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: PS3
BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider to debut “World Premiere” trailers at tonight’s Spike TV VGAs
In addition to honoring the greatest games of 2012, the Spike TV Video Game Awards will also showcase a wide variety of “World Premiere” trailers for some of 2013’s most anticipated games. You can add two more to the list as new trailers from BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider have been confirmed for the awards show.
You can view a teaser of the BioShock Infinite trailer above, but you’ll have to wait until tonight (9 PM Eastern to be exact) to get your next glimpse at Lara Croft’s return.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider
Call of Duty: Black Ops II nukes the competition in November 2012 NPD report
Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Halo 4 set records in November 2012. The Wii U also opened strong with sales of over 400,000 consoles. And the Christmas rush resulted in big numbers for new releases like Assassin’s Creed III, Just Dance 4, and Need For Speed: Most Wanted. But that still didn’t stop The NPD Group from reporting that retail game sales dropped 11% from November 2011.
“Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11 percent, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year. This is a sign of momentum going into the December holiday period,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.
You can view the complete top ten from last month after the break, and remember, despite what The NPD Group says, the console game market is still in good shape. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, FIFA Soccer 13, Halo 4, Just Dance 4, Madden NFL 13, NBA 2K13, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, NPD, Skylanders Giants, WWE '13
Assassin’s Creed III Review: New World, Old Problems
I’m going to open this review with an honest disclaimer, I’ve never liked the Assassin’s Creed franchise. While the concept of an open-world assassination game sounds just fine, quite exciting even, the actual execution felt lacklustre with cumbersome controls and free roam diluted down to near nonexistent levels. “Kill your targets any way you want,” the adverts said, but what they failed to mention was that unless you adhered to Ubisoft-approved killing methods within Ubisoft-sanctioned locations your open-world experience would suddenly feel like a confined cardboard box as the game punished you for not playing it right. I tried the second game for all of an afternoon before the masquerade fell away and left me feeling cold, cheated and unloved. All subsequent games failed to rekindle our relationship; I just couldn’t get interested, but for some reason (clue: my interest in Colonial America) I somehow found myself falling for the hype and giving this franchise another chance with Assassin’s Creed III. (more…)
Retro City Rampage readying for XBLA, WiiWare release
Vblank Entertainment has revealed that Retro City Rampage will soon be available to download from the Xbox Live Arcade and Nintendo’s WiiWare service. According to Vblank, both versions are currently going through “console certification” in North America and Europe and, barring any setbacks, will be released soon.
Retro City Rampage was first released for the PC, PS3, and Vita in North America on October 9, and since then, Vblank has been hard at work on tweaking the game to make it better. These tweaks (which are currently available on the PC/PS3/Vita as a title update) include “faster cars, tips screens, shop icons on the map, additional tutorials, checkpoints, level balancing and more.”
Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to get another chance to play Retro City Rampage. And for our friends across the Atlantic, the European release of the PS3/Vita version of the game was also said to be nearing completion as well.
Journey soundtrack nominated for a Grammy Award
The nominees for the 55th annual Grammy Awards have been announced and Austin Wintory’s score for Journey has been recognized in the “Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media” category.
As the only video game composer to be nominated in the category, Wintory will be competing against a quintet of musical heavyweights including John Williams for The Adventures Of Tintin, Ludovic Bource for The Artist, Hans Zimmer for The Dark Knight Rises, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Howard Shore for Hugo. Wintory’s work on Journey will also compete for “Best Song in a Game” and “Best Original Score” during tomorrow night’s Spike TV Video Game Awards.
The Grammy Awards will be awarded on February 10.
CoD Black Ops II has made a lot of money since its release
Activision is in full-on brag mode when it comes to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The publisher previously reported that the shooter sequel set a sales record for single day sales. Now they’ve happily informed the world that Black Ops II has made more than $1 billion in sales in its first 15 days of release.
For the record, that’s one day quicker than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Of course, that’s likely due to the fact that the Black Ops II “Care Package” sold for $180 while Modern Warfare 3’s “Hardened Edition” was priced at a much more modest $100.
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick used this announcement to continue to talk up Call of Duty’s dominance versus films like Star Wars, Avatar and Harry Potter. But that kind of comparison is really just ridiculous, as we saw last year.
PSN Today: Guardians of Middle-Earth, Far Cry 3, Uncharted: Fight For Fortune, more
While the retail release pipeline has slowed to a trickle in the month of December, Sony is still soaking the PlayStation Store with a massive amount of new content.
This week’s biggest new addition to the PlayStation Network is Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3. The first person shooter is joined by WB’s Guardians of Middle-Earth MOBA, the original Mass Effect (and the Mass Effect Trilogy), the fighting game Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus, and many others. Six different PSone Classics (previously only available in Japan) have also made their way onto the PlayStation Store.
Uncharted fans may want to fire up their Vitas this week as Sony also added Uncharted: Fight For Fortune, a strategy card game featuring characters from the series, to the portable’s game store.
You can read more about all of these games (and a few others) after the break. And a complete list of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, Vita
Tagged Far Cry 3, Guardians of Middle-Earth, Mass Effect
“Dragonborn” Skyrim expansion will be available for PC, PS3 in early 2013
Bethesda has announced that the next Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim expansion, “Dragonborn,” will be available on the PC and PS3 in early 2013. The publisher is still trying to make the game’s previous expansions, “Dawnguard” and “Hearhtfire,” available on the PS3. But as of right now, there’ still no timetable on when that could happen.
“Dragonborn” will also be available for the Xbox 360 beginning tomorrow (December 4). It’ll be priced at 1600 Microsoft Points ($20).
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim