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
Capcom adds new character Necalli to Street Fighter V
Street Fighter V finally received its first original fighter this weekend with the reveal of Necalli, a mysterious and savage fighter who reminds me a bit of Blanka. How mysterious is he? Capcom is still keeping his origin and storyline under wraps:
Possessing a wide variety of savage and close range attacks, all of Necalli’s moves have been forged through the heat of battle to ensure he’s inflicting maximum pain upon his opponents. Making full use of the Battle System mechanics, Necalli’s V-Skill allows him to pound the ground with both fists, creating an explosion that damages the enemy whereas the powerful V-Trigger allows him to channel a mysterious energy that changes his hair color and alters his personality for a short period of time. Capcom will be revealing more information on Necalli’s origin and storyline in the coming months so stay tuned for more details.
A trailer that showcases some of Necalli’s skills, which Capcom released as part of this weekend’s EVO event, has been embedded above. The character will be one of 16 (12 returning and four new) that will be available during Street Fighter V’s initial launch. Necalli joins the previously announced Ryu, Chun Li, M. Bison, Charlie Nash, Cammy, Birdie, Blanka, and Ken… so six more characters (three of them brand new) will be announced at a later date. As you might have guessed, more characters will eventually be added to Street Fighter V as post-launch downloadable content.
Street Fighter V will be released for the PC and PS4 in Spring 2016.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
Tremor will shake up Mortal Kombat X beginning tomorrow
Many seismologists believe that earthquake prediction is impossible. Someone at NetherRealm Studios clearly agrees as the developer has announced they’ll unleash Tremor, the fourth (and currently final), downloadable character for Mortal Kombat X much sooner than expected.
Kombat Pass owners will be able to download Tremor, along with Klassic Skins Pack 2, beginning tomorrow, July 21. Everyone else will get a crack at the character on July 28 as a standalone download ($4.99) or in a bundle with Klassic Skins Pack 2 ($7.99). The Skins Pack, which includes “klassic” duds for Kung Lao, Quan Chi, and Jax, will also be available by itself for $3.99.
Tremor first appeared in 2000’s Mortal Kombat: Special Forces, and has been a fan favorite ever since. It was these fans that encouraged NetherRealm to make Tremor a fully playable character for the first time in Mortal Kombat X. Able to control the earth itself, a trailer starring the latest incarnation of Tremor was unveiled during this weekend’s EVO event. It’s been embedded above.
Warner Bros. to release “interim” patch for Batman: Arkham Knight on PC
WB Games announced yesterday (through their Steam Community page) that an “interim” patch is coming for the much-maligned PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight.
In the statement, Warner Bros. said the patch will “address many of the issues” they include in their last update on June 27. Internal documents obtained by Kotaku Australia claim that a full patch won’t happen until September at the earliest, so it looks like this update will be little more than a band-aid.
Still, the next update looks like it will cover a wide range of bugs. The patch will allow the game to run higher than 30 FPS, will improve texture issues, and “improve overall performance,” though what specifically that means remains a mystery. Don’t expect this to be the deus ex machina that fixes all your problems, but it should make the game run a little better if you’ve already had the misfortune of buying it on PC. The full list of planned fixes can be found at Arkham Knight’s Steam Community page.
Sales of the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight were suspended just days after its launch. Pulling a game from online storefronts is almost unprecedented, and can likely be attributed to Valve’s new refund policy on Steam.
WB GAmes has yet to announce when Batman: Arkham Knight will be once again available for purchase on the PC.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight
Kholat Review: Lo-Fi Scares From Russia
I don’t normally play horror games as it’s not really a genre I enjoy. But horror games from Russian and former Soviet bloc countries are a different story. There’s something about their style that shows they really understand fear. I cannot quite explain the draw, but I really like their ability to create an atmosphere where the surroundings and my mind are working equally hard to scare me. And when I heard that Kholat was from that part of the world, I knew I wanted to give it a try. (more…)
Shenmue III sets record for most-funded video game on Kickstarter with a few hours to spare
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and its record-shattering $5.545 million crowdfunding campaign was only able to hold on to the record for a month as Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter campaign surpassed it this morning. And fans still have a little more than five hours to add to its tally (currently sitting at $5.9 million), and further cement its status as the most-funded video game in Kickstarter’s history.
Game Director Yu Suzuki recorded a message for Shenmue’s many fans, thanking them for their support and inviting them to a special live broadcast to celebrate the end of the campaign. The livestream, which begins at 7:00 PM (Eastern Time), can be viewed at Twitch.TV/shenmue3official. Suzuki will be joined by Animation Producer Hiroaki Takeuchi, Main Character Designer Kenji Miyawaki, and other special guests.
And after that comes the hard part… waiting for Shenmue III’s December 2017 launch on the PC and PS4.
UPDATE: Shenmue III’s Kickstarter campaign closed with $6,333,295 in pledges, nearly a million dollars more than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Shenmue III
Bethesda says Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim paid mods “didn’t pan out”
Yesterday, Bethesda’s Pete Hines sat down with GameSpot to talk about the paid mods feature that came to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim back in April. Whether it was due to the ludicrous money revenue split that resulted in modders only receiving 25% per, the lack of quality control, the fact that modders where stealing assets from one another, or simply the fact that people had to suddenly start paying for things that used to be free, no one seemed to like Steam’s paid mod feature. Needless to say, the monetization model proved controversial and received criticism from nearly every corner of the Steam and Skyrim communities.
As a result, Bethesda suspended the program almost as soon as it started, amidst accusations that the Art of the Catch mod was using stolen assets from another mod. In his conversation with GameSpot, Hines explained that Bethesda came up with the idea for allowing modders to charge for their mods after receiving a request from the modding community:
“We had creators who said, ‘I’ve been asking for donations for years and never saw anything, and I made more in one day.’ So why would I not support that?”
In addition to probing Hines about the fairness of the revenue split, GameSpot also asked if there was any way the program could come back. Hines diplomatically said it was possible, but that the company was focused on “bigger fish” (like Fallout 4) at the moment:
“I honestly, genuinely, don’t know what it means for the future. It was an idea we worked on with those guys for Skyrim; it didn’t pan out. It came back down.”
[…]
“I think our stance on it is we’re going to re-evaluate it going forward. I think that we feel like there is a case to be made that people who spend a lot of time working on mods ought to be able to have a way of monetizing what they’re doing.
[…]
“Honestly, [we have] bigger fish to fry right now than sorting that out.”
Even if the program returns in some form, Todd Howard, the Game Director of Fallout 4, previously said (to Kotaku) that there are “no plans” to add paid mods to Fallout 4.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Batman: Arkham Knight stands watch atop the best-selling games list for June 2015
Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy went out with a bang last month, and it looks like a lot of fans went along for the ride, as The NPD Group has confirmed Batman: Arkham Knight was the best-selling game for June 2015.
Aside from the problems with the PC version, WB Games had a pretty good month as four of the publisher’s titles placed in the top ten. Newcomer Lego Jurassic World joined Arkham Knight near the top of the list in the #3 spot, while The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (#4) and Mortal Kombat X (#8) held over from May. NPD’s Liam Callahan told GamesIndustry.biz, “Warner Bros. Interactive is the top corporate publisher so far in 2015, with dollar sales growing 217% versus the first half of 2014.”
But WB Games wasn’t the only company having a nice Summer as Bethesda has a hit on their hands with The Elder Scrolls Online. It was also a good month to be a squid as Nintendo’s Splatoon held strong at #5, and became the only platform exclusive to crack the top ten.
The industry as a whole should be very happy about last month’s sales as consumers spent a lot more than they did last year. Overall sales were up 18%, $869 million versus $734 million, over June 2014. And that includes increases in hardware (+8%), software (+21%), and accessories (+34%).
The complete top ten list of best-selling games for June 2015 can be found after the break. (more…)
The Flock will live as long as its players do this Summer
The Flock is a “first-person asymmetrical multiplayer horror game” from Dutch developer Vogelsap (it literally means “Bird Juice) scheduled for release this Summer. Players will be divided into two groups, The Flock and The Carrier, as they battle for control of the Light Artifact…
The Flock is a first person asymmetrical multiplayer thriller game for three-to-five players. All player start out as monsters, called the Flock. When the coveted Light Artifact is grabbed by one of the players that player transforms into the Carrier, and the hunt begins.
The Carrier is slower, smaller and more vulnerable. It has to protect itself from the Flock that try to gain the Artifact for themselves, using the intense light that is emitted from the Artifact. The Flock are vulnerable to the light, and will burn to death if they don’t stand still when shined upon. If a Flock stands still, it will turn into stone and be safe from the light.
If one of the Flock succeeds in attacking the Carrier, that player will turn into the new Carrier, and the attacked player returns as one of the Flock. The player that can stay being the Carrier long enough wins the game. The gameplay in combination with the dark and ghastly atmosphere makes for a thrilling psychological experience.
However, Vogelsap has an interesting plan to turn The Flock’s PC launch (via Steam) into a limited-time event this Summer. Each time a player dies, their lost life from be subtracted from The Flock’s total population. When the game’s population reaches zero, the game will permanently go offline and, though players who have already purchased it will get to participate in a “climactic finale.” This could take years… or it could take days.
“A multiplayer game can take players to incredible heights, but at some point gamers will start to play less, get disinterested and stop playing altogether,” said Jeroen Van Hasselt, the Creative Director of Vogelsap. “In opposition to other multiplayer games, we want The Flock’s experience to inspire a sense of awe, to keep players eagerly anticipating what is coming next and to end with a memorable climax.”
The Flock will be playable at this Summer’s Gamescom expo as part of the Indie Arena Booth.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Gamescom 2015