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
- 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”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
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
XBLA Today: Motocross Madness
Pop your Avatar on a motorcycle and send them screaming down multiple tracks, including “the deserts of Egypt [and] the snows of Iceland,” in Motocross Madness, this week’s addition to the Xbox Live Arcade.
Motocross Madness for the XBLA is the rebirth of one of Microsoft’s earliest franchises. The original was released for the PC all the back in 1998. You can download the 2013 reboot for 800 Microsoft Points ($10):
Motocross Madness is back! Take your bike freeriding across massive environments, from the deserts of Egypt to the snows of Iceland. Drift, trick and turbo boost your way across 9 expansive offroad tracks in single player events, ghost challenges and 8-player multiplayer races. Combine stats with your friends in Bike Club to unlock rewards then compete across all events to reach the top of your club.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Motocross Madness
XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Anarchy Reigns, Guacamelee!, more added to PS Store
Today marks the beginning of Sony’s “Spring Fever,” which will highlight four new independent games on the PlayStation Network over the next four weeks. First up is Guacamelee!, a platformer where players take control of a famous luchador and battle Carlos Calaca for the hand of El Presidente’s Daughter (the most beautiful girl in the entire world). Also, there are chickens. Guacamelee! is also a PS3/Vita Cross-Play title, so buying one gets you both.
Firaxis Games’ alien invasion simulation, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, also comes to the PlayStation Store this week. It’s joined by Platinum’s multiplayer brawler, Anarchy Reigns, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., and John Daly’s ProStroke Golf.
The PS2 Classics section grew by one as well yesterday, with the addition of Fatal Frame.
More details on all of these games, and a few PSone Imports, can be found after the break. A complete list of this week’s new game add-ons is available, as always, at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Anarchy Reigns, Guacamelee, XCOM: Enemy Unknown
The Dark Knight returns this October in Batman: Arkham Origins
Riddle me this! What was Gotham City like before The Dark Knight battled The Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum? We’ll get to find out this Fall as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced the third game in the Arkham series will be available soon for the PC, PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360. Batman: Arkham Origins will be released on October 25 and will tell the story of a “young, raw, unrefined” Batman during the early days of his career:
Batman: Arkham Origins features an expanded Gotham City and introduces an original prequel storyline occurring several years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Taking place before the rise of Gotham City’s most dangerous villains and assassins, the game showcases a young, raw, unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight. As the story unfolds, witness identities being formed and key relationships being forged.
Sadly, Arkham Origins won’t be developed by Rocksteady Studios, the team behind Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Instead, WB Games Montreal will take up the cape and cowl for this origin story. With a little less than seven months to go before its released, we won’t have to wait long for details on Arkham Origins. For example, the game’s appearance on the cover of the May 2013 issue of Game Informer gives us our first look at one of Batman’s foes: Deathstroke.
A companion 3DS/Vita game, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate will also be available on October 25. Developed by Armature Studio, the 2.5D game will take place after Arkham Origins and will feature a “Metroidvania” style of play.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes shill for Injustice: Gods Among Us in new commercial
I’ve been a Kevin Smith fan for a long time. Probably too long when you look at his recent output. But I still think the man has his moments and this commercial for Injustice: Gods Among Us is one of them.
The commercial depicts the decades-long debate between Smith and his hetero life mate, Jason Mewes, over which DC Comics heroes would win in a fight… Batman or Superman? The Flash or Green Lantern? Wonder Woman or Aquaman? Helpfully, Mewes points out that now they can know for sure with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Snootchie bootchies!
Injustice: Gods Among Us will be released for the PS3, Wii U, and Xbox 360 next Tuesday, April 16.
Posted in News, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Injustice: Gods Among Us
Alternate covers for BioShock Infinite now available
As promised, Irrational Games has uploaded a few alternate covers for their latest game, BioShock Infinite. The eight covers are available at the game’s official website.
You can choose the image to your right as well seven additional images including two covers featuring just Elizabeth, a cover showcasing the “Falling” art, three covers in the propaganda poster style, and one more action shot with Booker and Elizabeth.
The page offers each alternate cover in two sizes: a PC/Xbox 360-style DVD case or a PS3-style Blu-ray case. Printing instructions are also provided so your new BioShock Infinite cover looks as “exceptional” as possible.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged BioShock Infinite
New Game from thatgamecompany will “change the industry in a positive way”
Asher Vollmer used to work for thatgamecompany. He joined the developer right out of college, but in the last few days he’s decided to go independent (um… independent-er). But before he left, he revealed a few tidbits about the company’s “New Game” in a farewell post on his tumblr page.
According to Vollmer, “New Game” is bigger than anything thatgamecompany has done before. He doesn’t mean big as in a large game, though it is large enough that it’ll likely be years before we get a chance to play it. But Vollmer thinks it’ll be worth the wait, in a big way:
Obviously I can’t divulge any details about it, but… It’s going to be huge. And I don’t mean it’s going to be a long sprawling game, I mean it’s going to be an IMPORTANT game. I genuinely believe it’s going to change the industry in a really positive way.
You could argue that Journey changed the game industry in a positive way, so if anyone can back up this claim, it’s thatgamecompany.
Posted in News
Tagged That Next Game
Rumor: Xbox 720/Durango to cost $300 with a subscription, $500 standalone
Paul Thurrott is a technology journalist who runs Supersite For Windows. With his high-profile in the tech community, he’s managed to provide accurate reports about the future of Microsoft before. Now, his sources are talking about the Xbox 720/Durango, and Thurrott has appeared on the latest episode of the What the Tech videocast (embedded above) to relay what they told him.
According to Thurrott, he is hearing that the next-generation console will retail for $500, with a $300 “subscription” model also available for purchase. Details on the contract that would go with the subscription contract were unavailable, but Thurott is sure that “Durango is going to be expensive.” The journalist is also hearing that the Xbox 720/Durango will be revealed during a presentation on May 21. A more complete reveal will follow a few weeks later at the E3 Expo. Can’t say there’s anything too shocking about that.
What is surprising is that Thurrott has also corroborated the “always-online” rumor that blew up last week. Writing on his site, Thurrott said: “Folks, the next Xbox is going to require an always-on internet connection. I don’t know the specifics of what that means. […] This piece of information had been communicated to me, along with some other relevant tidbits, in January. It’s true.”
Microsoft’s official statement on the matter (via Major Nelson) is a particularly wordy form of “no comment.” But the statement did say that Adam Orth’s comments “do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products.”
I know the evidence is piling up on the “always-online,” but I’ll be very surprised if it’s present in public version of the Xbox 720/Durango.
StarCraft: Ghost officially still in development at Blizzard
The boys at Blizzard are nothing if not optimistic. Seven years after active development for StarCraft: Ghost ended (and almost a full year after last discussing the game’s status), Blizzard’s Matthew Burger confirmed that it has still never been officially canceled during an interview with a Official PlayStation Magazine UK editor at this year’s PAX East show:
OPM: Is StarCraft: Ghost still an active project for Blizzard?
Burger: It’s on hold. It has never been cancelled.
OPM: So it might still get released?
Burger: Maybe.
If you recall, StarCraft: Ghost was a stealth action game in development at Nihilistic Software (and later, Swingin’ Ape Studios) for the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. After four years of starts and stops, the game was put on “indefinite hold” in 2006. Presumably, if StarCraft: Ghost were released in the future, it would make the leap to the PS3, Xbox 360, or Wii U. But since this would require Blizzard to, more or less, rebuild the game from the ground up, I’d say there’s not much difference between “on hold” and “canceled.”
But as OPM UK’s David Meikleham says, if Gearbox can release Duke Nukem Forever, no game can ever truly be considered dead.
Posted in News
Tagged GameCube, PS2, StarCraft: Ghost, Xbox