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
Xbox Store Today: The Bridge, Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings, Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey
“M.C. Escher meets Isaac Newton” is how developer The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild describes their puzzle platformer The Bridge. After debuting on the PC in 2013, the game eventually worked its way over to the Xbox 360 later that year. Now, its available for the Xbox One (through the Xbox Games Store) and its sure to please fans of puzzle platformers everywhere.
Also available today is Super Mega Baseball: Extra Innings, a comical baseball sim that actually offers “a deep baseball simulation with accurate physics and comprehensive statistics tracking.”
Finally, Commander Cherry’s Puzzled Journey is a Kinect-powered puzzle platformer that asks players to contort their bodies to create platforms for the titular Commander Cherry.
More information about all of these games is available after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Super Mega Baseball, The Bridge
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Charts… Lego Jurassic World is best-selling game of July ’15
July is not typically a very strong month for new game releases, and only a single new title was able to crack the NPD Group’s recounting of the ten best-selling games of the month. But it was Lego Jurassic World, a June release, that sits at the top of the sales food chain this month.
Debuting at #3 in the NPD’s June report, Lego Jurassic World likely got a boost from the tremendous box office support for the film. After nearly nine weeks in theaters, the film has earned more than $636 million. Only Titanic ($658 million) and Avatar ($760 million) have made more money at the domestic box office.
While it’s unlikely that Lego Jurassic World will reach those heights, the game is another hit for WB Games, which had yet another big month in July. Batman: Arkham Knight (#2) and Mortal Kombat X (#8) once again both landed in the top ten.
The only new release to break into the top ten last month was EA’s Rory McIlroy PGA Tour. Before McIlroy, Tiger Woods had been PGA Tour’s pitchman for more than 15 years. As great as Tiger used to be, it looks like EA doesn’t need him to sell their golf game.
Finally this month, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that overall sales of all game-related items (hardware, software, and accessories) is roughly even with July 2014. Both July 2014 and July 2015 produced around $184 million in total sales.
The complete top ten for July 2015 can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny, FIFA 15, Grand Theft Auto V, Lego Jurassic World, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat X, NPD, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, The Elder Scrolls Online
Final Fantasy XV will be released in every territory on the same date
Final Fantasy XV is expected to be released sometime in 2016. We don’t yet know the exact date, but we now know that the game will receive a simultaneous global launch… a first for the series. Director Hajime Tabata confirmed the good news to to GameSpot during last week’s Gamescom expo:
“This may be something that we are little bit embarrassed to talk about, but really, this is the first time that we’ve done a packaged, standalone Final Fantasy game with a simultaneous global launch, so we didn’t have the setup to deal with that, really. The first thing we had to do was rearrange our internal structure to create something that could do that. That was the first important work on the project.”
Typically, it takes three-to-six months after its Japanese launch for a game in the Final Fantasy series to make its English-language debut. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is the most recent game in the series (not counting Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and its expansion) and it made it across the Pacific in a relatively quick two months and 21 days.
Final Fantasy XV is in development for the PS4 and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Final Fantasy XV, Gamescom 2015
Xbox Store Today: Toy Soldiers: War Chest, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Prototype 1+2
Four new Xbox One games are available to download through the Xbox Games Store today. Though, to be more accurate, only one of this week’s new releases is brand new. One is actually an Xbox One port of an Xbox 360 game, while the final pair of games are newly standalone titles that were originally part of a bundle that has been available for a few weeks.
Today’s lone new release is Toy Soldiers: War Chest for Signal Studios. The third game in the strategic series includes four original toy armies, which can do battle with forces from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (G.I. Joe and Cobra), He-Man: Masters of the Universe, and Assassin’s Creed II. These bonus armies are available from the start in the Hall of Fame Edition, and can be purchased as DLC if you opt for the standard edition.
Also available today is Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons from Starbreeze. Originally released in 2013, the co-op puzzle platformer is now available on the Xbox One.
Finally this week, Prototype and Prototype 2 have been decoupled from the “Biohazard Bundle” and can be purchased individually on the Xbox One for the first time.
More information on all four of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Prototype, Prototype 2, Toy Soldiers: War Chest
Tales From the Borderlands: Episode 4 will launch on August 18
Telltale Games and Gearbox Software have announced that the fourth episode of Tales From the Borderlands will be available beginning August 18. The penultimate episode will be known as Escape Plan Bravo (screenshots are available at Telltale’s Blog) and it’s sending the game’s pair of anti-heroes to the frickin’ moon:
In this penultimate episode of the season, captured by Vallory and her goons, Rhys and Fiona are forced to continue the search for the Vault beacon – at gunpoint. The beacon is on the Hyperion moon base – Helios – while our heroes are on Pandora… so there’s the pesky cold void of death known as “space” to overcome. Even with assistance from a familiar face, and with a worryingly helpful Handsome Jack hitching a ride in Rhys’ head, getting on board the ominous “H” is going to take every drop of guile, and quite possibly all the spunk you’ve got. Sacrifices will be made – can you make the tough choices needed to succeed?
As with all of Telltale’s other episodic releases, Escape Plan Bravo will receive a staggered release schedule next week:
- Tuesday, August 18: PC, PS3, and PS4
- Wednesday, August 19: Xbox One and Xbox 360
- Thursday, August 20: iOS and Android
Developers from Telltale will make the trip to this year’s PAX Prime expo to host a special “Crowd Play” presentation of Tales From the Borderlands: Escape Plan Bravo on Saturday, August 29 at 8:30 PM. There will be plenty of giveaways and the entire crowd is expected to help steer the events of the episode.
Telltale’s Job Stauffer says, “Come equipped with your shouty voice.”
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged PAX Prime 2015, Tales From the Borderlands
Treyarch reveals more details about the Call of Duty: Black Ops III beta
I’m sure you’ve already scoped out the trailer promoting next week’s beta test for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. But late last night, developer Treyarch dropped some additional details about the test on their Community Blog.
Initially, the Call of Duty: Black Ops III beta will feature three maps: “Hunted,” “Combine,” and “Evac.” Others will be available during the course of the test, but here’s what we can expect from the first three:
- Hunted: This big game hunting lodge is situated beneath a waterfall in the lush mountains of Ethiopia, where rugged terrain opens up to long sightlines and a stealthy underwater pathway.
- Combine: Set in the remote Egyptian Sahara, this vertical farming and sustainability research facility plays fast and frenetic with tight interiors, an open middle and a dangerous flank path.
- Evac: An abandoned emergency evacuation zone atop an overgrown rooftop in the middle of Singapore’s flooded quarantine zone.
Treyarch also confirmed the test will include “a range of fan favorite game modes,” such as Team Deathmatch, Domination, Demolition, Kill Confirmed, Hardpoint, Capture the Flag, and Search & Destroy.
Finally, the developer talked a bit about the eight Specialists, characters with their own “look, personality, voice, and battle-hardened weapons and abilities,” who will be available in the beta. Each Specialist will have a unique backstory and they might even add a kind of narrative to Call of Duty’s often chaotic multiplayer mode.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops III beta test will begin on August 19 for players who’ve pre-ordered the game on the PS4. PC and Xbox One owners will be able to join the fun beginning on August 26.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Leakers have uploaded a video of Fallout 4’s Gamescom demo to Pornhub
The exclusive Fallout 4 demo shown off at Gamescom this year hasn’t yet found its way online through Bethesda’s official channels. This has left fans who weren’t able to attend the show justifiably angry. And they’re so angry that they’re willing to go to the most unlikeliest of places to view some of the footage.
It’s not YouTube or Vimeo or Vine… It’s actually Pornhub, so let’s try to keep this somewhat professional.
The seven-minute video, and yes it really is footage from Fallout 4’s Gamescom demo, is titled “Hidden Camera Shows Audience Teased by Big Butt Man in Tights Live.” It’s not great footage, even as far as leaks go. Befitting its title, the person in the audience is clearly holding up their camera to the screen, trying desperately not to be seen. The video that’s been uploaded is grainy, shaky, and most of the time the camera is positioned between two people seated in front of the cameraman, which obscures most of the screen.
What we can see of the video though is a full, unedited playthrough of what appears to be this game’s version of the Super Duper Mart. We also see the dog in action, as well as the new shooting mechanics.
We also see ghouls for the first time, which have been completely redesigned. They now move and act like zombies. You can shoot off their arms and they’ll lunge forward to bite, or you can shoot off their legs and they’ll still crawl after you. Unfortunately, once they do reach you, it seems they still just stand there and swipe at you until you kill them. I would have liked to have seen close quarters combat become more dynamic, maybe have them latch on to you, like the “Blood Bugs” shown off in the E3 trailer.
Also, for better or worse, the lockpicking and terminal hacking minigames haven’t changed in the slightest. They’re still exactly the same as they were in Fallout 3.
That’s about all I can ascertain from this short leak. Apparently, the demo was longer, and (believe it or not) there weren’t two guys blocking most of the video. But those of us who didn’t get to see the demo firsthand might never find out, as Bethesda still hasn’t officially released Fallout 4’s Quakecon demo either.
Here’s the link to the video…
…but be warned, the site ISN’T SUITABLE IN THE LEAST FOR WORK OR PUBLIC VIEWING. Unless that’s what you’re in to, which is fine. I would have made a porn joke at some point, but I’m afraid it would have sucked.
Indie Megabooth announces massive PAX Prime 2015 presence
It’s that time gain! Those beautiful, brilliant minds behind the Indie Megabooth have announced the PAX Prime 2015 lineup, and it certainly IS mega! I see a lot of personal favorites in there, including Armello, Death Road to Canada, Hyper Light Drifter, Mushroom 11, Cinelinx: A Card Game For People Who Love Movies, Pleasant Dreams, Skiptrace, and two games I can’t keep my hands off of: Monikers and Mini Metro! And let’s not forget that this might be your best chance to check out Funomena’s Wattam!
If you’re in Seattle the last weekend in August for PAX Prime, trust me: you do not want to miss the Indie Megabooth. These are traditionally some of the best games on the show floor, and I don’t just say that because my own game (Resistor) has been part of the Tabletop Area. OK, maybe that might sway my opinion a little. But the team behind the IMB carefully curates some of the most amazing games, not just for your enjoyment, but as an installation of the best and brightest developers in indie gaming right now.
Enough of my gushing. Watch the trailer and hit the jump for the full list of developers and games (more than 70 in all)! (more…)