Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
Princeton Review names University of Southern California the Best Game Design School for 2019
The 2019 Game Developers Conference kicks off in just a few days, and like clockwork, The Princeton Review has used this opportunity to roll out their ranking of the Top Schools For Game Design in 2019.
Once again, the University of Southern California topped all undergraduate programs and was ranked #3 on the list of graduate programs. Meanwhile, New York University climbed atop the list of graduate programs for the first time ever and held onto its #2 ranking among undergraduate programs.
“The schools that made our lists this year have stellar programs for aspiring game designers and developers,” said Robert Franek, the Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review. “Their faculties are outstanding and their facilities are awesome. Just as impressive: their alumni include many of the video game industry’s most prominent artists, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.”
A large number of schools retained their place among the top Game Design programs for 2019 including Becker College in Worcester (#3 in undergraduate and #11 in graduate), DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond (#4 and #6), Drexel University in Philadelphia (#6 and #10), and the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester (#8 and #7).
You can find the Princeton Review’s full ranking of Game Design programs for 2019 after the break. (more…)
God of War receives ten nominations and leads the way at 2019 BAFTA Games Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for this year’s BAFTA Game Awards and Sony Santa Monica’s God of War lead the way with ten nominations, including an unprecedented four nominations in the “Performer” category (one each for the actors behind Kratos, Atreus, Freya, and The Stranger). Boy!
Naturally, God of War is also in running for the “Best Game” Award, and it’ll be competing against Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Sony’s Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, Matt Makes Games’s Celeste, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2, and Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn
The BAFTA Game Awards will be held at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on April 4, and the ceremony will once again be hosted by comedian Dara O’Briain. Fans across the globe are encouraged to tune in to a livestream of the ceremony at BAFTA.org.
The complete list of nominees in all categories can be found after the break. (more…)
Hyper Light Drifter developer Heart Machine unveils Solar Ash Kingdom
Heart Machine, the team behind the blockbuster sensation that is Hyper Light Drifter, announced their second game this afternoon. Annapurna Interactive will serve as the game’s publisher, which is known as Solar Ash Kingdom, and it’s set to include “wild high-speed traversal, endearing characters, and massive enemy encounters”:
Solar Ash Kingdom is the second game from Heart Machine, the studio lead by director Alx Preston and the creators of the award winning 2016 game Hyper Light Drifter. Players will find a surreal, vivid, and highly stylized world filled with wild high-speed traversal, endearing characters, and massive enemy encounters. Don’t let the void consume you…
The first trailer for Solar Ash Kingdom has been embedded above, and that short (though very stylish) teaser is all we know about it right now. Though Creative Director Alx Preston did say that the team is using “new technologies and innovations” to create “a unique experience that will set their work apart.”
Solar Ash Kingdom is currently in development for the PC, and will eventually be released exclusively through the Epic Games Store.
UPDATE: Heart Machine just shared a few more details about Solar Ash Kingdom on their Twitter account.
First, we learned that Disasterpeace will once again be producing the soundtrack for the developer, which should give the game a similar aural vibe to Hyper Light Drifter. We also learned that while it won’t be a direct sequel, it does take place in the same universe as Heart Machine’s first game. Finally, a console release for Solar Ash Kingdom is “in the cards,” but they’re not going to talk about it because “it’s still a bit off.”
Gearbox will most likely reveal Borderlands 3 at PAX East 2019
It looks like the time has finally come. Gearbox Software is strongly hinting that they plan to reveal Borderlands 3 at this year’s PAX East convention… and they’re not even being subtle about it.
The image to your right was added to Gearbox’s official website late last night and it bears several telltale markings linking it with the Borderlands series. The franchise’s signature cel-shaded visuals are instantly recognizable, as is a partially-obscured “3” along the top of the sign. And while Boston might not be everyone’s favorite town, it definitely isn’t surrounded by a dusty wasteland. You’re much more likely to find that kind of terrain on Pandora, the alien world that’s home to Handsome Jack and the rest of the Borderlands crew.
Developers from Gearbox will host the “Gearbox Main Theater Show” on Thursday, March 28, and they previously promised that fans would get to hear “never-before-seen reveals, exclusives, and surprises” from the team. Borderlands 3 certainly qualifies, even if it’s still officially just speculation on my part for now.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Borderlands 3, PAX East 2019
Microsoft is bringing Halo: Master Chief Collection to PC and will add Halo: Reach to compilation as DLC
The first four games in the Halo saga, as well as spinoff Halo 3: ODST, are currently available for the Xbox One through Halo: The Master Chief Collection. But Microsoft is planning to “Finish the Fight” with the addition of Halo: Reach to the compilation. Master Chief Collection owners will be receive Reach’s multiplayer content (including The Forge and The Theater) for free, with the game’s Campaign and Firefight Mode available as paid expansions.
But wait, there’s more.
Microsoft also confirmed that The Master Chief Collection is also in development for the PC and will be released through the Windows Store and Steam. Because development is just starting, and Microsoft doesn’t want fans to wait any longer than they have to, the publisher will give purchasers the option to download each game as it’s ready, starting with Halo: Reach. The entire plan was explained in more detail over at Xbox Wire:
The Master Chief’s arrival on PC will happen in stages with each title releasing one by one over time -– giving the development teams the ability to ensure each one is right, while giving players a chance to jump in right away, rather than having to wait for the entire suite of games to be completed. Our current plan is for this journey to begin with the launch of Halo: Reach – the fictional beginnings of Master Chief’s saga – with the rest of the titles following in chronological order thereafter. Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (Campaign), and Halo 4 will each be available for individual purchase within MCC as they become available. And each game will evolve and grow over time with community input.
It’s currently unknown when Halo: Reach will be available for the Xbox One or the PC. But in the meantime, the Announcement Trailer embedded above will have to do.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: Reach, Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Here’s the first Teaser Trailer for the Doom movie reboot Doom: Annihilation
Universal Studios has been promising/threatening to release a new film based on id Software’s Doom for years. But even though original stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Karl Urban, and Rosamund Pike all became massive stars in the intervening years since 2005’s Doom, the studio decided to go the reboot route when they officially announced the new adaptation last April.
Now we know that it’ll be titled Doom: Annihilation and that it looks to be a slightly more faithful adaptation of the game franchise. A newly released Teaser Trailer gives us a glimpse at a platoon of space marines (though no clearcut shot of the Doomguy), a roving band of demonic imps, goretastic special effects, and the promise that unethical scientific shenanigans opened a “Portal to Hell.”
However, the film also looks to have a much lower budget than 2005’s Doom, and that’s because Doom: Annihilation will be released direct to DVD/Blu-ray and streaming services sometime this Fall.
And just in case you were wondering what the developers at id Software think of the new film, they rather bluntly informed a fan that “We’re not involved with the movie” on Twitter.
Epic adds a human-sized hamster ball to Fortnite in Season 8
Epic Games is constantly updating Fortnite, but the game’s newest update might just be its best yet. As part of today’s kickoff to Season 8, the developer has added a new vehicle to Fortnite known as The Baller… a human-sized hamster ball with a grappling hook.
I’m not sure the world of FOrtnite is ready for a giant hamster ball of doom, but you learn more about it at the game’s official website:
Keep the good times rolling! Combine your boost and grapple to perform unbelievable feats with the newest vehicle addition to Battle Royale!
This single seat vehicle is found at Expedition Outposts and around pirate camp loot stashes. Use the attached Grappler and Boost functionality to pull yourself up cliffs or swing through the trees. The driver is protected from damage, but The Baller is vulnerable to enemy weapon fire.
A new trailer for Fortnite: Season 8, which has been subtitled Pirates and Treasure, can be found after the break. (more…)
Warp Zoned Wish List: What We Want from Tetris 99’s Future Updates
Tetris 99 is already a tremendously-addictive puzzle game, but after participating in this past weekend’s Maximus Cup, I’ve been thinking a lot about its future.
After its launch, Nintendo promised that Tetris 99 would (like all “Battle Royale” games) receive regular updates, and if I had my way, the consolemaker would add these features to the puzzle game as soon as possible… (more…)