Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
CoD: Black Ops II “Apocalypse” DLC coming to XBLM on August 27
A day after Treyarch released a new Call of Duty: Black Ops II teaser with a giant mecha, Activision has announced “Apocalypse,” the game’s final downloadable map pack. The Apocalypse Pack will be available for the Xbox 360 on August 27. A PC and PS3 release will presumably follow a month after that.
Like the game’s previous DLC, the Apocalypse Pack will include four new multiplayer maps:
- Pod: A failed utopian community from the 70’s has left stacks of dilapidated residential pods nestled into an abandoned cliff side in Taiwan. Its residents long gone, the modernist compound now hosts frenetic combat as players must run atop the pods, as well as navigate their multi-tiered interiors for a strategic edge.
- Frost: Fresh snow meets explosive gunpowder in this snow-capped European city, where the bridge over a frozen canal separates it into two sides, requiring players to employ multi-level traversal strategies to outsmart and ultimately outshoot their enemies.
- Takeoff: Fans of Stadium from the original Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike DLC will find themselves at home on Takeoff. Marooned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this remote launch site is all about close-quarters combat, combining tight corners with open spaces for intense encounters.
- Dig: An adaptation of the fan-favorite Courtyard from Call of Duty: World at War, where two archeological dig sites in Afghanistan become the perfect playground for combatants eager for hectic, unceasing confrontations. Treyarch, has retained the spirit of Courtyard with two major chokepoints, a wide open layout and raised platforms, but has provided fans with a fresh take on the multitude of paths.
Oh, and about yesterday’s teaser. The Apocalypse Pack will also include a new Zombies Mode scenario known as “Origins.” In “Origins,” players will be able to play as the four original Zombies characters during a “Dieselpunk-themed First World War.” The scenario will also come complete with a new Avenged Sevenfold song (“Shepherd of Fire”) and original art by Alex Ross.
Microsoft’s Major Nelson “unboxes” the Xbox One
Even though the launch of the Xbox One is still over three months away, Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb has put together the above video showcasing the contents of the console’s box.
Feel free to ohh and ahh over the “Day One Editon” as Hyrb unpacks the Kinect sensor, a headset, a controller, a “4K-rated” HDMI cable, an owner’s manual, an Xbox One sticker, a power cord, a power brick, and the console itself.
The Xbox One will be available sometime in November.
NetherRealm pulls Zatanna out of a hat as the next Injustice DLC character
NetherRealm Studios’ Ed Boon promised that we’d get a first look at the next downloadable character for Injustice: Gods Among Us and he has delivered. It’s everyone’s favorite DC Comics magician… Zatanna!
You didn’t think I meant John Constantine, did you?
You can check out Zatanna in action against Solomon Grundy in the trailer above. Like the previous DLC characters, she will be available to download soon (actually, on August 13) through the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii U eShop for $5 (or 400 Microsoft Points).
Posted in News, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Injustice: Gods Among Us
XBLA Today: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Starbreeze is best known for action-heavy shooters like Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and the recent Syndicate reboot. What they’re not known for is lyrical fairy tales inspired by Swedish filmmakers. They hope to change that with the release of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the first offering from the 2013 edition of Microsoft’s yearly Summer of Arcade promotion:
Guide two brothers on an epic fairy tale journey from visionary Swedish film director, Josef Fares and top-tier developer Starbreeze Studios. Control both brothers at once as you experience co-op play in single player mode, like never before. Solve puzzles, explore the varied locations and fight boss battles, controlling one brother with each thumb stick. This is one journey you will never forget.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is available to download for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15).
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Ubisoft, Hasbro strike deal to bring Monopoly and other board games to next-gen consoles
Get up and go to your game closet. Chances are you’ll have a well-worn copy of at least one of the following board games in there: Monopoly, Scrablle, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, Battleship, and Cranium. What do they all have in common? First of all, they’re all published by Hasbro.
Also, new versions of each game are coming to current-generation and next-generation consoles courtesy of Ubisoft.
“Hasbro makes games that we all know and love, and we’re thrilled to be able to work with them to create video game experiences based on some of their most popular brands,” said Tony Key, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Ubisoft.
Electronic Arts previously held the Hasbro board game license for console games. They will still be able to publish and develop apps based on Hasbro board games for mobile devices.
Treyarch explores the “Origins” of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in new trailer
Treyarch, the developer of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, recently uploaded a new video for fans to dissect. Titled “Origins,” is it meant to tease the final DLC pack for Black Ops II? Probably, but I think the important question is, what’s up with the giant mecha that appears at the end?
The video tells us that “Every story has a beginning… and an end.” Presumably, we’ll learn more about the end of the Black Ops saga soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Dragon’s Crown, Tales of Xillia, Ibb & Obb, and more added to PS Store
This week’s big PS3 retail releases, Dragon’s Crown and Tales of Xillia, have also found their way to the PlayStation Store. Tales of Xillia, Namco Bandai’s action RPG, has been priced at $54.99 and Dragon’s Crown, a hand-drawn beat ’em up from Atlus, has been priced at $49.99. Dragon’s Crown is also available for the Vita for $39.99 (sorry folks, it’s not a Cross-Buy title).
Also available this week is the latest addition to Sony’s Play promotion, the gravity-based puzzle platformer Ibb & Obb. And this week’s PS2 Classic is The Red Star, a great overhead shooter that takes place in an alternate Russia with robots and giant walking talks. Finally, Superfrog HD is a side-scrolling platformer from the creator of the Worms series. It’s also a PS3/Vita Cross-Buy title.
More information on all of these titles can be found after the break and a complete list of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Dragon's Crown, Tales of Xillia
SteamWorld Dig will be added to 3DS eShop tomorrow
Image & Form is bringing SteamWorld Dig, a 2D platformer set in a steampunk world (bet you didn’t see that one coming), to the 3DS eShop tomorrow, August 8. The robots are the good guys in SteamWorld Dig and you can learn all about their wild west world by checking out the launch trailer above or reading this very quick plot description:
You play the protagonist, Rusty – a lone-wolf, steam-powered cowbot who has come to an old mining town in great need. While digging your way through the old earth for riches and helping the townfolks get back on their feet, you unwittingly wake an ancient evil that lurks below…
After it’s added to the 3DS eShop tomorrow, SteamWorld Dig will be available to download for $8.99.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged SteamWorld Dig