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
Sony reveals their Next Generation Portable, the NGP
As expected, Sony revealed the next generation of the PSP platform at an event in Tokyo late last night. The new system, which Sony has temporarily named the “Next Generation Portable” (NGP), looks very similar to the current PSP design. But now it includes two analog sticks and a multi-touch OLED screen. The gamemaker plans to release the NGP by the end of 2011.
Like they did with the PSP, Sony is touting the graphical capabilities of the NGP, saying the system’s “high-performance CPU/GPU” will create “rich, visually striking graphics never seen before on a portable entertainment system.” They also talked up the system’s unique multi-touch pad on the back of the handheld, which will allow “touch, grab, trace, push and pull” motions in games. Six-Axis motion sensing rounds out the control options for the NGP.
The system will also make use of two cameras (one on the front and one on the back) along with a new game storage medium. The UMD is dead (though PSP games downloaded from the PlayStation Store will run on the NGP) and in its place is a “small flash memory-based card” that will be able to store save data and add-on content. As games get bigger, Sony plans to release larger cards allowing the system to be “forwards compatible” in a way.
Sony also wants to make the NGP a social machine with two applications, LiveArea and Near, that can “trigger real-time communication” among gamers and offer an activity log of recent games played. A built-in GPS program will also aid in the social aspects of the NGP.
As you might have expected, no pricing information was announced.
5th Cell details XBLA shooter Hybrid
5th Cell, the developers of the ultracute Scribblenauts and its equally cute sequel Super Scribblenauts, will be branching out in 2011. The developer is hard at work on Hybrid, a “revolutionary” third-person shooter for the Xbox Live Arcade.
Before today, Hybrid’s storyline was a pretty closely guarded secret. But now we know just what the game’s about:
“Hybrid is set in the post-apocalyptic year 2031, after an extinction-level asteroid collided with Earth wiping out billons. A single-celled alien bacterium buried deep within the asteroid spread into the atmosphere, infecting half of the survivors and turning them into the Variant, a genetically altered race. Six years later the Variant began a new world order and waged a massive global war against the immune populace, known as the Paladin.”
Players will be able to take up arms as a Paladin or a Variant in a “persistent online world war.” As players win battles for their faction, territories and countries on the game’s world map will turn Paladin blue or Variant red.
Hybrid will also introduce a gameplay mechanic called “Combat Focused Movement.” 5th Cell didn’t explain what that means for shooter fans, but they did promise to reveal more during the 2011 Game Developers Conference, which runs from February 28th through March 4th.
Latest CoD: Black Ops “First Strike” trailer features zombies
Ladies and gentlemen, hide your brains, the latest trailer for the Call of Duty: Black Ops “First Strike” DLC includes the first look at the Zombies Mode-exclusive “Ascension” map. This map definitely has it all:
- Running zombies…
- Crawling zombies…
- Moaning zombies…
- A flying platform like M. Bison had in the Street Fighter movie!?!!??!!! AWESOME!
See, told you it had it all. The First Strike map pack will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on February 1st for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). Details on the PC and PS3 release are still being kept in a top secret location by Activision.
Posted in News
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies Soundtrack available now
Say what you want about Call of Duty: Black Ops, but the game has a great soundtrack. So great that Activision has released a soundtrack of songs from the Zombies Mode on Amazon, iTunes,the Zune Marketplace and other digital retailers.
Titled Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies Soundtrack, the album includes 17 tracks of undead-themed tunes. Each track can be downloaded separately for 99 cents each with the whole album priced at $11.99.
Thirty-second samples of each track are available at Amazon.
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime calls in March 23 release, new trailer
When there’s something strange in the neighborhood… Who you gonna call? WARP ZONE-ED!
I know, I know, it doesn’t exactly fit the rhyme scheme.
But that’s OK, because you can check out the new trailer for Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime and see how the real ghost chasers do it. No location is too scary… whether it’s inside a building, on city streets, in underground sewers or at the graveyard, the Ghostbusters bust ghosts because bustin’ makes me feel good.
You know what else makes me feel good? Knowing the game’s release date. According to a Tweet by publisher Atari, the game will be available to download on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on March 23. A PC release is also planned, but no date was listed.
Posted in News
Tagged Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Final Fantasy XIII-2, Versus XIII, Type-0 detailed in Dengeki
Andriasang has dug deep into the latest issue of Japanese gaming Dengeki PlayStation and unearthed a ton of new details about most of the titles Square Enix had on display at their 1st Production Department Premier event last week.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 will take place after the end of Final Fantasy XIII in Gran Pulse. According to the magazine, the sequel will be “more dark and mysterious” and will focus on the goddess Etro.
Final Fantasy Type-0, the PSP game formerly known as Agito XIII, will feature a heavy focus on magic. The Dengeki report reveals that the game’s theme revolves around the theme of “Magic in Action” which basically states that swords and axes are good in a pinch, but magic is your real weapon.
Finally, Final Fantasy Versus XIII got short shrift once again. Director Tetsuya Nomura revealed that Versus XIII won’t be released until after XIII-2 and Type-0, but he did say we might learn more about it at E3.
For the full info dump on all three titles, be sure to check out the Andriasang report.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360
Tagged Final Fantasy Type-0, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Final Fantasy XV
Dead Space: Aftermath dismembers your DVD player today
Have you been spending your day dismembering necromorphs in Dead Space 2? When you’re ready for a break, you might want to check out Dead Space: Aftermath, the latest animated movie based on the game series.
Available on DVD and Blu-ray today, Aftermath continues the story from Dead Space and tells the tale of the USG O’Bannon (fun fact: Alien was written by Dan O’Bannon), the first ship to answer the distress signal on Aegis VII. The same creative team responsible for the first animated film based on the series, Dead Space: Downfall, have stepped back behind the camera for Aftermath.
Here’s a trailer in case you need more convincing:
Hulk Hogan runs wild on WWE All-Stars box
THQ has released the official boxart for WWE All-Stars and it features eight of the biggest wrestlers of yesterday and today.
Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior will be joined by “Macho Man” Randy Savage and The Rock on the legends side of the box while John Cena, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio and Kofi Kingston represent the modern-day superstars.
The best part of this news is that THQ hadn’t announced Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior as part of the game’s roster, so this is a welcome surprise.
WWE All-Stars (and Hulkamania) will run wild on the PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PS2 and PSP this March.