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
Fable Legends will be Free-To-Play on Xbox One, PC
This is a bit of a surprise. Microsoft has announced that Fable Legends will be available as a free-to-play game on the PC and Xbox One.
According to the game’s online FAQ, Microsoft and the development team at Lionhead Studios have decided to make Fable Legends free-to-play to “open the exciting world of Fable to more players.” However, they’ve stressed that this will not make the game pay-to-win as players will be able to “play through it beginning-to-end without having to spend any money.”
So how will Microsoft make money off of Fable Legends? By selling a variety of customization options and permanent access to the game’s Heroes. Like Killer Instinct, a rotating set of characters will be available for free. But players may purchase any of the other offered Heroes at any time. And some Heroes will even be permanently unlockable through regular play. Purely cosmetic items to enhance the look of your Heroes will also be available through the Xbox Games Store or Windows Store.
If you prefer to play as the Villain, Creature characters, Traps, and Gates will also be available as separate purchases. As with Heroes, some Creature characters, Traps, and Gates can be unlocked by playing the game.
Fable Legends will be available for the PC and Xbox One sometime in 2015.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Fable Legends
CoD: Advanced Warfare Havoc Pack is now available for PC, PS3, PS4
Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s first downloadable expansion, the Havoc Pack, is now available for the PC, PS3, and PS4. The Havoc Pack will include the first episode in “Exo Zombies,” Advanced Warfare’s co-op mode featuring Atlas employees versus an undead horde, as well as four competitive multiplayer maps:
Core: Deploy to the Gobi desert where the ravaged ruins of a nuclear fusion plant set the stage for a high-octane warzone. Take down enemies through the wreckage in long-range combat or get up-close and personal in the tunnels surrounding the central turbine. Activate decontamination drones using the map-based scorestreak to help clean out the competition.
Urban: Prepare yourself for brutal, high-speed combat in Dallas Ward 3, a future mega structure, funneling players into a close-quarters free-for-all. This modular compound’s verticality unleashes the exoskeleton’s capabilities. Stay focused during the timed event as blast doors alter the map’s flow and sightlines.
Sideshow: In the shadow of Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, this abandoned inn’s open layout amplifies its creep factor. Blast your way through the clown inn with close-quarters battles or use long-range site-lines from the mining facilities and natural terrain. Use the map-based scorestreak to activate the lights, music, and magic of the clown marquee and rain down a barrage of rainbow smoke-trailed cannonballs.
Drift: An idyllic ski resort high in the Rocky Mountains is transformed into a festive high-altitude playground, perfect for an all-out firefight. Make your way to the highly contested over watch in the glass observation deck or take a ride on the carousel to deliver 360 degrees of carnage. Players can use the map-altering timed event to their advantage as an avalanche of snow and debris disorients players, intensifying the battle.
The Havoc Pack is available to download as part of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s Season Pass. It can also be purchased a la carte for $14.99.
UPDATE: In a post on their Facebook page, Sledgehammer Games has confirmed that the PC release of the Havoc Pack has been delayed until March 3 due to an “unexpected issue.”
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Insert Quarter: Did Batman: Arkham Knight Just Kill the Teen Rating?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
The gaming world was a tad surprised when Batman: Arkham Knight was awarded an “M For Mature” rating by the ESRB earlier this week, but no one has taken up the “Won’t someone think of the children!” mantle just yet. And that’s probably because the way that gamers treat a Mature-rated game is much different from the way moviegoers react to an R-rated film (to say nothing of the dreaded NC-17).
You might even wonder if this has signaled a shift away from the ESRB’s Teen rating (which has always been considered equivalent of the much-more-popular PG-13 for films). Few games carry a Teen rating in 2015 and nearly every critically acclaimed title of the past decade (BioShock, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto V, and many others) has been slapped with a scarlet “M.” Paul Tassi of Forbes believes the “T For Teen” rating is dead and that it’s unlikely anyone will notice or even care:
Unlike the movie industry, however, a game being rated M is not all that big of a deal. Movies will bend over backward to cut themselves down to PG-13 from an R in order to have a chance at dramatically increasing their box office haul, and there’s only one R-rated movie in the top 25 highest grossing films of all time, The Passion of the Christ. There are 16 PG-13 movies, by contrast, including the first four of the top five.
Gaming is a much different story, with rating hardly seeming to matter at all. M-rated games are routinely best-sellers, and comparatively seven out of the top 25 highest selling video games of all time are rated M, all split between Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty titles, with the non-M games mostly coming from Nintendo ’s E-rated stable. In fact, there isn’t a single T-rated game in the list.
The full article is available for your perusal at Forbes.
Posted in Insert Quarter, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight
HumaNature launches Kickstarter campaign for ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove
As promised a few weeks ago, Greg Johnson and HumaNature Studios have officially announced the fourth ToeJam & Earl game, ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove.
Johnson and his team have recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the retro-inspired sequel. The developer, who originally created ToeJam & Earl back in 1991 with Mark Voorsanger, wants to refocus on what made the first game great while discarding the less-loved elements from the sequels:
Will it be like game one or game two, you ask? Well… (holding breath)… mainly like game one. We plan to go old school with this one. Fixed isometric camera, 2D sprites, simple controls, and an emphasis on coop play. It will also pull in some of the more beloved elements from game two, AND we have a list of exciting new gameplay elements planned as well.
Oh right, I almost forgot… and we’ll have funky music, and more funky music, and… then we’ll add in more funky music.
HumaNature is seeking $400,000 to complete ToeJam and Earl: Back in the Groove, which they’ll use to create a PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) version that includes four-player co-op play, a funky new art style, and “more fun features.” The plan is too eventually bring the game to as many platforms as possible, and the odds of that happening are good, as the campaign has already collected $100,000 in pledges with 29 days remaining. There’s currently no timeline on when Back in the Gorrve will be availabl if HumaNature reaches their goal, but you can find plenty of funky concept art and additional details at the Kickstarter campaign page.
Funky! OK, I’ll stop now.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged ToeJam & Earl 4
Latest Mortal Kombat X trailer includes all you ever wanted to know about Kitana
Steve Brownback is a Quality Assurance Analyst at NetherRealm Studios and he hosts this latest trailer for Mortal Kombat X. But before Mr. Brownback took a job at the Chicago-based developer, he was a professional gamer on the tournament fighting circuit with an expertise in 2011’s Mortal Kombat and the character of Kitana. And now as a developer, he’s directly influencing Kitana’s design including her three style variations (the defensive “Royal Storm,” the offensive “Assassin,” and the Jade-like “Mournful”). All that and more can be found in this trailer showcasing everyone’s favorite Edenian princess… wait, does Mileena count? Because that would shake up the rankings.
Mortal Kombat X will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 14.
New Street Fighter V trailer teases Nash, M. Bison, PC/PS4 beta
Capcom has released a new trailer for Street Fighter V and it confirmed what we’ve all long suspected… Guile’s buddy Charlie Nash is back! This Charlie looks a bit different than he did in the Street Fighter Alpha series, but his Sonic Boom is just as deadly as ever.
Stick around until the end of the trailer for quick M. Bison tease as well. It’s hard to imagine a Street Fighter game without him, so the announcement feels rather fitting, especially since today is Tuesday.
Finally, Capcom also announced that Street Fighter V will receive an online beta test sometime in the not-so-distant future. How can you get involved? According to Capcom-Unity, everyone who pre-orders the game will be eligible to join the beta. More details on the beta will be announced at a later date.
Posted in News, PC, PS4
Tagged Street Fighter V
GTA5 PC release slips again as Rockstar synchronizes a March 10 launch for Heists
Just when you thought Grand Theft Auto V was ready to come out for the PC… Rockstar pulls it back in.
Today, the publisher announced that Grand Theft Auto V’s PC edition will miss its previously announced March 24 release date and will launch on April 14 instead. According to Rockstar, the delay is due to the fact that “a bit more time is needed to ensure that the game is as polished as possible, and to make certain that both Heists and the GTA Online experience are ready to roll out on day one for PC.”
But speaking of Heists, Rockstar has also announced that the Heat-inspired multiplayer mode will be ready to go for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on March 10. You can steal a glance at some new screenshots from GTA5’s Heists mode at the Rockstar Newswire.
The ESRB has slapped Batman: Arkham Knight with a Mature rating
IGN is reporting that Rocksteady Studios has informed them that Batman: Arkham Knight has received a Mature rating from the ESRB. I wonder if this means he’ll tell someone that he’s “the goddamn Batman.”
Arkham Knight’s Director, Sefton Hill, told IGN that he was surprised by the ESRB’s ruling, especially after a Teen rating was granted to both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Hill added that the team never specifically added content to the game in an effort to earn a Mature rating, but that he’s aware of how it may hurt the game at retail:
“I’m not blind to the fact that [the M rating] does mean some fans will miss out… I don’t want to be oblivious to that fact. It would have been wrong to water down the game and deliver a story we didn’t believe in to keep the game ‘mass market’ or enable it for more people. We feel that’s the wrong way to go about it. We said we love the story and we don’t want to jepoardize that.”
As of this writing (10:00 AM Eastern Time), the ESRB has yet to make the Batman: Arkham Knight’s “Rating Summary” available to the public.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight