Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
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)
Author: John Scalzo
Neal Stephenson tackles an MMO “cyber war” in Reamde
Neal Stephenson has become a hero in geek circles for his examinations of cryptography, philosophy, cyberpunk and science fiction in novels such as Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle. Today, Stephenson turns his pen to the world of MMOs with the release of Reamde.
Described by publisher Harper Collins as the tale of an “online war,” Reamde wades into such varied topics as “the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists.”
Harper Collins has more information at their official website, including a more in-depth look at the novel’s plot:
In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.
But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe—and Richard is at ground zero.
Battlefield 3 open beta begins September 29
It’s been a long time coming, but EA and DICE have finally announced that the Battlefield 3 open beta will begin on September 29 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 owners. If you’ve pre-ordered Battlefield 3 through EA’s Origin store or purchased the Limited Edition/Tier 1 Edition of Medal of Honor, you’ll receive access to the beta 48 hours earlier on September 27.
The beta will be available until October 10 and will give gamers a chance to try Battlefield 3 early as well as give the Battlelog social platform a spin. PC players must download the Origin client to join the beta while PS3 and Xbox 360 owners will be able to download it from the PlayStation Store or Xbox Live Marketplace.
DICE has also launched a Battlefield Beta FAQ if you still have questions. Dismissed!
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Battlefield 3
THQ taps Crytek to develop Homefront 2
Executives at THQ haven’t been shy about declaring Homefront the start of a new series, even before it was released. Today, the publisher made good on their promises by announcing that Homefront 2 is in development at Crytek (Crysis, FarCry).
“We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ,” said Cevat Yerli, Founder, CEO and President of Crytek. “We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game. It’s really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way.”
Original developer Kaos Studios was shut down by THQ earlier this year, prompting the Crytek shift. As development of the series moves to Europe, so does the storyline. It’s just a tease so far, but here’s all we know about the plot of Homefront 2:
“[T]he splintered nations of Europe struggle to maintain peace at home, as the global economy continues its downward spiral, and civil order disintegrates. The world is teetering on the brink of ruin…”
According to THQ, Homefront 2 (which is just a working title) will be available on the PC and consoles during their 2014 fiscal year. For those without a THQ financial calendar handy, that means the game will be released between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. So it’s very likely the “consoles” THQ is referring to are the Wii U, PS4 and Xbox 720.
Xbox TV to be available by the end of the year
First announced at this year’s E3 Expo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer cleared away the static about the Xbox 360’s upcoming “live TV” service during an analyst briefing. Known as Xbox TV, the service will launch this holiday season with “dozens or hundreds of additional video content suppliers.”
Additional details about the service are still pretty sketchy, but we know it’ll include video-on-demand options, UFC events, and live TV featuring “news, sports, and your favorite channels.”
The most important detail, the price, is also still a big question mark. It’s also unknown how Xbox TV will integrate itself with Xbox Live’s current video services including Hulu, Netflix and Zune Video.
So basically, we don’t know anything new now that we didn’t already know at E3.
[Source: CNN]
Vita is region-free, world rejoices
Shuhei Yoshida, the President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, has taken to Twitter and confirmed that the Vita will be region-free when it releases in Japan later this year. That’s good news for early adopters and even better news for fans of the systems’s quirky Japanese fare, much of which will never make it to America.
The Vita will be released on December 17 in Japan in two different flavors: a $390 3G/wi-fi model and a $325 wi-fi model. An American release date has yet to be announced, but early 2012 is the current assumption.
Return to the Moon for another CoD Black Ops Rezurrection trailer
Activision and Treyarch have reopened the Call of Duty Zombie Labs for another live-action look at the new and creative ways they’ve developed to dispatch zombies in zero gravity. Needless to say, it’s pretty gruesome.
After the public service announcement, we’re treated to another video of “Moon,” The newest zombie-infested Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer map. It’s part of the Rezurrection map pack, which also includes all four Zombies maps previously seen in Call of Duty: World at War.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops Rezurrection Pack is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and will available to download for the PC and PS3 on September 22.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops
Netflix adding games, redubs disc-by-mail service “Qwikster”
After the company’s recent streaming price hike debacle, Netflix has decided to make more changes to their business model.
Announced by CEO Reed Hastings on the company’s blog, Netflix will formally split their rent-by-mail and streaming services in the next few weeks. The streaming service will retain the Netflix name while the disc-by-mail service will now be known as “Qwikster.” Qwikster will also add a video game option (specifically PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 games) at that time. No pricing for game rentals was announced, but the option was described as “similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray,” which costs an additional $2 per month.
“Members have been asking for video games for many years, and now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done,” Hastings said.
Other changes will also be coming to the dual services. Besides formally splitting the company names, Netflix and Qwikster will also have completely separate movie queues, rating options, billing procedures and contact information for each user. So if you subscribe to both and need to change an email address or credit card number, you’ll have to do it in two places.
Hastings, and new Qwikster CEO Andy Rendich, have created a short video explaining all of these changes, which you can find after the break. In it, the two executives also apologize for the “arrogance” of the previous price hike and promise that things will be different this time.
Whether or not things will be different, you know GameFly just went into panic mode. (more…)
Weekly Warp-Up: TGS 2011 Edition
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…
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The Tokyo Game Show is in full swing and we’re still sorting through all the news that escaped from Japan’s biggest video game showcase. But we also turned our attention to some of the pre-TGS festivities, including Nintendo’s 3DS Conference. The worldwide debut of the 3DS Slide Pad and all the new game announcements were the subject of Episode 21 of the Warp Zoned Podcast. We also spent a little bit of time discussing Resident Evil Revelations and the game’s new TGS trailer. Apparently no one can support Rachel’s breasts.
Hit the jump for the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up. (more…)
Posted in News