt defensive artificial intelligence system” and more realism on the field than ever before:
RBI Baseball 16 Features
- Defense: A redeveloped defensive AI will introduce new fielding capabilities including dives, wall catches, fake throws and more. This system will give users more control than ever before in making defensive plays.
- Baserunning: Built in part from MLBAM’s award-winning tracking technology, Statcast, baserunners’ abilities will be driven by on-field metrics from the 2015 MLB season.
- Batting: An improved batting engine will feature variable perfect timing. For the best outcome, swing earlier on inside pitches and later on outside pitches.
- Pitching: With a reworked pitching strategy AI, pitchers will play to their individual strengths. For example, a pitcher who features a wide range of velocity will mix speeds more often.
- Season Sim: During season mode play, sim a game or multiple games to quickly advance through the season and into the Postseason – should the team win its division or earn a Wild Card spot.
- Lineup: Modify a team’s lineup pre-game or in-game, including substitution strategies such as double switches. Lineups can be set from a franchise’s 40-man roster or the game’s classic 16-player rosters.
- Graphics: All 30 MLB ballparks will feature a new lighting system based on actual geographic locations, field views and additional hi-resolution realistic design elements.
RBI Baseball 16 is currently in development for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices (iOS and Android).
Capcom slaps a May 2016 release date on Umbrella Corps and unveils a new trailer
Capcom’s Umbrella Corps, a team-based shooter in the Resident Evil universe, finally has a release date. The publisher plans to release the game as a digital download for the PC and PS4 sometime this May.
As part of the announcement, Capcom also unveiled a new Umbrella Corps trailer, giving fans a look at “The Village,” another one of the game’s arenas. “The Village” is based on the unnamed township that Leon Kennedy stumbles across early in Resident Evil 4… and it’s no less terrifying now. The trailer also includes an early peak at “The Experiment,” a single-player Horde Mode that’ll feature more than 20 missions with varying objectives. “The Experiment” will bring players back to “The Village,” but they’ll also be asked to survive in a research facility based on the Tricell Headquarters from Resident Evil 5. The Tricell Headquarters map will also be available for multiplayer matches.
More maps and modes from Umbrella Corps will be announced at a later date.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Umbrella Corps
Detective Pikachu will be released for the 3DS on February 3… but only in Japan
Nintendo has revealed that Detective Pikachu, an adventure game where the world’s most famous Pokemon wears a deerstalker hat and gives eloquent speeches with commanding authority, will be released for the 3DS on February 3… in Japan. A North American release date for Detective Pikachu has yet to be announced, but only a handful of Pokemon have ever failed to make the trip across the Pacific, so I assume it’s only a matter of time.
Though first announced in 2013, a good portion of Detective Pikachu’s background is still a mystery (heh). We know it’s an adventure game of some kind and that a teenage boy serves as Detective Pikachu’s Watson… and that’s about it. The important question of just how Detective Pikachu can talk goes unanswered.
Hopefully, we’ll learn the solution to that question soon.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Detective Pikachu
The Witness, Lego Avengers, This War of Mine: The Little Ones, more added to PS Store
Jonathan Blow’s The Witness aims to bring back the exploration genre on the PlayStation Store this week. The PS4 game is now available to download and its Myst-like qualities are readily apparent. Once you add in the whole “you’re alone on a deserted island and there are puzzles everywhere” thing, it almost starts looking like a stealth sequel.
Also available this week is Lego Avengers (PS3, PS4, Vita), the 18th Lego adaptation from TT Games. This time, the British developer has mined the Marvel Cinematic Universe to create a game that links together Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Finally this week, a trio of other titles will be added to the PlayStation Store including This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4), a war game that focuses on the civilian experience; Saturday Morning RPG (PS4 + Vita Cross-Buy), a dual homage to JRPGs and Saturday morning cartoons of the 80s; and Gemini: Heroes Reborn (PS4), a first-person adventure in a superpowered world.
More details on all of these games can be found after the break, and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Lego Avengers, The Witness
New CoD: Black Ops III Awakening Pack trailer introduces us to “Der Eisendrache”
Activision will release Call of Duty: Black Ops III‘s Awakening DLC Pack on February 2 (for PS4 owners), but first they want to introduce would-be players to the newest Zombies Mode map: “Der Eisendrache.” German for “The Iron Dragon,” players will definitely have to deal with some kind of fire breathing monstrosity as they move further into the deadly castle:
Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s epic Zombies DLC season begins here. In “Der Eisendrache”, Origins characters Richtofen, Nikolai, Takeo, and Dempsey embark on a suicide mission to an enemy research facility built upon an archaic site of unspeakable horror. Massive deposits of Element 115 have recently been discovered, delivering inspired new gameplay and — in Zombies tradition — a variety of plot twists and surprises to discover at every turn.
The Awakening DLC Pack will be exclusive to the PS4 for 30 days and should appear on the PC and Xbox One sometime in March.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III