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
- 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”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
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: Mobile
Red Dead Redemption, Minecraft clean up at GDC Awards
The Game Developers Conference continues to roll on in San Francisco, and the game industry honored their own last night with the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
Red Dead Redemption was the most honored game of the night, winning the Game of the Year award as well as Best Game Design, Best Technology and Best Audio. The developers at Rockstar San Diego had to share the spotlight with Mojang’s Minecraft, which won three awards: Best Debut Game, Innovation Award and Best Downloadable Game.
Three other games were winners at last night’s GDC Awards: BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 for Best Writing, ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope for Best Handheld Game, and Playdead’s Limbo for Best Visual Arts.
Three special awards were also handed out. The man behind the Fable franchise , Peter Molyneux, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Another big name among RPG producers, Yu Suzuki, won the Pioneer Award. Maybe this’ll give him the clout he needs to create the long-rumored Shenmue III.
Finally, the Ambassador Award was given to Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie, two early organizers of the Game Developers Conference.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mass Effect 2, Minecraft, Red Dead Redemption
Digital Chocolate bringing three launch titles to Xperia Play
Social gaming studio Digital Chocolate announced today that three of their most popular products are being brought to Sony’s Xperia Play as launch titles. The games include: addictive sidescroller Rollercoaster Revolution 99 Tracks, puzzle/strategy game Tower Bloxx: My City, and a special Xperia Play version of Millionaire City, one of the top ten biggest games on Facebook. While Rollercoaster Revolution, Tower Bloxx, and Millionaire City aren’t exactly Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, and Grand Theft Auto, it’s good to see support from the sectors that are going to play a large role in the device’s mass market appeal.
The Xperia Play will release this month in the U.S. and will be coming first to Verizon.
Unity Android set to ease game ports, Androids selling faster than iPhones
Unity Technologies announced today at GDC that their game porting technology for Android devices, Unity Android and Unity Android Pro are now available for puchase at their site. Unity Android boasts a one-click solution to porting games running on the Unity development platform, including iOS games, to Android. Hopefully this will go a long way towards reducing the differences between the two competitors as gaming services. Unity partially attributed the importance of this announcement to recent analyst reports indicating that Androids are now outselling iPhones worldwide, which probably isn’t news to some. This development comes alongside a study of just how fast mobile phone gaming is growing.
Unity has also spread to the PlayStation 3 last year, with yesterday’s announcement of Rochard being the first game to appear on the platform. It’ll be interesting to see if the game makes the jump to Sony’s Xperia Play, an Android-based phone. With over 400,000 developers and almost every major platform within its scope, Unity proclaimed themselves today as “the industry’s leading game development platform and middleware company.”
Damn.
The Next Level: The Games of March 2011
Ah, March. You’re coming in like a lion, all right… but you’re going out like one, too. Not only are there a ton of awesome games coming out, but there’s also the highly anticipated arrival of Nintendo’s new handheld hardware, the 3DS. More than a few franchises are getting new chapters this month, too. The Warp Zoned staff got together to share what games and tech they’re most looking forward to in March. (more…)
Science says casual games reduce depression and anxiety
A year-long study by East Carolina University suggests casual video games have a strong potency in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic had 60 subjects play three PopCap games: Bejeweled, Peggle, and Bookworm Adventures. The study found a 57% reduction of depression symptoms in the experiment group, a significant reduction in anxiety, and improvements in all aspects of mood. Dr. Carmen Russoniello, professor in charge of the study, claimed “in my opinion the findings support the possibility of using prescribed casual video games for treating depression and anxiety as an adjunct to, or perhaps even a replacement for, standard therapies including medication.” He also noted that playing the games had both noticeable short-term effects (in as little as 30 minutes) as well as long-term effects (after one month). This reminded me of the “Mapathy” campaign for Modern Warfare 2 DLC. Apparently the chick above was misdiagnosed; all she needed was a little FarmVille.
Take it how you want it, but personally, I’ll be dealing with my anxiety by plunging into Killzone 3 multiplayer next week, while the rest of you bow before your gilded altar of Reason.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood leads BAFTA noms with seven
Somebody alert the world, a Brotherhood of assassins has infiltrated the British Academy Video Games Awards. Ubisoft’s stealthy sequel, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, garnered seven nominations, more than any other game, including one for Best Game.
Other big honorees from this year’s Video Games Awards include Call of Duty: Black Ops, Heavy Rain (six nominations apiece) and Mass Effect 2 (four nominations).
Awarded annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), the winners of this year’s Video Games Awards will announced in a ceremony on March 16.
The full list of every nominee and every award up for grabs can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2, Super Mario Galaxy
A Eulogy For Guitar Hero: The Day the (Plastic) Music Died
A wise man once said that it’s far better to burn out than fade away. Apparently Activision agreed with the sentiment, as after a bit more than five years of rapid-fire releases, the company has shuttered the Guitar Hero franchise. Just 40 months ago the music gaming business was at its absolute peak – Guitar Hero III sold roughly 2.45 bazillion copies across a half-dozen platforms – but now the series is in complete shambles, what with the latest installment releasing with the authority of a farting ant. This legendary tumble from grace is no doubt why the company canceled the forthcoming Guitar Hero 7 and put the entire series on hold, perhaps permanently. Rather than harp on all that went wrong and led to its untimely demise, let’s discuss what went right – and what the future may hold if Activision dares to bring the music back. (more…)
Posted in DS, Features, Mobile, PS2, PS3, PSP, Top Story, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: World Tour
AIAS names Mass Effect 2 their Game of the Year
BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 walked away with Game of the Year honors at the Interactive Achievement Awards last night.
The game, which was just recently released on the PS3 after its PC and Xbox 360 debut last year, was given the award by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. This is the Academy’s 14th year handing out the IAAs and Mass Effect 2 beat out Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Red Dead Redemption and Angry Birds to win the prize.
But among the honorees, only Black Ops went home empty-handed. Angry Birds was named Casual Game of the Year, God of War III won Outstanding Achievement in Animation and Red Dead Redemption galloped away with five awards.
You can watch the entire ceremony at G4tv.com/DICE2011 or you can see the full list of winners after the break. (more…)