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
Harmonix adds songs from Five Finger Death Punch, Motorhead, Royal Blood to Rock Band 4 Music Store
More heavy metal is coming to the Rock Band 4 Music Store. Harmonix has announced that new songs from Five Finger Death Punch (“Got Your Six”), Motorhead (“Thunder & Lightning”), and Royal Blood (“Figure It Out”) are now available to download for the PS4 and Xbox One.
The developer is also offering a quick primer, and the preview video embedded above, for fans who might be unfamiliar with these three bands:
Heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch joins the Rock Band Music Library with the title track from their latest album Got Your Six. The legendary Motorhead returns to Rock Band DLC this week with “Thunder & Lightning.” We’re honored to add a track from the last album recorded by the band with band founder and metal legend Lemmy Kilmister. Finally, British rockers Royal Blood come to Rock Band for the first time with “Figure It Out” from their self-titled debut album.
All three songs are now available to download from the Rock Band 4 Music Store for $1.99 apiece.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Rock Band 4
Doom’s single-player campaign will take 13 hours to complete
It’s hard to explain just how much of a vice grip the original Doom had on gamers back in 1993. The game’s grueling single-player campaign was 36 levels of blood and horror, but it’s still fondly remembered by those of us who fought all the way to the gates of Hell.
More than 22 years have passed since the release of the original Doom, but the id Software of 2016 is just as concerned with creating something epic. Responding to a fan on Twitter, the developer said that this Spring’s Doom will feature a single-player campaign that clocks in at over 13 hours:
.@Unreal389 The difficulty level plays a factor, but folks playing at the office average 13+ hours in the campaign
— DOOM (@DOOM) February 11, 2016
Obviously, this kind of pronouncement should be taken with a grain of salt. But it is a good sign that we’ll all be knee-deep in the dead on May 13.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Doom (2016)
2016 Writers Guild Award for Videogame Writing goes to Rise of the Tomb Raider
The Writers Guild of America announced the winners of the 2016 Writers Guild Awards this weekend, and Square Enix’s Rise of the Tomb Raider took home the prize for “Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing.”
Lara Croft’s latest adventure was written by Rhianna Pratchett, with Narrative Design by John Stafford and Cameron Suey, and additional writing by Philip Gelatt. Pratchett is one of the gaming industry’s premiere storytellers, but this is her first win at the Writers Guild Awards. She previously wrote 2013’s Tomb Raider, as well as Heavenly Sword, Mirror’s Edge, and Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians.
The writing team beat out some strong competition this year including Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity, and CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Developed by Crystal Dynamics, Rise of the Tomb Raider was released last year for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, and is now also available for the PC. It’ll launch for the PS4 sometime this Fall.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Rise of the Tomb Raider
Watch the first six minutes of The Walking Dead: Michonne right here
Telltale gave their fans a bloody Valentine yesterday in the form of a video preview of the first six minutes from the upcoming The Walking Dead: Michonne. The three-episode miniseries will dive into the backstory of one of the comic’s most popular characters and reveal the reasons behind her self-imposed exile from Rick’s group in issues #126 through #139 of the comic book series.
The Walking Dead: Michonne’s first episode, “In Too Deep,” will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on February 23 (followed by an iOS/Android release on the 25th). Future episodes will be available in March and April.
Xbox Store Today: Q*Bert Rebooted, In Space We Brawl, D/Generation HD
We’ve got three new additions to the Xbox Games Store to talk about today, and all of them have a decidedly old school vibe.
Q*Bert Rebooted: The Xbox One @!#?@! Edition (Xbox One) is a “re-imagined” version of the classic arcade game, but players are still expected to flip the board to a single color by hopping from cube to cube. This Xbox One-exclusive edition will include “enhanced gameplay,” five new playable characters, and a soundtrack from EDM artist EnV.
In Space We Brawl: Full Arsenal Edition (Xbox One) isn’t based on an older title, but it is a multiplayer twin-stick shooter where players battle it out with their friends to see who can be the last one standing. Offering more than 240 spaceship combinations, players will be able to customize their on-screen avatar to their hearts content.
Finally this week, D/Generation HD (Xbox One) is a remake of Robert Cook’s isometric puzzle game from 1991. Dipping heavily into the cyberpunk canon, players will control a “jetpack courier” as he attempts to bring down an evil corporation and escape with his life.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Q*Bert Rebooted
Microsoft wants to make PC/Xbox One Cross-Buy a “platform feature”
Yesterday, Microsoft kicked off their own Cross-Buy program with the announcement that Quantum Break will receive a simultaneous launch on the Xbox One and PC on April 5. Xbox One owners who pre-order the game will receive a free copy of the Windows 10 version, and both games will include Cross-Save support, so progress you make on one platform will carry over to the other. Though I guess I should break in here and point out that not everyone is happy about this news.
Hopefully, those Xbox fans will come around as it looks like Microsoft has no plans to make Quantum Break’s Cross-Buy promotion a one-off. Posting on Twitter, the Head of Microsoft’s Xbox Division, Phil Spencer, has confirmed that Cross-Buy will be a “platform feature” for the PC and Xbox One going forward because he sees it as being “good for gamers”:
@Nahkapukki @MSFTY @Nicodemus9 @DCNationSlade We'll make it a platform feature. We think it's good for gamers.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) February 11, 2016
Microsoft has a large number of PC and Xbox One games in the works for 2016 including Halo Wars 2, Killer Instinct Season 3, ReCore, and Sea of Thieves, so I wouldn’t be surprised if any or all of them are announced as Cross-Buy titles in the near future.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Quantum Break
Call of Duty: Black Ops III marches to the top of January 2016’s list of best-selling games
The NPD Group recently delivered their monthly report on the state of retail video game sales, and the market research firm once again crowned Call of Duty: Black Ops III as the best-selling game of the month. The military shooter’s January 2016 victory is its third straight, but the industry as a whole is in a bit of a slump due to last month’s lack of new releases.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, retail sales for new games totaled $212.7 million last month, down from $235.6 million in 2015. The NPD Group speculated that the lack of a highly-anticipated new title like Techland’s Dying Light might be the cause for the dip, which makes sense when you realize that only one new release, Lego Avengers, was able to crack the top ten. Across the entire industry, US consumers spent $605.2 million on games, consoles, and accessories in January 2016, which was slightly down from January 2015’s total of $627.6 million.
Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4, Minecraft, and a few others continue to tally impressive sales. And you can find them all in the full top ten list of January 2016’s best-selling games, which is available after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Fallout 4, FIFA 16, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Avengers, Madden NFL 16, Minecraft, NBA 2K16, NPD, Star Wars: Battlefront, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Activision confirms Skylanders 6, new Call of Duty from Infinity Ward, Destiny expansion in 2016; Destiny 2 coming in 2017
Activision revealed a first look at their 2016 release slate during today’s quarterly financial report… and you’ll never believe what they announced. Nah, I’m just kidding, even an amateur prognosticator could figure out what Activision has in store for this year.
First up, the publisher confirmed that Infinity Ward will develop the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise, which will be released this Fall. The developer’s most recent game was 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, and right now it’s unknown if they’ll continue with that story or move in a different direction. But we do the currently untitled Call of Duty 2016 will be Infinity Ward’s first in Activision’s new three-developer cycle for the series.
Activision is also aiming to launch the sixth entry in the Skylanders series in Fall 2016. Skylanders 6 is in development at Toys For Bob and will be released alongside Skylanders Academy, a new television series based on the franchise.
Bungie’s Destiny will receive more content in 2016, but don’t expect a full-fledged sequel just yet. Another “large” expansion to the original game will be released this year, and the famed developer announced they’ll launch Destiny 2 in 2017.
Finally, Blizzard got a chance to discuss their plans for 2016, but the developer just reiterated a release schedule that we’ve known for a while. Overwatch, their upcoming hero shooter, is on track for a Spring 2016 release on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And World of Warcraft: Legion, the sixth expansion to the world’s favorite MMO, will be released this Summer, just after the June premiere of the Warcraft movie.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Destiny, Destiny 2, Overwatch, Skylanders Imaginators, World of Warcraft