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: Xbox 360
Guardians of Middle-Earth coming to PSN, XBLA this Fall
To tie-in with Peter Jackson’s upcoming film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has announced plans for a new multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game set within the Tolkien universe. In development at Monolith Productions, Guardians of Middle-Earth will be available this Fall, ahead of the film’s December 14, 2012 opening.
According to Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President of Production and Development at WBIE, the company hopes that the downloadable title for both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network will recreate the success of MOBAs on PC, such as DOTA and League of Legends, in the console market: “The MOBA genre is wildly popular with PC players and we are excited to bring it to consoles through the lore of Middle-Earth. The heroes and villains of Middle-Earth are crafted in a way that perfectly intersects with MOBA game features, allowing the development team to create guardians with deep skills and abilities for gamers to master.”
The game will feature five versus five engagements, either with 10 live players or with AI combatants, as well as standard MOBA traits such as voice-chat and in-game currency. Although there will initially be 20 characters to choose from, including Gandalf the Grey, Sauron, Gollum and Thrain II, father to Thorin, more will be added as the release date of the film draws nearer.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2012, Guardians of Middle-Earth
Outgoing THQ President talks Insane, Saints Row 4, more
Danny Bilson, THQ’s (now former) Executive Vice President of Core Games, has always been a little too talkative with the media. He admits as much in a recent interview with Eurogamer, his final one as a representative of THQ. Bilson also talked extensively about the company’s plans for 2013 (and beyond) and what the future holds for games like Insane, Saints Row 4, Devil’s Third, their unnamed shooter from Turtle Rock, and more.
Hit the jump for some of the highlights. (more…)
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Review: The Journal of a Minecraft Adventurer
Minecraft is a phenomenon that had passed me by. Mojang’s sandbox world sounded interesting, but I was never sure what to make of it. However, when Microsoft announced plans to bring Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition to the Xbox Live Arcade, I decided to finally give it a shot. But it wasn’t I who wrote the following review. It’s actually a journal that belongs to an unnamed adventurer who just so happens to look just like me. (more…)
Square Enix’s E3 2012 lineup features Tomb Raider, Hitman, Sleeping Dogs, a lot more
Square Enix is using this year’s E3 Expo to show off all the shiny new toys it acquired from Eidos and Activision over the last few years.
Those toys include the rebooted Tomb Raider; Hitman: Absolution, Agent 47’s next mission; and Sleeping Dogs, the Activision open-world game that was previously known as True Crime: Hong Kong.
Also on hand will be a slew of handheld titles (correction… 3DS titles) including Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Heroes of Ruin, and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. A new Final Fantasy game for iOS and Android, Final Fantasy Dimensions, will also make its debut at this year’s big show.
Finally, the publisher plans to showcase Quantum Conundrum, one of my favorite games from PAX East.
Hit the jump for Square Enix’s complete E3 lineup. (more…)
XBLA Today: Mad Riders, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage
It’s Wednesday and three new games have been added to the Xbox Live Arcade today. The lone new title this week is Mad Riders, an off-road racer from Dead Island developer Techland. It’s been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10) and promises 45 “stunning” tracks:
Mad Riders is an adrenaline-fueled off-road arcade racing game, that will let you perform amazing aerial stunts and race on over 45 stunning tracks from all over the world, at breathtaking speeds.
Also available this week are two Sega collections from the Genesis era: the Golden Axe Collection and the Streets of Rage Collection. Both compilations also carry a price of 800 Microsoft Points ($10) each.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Golden Axe Collection, Mad Riders, Streets of Rage Collection
Doom 3: BFG Edition coming to PC, PS3, Xbox 360
While the development of Doom 4 continues to be ignored by Bethesda, the publisher has announced that id Software plans to go backward before they go forward with Doom 3: BFG Edition. The remastered game will be available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 this Fall.
The BFG Edition brings together almost every piece of Doom content every released by id including Doom 3, the Resurrection of Evil expansion, and a new set of levels known as “The Lost Mission.” The collection also includes Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth in their original hellish glory.
You could easily call the BFG Edition the ultimate edition of Doom 3 as it’ll also include “support for 3D TVs, 5.1 surround sound, improved rendering and lighting, Achievements, Trophies, and a new check point save system.” According to Bethesda, the controls have been fine-tuned to make Doom 3 a better experience on consoles. And for PC gamers, Carmack is promising that the DFG Edition will be compatible with “head-mounted displays.”
As part of that fine-tuning process, id is also adding an “armor-mounted flashlight” so players can wield a gun and shine a flashlight at the same time. It only took about a decade.
Max Payne 3 Review: Another One of These, and Make it Strong
So here I am, reviewing Max Payne 3, and I wonder: was it worth it? Was playing this game worth the frustration, crashes, audio bugs, and insane loading times just to get to the main screen so that I could go through more loading times to get into the game? As I sit here with my head in my hands between sentences, I wonder: How did I get here?
Wavy Lines… Wavy Lines… Wavy Lines… Wavy Lines… Wavy Lines…
(You know, those lines that tell you we’re going back in time, because I thought it would be a good idea to model my review on the opening scene of the game I’m reviewing.) (more…)
NHL 13 cover vote is down to Claude Giroux and Pekka Rinne
We’ve made it to the final round of voting for the NHL 13 cover athlete. After narrow victories in the semifinal round, Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux and Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne have become the last men standing. Giroux defeated Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin in the semifinal round, while Rinne iced New York Islanders forward John Tavares.
Final round voting begins today and will continue until June 4 at CoverVote.NHL.com.
The winner of the NHL 13 cover athlete vote will be revealed during this year’s NHL Awards. The award show is scheduled for June 20 and will be televised on NBC Sports Network in the US and on CBC in hockey-mad Canada.