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
Catherine is coming to America
Atlus has confirmed that Catherine, their sexually-charged adventure game for the PS3 and Xbox 360, will be released in North America this Summer.
Right now all we have to go on is a teaser website for the game located at CatherineTheGame.com. The page includes the game’s boxart (which will be unique to each platform) as well as pre-order links to Amazon, GameStop and Video Games Plus. The Amazon link actually lists a more specific release date: July 26. But I’m sure we’ll find out the official release date very soon.
1 in 3 US/UK adults are ‘mobile phone gamers’
Information Solutions Group, on behalf of PopCap Games, announced today the findings of a survey exploring the tremendous shift towards mobile phones in the video game industry. According to the study, 33.6% of all adults in the United States and United Kingdom constitute ‘mobile phone gamers,’ having played a game on their phone at least once in the last month. Probably the most staggering finding is that this demographic considers their mobile phone as their primary gaming device, “leapfrogging video game consoles and personal computers in less than two years.” Of course, a lot of people who play games on their mobile phones probably weren’t your typical gamer to begin with, so the traditional manufacturers probably don’t have too much to worry about. Also of note is that 52% of respondents have played a game on their mobile phone at least once.
The study concludes that not only is mobile phone gaming prolific, it’s growing at an astonishing rate – the numbers have gone up dramatically since the last study they did in 2009. Still, I’m sure most of us continue to prefer their DS or PSP, despite the Xperia Play coming out next month blurring the lines between a mobile phone and traditional gaming handheld. You can view the full findings of the survey here.
Vagrant Story joining Square Enix’s PSOne Classics tomorrow
If you’ve been watching Warp Zoned over the last week or so, you’ve probably seen me geek out about all the awesome content Square Enix has been bringing to the PlayStation Store. Xenogears made the transition last week, Parasite Eve got an ESRB rating to do the same, and Tactics Ogre got a digital PSN release for the PSP. Now, they’re re-releasing another legendary title from the same team behind Tactics Ogre. Vagrant Story, which is estimated to take place some time after Final Fantasy Tactics and thousands of years after Final Fantasy XII, is finally coming to the US PlayStation Store as a PSOne Classic. Already released on the European PlayStation Store a few months ago, Vagrant Story is an action RPG/dungeon crawler, noted for its beautiful music and heavy focus on weapon customization. Highly immersive, it’s also known as one of the harder Square games from the golden age of PlayStation RPG’s.
While Vagrant Story may be less of a surprise than Parasite Eve or Xenogears, this is certainly an exciting time for classic RPG fans. Anyone wanna take bets on the next one? I’ll be hoping for Dragon Quest VII. Let us know in the comments which classic Square Enix game you’d like to see next.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged Vagrant Story
Announcement announcement: Valve to show off Steam’s Big Picture Mode at GDC this week
As we like to say in our Weekly Warp Up, “no, that’s not a typo.” Valve has circulated a press release teasing Steam Big Picture Mode, a way to enjoy Steam’s ever-increasing features from any TV or computer display in the house via your PC or Mac. “Controller support” and “navigation designed for television interaction” have been vaguely mentioned, but the company has promised more info to be released at GDC throughout the week. Stay tuned in to Warp Zoned for whatever the heck this thing ends up being.
Gaikai offering public demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, and more
Cloud computing and game streaming sure have come a long way, and today Gaikai is offering public demos of the service for some of the hottest titles out. Going to their official website can give you access to the Mass Effect 2 demo via pop up, provided your connection is fast enough and you have the latest Flash and Java updates (more info here). It seems to be all EA titles available now, as you can check out The Sims 3 and Spore on the service at the links provided. Completing the survey here unlocks access to the Dead Space 2 demo. Oh, and Second Life is currently running as well. It’s recommended you access the service via a wired connection.
Streaming game services like Gaikai and OnLive have been touted by some as the future of the industry, a kind of no-console utopia. The service is currently in beta to select members, and they plan to start embedding demos of games onto news sites like the one you’re currently visiting right now.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Dead Space 2, Mass Effect 2, The Sims 3
Serious Sam 3 goes boom this Summer
Croteam has been doing serious work on the third game in the Serious Sam series since 2009. Today, they unveiled the first screenshots of their labor and announced that Serious Sam 3: BFE would be released on consoles and the PC this Summer. There’s no word yet on what the BFE stands for.
Serious Sam 3 will actually be a prequel to the first game in the series and it’ll tell the tale of how Sam Stone first became “Serious” battling Mental’s forces back in 22nd century Egypt. While the game is powered by a brand new engine and sports a more realistic look, Serious Sam 3 is still all about the boom… or in the words of Croteam: “No cover systems, no camping – it’s just you and them. All of them.”
But that’s not to say there won’t be a few new tricks up Sam’s sleeveless shirt. This time around Sam will be able to perform melee attacks and take on the campaign mode with 15 of his closest friends. A variety of Versus Modes and new enemies round out Serious Sam 3’s big package.
When asked about the sales prospects of Serious Sam 3, the game’s publisher, Devolver Digital was very excited: “Holy crap, I am going to make a boatload of cash of this game,” said Fork Parker, chief financial officer at Devolver Digital, the Serious Sam 3: BFE publisher. “I mean that’s what this is all about, right? If this thing comes out in the summer my wife is totally getting the tit job she’s been asking for.”
Serious Sam was originally created to fill the void left by the continuing delays of Duke Nukem Forever, so it’ll be very interesting to see the two titans of the “gratuitous gunplay” genre go head-to-head in the marketplace this year.
Check out the first screenshots of Serious Sam 3: BFE after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged PC, PS3, Serious Sam 3: BFE, Xbox 360
Bit.Trip Flux added to Wii Shop
After six successful games, CommanderVideo’s reign atop the Wii Shop Channel is finally coming to an end. Today, Gaijin Games released Bit.Trip Flux, the final entry in the retro-tinged series.
According to Gaijin, Flux brings CommanderVideo full circle and players will be faced with “new challenges that will make even the most experienced Bit.Trippers weep.”
A trio of new DSiWare games are also available to download today. You can find out more about them after the break. (more…)
Tecmo to unmask Ninja Gaiden III at E3
Publisher Tecmo Koei and developer Team Ninja have unsheathed the first teaser for Ninja Gaiden III. The very short video is actually a POV shot from the eyes of a rival ninja that has just been skewered by series protagonist Ryu Hayabusa. As he thrusts again and again, more and more blood fills the screen causing Ryu to reach for his mask. The video then cuts to the words “Unmask E3 2011″… where Tecmo Koei no doubt plans to reveal more about Ryu’s next adventure.
Ninja Gaiden III will be the first game in the series not developed by Tomonobu Itagaki, who left Team Ninja in 2008.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2011, Ninja Gaiden 3