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: PS4
What? Interceptor Entertainment buys 3D Realms while lawsuit with Gearbox continues
Say what you will about 3D Realms, but you have to admit, a news story about them is never boring.
The company is currently embroiled in a lawsuit With Gearbox Software over the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise. Specifically, whether or not it was legal for 3D Realms to license the franchise rights to Interceptor Entertainment to produce Duke Nukem: Mass Destruction, an action RPG rumored to be in development for the PC and PS4. Now comes the news that Interceptor’s parent company, SDN Invest, has purchased 3D Realms.
“3D Realms has always been a defining part the PC games industry.” said Frederik Schreiber, CEO of Interceptor Entertainment. “Getting 3D Realms under our wings is a huge step for us and we are extremely excited about the acquisition.”
The question is, what exactly did Interceptor/SDN Invest buy? Over the years, 3D Realms has sold off the majority of their properties including the aforementioned Duke Nukem, Prey (now owned by Bethesda), and Rise of the Triad (now owned by Apogee Software). 3D Realms does still own the distribution rights to many of their past successes including Duke Nukem 3D, the Commander Keen series, and Shadow Warrior, which was rebooted last year by Flying Wild Hog. Beyond that, there’s not much value in the 3D Realms name.
But then, Atari survived for years as a name that various publishers used to prop up their video game divisions, so you never know.
PopCap forms “HD Team” to bring Peggle 2 and an original game to consoles
The “HD Team” within PopCap Games that produced the recently released Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare will continue their work in the console realm.
“PopCap is now structured in the way we have standard PopCap mobile development and then PopCap HD, which is entirely focused on bringing games to PC and console,” Gary Clay, PopCap’s Marketing Manager said.
The team definitely has their plate full. In the near term, they plan to create new content for Garden Warfare, with the first update available in March. They are also working on an update to Peggle 2 as well as porting the game to additional consoles besides the Xbox One. Finally, PopCap HD is also developing an original console game unrelated to any previous PopCap property.
Looks like my dream of a Heavy Weapon sequel has been dashed once more.
[Source: Digital Spy]
Outlast: The Whistleblower DLC will be available in April
Warning: If you want to play Outlast and you haven’t yet, this DLC description has major spoilers!
Outlast developer Red Barrels has announced via its Facebook page that “The Whistleblower,” the first DLC expansion for the game, will be coming to PC and PlayStation 4 this April.
In “The Whistleblower,” you’ll get to play as Waylon Park, the man who sent the email to Miles Upshur, and many other journalists around the world, at the beginning of Outlast. Park was a software engineer at Murkoff, and “developed a deep-seated distrust of the profit-motivated scientists and doctors leading dangerous and irresponsible experiments on their patients” while he was working at Mount Massive. He was driven to blow the whistle on Mount Massive, and here you can play out those events – though the developer promises that the DLC “will actually stretch past the events of the first game to show the final chapter in Mount Massive Asylum’s story.”
Keep an eye out for “The Whistleblower” this April on the PC and PlayStation 4.
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition coming to PS4 next week
It’s no secret that I love Housemarque, the amazing studio behind Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation, Outland, and Resogun. Anthony Amato and I played a ludicrous amount of Dead Nation on the PlayStation 3, and now that it’s been announced that Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition is coming to the PlayStation 4, well… let’s just say I really need to get that second DualShock 4.
In case you don’t know what Dead Nation is, it’s a top-down, twin-stick, shoot-em-up zombie game, where you’re fighting through hordes of the undead with tons of amazing weapons. You can play it alone or with a friend, local or online multiplayer, at night with the lights off or in the middle of the day with all the blinds up. Apocalypse is an upgrade visually – “you can now play in full 1080p HD, with improved textures, rendering, and effects,” according to the PlayStation Blog – but that’s not all. They’ve also “improved the controls, adding in a quick weapon select so your favorite zombie decimator is never out of reach.”
Not only is the DLC, Road to Devastation, included in this version of the game – and not only can you submit challenges to your friends and others on the leaderboard to beat your score – there’s also Broadcast+ Mode, which blew my mind:
In this mode, you can stream your game to the masses interactively, and your viewers can influence the difficulty of your game. Periodically all your viewers, whether they be on PS4 or a web browser, have the option to vote between a positive and negative effect that occurs in your game. There are a total of 30 different voting effects that can occur, ranging from spawning zombie packs to giving the player ammo, or even disabling the player’s ability to sprint. But don’t worry; as a player you can get back at the masses, because voters will appear in your game as named zombies for you to exact your revenge on.
Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition will be available on the PlayStation 4 next week, March 4, for $14.99 for regular users, and free for PlayStation Plus members. Oh, and they also dropped a hint that there will be an upcoming announcement about the Vita version. It’s like zombie-killing Christmas in here.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Dead Nation
Anomaly 2 is in development for the PS4
Anomaly Warzone Earth‘s single-player experience got an upgrade to multiplayer last year on the PC with Anomaly 2. And now, according to the PlayStation Blog, it’s coming soon to the PlayStation 4. Now you can do more than just tower offense – you’ll be playing tower offense vs. tower defense.
11 bit studios’ Pawel Miechowski had a lot to say about the game at the PS Blog:
Anomaly Warzone Earth was one of the first tactical, reversed tower defense games in the world, where you didn’t control the towers (aliens), but rather the attackers (human forces) and defended Earth. In Anomaly 2, the story continues right after the invasion of Earth in 2018. Our planet is controlled by the aliens, and humankind is almost extinct. Those who managed to survive are grouped in convoys. Your convoy is called Yukon. …You’re again playing as Commander, controlling him on the battlefield and supporting the units in your convoy with four special abilities which you deploy during missions.
For a full explanation of all the new features, check out the rest of his comments at the PS Blog.
Sony Santa Monica lays off staff, cancels unannounced original game
After the completion of God of War III, Stig Asmussen, the game’s Director, began working on an original property within the walls of Sony Santa Monica. Sadly, it has been confirmed that the unannounced game has been cancelled. The cancellation looks to be the direct result of layoffs at the studio, as 50 employees recently lost their jobs. Lead Level Designer Jonathan Hawkins confirmed via Twitter that the project had been cancelled.
According to Gearnuke, Hawkins had been working on the new IP with Andy Puhl and Rob Davis, among other developers at the studio. The image above shows an Easter Egg from God of War: Ascension, which many thought was a teaser for the new property.
Once again, it’s a sad day for the industry when so many talented developers and staff members of an amazing studio like Sony Santa Monica are let go.
MGS5: Ground Zeroes gets a pre-release price cut and includes Phantom Pain DLC
Konami dropped a lot of information on us this week about Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. For starters, if you purchase the game “early on” (no time period specified), you’ll get exclusive DLC for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. In the retail version, it will be available “in the first batch;” digitally, it will be available for only a limited amount of time. The DLC unlocks additional staff for the Mother Base, introduced in Ground Zeroes, and will give players an advantage against The Phantom Pain.
There will also be unlockable content from Ground Zeroes that will carry over to The Phantom Pain. Ground Zeroes players will have a leg up with the additional staff, which will include rescued prisoners of war and VIPs. You will be able to carry over your character skins as well.
But wait, there’s more! Ground Zeroes will have a second screen iDroid app, which will be available for iOS, Android, and Xbox Smart Glass systems. This free app is a replica of Big Boss’ communicator and map, meaning you’ll be able to look at your maps, call in air support, or play the audio files (found in the form of cassette tapes) found in Camp Omega.
And finally, Konami has announced a price reduction. On the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, physical and digital copies of the game will only cost $29.99. On the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the physical game will be $29.99, while digital will be $19.99. The game will be available starting March 18, 2014, so if you want to get in on some of these special additions, you should pre-order it soon.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Warner Bros. is making a Minecraft movie
What kind of film could you create out of a video game with no characters, no plot, and no consistent world from player to player? I don’t know, but when you’re talking about the most popular game in the world, Warner Bros. is willing to give it a try. Deadline is reporting that the movie studio has reached a deal with Mojang to create a movie based on Minecraft.
The Minecraft movie will be produced by Roy Lee, who is one of the masterminds behind this year’s massively popular The Lego Movie. Jill Messick, a producer on Mean Girls, will also help bring Minecraft to the silver screen. It is much too early to discuss writers, directors, or actors, but might I suggest Quentin Tarantino for all three? Nah, I’m only joking… I think.
Warner Bros. is no stranger to the world of video games. In addition to producing the next Mortal Kombat movie, the company is one of the few to find success in game publishing thanks to its WB Games label.