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
Sega officially laces up Sonic CD for PC, PSN, XBLA, mobile devices
A few days after Sonic’s CD adventure was inadvertently revealed by Major Nelson, Sega has officially announced that Sonic CD will be coming to the PC, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in late 2011. The game will also be available for mobile platforms including iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone and Android.
Featuring the first appearances of Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, the Sonic CD port will include widescreen graphics, the original Japanese soundtrack, special iOS features, Achievements/Trophies and the same story every Sonic fan knows and loves:
Following the classic story of the original, Sonic CD sees Dr. Eggman plan to cause chaos and take control of the future by stealing Time Stones from the Little Planet. Sonic must speed through levels and travel through time while fending off Eggman’s robots to recover the Time Stones, and save Amy Rose from his mechanical twin, Metal Sonic!
Sonic CD will make its public debut this weekend at PAX Prime. The game (actually, the XBLA version) will be available to play at the Microsoft booth.
GameStop removes OnLive coupons from Deus Ex: Human Revolution; Square Enix is cool with it
Man, they don’t get much weirder than this.
Square Enix, the publisher of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and OnLive, the cloud gaming company, recently announced a deal that the PC version of the game would include a voucher for free access to the OnLive version. Fast forward to yesterday, and we learn that GameStop executives have directed their exployees to open copies of Deus Ex and remove the OnLive coupon. This move is legally dubious at best.
The new release surgery occured because GameStop has their own game streaming service in the works. “Square Enix packed the competitor’s coupon with our DXHR product without our prior knowledge and we did pull and discard these coupons,” GameStop public relations representative Beth Sharum said.
Following the Internet outcry, GameStop pulled all remaining copies of the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution from store shelves. GameStop planned to return all of these copies of the game to their distributor after an agreement with Square Enix.
But then Square Enix comes out and publicly announces that they’re totally cool with GameStop removing the OnLive coupon from the game’s box:
“As part of Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s boxed offering on PC, Square Enix included a third party coupon. GameStop was not made aware of this inclusion and Square Enix respects the right of GameStop to have final say over the contents of products it sells and to adjust them where they see fit in accordance with their policies.”
This story is just bizarre on all sides. GameStop’s cloud gaming initiative, Spawn Labs, is still a year away. Doing battle with Square Enix by physically opening new copies of a game and removing an advertised addition is borderline criminal. We as gamers should be furious. But then Square Enix gives GameStop their blessing to do as they please with the retail copies!
And all of this is happening around a game where corporations control everything. The irony, she burns.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Gargoyle’s Quest added to 3DS eShop
Nintendo has released their weekly Nintendo Download update and the Game Boy classic Gargoyle’s Quest leads this week’s new games. The first adventure of Firebrand (unless you count his villainous turn in Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins) will be joined by one Virtual Console release and a trio of DSiWare games.
Originally released on the Super NES, The Ignition Factor is considered one of the best firefighting games of all time. It’s the lone addition to the Wii Shop Channel this week.
The new games on the DSiWare Shop are actually two new games and one new productivity application. The games include Magical Whip: Wizards of the Phantasmal Forest, a side-scrolling platformer and Let’s Create! Pottery, a pottery-making sim. The productivity app is simply titled Calculator, and as you may have guessed, it turns your DSi/3DS into a calculator.
More information on all of these games can be found at the Nintendo Download weekly newsletter.
XBLA Today: Street Fighter III, Hole in the Wall, Crazy Machines Elements
The Summer of Arcade may be over, but Microsoft still has plenty of games in the cooler to make the Xbox Live Arcade the place to be in the last few weeks of August.
Capcom’s Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition leads this week’s trio of new games. Including online play (of course), leaderboards and high definition graphics, the third Street Fighter game is ready for its XBLA debut. Fight!
Also available this week is Hole in the Wall, a Kinect-ified rendition of the physical game show and Crazy Machines Elements, an HD-entry in the popular puzzle series.
Street Fighter III has been priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) while Hole in the Wall and Crazy Machines can be both be had for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).
More information on all three games can be found at Major Nelson’s blog.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter III: Third Strike
This is not the release date you’re looking for: Kinect Star Wars, R2-D2 360 bundle delayed
A Microsoft spokesman has told OXM UK that Kinect Star Wars and the R2-D2 Xbox 360 bundle will no longer be released by the end of the year. No new release date was revealed, but presumably the game will be jump to lightspeed store shelves in 2012.
No Bothans died to bring us this information, but the spokesman did say that the delay is necessary to make sure Kinect Star Wars lives up to its full potential:
“Microsoft and LucasArts have elected to move the launch of Kinect Star Wars beyond holiday 2011 to ensure the full potential of this title is realized. This move applies to both the Kinect Star Wars stand-alone game and the Kinect Star Wars Limited Edition Console. We will communicate additional timing information at a later date.”
This is disappointing news for Star Wars fans everywhere, so please remember, no disintegrations.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Kinect Star Wars
Portal: No Escape fan film is awesome… no lie!
Dan Trachtenberg is likely not a name you know. The Philadelphia native is a commercial director who has previously worked for Lexus and Coca-Cola. Now, he’ll be known as the guy who created the world’s most awesome Portal fan film.
“Portal: No Escape” does more in five minutes than most game-to-film adaptations do in their entire running time. The nifty portal effects are top notch and, frankly, look absolutely stunning for a no-budget fan film.
Somebody, whether it be Valve or Hollywood, has to snap this up and give us the Portal movie we’ve always wanted.
Kanye West headlining Call of Duty XP
Kanye West, whose duet with Jay-Z (Watch the Throne) is this week’s #1 album, will also perform the closing concert at next month’s Call of Duty XP event.
“We’re pulling out all the stops,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “We promised our attendees and fans around the world a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the first Call of Duty XP, so we’re thrilled to have Kanye on board. Everything about XP will be as epic as the games themselves. Whether you’re competing for one of the open slots in the $1 million [Black Ops] tournament, playing Modern Warfare 3 for the first time, dodging paintballs in a spectacular life-size recreation of Modern Warfare 2‘s Scrapyard level or just mingling with developers and fellow gamers, Call of Duty XP is a celebration of one of the greatest games in the world. So what better way to top it off with one of the greatest artists in the world?”
Is it too late to drop an “I’mma let you finish” in the middle of Hirshberg’s comments? Call of Duty XP will held on September 2nd and 3rd in Los Angeles. Tickets are still available at CallofDuty.com/xp/tickets.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Street Fighter III, Parasite Eve II, Resistance 3 beta now on PS Store
With Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade coming to a close, Sony has picked up the slack with an absolutely stellar slate of offerings in the first week of their PSN Play promotion.
Long overshadowed by its younger brother, Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition ($14.99, $11.99 for PSN Plus users) comes to the PlayStation Store as the PSN Play pick. It’ll be joined by Hamilton’s Great Adventure ($9.99), an adventure game, and Comix Zone ($4.99), a PSN port of the popular Genesis-era beat ’em up. Also available this week is the PSone Classic Parasite Eve II ($5.99).
Finally this week, Sony offers up the Resistance 3 multiplayer beta for all PSN Plus subscribers. The full game will be released on September 6, but beta players will be able to get their hands on two of the game’s maps: the Seaside of Glamorgan, Wales, and the Trainyard in Bogota, Colombia.
More information on all of this week’s new games and game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation.Blog.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged Resistance 3, Street Fighter III: Third Strike