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: PS3
The G-Spot: Modern Warfare 2 vs. Black Ops
When Infinity Ward released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, it launched one of the biggest names in gaming into the stratosphere of pop culture. A year later, at the time it needed to deliver most, Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops, which not only matched the records of Modern Warfare 2, but shattered them. This prolific series fought its way to the top of the charts while spurning out ugly legal battles and one of the most caustic rivalries in the history of gaming. Now that the first map pack for Black Ops is about to be available on all platforms, it’s time to examine the comparative merits of these two games, and this is our focus for the second installment of The G-Spot. (more…)
Posted in Opinions, PC, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon buzzes into stores July 5
15 years ago Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum used a Mac to take down an alien invasion in Independence Day. This year, D3 Publisher will be asking gamers to take down another extraterrestrial threat during our nation’s birthday as Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon has been given a July 5th release date on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
While that doesn’t quite fall within the previously announced “Spring 2011” release window, gamers in the Boston area will get to take up arms with the EDF very soon. D3 Publisher is bringing a playable demo of the game to PAX East, which is scheduled for March 11th through the 13th.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to stock up on Raid.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, PAX East 2011
SOCOM 4’s online co-op detailed, kinda insane
The long awaited SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals is getting closer and closer to release and the official blog assures us the multiplayer beta is imminent. Today, we’ve gotten some information on the co-op mode, which will support up to five players in two modes: “Takedown,” where you search for and eliminate enemy VIP’s, and “Espionage,” where you gather intel and sabotage enemy communication infrastructure. Instead of playing through the single player campaign, you essentially make your own, selecting from a list of maps and designating enemy density at different areas. SOCOM 4 is releasing April 19 on the PlayStation 3.
Stay tuned to Warp Zoned for beta impressions and other info as the launch draws nearer.
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALs
THQ announces video game adaptation of Rio
THQ and Twentieth Century Fox today announced the standalone game adaptation, Rio, for the latest CG extravaganza from Blue Sky Studios. This game will be separate from the movie’s cross-over with Angry Birds, which Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime called “a great piece of experience,” in an apparent loss of understanding of the English language.
The movie depicts a group of birds and their adventures on the Rio de Janeiro. The game will be a multiplayer party game with 40 mini-games across five modes that players can easily hop in and out of. Rio will be released for every platform under the sun except the soon to be irrelevant PSP (re: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS). The DS version will be different from its big brother home console version, in which the character Blu discovers hip hop and Latin beats in a rhythm-style game.
Martin Good, THQ’s Executive Vice President of Kids, Family and Casual Games, stated “Rio’s humor, compelling characters, thrilling story, colorful characters and wonderful music inspired us to create a unique and imaginative game experience.”
The game will be available April 12, three days before the film hits theaters.
Watch the final launch of the Discovery space shuttle today in PlayStation Home
Today, the first live streaming event for the Sunset Yacht premium personal space in PlayStation Home will take place. NASA and Sony have announced that the Discovery space shuttle’s final launch will be streamed live today at 4:50pm Eastern Time. This is a watershed moment in LOOT’s Entertainment-On-Demand service, which allows players to watch popular TV shows, web series, and other content from inside their personal space. This is also a big moment for NASA TV’s initiatives in PlayStation Home, which include two additional space shuttle launches to be streamed in April and June, as well as hundreds of videos showing footage from NASA missions and other spectacular views of the universe.
Basically it’s all kinds of geeking coming together. If you’re interested, head to PlayStation Home for your super exclusive yacht, as you only have a few hours before the live stream.
Gearbox wants to know if you worked on Duke Nukem Forever
For a game that’s been in development for so long, it’s understandable that Duke Nukem Forever would have had a lot of different people working on it over the years. As such, it’s completely feasible that a lot of them have gotten lost in the shuffle, and their contributions may not be remembered and recorded when Gearbox ships the game on May 3.
To remedy that, they’ve launched a website where you can request to be credited for working on the Duke’s latest adventures. You can first select one of seven categories: worked for a developer, worked for a publisher, contractor/agency, press with notable affiliation, community, fan, and, of course, “Other.” After that, you’re asked to submit your information along with a short statement on what you contributed to the game.
Given community, fan, and other being on there, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lengthy section in the credits for “fans who never gave up hope.” I guess we’ll just have to see when the game releases for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 this coming May 3.
Posted in PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Duke Nukem Forever
First Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim gameplay trailer
Did the Max Von Sydow-narrated teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim make you salivate for more information about Bethesda’s next epic adventure? Well you ain’t seen nothing yet. Check out the first gameplay trailer above and prepare to pick your jaw up off the floor.
If all goes according to plan, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 11th.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Yakuza 4 Hands-On Preview: Kazuma Returns, And He’s Brought Friends
Much to the shock of Yakuza fans, Sega has handled Yakuza 4 with a surprising amount of competence. Compared to Yakuza 3, where they engaged in almost a year’s worth of “will we bring the game over, or won’t we?” nonsense, they quickly announced a Western release of the sequel. Instead of getting weird, and cutting out the sort of content that worked just fine in the PlayStation 2 games, they announced the game would be localized without any silly “cultural cuts.” Instead of releasing the game on the same day as a long-awaited sequel in a popular franchise, they found a date where it could release in relative peace. It’s almost like they replaced the entire Yakuza team at Sega USA with smart people, and started to show the series some respect. Then, they released the demo… (more…)