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
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Most Recent: PC
Starbreeze delays release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead from TBA 2016 to Q3/Q4 2017
The new year has claimed its first victim as Starbreeze has decided to delay the launch of Overkill’s The Walking Dead, a Payday-esque shooter based on the popular comic series. Originally set to be completed sometime this year, the game will now be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One during the second half of 2017.
According to Starbreeze, a recent investment agreement with Korean developer Smilegate is the cause for the delay. Smilegate will offer Starbreeze a portal into the Asian games market, and the developer has decided to hold back the release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead for a year so they can expand the scope of the game.
In return, Starbreeze will produce a “premium co-op first person shooter” based on Smilegate’s CrossFire, a free-to-play shooter described as “one of the top grossing online games worldwide.” This new version of CrossFire will be exclusive to the PC and is being designed to appeal to a Western audience.
I’ve got to admit, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of CrossFire.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Overkill's The Walking Dead
A Day-By-Day Guide to All of 2016’s New Video Games (January – March)
After years and years of publishers packing the September through November “Holiday” season with an unmanageable number of new AAA titles, we might get a much more balanced release calendar in 2016. But can you believe it all happened by accident?
Video game fans have always had to deal with delays, but publishers got even more use out of their erasers than normal in 2015. Aside from the one-two punch of Fallout 4‘s E3 2015 announcement, and its eventual release on November 10th, no game felt safe… and more than a few big titles got pushed into 2016. So now we get to ring in 2016 with a release calendar that just might offer up something exciting all year long.
Are you ready? Because here… we… go… (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Amplitude, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia, Bravely Second: End Layer, EA Sports UFC 2, EVE: Valkyrie, Far Cry: Primal, Final Fantasy Explorers, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright/Conquest, Gone Home, Hitman, Hyrule Warriors, Killer Instinct, Lego Avengers, Life Is Strange, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Mighty No. 9, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, Pokken Tournament, Project X Zone 2, Rebel Galaxy, Resident Evil 0, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Street Fighter V, The Banner Saga, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The Walking Dead: Michonne, The Witness, Tom Clancy's The Division, Umbrella Corps, XCOM 2
Motiga delivers a new Gigantic gameplay trailer for the new year
Motiga has been laying low since the announcement of Gigantic‘s delay late last year. But the developer is getting ready to roar back to life in 2016 with a new version of their arena brawler (which they’re calling “Beta 2.0”) and a steadier stream of updates. To prepare fans for this next generation of Gigantic, Motiga has released a brand new gameplay trailer that shows highlights from a match with “expert players from Team Synergy.”
Gigantic’s Beta 2.0, which should be available later this month, will be exclusive to Windows 10 and Xbox One. It’s a blow to Windows 7 and Windows 8 players, but this new edition of the game will offer cross-platform play between all players and 24/7 access to the test servers.
If you’re interested in joining for the Gigantic beta, head over to GoGigantic.com to sign up for a chance to receive a key. Or let us know that you need one in the comments below… we’ve got a few spare keys lying around.
ESRB says The Witness is coming to the Xbox One too
Jonathan Blow’s The Witness will be available for the PC and PS4 on January 26, and it’s scheduled to make its iOS debut a few months after that. But according to a new Rating Summary published ESRB, the developer plans to bring the puzzle game to the Xbox One as well.
While Blow and his team haven’t made any official announcements about an Xbox One launch for The Witness, the “About” page on the game’s official website has always indicated it would someday appear on “other platforms”:
It will be released on the PC and the PlayStation 4 on January 26, 2016. The game will come to iOS some months after that, and other platforms a bit later.
However, it might be a while before we hear more about the Xbox One version of The Witness as Blow likely can’t say anything until after his timed-exclusivity contract with Sony runs out.
UPDATE: Jonathan Blow said on Twitter (1, 2) this afternoon that he currently has “no plans” to bring The Witness to the Xbox One: “There are no plans right now for an XB1 version of The Witness. We just put that on the rating form so if we ever do XB1, we won’t have to get the game re-rated. (Provided the content is the same, which it would be).”
Lovely Planet Arcade brings old school FPS action to Steam this Summer
You kids today might not believe, but the first batch of first person shooters didn’t let you look up or down. Really! It’s true! And developer Quicktequila wants to bring back this style of shooter with their sequel to Lovely Planet.
Lovely Planet Arcade will be released for the PC (via Steam) this Summer, and it’ll include the same colorful construction paper style of the original game. It also won’t let you look and down. Lovely Planet Arcade will also include more than 100 levels across four worlds, a Mirror Mode, a Fast Mode, and an original soundtrack by Calum Bowen.
If you’re planning to take a trip down to San Antonio to attend PAX South in two weeks, you’ll get a chance to try out a Lovely Planet Arcade demo at publisher TinyBuild’s booth.
John Romero created a new map for Doom… his first in 21 years
“Phobos Anomaly” is the memorable climax to Doom‘s first episode, “Knee-Deep in the Dead.” The map itself is pretty simple, but it ends with the first appearance of the Barons of Hell, one of Doom’s most terrifying demons. A little over 22 years later, Doom developer John Romero thought he could do better.
Romero recently uploaded the WAD file for a sprawling new version of “Phobos Anomaly” that he likes to call “Tech Gone Bad.” The map’s insane descent into Hell really delivers that grand finale feel you want for the end of an episode. But don’t just take my word for it, check out the great playthrough by YouTube user “VarianSanctuarium” I’ve embedded above. And definitely download it yourself if you’ve still got Doom installed on your machine.
“Tech Gone Bad” is the first Doom map created by Romero since 1995, and he refers to it as “a warm-up” in the WAD notes. He also wrote up a very Romero-esque description:
My boss level replacement for E1M8… 22 years later
After exiting the Computer Station you knew the worst was up ahead. You still hadn’t reached the place where the demons were coming from. The steel door shuts behind you as you realize you’re there; you’re at the Phobos Anomaly. Cracks from hell are all over the place as seepage from the portal invades the entire installation. Now it’s time to find the portal and stop the demons from coming through. You know UAC had hundreds of scientists working at a high-tech lab somewhere in this area, and the portal must be connected to it somehow. Time to lock and load.
I don’t know what “Tech Gone Bad” is supposed to be a warm-up for, but maybe Bethesda’s Doom reboot is going to have some competition this Spring!
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Blackroom, Doom (1993)
New Releases: Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Resident Evil Origins, Life Is Strange, More
It’s been a few weeks, but welcome to the first roundup of new retail game releases for 2016!
We start off the year with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, a new RPG for the 3DS from the Nintendo. After years of keeping them separate, the publisher has finally decided to merge their Mario & Luigi series of RPGs with the Paper Mario series of RPGs. I’m a bit surprised it took this long, but maybe Nintendo felt they needed more time to prepare the world for GIANT PAPERCRAFT BATTLES.
Also available this week is the Resident Evil Origins Collection for the PS4 and Xbox One. After redoing Resident Evil last year, Capcom turned their trained recreationists towards its prequel, Resident Evil 0, which had previously only been available on Nintendo platforms. The publisher packaged both games together for a retail release, but players can also acquire them as separate downloads through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store (and Steam, for that matter).
Moving from remakes to re-releases, Dontnod has compiled their episodic game series, Life Is Strange, into a retail package for the PS4 and Xbox One. Players who missed out on Max Caulfield’s time-traveling adventures in Arcadia Bay will now be able to experience the complete story without waiting weeks between episodes. Also this week, PQube will re-release the Vita version of SteinsGate in a “Limited Edition” that includes a 2016 calendar.
Finally, get on the bus (and drive it) this week with Astragon’s Bus Simulator 16 for the PC.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS4, Vita, Xbox One
Tagged Life Is Strange, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 0, SteinsGate
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the best-selling game of 2015; CoD franchise sells more than 250 million copies since 2003
The numbers have been tabulated and the Call of Duty franchise once again reigns supreme over all other video games.
According to The NPD Group’s yearly report of retail releases, Call of Duty: Black Ops III was the best-selling game in 2015, besting EA’s Madden NFL 16 (#2) and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 (#3). The Call of Duty franchise also controlled the back end of the list with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare taking the #10 spot. Activision’s Scott Lowe added (by way of the Activision Games Blog) that the entire franchise has sold more than 250 million copies since the release of Call of Duty in 2003.
Believe it or not, games outside the Call of Duty franchise found success in 2015 as well, though most of them were released after July 1st including Star Wars: Battlefront (#4), NBA 2K16 (#6), and FIFA 16 (#9). The only game to break that trend (aside from a few 2014 stragglers like Advanced Warfare) was Mortal Kombat X (#8), which was released in April. The game-playing public may not always like it, but this does explain why publishers constantly strive to release their games in the back half of the year.
On the hardware side, console sales surged in 2015, as the PS4 and Xbox One continued to outpace the PS3 and Xbox 360. The PS4 was the overall winner in 2015, but NPD analyst Liam Callahan told GamesIndustry.biz that both platforms did well: “After 26 months of sales, the combined cumulative sales of Xbox One and PS4 exceeds the 26 month total of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by 47 percent,”
The NPD’s list of the top ten best-selling games for 2015 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, FIFA 16, Grand Theft Auto V, Madden NFL 16, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat X, NBA 2K16, NPD, Star Wars: Battlefront