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
Daily Scoop: May 3, 2011 – The world is not enough
This weekend, Mike Gutierrez and I were talking about James Bond films, and lo and behold, today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is a James Bond game! It’s Activision’s James Bond 007: Blood Stone for the Xbox 360, and it’s $29.99. It’s “an explosive third-person action/adventure game from critically acclaimed developer Bizarre Creations” and it “features Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Joss Stone in an original story from the writer of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.” It’s also got Daniel Craig on the cover. Sexy!
Let’s see, what else… I wasn’t going to tell you again, but since you brought it up, I’ll just remind you that Mortal Kombat is still $39.99 (and the Kollector’s Edition is $85.99), Portal 2 is still $34.99 on PS3 and Xbox and $29.99 on the PC, and you can still get a black or white Wii for $169.99, and a 160 GB PlayStation 3 or one of several different Xbox 360 consoles with Amazon credit.
We’ve got t-shirts! Two awesome ones today, actually. Hit the jump for the details! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, PS3, Xbox 360
PSN credit card sale a hoax, says Sony
Rumors have been spreading about credit card information that was leaked by the PSN security breach – one of them being that the hackers tried to sell a list of stolen card numbers back to Sony. Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Social Media at Sony, said on the PlayStation Blog that “To my knowledge there is no truth to this report of a list, or that Sony was offered an opportunity to purchase the list.” He also reiterated that Sony will never ask you for your credit card number or social security number or any other information like that, so if you’re approached for this information, it’s by a party posing as Sony and you should not share that information. Duh.
He also explained what they meant at this weekend’s press conference when they said users’ passwords were not encrypted. “While the passwords that were stored were not ‘encrypted,’ they were transformed using a cryptographic hash function,” wrote Seybold. “There is a difference between these two types of security measures which is why we said the passwords had not been encrypted. But I want to be very clear that the passwords were not stored in our database in cleartext form.” Seybold also offered a link explaining the difference.
We’re nearly two weeks into the PSN outage, with not one, but two class action lawsuits against Sony already. The PSN should be back up this week, but have people already lost too much faith in Sony?
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
Sony Online Entertainment accounts compromised
The ApocalyPS3 continues as yesterday Sony took down Sony Online Entertainment in response to their discovery of “an issue.” According to CNet, after SOE was taken down, this message was sent: “Dear Valued SOE Customers, We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today Monday. We apologize for any inconvenience and greatly appreciate your patience.”
Sony released more information at the SOE website, detailing the breach: “Stolen information includes, to the extent you provided it to us, the following: name, address (city, state, zip, country), email address, gender, birthdate, phone number, login name and hashed password.” There’s also “evidence that information from an outdated database from 2007 containing approximately 12,700 non-US customer credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (but not credit card security codes) and about 10,700 direct debit records listing bank account numbers of certain customers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Spain may have also been obtained.”
Holy crap. This is really bad, Sony. The company is pointing SOE users to the government-offered free credit report service: “U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.” In other news, I just got my free t-shirt for participating in the Rewards Beta. I think I’ll wear it when I sign up for my free credit report.
Posted in News, PC, PS3
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
Buy Battle: LA Blu-ray, get Resistance 3 demo
G4 has the news that a 30-minute Resistance 3 demo will be included with all Blu-ray copies of Battle: Los Angeles. The Sony Pictures blockbuster will make its way to Blu-ray on June 14, three months ahead of Resistance 3’s September 6th release on the PS3.
This isn’t the first time Sony has placed a PS3 demo on a Sony Pictures Blu-ray disc. A God of War III demo was included with District 9 back in 2009. The Battle: Los Angeles/Resistance 3 connection makes even more sense when you consider some of the background scenery in the film.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Resistance 3
Explore Outworld in fourth Mortal Kombat: Legacy episode
Using a combination of animation and live action, director Kevin Tancharoen has turned the clock back on the Mortal Kombat saga in the latest episode of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Mortal Kombat mainstays Baraka, Shao Kahn and Sindel appear alongside Kitana and Mileena to tell the tale of how Edenia was consumed by Outworld.
Departing from current MK canon, the episode brings back Mileena’s original origin story. The recently released reboot on the PS3 and Xbox 360 shows Mileena was created after Liu Kang defeated Shang Tsung for the first time. But in Mortal Kombat II (and now Legacy), Kitana and Mileena were raised as twin sisters, with Mileena’s demonic lineage a secret.
Hopefully we’ll see more of Outworld when the story of Kitana and Mileena continues next week.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Legacy
Pulse: Volume One coming out May 5 for iPad
Philadelphia independent studio Cipher Prime is releasing their third game this Thursday. Pulse: Volume One is a rhythm game and marks Cipher Prime’s first foray into the iPad world. Pulse takes advantage of the multi-touch functionality, challenging players to keep up with the music and “tap notes as they are crossed by the pulse as it expands in time with the music.” The music is provided by local Philadelphia artists and supports “genres from chip-tune to nerdcore to death metal.” The gameplay video above is from Indie Game Mag, and makes me want to buy an iPad right now.
Cipher Prime’s previous games were Auditorium (on the PC, PS3, and PSP) and Fractal (on the PC), so their fans are at war over whether or not they approve of this jump to the mobile gaming scene. So far, it’s gotten some great press. (My favorite quote comes from Pocket Gamer: “A package so thoroughly well put together that you’re reminded of why music games were popular in the first place.”)
Cipher Prime is part of Philadelphia’s flourishing video game scene, and can be found this weekend at the Too Many Games Expo from May 6-8. Stop by. Tell ’em Nicole sent you.
Catherine Deluxe Edition announced, game is officially creepier than ever
Mega-creepy Atlus game, Catherine, is getting the Japanese company’s special treatment with the “Love Is Over” Deluxe Edition. This incredibly ridiculous box set includes Vincent’s t-shirt (as seen on Catherine), the boxers Vincent is wearing when he thrashes forth from his nightmares, a sexy pillowcase (is there any other kind?), and a Stray Sheep pizza box. Both the standard and deluxe editions will come with an art book and a CD. The deluxe edition will set you back $79.99 and they’re being made to order, so toss your panties hat in the ring and pre-order this monster.
From what I’ve seen, the game feels like so many Japanese things I already love, namely that strange addictiveness and innovation of Atlus games plus that Wild Sheep Chase feeling of a Haruki Murakami novel. I am most likely going to be one of the insane people who pre-order that deluxe edition, and I’ll probably be sitting around on July 26 in those boxers and that t-shirt, leaning on a pillow with Catherine on it, when I first put the game in. Probably.
Silicon Knights plans to finish Too Human trilogy
Most people don’t remember Too Human, and for good reason. The much hyped game bombed, only selling 168,000 copies in its release month of August 2008. Recently, Denis Dyack told IndustryGamers that he hopes to finish the planned Too Human trilogy, “We intend to finish the trilogy but no comment beyond that… You know, there’s very public litigation around that.”
Dyack is referring to the lawsuit between Silicon Knights and Epic Games. Silicon Knights claims that Epic provided them with incomplete Unreal Engine code, forcing them to completely rebuild the game engine. Epic Games, naturally, claims innocence. Too Human’s future is cloudy, but if Silicon Knights does begin a sequel, let’s hope they completely revamp the repetitive gameplay found in the first.
Silicon Knights is currently developing X-Men: Destiny for Activision.