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: PS3
New Releases: Star Wars Battlefront, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, More
“Do or do not. There is no try.”
After an absence from gaming for more than a decade, it’s time for the return of the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Did DICE recapture the old magic that made the series a fan favorite? We won’t know for sure until Tuesday, but I do know that the Vader-emblazoned PS4 500GB + Star Wars: Battlefront Limited Edition Bundle is a beautiful piece of hardware. A regular PS4 500GB + Star Wars: Battlefront Bundle will also be released this week.
Also available this week is a pair of Nintendo exclusives on Friday. Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon for the 3DS is the latest dungeon-crawling roguelike starring those lovable Pokemon. Meanwhile, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash serves up another Mario-filled tennis tournament on the Wii U in place of the delayed Star Fox Zero.
Finally this week, we’ve got plenty of familiar games in new places…
- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate makes its PC debut as the Assassins and Templars take their eternal struggle to Victorian England.
- The Borderlands Triple Pack (PS3, Xbox 360) puts all three games (and all their downloadable content) into a single package for the first time.
- The Crew: Wild Run Edition (PS4, Xbox One) bundles together Ubisoft’s online racer with its Wild Run expansion.
- Deadpool breaks the fourth wall again in this PS4/Xbox One remake of his PS3/Xbox 360 game.
- Telltale compiles all six episodes of their Game of Thrones adaptation onto a single disc for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
A complete list of this week’s new release can be found after the break. (more…)
More than 113 games will be playable at PlayStation Experience 2015
The 2015 PlayStation Experience is just a few weeks away and Sony has unveiled (via the PlayStation Blog) the semi-complete list of games that will be playable on the show floor. I say “semi-complete” because the consolemaker also revealed they have plenty of new game announcements planned for the next edition of their yearly showcase, many of which will also have demos available.
The list, which is available after the break, is mostly populated with this Fall’s biggest PS4, PS3, and Vita releases. But it also has a few unannounced titles, including New Hot Shots Golf. Actually, I’m not sure if this is the first mention of a new Hot Shots Golf game or not, but its inclusion is a nice surprise to me… and that’s something.
The 2015 PlayStation Experience will be held on December 5th and 6th in San Francisco. Tickets are still available and can be purchased through PlayStation.com. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged New Hot Shots Golf, PlayStation Experience 2015
Halo 5: Guardians was the best-selling game of October 2015 according to the NPD Group
The Master Chief’s sales performance was masterful last month as players flocked to stores to purchase Halo 5: Guardians, making it the best-selling game in October 2015.
The fifth entry in Microsoft’s long-running shooter series wasn’t the only new release to rule the charts last month. Players also pushed their gaming dollars towards the newly available Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (#3), WWE 2K16 (#5), Yoshi’s Woolly World (#8), and Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (#9). And the battle of the (plastic instrument) bands ended with Harmonix’s Rock Band 4 taking the #10 spot and Guitar Hero Live failing to chart. This month is also notable for another no-show as Minecraft was knocked out of the top ten for the first time in a long time. But it’ll surely climb the ranks again as the holiday season approaches.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, The NPD Group’s Liam Callahan confirmed that the game industry saw a year-over-year sales increase thanks to Halo 5 and the debut of Microsoft’s Xbox One Elite Controller: “Overall sales across physical software, hardware, and accessories experienced a modest 2% growth in October 2015 compared to October 2014. This was driven entirely by accessory sales, which grew by 18%, or just under $30 million.”
Halo 5 also helped sales of Microsoft’s Xbox One triumph over Sony’s PS4 on the monthly sales charts for the first time all year. Even more impressive, this happened after Sony officially dropped the price on the PS4.
The NPD Group’s complete top ten for October 2015 can be found after the break. (more…)
Black Friday 2015 Video Game Deals: Best Buy
Black Friday is coming, is your wish list (and your wallet) ready? Here’s what you can expect to find at one retailer on November 27th…
The blue shirts of Best Buy have published their annual Black Friday circular, giving us a look at some of this holiday season’s best gaming deals. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Forza Motorsport 6, and Need For Speed have popped up in multiple ads and their $34.99 price at Best Buy is a decent discount.
However, the retailer’s absolute best deals are a pair of Xbox One system bundles. An Xbox One 500 GB packed with The Lego Movie Videogame and a Samsung 40″ LED TV will be available for $499.98 as a Friday morning “Doorbuster.” But if you miss out on that, Best Buy is also offering an Xbox One 1 TB with Rise of the Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and two Wireless Controllers for $349.99. Both of these bundles are fantastic deals.
Best Buy will open their doors for Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, at 5:00 PM. You can view their full ad at BestBuy.com or check out all the game deals after the break. (more…)
Black Friday 2015 Video Game Deals: Target
Black Friday is coming, is your wish list (and your wallet) ready? Here’s what you can expect to find at one retailer on November 27th…
Target is offering deep discounts on games in the “toys-to-life” genre like Skylanders SuperChargers, Disney Infinity: Star Wars, and Lego Dimensions this holiday season. They also plan to mark down big new titles like Guitar Hero Live, Batman: Arkham Knight, and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. Finally, if you’re in the market for a Wii U, the retailer will have a great bundle that includes digital download codes for Splatoon and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U.
Target will open their doors for Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, at 6:00 PM. You can view their full ad at BlackFriday.com or check out all the game deals after the break. (more…)
Activision will develop Call of Duty “cinematic universe” and Skylanders animated TV series
Activision is going to Hollywood! The megapublisher has announced the formation of Activision Blizzard Studios, a new film and television studio that will create content based on their most popular game franchises. Nick Van Dyk, a former executive at Disney, will co-lead the studio along another executive who will be named later.
Not surprisingly, the first project from the studio will be an animated television series based on the Skylanders range of games and toys. A premiere date wasn’t announced, but the series is alreadyy in production and Activision has lined up an impressive voice cast including Justin Long as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale as Stealth Elf, Jonathan Banks as Eruptor, and Norm MacDonald as Glumshanks. Eric Rogers, a writer best known for his work on Futurama, will serve as the showrunner.
Activision Blizzard Studios is also hard at work on laying the groundwork for a Call of Duty “cinematic universe,” which they hope to launch with “a series of Call of Duty feature films as well as the possibility of television adaptations.” It takes guts to promise multiple movies, a television series, and an interconnected cinematic universe.
Bobby Kotick, Activision’s CEO, is confident that his new division can make it work: “Activision Blizzard is home to some of the most successful entertainment franchises in history, across any medium [and we] intend to approach film and television development with the same unwavering commitment to excellence we are known for in game development.”
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Skylanders SuperChargers
CoD Black Ops III (Friday), Need For Speed, Dragon Fin Soup, more added to PS Store
It’s that time again as Sony has updated the PlayStation Store with most of this week’s new releases.
I say “most of” as the biggest game of the week is clearly Call of Duty: Black Ops III, which won’t be available for the PS4 and PS3 until Friday. Players on the PS4 will be able to take part in a near-future Campaign involving augmented soldiers and other high-tech weaponry, while players on both platforms will have access to Competitive Multiplayer and the co-op Zombies Mode.
Also available this week is EA’s Need For Speed reboot on the PS4, which will attempt to reinvent the long-running racing franchise once again. This time out, developer Ghost Games is touting their “Five Ways to Play” system, which will reward players for driving fast and looking good.
If you’re looking for something a little less modern and a little more mature, I want to direct you towards the Cross-Buy (PS4 + PS3 + PS Vita) compatible Dragon Fin Soup, a roguelike RPG that pits an alcoholic Red Riding Hood against hordes of monsters.
Mature is not the word I would to describe Snoopy’s Grand Adventure, a PS4 game meant to tie-in to the upcoming movie. Players will take control of Snoopy in a side-scrolling adventure where he does his Snoopy thing, including an appearance from the Flying Ace and his nemesis, the Red Baron.
Finally this week, Lab Zero Games has released a “Prototype Beta” for their side-scrolling RPG, Indivisible. I don’t quite know what separates this beta release from an early demo, but Indivisible shares a similar art style with Lab Zero’s Skullgirls and should interest retro-minded players with its “Free” price tag.
More information on all of these games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break. And a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons and discounts can be found, as always, at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Dragon Fin Soup, Indivisible, Need For Speed, The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy's Grand Adventure