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
Daily Scoop: August 10, 2015 – New week, new deals, new shirts!
It’s a new week, and there are some new deals, as always! At the Humble Store, you can snag some good new sales. Celestian Tales: Old North is $9.74, the pre-order of Final Fantasy Type-0 is $26.99, and Letter Quest: Grimm’s Journey is $7.19, among many others.
There are 112 brand new Weeklong Deals at Steam! Pick up Total Wars: Shogun 2 Collection for $12.49, D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, Season One for $11.39, and one I always recommend, the hysterical Mount Your Friends for $2.99. Today’s Daily Deal is Choice of Robots, which is $2.99.
There are lots of shirts today! Hit the jump to check them all out. (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop
Blizzard is hiring for an “Unannounced Diablo Project”
Despite some fan backlash at launch, Blizzard must be very pleased with the success of Diablo III. During their most recent financial report, it was revealed that the game has sold 30 million copies across the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Now it looks like Blizzard is gearing up to release a new entry in the series as an opening for an Art Director who will work on an “Unannounced Diablo Project” was recently posted on Blizzard’s Careers page.
Aside from asking that candidates possess a “deep understanding of the Diablo franchise,” there’s not much information in the listing. At this point, we dont even know if the project is Diablo IV or just a new expansion for Diablo III. And knowing Blizzard, it may be a while before we find out.
However, BlizzCon 2015 is just three months away (November 6-7 in Anaheim, California) and we may learn more about this mystery project then.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Diablo 4, Diablo III
Batterystaple will release the beta build of 20XX on September 15
Mighty No. 9 might have been officially delayed last week, but it looks like a game inspired by the Mega Man franchise will be released next month. Batterystaple Games has announced the “beta build” of 20XX, their procedurally-generated platformer that’s heavily inspired by Mega Man X, will be available on September 15.
The “beta build” of 20XX will still be part of Steam’s Early Access program and the “full release” of the game will come at a later date. However, Batterystaple considers the beta release a “major development milestone” and all of the game’s planned features, “more or less,” will be included in the beta release.
We loved 20XX at this year’s PAX East expo and can’t wait to get our hands on the beta.
Avoid the “Kill Screen” in the first gameplay trailer for Pac-Man 256
Pac-Man‘s infamous “Kill Screen,” an ominous black cloud of symbols and numbers, has become sentient in Pac-Man 256. But gaming’s most famous yellow circle has an escape plan. Pac-Man 256 is actually an “endless runner” developed by Hipster Whale, the same team that released Crossy Road for mobile devices last year.
Hipster Whale was in attendance at this weekend’s Gamescom expo, where they showed off the first gameplay trailer for Pac-Man 256. It features the same isometric style as Crossy Road with plenty of Pac-Man touches and a number of new Ghosts.
Pac-Man 256 will be available for mobile devices this Summer.
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged Gamescom 2015, Pac-Man 256
HBO’s Westworld looks to Red Dead Redemption and BioShock for inspiration
While many people only know Jonathan Nolan as Christopher Nolan’s less-famous brother, the younger Nolan has his own rather impressive career in Hollywood. In addition to co-writing The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, The Prestige, and Interstellar, he is also the creator of Person of Interest and the driving force behind HBO’s Westworld reboot. Originally released in 1973 (and parodied hilariously in the “Itchy & Scratchy Land” episode of The Simpsons), Westworld takes place within the walls of a futuristic amusement park where the life-like robots eventually run amok.
Before you ask, yes, the original movie was written and directed by Michael Crichton.
But in turning the story into a television show, Nolan wants to go beyond Crichton’s original concept and he’s looking to video games for his inspiration. Naturally, Rockstar’s classic western, Red Dead Redemption, is at the top of the list. However, Nolan told Esquire‘s Matt Patches that the underwater world of Irrational’s BioShock also informed his latest creation.
Finally, Nolan cited an “interactive play,” Sleep No More, as a third inspiration. A similar interactive theatre experience, Tamara, directly inspired Tom Zito to develop Night Trap, and other full motion video games, in the mid-90s.
HBO’s Westworld reboot will premiere sometime next year and will star Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, and Jeffrey Wright. The first teaser trailer, which was released yesterday, has been embedded above.
Weekly Warp-Up: Gamescom 2015 in Review
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…
The Gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany has been the place to be all week and it’s still the place to be today. What started as a small show for European publishers and developers has grown into one of the largest gaming conventions in the world and this year’s show features an impressive batch announcements and reveals to match.
But first, catch up on What the Warp Zoned Staff Played in July 2015 and our picks for The Games of August 2015. Also, there’s a new review of the 80s-inspired racer Spectra.
With that out of the way, on to the Gamescom news! (more…)
Posted in News
New Releases: Toy Soldiers: War Chest, XBlaze Lost: Memories
If history is any guide, we’ll see a big uptick in new releases towards the end of August. However, since we’re still in the middle of the month, only four new games will be available on store shelves this week…
Toy Soldiers: War Chest is the third Toy Soldiers game from developer Signal Studios and the first to be published by Ubisoft. The special “Hall of Fame Edition” of the strategy game will feature four fictional toy armies doing battle with iconic characters from He-Man: Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and Assassin’s Creed II. Toy Soldiers: War Chest will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Also available this week is XBlaze Lost: Memories, which will be released for the PS3 and Vita. Published by Aksys, XBlaze Lost was developed by Arc System Works and is the second prequel to the BlazBlue series of fighting games. Not only that, but the publisher and developer consider XBlaze Lost the first “RPG-style visual novel.” So I guess that’s something.
Finally, a pair of children’s games, Garfield Kart and Paddington: Adventures in London, will be released for the 3DS.
Several other new releases will be available this week through the Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, Steam, and Xbox Games Store.
Activision adds 16 songs to Guitar Hero Live to bring its total to 100 (and counting)
Earlier this week, Activision announced another batch of songs that will be included in Guitar Hero Live, bringing the total number of tracks to 100. That triple-digit number means that Guitar Hero Live will have the largest selection of on-disc of any music game when its released this Fall. The previous record holder, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, topped out at 93.
And Activision isn’t looking to beat the Babe by a single home run like Roger Maris in 1961. They want to really push the disc capacity of the new-generation systems and the publisher plans to announce even more songs for Guitar Hero Live in the future. But for now, here’s a list of all 16 songs that are part of this announcement:
- Blink-182 – “The Rock Show”
- Boston – “More Than a Feeling”
- Charlie XCX – “Famous”
- Dream Theater – “The Looking Glass”
- Echosmith – “Cool Kids”
- In Flames – “Deliver Us”
- James Bay – “Hold Back The River”
- Kasabian – “Club Foot”
- Kings of Leon – “Sex on Fire”
- Megadeth – “Hangar 18”
- MGMT – “Time to Pretend”
- Panic! At the Disco – “Girls Girls Boys”
- Passion Pit – “Take a Walk”
- Royal Blood – “Come on Over”
- Rush – “Limelight”
- You Me at Six – “Lived a Lie”
Guitar Hero Live, and its brand new six-button controller, will be released for the PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on October 20.
Posted in Mobile, News, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Gamescom 2015, Guitar Hero Live