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
New Xbox 360 disc format is probably not Blu-ray
Yesterday, Major Nelson was taking volunteers to beta test an updated Xbox 360 disc format. One of Digital Foundry’s sources confirms that it’s still the same DVD, just with less data taken up by security measures. DF suggests that up to 1GB more will be available to developers on the new disc format.
The DVD format the Xbox 360 uses has been seen as a limiting factor for some time, with Dan Houser of Rockstar Games pointing it out as a problem back in 2007 when he was developing Grand Theft Auto IV.
Battlefield 3 continues to impress with “Get That Wire Cut”
We’ve already seen Battlefield 3 have a crawling animation when you go prone. We’ve also seen how insane the lighting effects are with the Frostbite 2 engine. But you haven’t seen how effective they can be until you watch the vent crawling segment in the “Get That Wire Cut” trailer above. I’m already getting creeped out by how claustrophobic it’s probably going to make me. In addition to an unbelievable segment of shells falling from a helicopter, the end of the trailer says the full “Fault Line” segment (which will run 12 minutes) will be revealed on April 17. Unmatchable graphics. Incredible animations. I wish other shooters could do that.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Battlefield 3
“Extreme” deals on Doom II, Crazy Taxi, Halo Wars add-ons this week
If you ever felt the need to take your Xbox Live Marketplace shopping to the next level, does Microsoft have a deal for you. Starting yesterday (and running through April 4th), the consolemaker has discounted 29 items on the XBLM in a promotion it refers to as Extreme Shopping.
I know, I know. “Extreme Shopping” is a terrible name for a promotion. But there are some good deals to be had including sale-priced XBLA titles like Crazy Taxi and Doom II as well as price drops on add-ons for Halo Wars and Red Dead Redemption.
There will also be a few one-day deals on April 1st including deep discounts on Comic Jumper, Deadliest Warrior, the Fable III Understone Quest Pack and Fallout: New Vegas‘ Dead Money add-on.
The full list of discounted games is after the break. Happy shopping and watch out for zombies. (more…)
Dragon Age II Review: Defending Kirkwall Like a Hawke
Though it was greatly overshadowed by Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins was a high-quality return to BioWare’s days as purveyors of epic fantasy RPGs. It had all the qualities that one expects from the company: an epic plot, great characters & dialog, a huge quest that could be solved in numerous ways, and of course, awkward romances. Dragon Age II brings most of this back – just in a far more intimate, narrow setting. While many things about the game are basic refinements of the Dragon Age: Origins formula, the ultimate result is a game that seems like a reinvention of the franchise, similar to the changes from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. The question, of course, is whether the risks taken in Dragon Age II have made for a great game… and hey, that’s what we’re here for. (more…)
L.A. Noire becomes first game selected for Tribeca Film Festival
L.A. Noire, Team Bondi’s upcoming take on the hardboiled detective story, has become the first video game ever to be honored as an Official Selection at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“We’re thrilled that L.A. Noire is being recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival in this way,” said Sam Houser, Founder of the game’s publisher Rockstar Games. “It’s a real honor, and another step forward for interactive entertainment.”
Publisher Rockstar Games will present an exclusive preview of L.A. Noire as part of the Tribeca Talks series. The presentation will take place on April 25 and feature a live interactive screening of a case from L.A. Noire, followed by a Q&A exploring the crossover between filmmaking and “interactive entertainment.”
Geoff Gilmore, Tribeca Enterprises’ Chief Creative Officer was extremely impressed with how L.A. Noire has been coming together: “What Rockstar and Team Bondi have accomplished with L.A. Noire is nothing less than groundbreaking. It’s an invention of a new realm of storytelling that is part cinema, part gaming, and a whole new realm of narrative expression, interactivity, and immersion. We are poised on the edge of a new frontier.”
L.A. Noire will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 17.
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged L.A. Noire
Bethesda bringing Rage to bookstores in novel tie-in
Bethesda Softworks and Del Rey have announced they’ll be teaming up to produce a tie-in novel based on id Software’s Rage.
The novel, which will also be called Rage, will be written by Matt Costello. Costello has some experience working with id Software. Not only did he write the game, but he also previously adapted two novels based on Doom 3 (Worlds on Fire and Maelstrom).
The novel will feature a similar story to the game in that a lone human emerges from an Ark and finds the Mad Max-like world on the outside:
When Lt. Nick Raine emerges from his Ark, he finds the human race has not been wiped out. And people, as resilient as they are, are scraping together a new world from the rubble of the old. This was not what anyone in the Arks expected–a new society where might is right, mutants plague the Earth, and “friend” is a term for the person who hasn’t stabbed you in the back.
The novel is scheduled for release on August 30 and will appear alongside a Dark Horse-published prequel comic book series. So there’s plenty of Rage tie-in stories to go around.
Crysis 2 Review: Not All It’s Cried Up to Be
“Can it run Crysis?” For years, this question was the hallmark of determining the mettle of a PC’s prospects as a gaming machine and the bar was so high that the Xbox 360 and even the PlayStation 3 were said to be incapable of running it. Looking to broaden their audience (and possibly clients who license game engines), Crytek unveiled the CryEngine 3, the escort that would bring Crysis to consoles. It’s actually been done; Crysis 2 runs and runs well, but despite its astounding emphasis on visuals, the game fails to stack up well against the FPS heavy hitters of today. (more…)
F1 2011 races to stores in September; coming to 3DS, NGP
Fans of the Formula 1 breed of motor sport can rest easy knowing that F1 2011 has narrowed its release date down to this September. Developed by Codemasters Birmingham, this comprehensive sim features every racer, team, and circuit from the 2011 Fia Formula One World Championship. The game is currently slated for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, but Codemasters also confirmed the game is in development for the Nintendo 3DS and Sony’s Next Generation Portable (NGP/PSP2). These versions may be more than gimped ports, as each will “take advantage of the new platforms’ unique capabilities.” No official date for the handhelds has been confirmed.
You can get a chance to preview the game early by uploading a video on YouTube asking a question for the development team. Tubers submitting the best questions, as judged by the team, will be invited out to Birmingham in May to check out the game and be taped for a developer diary. Sounds like a pretty great opportunity.