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: Articles
Amy dated and priced, with a twist
New survival horror game Amy has been dated and priced… well, kind of. The developers, VectorCell and Lexis Numérique announced that it would be released on January 10 on the PSN for $12.99, and on January 11 on the XBLA for $10/800 Microsoft Points.
Why the disparity in price? According to José Sanchis, CEO of Lexis Numérique:
“We decided to have a new approach to digital distribution by proposing heavy content at a very reasonable price because we believe price is a key issue, especially during hard economic times. Indeed, we believe Amy could have been sold a little bit higher. However, the issue we have to deal with is that a price in MS points doesn’t have the same value in all countries. Indeed, because of fluctuations between the dollar and the euro, 800 MS points are currently worth $10 in the US but €10 in Europe, which is about $12.8. As we have the same price in MS Points in all countries, there will be a difference of pricing whatever decision we make between countries and/or platforms. The pricing scheme we announced enables everyone to buy the game at a reasonable price with great value for the money, with an even greater deal for the XBLA gamers who indeed have it cheaper.”
The company currently has a poll on their Facebook page asking the community to vote on whether or not they should change the PSN price to $9.99, adding in that the PSN version will be delayed “at least one week” if the community votes to change the price.
This entire thing just seems silly to me, and smacks of shadiness. But the game does look really good, so I hope the community votes to lower the PSN price.
Scarygirl coming to PC, PSN, XBLA courtesy of Square Enix
Square Enix announced today that they’re bringing Nathan Jurevicius’ graphic novel, Scarygirl, to the PC, PSN, and XBLA. The game, developed by TikGames, is an action platformer, and will be available January 18 for the XBLA, January 24 for the PSN, and “early 2012” for the PC.
Scarygirl, which won the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book/Graphic novel, features a tough girl who dresses like a pirate and has a tentacle for an arm. A strange man haunts her dreams, and Scarygirl sets out on a journey to find him. Blister the giant octopus and Bunniguru the mystical, kung-fu rabbit help her on her quest against dangerous monsters.
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like one of the most ridiculously adorable games I have ever heard of. Ever.
Want to see how adorable it can be? Check out the trailer after the break. (more…)
Pachter predicts Wii U launch will have poor third party support
My love for this graphic overrides my hatred of Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, so here’s another article where “The Pach” says something stupid…
Speaking to Industry Gamers, Pachter has once again spouted off on his predictions concerning the Wii U. Not surprisingly, Pachter is betting against Nintendo’s next console. This time, he cites his belief that the Wii U is “all but assured of limited third party launch support,” which will, in turn, lead to poor hardware sales for the system.
By trying to be ‘different’ with the tablet controller, they have complicated game design for developers, who can’t figure out if the Wii U will ultimately support only one or multiple controllers. Nintendo made the device sufficiently different that they are all but assured of limited third party launch support, which ultimately will lead to modest hardware sales.
To be fair, Pachter isn’t the only person questioning the logic of Nintendo’s Wii U launch strategy. And the company’s typical tightlipped tactics aren’t helping that impression any. However, the third party software that’ll be available at the Wii U’s launch makes me wonder if Pachter was paying attention during E3 11.
He goes on to say that Nintendo is in for a rough time if they treat the Wii U the same way they treated the Wii:
They should stop relying upon the strategy that got them here, as it appears to no longer be working. I think their resolution should be to look outside of Nintendo for leadership in the areas of digital downloads, a user-friendly online interface and multiplayer gaming.
Really? Forgive him Saint Miyamoto, he knows not what he says.
Borderlands: The Fallen Review: Spend Some More Time on Sunny Pandora
John Shirley – whose name you might remember from my scathing review of the BioShock novel – is at it again, this time with a novel entitled Borderlands: The Fallen. As you can guess, it’s a novel based on Pandora in the world of Borderlands. It follows Roland, the Soldier, on a mission (see what I did there?) to find an alien ship. After spending several hundred pages with Shirley, I was wary to dive into yet another tepid tie-in. But in a surprising turn of events, the book actually turned out to be not as bad as I’d feared. (more…)
Rumor: PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 to be announced at this year’s E3
E3 2012 is gearing up to be a big one. According to The Market for Computer and Video Games (more popularly known as MCV UK), Sony and Microsoft are going to be announcing their next generation of consoles at this year’s big video game expo.
The two companies will be close on the heels of Nintendo’s Wii U announcements, determined not to let a competitor get too far ahead of them this time. The article also expressed surprise that Sony will be making an announcement so soon, adding “Execs at the PlayStation firm have made it clear to third-parties that they will not be left behind this time.” This sounds like a great move for the two companies, but an expensive one for gamers, who are already straining under high prices of consoles.
Since there have been rumors this year about both Microsoft and Sony starting production on the new consoles, this doesn’t really come as that much of a surprise. Earlier rumors put the consoles at a 2013 release, with another rumor saying that the new Xbox will be out in 2014, and yet another saying the new Xbox will release alongside the Wii U. No one seems to know the truth, but hopefully we’ll get some answers in June.
Daily Scoop: January 6, 2011 – A Friday arrives!
It’s Friday, and I couldn’t be more grateful! What games are you looking forward to playing this weekend? I’m going to try to play more Assassin’s Creed or Final Fantasy XIII tonight, and then it’s Dungeons & Dragons the rest of the weekend for me, maybe with a smattering of Blood Bowl… oh, who am I kidding? I’ll probably watch episodes of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and read comics in my underwear.
Not much going on today with deals. Amazon’s having a sale on Disney games, including Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. Now you can get it on every platform imaginable!
Two more gaming t-shirts today, woohoo! (more…)
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Skyrim, Portal 2, Bastion nab 5 nominations at 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards
The Game Developers Conference has handed out nominations for their 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and, prepare to be shocked, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bastion, and Portal 2 each scored five nominations apiece.
Wait a minute, that’s not shocking at all! Those three games have been sweeping every Game of the Year contest of 2011.
Skyrim and Portal 2 will be joined by Batman: Arkham City, Dark Souls, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution in the coveted GDCA Game of the Year category. Bastion will battle it out against From Dust, Frozen Synapse, Outland, and Stacking for the honor of Best Downloadable Game.
Skyrim, Bastion, and Portal 2 will fight it out in many of the same categories throughout the rest of the awards show. Skyrim and Portal 2 were both nominated for Best Game Design while Portal 2 and Bastion will go head-to-head for Best Narrative and the Innovation award. Meanwhile, all three games were nominated for Best Audio.
Bastion developer Supergiant Games is also up for Best Debut.
The Game Developers Choice Awards will be given out on March 7. You can check out the complete list of nominees after the break. (more…)
Zelda Producer: Gameplay comes first, where a game fits in timeline is a coincidence
You didn’t think the arguments over the Legend of Zelda’s official timeline were over did you?
After revealing the official timeline to the English-speaking world, GlitterBerri has continued to translate Hyrule Historia on a page-by-page basis. Through her (and her team’s) work, she has discovered that the official timeline is not quite the pre-planned story bible that some fans hoped it would be.
Instead, on page 238, series producer Eiji Aonuma falls back on the traditional Nintendo party line. He confirms that the gameplay hook of a Zelda game is created first and where it fits within the timeline is actually just a coincidence:
Chapter 2, “The Full History of Hyrule,” arranges the series in chronological order so it’s easier to understand, but from the very beginning, Zelda games have been developed with the top priority of focusing on the game mechanics rather than the story. For example, in Ocarina of Time, the first installment of the series I was involved in, the main theme was how to create a game with pleasant controls in a 3D world. Or in the DS game, Phantom Hourglass, the focus was having comfortable stylus controls. Finally, in the most recent game, Skyward Sword, we focused on an easy way to swing the sword using the Wii motion plus.
Thinking of that way of developing the games, it may be correct to say that the story is an appendix to that. I even think that setting Skyward Sword as the “first story,” was merely a coincidence.
So the bottom line is that “The Official Zelda Timeline” is nothing more than an after-the-fact creation used to make Hyrule Historia more enticing to fans. And that’s fine. The timeline as stated still fits together rather elegantly.
But I have to admit, knowing that there was never a plan does put a bit of a damper on the timeline. Especially since Skyward Sword had been billed as the “first story” in the Zelda series since it was announced.
Posted in News
Tagged DS, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, NES, Nintendo 64, Super NES, The Legend of Zelda, Wii