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: Wii U
Nintendo wants you to watch this “sizzle reel” featuring Wii U, 3DS indie games
Nintendo hosted another Nintendo Direct and while it was a bit of a low key affair, there’s still plenty of tidbits to share. For example, do you think the PS4 has the market cornered on indie games? Think again, as Nintendo released this “sizzle reel” showcasing almost two dozen intriguing indie titles that will be released for the Wii U and 3DS in the near future.
Here’s the full list of games shown and don’t forget to check out the trailer above:
Wii U
- QUBE: Director’s Cut
- Scram Kitty and His Buddy On Rails
- Armillo
- 1,001 Spikes
- Tengami
- Pier Solar HD
- Teslagrad
- Wooden Sen’Sey
- Knytt Underground
- Unepic
- Shovel Knight
3DS
- Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse
- Grinsia
- Jet Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai
- Putty Squad
- Treasurenauts
- Retro City Rampage
- Siesta Fiesta
New Releases: PS4, XCOM: Enemy Within, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, More
Part One of this year’s next-generation console extravaganza begins this week with the launch of PlayStation 4. If you haven’t already ordered one, Sony’s new machine may be hard to find, but peripherals like the PS4 Camera are plentiful. However, if you have the next-gen plunge, here’s what gaming opportunities you can expect to see on store shelves this week:
- Angry Birds Star Wars
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Battlefield 4
- Call of Duty: Ghosts
- FIFA 14
- Injustice: Gods Among Us – Ultimate Edition
- Just Dance 2014
- Killzone: Shadow Fall
- Knack
- Lego Marvel Super Heroes
- Madden NFL 25
- NBA 2K14
- Need Foe Speed: Rivals
- Skylanders Swap Force
If the next-generation of consoles is still a bit too expensive for you (or you’re waiting for the impending Xbox One launch), there’s also a few current-generation games to keep us busy this week. XCOM: Enemy Within, the expansion to last year’s massively well-received XCOM: Enemy Unknown, will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. And the possibly final voyage of Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, will be released for the PS3. Finally, Mario & Sonic square off again in Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games on the Wii U.
There’s more new games where those came from and you can find a complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, XCOM: Enemy Within
Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin “won’t rule out” Call of Duty IN SPACE
While they were riding high off the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2010, Activision filed a trademark application for Call of Duty: Space Warfare. The publisher let the trademark lapse last year, but with the genie out of the bottle, fans and the press have been asking about a sci-fi-tinged Call of Duty ever since.
Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin had to field another of these queries while speaking to the Metro newspaper about the recent launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts. The question is especially relevant now as Ghosts featured several missions on a space station high above the Earth. While it looks like Call of Duty: Space Warfare isn’t happening right now, Rubin wouldn’t rule it out completely:
Metro: The space levels got me thinking about all the rumours that you or Treyarch were going to do a space marine type game and this really convinced me it would work. You could play it straight, it doesn’t need to be Warhammer or have aliens even. But you could have levels with different gravity, different weapons and it would still be perfectly grounded in realism. Perhaps ironically, more so than the current games.
Rubin: Yeah. It makes sense. I wouldn’t count it out. Everything’s on the table. When we start a new game every possibility’s on the table. If we think that it’d be cool to have a battle over Jupiter, sure. Why not?
The rest of the interview is definitely worth a look as Metro’s David Jenkins spends his time hammering Rubin with more questions about “Call of Duty IN SPACE” and about the perceived graphical differences between the PS4 and Xbox One. Rubin doesn’t say anything about that, but it’s a fun read all the same.
Nintendo Download: Wii Sports Club, Toki Tori, Kid Icarus: Uprising, More
Wii Sports is back! Wii Sports Club: Tennis and Wii Sports Club: Bowling, the high definition and online-enabled remakes of the Wii’s flagship pack-in game, are now available as individual downloads. Each Wii Sports Club title is priced at $9.99, but if you’d rather not own each individual sport, Nintendo plans to also offer a Wii Sports Club “Day Pass.” Priced at $1.99, the Day Pass will give players access to all available Wii Sports Club sports for a 24-hour period. Baseball, Golf, and Boxing will be available at a later date.
Also available on the Wii U eShop today is Toki Tori. Based on the popular Game Boy Color title of the same name, Toki Tori was a puzzle platformer that was originally released before puzzle platformers were cool.
Over on the 3DS side of the store is the long-awaited digital release of Kid Icarus: Uprising. I could have sworn this happened months ago, but I guess not. If you haven’t picked up Pit’s latest adventure yet, now’s your chance to do it without leaving the house.
More details on all of these games, as well as many more (including Wario’s Woods), can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Wii Sports Club: Bowling, Wii Sports Club: Tennis
Activision shipped $1 billion worth of copies of CoD: Ghosts to stores
It’s another billion dollar day for the video game industry… sort of.
Activision has announced they shipped more than $1 billion worth of copies of Call of Duty: Ghosts to retail outlets across the world for the game’s launch yesterday. The $1 billion figure doesn’t include download revenues from Ghosts, which also launched on Steam, the PSN, and the Xbox Live Store yesterday. It’s unknown how many of those copies have been sold to fans (or even how many copies “$1 billion” represents), but I’m going to guess that both numbers can be rounded up to “a lot.”
The literal pile of money that Activision is sitting on right now will only grow in the next few weeks as CEO Bobby Kotick reported that Ghosts is GameStop’s “most pre-reserved next gen title.”
Not known for his humility, Kotick also told reporters, “The [Call of Duty] franchise has never been more popular.”
Infinity Ward offers up another look at CoD: Ghosts’ Extinction Mode
Call of Duty: Ghosts is available in stores today (for the PC, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360) and, as one last appetizer before the main course, Infinity Ward has released a new trailer for Extinction Mode dubbed “First Contact.” Watch as a squad of soldiers defends Earth against a slimy alien menace and then they… become an appetizer for the aliens. Whoops. Maybe the aliens can ask Kang and Kodos for some culinary tips.
The developers at Infinity Ward also sat down with GameSpot to deliver an extended look at Extinction Mode, which you can view after the break. And don’t forget, Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available for the PS4 and Xbox One later this month. (more…)
The AAA Game: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going, and Did It Kill the Mid-Tier Game?
An edited and updated version of this article is now available at Video Game Canon.
With a new generation of consoles almost upon us, there is the worry that the spiraling budgets and massive teams required to create AAA games is hurting the industry. But for all the hand-wringing about how the AAA game is detrimental to mid-size developers, no one can seem to agree on what exactly a AAA game is or when the AAA designation was even first used. In attempting to solve this etymological mystery, I found that the AAA designation shares much in common with Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s obscenity test from a 1964 case: “I know it when I see it.” But I also found out that “Will the AAA game survive?” is probably the wrong question to ask. (more…)
New Releases: CoD: Ghosts, Guided Fate Paradox, Castlevania: LoS Collection, More
You hear that? That’s the sound of freight train coming down the track. It’s got “Call of Duty: Ghosts” (PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360) painted on the side and all the other publishers have gotten out of the way. Activision’s juggernaut of a franchise dominates this week’s new releases, but a few other games will find their way into stores over the next seven days.
Also available this week is The Guided Fate Paradox from NIS America. This RPG is a PS3 exclusive and, like all NIS games, it’s full of the crazy. Just how weird does it get? Well… “Players take on the role of high school student Renya Kagurazaka who has become a god by winning a lottery in a mall.”
Finally, Konami has bundled together Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (and all of its DLC) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD into a single package on the PS3 and Xbox 360. The Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection also includes a playable demo of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, which is scheduled for release next year.
You can find the complete list of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Ghosts, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate