Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 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
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: News
Mayfair Games wants to make Cones of Dunshire game from Parks & Rec a reality
Fans of NBC’s Parks and Recreation will remember Ben Wyatt’s meltdown in season four when he spent some downtime from his career perfecting calzones, making a five-second stop-animation film, and working on The Cones of Dunshire, his delightfully dorky and complex board game that all the other characters thought was a massive cry for help. It came as no surprise that many a viewers’ interest was piqued by that episode, and that folks wanted to bring it to life. A prototype was available at last year’s Gen Con, and now efforts to bring Ben’s awesome fictional nerdiness to fruition are stronger than ever.
According to Entertainment Weekly, a playable version of The Cones of Dunshire may soon be available to regular nerds everywhere as long as they have $500 and a dream. Mayfair Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign to collect $300,000 in order to bring a deluxe edition of the game alive, and copies of the game will only be given to backers who pledge at least $500. Even if you can’t afford that (and who can?) there are various donation levels with corresponding swag packages — $20 can get you a Cones of Dunshire poster and a pin, for example. Starting at $650+ the rewards become more complicated with various caches of goodies including the game, t-shirt, baseball hat, pin, poster, tokens, stickers, figures, flags and bases, Parks & Rec replica script, etc. And add-ons, oh the add-ons!
Check out the Kickstarter for the scoop on the game, what’s included, a complete list of rewards, and pictures of the whole kit and kaboodle. As of this writing, the campaign has raised $21,000 towards its goal and appears to be well on its way with a little under two months left. If they do achieve their goal, Mayfair Games expects to ship The Cones of Dunshire out to backers sometime in or around July of this year.
Posted in News
Tagged Tabletop Games
Weekly Warp-Up: 2014 Games of the Year 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…
2015 is still moving at a snail’s pace, so now’s the perfect time to reveal the winners of Warp Zoned’s 2014 Golden Pixel Awards. All of our favorite (and not so favorite) games of the year are available for your perusal, so go peruse!
In other Game of the Year news, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor collected the most nominations for the GDC Awards and the DICE Awards. Also, the nominees for the 2015 Writers Guild Awards have been announced.
Finally this week, Senior Editor Nicole Kline sat down with Ascension: Deckbuilding Game and wrote up a review. While the core Ascension action is still good, this adaptation is not.
More news from Warp Zoned’s week that was can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, Grey Goo, More
O when the Saints go marching in
When the Saints go marching in
O Lord I want to be in that number
When the Saints go marching in
The Third Street Saints are back and on the PS4 and Xbox One for the first time this week in Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, an expanded and enhanced version of the PS3/Xbox 360 hit from 2013. Re-Elected includes all of the downloadable content produced by Volition for Saints Row IV as well as Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, a standalone expansion where players are asked to “shoot The Devil in the face.” Gat Out of Hell will also be available on its own for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Also available this week is Grey Goo, a real-time strategy game for the PC from Petroglyph Games, and Motorcycle Club, a budget racer for the PS3 and PS4.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Saints Row IV, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
Resident Evil Revelations 2 has been pushed back a week to February 24
It looks like the episodic release schedule that Capcom announced for Resident Evil Revelations 2 has hit a snag. The first episode was originally scheduled to launch on February 17, but the publisher has been forced to delay it by a week to “fine-tune the final product.” This means that every episode in the game’s weekly schedule will also suffer a one-week delay:
- Episode 1: February 24 (PS3, PS4), February 25 (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Episode 2: March 3 (PS3, PS4), March 4 (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Episode 3: March 10 (PS3, PS4), March 11 (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
- Episode 4: March 17 (PS3, PS4), March 18 (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
As you might have guessed, this means that the retail disc version has also been delayed by a week. It’ll be available in stores for all five platforms (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One) on March 17.
To make the wait feel a little bit shorter, Capcom has released a pair of videos showcasing some new enemies that will appear in Resident Evil Revelations 2 through the Capcom-Unity blog.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor leads the way among 2015 DICE Awards nominees
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences have announced the nominees for this year’s DICE Awards and, just like the GDC Awards, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is leading the pack. Monolith’s expansion of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings garnered nine nominations including “Outstanding Achievement in Animation,” “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design,” “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Story,” “Outstanding Innovation in Gaming,” “Outstanding Technical Achievement,” “Outstanding Character,” “Adventure Game of the Year,” and “Game of the Year.”
Shadow of Mordor will be competing against four games for the top prize. Rounding out the category are Bungie’s Destiny, BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4, and Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. All told, 56 games received a nomination in at least one category.
This year’s DICE Awards have added a new category to the festivities, the DICE Sprite Award, in an attempt to recognize work done by smaller studios. The Banner Saga, Hohokum, Monument Valley, Threes!, and Transistor will be competing for the inaugural DICE Sprite Award, which honors “innovative gameplay and experiences.”
The full list of nominees can be found after the break and don’t forget to tune in to Twitch.TV on Thursday, February 5 at 7:00 PM (Eastern Time) to find out the winners. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
CoD: Advanced Warfare goes 2-for-2 as the best-selling game of December 2014
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is on a roll. After being named the best-selling game for all of last year, the NPD Group also confirmed that it was the best-selling game of December as well. Activision’s latest military shooter also took the top spot in November, during its first month of release.
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, December’s sales chart was dominated by big-name franchises including Grand Theft Auto V (#2), Madden NFL 15 (#3), Super Smash Bros. For Wii U / Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Minecraft (#6).. really, just the entire top ten.
On the hardware side of things, the Xbox One once again was the best-selling console, besting the PS4 for a second month in a row. The console’s $50 price cut is really working for Microsoft and the company has decided to reinstate the discount beginning today, possibly on a permanent basis.
The full top ten for December 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny, Far Cry 4, FIFA 15, Grand Theft Auto V, Just Dance 2015, Madden NFL 15, Minecraft, NBA 2K15, NPD, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the best-selling game of 2014
The NPD Group has finished calculating the 2014 game sales in the United States and they’re ready to declare a winner. In 2014, gamers bought more copies of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare than any other game. The franchise actually bookended both ends of the list as Call of Duty: Ghosts tabulated enough 2014 sales to check in at #10. In between those two extremes, the list actually features plenty of familiar faces.
Last year’s best-selling game, Grand Theft Auto V, managed to heist the #4 spot thanks to good sales in the early half of the year and a PS4/Xbox One re-release in the Fall. Sports games occupied three spots in the top ten as Madden NFL 15 (#2), NBA 2K15 (#7), and FIFA 15 (#9) were all popular with players.
Gamers voted with their wallets and both of 2014’s budding megafranchises-in-the-making cracked the top ten. Destiny came in at #3 while Watch Dogs had to settle for the #8 spot.
All told, game software sales were down 13% in 2014 to $5.3 billion. That’s still an impressive chunk of change, but players are increasingly moving over to digital storefronts for the majority of their game purchases. The complete top ten from 2014 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Destiny, FIFA 15, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 15, Minecraft, NBA 2K15, NPD, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, Watch Dogs
Microsoft cuts price of the Xbox One console to $349 again… perhaps permanently
Microsoft has just announced that the retail price of the Xbox One will once again be dropping back down to $349. The new price will go into effect tomorrow, January 16, and there’s currently no end date in sight. While this means that the price cut is officially a temporary one, Microsoft has made no indication that gamers should hurry if they want to pick up an Xbox One for $349.
The previous Xbox One discount was put in place on November 2, 2014 and expired on January 3, 2015. The lower price helped Microsoft as the Xbox One triumphed over the PS4 on the sales charts in both November and December.
“Building off a record-setting holiday, we are excited to announce a new promotion in which fans in the U.S. can buy an Xbox One at a special price of $349, starting tomorrow, January 16, from their preferred retailer,” Mike Nichols, Corporate Vice President of Marketing for Xbox, wrote on the Xbox Wire. “We are thankful for all the excitement for Xbox One this holiday and proud to offer more fans the amazing games lineup, Xbox Live gaming community, and continual innovation that Xbox One fans have come to enjoy.”
Microsoft is pretty excited about what the Xbox One will offer in 2015 and they’ve put together the montage-heavy trailer above, which features Rise of the Tomb Raider, Halo 5: Guardians, Evolve, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Ori and the Blind Forest, Fable Legends, and more.