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
Insert Quarter: A History of (Video Game) Violence
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
The video game industry’s fiercest critics will always say that games have never been more violent and that it is doing horrible damage to our children. But the game industry’s fiercest critics have always been saying that. In fact, many of them were children themselves when the first round of panic gripped parents during Death Race‘s 1976 heyday.
Vice’s Mike Diver examines this legacy of violence, citing everything from the obvious (Mortal Kombat and Carmageddon) to the obscure (Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and Battle Chess). I never thought of Battle Chess as particularly gruesome, but your primer on pixelated gore awaits:
If you came to games fresh during the previous console generation, where once-grainy graphics made the switch to full HD, you don’t know how easy you’ve had it. There was a time, long before the gushes of crimson coloring contemporary offerings of extreme violence–Gears and God of War, Dead Rising, and the more recent Resident Evils, Max Payne 3, the Dead Space series, Bulletstorm, and BioShock (to name but a few)–where you had to lean on your imagination to bring scenes of disgusting dismemberment to life.
You can read the rest of the article at Vice.
City of Alamogordo begins selling excavated E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges
As promised, the city of Alamogordo has begun selling some of the unearthed Atari 2600 cartridges found during this Spring’s landfill excavation. Nearly 100 titles are now up for bid on the city’s eBay page including E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Asteroids, Missile Command, Defender, and many others.
Bidding for all titles began at $50, but the price of the most sought after titles has quickly gone up. Unsurprisngly, the copies of E.T. are currently the most expensive games in Alamogordo’s auction with one copy garnering $520 in bids with eight days remaining (as of this writing). So if you want a piece of history, be prepared to empty out your piggy bank.
For those of you who’d rather experience the Alamogordo landfill excavation for a cheaper price, be sure to log in to Xbox Live on November 20 to stream a free download of Atari: Game Over, a Microsoft-produced documentary that explores the history of Atari and this Spring’s big dig.
Xbox Store Today: CoD: Advanced Warfare, Disney Infinity 2.0, MotoGP 14, more
Today’s Xbox Games Store update should look familiar to anyone that checked in on yesterday’s PlayStation Store update. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the first Call of Duty title developed by Sledgehammer Games, leads the pack on the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Advanced Warfare stars Kevin Spacey in a pivotal role and includes a near-future storyline with plenty of advanced weaponry never-before-seen in a Call of Duty game.
Other games available today include:
- Rocksmith 2014, Ubisoft’s guitar tutor is now available on the Xbox One.
- The Wolf Among Us, Telltale’s Fables adaptation is now available on the Xbox One.
- Magic 2015, Microsoft’s latest digital adaptation of Magic the Gathering is now available for the Xbox One.
- Disney Infinity: 2.0 Edition, Disney Interactive’s virtual toy box can now be downloaded through the Xbox Games Store for the Xbox 360 provided you own some of the actual Disney Infinity toys.
- MotoGP 14, Milestone’s motorcycle racing game skids onto the Xbox 360.
More details about all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, The Wolf Among Us
Development begins on Destiny 2 as Activision reveals Destiny has 9.5 million users
When Activision and Bungie signed their ten-year pact to produce Destiny, it was always assumed that the deal would extend to additional games in the series. Yesterday, during their quarterly conference call, Activision executives have confirmed that Destiny 2 is now in active development.
Eric Hirshberg, the CEO of Activision Publishing, told investors: “Work has also begun on future expansion packs [for Destiny] as well as on our next full-game release. We’re very pleased with the launch and continuing engagement, and we’ll update you on our progress on future calls.”
In other Destiny news, Activision has also announced that the game currently boasts more than 9.5 million users. These players appear to be putting a ton of time into Destiny as “active players” are averaging more than three hours of playtime per day. It’s unknown how that playerbase translates into copies sold, but the publisher said that Destiny has generated more than $500 million in revenue since its September 9 launch. Assuming $60 per copy, that roughly correlates to more than eight million copies sold.
And don’t forget, Destiny’s first expansion, The Dark Below, will be released on December 9.
Insert Quarter: Is Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel’s Season Pass a Good Value or a Rip-Off?
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Gearbox supported 2012’s Borderlands 2 with a bevy of downloadable content including four campaign expansions (which were included as part of the game’s Season Pass), five Headhunter Packs, two level cap upgrades, and two additional playable characters. It was the most ambitious post-release DLC schedule for a game ever.
Perhaps it’s due to the developer switch or maybe it’s because the latest Borderlands game is still living on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in a new-generation world, but Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel‘s DLC schedule isn’t nearly as expansive. 2K Games is once again selling a Season Pass for The Pre-Sequel, but Destructoid’s Darren Nakamura is concerned that 2K is being intentionally vague in their promotion of the Pass to hide its less-than-stellar value:
So even though no promises are technically being broken, and 2K plans to deliver four digital additions to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for the price of three through the season pass, I cannot blame any who bought it for feeling cheated. The content fits the requirements laid out, but the value is not there. Even if the plans were to change from here onward and the season pass ends up including one new Vault Hunter and three story DLCs, the value of the pass over purchasing content piecemeal hinges on the quality of all three packs, and the series does not have a perfect track record on that front.
You can read the rest of the article at Destructoid.
Posted in Insert Quarter, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Retro City Rampage: DX will be available on nearly every platform imaginable next week
Vblank Entertainment has announced that Retro City Rampage: DX, the expanded version of 2012’s Retro City Rampage, will be available on nearly every video game platform beginning next week.
Retro City Rampage: DX will be available on November 11 for the PS4, PS3, and Vita as a Cross-Buy title. The game will be a separate download from the original PS3/Vita version and will priced at $9.99 ($7.99 for PlayStation Plus subscribers).
If you’ve already purchased Retro City Rampage on the other previously available platforms, the DX version will be available as a free update. The game will be available through the WiiWare Shop for Nintendo’s Wii console on Thursday, November 13. The PC/Mac version will launch sometime next week, though the date is still to be determined. Finally, Retro City Rampage: DX is expected to be available for Xbox 360 next week through the Xbox Live Arcade, barring any last minute certification problems.
The DX version of Retro City Rampage was originally released for the 3DS earlier this year. This new version of the game fine-tuned everything about the Retro City Rampage experience including rebalanced missions, more checkpoints, tweaked controls, a complete graphical overhaul, and many more updates. A full rundown of the changes made to the DX version of the game can be found at Vblank’s official website.
If this wasn’t enough Retro City Rampage news for one day, stay tuned, because Vblank has promised “pretty big” RCR news will be announced later this month.
Atari: Game Over documentary will premiere on November 20
Director Zak Penn has confirmed (via Twitter) that the Atari: Game Over documentary will make its Xbox Live debut on November 20:
Atari: Game Over premiering Nov 20 on XBOX #ataridoc
— Zak Penn (@zakpenn) October 31, 2014
Atari: Game Over will tell the story of the game company’s downfall, with a particular focus on E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which was the subject of a massive dig in an Alamogordo landfill back in April. During the dig, Penn and his team discovered a treasure trove of Atari 2600 titles under the dirt, confirming a long-held belief that the company trashed thousands (perhaps millions) of copies of unsold games.
With the recent closure of Xbox Entertainment Studios, the film has the distinction of being one of the first (and one of the last) film productions created by Microsoft.
Handsome Jack will join Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel as fifth playable character
Admit it, ever since Borderlands 2 came out, you’ve wanted to play as Handsome Jack. Well, you’ll get your chance (sort of) in the “Handsome Jack Doppelganger Pack,” the first downloadable content pack for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Available on November 11, players will be able to take control of Jack’s Doppelganger, who is able to summon multiple Jack clones to aid him in battle:
As “Jack,” you’ll be able to summon multiple Digi-Jacks, which will join you in battle to mow down enemies and earn you more sweet, sweet loot. Depending on how you spec out your Skill Trees, these Digi-Jacks can earn you bonuses or even get you a Second Wind in Fight For Your Life. “Jack” can also shoot enemies with wrist lasers, get buffs every time he picks up money (in typical CEO fashion), or even get upgrades for using guns made by specific manufacturers.
The Handsome Jack Doppelganger Pack will be the first piece of content available through the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass (which is available for $29.99) and can also be purchased separately for $9.99 on the PC, PS3, or Xbox 360.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel