Top 100 Best Sellers on Steam in 2016 include Dark Souls III, Civ 6, No Man’s Sky, and more

Posted on January 2, 2017 by John Scalzo

A day after revealing the winners of the first-ever Steam Awards, Valve is back with a breakdown of the “Top 100 Best Sellers of 2016” on Steam.

The list is unnumbered, but Valve has broken it down into four tiers… Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Based on total gross revenue (not copies sold) for 2016, the games in the Platinum tier include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Civilization VI, XCOM 2, Total War: Warhammer, Fallout 4, Grand Theft Auto V, Tom Clancy’s The Division, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, No Man’s Sky, Dark Souls III, Rocket League, and DOTA 2.

Most of 2016’s biggest releases made the cut, including Doom (Gold), Watch Dogs 2 (Silver), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Silver), and Dishonored 2 (Bronze).

The complete list can be found at Valve’s SteamPowered.com storefront.

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The Video Game Canon – An Introduction and the Top 100 (Version 1.0)

Posted on January 2, 2017 by John Scalzo

The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…

Is it possible to rank the greatest video games of all time in a “scientific” way? Do you just throw the question to so-called experts and let them hash it out in a no-holds-barred debate? Or is there some way to create a “Video Game Canon” that the wide-ranging community of developers, critics, and players can all agree on?

Probably not. But we can try.

Since gaming’s earliest days, dozens of publications have tried to sort through the noise and compile their own list of “The Best Video Games of All Time.” By analyzing all of these attempts at ranking the greatest games and combining them into a single list, we can apply a little scientific rigor to the process and possibly create a “Best Video Games of All Time” list that everyone can agree on.

Before we go any further, let me just say… no matter how we try to justify it, it’s impossible to prove, by “science” or otherwise, that one game is definitively better than another. My attempt at adding “science” to the mix is just a way to add some zing to the numerical formula doing all the work behind the scenes.

Ideally, this project will give us the chance to look back at the history of video games reflected through some the medium’s greatest titles. The list itself will serve as something of a road map to help us learn how the best games of all time are connected to each other, to better appreciate how players interacted with video games in the past, and to explore what video games might become in the future.

Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.

Posted in 3DS, DS, Features, Mobile, PC, PS2, PS3, PS4, PSP, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Sony shines a spotlight on what’s coming to PS4 in 2017 including Detroit: Become Human

Posted on January 1, 2017 by John Scalzo

PlayStation Europe definitely kicked the year off right after they unveiled a new video highlighting the many exclusives coming to the PS4 in 2017.

In addition to games such as Gran Turismo Sport, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the PaRappa The Rapper remaster, the sizzle reel also includes a glimpse of Quantic Dream’s Detroit: Become Human, which had previously been tagged with a “TBA” release date.

Here’s the full list of games featured in the video:

Coming to PS4 in 2017

  • Detroit: Become Human
  • Drawn To Death
  • Dreams
  • Farpoint
  • Gran Turismo Sport
  • Gravity Rush 2 (January 20)
  • Hellblade
  • Horizon: Zero Dawn (February 28)
  • Knack 2
  • Matterfall
  • MLB The Show 17 (March 28)
  • New Hot Shots Golf
  • Nex Machina
  • Nier: Automata (March 7)
  • Nioh (February 7)
  • Persona 5 (April 4)
  • PaRappa The Rapper
  • Pyre
  • Starblood Arena
  • Uncharted 4: The Lost Legacy
  • Wipeout: Omega Collection
  • World of Warriors
  • Yakuza 0 (January 24)

The first big event of the 2017 “Video Game Calendar” will be PAX South, which will be held in San Antonio beginning on January 27. We’ll surely hear more about at least a few of these games then.

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Weekly Warp-Up: Good Riddance 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by John Scalzo

No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…

Goodbye 2016, I think it’s safe to say that most people won’t miss you AT ALL.

Around Warp Zoned this week, we took an early look at Sony’s Gravity Rush 2, which will be released for the PS4 on January 20. The action game will offer fans a unique graphical style and a gravity-defying combat system.

So let’s all say hello to 2017 and hope for the best in the New Year. But first, you can find the rest of with the rest of the news from this week after the break.

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Posted in News |

New Retail Releases: MX Vs ATV Supercross Encore 2017

Posted on January 1, 2017 by John Scalzo

Hopefully your New Year’s Eve celebration was as eventful as you wanted it to be… but now it’s January 1st and time to talk about the first new games of 2017. Or more precisely… game… as just one new title will be available on store shelves this week.

Start your engines, because THQ Nordic will release MX Vs ATV Supercross Encore 2017 for the PS4 and Xbox One on January 4th. The off-road racing game will include more than 60 pro riders, 12-player online multiplayer, and all 16 official tracks from the 2017 Supercross Championship:

Rip, jump and scrub your way to victory with over 35 tracks in this vastly extended version! Only the Encore Edition features brand new rhythm racing mode, extra outdoor nationals tracks, and exclusive waypoint races in open world maps. The improved game engine brings remastered HD graphics and sound, smoother online gameplay, and updated riding physics for full control. For the first time ever you can race the same tracks as the pros do – the week of the real event! Race all 16 official tracks from the 2017 Supercross Championship! Each track becomes available for download a few days before the actual Championship event.

That’s all for now, but we’ll be back later this week with a closer look at the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.

Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One |

Fans decide to give Steam Awards to Doom 2016, GTA5, Portal 2, and many more

Posted on December 31, 2016 by John Scalzo

With just hours to go before we celebrate the end of 2016, Valve has announced the winners of the first-ever Steam Awards.

Rather than ask Steam shoppers to select a traditional “Best of 2016” slate, Valve offered up a rather unique class of categories and let community members nominate any game from the digital storefront’s catalog. This freeform approach even gave voters the chance to create a few additional categories out of thin air.

After casting votes for the past two weeks (and browsing bargains during the digital storefront’s Winter Sale, which continues through January 2), the winners of the first-ever Steam Awards include Doom (“The “Boom Boom” Award”), Portal 2 (“The “Villain Most In Need Of A Hug” Award”), Grand Theft Auto V (“The “Game Within A Game” Award” and “The “Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude” Award”), and many more.

You can find the complete list of winners after the break, and let’s hope Valve does this again next year.

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See the newest trailer for Cube Life: Island Survival, which is coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 in Late Spring 2017

Posted on December 30, 2016 by John Scalzo

Cypronia previously announced that their Minecraft-like sandbox game, Cube Life: Island Survival, was on its way to the Nintendo Switch and PS4 in 2017. Today, the developer confirmed the game will be available in “Late Spring” and unveiled a new trailer.

While we don’t exactly when Cube Life: Island Survival will be released for the Switch and PS4, we do know how much it’ll cost… $4.99. But players who have previously purchased the game for the Wii U will be able to download it for free during the first four days after launch.

Posted in News, PS4, Switch | Tagged

Gravity Rush 2 Hands-On Preview: Stylishly Falling Under the Spell of Sony Japan’s Sequel

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Chris Cobb

I have no real familiarity with Gravity Rush, a gravity-defying action game first released for the PS Vita in 2012, and later remastered for the PlayStation 4 in 2015. I had heard it was a Japanese superhero game with a unique style, but never took the time to look into it further. With the Gravity Rush 2 demo now available on the PlayStation Network, I decided to jump in blind and see what awaited.

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Posted in Previews, PS4, Top Story | Tagged