Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- 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
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
CoD: Ghosts, Battlefield 4 march to the top of November 2013’s best-selling games chart
With the PS4 and Xbox One now available in stores across the country, the NPD Group is ready to talk about the financial health of the video game industry with their most recent monthly report. Total sales of $2.7 billion fueled the game industry in November, an increase of seven percent over November 2012’s sales numbers. The next-generation had a lot to do with the inflated number, as hardware sales were listed at $1.3 billion for the month, a 58% increase year-over-year.
But what about the games? Well, new releases Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag marched to the top three spots. Below that is a trio of non-November releases (Madden NFL 25, Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K14) and below that is a trio of family-friendly titles (Skylanders Swap Force, Just Dance 2014, Disney Infinity). FIFA 14 rounded out the top ten.
The top ten brought with it an interesting comparison between the two next-generation consoles and there seemed to be no clear-cut winner. According to Joystiq, the PS4 versions of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Assassin’s Creed IV, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, and FIFA 14 outsold their Xbox One counterparts. But the Xbox One can claim sales superiority with Skylanders Swap Force and Just Dance 2014 among multiplatform releases.
Finally, it was a bad month to be a platform-exclusive game as major releases like Super Mario 3D World, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Forza Motorsport 5, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds failed to crack the top ten.
You can find the complete chart of November 2013’s best-sellng games after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, 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, Disney Infinity, FIFA 14, Grand Theft Auto V, Just Dance 2014, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, NPD, Skylanders Swap Force
League of Legends: The First 21 Days of Season 4’s Preseason
It’s been three weeks since Riot Games released Patch 3.14 for League of Legends. The patch brought with it all of the changes players have been waiting for since the end of Season 3’s Grand Finals. Included were changes to vision, the jungle, supports, and of course, all of the champion and item balance tweaks that come with any patch. For a quick review of what Riot’s changes were, check out my previous article “What to Expect From Season 4.” As we’d all hoped, Season 4 seems to have made significant changes to the League of Legends world, while still keeping the game true to its core. The meta has seen a bit of a shift, and will likely continue to change as the new season grows into its own. Most notable at the moment, however, is the influx of supports and support players, as well as the champions who have become extremely powerful because of various changes, such as Evelynn and Shyvana. (more…)
Posted in Features, PC, Top Story
Tagged League of Legends
Telltale has released the first full trailer for The Walking Dead: Season 2
No more teasers… Telltale Games is finally ready to unveil The Walking Dead: Season 2 in the first full trailer for the game, which you can view above. In this second set of episodic adventure games, players will control Clementine in a world full of zombies, but without Lee, her protector from the first game.
Telltale isn’t ready to announce a final release for “All That Remains,” the first episode of The Walking Dead: Season 2, but it’s probably to expect the Steam (PC/Mac), PS3, and Xbox 360 editions to launch on December 17/18. Telltale has confirmed that an iOS version will also be released in December and that a Vita version is in the works.
Each episode will be priced at $4.99, but players can pre-purchase the entire season through Steam (PC/Mac) for $22.49, a 10% savings.
Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics are free for the next 48 hours on GOG.com
In recent years, GOG.com has emerged from Steam’s shadow to position itself as a major competitor to Valve’s digital distribution service. And with the announcement of their Winter Sale, I imagine many more gamers will flock to the site formerly known as Good Old Games.
While GOG has dropped their retro-inspired name, they’ve never forgotten about their love of classic video games. So to celebrate the start of this year’s Winter Sale, they’re giving away free digital copies of Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics for the next 48 hours. And yes, you read that correctly. You’ll get three of the greatest games of all time for the princely sum of $0.00.
The offer expires on Saturday, December 14 at 9:00 AM Eastern Time.
GOG plans to post new deals and discounts as part of their Winter Sale until December 29, so if you can’t find anything you’re interested in today, keep checking back over the next two weeks as the full sale will include “[a] selection of 600+ games discounted by 50% or more, special bundle deals up to 80% off, and daily personal deals, including the mysteriously mysterious mystery box!”
What’s in the box? What’s in the box?
The Elder Scrolls Online will be released on April 4
Bethesda has announced that The Elder Scrolls Online will be released for the PC and Mac on April 4, 2014. In honor of the good news, Game Director Matt Firor has posted an update on ESO’s progress at ElderScrollsOnline.com:
Game development is coming along very well. We completed major systems development, and are focusing on making this the Elder Scrolls game you expect: polishing the hundreds and hundreds of hours of content, making combat even more fun and responsive, fixing quest issues, and much, much more. In fact, we plan on spending the next few months before launch reacting to the latest feedback from internal and external testers and gameplay data we have collected.
The Elder Scrolls Online will also be available for the PS4 and Xbox One, but console gamers will have to wait until June 2014 to explore the massive world the Zenimax Online team is building. But everyone can enjoy the game’s new trailer, “War in Cyrodiil,” which has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged The Elder Scrolls Online
John Carmack reminisces on 20 years of Doom and what happened with Doom 4
On this day twenty years ago, gamers everywhere felt a sense of Doom that they haven’t been able to shake since. Doom may not have created the first person shooter genre, but it popularized it like no game had before. In fact, it made such an impression on gamers that other FPSs were known as “Doom clones” for years.
To mark this momentous occasion, John Carmack, one of the driving forces behind the creation of Doom at id Software, sat down with Wired‘s Chris Kohler to discuss the story behind one of his earliest accomplishments. The interview is certainly worth a read, and Carmack even gives readers an inside look at what went wrong with Doom 4 before his departure from id earlier this year:
“That’s something I can’t really go into much in detail. It’s been hard—one of the things that was a little bit surprising that you might not think so from the outside, but deciding exactly what the essence of Doom is, with this 20-year history, is a heck of a lot harder than you might think. You get multiple Doom fans that have different views of what the core essence of it is, and there’s been a design challenge through all of it.”
If you’re interested in the full story behind the making of Doom, I highly recommend checking out the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. I also highly recommend playing some Doom today, and not just because its the 20th anniversary of its release. Everyday is a good day to play Doom.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Doom (1993), Doom (2016)
The Walking Dead: Season 2 will launch on December 17
Telltale Games is bringing The Walking Dead: Season 2 to nearly every platform imaginable, which means a lot of people are struggling to keep the release date secret. But it looks like the people who run Steam and Microsoft’s Major Nelson aren’t very good secret keepers as both have leaked the release date for Episode 1.
The game’s Steam page has confirmed that The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 1 – All That Remains will be available for download on December 17. Thanks to the Major, we also know that the Xbox Live Arcade edition will follow on December 18. Sony has been tightlipped about The Walking Dead: Season 2, but it’s a safe bet that the game will be added to the PlayStation Store on December 17 as well (a Tuesday, which is the online storefront’s regular update day).
The only question that remains is the release date for the iOS and Vita versions. Oh, also, do you think is Telltale readying a release of The Walking Dead: Season 2 on the PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U? That’s a good question to ask too.
VGX 2013 Trailer: TitanFall
The inaugural VGX Awards closed with another look at 2014’s most anticipated game, TitanFall. Respawn Entertainment delivered a pair of trailers that showcased two previously unseen mech classes from the game.
The Ogre is a slow and awkward killing machine that will include a slew of powerful weapons. Meanwhile, the Stryder will be a fleet-footed mech that can outrun almost anything on the battlefield.
TitanFall will be released for the PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on March 11, 2014. Hit the break to view both trailers. (more…)