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
Red Dead Redemption 2 leads the way with 7 nominations at 2019 GDC Awards
It looks like Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, and God of War will be taking over another awards show, as the three games lead the way at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards. Rockstar’s “Cowboy Game” secured the most nominations with seven, but Sony’s Spider-Man and God of War were close behind with six apiece.
As you might have guessed, all three games are in the running for the coveted “Game of the Year” trophy, and they’ll be competing against Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn and Matt Makes Games’s Celeste.
A handful of other games will attempt to push their way into the spotlight at this year’s GDC Awards, including Mountains’s Florence (four nominations), Enhance’s Tetris Effect (three nominations), and Nomada Studio’s Gris (two nominations).
In addition to the main awards ceremony, the GDC Awards will also present a Lifetime Achievement Award to Amy Hennig, the creator of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise.
The 2019 GDC Awards ceremony will take place on on Wednesday, March 20, at 6:30 PM (Pacific Time). The full list of nominees, and all the Honorable Mentions, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Celeste, GDC 2019, God of War 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, Return of the Obra Dinn, Spider-Man
Return of the Obra Dinn was nominated in five categories at 2019 IGF Awards
Papers Please, Lucas Pope’s puzzle game about censorship in a dystopian dictatorship, was a huge hit when it was released for the PC all the way back in 2013. And thanks to today’s announcement of the finalists for the Independent Games Festival Awards, it looks like his latest project, Return of the Obra Dinn, will reach similar heights.
Return of the Obra Dinn is an “innovative and uniquely stylized murder mystery” set aboard an abandoned ship in the early 1800s. Using “1-Bit” graphics reminiscent of early Macintosh games, players had to explore the ship and discover what happened to the crew. These elements helped Obra Dinn receive nominations for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize,” as well as “Excellence In Audio,” “Excellence In Design,” “Excellence In Visual Art,” and “Excellence In Narrative.”
Return of the Obra Dinn will be competing against five other games for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, including Zachtronics’s Opus Magnum, Nolla Games’s Noita, Fictiorama Studios’s Do Not Feed the Monkeys, Hypnospace Outlaw (developed by Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., and Corey Cochran), and Minit (developed by Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio, and Dominik Johann).
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions from the 2019 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Freja and the False Prophecy is fully funded on Kickstarter
Unsigned Double Collective is a South African development team that looked to Kickstarter in December to help fund their next project, Freja and the False Prophecy. The Norse-themed side-scrolling platformer also recently earned a spot in our Kickstart This column, so it’s nice to see that the game reached its crowdfunding goal over the New Year’s holiday.
Seeking $22,000, Unsigned Double Collective was able to convince 686 backers to pledge $22,622 towards Freja and the False Prophecy. The developer thanked fans earlier today in a Kickstarter Update:
What an amazing end (and a new beginning) to our journey. After a roller coaster we all pulled through to fully fund Freja And The False Prophecy. Give yourself a big round of applause, you are amazing.
If all goes according to plan, Freja and the False Prophecy will be released for the PC sometime in 2022.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Freja and the False Prophecy
Infinity Ward might be teasing an upcoming announcement for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 or Call of Duty: Ghosts 2
The Call of Duty franchise’s rotating carousel of developers will point towards Infinity Ward this Fall, and it looks like the developer’s Ashton Williams has begun dropping hints about what they have in the works. For the past week, the Senior Communications Manager has been posting several cryptic images on her Twitter account, including a skull with glowing eyes, a skeleton with a sniper rifle, a baby demon, a coven of witches, an adult demon, the Grim Reaper, a few ghosts, and another skull.
There’s always the possibility that Infinity Ward is teasing something brand new, but there’s also reason to believe that this imagery is slyly referencing an upcoming announcement for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 or Call of Duty: Ghosts 2.
The case for Ghosts 2 is pretty obvious, as all of these images tie back to the supernatural in some way (including more than one literal “ghost”). But the Modern Warfare 4 link is also pretty strong, as Simon “Ghost” Riley (and his distinctive skull mask) was one of the main characters from Modern Warfare 2.
Again, it’s possible that Infinity Ward might be in a completely different direction for Call of Duty 2019, though it’s easy to assume they’re working on a sequel to one of their past hits. But with less than a year to go before the game’s (probable) launch, we’ll all find out for sure soon enough.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
Who is the new character in Mortal Kombat 11’s New Year’s teaser?
Mortal Kombat fans have been speculating about the possibility of time travel shenanigans in Mortal Kombat 11 ever since the fighter’s Announcement Trailer at the 2018 Game Awards featured a pair of Scorpions and a brief glimpse at a mysterious woman standing in front of a giant hourglass. Ed Boon and company gave us a closer look at this new character yesterday as they were counting down to New Year’s Day on Twitter:
(Let’s try this one more time)
It is only a matter of time. #MK11 pic.twitter.com/dqxbnTJR2s
— Mortal Kombat 11 (@MortalKombat) December 31, 2018
Is she a playable character? If so, who is she? And if not, what role will she play in Mortal Kombat 11’s storyline and the stalemate between “Evil” Liu Kang and “Evil” Raiden?
Thankfully, we won’t have much longer to wait for answers to these questions as NetherRealm Studios is planning a “Community Reveal Event” for Mortal Kombat 11 on January 17. And the fighting game will launch shortly after that on April 23 for the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Steam’s Top Sellers for 2018 include PUBG, GTA5, Rocket League, more
After more than a decade of dominance as the most-popular digital storefront for the PC, Steam was challenged on all sides in 2018 from both established players (GOG, Origin, and the Humble Store), as well as shiny upstarts (Discord and the Epic Games Store). But Valve’s online shop still sold a lot of games this year, and they recently shared their Top Sellers of 2018 with the public. But instead of ranking the games, Steam chose to split the list up into four tiers “as measured by gross revenue this year.”
As you might have guessed, you’ll find plenty of heavy hitters among the 12 games featured in the Platinum tier. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was slightly overshadowed this year by other “Battle Royale” shooters, but it made the cut, as did new releases like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and Monster Hunter: World, and perennial favorites such as Grand Theft Auto V, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Rocket League…
Steam’s Top Sellers of 2018 – Platinum Tier
- Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
- Civilization VI
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Dota 2
- The Elder Scrolls Online
- Far Cry 5
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Monster Hunter: World
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
- Rocket League
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
- Warframe
Steam partitioned off the next 12 games as the Gold tier, and followed that up with 16 more games in the Silver tier. The remaining 60 games were included in the Bronze tier.
There’s plenty of recognizable titles at every level, including Ark: Survival Evolved in Gold; Subnautica, Final Fantasy XV, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider all in Silver; and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dark Souls Remastered, and Nier: Automata in Bronze.
All the titles from Steam’s Top Sellers of 2018 can be seen on… you guessed it… Steam.
From Software has two unannounced games in the works
The developers at From Software always manage to keep themselves busy, and the team is currently hard at work on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is currently slated to launch on March 22. But you might not know that they’ve also got two unannounced projects currently in development.
Speaking to 4Gamer, From Software’s Hidetaka Miyazaki elaborated a tiny bit about these two mystery games:
Mr. Miyazaki: It is not the right time to talk about details, but I think both of them are like [titles From Software has created in the past]. We still need some more time, but we will be able to tell you what shape they’ll become in the future.
So there you have it. Do you think From Software is going back to the Dark Souls series? Or might the develper finally give fans the Bloodborne sequel they’ve been asking for since 2015? At this point, I have no idea. And neither does anyone else. With so few details to work with, baseless speculation is really all we have to go on.
That said, Miyazaki previously mentioned that From Software was working on Armored Core 6 in 2016. Could a sequel to the long-running mech franchise be in cards? Baseless speculation says… maybe.
Insight Editions will release The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook in March 2019
It looks like Insight Editions will expand their line of game-themed cookbooks in March 2019 with the release of The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook.
The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook will be written by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel, an author who previously cataloged the fictional cuisines from Hearthstone and World of Warcraft. Readers can expect to find more than 60 recipes from “Skyrim, Morrowind, and all of Tamriel” in the book:
Feast on all of the delicious dishes found in Skyrim, Morrowind, and all of Tamriel in this beautifully crafted cookbook based on the award-winning Elder Scrolls game series. Immerse yourself in the diverse cuisines of the Nords, Bosmer, Khajit, and beyond with these recipes inspired by food found in the Old Kingdom, across Tamriel, and more. With over sixty delicious recipes for fan-favorite recipes including Apple Cabbage Stew, Sunlight Souffle, Sweetrolls, and more, The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook will delight every hungry Dragonborn.
The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook will be released on March 26, 2019.