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: Gone Home, The Banner Saga, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, more
The Xbox Games Store is now home to a quintet of new titles that are sure to please players of all tastes.
First up is the Xbox One launch of Gone Home, Fulbright’s “genre-defining story exploration game.” After arriving home to an empty house, players will be able to explore the dark corners and repressed memories of Gone Home from the comfort of their couch. Also available this week is The Banner Saga, a Viking-themed RPG from Stoic. The hand-painted backgrounds of The Banner Saga have made it a favorite among fans of indie games, and now Xbox One owners can experience the same thing, yes, from the comfort of their couch. A third indie title, Rebel Galaxy, has also been released for the Xbox One this week. Developed by Double Damage, players will become space pirates in Rebel Galaxy and do battle with other “outlandish denizens at the edge of the known universe” if they hope to survive.
Sliding away from the indie scene for a moment, this week also marks the launch of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India for the Xbox One. The second side-scrolling spinoff to the Assassin’s Creed franchise will transport the action to India in the 19th century as players will be tasked with reclaiming an artifact that is very important to the Assassins and saving your lover.
Finally this week, Hyperdrive Massacre is a colorful car combat game where players will hop in their “Space Cadillac” to do battle with all the other space cowboys, gangsters of love, and guys named Maurice… Wah-Wah…
More information on all of these titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India, Gone Home, Rebel Galaxy, The Banner Saga
Nominees for the 2016 DICE Awards have been announced with Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3 leading the way
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 2016 DICE Awards.
Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider and CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lead all other games with eight nominations apiece, including “Game of the Year.” They’ll be competing for the AIAS’s highest honor against three other games: Bloodborne, Fallout 4, and Ori and the Blind Forest. All told, 53 different titles received at least one nomination.
“Looking at the nominees for the 19th Annual DICE Awards, I am especially impressed by the broad range of titles catering to gamers’ increasingly sophisticated and diverse tastes,” said Martin Rae, the President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “It is always gratifying to watch our industry and its many artists and craftsmen grow and continue to challenge and thrill audiences.”
In addition to this year’s awards show, Satoru Iwata will be honored with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award and Hideo Kojima will be inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
The ceremony for the 2016 DICE Awards will take place on Thursday, February 16, during this year’s DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit. The full list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Bloodborne, 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
EA brings EA Access subscription service to PC as Origin Access
EA has announced that their EA Access subscription service (currently available on the Xbox One) is now available for PC players as Origin Access.
Priced at $4.99 a month, Origin Access will let subscribers play every game in “The Vault” and provide early access to brand new EA games before they’re released. According to EA, Origin’s “Vault” will also include a variety of third-party titles, such as the currently available This War of Mine (from 11 Bit Studios). So what else is available in “The Vault”? Here’s the list we found on the official Origin Access site:
“The Vault” Titles Currently on Origin Access
- Battlefield 3
- Battlefield 4
- Battlefield Hardline
- Dead Space
- Dead Space 2
- Dead Space 3
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Dragon Age II
- Dragon Age: Inquisition
- FIFA 15
- Need For Speed Rivals
- Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
- SimCity
- The Sims 3
- This War of Mine
In addition to unlimited access to games in “The Vault,” Origin Access subscribers will also receive a 10% discount on all future Origin purchases. And if that doesn’t convince you, EA also commissioned a great commercial starring Bill Nye (which has been embedded above) to promote the service.
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be released for 3DS on March 18; Wii U version launching later
Get your torch relay ready, Nintendo has announced (via their Facebook page) that Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will be released for the 3DS on March 18. The sports-themed minigame collection will also be released for the Wii U later this year.
The 2016 Summer Olympics will kick off on August 5, so we can probably expect to see the Wii U version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games sometime this Summer.
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, The Banner Saga, Gone Home, more added to PS Store
The PS4 gets the spotlight in this week’s PlayStation Store update as six new games are now available to download for the new-generation console.
Leading the way this week is a pair of indie favorites including The Banner Saga, Stoic’s Viking-themed tactical RPG, and Gone Home, Fulbright’s emotional first-person exploration game. Also available this week is Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India, the second game in Ubisoft’s side-scrolling spinoff series to the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Finally this week, Sony will expand their lineup of PS2-On-PS4 games with the release of Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, a well-liked (but not very well-known) RPG from 2003.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) is available after the break. And a complete look at this week’s new game add-ons and discounts (including a “PlayStation Essentials Sale”) can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India, Gone Home, Tharsis, The Banner Saga
Psychonauts will be released for the PS4 this Spring
With the sequel now fully-funded through Fig, Double Fine is also working to reacquaint the gaming public with the original Psychonauts. So the developer stopped by the PlayStation Blog today to announce that the PS2 classic will be available to download for the PS4 this Spring:
Psychonauts follows the story of a young psychic named Razputin in his quest to join an elite group of international psychic secret agents, the Psychonauts! He runs away from the circus and breaks into their secret training facility, Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp.
As he begins his training by psychically delving inside the consciousnesses of his tutors and those around him, he realizes all is not as it seems, and soon embarks upon a psychic odyssey through a variety of levels set inside the minds of misfits, monsters, and madmen!
Like other PS2-On-PS4 releases, the unique visual style of Psychonauts will be uprendered to 1080p on the PS4. The game will also include support for Trophies, Remote Play, Live Broadcast, Share Play, and Activity Feeds.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged Psychonauts
Deep Silver confirms May 17 release date for Homefront: The Revolution
Confirming last week’s release date leak, Deep Silver has announced that Homefront: The Revolution will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 17. The publisher has also released “This Is Philadelphia,” a brand new trailer that shows what it’s like to live in the game’s Korean-occupied “Yellow Zone” (Wait, really?):
In the “This Is Philadelphia” trailer released today, citizens get their first chilling glimpse into the world of Occupied Philadelphia in the year 2029: The birthplace of American freedom has been split into three occupied zones, each zone varying in the level of KPA police activity with each unique zone forcing players to adapt new gameplay strategies in order to further the progress of The Revolution. The “This Is Philadelphia” trailer showcases the unforgiving Yellow Zone, distinct from the war-ravaged wastelands of the Red Zone, and the highly militarized Green Zones, the Yellow Zone is a densely populated environment offering a unique challenge and gameplay experience to would-be Freedom Fighters.
Xbox One owners who are interested in joining a Homefront: The Revolution closed beta this February can head over to Homefront-Game.com to register for a chance to receive a Beta Token from Deep Silver.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Homefront: The Revolution
Gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat X: Kombat Pack 2 released
WB Games wants you to have a bloody good Tuesday as they’ve released the first gameplay for Mortal Kombat X‘s upcoming Kombat Pack 2 DLC. In development now at NetherRealm Studios, Kombat Pack 2 will add four new fighters to the game: Leatherface (from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), the Xenomorph (from Alien), Bo Rai Cho, and Tri-Borg (a composite character that fuses together Cyrax, Sektor, and Smoke). The new characters are incredibly fast and the chainsaw-fu practiced by Leatherface (against Jason Voorhees, I might add) is incredible.
Players who purchase Kombat Pack 2 will also receive a fifth playable character, the mighty Goro, and a number of costumes that were previously exclusive to Mortal Kombat X pre-order customers:
- Goro – The feral, four-armed Shokan warrior will be available as a playable combatant.
- Brazil Pack – The Brazil Pack features three new character skins: Futbol Cage, Capoeira Liu Kang, and Gaucho Kung Lao.
- Kold War Pack – The Kold War Pack includes three new character skins: Motherland Sonya, Tundra Sub-Zero, and Revolution Kano.
- Kold War Scorpion – Kold War-themed Scorpion character skin.
- Apocalypse Pack (Never-Before-Released) – The Apocalypse Pack features three new character skins, reimagining characters Takeda, D’Vorah, and Erron Black with an apocalyptic theme.
NetherRealm will release Kombat Pack 2 sometime in 2016, though they’ve previously said that all four characters will be available in early 2016.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Mortal Kombat X