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
Call of Duty: Black Ops II expands again with Vengeance Map Pack on July 2
Four new multiplayer maps are coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops II soon. The Vengeance Map Pack will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on July 2. You can check out the first trailer above for a quick look at the upcoming maps:
- “Cove” – A small island in the Indian Ocean that offers no escape.
- “Detour” – A battle both atop and below a suspension bridge.
- “Rush” – A paintball arena with a lot of different configurations.
- “Uplink” – A reimagined version of Black Ops favorite “Summit.”
The Vengeance Map Pack will also include “Buried,” a new Zombies Mode adventure. Taking place in a “lost town in the old West,” players will be able to lay waste to the zombie horde with the Ray Gun Mark II. Because when I think of Westerns, I think of Ray Guns.
A PC and PS3 release for the Vengeance Map Pack will be announced soon.
[Source: One of Swords]
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Congressmen propose “We Are Watching You Act,” an anti-Kinect bill
Microsoft had a tough time selling gamers on the Xbox One and its (almost) always-on Kinect sensor during last week’s E3 Expo. This week, a pair of US Representatives want to block the monitoring features of the next-generation console before it’s even released.
Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA) and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) introduced the “We Are Watching You Act” last week in order to protect the privacy of consumers from DVR boxes (or similar devices) that include built-in cameras and microphones. Verizon, who provides the popular FiOS service, filed a patent application for a DVR with video and audio monitoring capabilities in 2012. But, at this point, it’s unknown if they have such a DVR in development. So for now, the “We Are Watching You Act” is strictly an anti-Xbox One bill as the system’s Kinect sensor is the only device that meets the qualifications of the bill.
The “We Are Watching You Act” would prohibit companies from marketing this kind of monitoring DVR (or Kinect sensor) without first offering consumers the chance to opt-in to the service. The DVR/Kinect operator must also “provide specific details on how collected information will be used and who will have access to the data.” If you do chose to opt-in, when the device is recording it will display “WE ARE WATCHING YOU” in a font “large enough to be readable from a distance.”
While that kind of message might kill the immersive feel of a round of Killer Instinct, it might help with Watch Dogs.
And here’s where it gets messy. The bill would require manufacturers who sell devices that monitor consumers to create a similar device, without monitoring capability, and offer that as well, thus creating two tiers of Xbox One hardware. Rep. Capuano’s statement, and the full text of the bill, can be found at his official website.
Injustice: Gods Among Us scores another sales knockout in the May 2013 NPD report
Yup, you can definitely tell we’re in a console transition period. Just a single new release was able to crack the list of the top ten best-selling games of May 2013.
Deep Silver’s Metro: Last Light was that game and the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 shooter was able to claim the sixth spot for the mutants of post-apocalyptic Russia. A pair of sorta-new releases helped push the profile of two titles that were originally released in years past. The 3DS version of Donkey Kong Country Returns lifted the game to #3 and the Wii U re-release of Lego Batman 2 helped the Brick Knight squeeze into the #10 slot.
According to Game Informer, sales of retail games are down 31% from May 2012 and retail sales are going to continue to drop as Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony move towards an all-digital future. Althugh, to be fair, May 2012 did include the release of Diablo III, which sold a ton of copies at retail.
The NPD Group’s complete report on the top ten best-selling games from May 2013 can be found after the break. (more…)
XCOM: Enemy Unknown invades iOS App Store this Thursday
The iOS edition of XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be available to download (for a wallet-busting $19.99) this Thursday, June 20.
Perhaps that price isn’t too outrageous as Firaxis has taken the complete XCOM: Enemy Unknown experience and shrunk it down for iOS devices. XCOM: Enemy Unknown for iOS will include a new touchscreen control scheme, GameCenter integration, and iCloud support.
The game will be playable on the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iPod Touch 5th Generation. Finally, the multiplayer head-to-head mode will be available for the iOS edition as a free download “at a later date.”
Posted in Mobile, News
Tagged XCOM: Enemy Unknown
iPhone getting controller support in the Fall, have a look at one made by Logitech
Apple will officially be adding controller support to iPhone/iPod Touch when iOS 7 is released this Fall. While the company won’t be making an Apple-branded controller (Steve Jobs famously hated them), multiple companies will, including Logitech.
Kotaku got their hands on a picture of Logitech’s iPhone/iPod Touch controller and it will include four face buttons and a D-Pad.
It seems to turn the iPhone/iPod Touch into a PSP/Vita-style handheld, actually.
Weekly Warp-Up: The A-Z of E3 2013
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
Another E3 Expo is in the books and some gamers are no doubt already speculating on what 2014 has in store for gaming’s biggest showcase. But we learned a lot about where the game industry is heading this year. The PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One were fully revealed to the public… warts and all. And Nintendo showed us the second wave of Wii U software. But there was plenty more to this E3 than the big three. And you can read all about it (in handy alphabetical format) after the break. (more…)
New Releases: Jak and Daxter Collection, MotoGP 13, Knights of Pen & Paper, More
It’s another slow June week as we move ever closer to the Fall gaming rush and the release of the (now fully revealed) next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. But if you’re looking for something new to play this week, your options are:
- Jak and Daxter Collection (Vita), a compilation of the first three games.
- MotoGP 13 (PC), the latest game in the popular motorcycle racing series.
- Knight of Pen & Paper: +1 Edition (PC), a retro-styled RPG with some Dungeons & Dragons flavor.
- Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PC), an action puzzle game about scientists battling Cthulhu.
- Pro Cycling Manager 2013 (PC), the latest addition to the popular (especially in Europe) sports simulation series.
Not bad, but next week’s new release slate will be much more expansive (especially with the release of the Ouya micro-console).
Posted in News, PC, Vita
Tagged Jak and Daxter Collection
Retro Studios will release Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in November
Donkey Kong returns again! The great ape will come to the Wii U for the first time this Fall in the Retro Studios-developed Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze:
The first Wii U installment in the franchise comes from Retro Studios. The side-scrolling platformer has beautiful HD graphics that show fine details, such as Donkey Kong’s fur. Dixie Kong joins the adventure, which features the Kongs swimming underwater and moving from the foreground to the background. This time, the camera changes perspective on certain levels to enhance the sense of motion and to deliver new experiences.
Many gamers hoped that Retro would be hard at work on an original title (or maybe another Metroid game), but they would prefer to bring us the next DKC game this November. Reward their hard work by watching the beautiful E3 2013 trailer above.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, E3 2013