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
Activision details CoD: Advanced Warfare’s Havoc Map Pack ahead of January 27 launch
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s Havoc Map Pack is less than two weeks away, so Activision has dropped a few new details and a behind-the-scenes trailer to get us all talking about it. The Havoc Map Pack will follow the same “four competitive maps/one co-op map” format that Infinity Ward used for Ghosts. Here’s what players can expect from the four competitive maps:
Core: Deploy to the Gobi desert where the ravaged ruins of a nuclear fusion plant set the stage for a high-octane warzone. Take down enemies through the wreckage in long-range combat or get up-close and personal in the tunnels surrounding the central turbine. Activate decontamination drones using the map-based scorestreak to help clean out the competition.
Urban: Prepare yourself for brutal, high-speed combat in Dallas Ward 3, a future mega structure, funneling players into a close-quarters free-for-all. This modular compound’s verticality unleashes the exoskeleton’s capabilities. Stay focused during the timed event as blast doors alter the map’s flow and sightlines.
Sideshow: In the shadow of Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, this abandoned inn’s open layout amplifies its creep factor. Blast your way through the clown inn with close-quarters battles or use long-range site-lines from the mining facilities and natural terrain. Use the map-based scorestreak to activate the lights, music, and magic of the clown marquee and rain down a barrage of rainbow smoke-trailed cannonballs.
Drift: An idyllic ski resort high in the Rocky Mountains is transformed into a festive high-altitude playground, perfect for an all-out firefight. Make your way to the highly contested over watch in the glass observation deck or take a ride on the carousel to deliver 360 degrees of carnage. Players can use the map-altering timed event to their advantage as an avalanche of snow and debris disorients players, intensifying the battle.
Sledgehammer Games is also taking a page from Treyarch as the co-op maps for Advanced Warfare will feature an ever-expanding zombie horde. The first episode of “Exo Zombies,” which stars John Malkovich, Bill Paxton, Rose McGowan, and Jon Bernthal, will be included with the Havoc Map Pack.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare‘s Havoc Map Pack will be available to download on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 on January 27. A PS3, PS4, and PC release will likely follow in February.
The Simpsons are going to Minecraft (on the Xbox One and Xbox 360)!
Whenever Matt Groening and his army of Korean animators send the Simpson family on a new adventure, they almost always kick it off with a rousing round of “The Simpsons are going to…!” Today, Microsoft announced that everyone’s favorite family (and a few of Springfield Elemenrary’s finest) will be making the jump to Minecraft on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. So, before we go any further…
“The Simpsons are going to Minecraft!”
Enough of that borax! “The Simpsons Skin Pack” will be priced at $1.99 and it’ll include new skins for Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie, and 19 characters from Springfield Elementary School. The pack will be available on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 in late February. Launch details for the “Simpsons Skin Pack” on PlayStation platforms will be announced at a later date.
2015 Writers Guild nominees: Alien: Isolation, Last of Us: Left Behind, AC: Unity, Freedom Cry
The Writers Guild of America has announced the nominees for this year’s Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing award, which they use to honor the best game writing of the year.
Continuing their love affair with Ubisoft, the Guild nominated both new entries in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry, for this year’s Writers Guild Award. Two other games are have also been nominated this year, Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us: Left Behind expansion. The full list of nominated writers can be found here:
Alien: Isolation (Sega)
Writers: Dan Abnett, Dion Lay, Will PorterAssassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry (Ubisoft)
Lead Scriptwriter: Jill Murray
Scriptwriter: Melissa MacCoubrey
Story: Jill Murray, Hugo Giard, Wesley PincombeAssassin’s Creed: Unity (Ubisoft)
Story: Alexandre Amancio, Sylvain Bernard, Travis Stout
Scriptwriting: Alexandre Amancio, Travis Stout, Russell Lees, Darby McDevitt, Ceri Young
Additional Scriptwriting: Jeffrey YohalemThe Last of Us: Left Behind (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Written by: Neil Druckmann
Writers from Naughty Dog and Ubisoft have been trading off top honors at the WGA Awards for the last five years. Naughty Dog prevailed last year for their work on The Last of Us, following wins for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2012) and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2010). In between, Ubisoft collected a pair of WGA Awards for Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation (2013) and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2011).
If history repeats itself, writers from Ubisoft will be hoisting a trophy in victory when the winners of the 2015 Writers Guild Awards are announced on February 14.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry, Assassin's Creed: Unity, The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind
Get your first glimpse at Kung Lao (and Kitana!) in the latest Mortal Kombat X trailer
As promised by Ed Boon yesterday, a new Mortal Kombat X trailer starring Kung Lao was unleashed upon the world today. While the man with the razor-rimmed hat got plenty of screen time, an appearance by Kitana and her razor-rimmed fan blades raised just as many eyebrows. Or the developers at NetherRealm really like razor-rimmed weapons, I can’t decide.
Kitana looks quite similar to her previous appearances, with a veil covering her face and blue bikini armor (barely) covering the rest of her. Like Kung Lao, it’s currently unknown how the Princess of Edenia/Outworld survived her apparent death at the end of 2011’s Mortal Kombat. Perhaps we’ll learn more about her backstory for Mortal Kombat X, and her three character variations, in a future update from NetherRealm Studios.
Mortal Kombat X will be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on April 14.
Meet Behemoth, the star of Evolve’s Monster Expansion Pack
After months of teasing, Turtle Rock Studios is finally ready to unveil Evolve‘s fourth Monster, Behemoth, which will be released as part of the game’s Monster Expansion Pack. The Monster Expansion Pack is being offered as a bonus to players who pre-order, but it will also be sold separately for $14.99. Either way you acquire it, the Monster Expansion Pack will be available this Spring.
So what can we expect from Behemoth? Aside from the excellent Indiana Jones-inspired trailer above, the rocky beast is the largest Monster that will ever be offered in Evolve. He is stronger than any other Monster and has more health and tougher armor too. Thankfully, he cannot leap or jump, but he can curl himself into a ball and roll over the Hunters.
Want more? The Evolve News Blog has an infographic comparing Behemoth’s girth to other grand endeavors and details his four attacks:
- Lava Bombs: Effective at short and long range, these mortar bombs shatter into fragments and continue to burn the area around them, including any Hunters who find themselves in the damage radius.
- Rock Wall: Creates a large, semi-circular rock structure that either traps victims inside with Behemoth, or locks him away from attackers.
- Tongue Grab: Behemoth uses his harpoon-like tongue to snatch a distant target and pull it into melee.
- Fissure: A wave of destruction blasts out of Behemoth, fracturing the terrain and scalding and stunning everything in its path.
Turtle Rock has also outlined some additional downloadable content that will grace Evolve after its PC, PS4, and Xbox One launch on February 10:
The Hunting Season Pass will include “Magma” skins for the three main Monsters and four new playable Hunters. The Hunting Season Pass will be available in the Spring and has been priced at $24.99 (each Hunter will also be sold separately for $7.49 apiece). It’s also available as part of the Digital Deluxe Edition, which will also include the main game and the Monster Expansion Pack. The Digital Deluxe Edition will be sold exclusively as a digital download, which has been priced at $79.99.
Lastly, the PC Monster Race Edition is a digital download exclusively for the PC that includes the main game, the Hunting Season Pass, the Monster Expansion Pack, and a special bundle of DLC featuring a fifth Monster, two additional Hunters, and four PC Monster Race-exclusive Monster skins. The PC Monster Race Edition has been priced at $99.99.
Forza 6 announced; Ford GT, Shelby Mustang, F-150 Raptor slated to appear in game
Microsoft has just announced that Forza Motorsport 6 is in development at Turn 10 Studios and will be exclusively released for the Xbox One. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the franchise’s debut, and while Microsoft wouldn’t confirm that the game will be released this year, they did say that the first gameplay trailer will make its debut during the 2015 E3 Expo in June.
The consolemaker has also partnered with Ford to introduce three new Ford vehicles in the game. The Ford GT, Shelby GT350 Mustang, and F-150 Raptor will all be included in Forza 6 with the GT serving as the game’s “cover car.” All three were first unveiled by Ford today during the first day of the North American International Auto Show, so this news actually serves as something of a double announcement.
“It is an honor to share this historic moment with Ford and celebrate the legacy of the GT by making it the featured cover car of Forza Motorsport 6,” said Phil Spencer, the Head of Microsoft’s Xbox Division. “We’re thrilled to have the unique opportunity to announce Forza Motorsport 6 the day the car debuts – on one of the biggest stages in the automotive industry – and we can’t wait to share more details on the game later this year.”
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2015, Forza Motorsport 6
Warp Zoned’s 2014 Golden Pixel Awards: Honoring Our Favorite Games
With the PS4 and Xbox One entering their first full year on store shelves, 2014 turned out to be a bit of a transition year. A lot of games were delayed into 2015 and a few others were delayed even further. With the other two consolemakers taking a step back in 2014, it was Nintendo’s time to shine and the wizards behind the Wii U responded with nearly a dozen major titles. But that doesn’t mean the PS4 and the Xbox One (or the PS3 and Xbox 360, for that matter) went hungry in 2014.
There were plenty of great games to go around last year and you can read all about them as we hand out our annual Golden Pixel Awards… (more…)
Posted in Etcetera, Features, Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Destiny, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Earth Defense Force 2025, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions, Goat Simulator, Hyrule Warriors, InFamous: Second Son, LittleBigPlanet 3, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monument Valley, Shovel Knight, Silent Hills, Sleeping Dogs, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, Threes, Transistor, Wolfenstein: The New Order
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor leads the pack with 5 nominations at 2015 GDC Awards
The nominees for this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced and, unsurprisingly, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor leads the way with five nominations, including “Game of the Year.”
Shadow of Mordor will compete for the top prize with other four multi-category nominees including Alien: Isolation, Bayonetta 2, Destiny, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Believe it or not, the next-most-nominated game, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, was actually shut out of the “Game of the Year” category. The Astronauts’ mystery title was nominated for “Best Narrative,” “Best Audio,” the “Innovation Award,” and “Best Debut.”
Alien: Isolation (“Best Visual Art” and “Best Audio”), Destiny (“Best Audio” and “Best Technology”), and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (“Best Design” and “Best Handheld/Mobile Game”) are each up for two additional awards while Bayonetta 2 is also up for “Best Visual Art.”
A complete list of the nominees for this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards can be found after the break. And be sure to check back for a look at the winners, which will be announced on March 4 during the Game Developers Conference.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz] (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Bayonetta 2, Destiny, GDC 2015, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor