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
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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
CoD Ghosts and Xbox One are December 2013’s best-selling game and console
The NPD Group has delivered their monthly report on the state of the retail game market and December 2013 was another blockbuster month. According to Joystiq, consumers spent $3.28 billion on video game products last month, an increase of two percent over December 2012. And thanks to new consoles, hardware sales were way up, totalling $1.37 billion (versus $1.07 billion last year).
And speaking of next-generation consoles, NPD is reporting that the Xbox One can lay claim to the US sales crown for December. Though Sony still holds a slight edge in total worldwide sales.
As for the games, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 pulled off a repeat atop the retail sales chart. They were followed by the usual assortment of holiday season bestsellers and you can find last month’s complete top ten after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, FIFA 14, Grand Theft Auto V, Just Dance 2014, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, NPD, Skylanders Swap Force
The Last of Us leads 2014 DICE Awards with 13 nominations
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the nominees for this year’s DICE Awards. This year, The Last of Us leads all games with 13 nominations, including “Game of the Year.” It will compete against four other games for the honor: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, BioShock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
Each of this year’s “Game of the Year” nominees has a chance to collect multiple awards as Grand Theft Auto V (seven), BioShock Infinite (six), and Assassin’s Creed IV (five), and A Link Between Worlds (three) were all nominated in multiple categories. With five nominations, Tearaway is also up a huge number of awards. All told, 61 games received nominations in 24 categories this year.
The 2014 DICE Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, February 6 during the close of this year’s DICE Summit. A complete list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, BioShock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Interview: We Take Aim at MODUS With Imagiro’s Allan Wang
Some gaming projects on Kickstarter are criminally overlooked by the general public. Imagiro Studios MODUS, a 2D turn-based artillery shooter set in a chaotic, post-apocalyptic Earth dominated by mutated beasts where humans once reigned supreme, is one such title.
We recently had the chance to talk with Allan Wang, CEO and Story Developer at MODUS developer Imagiro Studios, about the game’s failed campaign, alien monstrosities, Studio Ghibli influences and home-made beaver tails. (more…)
IO Interactive shares a few details about Hitman 6
A week after Square Enix dropped the cancellation hammer on Square Enix Montreal’s Hitman spinoff, IO Interactive has posted an open letter to the official Hitman website detailing their work on the currently-in-development Hitman 6.
The IO Interactive team is going big with Hitman 6, promising “an extreme level of detail” and “the largest levels ever built for a Hitman game.” They’re also bringing the series back to its roots, stating that the Agent 47 of Hitman 6 will be in the prime of his career, “stalking his prey across the world,” with the help of his handler, Diana Burnwood:
The game concentrates on the core Hitman fantasy of using a wide range of tools to take out a diverse group of targets across expansive, exotic locations around the world. We are building this game on the backbone of the Glacier 2 engine, using the best parts and what we have learnt through Hitman: Absolution and drawing inspiration from past titles like Contracts and Blood Money to fulfil the core Hitman fantasy. That means we’re packing in an extreme level of detail on the largest levels we have ever built for a Hitman game. We’ve adopted an open, non-linear level design approach to the game, ensuring the game will play out across huge, checkpoint-free, sandbox levels. Our aim is to create living, breathing and believable levels which will allow gamers to play around with the AI to create those unique moments every fan of the Hitman franchise loves.
In addition to the single-player campaign, the HORSE-like Contracts Mode will return, allowing players to once again compose the perfect hit and challenge others to match it. IO also confirmed that 47’s “magic pockets” will not make a return appearance.
Hitman 6 is in development for next-generation consoles and the PC. IO Interactive has promised that we’ll learn more about the game throughout 2014, but a release has yet to be announced.
Broken Age available to all on January 28
Double Fine’s Broken Age: Act 1 is now available to backers of the highly successful Kickstarter campaign. But for those who took a wait-and-see approach, good news, the game will be available to the general public in just two weeks, on January 28. To celebrate, the developer has released a new trailer that shines a spotlight on the game’s second protagonist, Vella Tartine.
Tim Schafer, Double Fine’s President and the Writer/Designer behind Broken Age, is thrilled to return to the adventure genre after all these years:
“It’s been sixteen years since I’ve made an adventure game, almost twenty years since I’ve made a point-and-click, and just shy of two years since I dared the internet to force me to make one,” he said. “Coming back to the genre has been like finding an old jacket in a box in your garage that you haven’t worn in twenty years, but once you shake the dust off and put it on you realize it’s an amazing jacket and it still fits, and once you patch the holes in the pockets it could easily take a spot in your main jacket rotation.”
But Schafer is aware that Broken Age required a bit more than nostalgic memories to create. “In one of the pockets was three and a half million dollars,” he added.
Broken Age: Act 2 will be available as a free download to all owners of Act 1 later this year and Double Fine is working hard to bring the complete game to the Ouya (and other Android devices) and the iOS App Store.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged Broken Age
Lego Marvel Super Heroes Review: Amazing, Spectacular, and Fantastic
I’m normally not one to get into the Lego games. I played Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Lord of the Rings, but I usually found myself moving on to other games after a few hours of play. But not so with Lego Marvel Super Heroes. I’ve been playing this game nonstop, without touching any of my other PS4 titles. It’s that much fun. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a huge Marvel fan or if I have a serious case of OCD, but I’ve put over sixty hours into this title – and I’m still only at 85% complete. And most importantly, it has kept my interest the entire time. (more…)
“Next-Gen Call of Duty” game in development at Sledgehammer Games
Sledgehammer Games was founded in 2009 and the currently have just one credited game to their name: 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Six months after that game shipped, the developer announced that they were staffing up for their next project, which was to be a new game in the Call of Duty series. With Black Ops II and Ghosts released in the interim, its fair to ask, what happened to Sledgehammer’s CoD game?
Apparently, it’s still in the works and the company is still hiring new people to work on it.
Sledgehammer recently posted a large number of job announcements to their Careers page concerning a “next-gen Call of Duty game.” Details on the game are scarce, but several postings describe it as “hyper realistic.”
We know that Activision plans to release another Call of Duty game this Fall. Will Sledgehammer get their time in the spotlight? If history is any guide, we’ll find out for sure this Spring when Activision will officially unveil the next title in the Call of Duty series.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught DLC Pack to be available on XBL Store on January 28
Activision and Infinity Ward have announced that the first map pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts, Onslaught, will be available to download from the Xbox Live Store (for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One) on January 28.
The coolest map is clearly “Fog,” a love letter to the horror films of yesteryear. Players will even be able to become Halloween‘s Michael Myers and deliver the killing blow with a bloody axe. Players will also be able to frag their friends in the California boardwalk of “BayView,” the war-torn Mexican village of “Containment,” and the aging Florida space launch facility of “Ignition.”
Onslaught will also include a new weapon, a dual-purpose Assault Rifle/Sniper Rifle known as the Maverick, and “Nightfall,” a new chapter in humans vs aliens Extinction saga. In “Nightfall,” players will guide a small strike team to a snowy Alaskan base in search of the origins of the alien invasion (and to battle the biggest boss Infinity Ward has ever created).
Once again, Onslaught will be available to download through the Xbox Live Store on January 28 with a release on other platforms to follow. The DLC pack has been priced at $14.99 individually and will also be included as part of the $49.99 Season Pass.
More details about all of Onslaught’s maps can be found after the break. (more…)