Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- 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)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: PSP
Warp Zoned Wish List: 11 Predictions For E3 11
The industry’s biggest showcase, the E3 Expo, is just around the corner, and gamers are already buzzing about what they’ll see. With the Wii 2 and Sony’s Next Generation Portable making their debuts this year, there’ll be no shortage of jaw-dropping reveals. But what else might happen at this year’s big show? The Warp Zoned editors have compiled 11 predictions of what we expect to happen at E3 2011. They may not all come true, but we would bet good money on most of them… (more…)
Sony tells publishers PlayStation Store to return on May 24
Gamasutra is reporting that Sony has informed publishers and developers that the PlayStation Store will reopen on May 24.
Online play and third party services like Netflix were restored on the PlayStation Network last week, but the store has remained offline. Sony plans to push out four updates in a two week span to release all of the content that publishers had planned to release before the PSN went down on April 20.
The updates will take place on May 24th, May 27th, May 31st and June 3rd. After June 3rd, the PlayStation Store’s weekly Tuesday updates will resume schedule.
PS3 and PSP owners will be able to download their “Welcome Back” gifts once the PlayStation Store resumes operations as well.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 comes to every console this holiday
When WB Games announced the title of the first Lego Harry Potter as Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, you know that a followup was inevitable. And now, on the cusp of the final movie, the publisher has officially announced Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7.
The game has been scheduled for release this holiday season, presumably alongside the Blu-ray/DVD release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. As you might expect from a Harry Potter game, it’s in development for every platform imaginable: 3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360 and Sony’s Next Generation Portable (NGP).
Once again developed by TT Games, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 will feature all the magic found in The Boy Who Lived’s last years at Hogwarts:
Based on the last three Harry Potter books and final four films, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 takes players through Harry Potter’s heroic adventures in the Muggle and wizarding worlds. From Privet Drive in Little Whinging to Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts – plus new locations including Grimmauld Place, the Ministry of Magic, and Godric’s Hollow – players will encounter new faces, new challenges and new magic, preparing them for the ultimate face-off against Lord Voldemort.
New Releases: Brink, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, MX vs ATV Alive, More
After moving up its launch date up week, Bethesda and Splash Damage are ready to release their parkour-inspired shooter Brink on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
If you’d rather travel by sea, then you should know that Disney and Lego Captain Jack Sparrow will release Lego Pirates of the Caribbean on every current system (3DS, DS, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360) this week. Perhaps wall running and boating aren’t for you. Then you’d be well to know that THQ is bringing their latest off-road racing title, MX vs ATV Alive, to the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week.
Moving on from the “ways to get around” theme, Sega has Virtua Tennis 4 set to be released on the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 while Deep Silver is bringing Duke Nukem: Critical Mass to the DS. Let’s hope it doesn’t take forever for our next helping of Duke.
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, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
Tagged Brink, Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, MX vs ATV Alive, Virtua Tennis 4
THQ releasing uDraw HD, Saints Row 3 in 2011; Drive-By canceled
THQ used their quarterly financial call to reveal a bit more about its 2011-2012 release slate.
For this year, the publisher is readying MX vs. ATV Alive for release this month, Red Faction: Armageddon on June 7, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine for August and UFC Personal Trainer sometime this Summer. Towards the end of the year, THQ plans to release Saints Row: The Third and the next WWE game along with bringing their uDraw GameTablet to the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Speaking of Saints Row, after the call, the publisher told Joystiq that Saints Row: Drive-By (the franchise’s 3DS/PSN/XBLA spinoff) was canceled. Bummer.
But 2012 is looking great for THQ as they revealed that they have several major releases planned including the unannounced UFC Undisputed 2012, Darksiders 2, Tomonobu Itagaki’s Devil’s Third, Metro 2033: Last Light and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.
Finally, the publisher publicly commented on Nintendo’s next console: “[THQ is] excited about the prospect of new hardware next year and look[s] forward to working on that system.” Got an opinion of which of THQ’s 2012 releases will make the leap to the Wii 2/Project Cafe? Let us know in the comments.
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Red Faction: Armageddon, Saints Row: The Third, UFC Personal Trainer, WWE '12
Sony pins SOE attack on Anonymous, makes statement to Congress
While the PlayStation Network is still down, Sony has gone on the offensive, detailing exactly what they told the U.S. House of Representatives and pinning the Sony Online Entertainment attack on Anonymous.
According to a new post on the PlayStation.Blog, Sony discovered a file on one of the SOE servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion.” Perhaps this calling card was left by an unconnected party in an attempt to paint the “hacktivist group” in a bad light. But it doesn’t inspire confidence in the group’s message that “For Once, We Didn’t Do It.”
Kazuo Hirai, SCEA’s Chairman of the Board, would go on to say that the major credit companies have not reported a single fraudulent transaction connected to the PSN information breach. But to be on the safe side, the company has also pledged to offer complimentary identity theft protection to U.S. account holders. This offer was not part of Sony’s original “Welcome Back” program and may have been spurred on by a Senator from Connecticut making the demand for identity theft protection in an open letter to the console maker last week.
Sony still has not confirmed when the PSN will be back online. They would only say that details will be coming “shortly.” Perhaps the promise of a return to service this week was a bit premature. SOE servers remain down indefinitely.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011
The Next Level: The Games of May 2011
After a wild April that saw major havoc being wreaked on the PlayStation Network and several high profile releases in Mortal Kombat, Portal 2 and SOCOM 4, it’ll be hard for May to compete. And with a slew of delays, the already slim May slate has gotten even slimmer over the last few weeks. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t on the brink of something big. So join us in la-la-land for a look at what we want to play in May: (more…)
Sony evaluating “goodwill gesture” for PSN users
With the PlayStation Network still down and seemingly no end in sight, Sony has begun to investigate ways they can say “We’re sorry!” to gamers.
The latest update on the PlayStation.Blog confirms that user’s download history, friends list, settings, Trophies and PlayStation Plus cloud saves will be unaffected by the network outage.
The update also revealed that Sony wants to provide a goodwill gesture to gamers for their patience in dealing with the PSN outage and while they’re not ready to announce what it is just yet, the company is currently evaluating several different options. Though they did say that DC Universe Online and Free Realms players would receive some kind of compensation for the downtime as part of Sony’s “make good” plan.
Posted in News, PS3, PSP
Tagged ApocalyPS3 2011, DC Universe Online