Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 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
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)
Author: Andrew Rainnie
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate outed by Nintendo Power
After last month’s tease, Nintendo Power has finally revealed their exclusive first look at the new entry into the Castlevania franchise. With an overly long subtitle, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate is a sequel to the 2010 reboot of the franchise that launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Best of all, Mirror of Fate is being developed by the same studio, Spanish-based Mercury Steam.
Little else is known thus far, although it has been revealed that the main protagonist is not Gabriel Belmont from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but rather a veritable Belmont Bunch. Mirror of Fate will feature four protagonists including Simon Belmont, the original vampire killer, and Trevor Belmont, who first appeared in Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse on the NES. The remaining two characters have yet to be revealed.
As the original Belmont, we all know Simon’s story. Wielding the “Vampire Killer” whip, he stormed Castlevania and whupped Dracula. But he was not alone. In the NES timeline, Trevor was the first Belmont to defeat Dracula. However, as this new entry is set in the reimagined universe, it remains to be seen how Simon or Trevor will fit into the new history.
In addition to the return of the Belmonts, Mirror of Fate will be a return to the “Metroidvania” style of play the franchise made famous. The game will focus more on exploration than combat with a 2.5D view throughout most of the game. But there will be plenty of fighting as Trevor will wield the Combat Cross and various magical spells while Simon cracks his whip and brings back other NES items like throwing axes and holy water.
Given the end scenes of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, it would be a safe bet that they’ll be meeting Gabriel soon enough. More information will undoubtedly be revealed at Konami’s pre-E3 event tomorrow.
[Source: Nintendo Power via Go Nintendo, About]
Posted in 3DS, News
Tagged Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, E3 2012
No Metro: Last Light for Wii U… yet
Despite being one of the games featured on the Wii U third-party showreel video at Nintendo’s E3 press conference last year, Metro: Last Light has been demoted to “no longer confirmed” for the new system. The news comes from Mark Madsen, global brand manager at financially troubled developer THQ:
“As we got along in the development process, we just really wanted to focus on what we knew, focus on PS3, 360 and PC… The verdict is out on what we can do to maximise the code for the Wii U, and we’ll see [what happens].”
Set to unveil the Wii U at E3 in less than a week, the news comes as a small blow to Nintendo (but it doesn’t completely shut the door on Metrod: Last Light coming to the Wii U). The announcement also poses more questions about the diminishing third-party publisher and makes us ask if other THQ titles due to launch on the Wii U, such as Darksiders II, will ever see the light of day.
[Source: Digital Spy]
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Metro: Last Light
Square Enix won’t let Sleeping Dogs lie with this new trailer
Square Enix and United Front Games have released an extensive new trailer detailing the ins and outs of their Hong Kong-based sandbox thriller, Sleeping Dogs. While the game, formerly know as True Crime: Hong Kong, has undergone a name change due to being dropped by its initial publisher, Activision, it is in every way a spiritual successor to the True Crime franchise. The game promises a blend of open-world sandbox missions mixed with RPG elements, with a heavy focus on a deep, involving storyline and the emotional choices the main character must face.
“You get to play as undercover cop Wei Shen. His mission: infiltrate the Sun on Yee and bring them down. Wei’s loyalties will be tested to the limit, torn by the Triad’s code of honour and his duty to the badge. He is trapped in a spiral of deceit and paranoia.”
Featuring the most advanced combat system in an open-world game that may supersede Batman: Arkham Asylum, as well as a free running element akin to the Assassin’s Creed games, Sleeping Dogs is currently due for release in North America on August 14th, Australia on August 16th, and in Europe on August 17th.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Sleeping Dogs
Western release date for Anarchy Reigns in limbo
Platinum Games, the developers behind Bayonetta and Vanquish, have released a statement on their blog about the North American and European release of their anticipated online multiplayer brawler, Anarchy Reigns.
“Sega has decided to change the date to TBC. While our work on the game is finished, localized, and ready to go, as publisher, Sega gets to make the final decision as to when it is released. The Japanese release date, however, remains unchanged for July 5, 2012.”
Reading between the lines, it feels as if there are many at Platinum who are not too happy with this decision. On a video blog, a representative from the developer expanded on the original post:
“That means ‘to be confirmed’, not ‘to be cancelled’. We worked really hard to make sure everybody could get the game on time. The game is fully localized. If you buy the Japanese version or any version, it’s going to have all the languages in it. We really wanted everybody online around the world to play together at the same time, but unfortunately that’s not going to happen… We’re still 100 percent behind the game and we still want to connect with you and play with you and have a good time. So let’s make sure that happens no matter what bad news we get.”
With Platinum essentially pushing people to buy an imported version, and the admission of impending bad news from their own blog, could mean that they fully expect TBC to mean “to be cancelled” after all. This, coupled with those pesky rumours that Sega has already cancelled Bayonetta 2, will undoubtedly lead to speculation that the partnership between Platinum and Sega is also about to be terminated.
[Source: Platinum Games]
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Anarchy Reigns
Sega monkeying around in Ron Gilbert’s The Cave
Sega has announced they will be publishing Double Fine’s The Cave, an adventure game from the mind of Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, for digital download on consoles and PC in early 2013.
With the usual brand of humour associated with Gilbert and Double Fine’s Tim Schafer, the game has been described as “an adventure game so odd and compelling that it can only be described as odd and compelling.”
“The concept of The Cave has been bouncing around in my head for many, many years, and then the little voices that tell me to do things said it was time to make the game,” explained Ron Gilbert. The game itself is said to utilise concepts from Gilbert’s own 1987 classic, Maniac Mansion, with the player able to select three of seven playable characters, including a knight, a monk, a pair of street urchins, a time traveller and a hillbilly, to enter the magical talking titular Cave. Each character will have their own personality and traits used to solve the puzzles found within.
A playable version of The Cave will more than likely make an appearance at next month’s E3 Expo.
Development officially begins on Zone of the Enders 3
Kojima Productions hit us with a double whammy of gaming news today. The first was the announcement that the Zone of the Enders HD Collection will be released in Japan on October 25 (three days after my birthday, but if anyone wishes to buy, I will accept a late present!).
However, the biggest news was that Hideo Kojima himself revealed that a third Enders title, currently known as the Enders Project, is in the very early stages of development. At the HD Night talk held in Shinjuku Wald 9 Cinema, Kojima showed off drawings and models that the staff have been building in order to experiment converting to CG for use with their internally developed Fox Engine, under the watchful eyes of producer Ryosuki Toriyama. It is unclear as to what range of success the experiments have yielded, if the Fox Engine will be used at all for the new instalment, or what platforms Enders Project will be developed for.
But it’s good to know that work has finally (and officially) begun on Zone of the Enders 3.
[Source: Andriasang]
Posted in News
Tagged Zone of the Enders 3, Zone of the Enders HD Collection
Shadow of the Colossus film gets Chronicle director
In April 2009 it was announced that Sony Pictures and Sony Computer Entertainment would be collaborating to make a movie adaptation of Team Ico’s classic game, Shadow of the Colossus. As expected, the news was met with a muted, lukewarm response from fans, disappointed with a plethora of past video game film failures. It was not helped by the fact that the “talent” included writer Justin Marks, who penned the misunderstood study of femininity that was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
Now this week, three years later, news broke that Josh Trank, director of the found-footage superhero flick Chronicle had been tasked with directing the film. He was not just handed the job, but actively fought for the role, citing his love of the game.
This motivation seems ill-placed though, as anyone who has ever played the game will know that it offers few characters and little to no dialogue, yet remains an amazing game through its highly original and stylised world, as well as an emotional investment in both Wander and his loyal horse Agro as they journey on their quest to slay sixteen colossi.
The only good news is that Trank’s involvement is a good sign, and seems to indicate that any script written by Marks will now be binned with Trank and a new writer starting from scratch. From a screenwriting prospective the game offers little dramatic structure that could be transferred to a film, compared to a game like Uncharted for example, which offers a very cinematic narrative within the actual game. How the as yet unannounced writer will tackle these issues remains to be seen.
While general opinion around the Internet regarding the new announcement has been as lukewarm as that made three years ago, some, including myself, remain optimistic that Sony will give Trank some creative freedom needed to translate the magic of the game to the cinema screen and craft an emotional journey to match that of the game.
[Source: Deadline]
Posted in Etcetera, News, PS2
Tagged Shadow of the Colossus
Lost Planet: EX Troopers announced for 3DS, PS3
Despite only recently being announced, EX Troopers, a spinoff to Capcom’s Lost Planet series, will be playable at the company’s Summer Jam event in Tokyo at the end of June. Currently 60% finished, the game features a new cel-shaded, anime-inspired look to separate it from its predecessors.
The game will take place at an Academy for Snow Pirates as they square off against the Starship Troopers-esque Akrid aliens on the planet of EDN-3rd. The main character will be that of Bren Turner, having arrived at the academy from EDN-2nd. Bren will be supported by an AI-enhanced Vital Suit codenamed Gingira, as well as a sexy female snow pirate named TeeKee, who has the mysterious ability to communicate with the monstrous Akrid.
The biggest surprise about the game, being produced by Shintaro Kojima of the Monster Hunter series, is that it will be released for both the PlayStation 3 and 3DS. At first this appears an unusual pairing, given that the Vita exists, however poor sales of Sony’s handheld in Capcom’s native Japan may be the predominant factor behind the 3DS version. It’s also possible the PS3 version is being prepared as a PlayStation Network release.
No word on if the game will make it to America, nor are there any gameplay details yet.
[Source: Andriasang]
Posted in News
Tagged 3DS, Lost Planet: EX Troopers, PS3