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
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition video leaks online
Microsoft is having a terrible time keeping Gears of War: Ultimate Edition secret. First, a source close to the development team confirmed the game’s existence last month. And today, Polygon has gotten their hands on a number of leaked videos that showcase the game’s remastered graphics:
The videos, apparently captured with Xbox One’s DVR capabilities, were quickly removed from several sites that automatically pull Xbox One recordings from the cloud, but not before they were grabbed by viewers and reposted elsewhere.
The videos appear to show a Gears of War with improved lighting effects, textures and framerate [than] the Xbox 360 original.
Rather than sit back and repeat “No comment” until this whole thing blows over, Microsoft went to work banning all the testers responsible for the leak. Polygon is reporting that the testers, who are employed by an outside testing service, have had their Xbox Live accounts banned as well as all of their “Xbox One privileges” (and I do mean all, Microsoft has supposedly effectively made their Xbox One consoles “unusable” online):
Microsoft also permanently disabled their Xbox LIVE accounts (as well as other suspected accounts present on their Xbox One kits) and temporarily blocked all of their Xbox One privileges – meaning that for a period of time which Microsoft decides on depending on the severity of the offense, their Xbox One is entirely unusable.
I guess the moral of the story is… don’t break non-disclosure agreements. Of course, the more important takeaway from this tale is that Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is real and its coming soon.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Gears of War
Nintendo Download: Stretchmo, New Super Mario Bros., Attack on Titan 3DS, more
It’s Thursday, so that means it’s time for another edition of the Nintendo Download. Eight new games will call the Nintendo eShop home this week. Some of this week’s new releases include…
- The first game in Nintendo’s side-scrolling New Super Mario Bros. series makes the leap from the DS to the Wii U.
- Capcom continues their Mega May promotion with the launch of Mega Man Battle Network 3: Blue/White, which was originally released for the Game Boy Advance, on the Wii U eShop.
- The first game based on the popular Attack on Titan anime, Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains, has been added to the 3DS eShop.
- Stretchmo is the latest game in Nintendo’s Pushmo series of puzzlers. Available now on the 3DS, players have the option to play a free-to-play version limited to the first seven levels or they can purchase additional level packs individually or as a bundle.
More information on all these titles (and four others) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains, New Super Mario Bros.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege will swarm store shelves on October 13
Amidst all the delays, we’re starting to get a few real release dates for this Fall’s biggest games including confirmation of an October 13 launch for Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege.
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, Rainbox Six: Siege is a team-based shooter that’ll be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One:
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is inspired by real world counter-terrorist organizations, and puts players in the middle of lethal close-quarters confrontations. For the first time in a Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six game, players will choose from a variety of unique Counter Terrorist Operators and engage in intense sieges, a new style of assault where enemies have the means to transform their environments into modern strongholds while Rainbow Six teams lead the assault to breach the enemy’s position.
We’ll likely learn more about Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege during this year’s E3 Expo, which is roughly a month away.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Lego Jurassic World will launch on June 12 with more than 20 playable dinosaurs
Eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs in your, in your dinosaur game, right?
Oh, umm, never mind, Lego Jurassic World will actually feature more than 20 playable dinosaurs and they’re all right here in this new trailer. In addition to this new look at the game’s adorable (and deadly) beasts, WB Games and TT Games have also announced it’ll be available in stores for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on June 12.
Players who plan to purchase Lego Jurassic World from select retailers will also receive a little bonus packed in with the game. These select retailers include GameStop (Lego Dino Trap Mini Playset), Target (Dr. Wu Minifigure), and Walmart ($10 Movie Cash Certificate).
The latest Jurassic Park film, Jurassic World, will also open on June 12, so that Movie Cash Certificate might come in handy.
Can you survive the Evil Ninja and the Micro Drone in these N++ trailers? Probably not…
Metanet Software continues their series of N++ enemy trailers with a look at the Evil Ninja and (after the break) the Micro Drone. Like all the enemies in N++, they will kill you… a lot… though the Evil Ninja looks trickier than most. Two more trailers for the devilishly hard platformer will be released over the next two weeks, but in case you missed it, feel free to gaze at the stick figure carnage caused by Rockets and Deathballs in the first pair of trailers.
N++ is currently in development for the PS4 and will be released soon. (more…)
Odell Beckham wins Madden NFL 16 Cover Vote… and here’s a “First Look” trailer
The one-day Madden NFL 16 Cover Vote is over and New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham has emerged victorious New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. Beckham won in a very close vote (53% to 47%, according to ESPN.com/MaddenVote), perhaps due to lingering anger over “Deflategate.” Or perhaps “Deflategate” is the dumbest sports controversy in years and it had nothing to do with the vote. Yeah, I’m going with the latter.
“Odell Beckham Jr. is a true playmaker and a perfect fit for this year’s game,” said Randy Chase, Senior Director of Marketing for EA Sports. “He’s an unstoppable force out on the field, and the Madden NFL 16 cover is further vindication that the fans believe he’s a player to watch in the coming years.”
As always, Madden NFL 16 is in development at EA Tiburon and it’ll be released for the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 on August 25. You can check out a “First Look” trailer embedded above, but it is a very early look at the game, so don’t expect much insight into what this year’s Madden will look like.
Xbox Store Today: Project CARS, AirMech Arena, Lifeless Planet, more
Project CARS vrooms vrooms its way onto the Xbox Games Store today. The Xbox One title is the latest from Slightly Mad Studios, a development team that has been working hard to perfect the racing game. Working with a community of dedicated fans, its possible that they may have done it.
Also available on the Xbox Games Store this week is AirMech Arena, a free-to-play “fast-paced real-time strategy game” where players take control of AirMechs, flying jets that transform into robotic mechs. You might say they’re more than meets the eye… but I won’t say that, it might imply something untoward.
Science also plays a role in this week’s new releases as Lifeless Planet: Premier Edition and Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark can also be purchased by Xbox One owners today. Lifeless Planet is an exploration game that features a mysterious Russian town on a believed-to-be-barren rock while Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a puzzle platformer that puts its scientific cred right there in the title.
Finally, a new title will call the Xbox 360 section of the Xbox Games Store home this week. Syberia II is an adventure game that was originally released for the PC in 2004. With part three on the horizon, the second game in the series is now downloadable for the Xbox 360.
More information on all of these games can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Project CARS
The Walking Dead Season 3 won’t be out until 2016 but “something BIG” is coming in 2015
Job Stauffer, Telltale’s Director of Public Relations, has some bad news for fans of The Walking Dead. Tweeting today about The Walking Dead Season 3, Stauffer revealed the first episode of the game won’t be released this year:
To re-clarify, no, TWD S3 is *not* starting in 2015. But what I am seeing this week will be, and it is insanely cool. Stay close, news soon!
— Job J Stauffer (@jobjstauffer) May 12, 2015
However, you shouldn’t despair too much. Stauffer followed that tweet with a second one promising that “something BIG for [Walking Dead] fans” would be released this year. We don’t know for sure, but Stauffer could be referring to another bridge episode, similar to the way The Walking Dead: 400 Days was released about seven months after the completion of Season 1, but five months before the beginning of Season 2.
In hindsight, its likely that Telltale never planned to launch The Walking Dead Season 3 in 2015. With multiple episodes for Game of Thrones and Tales From the Borderlands still in the works and the launch of Minecraft: Story Mode penciled in for a Fall 2015 release, Telltale’s plate was already pretty overflowing.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged The Walking Dead: A New Frontier, The Walking Dead: Michonne