Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Jordan Minor’s “Boss Fight Books: Super Mario Galaxy” is Now Available for Pre-Order
- 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
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- With Grand Theft Auto 6 poised to take over the world, I reached out to Jack Thompson and it did not go well – PC Gamer (2026)
- Vib-Ribbon: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: PC
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger returns to the Wild West
Ubisoft and developer Techland are bringing the Call of Juarez series back to its Wild West roots. The series previously took a short detour into the modern day with 2011’s Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
Announced today, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger follows an unnamed bounty hunter as he chases down “the West’s most notorious outlaws” (including Butch Cassidy!). Check out the live action trailer above and start drawing your “Wanted” poster for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 game now.
No release date for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger was announced, but I bet it’ll be released sometime in 2013, by gum.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Gearbox adds female characters to Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer
Given that the Alien film series has always featured strong female roles (including Ellen Ripley, Private Vasquez or Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus), it seemed not only sexist but basically wrong when Aliens: Colonial Marines producer Brian Burleson announced there would be no female characters in the multiplayer portion of the game. After a major online petition, signed by over 4,000 people including several associated with the Aliens film, it finally caught the attention of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.
Speaking to Eurogamer at this weekend’s PAX Prime, the company’s head honcho revealed that the co-op mode and online multiplayer will both feature at least one playable female character. The company released artwork of the co-op character, Private Jennifer Running, a fiery, short-haired redhead. Whether she was created after the petition, or existed all along and was only revealed early because of the outcry, we will never really know.
While it is a great result for female gamers, or those males who wish to get it touch with their female roots, should we really have been having this discussion over a game set in the Aliens universe? What do you think, readers?
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Aliens: Colonial Marines, PAX Prime 2012
2K announces four DLC expansions, Season Pass for Borderlands 2
In a move certain to fan the flames of the DLC debate, 2K and Gearbox have announced four additional downloadable campaigns for Borderlands 2 before the retail game is even out. Each one will cost $9.99, meaning the total comes to $40, two thirds of the game’s actual price. Thankfully the company is offering a Season Pass, which will ensure that you’re the proud owner of all four DLC campaigns for only $30, saving you $10.
Minus the Season Pass, this is the same amount of content Gearbox created for the first Borderlands game.
I love Borderlands and the DLC for the original, But I still bought them through gritted teeth over the realization of spending $100 on a single game. Especially when the Game of the Year edition was released with all four campaigns included (and is now available for a mere $20). So if you love Gearbox’s humorous FPS and are flush with cash, the Season Pass may be for you. But for the rest of us, hold out for the GotY edition, which given current trends will probably be out this time next year.
Borderlands 2 will be available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on September 18.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands 2
Brothers In Arms: Furious 4 will drop the Brothers In Arms name
Last month, Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford promised that the company was still toiling away at Brothers In Arms: Furious 4. This weekend at PAX Prime, he revealed that while the game still hasn’t been canceled, it’ll no longer carry the “Brothers In Arms” name.
“I wanted to let everyone know that that game’s no longer going to be a Brothers In Arms game. It’s going to be an all-new IP,” Pitchford said.
First revealed at E3 2011, Furious 4’s comic tone was at odds with the franchise’s formerly serious structure. Instead, the co-op shooter seemed to be taking its cues from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.
The all-new Furious 4 will be re-announced at a Gearbox Community Day event later this year.
[Source: The Verge]
New Releases: The Sims 3 Supernatural, Everyone Sing
We have to endure one more week of the slow Summer season before the Fall avalache covers us all in a blanket of new games.
But for fans of The Sims, this week sees the release of The Sims 3: Supernatural. The sppoky expansion adds witches, wizards, werewolves, vampires, and fairies to the Sims world as magical spells and shuffling zombie hordes.
Also available this week is Everyone Sing, which is being released for the Wii, the PS3, and the Xbox 360.
Arcadecraft lets you manage an old-timey arcade
Of course, all arcades are old-timey arcades nowadays, however, that hasn’t stopped Firebase Industries from announcing Arcadecraft. The arcade management sim is currently in development for release on the PC and Xbox Live Arcade and it looks amazing.
Arcadecraft will allow players to purchase, position, and redecorate over 100 cabinets based on the 1980-1990 era of arcade games. These cabinets include a few titles clearly based on the classics including Crawlers (Centipede), Space Rocks (Asteroids), Alien Landing (Space Invaders), Gorilla (Donkey Kong), Son of Gorilla (Donkey Kong Jr.), Cybroids 1999 (Robotron 2080) and more.
Be sure to check out the trailer above and the screenshots at Firebase’s official website. As I said, they look amazing. And if you’re going to be attending this weekend’s PAX Prime expo, the guys from Firebase will be roaming the show floor as well. If you ask real nice, maybe they’ll let you have a private demo with the game.
Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360
Tagged Arcadecraft, PAX Prime 2012
Torchlight II hacks and slashes its way onto online stores on September 20
Two years after it was first announced, Runic Games is finally ready to announce a release date for Torchlight II. The dungeon-crawling RPG will be available to download from Runic Games, Steam, Perfect World, GamersGate, GameFly, and GameStop on September 20.
Runic Games’ CEO, Max Schaefer is particularly proud that the company could keep their promise of a Summer 2012 release: “We worked incredibly hard to make sure we could release Torchlight II before Summer’s official end. Development will continue right up until we ship, and we couldn’t be happier to be putting the finishing touches on a great game. We want to get it to the fans as quickly as possible. Honestly, we can’t wait.”
To celebrate the release date announcement (and today’s kickoff for PAX Prime), Runic has released a new trailer, which you can view above.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged PAX Prime 2012, Torchlight II
Sleeping Dogs Review: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wei
Some people like to refer to Sleeping Dogs as “Grand Theft Auto: Hong Kong.” While that’s close to being true – you do steal and drive a lot of cars, and there’s a huge amount of missions you can take on – there’s far more to the game than just a reskinned GTA in a new location. There’s the undercover cop trope, giving it a detective feel. There’s the constant and very robust melee system, bringing in a lot of fun combat. And, of course, there’s fantastic character development, from Uncle Po to Broken Nose Jang to Wei Shen himself. No, this isn’t just GTA in Hong Kong. This is Sleeping Dogs, and it’s an animal all its own. (more…)