Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- 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
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC 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: John Scalzo
MS @ E3 12: Ascend, LocoCycle, Matter coming in 2013
Microsoft just dropped three trailers for three new games with 2013 release dates in quick succession.
Ascend: New Gods looks to be Microsoft’s take on Shadow of the Colossus as bizarre-looking knights battle even more bizarre-looking giants. It’s coming from Signal Studios, the creators of Toy Soldiers.
LocoCycle is being developed by Twisted Pixel, and while we didn’t get any gameplay footage, it looks to be a spy game starring a sentient motorcycle. From any other developer, that’d be weird, but it’s more or less par for the course when it comes to the Twisted Pixel guys.
Finally, there’s Matter. It’s designed by Gore Verbinksi (director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies) and made for Kinect. It looks like a sleeker, more modern version of Marble Madness.
MS @ E3 12: Internet Explorer finally coming to Xbox 360
Years after Nintendo and Sony brought web browsing to their consoles, Microsoft has just announced that Internet Explorer (with Kinect-browsing options and a special Bing search engine) will be released for the Xbox 360 this year. And it actually looks pretty slick.
The browser also connects with the Xbox SmartGlass app on your browser or phone for touchscreen-like control.
MS @ E3 12: Xbox Music promises 30 million tracks
Microsoft is planning to launch a new music service for the Xbox 360 (another one?) called Xbox Music. According to , Xbox Music will include “more than 30 million tracks.” The service will offer all the features of a standard music player including your most played songs, recommendations, and what your friends are listening to.
The service will also be usable across Xbox 360, Windows Phones, and Windows 8 desktops and tablets.
Isn’t this just Zune Music with a new name?
MS @ E3 12: Gears of War: Judgment coming next year
Microsoft just showed the debut trailer for Gears of War: Judgment at their E3 Press Conference. The game is looking pretty sharp as we see Augustus “Cole Train” Cole and Damon Baird lay waste to a whole horde of Locust.
We’ll have the trailer up soon, but we did learn that Gears of War: Judgment will launch sometime in 2013.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2012, Gears of War: Judgment
MS @ E3 12: EA Sports brings Kinect to FIFA 13, Madden NFL 13
Microsoft has ceded the stage of their E3 Press Conference to EA Sports, and the publisher is showing off the Kinect features of FIFA Soccer 13 and Madden NFL 13.
In FIFA, players will be able to set up passes and formations and even talk to their players on the field. But watch the potty mouth, as the Kinect sensor will pick up bad words and the on-screen referees won’t hesitate to hand out a red card for the offense.
The publisher showed off Madden with a little help from Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana (who’s apparently a traitor to his Sega roots). Players will be able to call plays, audibles, and targeted receivers. They’ll even be able to hike the ball with a “Hut, Hut, Hike!”
Montana was impressed.
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged E3 2012, FIFA Soccer 13, Madden NFL 13
Steampunk shooter Sine Mora soon to be seen on Vita
Even though it was published by Microsoft on the Xbox Live Arcade, Sine Mora, the steampunk shooter collaboratively developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture, will be coming to the PS Vita soon.
“When you’ve got a great game on your hands, there’s nothing you want to do more than share it with everyone,” said Balázs Horváth, director of publishing at Digital Reality. “We had a fantastic launch with Microsoft exclusively on Xbox LIVE Arcade, and we’re really excited to continue that on the Vita.”
In addition to the portability factor, the Vita version will receive an exclusive character: Wilhelmine Muller from G.rev’s Under Defeat. This crossover character will bring a unique special weapon and new chronomes to Sine Mora.
The side-scrolling shooter’s Vita debut wasn’t given a release date, Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture are confident that it’ll appear on the handheld “soon.”
Latest Quantum Conundrum trailer enters the E3 dimension
Square Enix has released a new trailer for Quantum Conundrum ahead of this year’s E3 Expo. In it, we get our first glimpse of Professor Quadwrangle’s mutant cat as well as the Power Glove-like device that the unnamed protagonist uses to change dimensions at will. So find your favorite fluffy chair and give it a watch.
Quantum Conundrum will be available for the PC (via Steam) on June 21 with a PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade release following this Summer.
Wii U gets its own social network, Miiverse
I know that everybody loved Friend Codes, but Nintendo plans to do away with the matchmaking service when the Wii U launches later this year. Instead, the console will come pre-bundled with the Nintendo Network, which will be home to a Wii U-centric social network known as Miiverse (or “Mii Universe,” if you prefer).
When players enter the Miiverse, they’ll be transported to a bustling city of Miis that are congregating around the most popular apps and games the Wii U has to offer (even games you don’t own). In addition to learning that Super Mario Bros. Wii U is very popular, the Miiverse will also blast the player with status updates from “friends, people playing the same games as you, and people who speak the same language as you.”
For a more personal connection, the Miiverse also offers video chat (courtesy of the Wii U GamePad’s front-facing camera), messaging (including handwritten messages scrawled on the GamePad’s touchscreen), and game-specific message boards.
These in-game messages will also bleed over into the games themselves, as all Wii U games will have the ability to connect to the Miiverse. During the Pre-E3 Nintendo Direct presentation, company President Satoru Iwata showed how gamers can converse and commiserate within Super Mario Bros. Wii U.
The Miiverse will also be accesible from other devices including the 3DS, the PC, and mobile devices. However, this feature of the social network won’t be available when the Wii U launches this Fall.
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged E3 2012, New Super Mario Bros. U