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
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: Xbox One
Orisa, a robotic Tank, will be the next character added to Overwatch
Every good hero needs a name… which is why “OR-15” wasn’t a worthy moniker for the latest creation from robotics prodigy Efi Oladele. Instead, she rechristened her new companion as “Orisa,” and the robotic Tank will be the next playable character added to Overwatch.
Orisa is now available for testing in the game’s Public Test Region, and will be added to the full game at a later date. But in the meantime, you can learn more about the character at PlayOverwatch.com:
Orisa serves as the central anchor of her team, and defends her teammates from the frontline with a protective barrier. She can attack from long range, fortify her own defenses, launch graviton charges to slow and move enemies, and deploy a Supercharger to boost the damage output of multiple allies at once.
Overwatch’s Game Director, Jeff Kaplan, further delved into what makes Orisa tick in a new Developer Update video, which can be found after the break. (more…)
NetherRealm adds some magic to Injustice 2 with addition of Doctor Fate to game’s roster
NetherRealm Studios continues to dig deep for new additions to Injustice 2, and today’s announcement that Doctor Fate will be joining the roster of playable characters is just further proof of their quest to explore the darker corners of the DC Universe.
Doctor Fate is actually Kent Nelson, a young archaeologist who learned the arcane secrets of sorcery from Nabu the Wise. You can watch him deliver a magical beatdown on Superman in the trailer embedded above.
Injustice 2 will offer a wide variety of character customization options thanks to its brand new Gear System, and NetherRealm showed it off to Sid Shuman of the PlayStation Blog at this week’s Game Developers Conference. If you’ve ever wanted to build Batman’s anti-Superman suit, Injustice 2 might just give you the chance:
Gear revolves around four main body parts — head, chest, arms, and legs — plus an “accessory” (think Harley Quinn’s pistols). Most gear you collect will buff at least one of your four base stats: Strength and Ability determine the offensive power of basic attacks and special moves, while Defense and Health dictate how much damage your superhero can absorb.
More exotic effects — resistance to environmental damage, earning XP more quickly — come via “augmentations” found on some higher-tier items. Full gear sets, such as Batman’s kryptonite-infused outfit, are likely to be especially prized because they can grant dramatic bonuses when fully assembled.
After playing dress-up, you can apply shaders to alter your hero’s color schemes in some striking ways. A purple-clad Superman? Why not! I’m expecting to see some seriously creative designs here come May.
Injustice 2 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on May 16.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2017, Injustice 2
Xbox Store Today: Torment Tides of Numenera, A King’s Tale Final Fantasy XV, Ghost Blade HD
A trio of new games are now available to download through the Xbox Games Store…
InXile Entertainment was the beneficiary of one of the biggest Kickstarter campaigns ever when they first began developing Torment: Tides of Numenera, but now their spiritual successor to the beloved Planescape: Torment is ready for release on the Xbox One. Taking place a billion years in the future, the RPG asks players to explore a “extinct, hyper-advanced civilizations” as they seek the answer to life’s ultimate question.
A slightly less heady story is at the center of A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV, a retro-styled brawler set 30 years before the events of Final Fantasy XV. A King’s Tale is now available to download on the Xbox One for free, and this bedtime story stars King Regis as he battles monsters in a mysterious cave.
Finally today, Ghost Blade HD is a “bullet hell” shooter that was originally released for the Dreamcast in 2015. Redesigned for the Xbox One with a “modern graphic style and special effects,” the game also feature a two-player mode and “addictive score-based gameplay.”
You can learn more about all of these games after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Torment: Tides of Numenera
The biggest Beta in Ubisoft’s history belongs to Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Click to Enlarge
Ubisoft compiled several other staggering statistical records in the infographic embedded to your right. Beta participants played more than two billion minutes of Wildlands, and over 60% of players teamed up with their friends to test out four-player co-op for the first time in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands takes place in a future narco-state version of Bolivia, overrun by the Santa Blanca drug cartel. Players must eliminate the drug cartel using deadly force and a combination of playstyles, including four-player co-op or solo play… both of which were playable during the Beta phase. However, Beta participants only scratched the surface of the game, as the Closed and Open Beta allowed players to only explore two of the 21 provinces in the game (Itacua and Montuyoc).
Participants of the Closed Beta, Open Beta, and Technical Test will all be treated to the Unidad Conspiracy Pack. The Unidad Conspiracy Pack will feature three exclusive missions, which will be located in the Media Luna region. Players will also receive one of the Unidad Strongholds. The Unidad Conspiracy Pack will be available for download post launch.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands goes on sale on March 7, 2017 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Microsoft brought a bunch of upcoming ID@Xbox games to GDC 2017
The 2017 Game Developers Conference is in full swing, and Microsoft is promoting their upcoming ID@Xbox lineup in a special area known as the Xbox Lobby Bar. While taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the convention, attendees will be able to play more than 20 games that’ll soon be available for the Xbox One and Windows 10.
The ID@Xbox display at GDC 2017 includes newly-announced titles from Cellar Door Games (Full Metal Furies), Lazy Bears Games (Graveyard Keeper), and Wizard Fu (Songbringer), as well as highly-anticipated games like Cities: Skylines, Tacoma, The Church in Darkness, and Mages of Mystralia.
You can learn more about Microsoft’s presence at GDC 2017 at the Xbox Wire, and you can find the complete list of games playable at the Xbox Lobby Bar after the break. (more…)
Video Game History Foundation wants to create a digital record of the industry’s past
Frank Cifaldi is a developer who has worked on Mega Man Legacy Collection and IDARB, but he is also the founder of the Video Game History Foundation, a new non-profit that seeks to preserve and digitize the history of video games.
The Video Game History Foundation launched their first “Digital Collection” yesterday, focusing on The NES Launch in 1985. Cifaldi is also seeking donations to expand the scope of the Foundation, as detailed on their “What We’re Doing” page:
The heart of the Foundation is its digital library, an online repository of artifacts related to the history of video games and video game culture. The ultimate goal is to create a searchable, organized, always-online archive of verified, high-quality material that is accessible to researchers and historians as a public education resource.
All donations to the Video Game History Foundation are tax deductible, and I can’t wait to see what collections they come up with next.
Ubisoft is developing another game based on James Cameron’s Avatar
Avatar is nearly ten years old, and practically absent from the current pop culture landscape, but director James Cameron continues to insist that he’ll release the first of four sequels to his Oscar-nominated sci-fi spectacle in 2018. Today, Ubisoft announced it’ll be accompanied by a brand new Avatar game, which is in development at Massive Entertainment.
Massive Entertainment is best known for their work on Tom Clancy’s The Division, and they plan to work closely with Cameron’s Lighstorm Entertainment to bring recreate Pandora for players:
The new game will return PC and console players to the Avatar universe, using Massive’s Snowdrop engine – also used in The Division and the upcoming South Park: The Fractured But Whole – to bring Pandora’s unique terrain and inhabitants to life. It was after seeing a Snowdrop-run game prototype, in fact, that Avatar creator James Cameron and Lightstorm agreed to the partnership.
“With the power of Massive’s Snowdrop engine, and the team’s passion and obsessive focus on detail, we know they’re the right group to bring the beauty and danger of Pandora to life,” Cameron told the UbiBlog.
Representatives from Massive Entertainment are in attendance at this year’s Game Developers Conference, and hope to hire a number of new developers to help them work on this Avatar project. You can find a list of open positions at their official website.
Massive’s Avatar game is currently without a title or a release date, however, we do know it’s in the works for “PC and consoles.”
Microsoft will launch Xbox Game Pass subscription service this Spring
It looks like Microsoft will challenge Sony’s PlayStation Now subscription service in a big way with the Spring, because the consolemaker announced their own Xbox Game Pass this morning.
Unlike Sony’s service, the Xbox Game Pass does not stream games to your console. Instead, subscribers will gain access to full-game downloads of more than 100 titles for the Xbox One and Xbox 360. But like Netflix, new games will be cycled into the service every month, while older titles will be cycled out.
However, subscribers interested in purchasing any game offered through the Xbox Game Pass will be able to do so at a hefty discount.
Naturally, Microsoft themselves will supply many of the games available to download through the Xbox Game Pass. But the consolemaker has also recruited a huge number of third-party publishers to participate including 2K Games, 505 Games, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Codemasters, Deep Silver, Focus Home Interactive, Sega, SNK, THQ Nordic, and WB Games. And the first wave of available titles will include Halo 5: Guardians, Payday 2, NBA 2K16, and Soul Calibur II.
The Xbox Game Pass will be available later this Spring and Xbox One owners will be able to subscribe to the service for $9.99 a month.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Halo 5: Guardians, NBA 2K16, Payday 2, Soul Calibur II HD Online