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
Nintendo 3DS breaks day-one sales records for Nintendo handhelds
Yesterday, we reported that retailers had plenty of Nintendo 3DS units in their inventory, but that it probably didn’t mean poor sales. That seems confirmed today, as Nintendo has gloriously proclaimed, “US day-one sales numbers for Nintendo 3DS were the highest of any Nintendo handheld system in our history,” promising to release some solid numbers along with next month’s NPD report. The 3DS had already sold like wildfire in Japan, where the entire intial shipment sold out within a day.
I honestly can’t tell if this is an accomplishment or not. I don’t remember the original DS being a hit until the Lite version came out alongside New Super Mario Bros. And before that, truth be told, gamers really didn’t care about sales numbers all that much.
“Extreme” deals on Doom II, Crazy Taxi, Halo Wars add-ons this week
If you ever felt the need to take your Xbox Live Marketplace shopping to the next level, does Microsoft have a deal for you. Starting yesterday (and running through April 4th), the consolemaker has discounted 29 items on the XBLM in a promotion it refers to as Extreme Shopping.
I know, I know. “Extreme Shopping” is a terrible name for a promotion. But there are some good deals to be had including sale-priced XBLA titles like Crazy Taxi and Doom II as well as price drops on add-ons for Halo Wars and Red Dead Redemption.
There will also be a few one-day deals on April 1st including deep discounts on Comic Jumper, Deadliest Warrior, the Fable III Understone Quest Pack and Fallout: New Vegas‘ Dead Money add-on.
The full list of discounted games is after the break. Happy shopping and watch out for zombies. (more…)
Resistance 3 coming at you in 3D, includes Move and Sharp Shooter support
Sony’s (obviously) made a big push for adoption of 3D gaming and PlayStation Move. Their first party studios have demonstrated that, yes, you can take your game to the next level with 3D and you can make hardcore games with motion control. So with every big PS3 exclusive coming out, the question on everyone’s minds is: will it be in 3D? And, will it support Move?
Yesterday was an awesome day for fans of Insomniac Games, as they hosted their 3rd Annual Community Event at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. They also took the time to answer those two questions with regards to the highly anticipated Resistance 3, with a resounding yes and yes.
Above you can see Creative Director Marcus Smith and the super dreamy founder of Insomniac Ted Price sporting PlayStation Move Sharp Shooters and 3D glasses (not the kind you’ll use to play the game.) Community Manager James Stevenson attributed the incorporation of these features to fan demand. “After Killzone 3 launched, we heard a massive amount of positive feedback, and were inundated with requests to support both PlayStation Move and sharp shooter.” And now you have it.
I’m about halfway in my play-through of Killzone 3 with Move, and while I can’t say it’ll replace the DualShock for me, it certainly is an interesting and different experience. We’ll let you know how well it was included in Resistance 3 when it launches on the PlayStation 3 September 6.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Resistance 3
Moon Diver, Free Realms, Rush ‘N Attack on PlayStation Store this week
It’s another huge week for PlayStation Store updates.
Yesterday, Sony added seven PlayStation 3 games to the store including Split/Secend, the reality TV racer; Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot, a new take on Konami’s other side-scrolling shooter series; Chime Super Deluxe, an enhanced version of the popular puzzle game; Sonic The Hedgehog, the first game from Sega’s signature speedster; Free Realms, the free-to-play MMORPG; Moon Diver, a new sword-swinging side-scroller from the creator of Strider; and Episode 2, “Get Tannen!”, of Back To The Future: The Game. Wow. That’s quite a list.
The portable PlayStation Store also got a big update this week as four PSP games were added. They include new releases WWE All-Stars, The 3rd Birthday and Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky as well as a PSP release of Dragon’s Lair.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break or at the PlayStation.Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged Moon Diver
MetaCritic drops aggregate developer scores
Just as quickly as it appeared, now it’s gone. In light of criticism across the Internet, MetaCritic has dropped the aggregate developer scores for individual members of the video game industry.
Metacritic founder Marc Doyle explained the reversal to Eurogamer: “Although our credits database (which is powered by our sister site GameFAQs) is growing, as our users’ feedback has indicated, it is a work in progress and is not nearly as comprehensive as it needs to be to accurately provide a career score for these individuals. As such, we have removed that career score from the pages dedicated to creative individuals behind games on Metacritic.”
While aggregate developer scores may be dead, Doyle still wants to turn MetaCritic/GameFAQs into the IMDB of the video game industry: “We are still very much committed to building a credits database, and welcome your participation in that process.”
I hope the aggregate scores return some day, I thought it was a cool idea.
Posted in News
3DS stocked aplenty at retailers
Gamer interest in Nintendo’s 3DS has been off the charts and no one was overly surprised when the entire initial shipment in Japan sold out. Indeed, Nintendo may have had another case of the Wii on their hands, which has been scarcely available at many times over the last few years.
That won’t be the case in North America, as retailers are reporting they have plenty of units to sell to consumers. GameStop, Target, and Toys R Us reported to GameSpot that they’ve been able to meet pre-orders and have plenty of units to go around. This doesn’t necessarily mean the system isn’t selling well, instead a Toys R Us representative pointed towards “a very strong partnership with Nintendo” that has allowed them to meet demand.
What about the games? Super Street Fighter IV, Pilotwings Resort, and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars have been cited as the top selling titles so far. I know Senior Editor Nicole Kline got her 3DS and Podcast Producer Ryan Littlefield is about to get his, so hopefully we’ll have some impressions from launch titles incoming.
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Pilotwings Resort, Street Fighter IV
L.A. Noire becomes first game selected for Tribeca Film Festival
L.A. Noire, Team Bondi’s upcoming take on the hardboiled detective story, has become the first video game ever to be honored as an Official Selection at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“We’re thrilled that L.A. Noire is being recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival in this way,” said Sam Houser, Founder of the game’s publisher Rockstar Games. “It’s a real honor, and another step forward for interactive entertainment.”
Publisher Rockstar Games will present an exclusive preview of L.A. Noire as part of the Tribeca Talks series. The presentation will take place on April 25 and feature a live interactive screening of a case from L.A. Noire, followed by a Q&A exploring the crossover between filmmaking and “interactive entertainment.”
Geoff Gilmore, Tribeca Enterprises’ Chief Creative Officer was extremely impressed with how L.A. Noire has been coming together: “What Rockstar and Team Bondi have accomplished with L.A. Noire is nothing less than groundbreaking. It’s an invention of a new realm of storytelling that is part cinema, part gaming, and a whole new realm of narrative expression, interactivity, and immersion. We are poised on the edge of a new frontier.”
L.A. Noire will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 17.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged L.A. Noire
Bethesda bringing Rage to bookstores in novel tie-in
Bethesda Softworks and Del Rey have announced they’ll be teaming up to produce a tie-in novel based on id Software’s Rage.
The novel, which will also be called Rage, will be written by Matt Costello. Costello has some experience working with id Software. Not only did he write the game, but he also previously adapted two novels based on Doom 3 (Worlds on Fire and Maelstrom).
The novel will feature a similar story to the game in that a lone human emerges from an Ark and finds the Mad Max-like world on the outside:
When Lt. Nick Raine emerges from his Ark, he finds the human race has not been wiped out. And people, as resilient as they are, are scraping together a new world from the rubble of the old. This was not what anyone in the Arks expected–a new society where might is right, mutants plague the Earth, and “friend” is a term for the person who hasn’t stabbed you in the back.
The novel is scheduled for release on August 30 and will appear alongside a Dark Horse-published prequel comic book series. So there’s plenty of Rage tie-in stories to go around.