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
Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo is the cover athlete for NBA 2K19
Giannis Antetokounmpo has been making life difficult for play-by-play announcers since his NBA debut in 2013. But “The Greek Freak” has also built up an impressive highlight reel over the years, and 2K Games had plenty of reasons to select him as the official cover athlete for NBA 2K19. The publisher’s basketball simulation is celebrating its 20th anniversary this Fall, and Antetokounmpo will be the first international player featured on the cover.
“I am honored to be the first international player featured on the cover of NBA 2K19,” said Antetokounmpo. “I love playing NBA 2K so this means a lot to me. I have worked hard to earn recognition in the NBA and being on the cover of NBA 2K19 is a dream come true.”
You can sneak a peek at Antetokounmpo’s NBA 2K19 cover in the short trailer embedded above.
NBA 2K19 will be released for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One on September 11. Fans who pre-order the basketball sim will receive a few in-game bonuses including 5,000 Virtual Currency, 10 MyTeam Packs, and a Giannis Antetokounmpo Sapphire MyTeam Card. But players looking to get a head start in MyCareer can download the NBA 2K19: The Prelude demo for the PS4 and Xbox One beginning on August 31.
And in case you missed it, 2K Games previously announced that the Lakers-bound Lebron James will be the cover athlete for the 20th Anniversary Edition, which will come packaged with even more in-game items when it launches on September 7.
Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake wins “Best of Show” at E3 2018 from Game Critics Awards
The “media and influencer outlets” represented by the Game Critics Awards have selected this year’s Best of E3 winners. Capcom crawled away with “Best of Show” thanks to the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Meanwhile, Media Molecule’s Dreams won “Best Original Game,” while fellow Sony stablemate Marvel’s Spider-Man won “Best Console Game” and “Best Action/Adventure Game.” The Game Critics Awards honored a rather diverse slate of games this year, giving “Best PC Game” to BioWare’s Anthem, “Best AR/VR Game” to Tetris Effect, and “Best RPG” to Kingdom Hearts III.
Unsurprisingly, the massively-popular Super Smash Bros. Ultimate took home “Best Fighting Game.”
Among non-playable games, a “Special Commendation for Graphics” was awarded to CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. The Last of Us Part II also received a “Special Commendation for Sound” and Cyberpunk 2077 also collected a “Special Commendation for Innovation.”
The full list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)
New Retail Releases: Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition, Jurassic World: Evolution
A classic episode of The Simpsons once encouraged 4th of July revelers to celebrate the independence of our nation by blowing up a small part of it. That sentiment is very much on display in a pair of games that are coming to retail shelves this week.
First up, THQ Nordic will head back to Mars in Red Faction: Guerrilla – Re-Mars-tered Edition, a PS4 and Xbox One re-release of the explosive action game from 2009:
Set 50 years after the climactic events of the original Red Faction, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to take the role of an insurgent Fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Red Faction: Guerrilla still defines the limits of destruction-based gameplay with a huge open-world, fast-paced guerrilla-style combat, and true physics-based destruction.
Also available this week is the retail launch of Jurassic World: Evolution for the PS4 and Xbox One. Life may… uh… find a way, but rampaging dinos are always good for a few fireworks:
Place yourself at the heart of the Jurassic franchise and build your own Jurassic World. Take charge of operations on the legendary islands of the Muertes archipelago and bring the wonder, majesty and danger of dinosaurs to life. Build for Science, Entertainment, or Security interests in an uncertain world where life always finds a way. Control the big picture with deep management tools or go hands-on to confront challenges on the ground or in the air. Expand your islands and choose your own journey in an all-new narrative featuring iconic characters from across the franchise and decades of Jurassic lore at your fingertips.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be back later this week with a look at all the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Jurassic World: Evolution, Red Faction: Guerrilla
Showtime’s Halo: The Television Series will begin filming in Early 2019
It’s been more than five years since Microsoft announced the existence of Halo: The Television Series. But after several starts and stops (and the dissolution of its original home, Xbox Entertainment Studios), the show is finally ready to begin production at Showtime.
According to a new post on the Xbox Wire, production will begin in Early 2019 with Kyle Killen (formerly of Awake) serving as showrunner. Rupert Wyatt, the director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is in line to direct multiple episodes of the series.
“Halo is our most ambitious series ever, and we expect audiences who have been anticipating it for years to be thoroughly rewarded,” said David Nevins, the President and CEO of Showtime. “In the history of television, there simply has never been enough great science fiction. Kyle Killen’s scripts are thrilling, expansive and provocative, Rupert Wyatt is a wonderful, world-building director, and their vision of Halo will enthrall fans of the game while also drawing the uninitiated into a world of complex characters that populate this unique universe.”
“This is a truly exciting moment for the Halo franchise,” stated Kiki Wolfkill, the Head of Halo Transmedia at 343 Industries. “Together with our creative and production partners at Showtime and Amblin Television, the Halo television series will represent new and exciting way for fans to enter and engage with the Halo universe. We can’t wait to share more on what’s ahead.”
The first season of Halo: The Television Series will include ten episodes, but an air date has yet to be announced.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Halo: Combat Evolved
Wolfenstein II, Crash Bandicoot Trilogy, Inside, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
Nostalgia, Nazis, and a few side-scrollers make this week’s Nintendo eShop update an interesting place to be…
Bethesda’s Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus will make its way to the Switch this week, and players will get the chance to help BJ Blazkowicz kick a little Nazi ass on American soil this time around.
Also available to download this week for the Switch is Activision’s Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which brings the first three games from the franchise (Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped) together in a single package.
Playdead will also make its Switch debut this week as the developer will bring their award-winning pair of puzzle-platformers (Inside and Limbo) to Nintendo’s newest console.
And speaking of side-scrollers, 13AM Games’s wildly colorful runner, Runbow, will also arrive on the Switch this week.
You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop (including MotoGP 18, The Journey Down: Chapter Two, Waking Violet, and more) after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch
Tagged Crash Bandicoot, Inside, Limbo, Runbow, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Overwatch’s 28th Hero is Hammond the Wrecking Ball… a genetically-enhanced hamster in an armor-plated hamster ball
Blizzard unveiled the 28th Hero coming to Overwatch earlier today and there are pretty much no adequate words to describe him. But I’m gonna try.
The game’s 28th Hero is Hammond, a genetically-enhanced hamster who goes by the nickname “Wrecking Ball.” With his vast intellect, Hammond has built an armor-plated hamster ball complete with four assault cannons, a grappling hook, proximity mines, and a temporary shield. Needless to say, the character is definitely classified as a Tank within the world of Overwatch.
Hammond is currently available in Overwatch’s Public Test Region, and he’ll roll out to all platforms at a later date. In the meantime, you can view his origin story in the trailer embedded above, and you can learn more about his abilities at the game’s official website:
Quad Cannons: Automatic assault weapons.
Roll: Transform into a ball and increase maximum movement speed.
Grappling Claw: Launch a grappling claw to rapidly swing around the area. Enables high speed collisions to damage and knockback enemies.
Minefield: Deploy a massive field of proximity mines.
Adaptive Shield: Create temporary personal shields. Amount increases with more enemies nearby.
Piledriver: Slam into the ground below to damage and launch enemies upward.
You can also hear Game Director Jeff Kaplan talk more about the little guy in the latest Developer Update video. It’s been embedded after the break. (more…)
Ride into battle on a futuristic train aboard hoverbikes in the latest Blazing Chrome trailer
The Arcade Crew and JoyMasher are back with another gameplay trailer for Blazing Chrome, their Contra-inspired side-scrolling shooter. This time, Mavra the Human and Doyle the Robot are taking a pair of hoverbikes out for a spin in a battle atop a moving train:
The gorgeous, eye-popping new footage presents the second level of the game, where heroes Mavra and Doyle take on a variety of unique and oppressive enemies like the hovering and damage-dealing Thunderbird and the dangerous bike-Reapers as the heroic duo whiz to glory in their war against militant AI supercomputers. Combining explosive action with a variety of powerful and distinctive weaponry, Blazing Chrome harkens to the golden age of action platformers but harnesses modern-day controls and deep gameplay mechanics.
Anyone who grew up in the 90s will certainly feel the pull of nostalgia towards JoyMasher’s homage to one of the classics of the genre. But as of right now, we don’t know when we’ll get to play it. Blazing Chrome is currently in the works for the PC (and other unnamed platforms), and hopefully the developer will announce a launch date soon.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Blazing Chrome
Anthem nabs five nominations in Game Critics Awards’s Best of E3 2018 roundup
Every year, the Game Critics Awards, a consortium of more than 50 major publications that cover the video game industry, gets together to choose the best games at the E3 Expo. The nominees for “Best of E3 2018” were announced this morning, and BioWare’s Anthem lead the way with five nominations (including “Best of Show”).
From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is also in the running for “Best of Show,” and it’s standing close behind Anthem with four total nominations. After that, a mob of games collided in third place with three nominations apiece (including Battlefield V, Dreams, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Resident Evil 2, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate). All but Battlefield V and Dreams are also up for “Best of Show.”
The PS4 was the most-honored platform with 58 nominations, followed by the PC (with 55), the Xbox One (with 51), and the Switch (with 10).
Several games that clicked with fans at home during the pre-E3 press conferences (including Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and many others) weren’t eligible for nomination because they weren’t available to play by the judging panel.
But most of those games will likely get another shot next year (especially since I expect to be old and gray before Death Stranding is released), and you can find all of this year’s nominees after the break. The winners will be announced this coming Monday, July 2. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Anthem, Battlefield V, Dreams, E3 2018, FIFA 19, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4, Kingdom Hearts III, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Overcooked 2, Resident Evil 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Spider-Man, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tetris Effect, Total War: Three Kingdoms