Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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: Switch
Outlast II will arrive on the Switch eShop on March 27
Red Barrels brought Outlast, their first-person horror experience, to the Switch eShop last week. Today, they confirmed that the sequel, Outlast II, will be available to download for Nintendo’s newest console on March 27. The sequel introduces new characters and a new locale, but it’s just as terrifying as the original:
Set in the same universe as the first game, but with different characters and a different setting, Outlast II is a twisted new journey into the depths of the human mind and its dark secrets.
Outlast II introduces you to Sullivan Knoth and his followers, who left our wicked world behind to give birth to Temple Gate, a town, deep in the wilderness and hidden from civilization. Knoth and his flock are preparing for the tribulations of the end of times and you’re right in the thick of it.
You are Blake Langermann, a cameraman working with your wife, Lynn. The two of you are investigative journalists willing to take risks and dig deep to uncover the stories no one else will dare touch.
You’re following a trail of clues that started with the seemingly impossible murder of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe.
The investigation has lead you miles into the Arizona desert, to a darkness so deep that no one could shed light upon it, and a corruption so profound that going mad may be the only sane thing to do.
Beginning today, Outlast II can be pre-ordered through the Nintendo eShop for $29.99.
Posted in News, Switch
Tagged Outlast II
New Retail Releases: Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition, Scribblenauts Showdown, Bravo Team, More
Big sales and critical acclaim greeted the launch of Final Fantasy XV back in 2016. But if you skipped Square Enix’s epic RPG, the publisher is trying again with Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition. Coming to stores this week for the PS4 and Xbox One, the Royal Edition will include a new dungeon, new features (including a First Person Mode), and all content from the game’s Season Pass.
Square Enix is also bringing Final Fantasy XV to the PC for the first time this week with the release of Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition. Like the Royal Edition, it will also come packaged with the content from the game’s Season Pass.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, WB Games will release Scribblenauts Showdown this week for the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Showdown takes the tried-and-true gameplay from the Scribblenauts series (including a dictionary with more than 60,000 words) and grafts it on to a multiplayer minigame competition.
Supermassive is one of the biggest names behind Sony’s VR push, and the Until Dawn developer is back with another PSVR-powered title for the PS4 this week, Bravo Team. In Bravo Team, players will need to make “constant split-second tactical decisions” as war rages all around you in a fictional Eastern European city.
And bookending this week’s batch of big new games, Square Enix and Deck Nine will release a Retail Edition of Life Is Strange: Before the Storm for the PS4 and Xbox One. The prequel includes the three-part game, as well as a bonus episode starring a younger Max Caulfield.
Finally, PQube will release Island Flight Simulator, 3D Mini Golf, and 3D Billiards: Billards and Snooker for the PS4. And Maximum Games will bring TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge, a motorcycle racing sim, to the PS4 and Xbox One.
And that’s it for this week’s New Retail Releases report, but we’ll be back in a few days with a look at all the upcoming additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Final Fantasy XV, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, Scribblenauts Showdown
Outlast, Subsurface Circular, Scribblenauts Showdown, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
The Nintendo Switch’s eShop got a little scarier this week.
With the launch of Outlast: Bundle of Terror, which contains the original game and its Whistleblower expansion, players can take Red Barrels’s demented romp through an insane asylum on the go for the first time. Also now available for the Switch is Subsurface Circular, a text-based detective game from Mike Bithell (the creator of Thomas Was Alone).
And on Tuesday, Switch owners will be able to download Scribblenauts Showdown, a multiplayer party game spinoff of the long-running franchise.
You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Outlast, Scribblenauts Showdown
ESRB to add “In-Game Purchases” descriptor to games with loot boxes and DLC
In response to the growing furor over loot boxes, especially their similarity to gambling, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has announced plans to create a new descriptor for “In-Game Purchases.”
According to the ESRB, the “In-Game Purchases” label will be affixed to any game that gives players the chance to purchase loot boxes, in-game currency, subscriptions/season passes, and other downloadable content (such as bonus levels, skins, upgrades, and music) with real money.
“The video game industry is evolving and innovating continually, as is the ESRB rating system. ESRB’s goal is to ensure that parents have the most up-to-date and comprehensive tools at their disposal to help them decide which games are appropriate for their children,” said Patricia Vance, the ESRB’s President. “With the new ‘In-Game Purchases’ interactive element coming to physical games, parents will know when a game contains offers for players to purchase additional content. Moreover, we will be expanding our efforts to educate parents about the controls currently at their disposal to manage in-game spending before their kids press Start.”
As part of their push to educate parents on loot boxes and other digital purchases, the ESRB will also launch ParentalTools.org, a new online resource that includes…
- A detailed introduction to the new “In-Game Purchases” and other interactive elements;
- Links to step-by-step guides for setting parental controls to help manage different aspects of video game use in the home, including money and time spent playing; and
- A link to the ESRB Ratings Guide that provides an explanation of ESRB’s three-part rating system.
Players should begin to see games with the “In-Game Purchases” descriptor in stores soon.
New Retail Releases: Payday 2, De Blob 2, Gravel, More
A pair of sequels will find new homes in this week’s New Retail Releases report.
Overkill will bring their cooperative crime simulator, Payday 2, to the Switch for the first time. The developer will add an exclusive new character to the Switch version, as well as a brand new local multiplayer mode. Also new on store shelves this week is THQ Nordic’s De Blob 2 for the PS4 and Xbox One. Originally released in 2011, this remastered version of the game includes a cooperative multiplayer mode and improved graphics.
Italian developer is also burning rubber for retail stores this week with the release of Gravel on the PS4 and Xbox One. Gravel is an off-road racing game that includes several single-player and multiplayer modes.
Finally this week, bargain hunters will be able to pick up Don’t Knock Twice, a horror adventure, and Shiny, a colorful platformer, for the PS4.
And that’s it for this week’s New Retail Releases report, but we’ll be back in a few days with a look at all the upcoming additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild wins “Game of the Year” at 2018 DICE Awards
Nintendo was definitely the big winner at last night’s DICE Awards presentation. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awarded 11 victories to the consolemaker, including “Game of the Year” for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Link’s newest adventure also received accolades for “Adventure Game of the Year,” “Game Design,” “Game Direction.”
Studio MDHR’s Cuphead received several awards for its outstanding sound and visual at the 2018 DICE Awards, including “Original Music Composition,” “Animation,” and “Art Direction.”
Developers for several other games strode to the stage to collect multiple awards during last night’s ceremony. That list includes Guerrilla’s Horizon: Zero Dawn (“Story” and “Technical Achievement”), PUBG Corporation’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (“Action Game of the Year” and “Online Gameplay”), Nintendo’s Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together (“Family Game of the Year” and the “D.I.C.E. Sprite Award”), and Oculus’s Lone Echo/Echo Arena (“Immersive Reality Technical Achievement” and “Immersive Reality Game of the Year”).
Congratulations to everyone who won big at the 2018 DICE Awards. A complete list of all the winners can be found after the break. (more…)
Pac-Man CE 2 Plus, Payday 2, SteamWorld Dig 2, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week
I feel like I say this every week, but it’s another big week for the Nintendo eShop. Over the next seven days, 18 new games will be available to download for the Switch, including a few big games that have found a new home on Nintendo’s console/handheld hybrid.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus is one of those games, and Bandai Namco will bring the wild technicolor visuals of the Pac-Man Championship Edition sub-series to the Switch for the first time, while also adding an exclusive two-player co-op mode. Nearly five years after it was first released, Overkill’s co-op shooter, Payday 2, will also be released for the Switch this week
Switch owners interested in puzzle-solving will also have a few new games to choose from this week including Typoman, a wordy platformer, and Bridge Constructor Portal, a bridge construction game that takes place within the Portal/Half-Life universe.
Over on the 3DS side of the Nintendo eShop, Image & Form has launched SteamWorld Dig 2, their acclaimed MetroidVania, on Nintendo’s handheld current device.
You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Switch, Wii U
Tagged Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, Payday 2, SteamWorld Dig 2, Typoman
Monster Hunter: World is king of the jungle… and the bestselling game of January 2018
The Monster Hunter franchise is an absolute phenomenon in Japan, and Capcom has been trying to replicate its success in North America since since Monster Hunter was released for the PS2 in 2004.
It might have taken more than a decade, but it looks like the series finally broke through with Monster Hunter: World, which was the best-selling game of January 2018. According to The NPD Group (via GamesIndustry.biz), Capcom’s unique Action RPG helped push the industry to its best performance in January since 2011.
However, Capcom wasn’t the only publisher to post a monster-sized debut in January. Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball Fighter Z fought its way to the #2 slot, beating out some of 2017’s biggest titles, including Call of Duty: WWII (#3) and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (#5).
All told, video game fans purchased more than $517 million in software, as well as $278 million in hardware. Microsoft’s Xbox One, Nintendo’s Switch, and Sony’s PS4 were neck-and-neck-and-neck, and total hardware sales crossed one million units during the month.
You can find the NPD’s recounting of January 2018’s top ten best-selling titles after the break. (more…)