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
Resistance 3 multiplayer detailed at GDC, beta coming soon
Insomniac made waves at GDC today when they shed some light on the multiplayer for the latest installment of their alternate history, sci-fi shooter series, Resistance 3. Probably the biggest change is the reduced scale. Resistance: Fall of Man wowed players at the time with up to forty players per game at a constant frame rate, and Resistance 2 upped that to 60. Things are being considerably toned down and focused now, as the third game will have intimate, 16-player battles. Insomniac made this decision from fan feedback and seeing just how fun the gameplay was on the smaller maps.
Another big feature will be loadout customization, where players can spend unlock points to develop their repertoire. The defining aspect of the progression system seems to be the abilities, and they come in four flavors. The first two are Abilities (Support and Tactical), which allow you to distribute ammo, enhance your team’s radar, or dash really quick to get out of a tight spot. The second set are Attributes, which come in Personal and Combat flavors. These appear to be your standard perks like faster reloading, but also really interesting options like having the series’ trademark leapers burst from your corpse upon death.
I got a lot out of Resistance 2, it was worth much more than the $60 price tag if you ask me, but it hasn’t aged considerably well in this age of shooters, and I’m glad the match sizes will be more personable. I’m worried they may be missing the point on the progression system, though. Call of Duty popularized the mechanic, but they always made the abilities you earn at high levels a lot harder to effectively utilize than the all-purpose abilities you start out with. Having players augment them as they gain experience may be a little hard to balance. In any case, we’ll be looking out for Resistance 3 when it launches on PlayStation 3 on September 6 later this year.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Resistance 3
Mortal Kombat demo coming to PlayStation Plus next Tuesday
Sony’s been trying really hard to get you to jump in on their subscription-based service PlayStation Plus, and today they deliver another enticing offer in that effort. Mortal Kombat will arrive on the PlayStation Store next Tuesday, March 8 for Plus subscribers only. Regular PSN users will get a chance to download it a week later. The game will be compatible with Automatic Download, so make sure you turn the feature on so your PS3 can achieve sentience and download it on its own.
The demo features Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Mileena, and Sub-Zero as they battle it out on two ultra-vintage stages: The Pit and The Living Forest. You can get in on these fights with both single player and one-on-one Versus modes. And, of course, Fatalities and the new X-Ray Mode are included. Finally, for all you affluent technophiles, yes, the demo will support 3D.
The PlayStation Blog invites players to experience the joy of over-gory Fatalities, which it calls “once-controversial.” I’m not so sure about that. Seeing Kung Lao pull his victims legs-first towards his spinning razor hat to be dissected like some horrible biology experiment is an image I simply can’t get out of my head. Maybe listening to the iconic theatrical theme song of the series will help me stay sane until Mortal Kombat releases for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 19. I hope.
WB Games has said that the Mortal Kombat demo will be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace at a later date.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mortal Kombat
Minecraft wins IGF Best Game, hipsters rejoice
The International Coalition of Trendy Gamers have taken to the streets of pretension as Minecraft has won the 13th Annual Independent Games Festival’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game (wow that was long), in addition to the Audience Award, voted by the community. The winners were announed at the IGF Pavillion at the Game Developers Conference today, and you’ll be able to play the winners at their expo booths until the conference ends tomorrow.
Other notable winners include Amnesia: The Dark Descent, winning the award for Technical Excellence and Excellence in Audio. Gaijin Games’ BIT.TRIP.RUNNER took home the Excellence in Visual Art and Desktop Dungeons locked up the award for Excellence in Design. Nidhogg‘s developer Messhof received the $5,000 Nuovo Award, “which honors abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which ‘advances the medium and the way we think about games.'”
GDC’s producers created the IGF to encourage innovation in the medium and recognize the best independent minds in gaming.
Red Dead Redemption, Minecraft clean up at GDC Awards
The Game Developers Conference continues to roll on in San Francisco, and the game industry honored their own last night with the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
Red Dead Redemption was the most honored game of the night, winning the Game of the Year award as well as Best Game Design, Best Technology and Best Audio. The developers at Rockstar San Diego had to share the spotlight with Mojang’s Minecraft, which won three awards: Best Debut Game, Innovation Award and Best Downloadable Game.
Three other games were winners at last night’s GDC Awards: BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 for Best Writing, ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope for Best Handheld Game, and Playdead’s Limbo for Best Visual Arts.
Three special awards were also handed out. The man behind the Fable franchise , Peter Molyneux, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Another big name among RPG producers, Yu Suzuki, won the Pioneer Award. Maybe this’ll give him the clout he needs to create the long-rumored Shenmue III.
Finally, the Ambassador Award was given to Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie, two early organizers of the Game Developers Conference.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mass Effect 2, Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption
Double Fine announces Trenched for XBLA
The next game from Double Fine was announced at GDC with the reveal trailer you see above. Trenched will be a hybrid tower defense and third person action game (sound familiar?), taking place in an alternate World War I. Players take the controls of mechs to fight off aliens known as the Monovision. There’s no release date, but you’ll be able to start the fight on Xbox Live Arcade sometime this year.
Saints Row: The Third coming Holiday 2011
Fans of the over-the-top, open-world crimefest that is the Saints Row series will be pleased to know the latest entry, Saints Row: The Third, will be available this Holiday season for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.
The game will take a turn for the series, as the player will begin as already being the head of a criminal organization, with all of the benefits that go along with it, instead of starting from the bottom. “There’s no delivering pizza, no shuttling family members about in a long series of taxi missions. Instead, you take all the power of the Third Street Saints and you take the world by storm,” said Executive Vice President of Core Games (what?) Danny Bilson of THQ. We could take it a step further and say it’ll take video game forums by storm, as after the last two iterations of each franchise, many hold that Saints Row has surpassed Grand Theft Auto.
More information will be available when the April issue of Game Informer hits subscribers’ mailboxes soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Saints Row: The Third
XBLA Wednesday: Beyond Good & Evil HD
The Xbox Live Arcade House Party rolls on with Beyond Good & Evil HD, an HD remake of the 2003 game. Hailed as one of the greatest games of the GameCube/PS2/Xbox era, it’s now available to download for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Often compared to The Legend of Zelda, here’s what gamers have to look forward to if they missed it the first time around (or want to play it again):
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: Action & Adventure
Beyond Good & Evil, the award-winning action-adventure game is back! This time play through this innovative thriller in full high-definition graphics. Play as Jade, a young investigative reporter, and expose a terrible government conspiracy. It is up to you and your loyal pig friend Pey’j to save your planet and its inhabitants.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Beyond Good & Evil
InFamous 2 allows you to make your own missions, beta coming in April
Sucker Punch really doesn’t want you to stop playing InFamous 2. “No matter how many missions and mini-missions and systemic opportunities and branching story lines we add to the game, eventually the story ends,” said Development Director Chris Zimmerman (not Kris Zimmerman). To make sure the game never leaves your PS3, they announced today at GDC that InFamous 2 will provide the means for you to play, create, and share user-generated missions. The interface looks similar to the creation wheel in ModNation Racers as you can select props, enemies, and determine how the mission will play out. The trailer showcases defending and escort scenarios, and the developers tease that you’ll be able to create pure stealth objectives and even disc golf by substituting frisbees with cars.
A limited beta will begin in early April which you can sign up for starting March 14. Some of the best created levels during this time will even show up on the final version of the game. InFamous 2 launches on PlayStation 3 June 7, with an insane special edition.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged InFamous 2