Warp Zoned Presents
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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice wins “Game of the Year” at the 2019 Game Awards
Geoff Keighley and his co-presenters shotgunned their way through dozens of awards during tonight’s Game Awards, but in between all the World Premiere Trailers, they managed to shine a brief spotlight on a wide variety of titles. Unlike most years when a handful of titles dominate the conversation, this year’s Game Awards spread the wealth among a lot of worthy winners, including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, this year’s recipient of the “Game of the Year” award.
From Software’s ninja adventure also claimed the “Best Action/Adventure Game” trophy, but it wasn’t able to sway the jury for the other three nominations it was up for. Instead, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium became the most-honored game of the night, winning “Best Narrative,” “Best Role Playing Game,” “Best Independent Game,” and “Fresh Indie Game.”
Some of the ceremony’s other winners included Kojima Production’s Death Stranding (“Best Game Direction,” “Best Score/Music,” and “Best Performance” for Mads Mikkelsen), Remedy’s Control (“Best Art Direction”), Beat Games’s Beat Saber (“Best VR/AR Game”), Respawn’s Apex Legends (“Best Multiplayer”), and Activision’s Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (“Best Sports/Racing Game”).
In addition to a rousing speech by their former President, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo had a great night too, taking home trophies for “Best Fighting Game” (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), “Best Family Game” (Luigi’s Mansion 3), and “Best Strategy Game” (Fire Emblem: Three Houses).
A complete list of winners from the 2019 Game Awards can be found at Video Game Canon.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Game Awards 2019, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare repeats as the best-selling game of November 2019
Not even the combined might of two new Pokemon games could stop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from holding on to its position as the best-selling game of November 2019… but Nintendo and Game Freak certainly made it interesting.
According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), three Pokemon games actually managed to crack the top five last month. Pokemon Sword sliced its way to #3, while Pokemon Shield built a stronghold at #5. Sandwiched in the middle at #4 was the Pokemon Sword + Pokemon Shield Double Pack, which was counted as a separate game by the tracking firm.
If you were wondering what would have happened if all three games were combined onto a single line, Piscatella said that the combined sales of Sword, Shield, and the Double Pack would have landed at #2 for the month (though who knows what the sales charts would have looked like if Nintendo contributed eShop sales to the dataset). Even with that caveat, new releases dominated last month’s ranking, with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (#2), Death Stranding (#7), and Need For Speed Heat (#9) in the top ten. Going further down the list, you’ll also find Just Dance 2020 at #14.
Overall, the game industry collected $2.3 billion in sales last month, a 19% drop from November of 2018. Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo Switch was once again the best-selling console during the month, and it remains the best-selling console for all of 2019.
You can find the full list of best-selling games from November 2019 after the break. (more…)
Bethesda will bring John Romero’s Sigil and Final Doom to Doom and Doom II on consoles
Bethesda has promised that Doom and Doom II will soon become a little bit more complete on consoles and mobile ddvices. Yesterday, the publisher hosted a 26th Anniversary Celebration for the seminal first persona shooter on Twitch, and they confirmed during the livestream that four of the franchise’s more famous fan-made expansions will soon be available to download on the PS4, Switch, Xbox One, iOS, and Android.
These expansions will be available to download, for free, through a brand new Add-Ons tab in both games. According to Bethesda, the list of “curated” add-ons will initially include Sigil, which was released just this year as the unofficial “Fifth Episode” for Doom by co-creator John Romero, and No Rest For the Living, a Doom II expansion that made its debut on the Xbox 360 in 2010.
Final Doom, a 1996 retail repackaging of TnT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment, will also be available to download in Doom and Doom II as part of the update. Best of all, Bethesda confirmed that more add-ons will be added to both games at a later date.
On top of all that, Bethesda is also planning a few quality of life updates for the shooters, including bumping the graphics to 60 FPS and adding options for additional aspect ratios.
It’s currently unknown when the add-on update or the quality of life update will be available, but Bethesda said that it’ll be “soon.”
Kickstart This! Radical Chess, Guinea Pig Parkour, and Endless Memories
Kickstarter is like a devil’s playground of goodies just waiting to be funded. I’m currently toying with the idea of spending $1,000 on the Raine One Electric Scooter, if only for its glowing wheels and similar name to my own.
But the crowdfunding site is also one of the best ways for solo developers and small indie studios to present their project to an audience directly, which is what I love about it. Make a trailer that oozes passion and originality for a game that also looks cool, and I will throw my money at you like I’m in a strip joint.
So which games have caught my eye recently? In this edition of Kickstart This!, I will face off with Radical Chess, roll and jump in the 2D platformer Guinea Pig Parkour, and battle my way through the 2D action adventure Endless Memories. (more…)
Geoff Keighley has announced the nominees for the 2019 Game Awards
We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the year, and that’s means that it’s finally time for the Game Awards. The nominations for the annual awards show were announced earlier today, and Remedy’s Control, Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding, Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will all be competing for “Game of the Year.”
Host Geoff Keighley isn’t involved in the nominating process, but it still feels strange to realize that he actually appears as a non-player character in Death Stranding. Hideo Kojima’s latest game, and first as an independent developer, ultimately received nine nominations across eight categories (both Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen were nominated for “Best Performance”).
Fans are once again encouraged to vote for their favorite games at the award show’s official website, and fan votes will have a real effect on the outcome, as they’ll count for a 10% share of the voting jury.
The 2019 Game Awards will be held on Thursday, December 12. In addition to all the winners, we can also expect to see a lot of World Premiere Trailers for upcoming games, some of which will be announced in the coming days.
In the meantime, you can find a complete list of all the nominees after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, Game Awards 2019, Resident Evil 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Outer Worlds
New trailers for Gears Tactics and Ori and the Will of Wisps will debut at the 2019 Game Awards
This year’s Game Awards will be held on December 12, and as usual, Geoff Keighley and company are busy gathering a mind-bending collection of World Premiere Trailers to debut during the broadcast. Yesterday, they revealed two trailers that fans can expect to see on Twitter… and they both hail from Microsoft.
Though the consolemaker just revealed a ton of new stuff at their X019 event in London, Keighley confirmed that World Premiere Trailers for both Gears Tactics and Ori and the Will of Wisps will make an appearance at the 2019 Game Awards. Both games are currently in development for the PC and Xbox One, and both are expected to be released in 2020.
The nominees for this year’s Game Awards will be announced on Tuesday, November 19, which will probably be followed by a few more trailer announcements over the next month, but we can surely look forward to a few surprises on the big day as well.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged Game Awards 2019, Gears Tactics, Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Obsidian’s Grounded is coming in Spring 2020 and it looks like “Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Game”
For those of us of a certain age, the pint-sized dangers of Honey I Shrunk the Kids will always stick with us. In the movie, a small group of kids are forced to fend for themselves against a giant scorpion, a swarm of bees, and a super-powerful lawnmower after they’re accidentally shrunk down to microscopic size by Rick Moranis. There was also a heroic ant named Antie who saved the day years before Paul Rudd joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you’re a Disney Plus subscriber, you should absolutely check it out.
This is all just my way of preparing you for Grounded, a new game from Microsoft and Obsidian that is basically “Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Game.”
According to Xbox Wire, players will be “shrunken to the size of an ant” and dropped into a suburban background teeming with life. They’ll need to survive by scavenging “everybody objects” that have been lost among the grass, and up to four players will be able to undergo missions together:
In Grounded, players are shrunken to the size of an ant and tasked with surviving in the unique micro-world of a suburban backyard. Players must gather, craft and build bases with everyday objects found within the yard, searching for life-saving resources and living alongside giant, peaceful insects while fighting to survive massive hostile inhabitants.
Grounded provides a mix of environmental and narrative driven story telling. Set in a versatile, handcrafted sandbox structure it allows players to create their own experience from the ground up. Tasks that may seem approachable when human-sized become a challenge in this dangerous backyard landscape. This familiar yet fantastical world can be navigated solo or in four-person co-operative multiplayer, where players work together to complete missions or explore the intricately detailed world.
Grounded will be available to download in Game Preview/Early Access for the Xbox One and PC in Spring 2020.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare blows away the competition as the best-selling game of October 2019
According to The NPD Group (via Twitter), yet another Call of Duty game has debuted as the best-selling game in the US during its first month on sale for the 12th straight year. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare blew away the competition in October, and it has also settled in as the best-selling of 2019 (so far). And if history is any guide, it will likely remain in that spot throughout November and December.
But there were plenty of other titles that debuted last month that also managed to resonate with gamers.
Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds debuted at #2, and it was followed closely by Nintendo’s Luigi’s Mansion 3 at #3. Rounding out the top ten (at #10) was Nintendo’s exercise RPG, Ring Fit Adventure. Going further down the list, Overwatch‘s Switch debut helped push it back into the spotlight (and the #16 slot).
Overall, the game industry has tallied $9.3 billion in sales through the first ten months of the year, a roughly 10% drop from 2018.
You can find the full list of best-selling games from October 2019 after the break. (more…)