Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Meet the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025: Quake, GoldenEye 007, Defender, and Tamagotchi
- The BAFTA Games Awards Polled the Public and Shenmue is “The Most Influential Video Game of All Time”
- 2024 GOTY Scoreboard: Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, More
- The Strong Museum of Play Acquires Prototypes and Development Documents from Volition’s 30-Year History
- Minecraft’s Volume Alpha Soundtrack Has Been Added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- It’s beginning to feel like gaming isn’t for everyone – Digital Trends (2025)
- 22 years later, modders are keeping SimCity 4 alive – The Verge (2025)
- The B-movies of Paul W.S. Anderson double as acts of devotion to his muse, Milla Jovovich – The AV Club (2025)
- Breakout, Ripoff, Genre: How Fiction Outgrows Originality – Uncanny Magazine (2025)
- ‘I Could Make “Fart Fart Boobie Fart: The Game” and Maybe It Would Eventually Get Taken Down’ – Devs Reveal Why the Consoles Are Drowning in ‘Eslop’ – IGN (2025)
Most Recent: Top Story
Insert Quarterly: The Best Game Writing of Fall 2014
Have you been following along with our first batch of Insert Quarter selections? Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet. Whether its an in-depth analysis of a major issue facing the video game industry or just a fun read that’s perfect for a coffee break, you’ll find it in Insert Quarter.
Here’s some of the game writing that we loved the most over the last three months. (more…)
Posted in Features, Insert Quarter, Top Story
Mario Kart 8: The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack Review: Now With Link
Nintendo has been late to the party with regards to adding DLC to their games, but in Mario Kart 8 they have managed to tackle my biggest gripe since the term “DLC” rose its monstrous head and became an ugly word that meant a new way for developers to rip-off gamers… and that’s the amount of content. The Legend of Zelda X Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack comes with eight new tracks, as well as a few new characters, karts, and customisations. Another DLC pack based around Animal Crossing is due out in May 2015. Both DLC Packs are individually priced at $7.99 each or you can buy both together for $11.99, which means you are getting half the game’s original content at a quarter of the price. Value for the money, indeed! (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Mario Kart 8
Hyrule Warriors Review: A Dynasty Warriors Mod, But In A Good Way
Ever since Ocarina of Time, the Legend of Zelda franchise has been near and dear to my heart. When the first trailers for Hyrule Warriors were released, I didn’t know quite what to think about it. It wasn’t quite a Zelda game, really, at least not in the traditional sense. However, as Link bombastically destroyed huge waves of enemies with increasingly over-the-top weapons, I found myself intrigued. Nintendo doesn’t often trust its most popular franchises to parties outside the company, although that has changed in recent years as Retro Studios continues to release solid titles like Donkey Kong Country Returns and Metroid Prime. However, aside from the much maligned CD-i games (that would eventually become fuel for countless YouTube parodies) and Capcom’s handheld entries, Nintendo has rarely trusted another company with the Zelda franchise. In that sense, Hyrule Warriors is a unique animal, and I couldn’t wait to try it out. (more…)
Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Wii U
Tagged Hyrule Warriors
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Review: The Natural Evolution of Retro Evolved 2
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions had a lot to live up to. The last game in the series, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, dethroned Smash TV as the standard bearer of the twin-stick shooter genre. And the first game in the franchise, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, was considered by many to be the Xbox 360’s killer app for the first year. But Lucid Games proved to be more than up to the task with an excellent new entry in the series. After the closure of Bizarre Creations (the creator of Retro Evolved and Retro Evolved 2), Lucid became the new home for multiple members of the Geometry Wars development team. So we probably shouldn’t have been worried at all. (more…)
Kickstart This! Aviary Attorney, Curse of the Darkness, Spectrum
Finding original games, especially from the bigger game developers, is becoming something of a chore. WWhile Ubisoft and Activision continue to produce annualized franchises that fans don’t seem to want as much anymore, truly original titles can always be found on Kickstarter. Designers and developers on the crowdfunding site are creating new experiences and approaching tired genres from a different angle, holding their begging bowl out to the masses to drum up enough cash to keep the lights on long enough to finish the game. So as we enter the season of giving, here are three projects that could use a helping hand. This time we looked at French-inspired animal courtroom drama Aviary Attorney, haunted house FPS Curse of the Darkness, and comic-book inspired side-scrolling adventure Spectrum. (more…)
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Review: Literally Borderlands 1.5 in Every Way
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Borderlands franchise. I’ve played the first two games for hundreds of hours, and I briefly considered getting Borderlands 2 for the Vita. I was thrilled to find out that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel would fill the gaps between the two games, allowing you to play as Handsome Jack’s cronies and detailing how he came to power. 2K Australia took over on development, working with Gearbox to create the game, and it shows.The Pre-Sequel was rife with glitches, had a weak storyline, and was generally not as fun as the second game. Quality-wise, it felt more like the first, and, at best, could be considered a giant DLC pack. And it’s definitely not worth 2K’s $60 asking price. (more…)
An InnerView with InnerSpace Director Tyler Tomaseski of PolyKnight Games
The Kickstarter phenomenon has allowed those who would not have been able to follow the traditional routes of funding to realise their visions within many art forms, but this is especially true in video games. The way the project campaign is run and managed can often be the determining factor in achieving success or returning empty-handed to the drawing board. It is the final few days that are the most tense, and no one knows this better than the team behind the unique flying adventure title InnerSpace as it entered its last 48 hours with pledges covering 95% of its funding. Then, four hours later, the game managed to skip past its 100% target of $25,000 (including a pledge from myself). We caught up with Tyler Tomaseski, Director and Programmer at PolyKnight Games, to discuss the campaign, his hopes for the game now that it has been funded, and who shot JR. (more…)
Kickstart This! Unsettled, Blood Star, Waking the Glares
Despite Peter Molyneux claiming that “Kickstarter is a destructive force for video games,” as it may cause developers to oversell a project (oh, the irony), the crowdfunding site still plays host to a smorgasbord of quality, undiluted games. This week on Kickstart This! we have top-down survival game Unsettled, Action-RPG Shooter Blood Star, and finally the Myst-esque FPS Waking the Glares. (more…)