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
XBLA Today: Guardians of Middle-Earth
Guardians of Middle-Earth, the multiplayer online battle arena based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy arrives on the Xbox Live Arcade today just in time for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘s theatrical debut. If you want to bash some orcs with Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn, and all the rest, it’ll only set you back 1200 Microsoft Points ($15):
Guardians of Middle-Earth delivers an authentic multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game set in Middle-Earth and crafted specifically for console systems. Gamers team up as the most powerful heroes from the greatest fantasy epic of all time, bringing up to 10 players together in strategic five versus five competitive multiplayer battle arenas in the epic setting of Middle-Earth.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Guardians of Middle-Earth
PSN Today: Guardians of Middle-Earth, Far Cry 3, Uncharted: Fight For Fortune, more
While the retail release pipeline has slowed to a trickle in the month of December, Sony is still soaking the PlayStation Store with a massive amount of new content.
This week’s biggest new addition to the PlayStation Network is Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3. The first person shooter is joined by WB’s Guardians of Middle-Earth MOBA, the original Mass Effect (and the Mass Effect Trilogy), the fighting game Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus, and many others. Six different PSone Classics (previously only available in Japan) have also made their way onto the PlayStation Store.
Uncharted fans may want to fire up their Vitas this week as Sony also added Uncharted: Fight For Fortune, a strategy card game featuring characters from the series, to the portable’s game store.
You can read more about all of these games (and a few others) 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 Far Cry 3, Guardians of Middle-Earth, Mass Effect
USPTO rejects Microsoft’s application for Killer Instinct trademark
Back in September, Microsoft made a big to-do about renewing the Killer Instinct trademark. Sadly, it looks like the US Patent and Trademark Office has decided to rain on their parade by rejecting the application.
According to a letter issued by the USPTO, Microsoft has six months to appeal the rejection, which was due to a previous trademark granted for a 2005 Fox television show also known as “Killer Instinct” (the show was canceled after only nine episodes). The USPTO believes that consumers could be misled and confused by the two properties because TV shows are often turned into video games. Or in lawyerspeak: “[T]he goods and services listed therein, namely providing television shows and video games, are of a kind that may emanate from a single source under a single mark.”
Killer Instinct was originally developed by Rare (now a Microsoft-owned internal team) and published by Nintendo before the company abandoned it in the late 90s. A small (but dedicated) fanbase has been clamoring for a sequel ever since. Hopefully, this rejection doesn’t impact whatever plans Microsoft has for the series.
It’s interesting to note that Nintendo’s claim on the original Killer Instict trademark wasn’t canceled until November 4, 2006, a full year after the television show stopped production. So the marks did co-exist at one time and, with any luck, probably will again.
[Source: Polygon]
Sanrio X Street Fighter line expands with new toys
Do you love Street Fighter? Do you also love Hello Kitty? Do you love Street Fighter and Hello Kitty enough that you really want to see them mashed up in a new series of toys?
Then great! You’ll probably want to check this out…
Capcom and Sanrio have expanded their Sanrio X Street Fighter line of products to include PVC figures, plush toys, and coin purses. These items should be available at your favorite toy retailer soon and Capcom’s Capcom Unity blog has a few more pictures.
Final note… Plush Hello Kitty Bison is pretty awesome.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy 2 gets over here in Spring 2013
Warner Bros., Machinima, director Kevin Tancharoen, and NetherRealm Studios have announced that the second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy will debut on Machinima’s YouTube channel next Spring.
Tancharoen wants to make “Mortal Kombat: Legacy 2” bigger in every way and has recruited some interesting new actors to take on some of Mortal Kombat‘s most iconic characters. Casper Van Dien (of Starship Troopers fame) will take over the role of Johnny Cage while Mark Dacascos (from Double Dragon) will wear the razor-rimmed hat of Kung Lao. Best of all, Cary Tagawa will reprise his role from the first Mortal Kombat movie as Shang Tsung. Other additions to the cast for Mortal Kombat: Legacy 2 include Brian Tee as Liu Kang and Harry Shum, Jr. as the original character Kuai Liang. Kuai Liang is the canon name of Sub-Zero’s younger brother, but the name will belong to a “warlord advisor” in the webseries sequel.
Ian Anthony Dale has been asked to play Scorpion once again. He’ll be joined by the unnamed actors and actresses who will bring life to Ermac, Mileena, Kitana, Kenshi, and Stryker in season two. Stryker was famously played by Battlestar Galactica alum Tahmoh Penikett in season one, but it’s currently unknown if he’ll return for another round.
The first clip from Mortal Kombat: Legacy 2 will premiere during the Streamy Awards, which will be held on February 17.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Mortal Kombat: Legacy
“Dragonborn” Skyrim expansion will be available for PC, PS3 in early 2013
Bethesda has announced that the next Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim expansion, “Dragonborn,” will be available on the PC and PS3 in early 2013. The publisher is still trying to make the game’s previous expansions, “Dawnguard” and “Hearhtfire,” available on the PS3. But as of right now, there’ still no timetable on when that could happen.
“Dragonborn” will also be available for the Xbox 360 beginning tomorrow (December 4). It’ll be priced at 1600 Microsoft Points ($20).
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Can your PC run Crysis 3? Crytek reveals minimum/recommended specs
Crytek has released the minimum and recommended system requirements for Crysis 3. They’ve also released a third set of specificiations, the “Hi-Performance” requirements, which will surely revive the age-old question, “But can it run Crysis?”
You can find the minimum requirements below and be sure to hit the jump for the recommended and “Hi-Performance” requirements.
Minimum Requirements
- Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
- DirectX 11 Graphics Card with 1GB Video RAM
- Dual Core CPU
- 2GB Memory (3GB on Vista)
- Examples:
- Nvidia GTS 450 + Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 Ghz (E6600)
- AMD Radeon HD5770 + AMD Athlon64 X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+)
Weekly Warp-Up: Something Something Wii U Edition
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…
Now that the Wii U has launched, analysts are extra concerned about the health of the console game industry. Spoiler alert: They think it sucks and is in trouble. Thankfully, we don’t stand for that kind of fearmongering and want everyone to “Just Stop!” Consoles Are NOT Headed For a Crash.
Want more proof? How about the fact that Nintendo sold 400,000 Wii U consoles in its first week of availability. But I guess somebody forgot to tell Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who is completely baffled by the Wii U.
We also explored “The Music of Sonic the Hedgehog” in a non-Wii U-related moment that we like to call the Speed of Sound.
More of this week’s news can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News