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
One, two, a Freddy Krueger story trailer is coming for you
Do you want to know how Freddy Krueger gets himself involved in the Mortal Kombat tournament? Well, after Shao Kahn invades Earthrealm and begins stealing the planet’s souls, Freddy is… unhappy. The Dream Warrior considers those souls his property and battles Shao Kahn in the Dreamrealm. But Kahn overpowers him and pulls him into the waking world. Pulls him into the Mortal Kombat tournament.
Wow. You know, if Freddy Krueger didn’t already exist, he would be a perfect addition to the MK universe with a backstory like that.
Freddy Krueger is available to download on the PS3 and Xbox 360 today for $5 (400 Microsoft Points).
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mortal Kombat
Red Dead Redemption sells 11 million; still no release dates for Agent, Max Payne 3
Take-Two Interactive released their quarterly financial numbers yesterday along with a little (well deserved) bragging.
Calling L.A. Noire “a breakthrough for games as a whole” and a “stunning accomplishment” that “sets a new standard for storytelling,” the publisher revealed that the detective sim has sold four million copies since going on sale in May. However, this number is absolutely dwarfed by Red Dead Redemption, which has sold nine million copies since its release in May 2010 along with another two million copies of the Undead Nightmare expansion disc.
But there’s always some bad news in these financial reports and in this case it’s the continued absence of Max Payne 3 and Agent from the company’s future outlook. Within the report, Take-Two provided solid release dates or tentative dates for every one of their announced games through the end of 2012… except for Max Payne 3 and Agent.
So don’t expect to play either game for a very long time.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Agent, Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption
GameFly adding PC/Mac games this holiday
GameFly is basically the only game in town when it comes to renting console titles by mail. But this holiday season they plan to enter the much more crowded field of online digital distribution.
Starting with a closed beta on September 8, GameFly will begin selling 1,500 PC/Mac titles through direct download. The company will also offer a variety of free PC/Mac games through their “Unlimited PC Play” service. Both of these services, along with the traditional GameQ rental list, will be managed through a new GameFly desktop client. PC/Mac purchasing, “Unlimited PC Play” and the desktop client will be available to all GameFly members by the end of the year.
“We’re thrilled to bring digital to the gaming consumer in a meaningful way, as no other service or retailer brings physical and digital gaming together like GameFly,” said GameFly co-founder Sean Spector. “With a library of over 9,500 titles from over 300 first- and third-party publishers, GameFly members have the ultimate choice of how, what, when and where they game.”
GameFly members who are interested in joining the closed beta can request access at GameFly.com/beta.
Jaffe explains Twisted Metal delay, says $60 is a “s**t ton” to ask for a game
David Jaffe has never been shy about being vocal, no matter what the topic. In this case, though, it’s about why Twisted Metal got delayed. Jaffe explained that Eat Sleep Play needed more than four to six weeks to finish up the game and give gamers what they deserved. Jaffe’s full explanation is here:
No real way to ship Twisted Metal sooner than the date we are currently shooting for (early 2012)…Sorry for the delay. But the extra months are really needed for polish and we feel we need more than 4-6 weeks (which would see us hitting shelves in your suggested November time frame) of polish/tuning. Also hitting smack dab in mid Nov/Mid Dec is a bad time to release this game (although that was not the reason we delayed AT ALL…we WANTED to be out in Oct)…but the extra time gives us more time to balance weapons, tune vehicle handling, tune the EXP progression for levelling up, etc…I assure you, better to be a LITTLE ANNOYED in the short term versus hate us forever for shipping a game that’s not up to your understandably high expectations. ANY money is a lot to ask from someone for entertainment. 60 bucks is a S**TE TON to ask for so if we are going to charge that, you deserve our best…even if it takes a little longer than we anticipated.
Some examples of stuff we’re not happy with yet- which should allow you and others to really peek behind the scenes at the kind of stuff this kind of extra time will allow:
1. Iron Maiden has a few boss attacks that don’t have strong enough telegraphs (aka- the player isn’t able to clearly, consistently tell when she is going to launch the attack)
2. Iron Maiden has an attack that- even if you can see it coming- the player is not really sure how to avoid it besides using a shield (and we want the player to always have another defensive ability beyond a shield)
3. We are not 100% happy with the XP rank up tuning….we don’t want you to be able to hit the level cap too soon but we also don’t want the level cap to be so hard to reach that only super amazing hard core can reach it
4. There are 1-2 online trophies that will motivate players to take actions that go against the more team oriented aspects of some of the modes and thus will piss off other players so we need to rethink and replace those
5. Pick up placements for split screen local gaming needs more attention
6. Pick up regen timing needs some tuning…So imagine about 250 of those sorts of things. Could we ship without change a single one? Totally and it would still be a really fun game. But it would not be good enough for us. And certainly not for you.
I know there are a lot of people who hate on Jaffe, but I have to admit – I love the man, and I have more respect for him after this decision. While developers aren’t shy about taking our money without any remorse, at least some of them know that they owe it to us to make the best game possible.
Twisted Metal will be shipping in 2012 for the PlayStation 3.
[Source: Examiner]
Posted in News
Tagged Twisted Metal
Daily Scoop: August 9, 2011 – Kittens!
So, I’ve been playing a game on my way into work, and that game is called “find all the kittens.” I walk by all the stores known to have cats or kittens living in them and plaster my face on the window, wishing I could pet them. I’ve just discovered the motherload: the pet store at 20th Street has three kittens in the window right now. One of them looks like the Pup! I just wish I could hug them all, but I know I can’t hug every cat.
Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games is Nintendo’s Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs for the Nintendo DS. It’s $19.99 today, and features Ukulele Pichu, a Pichu that plays a ukulele! Zomg.
There’s also a Lightning Deal – the clue is simply “Take to the sky in this popular Sims franchise.” More on that as it becomes available! Update: It’s MySims Sky Heroes for $9.99 on the DS and $14.99 on the Wii!
No daily gaming shirts today, but Qwertee‘s got a cute one: (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, DS, Etcetera, News
Nintendo rolls out a new website for Zelda’s 25th anniversary
Somebody grab the Silver Arrows, because The Legend of Zelda series is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. After the announcement of that awesome symphony tour, Nintendo has launched The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary website which includes videos of the orchestra at E3 and an interactive history of the franchise.
Nintendo has also merged The Legend of Zelda with their popular Flipnote Studio software for a new contest that’ll be judged by Shigeru Miyamoto himself:
Starting today through September 9, DSi or DSi XL owners are also invited to create their own flipnotes, or short animations, inspired by The Legend of Zelda series. DSi or DSi XL owners can use one of three flipnote templates with music from The Legend of Zelda series, then complete and upload their creations via the Flipnote Studio application. Flipnote Studio is available as a free download from the Nintendo DSiWare service, and also comes pre-installed on select DSi and DSi XL hardware. Fans can also submit a paper entry by mail. The best Zelda-themed flipnotes will be evaluated by key Nintendo developers who have worked on the series – including Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Eiji Aonuma and Yoshiaki Koizumi – and posted for fans to enjoy on the 25th anniversary website, the Nintendo Channel on the Wii console and Flipnote Hatena on DSi and DSi XL systems.
Finally, no anniversary celebration would be complete without games and a ton of new Zelda titles are in the pipeline for 2011 including the recently released The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, a free DSi/3DS download of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords in September and the long-awaited The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii by the end of the year.
A Saved by the Bell interactive YouTube game! I’m so excited!
Oh “Saved by the Bell,” when I wasn’t watching “The Simpsons,” you were my television show of choice in the early 90s. I’m just sad that I never got to play out the video game adventures of Zack, Slater, Screech, Kelly, Jessie and Lisa on my Super NES.
What’s that? Thanks to The Fine Brothers, now I can? The world is a better place today my friends.
Taking a few cues from the criminally underrated Earthbound, the “Saved by the Bell” series of interactive videos tasks Zack with helping out his friends. He has to make Screech cool, he has to get Jessie to stop taking the caffeine pills (“I’m so excited! I’m so scared!”) and he has to keep that perv Jeff away from Kelly (I mean seriously, the guy was in his mid 20s and Zack was the only one who thought it was creepy that he was dating the 16-year old Kelly?).
OK, maybe I was a little too into “Saved by the Bell” back in the day.
Borderlands 2 will have new characters, customizable weapons, and Claptrap, of course
Truth be told, I still haven’t recovered from Borderlands 2 being announced. Yet here we are with even more information: there will be four brand new playable characters in Borderlands 2, with the characters from the first game (Berserker, Hunter, Siren, and Soldier) in the game as NPCs. Salvador the Gunzerker – pleasantly pictured here – is the only new character who has been announced so far. According to PC Gamer‘s reading of the Game Informer cover story:
He can dual wield any weapon and improve his abilities using the familiar three-branch skill tree of the first game. He’ll be able to choose from a wider selection of vehicles (ie: more than one), and use the new currency, Eridium, to buy new items or upgrade his armoury.
Hell yes. Gearbox also has a giant pile of brand new weapons for us from new manufacturers. I’ll miss Dahl, but I’m looking forward to customizing and enhancing my already crazy weapons. There’s also new AI, new environments, and everyone’s favorite Claptrap. Seriously, all I can say to all of this is: bring it on!
Borderlands 2 will be out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 sometime after April 2012. Check out the official website for more details.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands 2