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
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: Articles
Endure the latest video in Fallout 4’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L. series… E for Endurance
“Following total atomic annihilation, the rebuilding of this great nation of ours may fall to you. Study these materials carefully to ensure your survival and to discover what makes you S.P.E.C.I.A.L.”
Betehsda is back with another educational look at the traits necessary to survive in Fallout 4‘s harsh Wasteland. This time, the publisher has decided to focus on the benefits of Endurance… which apparently leads to a lot of cannibalism and a few run-ins with rampaging mutant crabs.
Fallout 4 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 10. And tune in next week… Same Vault-Time, Same Vault-Channel… for Charisma, the next entry in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. video series.
Explore the extensive timeline of the Call of Duty: Black Ops franchise in this video
Beginning with the birth of Victor Reznov in 1913, the Black Ops saga spans more than 100 years of history… most of which has been redacted. Thankfully, developer Treyarch has compiled this primer to help players read through the lines before the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops III. If you’ve got ten minutes to spare, I highly recommend you spend it reacquainting yourself with the events behind Black Ops and Black Ops II.
And if you skip to the end, you’ll even find out which of Black Ops II’s multiple endings is considered the true ending by Treyarch.
Call of Duty: Black Ops III will be released for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 6.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Black Ops III
IO Interactive delays Hitman’s debut to March 2016
It looks like IO Interactive’s ambitious release plan for the next Hitman game, simply titled Hitman, has proven to be a bit too ambitious. The developer confirmed earlier this week (via the Hitman Development Blog) that the game will no longer be released this December as originally planned. Instead, Hitman will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in March 2016.
IO Interactive is positioning Hitman as an episodic game… but with a twist. Instead of giving players the option purchase individual episodes at regular intervals, the developer wants to sell Hitman for full price upfront and release a number of free updates throughout the year. Part of the reason for the game’s delay is to ensure that more content is available at launch:
[W]e’re going for a new release model where we put out a good chunk of the game when it begins and then release the remaining locations over time. We want to make absolutely sure you all get the best possible experience when you join, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move the initial release date to March 2016. These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that’s what we’re all looking for.
To help fans visualize the scope of their latest project, IO Interactive also created an impressive infographic to better show off the size of Agent 47’s new playground. The gray layer in the infographic represents “Street of Hope,” the largest level in Hitman: Absolution. Meanwhile, the red layer directly underneath shows “Paris: The Showstopper”, a Hitman locale that’s roughly six times larger. This mission will also give players the option of 300 potential Targets (versus 50 in Absolution), and more than 25 unique areas to explore.
IO Interactive will announce more details about how the size of Hitman’s world will affect Agent 47 next week. The team also plans to reveal more details about the game’s episodic release schedule at the same time.
Xbox Store Today: Skylanders SuperChargers, FIFA 16, Blood Bowl II, more
Today is the first day of Fall and that means that Activision and Vicarious Visions are back with another entry in the popular Skylanders franchise. This time, the Skylanders will hop into a variety of different vehicles in Skylanders SuperChargers, which is now available to download through the Xbox Games Store on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. “Epic adventures over land, under sea, and through the sky” are promised, but you’ll need to own a Portal of Power from a previous Skylanders game to experience it all.
Also available to download this week is a pair of sports titles that use a football field in two very different ways. EA’s FIFA 16 (Xbox One, Xbox 360) is a traditional soccer simulation that features hundreds of teams from across the world. And in a first for the franchise, it also features 16 women’s teams that were part of this year’s World Cup. However, the other side of the pitch is occupied by Blood Bowl II, a turn-based strategy game that melds American football with the fantastic characters found in the Warhammer universe.
Finally this week, two arena fighters will battle it out for your gaming dollar. In this corner, Golden Ruby Games will release Extreme Exorcism, a supernatural single-screen arena fighter, for the Xbox One. And in this other corner, Self Made Miracle will release Penarium, an arena game set in a sinister circus, for the Xbox One.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Blood Bowl 2, Extreme Exorcism, FIFA 16, Skylanders SuperChargers
Daily Scoop: September 23, 2015 – Last day for the Humble GameMaker Bundle!
What’s going on, Internet? I’m looking forward to a night hopefully filled with Codenames, Chinese food, and good company. How about you?
Just so you know, we’re in the last 24 hours of the Play and Create with GameMaker from Humble. Pay what you want for YoYo RPG with Foliage Pack and Items Pack, Another Perspective, WizardWizard with source code and documentation, Spoiler Alert, and Death Ray Manta. Pay $6 or more to unlock GameMaker: Studio Pro, Stealth Bastard Deluxe, Savant – Ascent, Detective Case and the Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon, 10 Second Ninja, and Super Crate Box, along with the source code for Another Perspective, Death Ray Manta, Spoiler Alert, and Super Crate Box.
And don’t forget – there’s lots more. For $12, you can unlock GameMaker Studio: Android Expert Module, Wasteland Kings, and the source code for Stealth Bastard Deluxe, Savant – Ascent, Detective Case and the Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon, 10 Second Ninja, and Wasteland Kings. And you can still get L’Abbaye des Morts and Spelunky ClassicMight and Magic. Pick up the Might & Magic Franchise Pack for $24.99, which includes Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Heroes of Might & Magic V, and much, much more. Check out the page for the full listing! Today’s Daily Deal is Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty. Pick it up now to get it free until 10AM PST September 24), or pack $9.99 for it.
Not a lot of t-shirts today… (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
Skylanders SuperChargers, FIFA 16, Blood Bowl II, Soma, more added to PS Store
The Skylanders are back, and if you already own a Portal of Power, you can download Skylanders SuperChargers for the PS3 and PS4 from the PlayStation Store right now.
If Activision’s game/toy hybrid isn’t for you, there’s plenty of other new releases available this week including FIFA 16 (PS4, PS3), EA’s latest soccer simulation; Blood Bowl II (PS4), Cyanide’s second crack at “fantasy” football; and Soma (PS4), Frictional’s horrific follow-up to Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
The PlayStation Store is particularly stacked this week as further down the new release list is Extreme Exorcism (PS4 + PS3 Cross-Buy), a supernatural single-screen arena fighter from Golden Ruby Games; Laserlife, the latest game from Bit.Trip developer Choice Provisions; and Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma – Volume 1 (PS4), another ultra-violent martial arts saga based on the anime series.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. And you can check in with the PlayStation Blog to take a gander at this week’s new game add-ons and discounts. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Blood Bowl 2, Extreme Exorcism, FIFA 16, Skylanders SuperChargers, Soma
Daily Scoop: September 22, 2015 – TowerFall Ascension on sale now!
While Philadelphia gets prepared for the Popepocalypse, Anthony Amato and I are prepping for TopatoCon! So if you’re going and want to hang out, or buy a copy of RESISTOR_, or just high five us, please stop by!
There are some great deals happening right now at the Humble Store! MechaNika is $3.59, Penarium is $8.99, and Final Fantasy V is $14.39, among others.
The Midweek Madness at Steam is mad indeed – it’s TowerFall Ascension for just $3.74! You can also get the DLC for $6.69. Seriously, this is one of the greatest games ever made, so if you don’t own it already, this is basically burglary. The Daily Deal is The Magic Circle, which is on sale for $13.39.
Let’s check out some t-shirts, shall we? (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
Hyrule Warriors Legends won’t offer stereoscopic 3D option on older 3DS models
Hyrule Warriors will be released on the 3DS sometime next year, but it looks like Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have been forced to make some compromises to get it to run on the handheld.
Speaking to 4Gamer, Producer Hayashi Yosuke revealed that the handheld version of the game, which will be known as Hyrule Warriors Legends, will only support stereoscopic 3D on the New 3DS or New 3DS XL. This limitation was imposed on the game due to the extremely high number of enemies and graphical effects that Hyrule Warriors throws at players in every level. Thankfully, the processor found in the New 3DS is able to sidestep these limitations due to its beefier hardware configuration.
Yosuke also confirmed that Hyrule Warriors Legends will include every previously-released downloadable expansion on the cartridge, as well as Amiibo support (which was available on the Wii U version as well). It should be available in stores sometime in early 2016.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Hyrule Warriors, TGS 2015