Video games get a little extra recognition at next year’s Grammys

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

As a new medium, video games are still struggling to be recognized as a legitimate form of art. At next year’s Grammy Awards, games will get one step closer to making its critical acceptance a reality.

Kinda.

The Recording Academy has announced that games will be getting equal billing alongside television and film for four categories: Music for Visual Media, Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, and Best Song Written for Visual Media. Previously, video games were inferred in the descriptors of the awards, which used to read like “Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Motion, Television, or Other Visual Media).” Now, they’ll be listed right alongside their counterparts in the parentheses.

It may not be a giant step, but it’s a step forward nonetheless. Still, it leaves the Grammy Awards far behind other similar events, such as Britain’s Ivor Novello Awards, which last year gave their inaugural Best Original Video Game Score to Joris de Man for his work on Killzone 2.

[Source: Industry Gamers]

Posted in Etcetera, News |

Weekly Warp-Up: Anonymous Edition

Posted on April 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…

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It’s been a tough week for Sony.

First, Angry hackers declared war on the company over the OtherOS thing and some even made remarks referring to CEO Jack Tretton’s kids. The hackers managed to take down the PlayStation Network and several Sony-connected websites. Then, the online activist group Anonymous took responsibility for the PSN outages, but insulted the gamers they were trying to “help” at the same time. Finally, after Anonymous was informed that their campaign to restores services that PS3 owners had paid for was causing other services that PS3 owners paid for to crash, they suspended their campaign against Sony.

And in a totally unrelated matter, Sony’s CEO has apparently lost his mind, delusionally slamming Nintendo and Microsoft in an interview with Fortune.

But Sony did receive one piece of good news this week. Their Killzone franchise was the first selection for the Warp Zoned Wish List, a new ongoing column where we reveal what we want to see in announced and unannounced future projects. The inaugural article answers the question What We Want From Killzone 4.

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

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Posted in News |

Resistance 3 early beta access included with SOCOM 4

Posted on April 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

Sony keeps the beta train rolling with the announcement that gamers who purchase SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALs will receive early access to the Resistance 3 public beta. Sony seems to be knitting some kind of “beta chain” for their major 2011 releases as early access to the SOCOM 4 beta (which is going on right now) was included with copies of Killzone 3.

Both the regular version and the Full Deployment Edition of SOCOM 4 will include a voucher for beta access. And gamers can get their hands on either when the game is released on April 19.

Sony has promised that more details on the Resistance 3 beta program will be released soon.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged ,

New Releases: Michael Jackson The Experience, Patapon 3, Rio, More

Posted on April 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

Next week will be one of the biggest weeks for new releases this year, but that doesn’t mean publishers are taking this week off. Instead, they’ve put together quite possibly the oddest combination of games I’ve ever seen.

First up is the PS3 (with Move) and Xbox 360 (with Kinect) versions of Michael Jackson: The Experience. The King of Pop will be strutting through your living room with several new songs and a “Singing Mode.” If you need to feel the rhythm on the go, Sony will release the PSP rhythm game Patapon 3 this week as well.

Two big games for the kids will be in stores this week, a video game adaptation of the movie Rio (DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360) and the uDraw-powered SpongeBob SquigglePants (Wii).

Finally, we have two games that start with D and have been released for other platforms before: Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga (Xbox 360 this week, previously on the PC) and Dance Dance Revolution (Xbox 360 this week, previously on the PS3 and Wii).

The full list of the rest of this week’s new releases can be found after the break.

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

SCEA CEO blasts Nintendo, calls DS a “babysitting tool”

Posted on April 8, 2011 by John Scalzo

Jack Tretton is the President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. If his recent interview with Fortune is anything to go by, he’s also horribly out of touch with how the PlayStation family’s fortunes are faring in the marketplace.

Tretton started off slow, knocking the Wii and Xbox 360 for their optional storage solutions and motion gaming peripherals (I guess the PlayStation Move is beyond that kind of criticism):

“They’re starting to run out of steam now in terms of continuing to be relevant in 2011 and beyond,” [Tretton] says. “I mean, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Why would I buy a gaming system without a hard drive in it? How does this thing scale? Motion gaming is cute, but if I can only wave my arms six inches, how does this really feel like I’m doing true accurate motion gaming?”

Tretton unleashed his true ire on the DS, playing the dreaded “kiddie” card and resorting to namecalling when referring to adult DS owners…

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Posted in DS, News, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 |

Daily Scoop – April 8, 2011: Shred it up

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Other than the fact that the weekend is on the horizon, there’s nothing much going on today. It’s just a lame rainy day, without deals or scoops or anything fun.

I mean, other than today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games, which is Activision’s Tony Hawk: Shred Bundle for the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It’s 50% off today at $29.99, so if you want to shred in your living room, scoop this puppy up.

Nothing else. Really. You are looking for something that isn’t here. Or you just want to go buy unicornos:

They live between the magic kingdom and the real world. Magic Kingdom is in Florida, so they live in, what, Tennessee? I want to get a case.

Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Mortal Kombat: Rebirth premiering April 12; now titled “MK: Legacy”

Posted on April 8, 2011 by John Scalzo

Mortal Kombat: Rebirth… get over here!

The short film series, that was a labor of love of director Kevin Tancharoen, will debut on the Machinima YouTube channel on April 12. In anticipation of its release, The series has been given a new name, Mortal Kombat: Legacy, and a new trailer. In the teaser above, you can see Jax (Maichal Jai White) battling it out with a pre-facial surgery Kano (Darren Shahlavi) in a fight that includes knives, guns and a grenade launcher.

The release schedule for future installments in the Legacy series wasn’t announced. But don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of blood and gore when the Mortal Kombat reboot is released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 a week later on April 19.

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D3 to publish White Knight Chronicles II this Summer

Posted on April 8, 2011 by John Scalzo

D3 Publisher has swooped in and picked up the publishing rights to Level-5’s White Knight Chronicles II. Originally published by Sony in Japan, the PS3 RPG will be released this Summer in a special edition that also includes the original White Knight Chronicles.

According to D3, the sequel will include a single-player campaign, a “multiplayer co-op experience” and “new fan-requested features.”

That’s neat and all, but look, free game!

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