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
Capcom hints at Devil May Cry Collection with art contest prize
Capcom plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Devil May Cry by asking fans to capture Dante’s signature look in an awesome art contest:
Think about all the iconic characters from Dante, Nero, Vergil, Trish and Lady and all the fantastic weapons they have wielded. Think of the bosses and many battles Dante has had to cleave his way through. And most of all think of the style that all this has been done in, from Dante’s cockiness to Sparda’s impeccable honor!
So, the art contest sounds pretty cool, but the prize sounds even better. According to Capcom, “The winners of the competition will receive a place in history when their artwork is featured in a new, to be announced Capcom game! (plus a copy of said secret game when upon its release!)” Hmm… I wonder what kind of secret, unannounced game would be the perfect home for fan renditions of Dante and the rest of the Devil May Cry gang? If you said a Devil May Cry HD Collection, then congratulations, you read my mind. But it’s not just me. Check out this Devil May Cry HD Collection that was spotted on a Spanish retailer’s website last month.
It may be unannounced, but the devil’s in the details and a DMC HD Collection is a secret no longer.
Posted in News
EA shutting down more multiplayer servers
Electronic Arts is planning to perform another of their periodic server shutdowns next month. On August 11th, online play for nearly a dozen games will be retired. Two more shutdowns will follow in October. About half of the titles are EA Sports games that have long since been replaced by newer editions. But if you still play action games like Army of Two or Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, your online time will be coming to an end.
And sadly, any multiplayer Achievements/Trophies associated with these games will be forever unobtainable very soon.
The full list of server shutdowns can be found after the break. (more…)
Nintendo Download: Netflix app added to 3DS eShop
This week’s Nintendo Download adds the free (for current subscribers that is) Netflix streaming application to the 3DS eShop. In light of the company’s recent woes over a 60% price hike and the unbundling of their Instant Watch service, they could use the good news.
“The new Netflix application looks great, plays great and is a fantastic consumer experience,” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “It gives Nintendo 3DS owners access to an amazing wealth of movies and TV shows, which they can watch conveniently from thousands of free Wi-Fi access points across the country. Nintendo 3DS truly offers something for everyone.”
This week’s update also includes a bevy of games including…
- Game & Watch Gallery (3DS) – A re-release of the Game Boy classic, which was itself a re-release of Nintendo’s popular Game & Watch handhelds.
- Baseball (3DS) – One of the first Game Boy games ever released gets the 3DS Virtual Console treatment.
- Extreme Hangman 2 (DSi) – Another round of hangman excitement.
- AfterZoom (DSi) – Turn your DSi’s camera into a microscope.
- Puzzle Fever (DSi) – A puzzle game with actual puzzle pieces.
- Just Sing! 80s Collection (DSi) – A music game that goes back to the decade that brought us Madonna, A-ha and Rick Astley.
- 3D Pixel Racing (Wii) – Pixel graphics, 3D gameplay, retro cool racing.
You can read more about all of this week’s new releases in the latest Nintendo Download Newsletter.
Dead Island shambles into stores September 6; Comic-Con panel includes zombie experts
After months of teasing, Deep Silver has finally announced an official release date for Dead Island. The first person zombie game will be available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 6.
To help celebrate the game’s pending release, Deep Silver plans to hold a master class at Comic-Con to explore “society’s fascination with the Zombie genre as a whole, and demonstrate how creative talent are harnessing medical science to define and explore horror entertainment in more realistic (and therefore more frightening and engaging) ways.” The panelists represent some of the foremost experts in the field of zombology and will surely provide a lively (so to speak) discussion:
- Max Brooks, universal zombie expert and author of The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
- Haris Orkin, writer of the anticipated video game, Dead Island
- Steve Schlozman, M.D., author of The Zombie Autopsies and assistant professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
- Bradley Voytek, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Fellow: Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco
- Andrew Groen, freelance journalist and editor of GamePro Magazine’s “Real Science” column
- Bruce Geryk, M.D., Resident Physician, Department of Neurosurgery, University of North Carolina Hospitals
The panel, titled “The Science of Zombies,” will be held at the San Diego Convention Center – Room 8 on July 22 at 7:30 PM.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Comic-Con 2011, Dead Island
EA buys PopCap for $750 million
PopCap Games, the casual gaming powerhouse behind such franchises as Bejeweled, Plants vs Zombies and Zuma, has been acquired by Electronic Arts for $750 million ($650 million in cash and $100 million in shares of EA common stock). PopCap had recently been mulling a public IPO, but it looks like EA swooped in and made a better deal.
“We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games,” said David Roberts, CEO of PopCap. “By working with EA, we’ll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience.”
Executives on EA’s end also sound thrilled with the PopCap purchase.
“EA and PopCap are a compelling combination,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels.”
I hope the marriage between PopCap and EA works out for the best. Now, can I have a sequel to Heavy Weapon?
Asssassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Summer Sale now on PSN
This week’s PlayStation Store update includes a downloadable version of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, a demo for Atlus’ wild RPG adventure Catherine and a whole lot of DLC expansions. Some of the games getting expanded today include L.A. Noire (“Reefer Madness Vice Case”), LittleBigPlanet 2 (“Killzone 3 Minipack”) and MotorStorm Apocalypse (“Queen of Hearts Event Pack”).
However, this week’s update also marks the kickoff of the PSN Summer Sale, a weeklong festival of savings on some of the PlayStation Store’s biggest games including Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX, PixelJunk Shooter 2, Hard Corps: Uprising and Dead Space: Extraction.
A complete list of everything added to the PlayStation Store today can be found at the PlayStation.Blog. Happy gaming!
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
XBLA Tomorrow: Ms. Splosion Man, Warhammer 40000 Kill Team, Boulder Dash-XL
In the final week before Summer of Arcade, Microsoft comes through with another trio of interesting Xbox Live Arcade releases.
This week, the XBLA will see the return of Twisted Pixel Games and their gender-swapping sequel, Ms. Splosion Man. Don’t let the yellow bow fool you, Ms. Splosion Man is just as explosive as her predecessor and she’s packin’ a new multiplayer mode as well.
Also available is Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team, a third person shooter that ties in with THQ’s disc-based Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, which is scheduled for release later this Summer.
Finally, there’s Boulder Dash-XL, an XBLA update to the classic puzzler.
More information on all three games (which have been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10) each) is available after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Ms. Splosion Man, Warhammer 40000: Kill Team
King of Fighters XIII gets October release date, new trailer
Atlus has unveiled a new gameplay trailer for The King of Fighters XIII and narrowed down the game’s release date from Fall 2011 to sometime in October.
The console port of KoF XIII will add a variety of new features and modes not found in the arcade original. Atlus plans to release more details on this new content at a later date, but they did announced that Billy Kane, a fan favorite from the Fatal Fury franchise, will be a part of KoF XIII’s roster.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The King of Fighters XIII