Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (2026)
Author: John Scalzo
God of War III, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood lead 2011 WGA nominations
The Writers Guild of America yesterday announced the nominees for the 2011 Writers Guild Award in Videogame Writing (but it’s a shame that no one at the WGA knows that “video game” is two words).
This year’s nominees cover some familiar territory as three of the six nominees are sequels to previous nominees: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (the original Force Unleashed actually won in 2009). But don’t count out the three newcomers, including God of War III, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Singularity.
The winner will be announced at a bicoastal ceremony (one in New York and one in LA) on Saturday, February 5. Congratulations to all the nominated writers, which you can find after the jump. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Fallout: New Vegas, God of War III, PC, PS3, Singularity, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Wii, Xbox 360
Haggar, Phoenix join Marvel vs Capcom 3
Capcom has announced that the world’s toughest mayor and a fiery mutant who’s out of this world have stepped up to the challenge in Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. I refer, of course, to Mike Haggar of Final Fight fame and X-Men Jean Grey in her Phoenix form.
We’ve got gameplay trailers for both characters after the jump and you can find a ton of new screenshots at Capcom-Unity. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, PS3, Xbox 360
Michael Jackson: The Experience moonwalks onto PS3, Xbox 360 on April 12
Michael Jackson: The Experience was a big hit for Ubisoft this holiday season. How big? The game sold two million copies across the Wii, DS and PSP in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. But Ubisoft was quick to point out that those numbers don’t include Japan, “which has one of the largest and most passionate concentrations of Michael Jackson fans anywhere.”
The publisher also revealed that the King of Pop will be moonwalking his way onto the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this April. The Kinect and Move-enabled Michael Jackson game will be released on April 12 in the US and April 14 in Europe. It will include several bonus tracks not found on the Wii version including “Blood on the Dance Floor” and “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.”
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot is very excited about the upcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 version of Michael Jackson: “As the leader in the dance game genre, our teams have worked enthusiastically to build an experience that recreates the magic worlds of Michael Jackson’s videos and performances. We’re looking forward to bringing Michael Jackson The Experience to Kinect for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move so an even bigger audience can enjoy playing the game with their friends and family too.”
Torchlight, Beyond Good & Evil, Hard Corps included in XBLA House Party 2011
Last year’s Xbox Live House Party brought Perfect Dark, Scrap Metal and the Xbox Live Game Room to the Arcade. Microsoft is attempting to top it in 2011 with the Diablo-like RPG Torchlight, an HD remake of Beyond Good & Evil, Konami’s Contra sequel Hard Corps: Uprising, the XBLA/Windows Phone 7 poker show Full House Poker and PopCap’s addictive Bejeweled Blitz Live.
The House Party begins on February 16 with Hard Corps: Uprising, Konami’s latest reimagining of the Contra series and a direct sequel to 1994’s Contra: Hard Corps. It will be followed by a new game every week until the party ends on March 16.
More details on all of this year’s party guests can be found after the jump. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Bejeweled Blitz Live, Beyond Good & Evil, Full House Poker, Hard Corps: Uprising, Mobile, Torchlight, Xbox 360
CES 2011: 8 million Kinect units sold; Avatar Kinect, Windows Phone 7 games announced
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show is in full swing and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used the company’s keynote last night to unveil some new toys for the Kinect owner.
Avatar Kinect is a virtual chat room with Avatars, powered by Kinect, that brings “[facial] recognition, body tracking [and] even facial expressions” to your living room. As you can see from the screenshot above, Kinect-owning Xbox 360 players will be able to circle the lawn chairs and have an awesome conservation in a trailer park. OK, those Avatars are tailgating, but they’re still in a parking lot surrounded by RVs.
Ballmer also threw out some numbers during this bull session and revealed that 8 million Kinect sensors were sold this holiday season. And if these users weren’t on Xbox Live before, they are now, as Ballmer announced the online service’s total user population recently surpassed 30 million users (out of 50 million Xbox 360 systems sold worldwide).
Ballmer closed out the game portion of Microsoft’s CES discussion with a Windows Phone 7 presentation. You can check out the video below for a closer look at Microsoft’s de facto handheld system after the jump. (more…)
Ubisoft teases Beyond Good & Evil HD
Beyond Good & Evil HD will be coming to a digital download service near you (PSN and XBLA to be exact) sometime this year. But Ubisoft has yet to narrow the remake’s release date down beyond that. However, they did release a short teaser trailer for the game today, which you can see above.
Now, if we could just get a straight answer out of Ubisoft about Beyond Good & Evil 2…
Posted in News
Tagged Beyond Good & Evil, Xbox 360
Ilomilo Review: A Puzzler Fit For a Fairy Tale
Officially added to the Xbox Live Arcade today, Ilomilo has actually been available since November via a “super secret access code” provided by developer Southend Interactive. This backdoor launch strategy has netted Ilomilo plenty of buzz among the gaming community for its adorable presentation and interesting puzzle design. And now that it’s available to everyone, Ilomilo should give the rest of the Xbox Live community something to talk about. (more…)
THQ has the power (to make games based on Mattel toys)
Like two action figures that come together to form an even bigger action figure, THQ will raid Mattel’s toy chest in a multi-year deal to create games based on many of the company’s biggest properties.
THQ currently has multiple Mattel-inspired games in the works, with the first scheduled for release this Fall. The deal will ultimately result in new THQ-published games based on many of Mattel’s biggest toy lines, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, Monster High, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Polly Pocket and He-Man: Masters of the Universe.
THQ wasn’t ready to talk about specific games on specific platforms, but they did confirm that the agreement allows them to create games for consoles (both disc-based and downloadable games), handhelds, PCs, mobile devices and social networking platforms. However, THQ did reveal that at least one game will support the publisher’s uDraw GameTablet on the Wii.