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
Infinity Ward might be teasing an upcoming announcement for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 or Call of Duty: Ghosts 2
The Call of Duty franchise’s rotating carousel of developers will point towards Infinity Ward this Fall, and it looks like the developer’s Ashton Williams has begun dropping hints about what they have in the works. For the past week, the Senior Communications Manager has been posting several cryptic images on her Twitter account, including a skull with glowing eyes, a skeleton with a sniper rifle, a baby demon, a coven of witches, an adult demon, the Grim Reaper, a few ghosts, and another skull.
There’s always the possibility that Infinity Ward is teasing something brand new, but there’s also reason to believe that this imagery is slyly referencing an upcoming announcement for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 or Call of Duty: Ghosts 2.
The case for Ghosts 2 is pretty obvious, as all of these images tie back to the supernatural in some way (including more than one literal “ghost”). But the Modern Warfare 4 link is also pretty strong, as Simon “Ghost” Riley (and his distinctive skull mask) was one of the main characters from Modern Warfare 2.
Again, it’s possible that Infinity Ward might be in a completely different direction for Call of Duty 2019, though it’s easy to assume they’re working on a sequel to one of their past hits. But with less than a year to go before the game’s (probable) launch, we’ll all find out for sure soon enough.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Who is the new character in Mortal Kombat 11’s New Year’s teaser?
Mortal Kombat fans have been speculating about the possibility of time travel shenanigans in Mortal Kombat 11 ever since the fighter’s Announcement Trailer at the 2018 Game Awards featured a pair of Scorpions and a brief glimpse at a mysterious woman standing in front of a giant hourglass. Ed Boon and company gave us a closer look at this new character yesterday as they were counting down to New Year’s Day on Twitter:
(Let’s try this one more time)
It is only a matter of time. #MK11 pic.twitter.com/dqxbnTJR2s
— Mortal Kombat 11 (@MortalKombat) December 31, 2018
Is she a playable character? If so, who is she? And if not, what role will she play in Mortal Kombat 11’s storyline and the stalemate between “Evil” Liu Kang and “Evil” Raiden?
Thankfully, we won’t have much longer to wait for answers to these questions as NetherRealm Studios is planning a “Community Reveal Event” for Mortal Kombat 11 on January 17. And the fighting game will launch shortly after that on April 23 for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Steam’s Top Sellers for 2018 include PUBG, GTA5, Rocket League, more
After more than a decade of dominance as the most-popular digital storefront for the PC, Steam was challenged on all sides in 2018 from both established players (GOG, Origin, and the Humble Store), as well as shiny upstarts (Discord and the Epic Games Store). But Valve’s online shop still sold a lot of games this year, and they recently shared their Top Sellers of 2018 with the public. But instead of ranking the games, Steam chose to split the list up into four tiers “as measured by gross revenue this year.”
As you might have guessed, you’ll find plenty of heavy hitters among the 12 games featured in the Platinum tier. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was slightly overshadowed this year by other “Battle Royale” shooters, but it made the cut, as did new releases like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Monster Hunter: World, and perennial favorites such as Grand Theft Auto V, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Rocket League…
Steam’s Top Sellers of 2018 – Platinum Tier
- Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
- Civilization VI
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Dota 2
- The Elder Scrolls Online
- Far Cry 5
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Monster Hunter: World
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Rocket League
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Warframe
Steam partitioned off the next 12 games as the Gold tier, and followed that up with 16 more games in the Silver tier. The remaining 60 games were included in the Bronze tier.
There’s plenty of recognizable titles at every level, including Ark: Survival Evolved in Gold; Subnautica, Final Fantasy XV, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider all in Silver; and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dark Souls Remastered, and Nier: Automata in Bronze.
All the titles from Steam’s Top Sellers of 2018 can be seen on… you guessed it… Steam.
JoyMasher is ringing in the New Year with a new Gameplay Trailer for Blazing Chrome
It looks like JoyMasher is here to make sure we all have a Happy New Year. The Brazilian developer is currently hard at work on Blazing Chrome, and they rung in January 1st with a new Gameplay Trailer for their side-scrolling shooter.
Leaning heavily into the Contra formula that JoyMasher is gleefully riffing on, this new trailer is a showcase for Blazing Chrome’s wide variety of weaponry, as well as the many robotic enemies you’ll need to take down to survive. But viewers will also be introduced to the Speed Bot, an item that really amps up the game’s tempo for a new generation of players.
Blazing Chrome will launch in Early 2019 for the PC, PS4, and Switch.
Posted in News
Tagged Blazing Chrome
This “Fan Animation” of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is amazing
It’s been several decades since Nintendo tried their hand at an animated series based on The Legend of Zelda, but several fans recently made a very compelling case for why they should try again.
The “Fan Animation” embedded above was recently uploaded by Qianya Yin and Youyang Kong. Based on a short scene from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the dialogue-free film features Link doing battle with a pair of Guardians and rescuing an adorable Korok. It’s impressive, very slick, and the perfect way to spend two minutes on a lazy holiday afternoon.
Those rumors of a live-action series from Netflix may have turned out to be a bust, but I would very happily sit down to watch an entire series of animated episodes created by this duo.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Atlus announces Persona 5 R; More information to be revealed in March 2019
Atlus officially announced Persona 5 R over the weekend, but aside from a PS4-branded trailer promising more details in March 2019, we still don’t know exactly what kind of game it’ll be.
Persona 5 R is widely believed to be an expanded edition of the blockbuster RPG, especially since the publisher has a history of re-releasing games in the Persona franchise with additional content. Persona 3 FES expanded on Persona 3 in 2008, and Persona 4 Golden did the same for Persona 4 in 2012.
Earlier this month, Atlus and Nintendo announced that Persona 5’s Joker would be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2019. It’s possible this new partnership could help bring Persona 5 R (again, whatever it is) to the Switch, but that’s all speculation as of today.
From Software has two unannounced games in the works
The developers at From Software always manage to keep themselves busy, and the team is currently hard at work on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is currently slated to launch on March 22. But you might not know that they’ve also got two unannounced projects currently in development.
Speaking to 4Gamer, From Software’s Hidetaka Miyazaki elaborated a tiny bit about these two mystery games:
Mr. Miyazaki: It is not the right time to talk about details, but I think both of them are like [titles From Software has created in the past]. We still need some more time, but we will be able to tell you what shape they’ll become in the future.
So there you have it. Do you think From Software is going back to the Dark Souls series? Or might the develper finally give fans the Bloodborne sequel they’ve been asking for since 2015? At this point, I have no idea. And neither does anyone else. With so few details to work with, baseless speculation is really all we have to go on.
That said, Miyazaki previously mentioned that From Software was working on Armored Core 6 in 2016. Could a sequel to the long-running mech franchise be in cards? Baseless speculation says… maybe.
Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends, Puzzle Bobble, Donkey Kong Jr., more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
Nintendo never sleeps… and that definitely applies to this week’s regularly scheduled Nintendo eShop update.
This week, Switch owners new and old will get the chance to download Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends – Definitive Edition, a fully-updated port of the eighth addition to Koei Tecmo’s hack-and-slash franchise, as well as the original arcade renditions of Puzzle Bobble (better known in North America as Bust-A-Move), and Donkey Kong Jr.
You can read more about these three games, and the rest of the new releases now available to download through the Nintendo eShop, after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends