Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- How a Second-Grade Teacher Revived a Beloved Video Game – The New York Times (2026)
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: News
PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale officially announced… aren’t you shocked?
People throw around the phrase “worst kept secret in gaming” a lot. EA just used it when their Crysis 3 reveal was accidentally leaked a day early by their own Origin store. But if you’re looking for a true example of the “worst kept secret” phenomenon, then look no further than PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale for the PS3.
Officially announced last night, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale is a Smash Bros.-like mashup where characters from Sony’s long history in video games get together to fight. The game, which is being developed by SuperBot, will include Kratos, Sweet Tooth, PaRappa, Fat Princess, Colonel Radec, Sly Cooper, and many more. And like Nintendo did with later editions of Smash Bros., Sony is in talks with third party developers to bring their characters into the Battle Royale.
PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale will include a ton of different modes for your punching preference including an Arcade Mode, online multiplayer, local multiplayer, team battles, Practice Mode, Special Event Battles created by SuperBot, and a Combat Trials mode similar to Mortal Kombat‘s Challenge Tower.
PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale currently doesn’t have a release date, but in the months to come I’m sure we’ll learn all about a number of characters that are virtual shoe-ins to appear in Battle Royale such as Nathan Drake, Cole McGrath, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, the Buzz! host (who makes a brief appearance in the trailer above), and Sackboy. I bet Ico and Wander just might make the final cut as well.
Who do you want to see in PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale?
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale
Powers Boothe, Shannyn Sossamon added to Hitman: Absolution cast
Square Enix has announced that Powers Boothe (probably best known for his turn as Vice President Daniels in “24”) and Shannyn Sossamon (best known for naming her child Audio Science A Knight’s Tale) have agreed to lend their voices to Hitman: Absolution.
Boothe will play Benjamin Travis, a new handler for the International Contract Agency (ICA). His backstory is explored in the trailer above with imagery by comic artist Ben Oliver. Sossamon will voice a character named Jade that is currently a bit of a mystery, but it’s likely she’s a sassy brunette who doesn’t take any guff from anybody. That’s right, I said guff.
Hitman: Absolution will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 later this year.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Hitman: Absolution
Portal 2 level editor coming May 8
Valve has announced that the long-awaited Portal 2 level editor, cleverly titled the “Perpetual Testing Initiative,” will be available to PC players on May 8.
The DLC will be available as a free download and it allows players to “easily create, share, and play Portal 2 puzzles.” After creating a puzzle, players will be able to “directly publish maps to the Steam Workshop where users can browse, vote on, and select to play them.” Certain maps will be automatically downloaded for players to try.
It’s unlikely this level editor will ever come to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Portal 2, but we can always hope.
Nintendo Download: 3DS system update, Super Street Fighter II, more
Nintendo has pushed out a system update for the 3DS as part of their weekly Nintendo Download offerings. The update adds the ability to place folders on the handheld’s Home Screen as well as streamlines browsing in the 3DS eShop.
And speaking of the 3DS eShop, Nintendo has added a new game to the online store today as well. Titled Block Factory, it’s, you guessed it, a puzzle game that features falling blocks. On the DSi Shop, Nintendo has Chuck E. Cheese’s Arcade Room, which promises to “recreate the magic of being at Chuck E. Cheese’s!” Unless it includes a miniature copy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, I doubt it could recreate my favorite memories of Chuck E. Cheese.
Finally, Nintendo remembered that the Virtual Console still exists on the Wii and has added Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers to the Wii Shop. Unlike your typical Virtual Console game, Super Street Fighter II adds online multiplayer to the mix.
More information on all of these titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Skype announces video calling availability on the PlayStation Vita
On Tuesday, Skype announced that PS Vita system owners can now download the Skype application for free from the PlayStation Store. Both Wi-Fi and 3G models will support video and voice calling capabilities.
The application runs in “background mode” while you play games or use other applications, and will give you a notification when you receive a call. If you’re in the middle of a game or or browsing the web, it will “pause” your activity to allow you to take your call, then return to you to whatever you were doing when you’re done. Additionally, the PS Vita has rear and front facing cameras, both of which you can utilize during a Skype call.
Essentially, your PS Vita has just been turned into a wi-fi phone. Which is pretty awesome…
Calvin Johnson is your Madden NFL 13 cover athlete
The votes have been counted and we have a winner… Calvin Johnson, wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, will be the Madden NFL 13 cover athlete.
Johnson, also known as “Megatron” to friends, fans, and well wishers, beat out Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in the final round. A total of 651,790 votes were cast and Johnson came out on top with 52%, an almost razor-thin margin of victory. Nearly 20 million votes were cast throughout the entire tournament.
Johnson is the first player from the Lions to appear on the Madden cover since a shadowy image of Barry Sanders was inserted behind John Madden himself for Madden NFL 2000. Sanders retirement a month earlier and subsequent appearance on the cover is cited by some as the impetus of the “Madden Curse.”
Will Calvin Johnson be able to avoid the curse? Everybody hopes so, but after years of trying, Starscream did eventually manage to kill Megatron. So you never know.
Resident Evil creator signs with Bethesda to create survival horror game Zwei
Shinji Mikami, the famed creator of the Resident Evil series, has revealed the first tiny morsels of his next project, Zwei.
Zwei, which is German for “two,” has been described as a survival horror game, which seems like a natural fit. The game is in development at Mikami’s new studio, Tango Gameworks, and the image to your left represents “a collage of different environments […] to give a feel for the tone and the direction the production is taking.”
Development on Zwei is still in the very early stages, but Mikami is confident it’ll match the expectations gamers have for his work: “A true ‘survival horror’ game is one in which the player confronts and overcomes fear. I’ve found my focus and once again I’m striving for pure survival horror [with Zwei]. I am being very hands-on to see that the quality is there. Rest assured.”
Tango Gameworks is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bethesda, so they’ll be publishing the game in the US. However, owing to the early nature of development, Mikami wasn’t ready to announce which platforms it’ll appear on or when it’ll be released.
Posted in News
Tagged The Evil Within
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been C.A.N.C.E.L.E.D.
Back in December, there were rumblings that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 had succumbed to cancellation. But developer GSC Game World shrugged off the rumors saying, “We will do our best to continue.”
Today, it looks like their continue clock ran down to zero.
In a sudden turn of events, GSC Game World has closed its doors and the remaining team members have formed a new development studio, Vostok Games. The team wanted to continue their work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, however, the owners of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand refused to sell, resulting in the game’s official cancellation.
But the team at Vostok isn’t wasting any time and have jumped right into their next project, a Free-To-Play MMOFPS titled Survarium.
Survarium is scheduled for a late 2013 release and, if the official website is anything to go by, the game is shaping up to be a spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.