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
- 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
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
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: PS4
New Releases: Far Cry Primal, PvZ Garden Warfare 2, Mega Man Legacy Collection, More
A trip back to the Stone Age, anthropomorphic plants with guns, and a compilation of some of the greatest platformers ever sit atop this week’s new release roundup.
Publishers are easily swayed by trends and it’s not hard to slot many of the most popular shooters of the last 15 years into three well-defined eras. After Medal of Honor, everyone rushed to produce a shooter set during World World II. After Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the hardware and tactics of the modern military became the focus. And after Deus Ex: Human Revolution, many shooters have seen shifted to the “not-so-distant future.”
But Ubisoft wants to go back… even further back than the European Theater. And that’s why Far Cry: Primal (PS4, Xbox One) features a battle between warring tribes of Stone Age warriors. Trading machine guns and laser rifles for stone knives and spears, Far Cry: Primal also lets players train a prehistoric tiger to do their dirty work for them.
And on the subject of bizarre shooters, EA and PopCap Games are back this week with another entry in the Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare saga. Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One) is a time-hopping trip that also adds back in the single-player modes that its predecessor was lacking.
Finally this week, Capcom brought together the first six Mega Man games for the retail release of the Mega Man Legacy Collection (3DS, PS4, Xbox One). If you didn’t play it last year, you should definitely stop putting it off.
A complete list of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Far Cry: Primal, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
Smite will be available for PS4 soon; Closed Beta begins in March
Hi-Rez Studios has announced (via the PlayStation Blog) that Smite, their popular PC and Xbox One MOBA, will soon be available for the PS4. Closed Alpha testing began today, and a Closed Beta will begin in early March. Players interested in joining the Closed Beta should head over to Smite’s official website for a chance to receive a beta key.
The PS4 version of Smite will include five free gods (Ymir, Thor, Neith, Guan Yu, and Ra), and any gods available in the free rotation. Currently, the game includes “more than 70 playable gods and mythological creatures from eight different pantheons around the world,” and they will all be unlockable with enough Favor (in-game currency) or Gems (real money). Smite devotees on the PS4 will also be able to receive a number of exclusive character skins such as…
- Link your PS4 account to your PC account to receive a “Worlds Collide” skin for Norse god Odin.
- All PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive a “KuKu4” skin for the Mayan snake deity Kulkulkan skin.
- And if you purchase the PS4 Founder’s Pack, you’ll receive a “C4codemon” skin for Norse god Ymir.
The Smite Founder’s Pack will be available for $29.99 after the Closed Beta begins and it’ll include 400 Gems and a “Soldier of Fortune” skin for Ares.
Fallout 4 wins “Game of the Year” at 2016 DICE Awards
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences held their annual DICE Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 emerged from The Vault to take home “Game of the Year” honors. The expansive open world RPG also won in two other categories, “Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.” However, it wasn’t a sweep for the post-apocalyptic adventure.
A trio of other games took home three awards last night including Moon Studios’s Ori and the Blind Forest (“Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition,” “Outstanding Achievement in Animation,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction”), Psyonix’s Rocket League (“Sports Game of the Year,” “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay,” and the “DICE Spirit Award”), and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (“Outstanding Achievement in Game Design,” “Outstanding Achievement in Story,” and “Outstanding Technical Achievement”).
While the ceremony featured plenty of revelry and merriment, last night’s DICE Awards were also a bittersweet affair as Satoru Iwata was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his distinguished business leadership of Nintendo. And Hideo Kojima, who recently parted ways with Konami after more than three decades with the company, was named to the AIAS’s Hall of Fame.
A complete list of this year’s winners (which also includes Super Mario Maker, Mortal Kombat X, Star Wars: Battlefront, and many more) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Fallout 4, Forza Motorsport 6, Helldivers, Heroes of the Storm, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mortal Kombat X, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Star Wars: Battlefront, Super Mario Maker, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Tales From the Borderlands will get a retail disc release on April 26
Telltale and Gearbox have announced that all five episodes of Tales From the Borderlands will receive a retail disc release this Spring:
For those of you who’ve yet to play the critically acclaimed Tales from the Borderlands – you’re in luck! Gearbox Software, Telltale Games, 2K, and The Hyperion Corporation are bringing the whole game – all five glorious episodes – to a shiny disc format you can buy in stores!
Play across Pandora in the aftermath of Borderlands 2 as corporate-climbing Rhys – who dreams of becoming the next Handsome Jack or as Fiona, a small time grifter going after the big score.
Tales From the Borderlands will be available in stores for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 26.
Hyper Light Drifter release date will be revealed next month; Wii U launch might not happen
The latest Kickstarter update for Hyper Light Drifter has delivered some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that a release date for Hyper Light Drifter will be announced next month. The developer, Heart Machine, previously said the overhead action RPG would be available for the PC in Spring 2016, with a console release to follow sometime after that. Unfortunately, that leads us directly into the bad news…
Hyper Light Drifter is still on track for a PS4, Vita, and Xbox One launch sometime this year, but the Wii U port is in “limbo” as of today. Heart Machine’s game is built using the GameMaker engine, which was expected to be compatible with the Wii U when development on Hyper Light Drifter began, but a contractual dispute between Nintendo and the people behind GameMaker have put that assumption in jeopardy. An agreement between the two sides is still a possibility, so the Wii U launch might happen without a hitch.
Heart Machine is also looking at other options to bring the game to Wii U owners if the situation can’t be resolved. So literally anything could happen with the port and “limbo” is probably the best way to describe it.
If a Wii U release for Hyper Light Drifter isn’t possible this year, Heart Machine will offer Kickstarter backers the opportunity to receive the game on a different platform.
The Witness Review: Puzzles as Far as the Eye Can See
In The Witness, you traverse an island divided into traditional video game zones (desert, forest, castle) solving line puzzles. Each puzzle exists on a square grid with a starting point and an end point. Your goal is to successfully navigate these puzzles. The puzzles are very simple at the beginning of your quest, but quickly become more complicated after the introduction of new rules.
Contrary to what the above description might make you think, The Witness is a fascinating game, and if my description makes it sound dry or boring, it is only because I am eager to dispel any theories of what The Witness may or may not be. (more…)
Posted in PC, PS4, Reviews, Top Story
Tagged The Witness
Hitman Go: Definitive Edition will target a PC, PS4, Vita release next week
Square Enix has announced that Hitman Go will be released soon on the PC, PS4, and Vita in a special Definitive Edition. The turn-based strategy game will feature updated visuals, as well as all of the previously released downloadable content including the Paris Opera (from Hitman: Blood Money and the St. Petersburg Stakeout (from Hitman 2: Silent Assassin).
The Hitman Go: Definitive Edition will include Cross-Buy and Cross-Save support on the PS4 and Vita, while Steam users will have access to Trading Cards, Emojis, Wallpapers, Cloud Saves, and Steam Achievements. Both versions of the game will be priced at $7.99 and a launch trailer has been embedded above.
Hitman Go: Definitive Edition will be released on February 23.
Street Fighter V, Layers of Fear, Tron Run/r, more added to PS Store
Ready? Fight! Street Fighter V has finally been released for the PS4 and it’s now available to download through the PlayStation Store. The one-on-one fighter will include 16 characters at launch, and Capcom has laid out an ambitious schedule of downloadable content that includes additional World Warriors, a cinematic Story Mode, and a ton of new costumes. Players will even be able to unlock of these downloadable characters for free with in-game currency earned during the regular course of play.
If fighting games aren’t your thing, there’s a few other games to download from the PlayStation Store this week including Layers of Fear (PS4), a psychological horror game about a tragic past and an unfinished painting; Tron Run/r (PS4), an endless runner set with Disney’s Tron universe; and The Escapists: The Walking Dead (PS4), a retro-styled survival sim that takes place in the Walking Dead universe.
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 at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Street Fighter V, The Escapists: The Walking Dead