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: Xbox 360
XBLA Today: Street Fighter III, Hole in the Wall, Crazy Machines Elements
The Summer of Arcade may be over, but Microsoft still has plenty of games in the cooler to make the Xbox Live Arcade the place to be in the last few weeks of August.
Capcom’s Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition leads this week’s trio of new games. Including online play (of course), leaderboards and high definition graphics, the third Street Fighter game is ready for its XBLA debut. Fight!
Also available this week is Hole in the Wall, a Kinect-ified rendition of the physical game show and Crazy Machines Elements, an HD-entry in the popular puzzle series.
Street Fighter III has been priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) while Hole in the Wall and Crazy Machines can be both be had for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).
More information on all three games can be found at Major Nelson’s blog.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Street Fighter III: Third Strike
This is not the release date you’re looking for: Kinect Star Wars, R2-D2 360 bundle delayed
A Microsoft spokesman has told OXM UK that Kinect Star Wars and the R2-D2 Xbox 360 bundle will no longer be released by the end of the year. No new release date was revealed, but presumably the game will be jump to lightspeed store shelves in 2012.
No Bothans died to bring us this information, but the spokesman did say that the delay is necessary to make sure Kinect Star Wars lives up to its full potential:
“Microsoft and LucasArts have elected to move the launch of Kinect Star Wars beyond holiday 2011 to ensure the full potential of this title is realized. This move applies to both the Kinect Star Wars stand-alone game and the Kinect Star Wars Limited Edition Console. We will communicate additional timing information at a later date.”
This is disappointing news for Star Wars fans everywhere, so please remember, no disintegrations.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Kinect Star Wars
Kanye West headlining Call of Duty XP
Kanye West, whose duet with Jay-Z (Watch the Throne) is this week’s #1 album, will also perform the closing concert at next month’s Call of Duty XP event.
“We’re pulling out all the stops,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “We promised our attendees and fans around the world a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the first Call of Duty XP, so we’re thrilled to have Kanye on board. Everything about XP will be as epic as the games themselves. Whether you’re competing for one of the open slots in the $1 million [Black Ops] tournament, playing Modern Warfare 3 for the first time, dodging paintballs in a spectacular life-size recreation of Modern Warfare 2‘s Scrapyard level or just mingling with developers and fellow gamers, Call of Duty XP is a celebration of one of the greatest games in the world. So what better way to top it off with one of the greatest artists in the world?”
Is it too late to drop an “I’mma let you finish” in the middle of Hirshberg’s comments? Call of Duty XP will held on September 2nd and 3rd in Los Angeles. Tickets are still available at CallofDuty.com/xp/tickets.
Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection koming to PC, PSN, XBLA on August 31
Take a trip back to the 90s next week as WB Games has announced Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection will be available on on August 31. The PC, PSN and Xbox 360 download will kompile the original Mortal Kombat trilogy (Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3) into a single package for the first time.
The Kollection was ported to the current crop of consoles by Other Ocean. It promises to be the most komplete Mortal Kombat experience including online play, leaderboards and Achievements/Trophies all based on the original arcade games.
Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection has been priced at a very wallet-friendly price of 25 quarters AKA $9.99 on the PC/PSN AKA 800 Microsoft Points.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
Clever girl… Jurassic Park sneaks into stores on November 15
Did that headline conjur images of a pack of Raptors silently circling Muldoon in the aisles of your local game store? I hope it did.
Anyway, Telltale Games has told the tale of Jurassic Park‘s release date to IGN. The game will be released on November 15 as a retail game disc for the Xbox 360 and as downloadable episodes on the PC and PS3. The entire game will be on the Xbox 360 disc and all episodes will be able to be downloaded at once on the PC and PS3. That means it’s not really an “episodic” game, but whatever.
An iPad version is also in the works, but Telltale was not ready to discuss a release date for it just yet.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Jurassic Park
Microsoft showing Sonic CD at PAX Prime
Now this is an awesome surprise. Microsoft’s Major Nelson laid out the company’s PAX Prime lineup in a post on his blog. Mixed in among other Xbox Live Arcade titles like Trials Evolution, Crimson Alliance and Orcs Must Die is an XBLA port of Sonic CD.
Sonic’s Sega CD adventure was last made available through the GameCube-exclusive Sonic Gems Collection (OK, it was on the PS2 too if you lived in Europe). It’s inclusion on the Xbox Live Arcade is a bit of a no-brainder as Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic 4: Episode 1, Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Adventure are all already downloadable from the service.
Sega has yet to formally announce Sonic CD for the XBLA, so this could be a mistake, but it sounds pretty legit to me.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged PAX Prime 2011, Sonic CD
Duke Nukem Begins, Fable IV rumored, even though both have already been announced
Who wants some?
The October 2011 issue of Official Xbox Magazine (via CVG) is spreading the rumor that Fable IV and Duke Nukem Begins are in the works at, respectively, Lionhead and Gearbox. Awesome news for fans of those franchises, but neither game is actually rumored to be in development, they’ve already been confirmed by the creators themselves.
According to OXM, Fable IV will appear in 2013 with a “proper, controller-based” game. But series creator Peter Molyneux already confirmed a “proper” Fable sequel back in March. Another Fable title, the Kinect-powered Fable: The Journey was announced at E3 and will be released in 2012.
Duke Nukem Begins has an even stranger saga. OXM relays the rumor that Gearbox will reboot the Duke Nukem franchise after they complete Aliens: Colonial Marines. But the game, then known as Duke Begins, was first revealed in a court filing when Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms sued Take-Two. According to the court filing, the game was canceled, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford have both confirmed more Duke Nukem games are on the way. So why not start with the already begun Duke Nukem Begins?
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Duke Nukem 5, Fable Legends
Dragon Age III will be “the best from Dragon Age and Dragon Age II”
Speaking to PC Gamer, BioWare CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka has revealed the first bit of news about Dragon Age III. Quizzing the developer about the franchise’s split fandom after Dragon Age II (our own Adam Woolcott awarded it a four out of five), the magazine asked Muzyka what direction the threequel would take.
He could have spouted the obvious “we’re going back to the basics” line that you would expect, but instead, Muzyka confirmed that Dragon Age III will combine “the best from both games, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II.”
“What we need to do as developers is take that feedback from both sets of fans to heart and see about marrying that in future games in the Dragon Age franchise. I think that the team has actually got a great plan. I think the team is going to have some things that are going to surprise both sets of fans, both core fans and new fans with a marriage of these… the best from both games, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. And we look forward more to talking about that in the future.”
Dragon Age III has yet to be officially announced, but it will likely be released sometime in 2012.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Dragon Age: Inquisition