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)
- Diablo IV PC Cooled With Real Human Blood Is Still Going Strong Two Years Later, Says Guy Who Won It – Aftermath (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)
Most Recent: Articles
Riddler shows his face in Batman: Arkham City
The Riddler served a challenging purpose in Batman: Arkham Asylum, hiding riddles all over the premises and daring Batman to try and solve them. All you heard of him, though, were tape recordings. It now looks like Riddler will be getting some face time in the sequel, Batman: Arkham City. Rocksteady released a couple screen shots portraying Edward Nigma, and you can see them after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City
Tiger Woods wins Morning Drive Showdown
Tiger Woods appeared on The Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” this morning to talk a little bit about Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters and also to challenge co-host Gary Williams to a single hole showdown. After being embarassed by Jimmy Fallon in a similar showdown on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, golf’s greatest player was able to redeem himself by shooting a par-4 to Williams’ quadruple bogey on the 10th hole at (a virtual) Augusta National.
Playing online over the PlayStation Network (though not using the new PlayStation Move functionality), Tiger even managed to talk some trash after Williams repeatedly missed the hole. After Williams’ fourth putt, he commented, “I have been practicing for literally three days on this game.”
Woods’ response was a playful “I can see.”
You can view the whole interview/showdown at The Golf Channel’s website. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters will be released for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on March 29.
Posted in News
Tagged PS3, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters, Wii, Xbox 360
Daily Scoop: March 17, 2011 – It’s St. Patrick’s Day!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! To celebrate, I’m wearing one of my favorite green shirts, and I’ll be having Italian tonight for dinner. This will be followed by another marathon of PixelJunk Shooter 2. I know how to celebrate in style!
Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is Square Enix’s Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together for the PSP. It’s $12.00 off, making it $27.99 from $39.99. Considering this game just came out and is reported to be amazing, I would hop all over this deal as quickly as you can. Mike Gutierrez will have his review up as soon as he surfaces from the game. Between that and PAX East, I’m not sure if he’s slept in days!
Nothing else interesting to report here. I will continue to count the minutes until I can get back into my ship and fight my way back to the planet’s surface…sigh.
Posted in Daily Scoop
Only 5% of 2010 games rated Mature, but account for 36% of all bestselling titles
The ESRB’s annual Rating Category Breakdown has revealed that the Entertainment Software Rating Board handed out 1,638 certificates in 2010. As expceted, the general audience ratings of Everyone (55%) and Everyone 10+ (18%) accounted for the vast majority of games. Teen-rated titles accounted for 21% while the Mature rating was awarded to only 5% of all 2010 games.
Even though Mature-rated games only accounted for a tiny percentage of new releases, they made up the bulk of game sales. In a Gamasutra report of 2010’s bestselling games per platform, 18 of the 50 games listed were rated Mature. As you may have guessed, most of these games were concentrated on the PS3 (six out of ten) and Xbox 360 (a whopping eight out of ten). And of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops just became the bestselling game of all-time.
So while Mature-rated games only take up a small amount of shelf space at the store, they are much more popular (on a per-title basis) than their Everyone-rated little brothers.
Posted in News
Crysis 2 on PS3 and 360 analyzed side by side
Yesterday we reported on Crytek challenging anyone to find any meaningful difference between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Crysis 2. Lens of Truth has answered that call, and used the multiplayer demos for both consoles in a head to head comparison. Interpretations have varied, but in general, it does indeed seem like the PS3 version has that general “washed out” look we’ve seen with many multiplatform games, with less detailed lighting and shadows.
We’ll have to wait until the game ships next week on March 22 for PC, 360, and PS3 to see how the two versions ultimately stack up. Until then, we’ll all probably be having fun playing the demo on our respective platforms.
Hitman 5 ARG sneaks up on us
Since late February, the Hitman Forum has been tracking a possible alternate reality game related to the unannounced (but very much in the works) Hitman 5.
The forumgoers have cataloged a series of images that all bear conspicuous barcodes ending in “47.” The initial image, found in a catalog at the Sundance Film Festival, included a “Hitman Series” box of donuts. These images lead to other images and IO Interactive’s Community Manager has been there every step of the way to (unofficially) provide support in the search.
Eidos Interactive executives and Agent 47’s voice actor have both inadvertantly confirmed that a fifth Hitman game (and the first since 2006’s Hitman: Blood Money) is in development at IO Interactive. The Hitman Forum users haven’t cracked the code yet, but I’m sure this means an announcement will sneak up on us very soon.
Posted in News
Tagged Hitman: Absolution
How Super Mario Bros. would look as an indie movie
We’ve already seen what the Super Mario Bros. saga would look like reimagined as a gangland tale, but what about if Mario was trapped in an indie movie?
We got the answer at this year’s South by Southwest festival as “Mario” recasts the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom in a movie of lost love (and a lot of drugs). It seems that Peach has run off with Bowser, the slick lizard who runs the local art gallery, while Mario is left to wallow in his own self-pity. But in the grand film tradition of hapless eccentrics who become heroes, Mario visualizes his future as a floating question box and proceeds to (literally) stomp on Bowser and his “Goombahs.”
Sadly, “Mario” was just made for fun by writer/director Joe Nicolosi, so it won’t ever become a real movie. But SXSW audiences (and gamers everywhere) have certainly embraced it.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Super Mario Bros.
Hans Zimmer contributed to Crysis 2 score
Electronic Arts and Crytek have revealed that Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer lent a hand with the Crysis 2 score. Zimmer collaborated with existing composers Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu to create an “intense and dramatic” score.
“I was drawn to Crysis 2 because of Crytek’s passion for the project and the world they created,” Zimmer said. “And I am very happy with the outcome of our collaboration.”
An alien invasion in the year 2023 seems right up Zimmer’s alley after his amazing work on Gladiator, The Dark Knight and last year’s Inception. Moviegoers will next be able to hear his work in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
The complete Crysis 2 soundtrack will be available to download from iTunes, Amazon and other digital retailers on March 22nd (the same day the game hits the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360), but fans can preview the first track, “Intro,” at SoundCloud.