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
- 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: Xbox 360
XBLA Today: Double Dragon II
Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons is now available on the Xbox Live Arcade thanks to a special Friday update. But take notice, Xbox gamer! Double Dragon II isn’t a sequel to last year’s WayForward-developed Double Dragon: Neon. Instead, it’s a remake of the 1980s arcade classic from Korean developer Gravity.
If that hasn’t dissuaded you from reaching for the download button, you might also like to know that Double Dragon II has been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10). You can also learn more about the game by reading this wonderfully written game description that may or may not be English:
This is a remake “Double Dragon II” a 80s game. The story line takes same as original game story. However, the graphic, character, action, system etc. are change. Also we are including new stage and enemy in the game. The player will be addicted to new version of Double Dragon II. Also, characters are undressed from 80s style, and recreated with modern sexy and beautiful style that amaze you and feel never been experienced world before.
Take notice once again, Xbox gamer! “Undressed from 80s style” doesn’t mean the game is full of naked ninjas. That would be a… very different… type of game.
Star Wars 1313 would have starred Boba Fett
Star Wars 1313‘s E3 2012 trailer included a placeholder main character that LucasArts planned to replace before the game was released. With this week’s closure of LucasArts, we may never see the game on store shelves, but Kotaku has learned that the main character of 1313 would have been… wait for it… Boba Fett. I’ll give you a minute to catch your breath as this is clearly a development that no one was expecting.
The reason for the placeholder character was due to the fact that Boba Fett wasn’t added to 1313 until just before last year’s E3 Expo. Until that point, the game officially didn’t have a main character and was basically a blank slate being used to tell stories in the Star Wars underworld.
While internal development has ceased at LucasArts, there’s still hope that 1313 (and Star Wars: First Assault) will be completed by a third party. According to Kotaku’s tipster, this scenario is unlikely:
“[LucasArts] ended up with movie tech that wouldn’t fit in a game, and game tech that wouldn’t fit in a movie. 1313 was always in danger of not being made.”
If Star Wars 1313 is truly dead, we should probably start thinking of it as a game frozen in carbonite, forever taunting us with the dream of a “mature” take on the Star Wars saga. Though I’m not sure a game starring a character with as much baggage as Boba Fett could have done it.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Star Wars 1313, Star Wars: First Assault
Killer Instinct trademark rejection rescinded after Microsoft, Fox reach deal
The Killer Instinct trademark is back in the hands of Microsoft after the company’s army of lawyers reached a deal with Fox Television Studios over their claim to the mark.
Microsoft’s agreement with Fox actually states that they’ll share the Killer Instinct trademark and that they “do not believe confusion is likely to result from concurrent use of their respective marks.” Because it’s very easy to confuse an iconic fighting game developed by Rare and starring a cyborg, an ice alien, and a giant eyeball with a short-lived TV show about serial killers that was canceled nine episodes into its first season.
The deal between Fox and Microsoft was required after the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected Microsoft’s renewal claim in December. But with an agreement between the two companies in place, Microsoft can move forward with… whatever it is they plan to do with the Killer Instinct trademark.
[Source: Polygon]
Activision officially announces April 16 release date for CoD: Black Ops II Uprising DLC
After weeks of rumors, Activision has officially announced the second downloadable expansion for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The Uprising Map Pack will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on April 16 for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15). The pack is also included as part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC Season Pass. A PC and PS3 release will likely follow in May. Like the Revolution Pack before it, Uprising will add four new maps to the game’s multiplayer mode:
- “Magma” is a modern Japanese village with volcanic eruptions carving multiple paths throughout the town.
- “Encore” takes place in the aftermath of a deserted London music festival and leaves numerous opportunities for run-and-gun, close quarters combat.
- “Vertigo” is a futuristic high rise in India housing a high-tech lab featuring dizzying vistas and multi-tiered pathways.
- “Studio” is a Hollywood movie back lot with a variety of cinematic themes that range from Sci-Fi to the Old West. It’s also a contemporary remake of “Firing Range,” a fan-favorite multiplayer map from Call of Duty: Black Ops.
An expansive new Zombies mode, “Mob of the Dead,” will also be included in Uprising. Similar to Black Ops‘ “Call of the Dead,” “Mob of the Dead” will recruit four of Hollywood’s most famous wiseguys: Ray Liotta as Billy Handsome, Joe Pantoliano as Al “The Weasel” Arlington, Chazz Palmentiri as Salvatore “Sal” DeLuca, and Michael Madsen as Michael “Finn” O’Leary. At the start of “Mob of the Dead,” these four made men are residents of Alcatraz. But instead of hanging with the Birdman, they’ll have to take on a zombie horde:
With plans to break out of Alcatraz foiled by the rise of the undead, the quartet of inmates will have to lean on their mob-derived skills with firearms, blunt instruments and improvised weaponry as they battle the zombies infesting and overrunning the island. In order to survive, players must work their way through the steel cells and aging concrete buildings while fighting off a multitude of zombified prisoners and guards trapped on the island with them.
I’ll just say it, welcome to The Rock!
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops II
The Cross and the Controller: BioShock Infinite and Social Exclusion
Joshua Wise is the founder of Crossed Purposes. Crossed Purposes is a website which engages pop culture and theology through reviews, discussion and a weekly podcast. It looks at video games, books, movies, television, and music from a number of different theological disciplines including Systematic, Historical, Liturgical, and Biblical.
BioShock Infinite, Irrational Games’ second BioShock adventure,1 is a masterpiece of world-building and a penetrating insight into the extremes of American civil religion, the nationalization of religious traditions, and the vicious cycle of isolation, division, and insular identities. (more…)
Injustice: Gods Among Us mobile game brings card-battling superhero smackdowns to iOS
Injustice: Gods Among Us is less than two weeks away from its PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U debut, but if you’re a mobile gamer, don’t worry, NetherRealm Studios hasn’t forgotten about you. The Mortal Kombat maker has announced that a slightly different version of Injustice is now available for download from the iOS App Store.
Playable on the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch, this version of Injustice is a free-to-play title that adds a unique collectible card mechanic to the gameplay. Players will engage in 3-on-3 battles and use a variety of support cards to control the outcome of the fight. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, Lex Luthor, and many others will appear in the iOS version of Injustice, which will also link up with its console counterpart to unlock special in-game content. Owners of the console version will also be able to unlock special content in the iOS edition.
“The team at NeatherRealm Studios created a custom mobile experience for Injustice: Gods Among Us on the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch that delivers gameplay mechanics created specifically for the platform,” said Ed Boon, the Creative Director at NetherRealm Studios. “We’re excited to offer fans a new way to play fighting games that can be enjoyed alone or as a companion experience to the console versions.”
Injustice: Gods Among Us will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on April 19. A trailer for the iOS edition can be found after the break. (more…)
The Madden NFL 25 Cover Vote is down to the “Elite 8”
The third round of the Madden NFL 25 Cover Vote is in the books and the top-seeded players continue to rumble towards the deciding round. But there were a few upsets of note.
Over on the “New School” side, the fourth-seeded Arian Foster ran over 49ers quarterback (and number one seed) Colin Kaepernick. To be fair, Kaepernick probably wasn’t deserving of the number one seed in a fan-voted contest. In another upset, Third-seeded Russell Wilson pushed past Andrew Luck, the two seed. On the “Old School” side, things are as they should be with Joe Montana (#1), Jerry Rice (#1), Barry Sanders (#3), and Deion Sanders (#2) all advancing to the quarterfinals.
You can the remaining matchups below. And don’t forget to vote for your favorites in quarterfinals at ESPN.com/MaddenVote. Voting is open now through April 10.
Old School
1 Joe Montana vs 3 Barry Sanders
1 Jerry Rice vs 2 Deion Sanders
New School
4 Arian Foster vs 3 Russell Wilson
1 Robert Griffin III vs 2 Adrian Peterson
Madden NFL 25 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 27.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Madden NFL 25
Dead Island: Riptide Hands-On Preview: Wasting Away in Zombieville
Dead Island: Riptide is a sequel to Dead Island, which was released to middling reviews and disappointment after a strong advertising campaign in 2011. Deep Silver’s marketing for the sequel has already stirred up controversy with their plan to include a “bloody torso” statue in the UK special edition. The game itself will be out this month, and was playable on the show floor at PAX East. The developers were showing off a cooperative mode, allowing you to work together with other players to fortify an area and keep the zombies out. But between collision issues, terrible graphics, and hysterical ragdoll phyics, the game was a jumbled mess. (more…)
Posted in PC, Previews, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360
Tagged Dead Island: Riptide, PAX East 2013