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
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Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
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- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
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Most Recent: PC
Insert Quarter: A Profile of the Video Game Archivists at the Library of Congress
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
With more than 6,000 titles, the Library of Congress is home to one of the largest video game archives in the world. But the curation and management of the collection is in the hands of just four part-time employees. BuzzFeed’s Joseph Bernstein reached out to these four men to learn how the Library of Congress is attempting to preserve America’s gaming heritage and how much more still needs to be done:
No, the work of game copyrighting and archiving at our country’s signal institution for cultural preservation is not done by a dedicated full-time staff. Instead, it’s the passion project of a handful of archivists who want to be the new standard-bearers in the preservation of video games. Indeed, the state of video game collection at the Library is something of an expression of the liminal state of video games in American popular culture writ large. The Library recognizes the cultural importance of video games, but only devotes four people part-time to their archiving; Game companies insist that their products are the medium of the future, but don’t trust archives with their source code; Collectors sell their troves on Craigslist and eBay rather than considering donation.
Even to get to this point, though, has been a journey in and of itself.
You can read the rest of the article at BuzzFeed.
Tom Savini will bring the slasher genre to PC, PS4, Xbox One with Summer Camp
Tom Savini, the wizard of gore responsible for Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th, has teamed up with Gun Media to create Summer Camp, a splatter-themed game for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Wes Keltner, the founder of Gun Media, is heading up the project and he has also recruited Harry Manfredini, creator of the “Ch Ch, Ch, Chhh, Ah, Ah, Ah, Ahhh” sound from Friday the 13th, to compose the soundtrack.
“This is my love letter to the classic films of the slasher/splatter era,” said Wes Keltner, Founder and Creative Director of Gun Media. “I want that experience of being helpless, running for my life against an unstoppable killer. But I knew I needed help to do it right. Who else could I turn to for a campy, 80s slasher than the Sultan of Splatter, Tom Savini? His FX defined the splatter/slasher genre.”
Summer Camp will be a third-person survival horror game set within the spooky confines of Camp Forest Green (Easter Egg Alert! Camp Crystal Lake was known as Camp Forest Green in Friday the 13th Part VI). A masked killer is on the loose and players will take control of a teen counselor attempting to survive the night in the multiplayer game. Teaming up with five-to-seven additional counselors, players will work together to evade the killer. However, if you identify with Jason more than those naughty oversexed teens, you can also play as the killer and stalk your prey until the morning light.
Gun Media plans to create an entire series of games based on 80s-style splatter movies and Summer Camp is just the first entry in what they’re calling the “Slasher Series.”
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Friday the 13th
Prey 2 has officially been canceled by Bethesda
Bethesda’s Pete Hines is at PAX Australia today and one of the first things he did was tell CNET that Prey 2 has been officially canceled:
“It was game we believed in, but we never felt that it got to where it needed to be – we never saw a path to success if we finished it,” Hines said.
“It wasn’t up to our quality standard and we decided to cancel it. It’s no longer in development. That wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one that won’t surprise many folks given that we hadn’t been talking about it.
“Human Head Studios is no longer working on. It’s a franchise we still believe we can do something with — we just need to see what that something is.”
Prey 2’s troubled development cycle has been rumor mill fodder for a few years now. Last year, an internal email even hinted that the game was given to Arkane Austin and that all previous work by Human Head had been thrown out.
As Bethesda is pretty tight-lipped about these things, we’ll probably never learn the real reasons behind Prey 2’s demise.
Bethesda has released a BattleCry gameplay trailer for PAX Aus 2014
Bethesda is bringing a playable build of BattleCry to this weekend’s PAX Australia, but if you won’t be in attendance at the expo, the publisher has also released a brand new gameplay trailer of the game. Not only that, but Bethesda will also livestream their BattleCry panel, “Welcome to the WarZone,” tomorrow on Twitch. Just head over to twitch.tv/pax at 11:00 PM (Eastern Time) to take in all the steampunk-style shenanigans.
A beta for Bethesda’s free-to-play MOBA will be available sometime next year.
CoD: Advanced Warfare’s “live-action trailer” is pretty unreal
What happens when you create a live-action that is so heavily augmented by CGI that it might as well be a cartoon? If you’re Activision, you throw in an Emily Ratajkowski (the naked woman from Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” video) cameo and you call it a day.
OK, that’s not entirely true. This brand new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare live-action trailer was directed by Peter Berg (Hancock) and stars Taylor Kitsch (John Cater and Battleship), so it’s actually pretty great on it’s own. And Jack White’s other band, The Raconteurs, supplied the soundtrack (“Salute Your Solution” from 2008’s Consolers of the Lonely).
If all of this has you super excited, then you likely already know that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be available for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on November 4.
PS3, Xbox 360 versions of Dying Light canceled by Techland
Dying Light, Techland’s parkour-infused zombie game, was originally in development for new-gen consoles (PS4 and Xbox One), previous-gen consoles (PS3 and Xbox 360), and the PC. However, now the developer is saying that the PS3 and Xbox 360 won’t be able to handle their full vision for the game. In an open letter to fans, Techland revealed the thought process behind the cancellation of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Dying Light:
Therefore, after thorough internal testing, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to leave past-gen systems behind and release Dying Light exclusively on the next-gen consoles and PC. Put simply, older consoles just couldn’t run the game and stay true to the core vision of Dying Light at the same time.
To ensure you enjoy Dying Light as much as we would like you to, we chose to release it without any compromises on the three strongest systems available. Thanks to this, you’ll get the full and best experience regardless of the platform you play on.
The PC, PS4, and Xbox One editions of Dying Light are still on track for a January 27, 2015 release. You can read the full letter from Techland after the break. (more…)
EA says Star Wars: Battlefront to be released in Fall 2015; New Battlefield to follow in Fall 2016
During yesterday’s quarterly conference call, Electronic Arts announced that Star Wars: Battlefront is a first-person shooter (not much of a surprise) that will be released in October, November, or December of next year (also not much of a surprise). This move is surely meant to capitalize on the theatrical release of Star Wars: Episode VII, which will open on December 18, 2015.
Executives from the company also confirmed that the next Battlefield game (which they’re calling “our next Battlefield experience” for now) will be released in Fall 2016. According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, the game won’t launch in 2015 because, “We want to give Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline players more time to enjoy these games and immerse themselves in a game, the live service, and the community.”
EA’s CFO, Blake Jorgensen, announced that more information about both titles will be revealed during the company’s next quarterly conference call, which will take place sometime in February.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Battlefield 1, Star Wars: Battlefront
Battlefield Hardline will be released on March 17, 2015
Electronic Arts just announced that Battlefield Hardline will be released on March 17, 2015 as part of their latest quarterly financial report. It’s possible that more information about the game will be transmitted via their quarterly conference call, which will begin at 5:00 PM (Eastern Time).
Battlefield Hardline was originally announced during this year’s E3 Expo and was expected to launch in October for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. However, the game’s release was delayed into 2015 back in July so the development team at Visceral could make changes to the game’s single-player mode as well as implement some of the feedback they received during the game’s multiplayer beta.