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
New Retail Releases: Minecraft Wii U Edition, Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition
E3 week is almost upon us, and you know what that means…
Since most game publishers won’t release new games during E3 week, those that followed the tradition have ensured today’s “New Retail Releases” report will be quite short. But Microsoft decided to buck the trend, and will release a pair of games this week that were previously available only as digital downloads.
First up, the consolemaker’s Mojang division will release Minecraft: Wii U Edition for the… wait for it… Wii U. Minecraft’s Wii U Edition is the same virtual playground that we all know and love, but it’ll include the Super Mario Mash-up Pack expansion, which adds Mario-themed characters, textures, and music to the game.
Also available this week is Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition, an enhanced and expanded version of the well-received “MetroidVania” for the PC and Xbox One. Players will still be able to guide young Ori through the forest of Nibel, but the Definitive Edition will add new areas, new abilities, more story sequences, and multiple difficulty modes to the game.
That’s it for now, but we’ll be back soon with a round-up of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Watch the first gameplay trailer for Injustice 2 right here
The field has been whittled down to the “Fatal 8” for the Season 3 Finals at today’s Mortal Kombat X ESL Pro League event, and you can head over to NetherRealm’s Twitch channel right now to witness the rest of the bone-shattering action. But Creative Director Ed Boon also unveiled the first gameplay trailer for Injustice 2 during the broadcast, and in case you missed it, we’ve got it right here:
In case you missed it, here is the Injustice 2 gameplay teaser! #MKXProLeague pic.twitter.com/nnmTZfh4Do
— ESL Mortal Kombat (@ESLMortalKombat) June 12, 2016
Injustice 2 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One sometime in 2017, and Boon has promised that a lengthier look at the game will be unveiled during next week’s E3 Expo.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Injustice 2
NIS America will bring Touhou Genso Wanderer to the US/Europe in Early 2017
NIS America loves roguelike dungeon crawlers with anime-influenced art styles, and the niche publisher has announced plans to bring another one, Touhou Genso Wanderer, to North America and Europe early next year.
Released in Japan as Fushigi No Gensokyo: The Tower of Desire, Touhou Genso Wanderer is part of the Touhou Project universe and it’ll be the first game in the franchise to have a western launch. As you might expect from a long-running series that’s never left Japan before, Touhou Genso Wanderer’s story starts out pretty wild:
One day, Reimu Hakurei is visiting Rinnosuke Morichika at his shop, Kourindo. He shows her one of his prized possessions, the golden sphere. However, when she touches it, it unleashes a mysterious beam of light. Rinnosuke starts acting strange, and a giant tower now stands where Kourindo used to be. The population of Gensokyo has also been replicated by clones who attack people on sight. As the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, it is Reimu’s duty to resolve this latest incident and bring peace back to Gensokyo.
Along the way, she is joined by Futo Mononobe, who has recently set out on a quest to become a first class sage. With her partner in tow, can Reimu make her way through the dungeons of the tower and put an end to this incident?
Magical orbs, mysterious towers, random clone attacks… you know what, I think “wild” might be underselling it. Touhou Genso Wanderer is in development for the PS4 and Vita by Aqua Style, and will be released by NIS America in Early 2017.
Posted in News, PS4, Vita
Tagged Touhou Genso Wanderer
Gran Turismo Sport’s E3 2016 trailer is bombastically operatic
Sony and Polyphony Digital got together recently to produce another epic preview of Gran Turismo Sport for the upcoming E3 Expo. Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Sony’s Ken Chan broke down the four-minute trailer for fans:
With E3 2016 just around the corner, we thought we’d give the community a first look at some of the new features in Gran Turismo Sport, including Livery Editor, Social Features, Live Broadcast, and Photo Scapes modes.
Gran Turismo’s legacy of innovation is rekindled once again with the next iteration of Polyphony Digital’s eSports-focused racing simulator. More than 15 years ago Kazunori Yamauchi and his team introduced console gamers to real-world physics, and more recently, Gran Turismo has trailblazed new paths across the gaming and automotive industries with programs such as Vision Gran Turismo and GT Academy. Building on GT Academy’s success, GT Sport empowers gamers of all skill levels to compete in high-stakes racing with FIA-certified championships.
Gran Turismo Sport will be released exclusively for the PS4 on November 15. We’ll definitely hear quite a bit more about it during next week’s E3 Expo.
Posted in News, PS4
Tagged E3 2016, Gran Turismo Sport
Dontnod gives Vampyr the E3 2016 trailer treatment
Life Is Strange wasn’t Dontnod Entertainment’s first game, but the apocalyptic adventure game put the developer on the map in a big way last year, and fans are eager to learn more about what the studio is up to next. With E3 in the air, the developer has decided that this year’s Expo is the perfect opportunity to give us another look at their followup, the action RPG Vampyr.
Vampyr takes place in London, at the height of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Players will take control of Dr. Jonathan Reid, a recently-turned vampire who fights between his pledge to heal the sick, and his uncontrollable thirst for blood. But unfortunately for us, the good doctor isn’t able to keep his hunger at bay forever, and the question of “Should I kill?” quickly morphs into the much different question, “Who should I kill?” According to Dontnod, the choices players make in who lives and who dies will ultimately cause “deadly ramifications” for the city around them.
Vampyr will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2017.
Xbox Store Today: Ducati 90th Anniversary, Professional Farmer 2017, Dovetail Games Euro Fishing, more
It’s time to explore the great outdoors in today’s Xbox Games Store update with four new games for the Xbox One.
First up is Ducati: 90th Anniversary, a motorcycle racing game from Milestone that’ll put you inches from the asphalt. However, if you’d prefer fresh air, Professional Farmer 2017 will give Xbox One owners the chance to experience the life of a farmer. And after a hard day of tilling the soul and milking the cows, you can relax with Dovetail Games Euro Fishing, a fishing simulator that features “Europe’s most famous lakes.”
Finally this week, Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride, a first-person adventure game that takes place in a fantasy world with a mysterious forest and foreboding bottomless pit.
More information on all four of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Kit Harrington will play “The Face of the Enemy” in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Everyone seems to love the absolutely-most-definitely-not-dead Jon Snow on Game of Thrones. Kit Harrington doesn’t have many other credits to his name, but that’s about to change, as the actor has signed on to portray “The Face of the Enemy” in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
“Kit is an amazing talent, and the consummate pro,” said Taylor Kurosaki, the Narrative Director at Infinity Ward. “Our story is about an epic showdown of opposing forces, and Kit immersed himself into the role and truly became the embodiment of the enemy, the Settlement Defense Front. We can’t wait for fans to see Kit play an entirely different kind of character.”
Harrington’s motion-capture performance was actually directed by Guy Ritchie, who previously recruited his Sherlock Holmes buddy, Robert Downey Jr., for Call of Duty: Black Ops II‘s live-action trailer.
“Guy Ritchie is a friend of the franchise, so it was great to have him back to work with us, assisting in bringing Kit Harington’s character to life in Infinite Warfare,” added Infinity Ward’s Studio Head, Dave Stohl. “It meant a lot to us to develop the role into everything it could be. We’re excited about the performance Kit delivered and can’t wait to get it out to the public. We’re committed to delivering a compelling story with rich character depth, and this was a special opportunity to add to our fantastic cast.”
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is scheduled for a November 4th release on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. We’ll get a closer look at the game during next week’s E3 Expo, probably during Sony’s E3 Press Conference on Monday.
More powerful “PS4 Neo” is real… but it won’t be available anytime soon
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Andrew House recently told The Financial Times that the PS4 Neo, the long-rumored more powerful version of the PS4, is officially in the works. However, contrary to all the rumors out there, the upgraded system won’t make its debut at this year’s E3 Expo.
House confirmed a few details about the proposed system, including the fact that it won’t replace the current PS4: “It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4. We will be selling both through the life cycle.” The CEO also reassured current PS4 owners that, as of right now, games won’t be designed exclusively for the PS4 Neo, though it will support 4K displays: “All games will support the standard PS4 and we anticipate all or a very large majority of games will also support the high-end PS4.”
While we know it exists, it might be a while before we see the PS4 Neo on store shelves. House said Sony wants to have a wide range of titles available to showcase the Neo’s abilities before they show it to the public. That means we also have no idea how much it’ll cost, but my guess is it’ll be pricey.