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: November 11, 2014 – Jack Doppleganger playable today!
For all of you who have been digging on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel since it came out, today is your day! You can finally play as Jack… well, Jack’s Doppleganger. I’ve been seeing his class mods popping up all over the place, so I’m interested to check him out myself!
A brand new Humble Bundle just launched! Pay what you want for Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure, Always Sometimes Monsters, and four copies of Insurgency. Share a copy of Insurgency to unlock Full Mojo Rampage. Pay more than the average to unlock Grid 2, Blackguards, and Euro Truck Simulator 2. Pay $12 or more to unlock the big one, Saints Row IV! What a great collection.
Over at Steam, they’ve got a brand new Daily Deal. It’s 80% off Rogue Legacy, marking it down to $2.99. And in the physical realm, there’s a big Buy 2, Get 1 Free sale happening at Target, loaded with lots of reduced prices. Go check it out!
Check out all of today’s t-shirts!
Posted in Daily Scoop
Just Cause 3 officially announced for 2015 release on the PC, PS4, Xbox One
After a variety of leaks, fans of the first two games in the franchise have long assumed that Just Cause 3 has been in development at Avalanche Studios. Today, the developer has confirmed that their New York studio has been hard at work on the game for the last three years and that it’ll be released in 2015 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The news comes not via publisher Square Enix, but instead from Game Informer, as Just Cause 3 will appear on the cover of the magazine’s December issue:
In 2015, the beloved series returns with Just Cause 3 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. We got the chance to be the first people outside of the studio to play not just 10 or 20 minutes, but several hours of the game, set in a fictional Mediterranean archipelago. The time flew by as we tried out the vastly improved parachute and grapple mechanics, terrorized the latest dictator’s well-defended bases, and soared through the sky with the all-new wingsuit. Just Cause has never played this smoothly, and as you’ll see in the cover story launching digitally today, it’s never looked this good.
More details about Just Cause 3 will trickle out of Game Informer’s editorial offices all month. And in case you’re wondering what the main Avalanche team is working on, they’ll release Mad Max in 2015 for WB Games.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Just Cause 3
Daily Scoop: November 10, 2014 – Evaporated weekend
Well my weekend completely flew by! It was over before I knew it. I saw one of my favorite bands, the Dismemberment Plan, on Friday. It was a blast! On Saturday, Anthony and I met with a friend to discuss our Kickstarter and business stuff, and on Sunday we met with some other friends to catch up at a late brunch. It was a fun and happy weekend! We even managed to get some Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel in there, and I’m coming up on the Elite Four in Pokemon Platinum. I just have to beat it before the new ones come out!
Let’s see, what’s on sale for today? The Humble Store is still celebrating its birthday, and has some pretty great deals! The Metro Redux Bundle is $24.99, Dungeon Defenders is $7.49, and Batman: Arkham Origins is $4.99, just to name a few. Check out the link for many more cheap games!
There are 48 new Weeklong Deals happening at Steam, including Star Trek for $3.74, Nuclear Dawn for $2.49, and Volt for $2.39. The Daily Deal is SteamWorld Dig, which is on sale for $2.49. Scoop ’em up!
Check out all the amazing t-shirts for sale after the jump!
Posted in Daily Scoop
Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Valve, others teaming up for The Game Awards 2014
Geoff Keighley is leaving the familiar confines of the Spike TV-sponsored VGX Awards to launch a brand new game industry event: The Game Awards. The VGX Awards polled a wide range of game journalists to select the best games of the year, but The Game Awards will take a different tack. Their advisory board will instead be made up of some of the industry’s biggest executives and developers:
- Reggie Fils-Aime (Nintendo of America)
- Yves Guillemot (Ubisoft)
- Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions)
- Shawn Layden (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- Peter Moore (Electronic Arts)
- Phil Spencer (Microsoft)
- Martin Tremblay (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- An unnamed representative from Rockstar Games
- An unnamed representative from Valve
The nominations for this year’s Game Awards haven’t been announced yet, but we do know that the ceremony will take place on December 5 at the AXIS Theater in Las Vegas. Tickets will go on sale tomorrow and those of us that aren’t planning to attend the live show will be able to watch an online stream of the events through the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, Nintendo Network, Steam, and “many other sites and platforms.”
And you’ll probably want to pay close attention as, just like the VGX Awards, the show will feature a series of trailers promoting a variety of upcoming games. Musical performances and appearances by “game developers, eSports players and online content creators” will round out the 2014 Game Awards agenda.
Spike TV has yet to announce whether the VGX Awards will be held this year.
Microsoft has filed a trademark application for Battletoads
Battletoads. Just it’s name should conjure up images of broken controllers and tears of frustration for any kid who lived through the NES era. It is fondly remembered today as one of the most difficult video games of all time and the launching pad for a franchise that would eventually span four more titles.
And yet, the last Battletoads game, an arcade rendition known as Super Battletoads, was released in 1994. The series has laid dormant for 20 years… until now.
Last week, Microsoft filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to revive the Battletoads name. Because this is only a trademark application, it doesn’t mean that a new Battletoads game is necessarily in the works. But it is a very good sign. Especially after the announcement earlier this year that Rare would be changing their “development methodology” and possibly leaving their series of Kinect-based games behind.
Insert Quarter: What’s the Best Way To Introduce Halo (or Any Game) To Your Kids?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Geeky parents have long wondered what is the best way to introduce their favorite geeky media to their children. It’s definitely a universal thought that I’ve even caught myself having. I don’t have kids yet and I’ve wondered when will be the right time to introduce them to the Star Wars trilogy (and in what order). With this week’s release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Polygon’s Ben Kuchera ponders this predicament as it relates to the game industry’s premiere first person shooter series. Aside from a baffling adherence to inverted controls, Kuchera wonders what parts of the game he should show his son and what parts he should let him discover on his own:
We’re pretty strict about what games the kids play, and for how long, and this is the first time my son and I have played a mature-rated game together. He lacks rudimentary skills when it comes to first-person shooters, and I begin to feel like I’ve been failing him by not teaching him this stuff earlier.
You can read the rest of the article at Polygon.
Posted in Insert Quarter, Xbox One
Tagged Halo: The Master Chief Collection
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void will be a standalone game
It’s been more than six years since Blizzard split StarCraft II into three games, but it looks like we’re finally reaching the end of the line with this first look at StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. A release date for Legacy of the Void wasn’t announced, but we do know that it’ll be a standalone expansion, and will not require players to have previously purchased StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty or StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
Legacy of the Void will complete the StarCraft II saga by focusing on the telepathic race of aliens known as the Protoss. Perhaps owing to the unique team-based abilities that telepathy would give you, Blizzard has announced a pair of cooperative gameplay modes will be included in Legacy of the Void, a first for the StarCraft series:
Archon Mode, a competitive multiplayer mode unveiled at BlizzCon, is a new way to enjoy StarCraft II with friends. In Archon Mode, two players share control over a single base and units as they take on an enemy duo in multiplayer action. By sharing the responsibility of commanding troops and managing resources, players can focus on their own areas of the battle and execute more intricate strategies.
Allied Commanders is another gameplay mode new to StarCraft II. In this objective-based, cooperative experience, players can team up and take on the roles of powerful commanders from the StarCraft saga. Each commander offers unique abilities and upgrades and bestows special bonuses on their armies. Players are able to battle through a series of special scenarios together, leveling up their commanders’ capabilities as they progress.
You can visit Blizzard’s official site for Legacy of the Void to get a look at some of the game’s new characters as well as to sign up for a chance to be included in next year’s multiplayer beta test.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
Shigeru Miyamoto confirms that Pikmin 4 is in development
Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Pikmin 4 is in development during a recent shareholders Q&A session. In answering a question about development costs, the famed developer began to discuss the recently released Pikmin short films he created as well as the demo version and downloadable content for Pikmin 3. Miyamoto said that all of this bonus content is meant to be a way to prepare consumers for a planned Pikmin 4:
If I am allowed to do a little bit of PR here, we released a series of short films called Pikmin Short Movies on October 25 at the Tokyo International Film Festival. […] At the same time, we have also prepared a demo version of Pikmin 3 so anyone who hasn’t played Pikmin can experience its unique joy. Continually launching campaigns after the release of software will lay the groundwork for the next iteration of Pikmin in the future. And needless to say, we want it to be one of the motivations for potential consumers to purchase Wii U.
Because of the Wii-to-Wii U transition, Pikmin 3 took five years to go from announcement to release. Hopefully, launching Pikmin 4 on the Wii U means that the fourth entry in the franchise won’t spend so long in development.