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
Jane McGonigal hosting “Find the Future” at New York Public Library
If you’ve ever wanted to pretend their was something strange in the New York Public Library, then PAX East 2011 keynote speaker Jane McGonigal has an alternate reality game for you.
The author and ARG designer will be spearheading “Find The Future” at the NYPL on May 20th. The event will honor the 100th birthday of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (yes, the one flanked by the big lions) by having gamers descend on the stacks in a scavenger hunt of great importance. If you want to participate in the event, you have to register at the NYPL’s website and be one of the 500 lucky players chosen by McGonigal and her team.
If you’re selected, you’ll be able to explore the collections of the Schwarzman Building on the night of May 20th and complete quests sent to you via mobile device. A completed quest will not include a treasure chest of immense wealth, but a QR Code that must be scanned to prove you solved the puzzle. According to Gamasutra, “the quests will also ask the players to consider literature and write pieces that will eventually be collected into a book that will go on display at the library.” If you’re not picked, fret not, for an online version of the “Find the Future” game will be available as well.
“Like every game I make, it has one goal: to turn players into super-empowered, hopeful individuals with real skills and ideas to help them change the world,” McGonigal said.
BloodRayne: Betrayal goes 2D on PSN, XBLA this Summer
Even Uwe Boll can’t kill the BloodRayne franchise (maybe it helps that Rayne is already undead). Majesco has announced that they’ve teamed up with WayForward (the developers of Contra 4 and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge) to resurrect the Nazi-killing vampire in BloodRayne: Betrayal.
Instead of the 3D action titles of olde, WayForward will be bringing BloodRayne: Betrayal to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade as a 2D side-scrolling hack ‘n slash. In what’s described as her “final mission,” the half-vampire teams up with a group of slayers to “stop an evil vampire massacre.” So is Majesco saying there are good vampire massacres? Hmm…
Betrayal will “[introduce] new characters and gruesome environmental puzzles” as well as include a “full arsenal of lethal weapons” in its quest for bloody vampire action. The game will also likely include co-op play as Rayne is said to team up with “a mysterious new friend” on her mission.
BloodRayne: Betrayal will be available to download this Summer.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged BloodRayne: Betrayal
First Saints Row: The Third gameplay trailer
Above, you’ll find the first 2.7 seconds of gameplay footage from Saints Row: The Third. Hopefully, THQ and Volition plan to release more information about the game, which is scheduled for a Holiday 2011 release on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Saints Row: The Third
New Releases: Karaoke Revolution Glee 2, Carnival Games Kinect, Super Meat Boy, More
If March was a mad month for new game releases, then you can be forgiven if you didn’t realize April was dead on arrival as big releases are few and far between in the fourth month of the year.
Let’s see…
- There’s Karaoke Revolution Glee: Volume 2 on the Wii.
- 2K Games brings Carnival Games to the Kinect with Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do on the Xbox 360.
- And the Super Meat Boy: Ultra Edition (PC) is the first boxed edition of the insane platformer.
The full list of the rest of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
April Fools’ Day Watch 2011
April Fools’ Day 2011 is nearing it’s end and we’ve already highlighted some of our favorites, but hit the jump for a quick rundown of more gags, pranks, jokes and hoaxes that the game industry played on unsuspecting gamers this year.
And don’t forget this year’s greatest non-prank, the 100% real feces flinging in Duke Nukem Forever. Also, check out our real rumor report on The Undead States of America.
Did we forget your favorite? We’ll update this post throughout the rest of the day and let us know what we missed in the comments. (more…)
Posted in News
The Agency canceled; SOE reconfirms EverQuest 3, PlanetSide 2
Sony Online Entertainment has announced has they’ve laid off over 200 employees at studios in Denver, Tuscon and Seattle. Due to these cutbacks, the publisher has also confirmed the cancellation of The Agency, the long-in-development espionage MMO that was planned for the PC and PS3.
In a public statement, SOE said these layoffs would not effect current games like the recently released DC Universe Online. They also reiterated that EverQuest 3 and PlanetSide 2 are still in development.
Posted in News, PC, PS3
Tagged DC Universe Online, PlanetSide 2
4/1: StarCraft Kinect NOT coming to the Xbox 360
Ever since Kinect has been known as Project Natal, gamers have dreamed of using the peripheral like a high-tech general would… moving units into position with a flick of the wrist and raining destruction down on an inferior foe from a comfortable (and fortified) command center. A lone warrior fighting all of the aliens by himself would just be a lone (and very dead) nutcase in real life.
Thankfully, Blizzard has heard our cries and has announced their return to console development, StarCraft: Motion Overdrive for the Xbox 360. Playable exclusively with Kinect, the real time strategy game will offer “the exciting strategy gameplay of StarCraft II,” but now with motion controls!
Gag Reflex: Very funny, but this is just salt in the wound for players that still hold out hope that StarCraft: Ghost will one day rise from the ashes.
Posted in News
Duke Nukem flings feces in latest DNF trailer
We interrupt your April Fool’s Day shenanigans to bring you the latest gameplay trailers from Duke Nukem Forever.
In the first (which you can view above), Duke drops a deuce and then decides to indulge his primate instincts by flinging that feces all around the level. Face it, this is more outrageous than most of today’s gags and it’s 100% real.
The second trailer features less feces, but much MUCH more awesome. After the break, watch Duke Nukem punch an alien’s head clean off and use his jetpack to ride the bloody torso to a beautiful three-point landing inside a building.
I bet you don’t care about the delay anymore. Duke Nukem Forever will be released on June 14 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Duke Nukem Forever