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
Black Ops DLC makes its First Strike on PS3 March 3
If you’re a fan of Call of Duty: Black Ops, but not a fan of paying subscriptions in order to access content on discs you’ve already paid full price for, you’re in luck! Treyarch’s Community Mananger Josh Olin announced on the PlayStation Blog (despite great hostility from the PlayStation Nation) that the first map pack for Black Operations entitled ‘First Strike’ will be available on the PlayStation Store on March 3 for $14.99 (PC gamers will see it by the end of March). The game includes four new multiplayer maps – Berlin Wall, Discovery, Kowloon, and Stadium, the last of which also plays host for a brand new Zombies experience in Ascension. Presumably Steam will have a similar release date and pricing.
I went back to CoDBlOps on the PS3 recently and found nearly all of the network issues to be fixed; I’m not really sure why the naysayers on the PlayStation Blog are claiming it’s a broken game. Many of them make a good point, though: will this DLC even be relevant, considering it’s coming out mere days after Killzone 3 launches? Feel free to let us know in the comments or just check out the screenshots after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, PC, PS3
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops
Tetris to take walls and tabletops by storm this year
With a slew of newly-announced merchandise, Tetris promises not to leave their long-time players feeling burned out. This year, Techno Source will be releasing Tetris Link, a tabletop strategy game where players must link Tetriminos while preventing their opponents from doing so. The game is intended for two to four players, and is estimated to retail around $25.
In addition, Blue Planet Software will be releasing a card game (Wait….?) version of Tetris, simply called Tetris: The Card Game. Soon to follow are both a dice game, and a single player strategy game.
Another interesting announcement entailed the release of Tetris Premium Wall Graphics, which comes as no surprise – with all the videos of Tetris being played on buildings, why would it be?
Posted in News
Tagged Tabletop Games, Tetris
Daily Scoop: February 10, 2011 – I’m so vain
It’s Thursday morning, and what am I doing? I’m listening to the most recent episode of the Warp Zoned Podcast again, because it is really funny. Give it a listen! You won’t be disappointed. Unless you don’t like hearing us talk about peanut butter and jelly.
Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is Atari’s Freddi Fish ABC Under the Sea for the DS. It’s $14.99 down from $19.99, and it’s perfect for kids ages 3-5, according to the cover – which also says it’s “Parent Approved.” Well, that’s a relief!
Also, Atlus is having a huge PSN sale, so you should get on that as soon as possible. I am most likely going to buy Hexyz Force, because I’ve wanted that game since before it came out. But I am already playing so many games, and I own so many games, and I’m trying not to get ridiculous here, people.
Speaking of which, this shirt is ridiculously awesome:
It’s Droid Berg. It’s…Android + Zoidberg. It’s already been purchased. Damn you, Tee Fury! *shakes fist*
Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News
Atlus having a Super-Mega-Ultra 50% off sale on the PlayStation Network
I’m actually not even sure if I should be telling you this, seeing as I’m one of the Atlus Faithful, but I’m going to risk it just to get the word out about Atlus having another huge 50% off digital sale. Brand new to the sale this time around are Knights in the Nightmare at $14.99 and Yggdra Union at $7.49. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona and SMT: Persona 3 Portable are both just $19.99, which is pretty serious business. Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble is also $19.99, as is Class of Heroes. Crimson Gem Saga and Hexyz Force are at $14.99 each, and Hammerin’ Hero is just $9.99. Coming in at $7.49 is Riviera: The Promised Land, R-Type Command, and Steambot Chronicles Battle Tournament. Droplitz is the cheapest one at just $4.99.
This is a great sale, and I’ll be frank – I don’t know how I’m going to resist picking up Hexyz Force. I resisted through one sale, but for them to have another so soon? That’s just pure cruelty. The sale ends on February 15, so maybe I can ignore the PlayStation Store until then.
Halo 5, Project Gotham Racing spotted in the wild
Ok, this is legitimately weird. Apparently Eurogamer caught a “Channel 4” news report with Jonathan Cluts from Microsoft interacting with “hidden Kinect-like technology to change the appearance of a wall” at the company’s secret home of the future, Microsoft Home. Navigating through icons on the wall, he selected “Grandma’s Room.” What was more notable was that granny’s quarters were sandwiched between Project Gotham Racing and Halo 5, as pictured left. Other than displaying “Inside Halo 5” underneath the Icon, that’s all there really was mentioned of the games.
Microsoft Home is known as a showcase for future consumer products, and I think it’s safe to say everyone expects another Project Gotham Racing and certainly another Halo to be in development. While this is the first we’re hearing of the sequel to Halo: Reach (the now-presumed “Halo 4” in spirit), there have been strong indications that the original Halo: Combat Evolved will be remade this year. Some have speculated Bizarre Creations will return to Microsoft to work on PGR, but nothing has been heard of the studio since their parent company Activision recommended them for closure.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Halo 5: Guardians
Reality is Broken Review: Jane McGonigal Wants Games to Change the World
“Those violent games will turn you into a serial killer.”
“You’re wasting your life playing that game.”
“Wouldn’t you rather go outside?”
We’ve all heard the complaints about what video games are doing to a generation of young people. Thankfully, as we move further away from the creation of the modern video game, more people who have grown up with games realize these complaints are hogwash. But what if playing games could actually make gamers better people, and even change the world, while we’re at it? That’s the premise behind Jane McGonigal’s first book, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. Is reality broken? Do games make us better? Can they change the world? Even after reading Reality is Broken, I’m not sure. (more…)
Paranormal Activity game creeps onto iPhone
Augmented Reality’s Ogmento Inc. announced Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary for iPhone, which is a location-based “reality game.” Players can use their surrounding environments – namely public locations – to enhance the thrill of the game, which urges players to keep demons at bay by announcing their presence at any given location through the app.
Ogmento’s co-founder Brian Selzer says: “The Paranormal Activity franchise embodies the powerful psychological space between what’s real and what’s imagined; we wanted to encapsulate that feeling in an iPhone game and use augmented reality to accentuate the overall game experience in a way that has never been done before.”
Now I’m scared. No, not because of how scary Paranormal Activity was, moreso because the Paranormal Activity movies just weren’t good movies (in my opinion). And now a game? Well, alright. I shouldn’t judge it just yet. I always thought that the integration of real-life locations into “swarm-type” games were cool. Give Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary a shot, even if only because it’s a free app.
Stacking, TNT Racers on XBLA today
Microsoft is gearing up for their second annual Xbox Live Arcade House Party promotion, but they still added a pair of new games to the XBLA today.
Stacking, a puzzle platformer starring a bunch of Russian stacking dolls from Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions is definitely the highlight of the day. It’s been prriced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15).
Next up is a racing game known as TNT Racers, except the TNT stands for “Tracks N Tricks.” It’s been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10).
More information on both of these titles can be found after the break. (more…)