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
Portal board game teleports to your tabletop this Summer
Cryptozoic Entertainment has just announced their product preview for 2014, which included a board game based on the beloved Portal franchise. The best part is that the “custom playing pieces include test subjects, sentry turret, weighted companion cube, and delicious cake.” The tagline even says it comes with cake, and that it isn’t a lie. How exciting!
The final name is not yet determined, but the tentative name is “Portal: Uncooperative Cake Acquisition Game.” Also, the good news is that it was “designed by the creators of Portal and Portal 2,” which means it should at least be close to the humor we know and love from the series.
The Portal board game has a tentative release date of Q3 2014. It will be for two to four players, and will cost $50.
Posted in News
Tagged Portal, Portal 2, Tabletop Games
Borderlands: Gunsight Review: Another Terrible Book Tie-In
John Shirley is at it again with his third book in the Borderlands series. Borderlands: Gunsight has Brick on the cover, but don’t let that fool you: Brick isn’t more than a periphery character in this book. No, this book continues where Borderlands: Unconquered left off – with Mordecai shacked up with Daphne Kuller, AKA Kuller the Killer. And that’s not all it has in common with the second book – it’s just as terribly written as that one, and just as boring. And oh yeah – Shirley still has not learned how to use semicolons. Can someone please take away that guy’s computer already? (more…)
Someone is making an Oculus Rift version of The Legend of Zelda
Did you ever want to play The Legend of Zelda with a first person viewpoint? I’m sure a few people are saying to themselves, “that could be fun,” while a few others are nodding their heads in vigorous fashion. If you’re one of the latter, then ZeldaVR is for you.
What is ZeldaVR? It’s a first person conversion of the NES adventure that uses the Oculus Rift to drop players into Link’s pointy elf shoes:
This is a VR clone of The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The gameplay and artwork are virtually identical to the original NES classic, however in this version you see the world through Link’s eyes, in all of it’s virtual 3D 8-bit glory. Explore the world, find weapons, kill enemies, collect items, discover secrets, buy upgrades, delve into dungeons, defeat bosses, restore the Triforce, and rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon.
ZeldaVR, which was created by a developer known as “Ubiquitron,” definitely gives off a strong Minecraft vibe to me. If you want to try it out for yourself, the game is currently available as a beta release with the full version set to be released next month at VirtualReality.io.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged The Legend of Zelda
Daily Scoop: February 24, 2014 – Lots of digital deals
I spent the weekend alternating between writing and gaming. Anthony Amato and I have been playing a ton of Torchlight II recently, which we’ve been having a blast with. What game fills your weekends?
If it’s deals you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place! First up, my friends over at Ghost Crab Games are in the latest Groupees bundle. Pay what you want (minimum $1, suggested $5) for their game, Drive to Hell, as well as Paper Dungeons, Savage: The Shard of Gosen (Alpha Game) with the OST, Monster Challenge Circus, Trace Vector, Heroes of a Broken Land, Spice Road, Magicians & Looters, and Battlepaths. They’re unlocking more games and soundtracks as they sell more bundles, so go buy it!
Amazon has a few sales happening right now. You can get Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag for $29.99, Gran Turismo 6 for $39.99, Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded for $9.99, Metro Last Light for $19.99, and Moshi Monsters: Katsuma Unleashed for $6.05.
There are also lots of sales happening at the Humble Store, as always. Saints Row IV is $24.99, Tetrobot and Co. is $4.79, Blocks That Matter is $1.99, Metro Last Light is $19.99 (that’s two places it’s on sale!), and Dead Island: Riptide is $14.99. And you still have time to get the Indie Royale Bundle. Pay the minimum for Crater Maker, Doom and Destiny, Millennium 4 – Beyond Sunset, You Still Won’t Make It, Strategic War in Europe, Spirited Heart Complete, and Kill Fun Yeah, with the added Pathogen Wars.
Steam has some new Weeklong Deals, with the best by far being Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit for $3.75. And one of my favorites, Hammerwatch, is just $4.99. Scoop ’em up!
Not many shirts today… in fact, just one!
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Harold Ramis, the man who gave the world Ghostbusters, has died
This is only tangentially related to video games, but it would be a huge disservice for Warp Zoned to ignore today’s passing of one of the greatest comedic minds of the 1980s and 1990s: Harold Ramis. Ramis died this morning due to complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that affects the blood vessels. He was 69.
Ramis is best known to film fans for his appearance in 1984’s Ghostbusters as Dr. Egon Spengler. He also co-wrote the film and reprised the role in 1989’s Ghostbusters II. In 2009, he and writing partner Dan Aykroyd would team up again to resurrect the paranormal scientists in Atari’s Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Once again slipping into the character’s signature deadpan delivery, Ramis provided vocals for Egon in the game.
In addition to the Ghostbusters franchise, Ramis was responsible for more than a few movies you may have heard of. He wrote and starred in Stripes, wrote National Lampoon’s Animal House, directed National Lampoon’s Vacation, and wrote and directed Caddyshack and Groundhog Day. If you took a regular Twinkie and said that it represented the career of your average writer/director/actor, Harold Ramis’ Twinkie would be 35 feet long and weigh approximately 600 pounds. In other words, that’s a big Twinkie.
Our thoughts go out to the Ramis family.
Gearbox suing 3D Realms over Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction
3D Realms famously sold the franchise rights to Duke Nukem to Gearbox Software in 2010. And yet, earlier this month, a teaser website promoting a new Duke Nukem game co-developed by 3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment began counting down to a reveal planned for February 25. The game, an action RPG for the PC and PS4, is expected to be called Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction. So what’s Gearbox’s connection to all of this?
It looks like they’re suing 3D Realms for attempting to make a new Duke Nukem game without their permission. The complaint reads:
“Apparently, after selling its Duke Nukem IP rights to Gearbox in 2010, 3DR sought to privately convince others that the sale never happened. The result is the unauthorized development effort that reportedly exists between 3DR and Interceptor.”
In addition to the copyright infringement claim, Gearbox also released a signed declaration from 3D Realms’ George Broussard and Scott Miller stating that they are aware that Gearbox is the rightful owner of all intellectual property related to Duke Nukem.
So with all this evidence (again, the Duke Nukem IP sale in 2010 was very public), it makes you wonder exactly what 3D Realms and Interceptor were thinking. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction countdown expires tomorrow…
Xbox One + TitanFall Bundle will be available on March 11
TitanFall is, without question, this Spring’s most anticipated new game. All apologies to the glorious platforming found in Shovel Knight or the majestic difficulty of Dark Souls II, but it’s true. Microsoft, naturally, wants to promote the Xbox One’s big exclusive and they plan to do that by offering a special Xbox One Console + TitanFall Bundle.
Available on March 11, the Xbox One console in the bundle won’t feature a TitanFall-themed paint job, but it will be priced at $499.99 and include a free Xbox Live download code for the game. The Xbox One Console + TitanFall Bundle will be available in limited quantities, and pre-orders are now open at Amazon.
The most interesting thing about this announcement is that it confirms a rumor that began floating around at the end of last month. The TitanFall bundle was mentioned alongside white, 1TB, and discless consoles. So we might be in for a few more of these announcements before the end of the year. And a part of me is very interested in what a discless Xbox One would be like.
Weekly Warp-Up: IndieCade East 2014 Wrap-Up 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…
It was a very fruitful week for video game news this week. But first, you’ll want to check out Nicole Kline’s coverage of last weekend’s IndieCade East expo. She braved the show floor to bring you her impressions on some of the indie games that the world will be talking about in a few months: Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. Warp Zoned’s Mike Ryan also reviewed the PS4 version of Outlast and he thinks you should play it ASAP. Especially with all the lights out and the sound up.
What else do you need to know from this week, well…
- Take-Two closed Irrational Games as Ken Levine has decided to move on to a smaller team within the corporation.
- Bethesda announced that Wolfenstein: The New Order will be released on May 20. Pre-orders will include beta access to Doom 4.
- Bethesda also confirmed that any Fallout 4 announcement won’t be happening anytime soon.
- Cliff Bleszinski told the media that he will never make another disc-based game again and that any future games he may work on will likely be released for the PC.
- Telltale Games announced that the second episode of The Walking Dead Season 2 will be released in early March.
- In an interview with IGN, Kiefer Sutherland said that he’s involved with Mortal Kombat 10. WB Games is, so far, not commenting.
The rest of the Weekly Warp-Up, in a new format we’re trying out, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News