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
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (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)
- 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)
Most Recent: PC
New Releases: Mortal Kombat Vita, Tera, More
Possibly the weakest month ever for new video games comes to a close… but the new games we can look forward to on May 1 aren’t much more impressive.
However, that’s not to say there’s nothing new this week. For example, if you’re a fan of the best fighting game of last year… and your Vita needs a new game… look no further than Mortal Kombat on the PS Vita. Or perhaps you’re looking for a new PC game. There’s the MMORPG Tera and the Quake III-like team FPS shooting of Nexuiz. And don’t worry, there’s one new console game as well. players will be able to get a bead on their targets in Sniper Elite V2 for the Xbox 360 and PS3.
And that’s it. If there’s something for you, great. If not, there’s just two more weeks until we’re all blown away by the new releases of May 15.
The Cross and The Controller: The Darkness II Shines a Light on Religious History
On the face of it, The Darkness II, by Digital Extremes, simply doesn’t seem like the kind of game I should be praising for its use of religion. It stars a character, Jackie Estacado, who is, by all rights, a very bad man. He wields a living weapon known as “The Darkness” that hates God and light in order to maintain his control of his New York-based mafia family. The game features other demonic characters as well as brutal and wildly graphic violence. (more…)
Google does a “Zerg Rush” on your search results
Those wacky Googlers are at it again.
First, they added the Konami Code to Google Reader. Then, they created a Google Doodle to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man and the thing turned out to be playable, which ended up costing the worldwide economy over $120 million in lost productivity. After that, they induced us all to “do a barrel roll,” even though most of the world had no idea what that meant (some thought it was a dig at Apple’s iOS, a competitor to Google’s Android platform). And just a few weeks ago they added a “Quest” filter to Google Maps that was clearly modeled after Dragon Warrior. But their latest trick tops all of these.
Go to the Google homepage, and search for “zerg rush.” And then watch as your search results are destroyed by an overwhelming swarm of red and yellow Os. Hovering over an O will bring up a targetting reticule to take the little buggers down, but the swarm will always win (and taunt you with a “GG” after it’s over).
Good show Google. Do something Mario-related next!
Pre-order Torchlight II, receive original Torchlight or access to Neverwinter beta
Torchlight II still doesn’t have an official release date. Developer Runic Games will only say that it’s coming in the Summer and that they’re shooting for June or July. But that hasn’t stopped Steam and Perfect World from offering plenty of pre-order loot to RPG-hungry gamers.
If you pre-order Torchlight II from Perfect World, you’ll receive access to the Neverwinter beta. However, Perfect World was quick to point out that the “exact date of access will vary.”
If you go the more conventional route and pre-order from Steam, you’ll receive a copy of Torchlight absolutely free. That’s right now! No waiting!
Both online shops have priced the game at $19.99, but if you buy a four-pack of copies from Steam (one copy for you and one copy for three of your friends), you’ll only pay $59.99, meaning that one copy was free. And you’ll also receive four copies of the original Torchlight on top of that.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Torchlight II
The Walking Dead shambles onto XBLA today
Telltale has announced that the first episode of their zombie-riffic adventure series, The Walking Dead, is now available to download from the Xbox Live Arcade. To celebrate, the company has released a new trailer, “Choice Matters,” to highlight that… well… choice matters in a world full of walking dead.
The first episode of The Walking Dead can be downloaded from the XBLA for 400 Microsoft Points ($5).
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The Walking Dead
Powers Boothe, Shannyn Sossamon added to Hitman: Absolution cast
Square Enix has announced that Powers Boothe (probably best known for his turn as Vice President Daniels in “24”) and Shannyn Sossamon (best known for naming her child Audio Science A Knight’s Tale) have agreed to lend their voices to Hitman: Absolution.
Boothe will play Benjamin Travis, a new handler for the International Contract Agency (ICA). His backstory is explored in the trailer above with imagery by comic artist Ben Oliver. Sossamon will voice a character named Jade that is currently a bit of a mystery, but it’s likely she’s a sassy brunette who doesn’t take any guff from anybody. That’s right, I said guff.
Hitman: Absolution will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 later this year.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Hitman: Absolution
Portal 2 level editor coming May 8
Valve has announced that the long-awaited Portal 2 level editor, cleverly titled the “Perpetual Testing Initiative,” will be available to PC players on May 8.
The DLC will be available as a free download and it allows players to “easily create, share, and play Portal 2 puzzles.” After creating a puzzle, players will be able to “directly publish maps to the Steam Workshop where users can browse, vote on, and select to play them.” Certain maps will be automatically downloaded for players to try.
It’s unlikely this level editor will ever come to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Portal 2, but we can always hope.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been C.A.N.C.E.L.E.D.
Back in December, there were rumblings that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 had succumbed to cancellation. But developer GSC Game World shrugged off the rumors saying, “We will do our best to continue.”
Today, it looks like their continue clock ran down to zero.
In a sudden turn of events, GSC Game World has closed its doors and the remaining team members have formed a new development studio, Vostok Games. The team wanted to continue their work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, however, the owners of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand refused to sell, resulting in the game’s official cancellation.
But the team at Vostok isn’t wasting any time and have jumped right into their next project, a Free-To-Play MMOFPS titled Survarium.
Survarium is scheduled for a late 2013 release and, if the official website is anything to go by, the game is shaping up to be a spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.