Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: 3DS
NBA 2K15 smashes to the top of Oct 2014 best-seller list (yes, even over Smash Bros 3DS)
Even though the month of October saw the release of a new Borderlands game and the first Smash Bros. title for a handheld, NBA 2K15 emerged victorious in The NPD Group’s recounting of the best-selling games of October 2014.
The basketball sim managed to hold off a pair of new releases as well as the continued sales success of Super Smash Bros. For 3DS (which landed at #2). A trio of new releases, The Evil Within (#3), Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (#4), Skylanders: Trap Team (#6), were close behind.
And believe it or not, but Minecraft continues to hold a spot in the top ten as the retail release of the PlayStation 4 Edition propelled it into #10 on the list. Sunset Overdrive, Microsoft’s big Xbox One exclusive for the Fall, did not make the top ten though Joystiq is reporting that it was the ninth best-selling game among individual titles.
This month’s top ten can be found in a handy list format after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Destiny, FIFA 15, Madden NFL 15, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Minecraft, NBA 2K15, NPD, Skylanders: Trap Team, Super Smash Bros. For 3DS, The Evil Within
Nintendo Download: Lego Batman 3, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Sonic Boom, more
It’s Thursday and that means Nintendo is ready to drop another eShop update on a waiting populace. This week, Nintendo fans can look forward to…
- Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U) – A Sonic game based on the upcoming animated series that focuses on exploration and teamwork.
- Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Wii U, 3DS) – The latest game in TT Games’ Lego series takes Batman and the rest of the DCU (and Conan O’Brien and Kevin Smith, for some reason) into outer space.
- Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Wii U) – The Game Boy Advance classic is now available through the Virtual Console. Seems fitting that Super Circuit is available on the same day as Mario Kart 8‘s Legend of Zelda DLC Pack.
- A World of Keflings (Wii U) – NinjaBee’s kingdom builder finally makes its way to the Wii U.
- Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS) – A side-scrolling Sonic game based on the upcoming animated series.
- Tetris Ultimate (3DS) – The latest rendition of Tetris, this time courtesy of Ubisoft.
- Picross E5 – Nintendo’s latest game in their portable “Picture Crossword” series.
More details about all of these games (as well as a few others releasing this week) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Xbox 360
Tagged Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Sonic Boom, Tetris Ultimate
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.
New Releases: Halo Master Chief Collection, AC: Unity/AC: Rogue, Lego Batman 3, More
With Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s launch behind us, game publishers have moved forward with a massive amount of mid-November releases. Chief among them (that’s right, I went there) is Microsoft’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection, an Xbox One repackaging of Halo: Combated Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4. More Achievements than you could ever ask for and four of the best shooters to ever grace a gaming system. Not a bad deal. Also available this week is a double shot of Assassin’s Creed from Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (PS3, Xbox 360) closes the book on the franchise’s “Americas” saga while Assassin’s Creed: Unity (PC, PS4, Xbox One) shifts the series to the French Revolution.
The remaining new releases can also be slotted into several long-running franchises including WB’s Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One), Sega’s Sonic Boom two-fer (Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric on the Wii U and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on the 3DS), Bandai Namco’s Tales of Hearts R (Vita), and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One).
Finally this week, Blizzard is back with another World of Warcraft expansion… World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Sportsball, Pier Solar, Super Mario Advance, Disney Infinity 2.0, more
Did you catch yesterday’s Nintendo Direct presentation? We don’t have the full picture yet, but it looks like Nintendo will have a lot of interesting offerings in 2015. But if you’re looking for something new to play today on your Wii U or 3DS, here’s what was added to the Nintendo eShop this week:
- Pier Solar and the Great Architects (Wii U) – A retro-style RPG that was originally released for the Sega Genesis (!) in 2010 (!).
- Super Mario Advance (Wii U) – Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance re-release of Super Mario Bros. 2 is now available on the Virtual Console.
- Disney Infinity: 2.0 Edition (Wii U) – A special downloadable edition of Disney Infinty: Marvel Super Heroes. Requires the separate purchase of an Infinity Base and at least one figure.
- Sportsball (Wii U) – Sportsball is a unique blend of “Soccer + Jousting + Flying Birds” in a retro-styled package. OK…
- Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (3DS) – The Game Boy Color classic can be downloaded through the Virtual Console.
More information about all of these games (and a few others) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes
3DS re-release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask announced by Nintendo
Nintendo has been toying with the idea of a 3DS re-release of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for quite a while now (at least as far back as 2011). But it looks like they’ve finally answered their fans’ pleas of “Hey! Listen!” and announced that The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D will be released exclusively for the 3DS in Spring 2015.
Majora’s Mask is a contentious entry in the Legend of Zelda canon as many fans hold it up as one of the franchise’s high points, while others think it’s a bit gimmicky and/or weird. But we’ll all get to re-experience it together next year with enhanced 3D graphics and “added features for a smoother game experience.”
You can check out the first trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D above.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
New Releases: CoD: Advanced Warfare, Wolf Among Us, Harvest Moon: Lost Valley, More
It’s the first full week of November, so you know what that means, don’t you? Activision is rolling out the latest entry in their Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Starring Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons, the head of a massive Private Military Contractor, the near-future shooter will be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
Naturally, this also means that all of the other publishers are ducking Advanced Warfare and holding their big November games until later in the month. Sometimes Nintendo bucks the trend with a big game, but not this year. Instead, we get the 3DS game Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (the first in the series to be developed in-house at Natsume) and Telltale’s collected edition of The Wolf Among Us (PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One). And speaking of collections, 2K Games bundled together BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition for the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week.
The full list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged BioShock Infinite, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, The Wolf Among Us
Insert Quarter: A Profile of the Video Game Archivists at the Library of Congress
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
With more than 6,000 titles, the Library of Congress is home to one of the largest video game archives in the world. But the curation and management of the collection is in the hands of just four part-time employees. BuzzFeed’s Joseph Bernstein reached out to these four men to learn how the Library of Congress is attempting to preserve America’s gaming heritage and how much more still needs to be done:
No, the work of game copyrighting and archiving at our country’s signal institution for cultural preservation is not done by a dedicated full-time staff. Instead, it’s the passion project of a handful of archivists who want to be the new standard-bearers in the preservation of video games. Indeed, the state of video game collection at the Library is something of an expression of the liminal state of video games in American popular culture writ large. The Library recognizes the cultural importance of video games, but only devotes four people part-time to their archiving; Game companies insist that their products are the medium of the future, but don’t trust archives with their source code; Collectors sell their troves on Craigslist and eBay rather than considering donation.
Even to get to this point, though, has been a journey in and of itself.
You can read the rest of the article at BuzzFeed.