Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
Stan Bush’s “The Touch” gets remixed for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Last year, Stan Bush released a redone version of his iconic Transformer theme, “The Touch,” alongside High Moon’s Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Over the weekend, Bush released a brand new music video for the song featuring some of the biggest moments from the game. The “Power Mix” actually isn’t too bad and Stan wants you to know it’s also available on iTunes.
Of course, if you’d prefer to revel in the 80s awesomeness of the original version from Transformers: The Movie, you can find that music video after the break. (more…)
Minecraft: PS3 Edition will be released tomorrow; PS4, Vita versions coming in 2014
Good news, everyone! Mojang and Sony have announced that Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition will be available from the PlayStation Store beginning tomorrow, December 17. If you’re holding out for Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition or Minecraft: PS Vita Edition, I’ve got some bad news… they won’t be releaesd until sometime in 2014.
According to Owen Hill of Mojang (via the PlayStation Blog), it’s currently unknown if the PS3 Edition of Minecraft will include a Remote Play option or PS4/Vita cross-platform compatibility. Mojang also isn’t sure if they’ll be able to offer Minecraft as a Cross-Buy download.
What they do know is that Minecraft: PlayStation 3 Edition and Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition will be virtually identical. And now that the game is available on both platforms, future updates will be developed in tandem. Skin Packs and Texture Packs will also be released for the PS3 Edition sometime in the future.
Lego The Hobbit’s first trailer is here and back again
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug cruised to the top of the box office heap this weekend with a total ticket take of $73 million. So now seems like a perfect time for Warner Bros. Games to unveil the first trailer for Lego The Hobbit, which is due to be released in 2014.
After watching this trailer, I think it’s official, Martin Freeman and Ian McKellan need to be in everything. Lego The Hobbit will be released for (deep breath) the PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U, and 3DS.
Weekly Warp-Up: Lazy December Edition
No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…
The end of the year is fast approaching and the video game industry has begun their leisurely crawl towards the new calendar year. But one thing that is happening at this time of year is the beginning of the newest season in League of Legends. And Warp Zoned Contributor Zackery Cote sat down to examine League of Legends: The First 21 Days of Season 4′s Preseason.
But this week is all about quiet contemplation, like John Carmack talking about the 20th anniversary of the release of Doom. And speaking of Carmack, his new company, Oculus VR, continues to move towards the creation of a consumer version of their Ocuclus Rift headset thanks to a new round of investment funds.
If your mousing hand is up to it, hit the break for more news from the week that was. (more…)
Posted in News
Oculus raises $75 million to produce consumer version of Rift headset
As popular as the Oculus Rift is with developers, it’s easy to forget that the consumer version of the virtual reality headset has yet to be released. But we’re one step closer to that goal as the company has revealed that they’ve recently obtained more than $75 million in venture capital.
The bulk of the funding comes from Marc Andreessen’s Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm. Andreessen spent the early 90s devloping Mosaic, the world’s first web browser, so he knows a little something about technological innovations.
“Over the past 16 months, we’ve grown from a start-up to a company whose virtual reality headset is poised to change the way we play, work and communicate,” said the CEO of Oculus VR, Brendan Iribe. “Forty thousand developers and enthusiasts, as well as a number of great partners, have joined our cause and helped us bring the seemingly impossible to life. This additional infusion of capital, as well as the leadership and experience of Marc Andreessen, will help us take the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy.”
If you’re itching to check out the Oculus Rift right now, Oculus VR sells a development kit through their website for $300. It’s currently unknown when the consumer edition will be released or how much it will cost.
[Source: GamesBeat]
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has mined sales of 10 million copies
Minecraft has been a huge hit on the Xbox 360. How huge? Major Nelson has just revealed that the Xbox 360 Edition has sold 10 million copies across retail sales and Xbox Live Arcade downloads.
To celebrate, Microsoft will slice the price of all Skin and Texture Packs in half tomorrow, December 14. Sadly, this doesn’t apply to the Mass Effect and Skyrim Mashup Packs.
Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition will soon have a series of console counterparts as Mojang is working hard to bring the game to the Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and Vita very soon.
Dead Rising 3: Operation Broken Eagle DLC announced
Now that Dead Rising 3 (and the Xbox One console) is available, Capcom has announced the first of four downloadable expansions they have planned for the game.
“Operation Broken Eagle” will star Spec Ops Commander Adam Kane and task the soldier with rescuing the President of the United States. Each expansion will feature a different character and Kane is about as far from Nick Ramos, a mechanic just trying to survive, as you can get. As a Spec Ops Commander, Kane will have access to “over-the-top” military weaponry and tank-like vehicles that “spew bullets.”
Capcom Vancouver’s Josh Bridge has outlined more details of the DLC over at Major Nelson’s blog. And he also wants everyone to know that, if you haven’t purchased the game yet, a Dead Rising 3 demo is now available to download through Xbox Live.
UPDATE: Capcom later announced that “Operation Broken Eagle” will be available to download on December 24 for $9.99 (or as part of a $29.99 Season Pass).
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Dead Rising 3
Operacraft, not surprisingly, brings opera to Minecraft
“Are Games Art?” It’s a question that everyone loves to ask, but one that nobody can really answer. There are strong arguments on both sides, but I think everyone can agree that you can have art within a game, even if the whole thing isn’t “art.” This side discussion is all just a way to introduce “Operacraft,” an opera performed within Minecraft by Virginia Tech students, with an assist from several area high school students.
In Operacraft, two children are forced to live underground after an apocalyptic event destroyed the surface world and separated them from their parents. The opera chronicles their search for their parents and Emperor Xavier’s desire to stop them:
Starting with music borrowed from Mozart operas and a specific number of characters, the project inspires K-12 students to create a story and then the libretto; create the virtual set through a custom version of ubiquitous Minecraft video game/ sandbox; create avatars for each character; and control said avatars within the confines of the virtual world, including body gestures, lip-syncing with real singing soloists, as well as multiple real-time camera feeds akin to that of a live video production.
It’s only a matter of time before people create movies and TV shows within Minecraft, isn’t it? Unless they already have…