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)
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Skype announces video calling availability on the PlayStation Vita
On Tuesday, Skype announced that PS Vita system owners can now download the Skype application for free from the PlayStation Store. Both Wi-Fi and 3G models will support video and voice calling capabilities.
The application runs in “background mode” while you play games or use other applications, and will give you a notification when you receive a call. If you’re in the middle of a game or or browsing the web, it will “pause” your activity to allow you to take your call, then return to you to whatever you were doing when you’re done. Additionally, the PS Vita has rear and front facing cameras, both of which you can utilize during a Skype call.
Essentially, your PS Vita has just been turned into a wi-fi phone. Which is pretty awesome…
Calvin Johnson is your Madden NFL 13 cover athlete
The votes have been counted and we have a winner… Calvin Johnson, wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, will be the Madden NFL 13 cover athlete.
Johnson, also known as “Megatron” to friends, fans, and well wishers, beat out Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton in the final round. A total of 651,790 votes were cast and Johnson came out on top with 52%, an almost razor-thin margin of victory. Nearly 20 million votes were cast throughout the entire tournament.
Johnson is the first player from the Lions to appear on the Madden cover since a shadowy image of Barry Sanders was inserted behind John Madden himself for Madden NFL 2000. Sanders retirement a month earlier and subsequent appearance on the cover is cited by some as the impetus of the “Madden Curse.”
Will Calvin Johnson be able to avoid the curse? Everybody hopes so, but after years of trying, Starscream did eventually manage to kill Megatron. So you never know.
The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man To Mass Effect Review: Is There Art In Video Games?
The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man To Mass Effect is the literature companion piece to the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2012 exhibition, which attempts to illustrate the evolution of video games, and by design, the art within. The book dazzles us with screenshots from forty years of gaming history, at one point placing Mass Effect 2 inside a blocky alien shape from Space Invaders, perhaps to suggest how far we have come. Yet I found I could not provide a genuine review without asking the question – are video games art? (more…)
Resident Evil creator signs with Bethesda to create survival horror game Zwei
Shinji Mikami, the famed creator of the Resident Evil series, has revealed the first tiny morsels of his next project, Zwei.
Zwei, which is German for “two,” has been described as a survival horror game, which seems like a natural fit. The game is in development at Mikami’s new studio, Tango Gameworks, and the image to your left represents “a collage of different environments […] to give a feel for the tone and the direction the production is taking.”
Development on Zwei is still in the very early stages, but Mikami is confident it’ll match the expectations gamers have for his work: “A true ‘survival horror’ game is one in which the player confronts and overcomes fear. I’ve found my focus and once again I’m striving for pure survival horror [with Zwei]. I am being very hands-on to see that the quality is there. Rest assured.”
Tango Gameworks is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bethesda, so they’ll be publishing the game in the US. However, owing to the early nature of development, Mikami wasn’t ready to announce which platforms it’ll appear on or when it’ll be released.
Posted in News
Tagged The Evil Within
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been C.A.N.C.E.L.E.D.
Back in December, there were rumblings that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 had succumbed to cancellation. But developer GSC Game World shrugged off the rumors saying, “We will do our best to continue.”
Today, it looks like their continue clock ran down to zero.
In a sudden turn of events, GSC Game World has closed its doors and the remaining team members have formed a new development studio, Vostok Games. The team wanted to continue their work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, however, the owners of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand refused to sell, resulting in the game’s official cancellation.
But the team at Vostok isn’t wasting any time and have jumped right into their next project, a Free-To-Play MMOFPS titled Survarium.
Survarium is scheduled for a late 2013 release and, if the official website is anything to go by, the game is shaping up to be a spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Daily Scoop: April 25, 2012 – T-shirt day!
Wow! Today there are five gaming-related t-shirts! It’s a staggering number. Fortunately, I don’t want a single one of them, as my thirst has been slaked by the one I’m wearing right now.
First up are the deals, of course! What’ve we got for you today? Well, Amazon’s got new weekly deals, including:
- Save 25% on Army Corps of Hell, taking this Vita game down to $29.50
- Save 19% on Turtle Beach XP500, bringing it down to $219.99 (yikes!)
- Save 25% on Active Life: Explorer With Mat, now just $14.99
And now for the shirts! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Toy Soldiers: Cold War expands on XBLA
Are you ready to heat up the cold war once more? Signal Studios announced that they’ve added two expansions for Toy Soldiers: Cold War to the Xbox Live Marketplace today. The expansions, “Evil Empire” and “Napalm,” are available to download for 400 Microsoft Points ($5) each.
“We’re delighted to have Evil Empire and Napalm going live,” said Jason Ilano, Toy Soldiers: Cold War’s Game Director at Signal Studios. “As a thank you to our fans, we are releasing a Multiplayer DLC compatibility pack for free. This will give them a chance to join matches hosted by players that have the new content, play it, and decide if it is for them.”
Want more information on “Evil Empire” or “Napalm”? Then hit the jump solider! (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Toy Soldiers: Cold War
New on XBLA Today: Bloodforge, Deep Black Episode 1
The next title in Microsoft’s Arcade Next promotion has been released and it’s Climax’s Bloodforge. The bloody beat ’em up has been priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15):
With a brutal combat system, stunning art style, and a deeply compelling story, Bloodforge empowers you to slaughter hordes of demonic soldiers, deformed worshippers, and the gods themselves, using ferocious Rage Kills, devastating Rune attacks, and furious Weapon Combos. Help seal Crom’s fate – and the fate of the rest of the world – in this dark, visceral story of revenge, betrayal, and destiny.
Also available this week is 505’s Deep Black: Episode 1, a third-person shooter that promises “underwater combat” and multiplayer modes, all for a price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10):
Exciting game play that features the dynamic use of both environments for combats: land and underwater. An original multiplayer mode with underwater battles that offer the player a totally different and new experience! Players will descend the murky depths in pursuit of enemies armed with a selection of underwater equipment that range from a specialized suit with jet pack and integrated harpoon as well as other high tech equipment. With the majority of the game play taking place below the water’s surface, action-adventure fans will need to master new skills to fight hostile enemies and to infiltrate enemy bases. The story line takes place in the nearest future in a world of unsteadiness, chaos, espionage, terrorism and the desperate fight for world supremacy and possession of sophisticated biological weapon.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Bloodforge