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
Kickstart This! The Pre-Christmas Whopper Edition
It’s that time of year again…. When everyone gets anxious about having enough money to afford Christmas presents and keep the heating on… When Z-list celebrities are invited to flick a switch and cast sparkly lights on towns and cities across the globe… When pine trees shudder in fear and reindeer wonder why there are hundreds of cameras pointing at them. But it need not be so glum and terrifying. In the run-up to what has become a period of immense profit for companies, yet an unnecessary burden on the growing number of Scrooges in the world (myself included), it is important to keep everything in check, and offer help to those who need it. Buy gloves for the homeless. Invite your lonely neighbour around for a cup of egg nog or mulled wine. And if you are still in the spirit to bring good tidings, check out the latest Kickstarter game campaigns that need your support.
We have a whopping seven projects to share this month, including the super cute P.A.W.S. – Prime Alien Watch Squad, oddball survival game Dyscourse, the eccentric steampunk detective adventure The Dead Flowers Case, and 2D turn based monster shooter MODUS. Halfway through, things get a little more intense with a throwback to 80s action films in Bullet Bros, tactical FPS assassin title Lonewolf, and finally, the beautifully rendered isometric sci-fi adventure Stasis.
Let’s jingle those bells. (more…)
EA’s Star Wars deal doesn’t include movie tie-in games
Electronic Arts wasted no time in tasking top men (“TOP. MEN.”) from DICE LA and Visceral to create two games in the Star Wars universe after signing a deal with Disney earlier this year. DICE LA is hard at work on a reboot of Star Wars: Battlefront while the subject of Visceral’s project is still a mystery. But now we know what it won’t be about.
Speaking at the UBS Global Technology Conference earlier this week, Blake Jorgensen, EA’s CFO, has confirmed that the publisher has no plans to release any games based on the upcoming Star Wars movies such as 2015’s Episode VII.
“We’ve done movie games over the years and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t doing a movie game, i.e., game based on the movie,” Jorgensen said.
He continued: “We have [a] team in DICE building some early stages of various games and building them in Frostbite, so it will be a very exciting gameplay and you’ll hear more about it in the years to come. And so, we’re excited and we think that it will be a great 2015 and 2016 when we’ll start to see the emergence of possibly the Star Wars titles along with the Star Wars movies that will start to come out in late calendar 2015 or fiscal 2016.”
Jorgensen also confirmed that EA’s deal with Disney will last for ten years and will include “games in many different genres across multiple types of platforms.”
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Visceral
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will be released on February 18
Electronic Arts and PopCap Games have announced that Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will be released for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 on February 18. A PC version will also be available “at a later date.”
Garden Warfare turns the popular tower defense series into a third-person shooter with three distinct modes: Garden & Graveyards, a 12v12 base-capturing mode; Team Vanquish, a 12v12 deathmatch mode; and Garden Ops, a four-player cooperative mode that tasks players with dispatching wave after wave of zombies.
If you plan on getting Garden Warfare for the Xbox One, you’ll open up two new modes including a cooperative splitscreen mode and Boss Mode, a mode that allows players to use their Kinect and/or SmartGlass device to drop health, intel, and airstrikes onto the battlefield.
“Gamers across the world have fallen in love with the Plants vs Zombies characters and now they’ll get to see them in an entirely new light, said Brian Lindley, Producer on Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. “Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare give the series’ fans and shooter players a fun, new experience that they’ll both enjoy as they blast, chomp and laugh their way through co-op and head-to-head online action.”
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Spike TV announces the nominees for 2013 VGX Awards
The nominees for the 2013 VGX Awards (previously known as the Video Game Awards) have been announced by Spike TV and it looks like this year’s show will be dominated by Grand Theft Auto V, BioShock Infinite, The Last of Us, and Tomb Raider. Those four games, along with Super Mario 3D World, will duke it out for this year’s “Game of the Year” honor.
Grand Theft Auto V lead all games with four additional nominations (“Best PlayStation,” “Best Xbox,” “Action Adventure,” and “Soundtrack”) as well as a “Best Studio” nomination for Rockstar North, “Best Actor” nomination for Steven Ogg, and two “Best Song” nods. The Fulbright Company’s Gone Home leads this year’s indie charge with two nominations (“Best PC” and “Best Independent”) and a “Best Studio” nomination for the developer.
And in a fun twist, Troy Baker will be competing against himself in the “Best Actor” category as his Joel (from The Last of Us) will do battle with his Booker DeWitt (from BioShock Infinite).
The 2013 VGX Awards will air on Spike TV on Saturday, December 7. A complete list of this year’s nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged BioShock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, Super Mario 3D World, The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, VGX 2013
State of Decay: Breakdown furthers the zombie apocalypse on November 29
Undead Labs has announced plans to release the first downloadable expansion for State of Decay, “Breakdown,” on November 29. According to Sanya Weathers, Undead’s Director of Community, “Breakdown” will include…
- Less story, more survival.
- Long-term survival.
- More difficulty.
- New achievements, survivors, and weapons.
The add-on has been priced at $6.99 and will be available on the PC (through Steam) and the Xbox Live Game Store. Undead Labs will also release the “Title Update 4” patch, which will fix a variety of bugs and include a new loot distribution system, on the same day.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360
Tagged State of Decay
New Releases: Xbox One, Super Mario 3D World, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, More
Are you ready for “Part Two” of this year’s next-generation console extravaganza? After months of hype, Microsoft is ready to deliver the Xbox One to store shelves this week. If you haven’t already ordered one, it’s unlikely you’ll find the system in stores, but it’s always worth a shot. However, there will be plenty of Xbox One game available, including:
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Angry Birds Star Wars
- Battlefield 4
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Dead Rising 3
- FIFA 14
- Fighter Within
- Forza Motorsport 5
- Just Dance 2014
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes
- Madden NFL 25
- NBA 2K14
- NBA Live 14
- Need For Speed: Rivals
- Ryse: Son of Rome
- Skylanders Swap Force
- Zumba Fitness: World Party
If you’re not quite ready to hop on the Xbox One bandwagon, there are plenty of brand new current-generation games out this week including:
- Mario’s most recent Wii U adventure… Super Mario 3D World
- Link’s latest 3DS quest… The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
- A tropical Mario Party… Mario Party: Island Tour
- Media Molecule’s origami Vita platformer… Tearaway
- The further adventures of Jake and Finn… Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW!
- And finally, the return of Zoo Tycoon (now for the Xbox 360).
The complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
December 7’s VGX Awards will replace the Spike TV Video Game Awards
The Spike TV Video Game Awards are dead! But the long-running awards show isn’t going away. Instead, it’s been renamed the “VGX Awards.” Oh good, many gamers worried that the awards show had an image problem before, adding an unneeded “X” to the name is obviously a step in the right direction.
Dodgy name change aside, the new VGX Awards might actually be moving in the right direction. The dance party atmosphere has been replaced by an “intimate studio setting” and a Hollywood host was passed over in favor of Geoff Keighley of GameTrailers TV. But like in years past, the show will include World Premiere game trailers, “extended demos of the next generation of games, and interactive one-on-one interviews.”
This year’s nominees will be revealed at a later date, but viewer voting for the “Most Anticipated Game” award is now open. Your five choices are Destiny, South Park: The Stick of Truth, TitanFall, Watch Dogs, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
The 2013 VGX Awards will be broadcast on Spike TV on Saturday, December 7 at 6:00 PM. The show will also be livestreamed on VGXLive.com, Spike.com, GameTrailers.com, Twitch, Hulu, Yahoo Screen, ComedyCentral.com MTV.com, MTV2.com, BET.com, and through apps available on the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, and iOS/Android devices.
Ultra Street Fighter IV will be released in May or June next year
Capcom is still keeping quiet on when Ultra Street Fighter IV will be released, but they’ve narrowed the window somewhat.
According to a post on the Capcom-Unity blog, the publisher has revealed that the arcade edition of Ultra Street Fighter IV will be available in April 2014. The PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 edition will be released shortly after that, but “before EVO [2014].” Since the 2014 Evolution World Finals are set to begin on July 11, we can assume that the home release of Ultra Street Fighter IV will be available sometime in May or June.
For more Ultra Street Fighter IV news, head over to Capcom-Unity for an updated look at the game’s new characters: Elena, Rolento, Hugo, and Poison.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter IV