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
Epic hints at more Unreal universe titles
Unreal Tournament III was kind of amazing. With cross-platform play between PC and PlayStation 3, keyboard & mouse support for the latter, as well as the ability to put any mod off the internet on that version, it was the ultimate bridge between PC and console gaming, something no title since has come close to matching. Some saw it as a simplification, but I would absolutely love to see what Epic does with a new entry.
Epic Games President Mike Capps acknowledged that Unreal has been off the shelf a little too long since it’s last 2007 release. “It’s been a long time since we shipped an Unreal game, and it’s an awfully loved franchise that we hold pretty dear here. We haven’t been giving it the attention it deserves because we’ve been focusing on Gears of War and we’re still a relatively small company.” Capps went on to say that Unreal may have plans in their upcoming business strategies. “We’ve been sort of focused on making new properties, which you’ve seen with Shadow Complex, BulletStorm and Infinity Blade, but sometimes I think just as a businessman that maybe we should be spending some more time with our existing franchises.”
I love it when business and fandom collide.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Unreal Tournament III
Resident Evil 4, Code: Veronica X HD coming in September
Comic-Con may be over, but one of the last big announcements to come out was the release schedule for the upcoming Resident Evil HD updates. Resident Evil 4 HD will be coming September 20 and Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD will arrive September 27 on Games on Demand for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation Store.
Unfortunately, one thing Capcom did NOT announce at Comic Con was an American localization of the 15th Anniversary Box, which includes both HD remakes as well as some PlayStation discs of the older games. If you’re a Resident Evil fan and you know Japanese, you seriously might want to consider ordering one of those.
[Source: GameSpot]
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Comic-Con 2011, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Ed Boon talks Freddy in Mortal Kombat, Jason/Michael/Freddy fighting game
Have you gotten used to the fact that Freddy Krueger will be invading your Mortal Kombat nightmares in August? If not, perhaps Ed Boon can convince you. The Mortal Kombat creator sat down with Sid Shuman of the PlayStation.Blog to discuss his reasons behind bringing Freddy into the fight and who else was considered for the fourth DLC spot.
According to Boon, having a downloadable guest character was always in the cards and Freddy was just one of several names thrown around. Jason (who is owned by NetherRealm parent Warner Bros.) and Michael Myers (who isn’t) were also both considered:
PlayStation.Blog: So what is the inspiration for bringing Freddy Krueger to Mortal Kombat as a DLC character?
Boon: When we had the discussions about the DLC characters, we knew that we wanted to add a returning character, a new character, but also a guest character. That was one of the goals right from the beginning. A number of names were run by us: Jason, Michael Myers and all those guys. Freddy Kreuger, we felt, was the most instantly recognizable and he fits in with Mortal Kombat with his claws. It just seemed like the best fit.
While Boon and company are only adding Freddy to Mortal Kombat (for now), the original team at Midway actually considered creating a slasher-filled Mortal Kombat with all the biggest names in 80s horror:
PlayStation.Blog: Ten, 15 years ago when Mortal Kombat was early in its lifespan, did you ever fantasize about getting Freddy Krueger into MK?
Boon: Yeah, yeah. Over the years, we’ve certainly had a number of conversations about guest characters. At one point, we had a conversation about having a group — imagine Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre — of all these killers from the 80s and 90s flicks come in as a group of characters.
Wow. Ed Boon, I promise you, if you make a slasher fighting game I’ll buy ten copies.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Comic-Con 2011, Mortal Kombat
Explore the Halo Anniversary campaign in the Comic-Con trailer
It seems that Halo: Combat Evolved went on vacation to silicon valley to have some plastic surgery. A little nip here… a little tuck there… and erase some of those stretch marks to make Halo look better than ever.
The game may look different, but underneath that brand new dress of lens flare, particle physics, and HD textures beats the heart of a classic. The gameplay remains unchanged and it looks stellar. A fun feature even lets you toggle between the new game engine and the old so you can get your nostalgic kicks as you tear through the Covenant with nothing but a pistol.
To see just how close to the original the team at 343 Industries is getting, take a gander at the new “Campaign” trailer released at Comic-Con. Now you can go back to where it all began… and teabag people in HD.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Comic-Con 2011, Halo: Combat Evolved
New Releases: Catherine, Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions, The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff
It’s a heatwave and it’s only going to get hotter when Catherine is released in stores next week. The “infidelity sim” will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in a standard edition, an alternate cover version and a “Love Is Over” deluxe edition that comes complete with the main character’s clothes and a body pillow depicting the hot blonde he hooks up with. Like I said… It’s going to get hot, hot hot.
Also available next week is Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions, a remixed compilation of two of the greatest 80s arcade games; The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff, another collection of goodies and gadgets for your Sims; and Wildlife Park Tycoon, a game that lets you unleash your inner John Hammond.
The Penguin reveals himself in new Batman: Arkham City trailer
Rocksteady and WB games have decided to throw us a new morsel of intrigue with this new Batman: Arkham City trailer featuring none other than The Penguin himself.
I wonder who inspired the character design: Dick Cheney or Danny Devito?
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City
Stana Katic is the voice of Talia al Ghul in Batman: Arkham City
Stana Katic (from Castle) has officially been added to the all-star voice cast of Batman: Arkham City. It will be her voice mixing words with Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy when the game is released on October 18.
“Talia is such a complex character and it was great to voice her in Batman: Arkham City,” said Katic. “I was amazed at all the detail put into the project and it’s great to see how excited the fans are about the game.”
And we definitely are excited. Arkham City will be five times larger than Batman: Arkham Asylum, and feature tons of new characters from the Batman Universe… including more than a few villains.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Batman: Arkham City, Comic-Con 2011
L.A. Noire could have been even bigger
Team Bondi co-founder Brendan McNamara told the relaunched PSM3 that they had to nix the Bunko and Burglary desk from L.A. Noire because it wouldn’t all fit onto one Blu-ray.
“We had a Bunko and Burglary desk – bunko is fraud and burglary is just people robbing houses and stuff – we had eleven full cases for that, which we wrote and did the design for to a certain extent – we even did the art for them too, but it just got to a point where we were never going to fit it on one Blu-ray,” McNamara said.
Evidently there was also a mechanic planned where if you failed a case, you would be chewed out by your boss and demoted to doing smaller cases out in the world until you were called back to the main story missions.
“It just becomes super prohibitive at that point. I think there might have been a better arc if we did do that – you get more of a chance to introduce different things – but in terms of the overall experience I think we did pretty well.”
I think our very own Nicole Kline would agree in her review.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged L.A. Noire