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: Spelunky, Bellator MMA Onslaught
Happy 4th of July everyone! Microsoft is getting patriotic with a double dose of Xbox Live Arcade updates including a game where a cartoon man explores a system of caves and a game where grizzled fighters beat the stuffing out of each other. See, both are totally patriotic!
The cave explorer Spelunky. The indie darling is now available to download from the XBLA for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15):
Spelunky is a unique platformer with randomized levels that offer a new and challenging experience each time you play! Journey deep underground and explore fantastic places filled with monsters, traps, and treasure. Fully-destructible environments open up lots of strategies and make it a blast to master the game’s many secrets.
Also available today is Bellator: MMA Onslaught, which is definitely a game where players are encouraged to beat the snot out of each other. And you too can enter the octagon for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15):
This game is based on Bellator Fighting Championships, a single elimination Mixed Martial Arts tournament. It is a first of its kind, a fast paced arcade style MMA fighting game with easy to understand controls that enable players to quickly master the clinch and ground game. Design your own fighter and compete both online or locally against other players’ creations and the best fighters Bellator has to offer to level your fighter, master MMA techniques, unlock moves, earn belts and climb to the top of the world rankings.
PSN Today: Spec Ops: The Line, Brave, Test Drive Ferrari, a lot more
Sony has just put out another massive PlayStation Store update. This week, we’re treated to six “PS3 Full Games,” two PSN releases, and one PS2 Classic.
The six “PS3 Full Games” include Spec Ops: The Line, 2K’s desert shooter; Brave, Disney’s latest Pixar tie-in game; Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, the newest game in the Test Drive series; Sonic Generations, last year’s cross-generational Sonic game; The Adventures Of Tintin, another tie-in game from Ubisoft; and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, the latest golf sim from the biggest name in the sport.
And don’t forget, if you’re looking for discounted games, Sony is holding their annual PSN Summer Sale this week.
More information on all of these games (and the other three games available this week) can be found after the break. And a full breakdown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Brave, Sonic Generations, Spec Ops: The Line, Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13
WayForward readying Mighty Switch Force! HD for Wii U launch
The July 2012 issue of Nintendo Power has revealed that WayForward is hard at work on a high definition remake of 3DS platformer Mighty Switch Force! for the Wii U.
The unimaginatively titled Mighty Switch Force! HD will include all of the additional features WayForward created for the “Bonus Incidents” update as well as completely redrawn character art. And according to Creative Director Matt Bozon, the developer may throw a few more extras into the Wii U version, which will be available to download from the Wii U eShop shortly after the system’s launch.
And if you’re a WayForward fan, you’ll be happy to know they’ve got more downloadable games in production for both the 3DS and Wii U.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Mighty Switch Force!
PSN Summer Sale 2012 begins today
Is the massive heat wave that’s engulfing most of the country also burning a hole in your wallet? If you’re a PS3 owner, Sony has a solution to your problem: The 2012 PSN Summer Sale.
Beginning today and running through next Monday, July 9, the PSN Summer Sale offers up some sweet discounts on 11 PSN titles. PlayStation Plus subscribers get 50% off each title while regular PSN users get a still awesome 30% off.
Here’s the full list of Summer Sale titles:
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Closure Crysis Gotham City Impostors The House of the Dead III InFamous: Festival of Blood Jurassic Park: The Game |
Killzone 3 Multiplayer NBA Jam: On Fire Edition Real Steel Shadow of the Colossus Worms: Ultimate Mayhem |
Activision partners with Tencent to operate Call of Duty Online in China
Activision continues to move forward on their free-to-play Call of Duty project, Call of Duty Online. Today, the publisher announced a partnership with Internet service provider Tencent to operate Call of Duty Online in China.
Like most free-to-play games, Call of Duty Online will offer players the ability to purchase in-game items and customize their character in a variety of different ways. The game’s story will be told through multiple Spec Ops missions from the Modern Warfare universe. In addition to online multiplayer, Call of Duty Online promises to include “a variety of game modes and features.”
It’s currently unknown if Call of Duty Online will ever become available outside of China or even when it’ll make its Chinese debut.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Call of Duty Online
Penny Arcade 3 now available to download from XBLIG store
Zeboyd Games has fixed the saving bug in the Xbox Live Indie Games version of Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 and, as promised, the game is now available to download on your Xbox 360.
The game is priced at 400 Microsoft Points ($5) and is worth every virtual penny if you love old school RPGs and/or the Penny Arcade webcomic.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3
Get your first look at the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn teaser trailer
Microsoft’s “Halo studio,” 343 Industries, is hard at work on this Fall’s Halo 4, which is the start of a brand new trilogy starring the Master Chief. But they’re also hard at work on the live-action episodic series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, which will also make its debut this Fall.
Over the weekend, Machinima unveiled the first Forward Unto Dawn teaser trailer, which you can view above.
It’s not quite a Halo movie, but I am definitely excited to learn more about Forward Unto Dawn at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, which begins on July 12.
Posted in Etcetera, News, Xbox 360
Tagged Comic-Con 2012, Halo 4, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
Veni Vidi Sega! Total War: Rome II announced
Sega, and developer Creative Assembly, have announced Total War: Rome II, the latest entry in their award-winning series of historical turn-based strategy games.
Encompassing one of the best-known periods in world history, Total War: Rome II will combine the most expansive turn-based campaign and the largest, most cinematic real-time battles yet seen in any game.
Total War: Rome II will sink players into the dangerous political machinations of Rome’s senate, while asking them to struggle with family dilemmas and question the loyalty of friends and allies. Leading the greatest army ever seen into battle will be just one challenge you will face at the head of the world’s first superpower.
Will you help forge an empire? Restore the Republic? Or grasp the reins of power for yourself, and assume the hated title of tyrant? Who will you conquer? Who will you betray? Who will you sacrifice?
How far will you go for Rome?
Total War: Rome II will be released sometime 2013, exclusively for the PC.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Total War: Rome II