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
Insert Quarter: What’s the Best Way To Introduce Halo (or Any Game) To Your Kids?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Geeky parents have long wondered what is the best way to introduce their favorite geeky media to their children. It’s definitely a universal thought that I’ve even caught myself having. I don’t have kids yet and I’ve wondered when will be the right time to introduce them to the Star Wars trilogy (and in what order). With this week’s release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Polygon’s Ben Kuchera ponders this predicament as it relates to the game industry’s premiere first person shooter series. Aside from a baffling adherence to inverted controls, Kuchera wonders what parts of the game he should show his son and what parts he should let him discover on his own:
We’re pretty strict about what games the kids play, and for how long, and this is the first time my son and I have played a mature-rated game together. He lacks rudimentary skills when it comes to first-person shooters, and I begin to feel like I’ve been failing him by not teaching him this stuff earlier.
You can read the rest of the article at Polygon.
Posted in Insert Quarter, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: The Master Chief Collection
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void will be a standalone game
It’s been more than six years since Blizzard split StarCraft II into three games, but it looks like we’re finally reaching the end of the line with this first look at StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. A release date for Legacy of the Void wasn’t announced, but we do know that it’ll be a standalone expansion, and will not require players to have previously purchased StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty or StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
Legacy of the Void will complete the StarCraft II saga by focusing on the telepathic race of aliens known as the Protoss. Perhaps owing to the unique team-based abilities that telepathy would give you, Blizzard has announced a pair of cooperative gameplay modes will be included in Legacy of the Void, a first for the StarCraft series:
Archon Mode, a competitive multiplayer mode unveiled at BlizzCon, is a new way to enjoy StarCraft II with friends. In Archon Mode, two players share control over a single base and units as they take on an enemy duo in multiplayer action. By sharing the responsibility of commanding troops and managing resources, players can focus on their own areas of the battle and execute more intricate strategies.
Allied Commanders is another gameplay mode new to StarCraft II. In this objective-based, cooperative experience, players can team up and take on the roles of powerful commanders from the StarCraft saga. Each commander offers unique abilities and upgrades and bestows special bonuses on their armies. Players are able to battle through a series of special scenarios together, leveling up their commanders’ capabilities as they progress.
You can visit Blizzard’s official site for Legacy of the Void to get a look at some of the game’s new characters as well as to sign up for a chance to be included in next year’s multiplayer beta test.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
Shigeru Miyamoto confirms that Pikmin 4 is in development
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Pikmin 4 is in development during a recent shareholders Q&A session. In answering a question about development costs, the famed developer began to discuss the recently released Pikmin short films he created as well as the demo version and downloadable content for Pikmin 3. Miyamoto said that all of this bonus content is meant to be a way to prepare consumers for a planned Pikmin 4:
If I am allowed to do a little bit of PR here, we released a series of short films called Pikmin Short Movies on October 25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. […] At the same time, we have also prepared a demo version of Pikmin 3 so anyone who hasn’t played Pikmin can experience its unique joy. Continually launching campaigns after the release of software will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of Pikmin in the future. And needless to say, we want it to be one of the motivations for potential consumers to purchase Wii U.
Because of the Wii-to-Wii U transition, Pikmin 3 took five years to go from announcement to release. Hopefully, launching Pikmin 4 on the Wii U means that the fourth entry in the franchise won’t spend so long in development.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse will be released in February 2015
Can’t get enough Kirby? You won’t have to wait long before you get a play to play the next game in the series. Nintendo has confirmed that Kirby and the Rainbow Curse will be released in February 2015 and that it’ll feature a four-player multiplayer mode:
The newest game in the charming Kirby series finds the lovable pink puffball journeying through a world made of clay. Players guide Kirby along a rainbow line drawn on the Wii U GamePad controller’s touch screen. A new four-player multiplayer mode lets one player play as Kirby and focus on drawing rainbow lines on the GamePad, while the others control a trio of Waddle Dee characters that can collect items or carry Kirby around.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is exclusively in development for the Wii U at HAL Labratory.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Explore the worlds of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker in this new trailer
Are you ready for your dose of Sunday cuteness? I hope so, because Nintendo has released a new trailer for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Featuring the “Mini-Universes” of the game, this trailer ping pongs through 70 different levels from the game and each one offers plenty of sights to behold. Keep your eyes peeled for #56, it appears to be based on the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be released exclusively for the Wii U on December 5.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
This is your Halo: The Master Chief Collection launch trailer
The release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One is just two days away and Microsoft has released a launch trailer to get you pumped about Master Chief’s big reunion. Bringing together Halo: Combated Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 in one package, The Master Chief Collection is a bargain for anyone wanting to break in to the Halo series for the first time. But the package does include several new features as well including an enhanced “Anniversary” edition of Halo 2, several remade multiplayer maps, the Halo: Nightfall digital series, and access to this December’s Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta.
Yup, that is a lot of Halo. And be sure to hit the jump for a little bit of “We Will Rock You” in The Master Chief Collection’s first TV spot. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Weekly Warp-Up: Welcome to November 2014 Edition
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Welcome to the blustery month of November where the weather is cold, but the games are hot, hot, hot. I apologize for that. But it is the perfect lead-in to alert you that the Warp Zoned staff got together to anoint our Games of November 2014 earlier this week. We also sat down and talked about What We Played in October 2014 in case you’re interested.
Elsewhere on the site this week, I talked to the developers of Guns Gore & Cannoli about their in-development side-scroller, their love of mob movies, and the ingredients to a perfect cannoli (which is apparently hard to find in Belgium, who knew?).
Looking for more news? Then I suggest you look for it after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Halo Master Chief Collection, AC: Unity/AC: Rogue, Lego Batman 3, More
With Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s launch behind us, game publishers have moved forward with a massive amount of mid-November releases. Chief among them (that’s right, I went there) is Microsoft’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection, an Xbox One repackaging of Halo: Combated Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4. More Achievements than you could ever ask for and four of the best shooters to ever grace a gaming system. Not a bad deal. Also available this week is a double shot of Assassin’s Creed from Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (PS3, Xbox 360) closes the book on the franchise’s “Americas” saga while Assassin’s Creed: Unity (PC, PS4, Xbox One) shifts the series to the French Revolution.
The remaining new releases can also be slotted into several long-running franchises including WB’s Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One), Sega’s Sonic Boom two-fer (Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on the Wii U and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on the 3DS), Bandai Namco’s Tales of Hearts R (Vita), and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One).
Finally this week, Blizzard is back with another World of Warcraft expansion… World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)