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
- 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”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
Most Recent: PC
Blizzard’s first animated short for Overwatch focuses on Winston the Gorilla
Excuse me… that should be Winston the Scientist. But the great thinker is also a great ape and he’s the star of “Recall,” Blizzard’s first animated short for Overwatch:
“Recall” tells the story of Winston—a genetically engineered gorilla and brilliant scientist who longs for the days of heroism to return. In this episode, we explore Winston’s thoughts and memories as he wrestles with the decision to recall the agents of Overwatch, all while the forces of Talon stage an attack on his laboratory in the abandoned Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
The short perfectly captures that Disney/Pixar vibe that Blizzard has cultivated for Overwatch all along. And could there be a better way to spend a lazy Sunday than to watch a genetically engineered gorilla fight back against a hit squad with a banana peel?
Overwatch will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 24. And the second animated short, which will focus on Talon operative Widowmaker, should be available sometime today.
Best Buds vs Bad Guys throws your favorite side-scrolling shooters into a blender
Best Buds vs Bad Guys is an upcoming side-scrolling shooter that references the greats of the genre including Contra, Ghosts N Goblins, and Mega Man. Set to be released for the PC this Spring, the game is in the works at Super Icon under the supervision of a father-and-son development team… oh, and the son is ten years old.
The trailer embedded above gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect from Best Buds vs Bad Guys. Retro-styled 16-bit graphics propel the story forward as players fight back against hundreds of different enemy types with a wide variety of wild weapons. Super Icon’s official website has even more screenshots of the action, including a quick look at a level built entirely out of Legos.
Best Buds vs Bad Guys will also be released for the PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One sometime this year.
New Releases: Quantum Break, Dirt Rally, RBI Baseball 16, More
Remedy Entertainment ends their hiatus this week with the release of the time-bending Quantum Break on the PC and Xbox One. The game, which also includes a series of live-action interludes starring Shawn Ashmore, Dominic Monaghan, and Aidan Gillen, will also be available as part of the Quantum Break + Xbox One 500GB Console Bundle. And all versions of Quantum Break will come packaged with a digital download of Remedy’s previous game, Alan Wake.
Also available this week is Dirt Rally, the latest entry in Codemasters’s popular offroad rally racing franchise. Available for the PC since December, Dirt Rally’s launch on the PS4 and Xbox One adds a number of new features including Classic Mini and Super 1600 series races, 21 Advanced Rally Driving Video Guides, the Pikes Peak course, and more.
Athletes of a different sort will compete in another of this week’s new releases, RBI Baseball 16. The rebooted baseball sim will get its first-ever retail release this week on the PS4 and Xbox One.
Finally this week, first-person adventure Ether One will launch for the PS4, and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Chronicles series of side-scrolling spinoffs will come to the Vita.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Dirt Rally, Quantum Break, RBI Baseball 2016
Graceful Explosion Machine is a dreamy shooter with a great name
Vertex Pop’s first game, We Are Doomed, was a dreamy take on Geometry Wars. Yesterday, the developer announced their second game, Graceful Explosion Machine… a dreamy take on Defender.
In addition to being a great name for a starship, Graceful Explosion Machine is a game that asks players to dash back and forth across a 2D field, blasting baddies along the way with a number of different weapons.
Graceful Explosion Machine will be released for PC and consoles in early 2017, but Vertex Pop plans to bring a playable demo of the game to this month’s PAX East convention (April 22-24) as part of the Indie Megabooth area.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Graceful Explosion Machine, PAX East 2016
Hitman: Episode Two will be available on April 26
IO Interactive has revealed (via Twitter) that the second chapter in their episodic Hitman series will be released on April 26:
Episode Two.
Sapienza.
April 26. pic.twitter.com/8I3qYVcDCu— HITMAN (@Hitman) March 31, 2016
Agent 47’s second mission will take him to Sapienza, a fictional coastal town in Italy. Further details on the famed assassin’s Italian trip are currently pretty scarce, but we did enjoy the Intro Pack quite a bit. However, IO’s marketing tactics haven’t gotten any better over the years.
This live-action Doom trailer will prepare you to “Fight Like Hell”
Doom‘s Closed Beta kicks off tonight, and publisher Bethesda wants to prepare everyone for the carnage to come with a brand new live-action trailer for the game. Joe Kosinski (who also directed Oblivion and Tron: Legacy populates Mars with Imps, Cacodemons, Barons of Hell, and all the rest of Doom’s demonic forces. It might be a slightly less-than-typical trip to the Red Planet, but don’t worry, Doomguy’s got this.
Doom will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 13. And if nothing else, this trailer gives me hope that some Hollywood types could eventually produce an amazing film adaptation of id Software’s seminal shooter.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Doom (2016)
Second Call of Duty: Black Ops III DLC Pack, Eclipse, will launch for PS4 on April 19
Activision and Treyarch have announced the second downloadable expansion for Call of Duty: Black Ops III will launch next month. The Eclipse DLC Pack will include four new multiplayer maps (including one based on CoD: World At War‘s “Banzai”) and a new chapter in the Zombies saga:
- Spire: Spire takes Multiplayer combat to a futuristic sub-orbital airport terminal set high in the clouds. Multiple levels and open areas promote intense, mid-range combat around a clean, high-tech civilian environment. Watch your step, because one wrong move could send you plummeting back through the stratosphere.
- Rift: Head to the core of a harsh futuristic military complex, set high above an active caldera. Rift funnels and forces tight, intense engagements, where the only way through is forward. Utilize the unique core movement opportunities to outsmart and outplay enemies as you traverse the suspended rail system.
- Knockout: Housed in a traditional Shaolin Temple with a retro twist, Knockout sets the stage for a bloody Kung Fu tournament. This mid-sized map showcases a sharp contrast between the mid-range engagements of the traditional exterior architecture and the tight close-quarters of an eclectic 1970’s styled interior.
- Verge: In this re-imagination of the classic Call of Duty: World At War map, “Banzai,” Verge drops Multiplayer combat into the center of a distant post-apocalyptic future, where two warring factions are entrenched in constant battle. Take control of the key bridge, fortresses, tunnel systems and waterfalls as you engage in high-speed action through this medium-sized map.
Eclipse also sets the stage for “Zetsubou No Shima,” the highly-anticipated, all-new entry in the Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies storyline that spans the four DLC Map Packs for Black Ops III this year. The Origins characters continue on their mission to stop the zombie apocalypse not only in this universe but in all universes. Our heroes find themselves stranded on a remote Pacific island which is home to the Division 9 facility: a secret biological research lab whose experiments with Element 115 and its effects on human, animal, and plant biology has created horrors beyond belief. “Zetsubou No Shima” features a foliage rich island map including new terrifying zombie enemies, a variety of innovative transport mechanics, more devastating traps and classic Zombies side quests.
The Eclipse DLC Pack will be available for PS4 owners on April 19 as part of the Black Ops III Season Pass or as a standalone download. And if Activision follows their standard operating procedure for Call of Duty DLC, PC and Xbox One owners should be able to download the new maps sometime in late May.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Two new Dark Souls III trailers reimagine the game as an animated short and 80s Direct-To-Video schlock
With less than two weeks to go before Dark Souls III‘s launch, Bandai Namco has decided to have a little fun with their marketing materials.
First, the publisher commissioned Eli Roth (the director of Cabin Fever and Hostel) to produce an animated short based on the game’s lore. In “The Witches,” a “lonely knight” comes face-to-face with three witches and attempts to repel their attacks. If you’re at all familiar with the Dark Souls franchise, you can guess how well that goes.
The second video reimagines Dark Souls III as the kind of ridiculous Direct-To-Video flick that haunted the shelves of Blockbuster in the 80s and 90s. You can check out a faux commercial for this “VHS release” after the break.
Dark Souls III will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 12. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Dark Souls III