Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game Awards
- “Animal Crossing” and Undertale” Lead the Way for New Book Series About Games at University of Chicago Press
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
All Articles: Her Story
Fallout 4 wins “Best Game” at 2016 BAFTA Games Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held their annual Games Awards ceremony last night, and Bethesda’s Fallout 4 looted the trophy for “Best Game.” Surprisingly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Fallout 4’s main rival throughout the 2015/2016 awards season, came away empty-handed.
The same doesn’t need to be said for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Her Story, and Rocket League, each of which won three awards last night.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture’s accolades all revolved around its excellent use of sound as the post-apocalyptic title won for “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” and “Best Performance” (which went to Merle Dandridge). Rocket League’s universal appeal informed its three award including “Family Game,” “Multiplayer,” and “Sport.” Finally, Her Story’s unique storytelling structure lead to wins in the “Best Debut,” “Game Innovation,” and “Mobile & Handheld” categories.
Other winners during last night’s ceremony include Ori and the Blind Forest, Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Until Dawn, Prison Architect, and Life Is Strange.
Congratulations to all the winners, which you can find after the break. (more…)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt wins “Game of the Year” at 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards
CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was on target once again as it collected another “Game of the Year” win this weekend at the SXSW Gaming Awards. In addition to its big win, The Witcher 3 won two other awards: “Excellence in Technical Achievement” and “Excellence in Narrative.”
The Witcher 3 faced stiff competition from several of last year’s other big releases, including Bloodborne and Rise of the Tomb Raider, both of which won a pair of 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards. From Software’s gothic RPG was recognized for its gorgeous environments in the “Excellence in Art” and “Excellence in Design” categories. Meanwhile, Lara Croft herself was named “Most Enduring Character” and her tomb raiding skills were honored with an “Excellence in Animation” win.
Finally, Her Story picked up some more hardware this weekend, winning SXSW’s “Mobile Game of the Year” award.
A complete look at all of this year’s winners can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Her Story, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Splatoon, Star Wars: Battlefront, Superhot, Tabletop Games, The Order: 1886, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is “Game of the Year” at 2016 GDC Awards
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt might be the last game in CD Projekt’s Witcher saga, but it’s first in the eyes of voters at the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards. The final adventure for Geralt of Rivia was awarded “Game of the Year” honors at the annual ceremony, as well as “Best Technology” for “its complex game engine that combines brilliant visuals with a huge game world.”
However, the big winner of the night was Sam Barlow’s Her Story. After cleaning up earlier in the day at the IGF Awards, Her Story also collected the “Innovation Award,” “Best Narrative,” and “Best Handheld/Mobile Game” at the 2016 GDC Awards.
The only other multi-award winner was Ori and the Blind Forest, which shone brightly as the winner of “Best Visual Art” and “Best Debut.”
As they do every year, the Game Developers Choice jury also distributed a trio of special awards at this year’s ceremony. The “Ambassador Award” was given to Tracy Fullerton, professor and Director of the University of Southern California Game Design program. Bethesda’s Todd Howard won a “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his work with The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises. And finally, Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, was praised with the “Pioneer Award.”
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2016, Her Story, Life Is Strange, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rocket League, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Her Story wins Seumas McNally Grand Prize at 2016 IGF Awards
Sam Barlow’s Her Story won the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize” at the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards last night. The game, which resurrected full motion video storytelling to tease out its central mystery, was also the recipient of the “Excellence In Narrative” trophy.
It was a great night for independent gaming as several other games were also honored at this year’s IGF Awards. The spooky Oxenfree won “Excellence In Visual Art,” the ultra-tense Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes won “Excellence in Design,” and the hypnotic and soothing sounds of Mini Metro won “Excellence In Audio.” “The Nuovo Award,” which recognizes “abstract and unconventional games,” was awarded to Cibele for its look at online relationships. And the “Best Student Game” of the year was Jenny Jiao Hsia and Alec Thomson’s Beglitched.
Finally, the “ID@Xbox Rising Star Award” was given to Girls Make Games for The Hole Story and Undertale, developed by Toby Fox, won the “Audience Award.”
Congratulations to everyone who was a winner last night at the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards. The complete list of winners, in handy list format, can be found after the break. And don’t forget, if you’re in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference, every nominee from this year’s contest is available to try out at the IGF Pavilion. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2016, Her Story, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Mini Metro
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture leads with 10 nominations at the 2016 BAFTA Games Awards
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) bestowed some absolutely rapturous acclaim on Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture yesterday. The game, which was developed by The Chinese Room and released exclusively for the PS4, was nominated in ten categories for this year’s BAFTA Games Awards.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture will obviously be competing for “Best Game” at the 2016 BAFTAs, and also for “Best British Game,” “Artistic Achievement,” “Audio Achievement,” “Game Innovation,” “Music,” “Original Property,” and “Story.” Two nominations in the “Performer” category (one for Merle Dandridge and one for Oliver Dimsdale) round out its double digit list of accolades.
However, five other games (Fallout 4, Life Is Strange, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Rocket League, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt) are also up for “Best Game” and any one of them could easily steal the spotlight from Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
We’ll find out who takes the top prize on Thursday, April 7, when comedian Dara O’Briain returns to host the festivities, which will be televised via Twitch and BAFTA.org. The complete list of nominees in all categories can be found after the break. (more…)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt nabs eight nominations at 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards
South by Southwest Gaming recently announced the nominees for this year’s SXSW Gaming Awards and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, not surprisingly, has captured the most accolades. CD Projekt’s sprawling RPG is up for eight awards, including “Game of the Year.” It was also nominated for “Excellence in Gameplay,” “Excellence in Art,” “Excellence in Technical Achievement,” “Excellence in Visual Achievement,” “Excellence in Narrative,” “Excellence in Musical Score,” and “Most Enduring Character.”
Competing against Geralt of Rivia for “Game of the Year” is a familiar-looking quartet of games including Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and Undertale. Bloodborne was actually a close second to The Witcher 3 with seven nominations.
Who wins at the 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards will be determined in part by a public vote that will hosted by IGN from Monday, February 1 through Friday, February 12. The winners will be announced on Saturday, March 19 at 9:00 PM (Eastern Time) and you can watch it live on Twitch.
The complete list of this year’s nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Her Story, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Splatoon, Star Wars: Battlefront, Superhot, Tabletop Games, The Order: 1886, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Mini Metro, Her Story lead all nominees at the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards
The Independent Games Festival has announced the nominees for their 18th annual awards, and two very different games lead the pack as Mini Metro, a tranquil public transportation sim, and Her Story, a detective story that uses 90s-era full motion video, will both be competing for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.”
The minimalist Mini Metro collected three other nominations including “Excellence In Visual Art,” “Excellence In Design,” and “Excellence In Audio.” Meanwhile, Her Story also racked up three additional nominations including “Excellence In Narrative,” “Excellence In Design,” and the “Nuovo Award.” Both games will be competing for the “Grand Prize” against Darkest Dungeon, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Superhot, and Undertale.
The 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 16, during this year’s Game Developers Conference. If you aren’t going to be in San Francisco to attend the show in person, you can watch the festivities live through Twitch. However, if you are attending GDC 2016, all of this year’s finalists will be playable on the show floor at the IGF Pavilion.
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions for the 2016 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged GDC 2016, Her Story, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Mini Metro, Superhot
Warp Zoned’s 2015 Golden Pixel Awards: Honoring Our Favorite Games From Last Year
The conventional wisdom will tell you that 2015 was a down year for games and that all the good stuff got pushed back to 2016. But how can you trust the conventional wisdom when last year featured a ridiculously entertaining string of good games starring kid squids, gothic hunters, glitchy sci-fi heroes, and the lone survivor of a nuclear war. And all that’s before you dip into the millions of user-created levels from Super Mario Maker.
Yup, we think 2015 was a pretty great year for games, especially the ones that took home some hardware during our annual Golden Pixel Awards… (more…)
Posted in Etcetera, Features, Mobile, PC, PS4, Top Story, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Alphabear, Axiom Verge, Batman: Arkham Knight, Bloodborne, Broforce, Earthbound Beginnings, Fallout 4, Guitar Hero Live, Her Story, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Mortal Kombat X, N++, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Until Dawn