Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: Etcetera
Jane McGonigal hosting “Find the Future” at New York Public Library
If you’ve ever wanted to pretend their was something strange in the New York Public Library, then PAX East 2011 keynote speaker Jane McGonigal has an alternate reality game for you.
The author and ARG designer will be spearheading “Find The Future” at the NYPL on May 20th. The event will honor the 100th birthday of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (yes, the one flanked by the big lions) by having gamers descend on the stacks in a scavenger hunt of great importance. If you want to participate in the event, you have to register at the NYPL’s website and be one of the 500 lucky players chosen by McGonigal and her team.
If you’re selected, you’ll be able to explore the collections of the Schwarzman Building on the night of May 20th and complete quests sent to you via mobile device. A completed quest will not include a treasure chest of immense wealth, but a QR Code that must be scanned to prove you solved the puzzle. According to Gamasutra, “the quests will also ask the players to consider literature and write pieces that will eventually be collected into a book that will go on display at the library.” If you’re not picked, fret not, for an online version of the “Find the Future” game will be available as well.
“Like every game I make, it has one goal: to turn players into super-empowered, hopeful individuals with real skills and ideas to help them change the world,” McGonigal said.
“Killzone Universe” shows a different side of Helghan
Sony has been working hard to expand the Killzone universe, including through a detailed backstory, a series of novels and a new short film posted on the PlayStation.Blog.
“Killzone Universe” is said to tell the tale of two friends, one on Vekta and one on Helghan, before the war began. The war hasn’t started yet, but the two friends comes from different backgrounds and their separation causes them to become increasingly alienated from one another.
Give it a watch for another take on the Killzone universe.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3
Tagged Killzone 3
Killzone: Ascendancy writer points towards Helghast POV for next story
Sam Bradbury recently novelized Killzone 3 and had a quick chat with the PlayStation Blog about the challenges and fun of adapting the Killzone universe to novel form. When asked what he would like to explore next if it were up to him, Bradbury replied:
I’ve seen people debating on the forums about who’s the worst: the Helghast or the ISA. So for that reason I think it would be great to do something from the perspective of the Helghast. We touched on it in Killzone: Ascendancy, but there’s a whole other world there to explore. Also I found the appearance of Visari’s daughter at the beginning very tantalizing…
Seen as the brand identifying icon for Killzone, and arguably the PlayStation 3, many have been calling for a Helghast-focused game for quite some time. Stay tuned for our Warp Zoned Wishlist to find out if it made the cut for what we’d like to see in Killzone 4.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3
Tagged Killzone, Killzone 3
Bethesda bringing Rage to bookstores in novel tie-in
Bethesda Softworks and Del Rey have announced they’ll be teaming up to produce a tie-in novel based on id Software’s Rage.
The novel, which will also be called Rage, will be written by Matt Costello. Costello has some experience working with id Software. Not only did he write the game, but he also previously adapted two novels based on Doom 3 (Worlds on Fire and Maelstrom).
The novel will feature a similar story to the game in that a lone human emerges from an Ark and finds the Mad Max-like world on the outside:
When Lt. Nick Raine emerges from his Ark, he finds the human race has not been wiped out. And people, as resilient as they are, are scraping together a new world from the rubble of the old. This was not what anyone in the Arks expected–a new society where might is right, mutants plague the Earth, and “friend” is a term for the person who hasn’t stabbed you in the back.
The novel is scheduled for release on August 30 and will appear alongside a Dark Horse-published prequel comic book series. So there’s plenty of Rage tie-in stories to go around.
The Brothers Mario 2 is on like Donkey Kong
The Brothers Mario was one of the greatest Mario machinimas ever to grace the Internet. The short was a pitch perfect retelling of Mario’s eternal battle with Bowser over the heart of Princess Peach set in the world of organized crime. For an encore, the creators at CountryClubPictures have everyone know that it’s on like Donkey Kong.
The Brothers Mario 2: Kong Country introduces Don Key Kong, a Keyser Soze-like figure that is aiming to take out Bowser and the Mario brothers. You can aruge all day over which trailer is better, but I nearly lost it when I saw the image on Mario’s parachute.
If you’ve already watched it, watch it again! And if you haven’t watched it, consider it an order from your friends at Warp Zoned.
OK Go’s “White Knuckles” goes 3D on 3DS
How can anyone not like OK Go? When the band’s not making awesome music videos with treadmills and Rube Goldberg machines, they’re working to save cute little rescue puppies.
Sensing a kindred spirit in the “we love adorable doggies” department, Nintendo has announced that the first 3DS system update (which will be available when the handheld launches on March 27) will include a 3D version of the band’s “White Knuckles” video. According to Nintendo, the recommended update will also “enhance the communication features” of the 3DS.
“We shot the ‘White Knuckles’ video in 2D and 3D at the same time, but until now, there hasn’t been much opportunity for people to see the 3D version,” said Trish Sie, the video’s Grammy-winning director. “I’m fired up for people to watch the video again with Nintendo 3DS and experience it in a whole new way. This opens up all kinds of creative opportunities.”
You can watch the video in plain old 2D above.
Sony outlines PlayStation 3 2011 3D strategy in awesomely long graphic
Click the graphic to the left. Seriously, do it. There, you’ll find a list of some of the bigger experiences coming in 3D to the PlayStation 3 throughout the year, as well as interesting statistics. Did you know 20% of the downloads for the Killzone 3 single player demo were in 3D? Either there’s more 3DTV’s out there than we thought or only technophiles are into Killzone.
The other, and my personal favorite stat, was how in one week alone, over 83,000 technopervs downloaded Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2011: The 3-D Experience Exclusive Sneak Peek. That’s a lot of sticky DualShocks.
Sony is billing 2011 as The Year of 3D on the PlayStation 3 System. That’s a far cry from The Year of the PS3, but I suppose it’ll do.
Mass Effect universe expanding with more comics later this year
If you enjoyed last year’s run of Dark Horse’s adaptation on Bioware’s Mass Effect series, or their work to recap the original game on the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 (which we thought worked), you’re getting more crossover goodness in 2011. On a panel last Friday about Video Game Comics, Dark Horse representative Jeremy Atkins revealed that a new series is indeed in the works, due out later this year. They also confirmed that a comic series for Star Wars: The Old Republic is in the works, and writers from Bioware will be the ones penning the story.
The increasingly popular journey from video games to comics has been a rough one in the last few years, but from what I’ve gathered the Mass Effect crossover was a nice exception to the disappointing rule. Hopefully we won’t be let down and the new comics will pleasantly supplement the universe, along with Mass Effect 3 when it hits PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 this holiday season.