Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Author: John Scalzo
Splatoon’s next Splatfest will pit the Flintstones against the Jetsons… sort of
Nintendo has announced the theme for Splatoon‘s upcoming North American Splatfest… “Would You Rather Travel to the Past or the Future?”
Scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 16, this Splatfest is basically asking participants to pledge allegiance to their favorite fictional universe. Did you prefer Back to the Future or Back to the Future Part II? Would you side with Sarah Connor or the technological terror that is The Terminator? And do you consider yourself a Jetsons junkie or a Flintstones fan? Though there was that time the Jetsons met the Flintstones…
Voting for the next Splatfest starts tomorrow in #Splatoon! Would you rather travel to the past or the future? pic.twitter.com/7CIiZ6rA3l
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 8, 2016
It really is a tough decision. Thankfully, the Squid Research Lab has compiled a list of pros and cons to help you make your choice.
Nominees for the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced
Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Rocket League, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will all be competing for “Game of the Year” honors at this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards, which will be held on Wednesday, March 16.
With four nominations apiece, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt became the most-nominated titles this year. In addition to “Game of the Year,” The Phantom Pain is also up for “Best Audio,” “Best Design,” and “Best Technology.” Meanwhile, The Witcher 3 will attempt to also take home “Best Visual Art,” “Best Narrative,” and “Best Technology.”
Fallout 4 and Bloodborne were just a step behind both titles with three total nominations of their own. However, they have a lot of company as Star Wars: Battlefront, Splatoon, Her Story, and Undertale all received a trio of nominations as well.
Viewers at home will be able to watch the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards through Twitch, and a complete look at this year’s nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Bloodborne, Fallout 4, GDC 2016, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Rocket League, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Xbox Store Today: Lovely Planet, Unepic, Cubot
It’s a colorful update to the Xbox Games Store today as Lovely Planet, Unepic, and Cubot are now available to download for the Xbox One…
- Lovely Planet is a ridiculously adorable first person shooter that gives players a Nerf gun and lets them loose in a cartoonish world of angry squares and acute triangles that seem a little mean… some might even say obtuse.
- Unepic is a side-scrolling RPG that harkens back to the 80s.
- And Cubot is a minimalist puzzler that asks players to move color cubes towards tiles of the same color.
More information about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Mini Metro, Her Story lead all nominees at the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards
The Independent Games Festival has announced the nominees for their 18th annual awards, and two very different games lead the pack as Mini Metro, a tranquil public transportation sim, and Her Story, a detective story that uses 90s-era full motion video, will both be competing for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.”
The minimalist Mini Metro collected three other nominations including “Excellence In Visual Art,” “Excellence In Design,” and “Excellence In Audio.” Meanwhile, Her Story also racked up three additional nominations including “Excellence In Narrative,” “Excellence In Design,” and the “Nuovo Award.” Both games will be competing for the “Grand Prize” against Darkest Dungeon, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Superhot, and Undertale.
The 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 16, during this year’s Game Developers Conference. If you aren’t going to be in San Francisco to attend the show in person, you can watch the festivities live through Twitch. However, if you are attending GDC 2016, all of this year’s finalists will be playable on the show floor at the IGF Pavilion.
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions for the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2016, Her Story, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Mini Metro, Superhot
Nintendo Download: The Adventures of Bayou Billy, Hogan’s Alley, Wild Gunman, more
Dust off your Wii Remote, because Nintendo is bringing a trio of NES-era light gun games to the Wii U eShop today…
- Hogan’s Alley puts players on the shooting range opposite a bunch of old-timey gangsters. But watch out for those civilians!
- The Adventures of Bayou Billy does a great impersonation of a deranged 80s action movie as players will have to survive beat ’em up levels, light gun levels, and racing levels to rescue Billy’s girlfriend from Godfather Gordon.
- Finally, Wild Gunman transports players back to the Old West and asks them to compete in a series of high noon standoffs with a gang of outlaws.
More information on all of these games (and the rest of this week’s new releases) can be found after the break. (more…)
Psychonauts 2 reaches its $3.3 million funding goal on Fig
After amassing more than 20,000 backers, Double Fine’s crowdfunding campaign for Psychonauts 2 reached its $3.3 million goal yesterday on Fig. Unlike Kickstarter, Fig allows backers to invest in projects and eventually see a return on their investment once the game is released. At this moment, more than half of Psychonauts 2’s funding ($1.7 million) has been provided by investors.
“We’re so grateful to our backers for giving us this chance to continue the story of Raz and the Psychonauts. Knowing that they will be able to participate as investors in the game makes the whole thing feel more fair and more rewarding,” said Tim Schafer, the President and CEO of Double Fine Productions.
The Psychonauts 2 crowdfunding campaign will wrap up on Tuesday, and then begins the long process of actually developing the game. As of now, Double Fine is planning to release Psychonauts 2 sometime in Fall 2018 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Psychonauts 2
Oculus Rift will be available on March 28 for $600
After all the waiting, Oculus has finally announced a release date for the Oculus Rift. In a new post on the Oculus Blog, the company has revealed that the virtual reality headset is now available to pre-order and will ship to consumers on March 28 (with addition headsets available in stores in April). But make sure your finances are in order as the Rift will retail for the budget-busting price of $599.
The complete Oculus Rift package will include the headset, a sensor, the Oculus Remote, an Xbox One controller, and a copy of Lucky’s Tale, a VR platformer developed in-house by Oculus. All pre-order customers will also receive a copy of Eve: Valkyrie, a dogfighting game from CCP Games. Running this software through the Oculus Rift will require a fairly powerful PC, and the company has posted a list of system requirements so users can get the “full experience” from their virtual reality headset:
Oculus Rift: Recommended System Requirements
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
- Processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
- Memory: 8GB+ RAM
- Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- Input: Three USB 3.0 Ports + One USB 2.0 Port
- Operating System: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or newer
But if you’d rather buy all the necessary equipment at the same time, Oculus will begin pre-selling Oculus Ready PCs (bundled with a Rift headset) in February. Prices for Oculus Ready PCs will start at $1,499.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged EVE: Valkyrie
Xbox Store Today: Hyper Void, G Prime: Into The Rain
Two new games were added to the Xbox Games Store today, and both are available for the Xbox One.
Hyper Void is a space shooter that offers more than 25 levels of wave-based action and “dangerous big boss encounters.” Elsewhere on the digital storefront, G Prime: Into The Rain is also available to download. Described as a “slingshot simulating puzzle pleaser,” G Prime asks players to successfully navigate a series of obstacles in space.
More information on both of these games can be found right here:
Xbox One Games
Hyper Void ($9.99)
Punch your way through waves and waves of enemies from all races in the universe as you travel through volatile and crazy wormholes, all rendered in high-quality 3D with a heart-pumping progressive soundtrack! Over 25 levels are awaiting you, filled with challenge and dangerous big boss encounters. And if that wasn’t enough, three EPIC boss showdowns will test every space combat skill you have.G Prime: Into The Rain ($14.99)
Explore the vast uncharted mystery of The Rain, a solar-system spanning shock wave of gas and dust from far, far away. In your role as sounding officer onboard Ptolemy Station you configure and drive sub-etheric reconnaissance rockets into increasingly challenging fields where Iceteroids, theophosphorus, and quicksand clouds make your mission much more work than your employers led you to believe. A gravity gripping, Steampunk styled, moody-beautiful, slingshot simulating puzzle pleaser.