Valve comic collection coming in November

Posted on July 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

Dark Horse’s newest solicitation list has revealed the comic book publisher plans to release a hardcover compilation of Valve’s promotional comic strips in November. Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories will contain over 300 pages of comic strips set within the worlds of Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, and Portal.

Here’s what Dark Horse had to say about the collection:

For fifteen years, Valve has defined the cutting edge of video games. Now, Valve joins with Dark Horse to bring three critically acclaimed, fan-favorite series to print, with a hardcover collection of comics from the worlds of Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, and Portal. With over three hundred pages of story, Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories is a must-read for fans looking to further explore the games they love or comics readers interested in dipping their toes into new mythos!

Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and Other Steam-Powered Stories will be available in stores and online on November 16

[Source: Comic Book Resources]

Posted in Etcetera, News |

Space Invaders film in the works

Posted on July 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

With films based on Uncharted, Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed in the works, the “video game movie” may be undergoing a radical shift in the near future. But in addition to those more cerebral games, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed there’s a movie adaptation of Space Invaders in the works as well.

The movie rights to the game adaptation have been acquired by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (one of the producers of the Transformers trilogy) and Odd Lot Entertainment’s Gigi Pritzker, who are currently looking for a writer. Although “adaptation” may be stretching the definition of the words as Space Invaders had little in the way of plot or characters. In fact, the whole story is right there in the title: invaders, possibly from space, are attacking Earth!

This isn’t the first time a Space Invaders movie has been mulled over by Hollywood. Last year, Warner Bros. and Criminal Minds mastermind Mark Gordon attempted to acquire the rights, but that deal must have fallen apart.

Whatever the final movie looks like, it’s unlikely it’ll top one of the greatest moments in the history of Futurama.

Posted in Etcetera, News | Tagged

Daily Scoop: July 11, 2011 – Irony of ironies!

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Sometimes, I find I end up going through more pain when I drag a decision out than when I just make one on the spur of the moment. When Editor-in-Chief John Scalzo emailed me earlier this weekend to tell me that the Infamous 2 Hero Edition was $59.99 at GameStop, I waited until last night to order it. I waited as long as I could, thinking it would go down in price at Amazon, which has always been a more reliable way to order games, in my opinion. So, of course, after ordering it last night, I wake up this morning to find that Amazon’s Deal of the Day in video games is… yup. You guessed it. The Infamous 2 Hero Edition for $49.99.

Sigh.

Anyway, Amazon’s also having some lightning deals in video games again today:

  • 6 AM PDT/9 AM EST: LittleBigPlanet 2 for $39.99!
  • 9 AM PDT/12 PM EST: Experience the thrill of the Major Leagues – it’s MLB 11: The Show for $29.99!
  • 1 PM PDT/4 PM EST: Lowest price ever on Razer Gaming Mouse – Razer Imperator Ergonomic Laser Gaming Mouse for $54.94
  • 1 PM PDT/4 PM EST: Hit a home run with this great deal – MLB 2011: Dualshock Wireless controller for $39.99
  • 4 PM PDT/7 PM EST: An arcade style, multi vehicle type racing game exclusively for play on PlayStation

As always, we’ll be updating the details as they come in!

As far as gaming t-shirts go, Ript‘s got you covered with their “Visit Rapture” t-shirt:

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, PS3 |

Weekly Warp-Up: July is Too Hot Edition

Posted on July 10, 2011 by John Scalzo

No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…

The temperature is rising, but we’ve got lots of cool games to talk about this week on the Warp Zoned Weekly Warp-Up.

Get Warp Zoned!
The Warp Zoned Podcast goes weekly with episode 13! Mike Gutierrez, Nicole Kline, Ryan Littlefield, and Adam Woolcott tackle some of the most important news, starting with what they’ve been playing, moving on to the big regime change at Sony, and ending with Nintendo’s folly with Operation Rainfall. They keep the tangents to a minimum, focusing mostly on ridiculous peripheries for the Wii.

We also dug back through the last five years of gaming and found Five Games That Deserve Another Look. Trust me, you’ll thank us.

Hit the jump for the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up.

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Posted in News |

See the BioShock Infinite “Behind Closed Doors” E3 demo

Posted on July 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

BioShock Infinite cleaned up at this year’s E3 Game Critics Awards winning Best of Show, Best Original Game, Best PC Game and Best Action/Adventure Game.

BioShock Infinite won these awards on the back of a “Behind Closed Doors” demo provided by Irrational Games. Now, Ken Levine and the rest of Irrational has released the demo for public consumption and its easy to see why it won so many accolades.

BioShock Infinite is currently on track for a 2012 release on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. So hopefully we’ll get plenty more gameplay footage where this came from.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Bungie bids farewell to the Halo franchise

Posted on July 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

Halo was first revealed at MacWorld 1999, at a time when Semisonic’s “Closing Time” was one of the most popular songs on the radio. While the game and the song are otherwise unrelated, the theme of Bungie’s farewell to the Halo franchise seems to evoke the song’s memorable: line “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

The team at Bungie talked about the last 20 years and how much the Halo franchise means to them. But they have also empowered fans to remember that the series ultimately belongs to them and to “hold these characters and stories and worlds to the same unflinching standards you did while we were at the helm, but allow them all to blossom and change and grow in the ways that they must.”

The developer also revealed that Halo matchmaking services will transfer to Microsoft’s 343 Industries on August 2, the same day they plan to release a documentary on Bungie’s history titled O Brave New Worlds. After that, they plan to go dark and begin serious work on their New Universe.

They closed by saying thanks to all their fans, but really, I think its the fans who should be saying thanks to them. Whether or not you like the Halo franchise, it changed video gaming forever. And that’s not something too many developers can say.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 |

Bungie hiring more PS3 developers for their New Universe; could it be Pimps at Sea?

Posted on July 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

If you were still worried that Bungie’s New Universe wouldn’t be coming to the PS3, don’t be. The developer, who just said goodbye to the Halo series, has posted multiple job openings looking for programmers who are proficient in PS3 development.

Scouring the job listings produced few details about the project, although the phrase “A love of combat on the high seas” appeared several times under the heading “Nice-to-have Skills.” Does this mean Bungie is developing a pirate game? Perhaps one with futuristic pirates? Or is this just another reference to their long-running April Fool’s franchise Pimps at Sea? The world may never know.

Actually, we’ll probably know in the not-too-distant future as Bungie plans to “go dark” and afterwards reveal the first game in their New Universe, published by Activision, very soon. Good thing too as the game will likely be released in 2012.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

New Releases: NCAA Football 12, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, More

Posted on July 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

As the Player’s Association and the NFL slowing grind towards a deal to prevent the cancellation of the 2011-12 season, EA Sports wants to know if you’re ready for some college football as NCAA Football 12 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 this week. Also available this week is the final entry game adaptation of a Harry Potter movie as EA plans to release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the DS, PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

The final major release for this week is a game that’s actually five years old. It’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – 5th Anniversary Edition and it includes all the previously released DLC, both expansions and a coupon for $10 off this Fall’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break.

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Posted in DS, News, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,