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
Sideway: New York added to PlayStation Store
Sony continues to roll out their “Only On PSN” exclusives with Sideway: New York, one of yesterday’s new additions to the PlayStation Store.
Sideway: New York is a puzzle platformer that follows Nox as he attempts to navigate a New York that is entirely covered in graffiti. The game has been priced at $9.99, but PlayStation Plus subscribers can snag it for 20% off.
Also new this week is a pair of NeoGeo remakes: the side-scrolling shooting of Metal Slug 2 and the one-on-one fighting of King of Fighters ’96. Both games can be downloaded for the PSP as well.
Finally, XS Junior League Football was added to the store as the latest PSone Classic. I never heard of it, either.
More information on all of this week’s new releases (and game add-ons) can be found at the PlayStation.Blog.
PSN experiences a new user information breach – 93,000 affected
It appears that Sony’s favorite network hackers took the summer off to get outside and enjoy some nice weather reconvene on how to continuously screw over the general gaming public.
As of yesterday, Sony has experienced a new series of attempts to test username and password combinations in order to find matches between the two. According to Philip Reitinger, Sony’s SVP & Chief Security Information Officer, the login information was likely obtained from another source, site, or company – but for all we know, it could have even been some of the same information obtained during the Anonymous outbreak earlier this year.
Fortunately, Reitinger states that the overwhelming majority of the login username/password sets failed to match – even more reason to conclude that it may have come from the previous PSN breach. He mentions that only one tenth of a percent (0.1%) – or 93,000 – of the accounts across PSN, SEN, and SOE were affected, and those accounts have since been locked, due to minimal or no activity on most of those accounts. No credit card information is reported to be in danger.
For those accounts where the username and password returned a match, Sony will require a password change after the temporary lock is lifted.
Valkyria Chronicles III not coming to US, Europe… and we’re sad
Eager to play more missions in the Valkyria Chronicles universe? Well, if you live in the US or Europe, you’re out of luck. Valkyria Chronicles III: Unrecorded Chronicles will not be localized for these markets, due to poor sales of Valkyria Chronicles II as well as the lack of popularity of the PSP in these regions, according to Gamespot.
All of this information was given in a recent interview with Hiroshi Seno, Sega’s team manager of console sales. In addition to the disappointing announcement, Seno also said the company would “make a concrete decision” regarding “whether the game would be out as a downloadable title on the upcoming PlayStation Vita system” when it next meets with Sony.
In its first week in Japan, Valkyria Chronicles III sold 102,779 units. Sega, I promise you, if you’ll localize the game, I’ll buy at least, like, five copies. Everybody else, can you pitch in the other 102,774? Please?
Watch episode 1 of Dragon Age: Redemption now; Mark of the Assassin DLC also available
At long last, EA and BioWare have unleashed the first episode of the Dragon Age: Redemption webseries. Telling the tale of elf assassin Tallis, the series was written and produced by Felicia Day, the commonly accepted Queen of All Nerds and creator of The Guild. Oh, and she also donned a pair of elf ears to play Tallis.
If you watched Mortal Kombat: Legacy, you’ll know what to expect from Dragon Age: Redemption. There’s the low budget and the effects-obscuring camera angles, but there’s also a spark of a fun time here. And who doesn’t like that? Episode two will be available next week.
However, if you can’t wait that long to experience the further adventures of Tallis, BioWare has also released the Dragon Age II: Mark of The Assassin DLC pack on the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace.
And in case you were wondering, Day voiced the character in the expansion as well.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Redemption
New Wii bundle includes NSMBWii, music CD; doesn’t include GameCube support
Nintendo is readying a new Wii bundle for this Fall that includes some new items, but subtracts one thing we’ve come to expect with the Wii system.
The bundle will be available on October 23 all decked out in black with a Wii Remote Plus, Nunchuk, and Wii system. The package will also include a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and a Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack CD. The bundle price is the now standard $149.99 you’d expect to pay for a Wii.
But under the hood the console will be slightly different. This Wii system has been modified to operate in a horizontal position only. It’ll also be lacking GameCube support:
The newly configured black Wii console sits horizontally rather than vertically and is designed exclusively for Wii game play and entertainment experiences (GameCube software and accessories are not supported).
In case you haven’t bought a Wii yet and need backwards compatibility, the original Wii console with support for GameCube games and peripherals will still be available in stores priced at $149.99 (and including Mario Kart Wii).
Posted in News, Wii
Tagged New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy
Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2, Future Legend of Rhythm Alien announced
Gaijin Games has announced a sequel to Bit.Trip Runner, which they’re calling Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2, Future Legend of Rhythm Alien. Wow, that’s quite a mouthful! The video above shows some of their brainstorming about the sequel, and includes some colorful language, as well as a turkey suit. And, of course, Commander Video is back.
According to the press release, the sequel will bring “at least 10 new abilities, HD visuals, support for Achievements/Trophies/leaderboards, unlockable costumes and ‘LOTS more to be revealed later.'” This sounds pretty exciting, especially because this sequel is coming to the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Arcade sometime in 2012. No news yet on whether or not it will be coming to the Wii U.
For more information, concept art, and other details, check out the Runner 2 official website.
Posted in News
Tagged Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2 Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360
Xbox 360 standalone 320 GB hard drive (with Lego Star Wars III) coming soon
Microsoft has announced the 320 GB hard drive featured in the Gears of War 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360 will be available separately later this month.
The drive will retail for $129.99 and it’ll be compatible with all Xbox 360 S models. If that price seems a tad high to you, don’t worry, Microsoft plans to package a download code for Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars with each drive.
OK, that’s still pretty pricey for a 320 GB drive, but that’s par for the course for Xbox 360 hard drives.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Vita owners may be able to re-download UMD titles
Good news for those of you planning to buy a Vita at launch – rumors are abounding that Sony might be scheming a way to let you play your UMD library on your shiny new device.
According to Andriasang, there are two possible ways this might go down. One rumor going around is from a retailer who claimed to be at a Sony sales meeting. The retailer stated that “Sony had distributed a pamphlet outlining how Vita buyers may be able to make use of their current UMD collection on the new system.” Sounds promising, right?
Don’t get your hopes up too quickly. An interview with Sony Computer Entertainment development head Yoshio Matsumoto in the latest Dengeki PlayStation sings a different tune. According to Matsumoto, “Sony is looking into offering a service where owners of the UMD version of a game would be able to download the same title at a special price.”
Whether or not these are both part of the same plan is still a mystery. But I know what I’d really love: if I didn’t have to pay for a game a second time. Wouldn’t that be a grand world, full of fairness and justice?