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
Third Dragon Age novel coming later this year
Fans of BioWare’s newest fantasy franchise will rejoice in knowing that Lead Writer David Gaiter will be providing a third novel about the world of Thedas, in Dragon Age: Asunder. The story takes place after Dragon Age II, with a killer loose in the templar stronghold of the White Spire.
Dragon Age: Asunder will be available late 2011 at a bookstore near you. And Amazon.
Brink Review: Broken Promises
There is never a worse feeling than when someone promises you the world, but ends up giving you a nickel and a shrug. It is even worse when a game that has been hyped for months as the future of the first person shooter turns out to be an unfinished heap of unexplored ideas. It is like the awful relationship that starts with such high hopes. You think that this will change my whole life! And it does… for the worse. Brink… why did you have to go and break my heart like this? (more…)
L.A. Noire tops NPD chart in May
Rockstar Games’ detective procedural L.A. Noire has topped The NPD Group’s list of bestselling games in May. The PS3/Xbox 360 game was followed by several other new releases including Brink at #2 and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean in the third slot.
The remainder of the top ten is a mix of recently games (Portal 2 at #4 and Mortal Kombat at #5) and holdovers from last Fall’s game rush (Call of Duty: Black Ops at #6 and NBA 2K11 at #8).
The complete top ten can be seen here:
1. L.A. Noire (PS3, Xbox 360)
2. Brink (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
3. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
4. Portal 2 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
5. Mortal Kombat (PS3, Xbox 60)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops (DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
7. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360)
8. NBA 2K11 (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
9. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
10. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Brink, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Just Dance 2, L.A. Noire, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Mortal Kombat, NBA 2K11, NPD, Portal 2, Zumba Fitness
The A-Z of E3 2011
This year’s E3 Expo was probably best characterized by the nearly complete lack of surprises that emerged from the show floor. Nearly every game on display had been announced ahead of time and the ones that weren’t (like Super Smash Bros. 4 for the Wii U) are just words in a press release. And speaking of the Wii U, Nintendo’s next system lost some of its luster after the console’s entire feature set leaked online before E3… but the tablet controller certainly has potential.
And here’s a bunch of other games that have potential too. (more…)
THQ closes Homefront developer Kaos Studios
THQ had high hopes for Homefront and while the shooter received less-than-stellar reviews, it managed to sell over two million copies. I guess that wasn’t enough as the publisher announced the closure of Homefront developer Kaos Studios today. THQ Digital Warrington, the developer of downloadable titles Red Faction: Battlegrounds and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team, was also shut down.
THQ also revealed that development on the Homefront franchise would move to the recently created THQ Montreal. The company’s Montreal studio assisted Kaos during the development of the game, so they have some knowledge of the Homefront universe. THQ’s Vice President of Core Games, Danny Bilson, previously confirmed that Homefront: London is already in the planning stages.
Many of THQ’s other internal studios are now hiring and the publisher has encouraged the former Kaos and Digital Warrington employees to interview for open positions at Relic Entertainment, Vigil Games and THQ Montreal. We wish them the best of luck.
New Releases: Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, Duke Nukem Forever, Alice Madness Returns, More
14 years, 1 month and 17 days.
That’s how long Duke Nukem Forever has been in development. An actual war against aliens that stole our babes wouldn’t take that long. But after the countless delays, the constant cries of “vaporware” and the empty promises of George Broussard… it’s finally here. And that’s all that matters because I always bet on Duke.
Interestingly enough, Duke Nukem isn’t the only oldtime franchise being resurrected this week. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, the fourth version of the classic game, will be available this week for the 3DS. Think about that, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998 and has been remade three times since Duke Nukem Forever was announced. Amazing.
And now that E3 is over, publishers are pushing out a ton of other big titles as well, including…
- Alice: Madness Returns, the long-awaited sequel to the 2000 action-adventure game American McGee’s Alice
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon (3DS, DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), the movie-to-game adaptation of the final entry in the trilogy
- Wii Play: Motion, another minigames/controller package from Nintendo
- Child of Eden (Xbox 360), another light show from Q Entertainment
- Record of Agarest War Zero, a prequel to last year’s creeptastic RPG
Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Alice: Madness Returns, Duke Nukem Forever, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Wii Play: Motion
Lara escapes her own tomb in Tomb Raider gameplay video
Early in Microsoft’s E3 2011 Press Conference, they turned the stage over to Crystal Dynamics, who used their time to show fans the first extended look of their upcoming Tomb Raider reboot. During the gameplay demo, the much younger Lara Croft has been captured by an angry tribe who have hung her upside down in a cave. Using a nearby torch, she cuts through the ropes and crashes onto the stone floor. The player must then perform a quick time event to eject a sharpened stone from her stomach. Yikes!
And it only gets more intense and “visceral” (according to Crystal Dynamics) from there.
Tomb Raider will be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in Fall 2012.
CoD Modern Warfare 3 “Hunter Killer” mission is awesome
In case you missed Microsoft’s E3 2011 Press Conference, they opened the show with a play-through of the “Hunter Killer” mission from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It is an absolutely thrilling nine minutes of gameplay that can stand next to any Hollywood blockbuster. The underwater scenes feel perfectly claustrophobic and the sub assault would make Jack Bauer blush. Also, be sure and snicker at the point early in the demo where the controller dies for a few seconds. Wouldn’t be E3 without surprises.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 9.