Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: PC
Launch date for Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones sails away to 2019-2020
The “X” on Ubisoft’s treasure map of upcoming games for Skull and Bones originally marked a spot for “Fall 2018,” but it looks like the pirate simulation from Ubisoft Singapore has been delayed. According to the publisher, it’ll now be released sometime in 2019 or 2020.
Because they feel their recent releases have “excellent momentum,” Ubisoft didn’t feel the need to crowd their 2018 calendar with yet another product, and delayed Skill and Bones to “give itself more time” to develop the game:
In line with previous practices and in view of the acceleration of our digital transformation, growth in back-catalog sales, and excellent momentum of recent releases, Ubisoft has decided to give itself more time to develop Skull and Bones to offer players an even more engaging experience. Skull and Bones is now scheduled for release in 2019-20.
So what does Ubisoft have on tap for 2018? The publisher confirmed that The Crew 2, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, and “an unannounced franchise title” will all be released this year. The Crew 2 arrives in stores in June, and we’ll likely learn more about the latter two titles at this year’s E3 Expo.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Skull and Bones
State of Decay 2: Ultimate Edition, Divinity: Original Sin II (Game Preview), Baseball Stars Professional, more added to Xbox Store
Today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store include hungry zombies, absent gods, and pixelated pitchers…
Microsoft and Undead Labs have teamed up once again to release State of Decay 2: Ultimate Edition. This survival simulation sequel includes online cooperative multiplayer in an open world where “every decision matters.” Players who pick up State of Decay 2 title will also receive a free copy of the game for their Windows 10 PC thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere program, as well as an Xbox One download of the original State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition.
Also available to download today for the Xbox One is the Game Preview launch of Divinity: Original Sin II – Definitive Edition. The full version will be available this August, but in the meantime, Xbox One owners will be able to get a head start on the “Battle For Divinity” from Larian Studios.
Finally today, Hamster Corporation is taking us all the way back to the ballgame with an Xbox One re-release for Baseball Stars Professional, which was originally released for the NeoGeo in 1990.
You can learn more about all of these games, and the rest of today’s additions to the Xbox Games Store, after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Divinity: Original Sin II, State of Decay 2
Take-Two CEO officially announces WWE 2K19 and NBA 2K19… but delays next entry in “one of 2K’s biggest franchises” into 2019
About a year ago, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that “a highly anticipated new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises” would be released in 2018. At the time, fans speculated that the executive was slyly hinting at Borderlands 3 and BioShock 4, but an official announcement never materialized for either title.
Fast forward to this week, and Zelnick once again took the stage to share details about Take-Two’s future.
This time, the CEO told investors that 2K’s mystery sequel will now launch during the “2020 fiscal year” (sometime between April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020) to give the unknown production team “additional development time” to work on it. All signs still point to Borderlands 3 or BioShock 4 (or both, if we’re being truly optimistic), but it looks like we’ll have to wait a bit longer to play it.
Elsewhere during the presentation, Zelnick revealed that the next entries in the company’s annual franchises, WWE 2K19 and NBA 2K19, will be released this Fall on “To Be Announced” platforms. Not surprising, but nice to know.
Hellbound is “A 90s FPS Made 20 Years Later” by Saibot Studios
It might be fair to say that retro-styled first person shooters are “having a moment.” There’s already several to choose from on the market (including Pixel Titans’s Strafe, New Blood’s Dusk, and Sorgath’s Devil Daggers), and several others are currently in development. It looks like you can add Saibot Studios’s Hellbound to the latter group.
Just one glance at Hellbound’s Gameplay Trailer is enough to know that the development team was heavily inspired by id Software’s Doom, but they’re not asking players to battle back the hordes of Hell as yet another Space Marine. Instead, Hellbound’s main character, Hellgore, is a grizzled warrior that “loves killing Demons in Hell.”
Hellbound has been in development for almost two years, and Saibot is currently seeking additional funding for the game through Kickstarter. Their campaign, which just surpassed $13,000 (of its $40,000 goal), includes a glimpse at some of the game’s very Doom-like concept art and gameplay mechanics. Potential backers also have the ability to try before they buy as the development team recently launched a free Survival Mode demo of Hellbound on Steam.
If all goes well, the full version of Hellbound will be released for the PC in 2019, and if Saibot manages to reach a $100,000 Stretch Goal, the developers plans to add a Campaign Mode to the game.
CoD Black Ops 4 Reveal: Treyarch will give players three Zombies experiences at launch
Activision and Treyarch hosted their “Community Reveal” for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 earlier today, and they delivered a massive amount of information during the livestream.
The big brains at Treyarch have announced they’ll bring three Zombies experiences to Black Ops 4 at launch. And because they’re always mixing things up, this time around, fans will be able to fight zombies on the Titanic (“Voyage of Despair”) and in a gladiator arena (“IX”). A third map (“Blood of the Dead”) will be familiar to fans as a remake of the Alcatraz-set “Mob of the Dead” scenario. Multiple difficulty levels and a streamlined “Zombie Rush” mode will also be available:
Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the original Call of Duty Zombies, Black Ops 4 also debuts an entirely new and unprecedented Zombies experience that’s the biggest Day One offering in franchise history… with three fully-featured Zombies experiences at launch… IX, Voyage of Despair, and Blood of the Dead.
With immersive new adventures, a brand new cast of characters and a nefarious new enemy, Black Ops 4 Zombies will feature the deep gameplay and easter eggs that the rabid community of fans devours. It also includes the most customizable action to date, new systems for creating and completing community challenges, and social systems designed to connect players. Black Ops 4 also reintroduces difficulty levels and an in-game tutorial to onboard new players to the Zombies universe, while giving hardcore players the option of ratcheting up the challenge.
Additionally, Zombie Rush is a brand new mode that streamlines the gameplay experience, introducing enticing new challenges to grizzled veterans, while creating a whole new tempo of gameplay for newcomers.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 12. You can view a trio of new trailers for the game’s Zombies offerings after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
CoD Black Ops 4 Reveal: Blackout Mode brings Battle Royale to Call of Duty
Activision and Treyarch hosted their “Community Reveal” for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 earlier today, and they delivered a massive amount of information during the livestream.
As expected, Call of Duty is diving headfirst into the “Battle Royale” genre with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout Mode. We don’t know how many players will be able to compete in Blackout Mode, but we do know it’ll feature “the largest map ever built in Call of Duty,” as well as the ability to play as classic characters from the entire Black Ops series:
[In] today’s world premiere, the team also introduced Blackout… the new battle royale-style experience that combines Black Ops’ signature fast, fluid, guns-up combat, with fierce new levels of survival competition across iconic Black Ops settings re-imagined at a colossal scale. Blackout is an experience unlike any other game or mode in Call of Duty history, where players will have to scavenge, strategize, compete and survive to win.
Featuring the largest map ever built in Call of Duty… 1,500 times bigger than Nuketown… Blackout thrusts players into a collision course as they play as classic characters spanning the history of the Black Ops series including the original Call of Duty Zombies Origins cast.
Battling solo or in teams, players will engage in diverse combat complete with ground, air, and sea vehicles across a gamespace unlike anything ever in Call of Duty. Players will encounter fan-favorite Black Ops map locations and call upon a massive arsenal of Black Ops weaponry and equipment as the winner-takes-all action creates a new way to play Call of Duty.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 12. And the first trailer for Blackout Mode has been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
CoD Black Ops 4 Reveal: Treyarch ditches the Campaign Mode to “go deeper into the fiction of multiplayer”
Activision and Treyarch hosted their “Community Reveal” for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 earlier today, and they delivered a massive amount of information during the livestream.
First things first, the two companies confirmed the rumors that have been dogging Black Ops 4 for a few months now… the game won’t ship with a Campaign Mode. But Treyarch also said that this newfound focus on multiplayer will give them a chance to “[go] deeper than ever before into the fiction of multiplayer” with the game’s Specialists:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 features gritty, grounded combat, along with new levels of customization and tactical gameplay, and a variety of new weaponry, maps and modes for the ultimate Black Ops multiplayer experience. The game features the return of the iconic Pick 10 system, along with a series of innovations in weapon controls, combat flow, health regeneration, and player movement.
Black Ops 4 goes deeper than ever before into the fiction of multiplayer, where players will explore the world of Specialists… who they are, why they exist, and what battles they fight together… while mastering their gameplay through solo and multiplayer combat experiences. Black Ops 4 features a combination of new and returning Specialists, each with their own unique weapons, equipment, and playstyles. Players will be powerful alone, but devastating as a team working together.
A quick glimpse at some of the Specialists that’ll take part in Black Ops 4 can be found in the “Power In Numbers” Cinematic Trailer, which has been embedded above.
“Black Ops 4 is by far the most ambitious title our team has ever created,” said Dan Bunting, the Co-Studio Head, Treyarch. “At its core Black Ops has always been about challenging convention and boldly taking our gameplay in new directions. With Black Ops 4, we’ve designed an experience for all play styles and skill levels from casual to competitive. It brings a layer of tactical depth that rewards players for mastery, and just feels so good to play.”
Players who prefer to experience Call of Duty on the PC will be in for even more surprises. Treyarch has recruited Beenox and Blizzard to assist with development, which means Black Ops 4’s multiplayer will be playable on the PC through Battle.net (a first for the franchise). The game will also feature a wealth of control options, as well as support for an uncapped framerate, 4K resolution and HDR, ultra-wide monitors, and performance and visual quality customization.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 12. In the meantime, the first Gameplay Trailer can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Bethesda reveals first Gameplay Trailer for Rage 2 and confirms Spring 2019 launch date
As promised, Bethesda has pulled back the curtain on the first Gameplay Trailer for Rage 2. Bringing players back to the wild wasteland of the first game, Bethesda also confirmed that Rage 2 will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in Spring 2019.
In addition, the publisher unveiled a bevy of gameplay and story details in a new post on Bethesda.net (and slipped in a few Walker: Texas Ranger jokes):
Mankind is in peril. In the decades following an asteroid’s devastation, most of the earth has become an unforgiving wildland where bloodthirsty factions vie for control of precious resources. Pockets of civilization have emerged to claim their space in the world, but the tentative peace they’ve established is being threatened. Rage 2 follows Walker, the last Ranger of Vineland, as he fights to survive the chaos of the dystopian world into which he was born. With a wide array of weapons, vehicles and strange powers, Walker sets off to take down the tyrannical Authority.
It’s the perfect mix: id Software’s first-person shooter pedigree, Avalanche Studios’ mastery of the open world sandbox, with a healthy dose of pedal-to-the-metal vehicle combat. From the swamplands and jungles where enemies lurk among the dense foliage, to the open deserts where a passing car is more likely to mow you down than offer you a ride, the world of Rage 2 is not a gentle, nurturing place. The people who have survived in this landscape have had to learn to protect themselves and keep their heads on a swivel, especially with the reemergence of a familiar menace.
Players will have other opportunities for mayhem in Rage 2’s open world by equipping special Nanotrite abilities:
Among the arrows he can choose from his Nanotrite ability quiver are the power to crush enemies into paste from above in a devastating slam attack or send them flying away from him with a lethal energy push. Walker will also learn to channel these Nanotrites into his weapons, pushing them into an awe-inspiring Overdrive, a unique skill that lets him push his guns beyond their limits and unleash absolute hell on his foes. Chain these abilities together to make Walker a powerhouse of destruction, quickly refilling his Overdrive meter. While in Overdrive, Walker’s guns do more damage, they gain new attributes, enemies drop better rewards and Walker’s health starts to regenerate. When timed correctly, Overdrive is more than enough to tip the scales in a tricky fight.
If you’re still hungry for more information about Rage 2, you’ll have to wait until this year’s E3 Expo to really dig in. Bethesda has said they’ll reveal a second Gameplay Trailer and even more details about Rage 2 during their BE3 Showcase on Sunday, June 10.