Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards
- 2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress
- The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game Awards
- “Animal Crossing” and Undertale” Lead the Way for New Book Series About Games at University of Chicago Press
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)
All Articles: Xbox 360
NBA 2K13 slams it home on October 2; tips off at Wii U launch too
It’s bad luck to change anything in the middle of a hot streak. Your favorite headband, your driving route to the court, even your underwear. It all has to stay the same. Every athlete knows this.
It looks like the people at 2K Sports are a superstitious bunch as well. Just as they’ve done every year since 2007, the publisher plans to release NBA 2K13 for the PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, and Xbox 360 during the first week of October (October 2 to be exact). A Wii U version is also in development and will ship during the “holiday season.”
NBA 2K13 is, as always, in development at Visual Concepts. This year, the developer plans to include a new downloadable NBA All-Star content package with every pre-order of the game. Buying early on the PS3 and Xbox 360 will net fans a trio of star-studded bonuses:
[The NBA All-Star] add-on content will be set in Houston, the site of the 2013 NBA All-Star Game and will allow fans to stage their own NBA All-Star Game, including three NBA All-Star events – the Foot Locker Three Point Shootout, BBVA Rising Stars Challenge, and the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest featuring all-new intuitive, pick-up-and-play controls.
Gamers can pit the NBA’s current superstars against classic players in both the Foot Locker Three Point Shootout and Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Rosters for both the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge and 2013 NBA All-Star Game will feature the 2012 All-Stars, with dynamic updates to the 2013 rosters once the participants are announced.
“The NBA All-Star package is our way saying ‘thank you’ to fans for their ongoing love of the NBA 2K series,” said Jason Argent, Vice President of Marketing for 2K Sports. “This content provides a ton of depth and value to our fans, and it’s just the beginning of a lot of big news about NBA 2K13.”
Bungie’s New Universe is an MMO spanning four games; first title is Xbox 360 exclusive
As the lawsuit between Activision and Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella drags on, the court proceedings have caused several enlightening bits of information to come to light. But none is more interesting than yesterday’s public reveal of the contract between Activision and Bungie.
The contract was requested by West and Zampella to show that the contract they signed with Activision was a lesser deal compared to the decade-long agreement that Bungie was given. I’m not sure why that matters since Bungie was (and is) an independent development studio and Infinity Ward was (and is) owned-and-operated by Activision. But some good came out of its release as the Los Angeles Times obtained a copy of the contract and put it on the Internet for all to see.
You’ll definitely want to read all the highlights relating to Bungie’s New Universe after the break. (more…)
FIFA Soccer 13 will bring the innovation this Fall
EA Sports has officially announced that FIFA Soccer 13 will be available this Fall on the… deep breath… 3DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360, and iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad.
The latest addition to EA’s footie franchise promises to take a few revolutionary steps forward with an improved Career Mode, improved online play, and more than 500 officially licensed teams (clubs in soccer-speak).
The publisher has also revealed that big changes are coming to the on-field action, which you can read more about after the break. (more…)
Blizzard is still unsure if Diablo III will come to consoles
Remember a few months back when Blizzard “confirmed” that a console version of Diablo III was in the works? Yeah, it turns out that definitive yes may have been less definitive than we were lead to believe.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Director Jay Wilson revealed that the console version is still very much in the theoretical stage and that the developer still isn’t ready to announce it:
Gamasutra: Are you still experimenting and exploring the console version of Diablo III?
JW: Yeah. We haven’t officially announced it, because we’re not “experimenting.” We tell people that basically we’re experimenting, because it helps us hire people. The better people we hire, the better chance we have to actually make it. That’s why we haven’t kept it super secret, but we also haven’t confirmed it, because we’re not sure yet whether we think it will work, and whether we think we have the resources to do it.
I hope they don’t cancel it. I’ll forever wonder if the devil made them do it.
Posted in News
Tagged Diablo III, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Prototype 2, Kinect Star Wars lead April 2012 NPD report
Activision’s Prototype 2 took the top spot in the latest NPD report of bestselling games. Another new release, the Xbox 360-exclusive Kinect Star Wars, “did the Han Solo” all the way up to #2.
The remainder of the list is overflowing with familiar faces from last Fall including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (#3), NBA 2K12 (#5), and Just Dance 3 (#9). It wasn’t a Fall release, but Mass Effect 3 continues to hold strong at #8 now that the controversy over the game’s ending has come to… an end.
In terms of dollars made, the game industry suffered a 32% drop in overall sales from April 2011 ($630.4 million versus $930.9 million) when Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat ruled the charts.
You can check out the NPD Group’s complete list of bestsellers for April 2012 after the break. (more…)
Posted in News
Tagged Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Just Dance 3, Kinect Star Wars, Mario Party 9, Mass Effect 3, MLB 12: The Show, NBA 2K12, NPD, PC, Prototype 2, PS2, PS3, PSP, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, Vita, Wii, Xbox 360
Creative Assembly’s Alien game is coming to current AND future generation consoles
A job posting on Creative Assembly’s website confirms that their long-gestating Alien project will be available on “current and future generation consoles” when its finally released. While it’s too early to make any definitive statements, this kind of current generation/next generation development tactic was very common in the early days of the PS3 and Xbox 360. Which means Creative Assembly’s Alien game might be released alongside the launch of the PS4 and/or Xbox 720. Maybe. Possibly.
While we don’t know where it’ll land, we do know it’ll include “gameplay” and “multiplayer.” So that’s something, I guess.
Crysis 3 teaser trailer teases a gameplay trailer coming April 24
This Crysis 3 teaser trailer is 19 seconds long… and it’s all just a setup to let us know that a full-length gameplay trailer will be released on Tuesday, April 24. Enjoy, I guess.
Dirt Showdown drifts into stores on May 29
The crackling sound of spitfire coming from rally car exhaust pipes will be back on your console soon, because Codemasters has brought you a new edition of Dirt to play around in. Dirt Showdown will be hitting the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in Europe on May 24 and here in North America on May 29. If you want to try before you buy, a demo will be released on May 1.
As is usual, Dirt Showdown will feature tons of tire squealing crashes, flips, and the occasional explosion. But there will also be “Hoonigan Mode” which allows you to pull of some insane tricks and stunts in your rip roaring rally cars. The game also features demolition derbies and figure 8 racing which will of course make for some destructive fun when you have a couple friends over. You might be able to take out some pent up animosity on their jumped-up jalopy.
Showdown is the first game from the publisher’s new division, Codemasters Racing. Dirt Showdown will also feature the brand new RaceNet beta, which will connect players to their stats to see how many doors they’ve blown off of their rivals.
But, unlike Ken Block, you can just hit the reset button if you happen to smash head-on into a jersey barrier.
Posted in News
Tagged DiRT Showdown, PC, PS3, Xbox 360