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
XCOM FPS becomes third-person tactical shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
After seven years in development, the XCOM FPS is dead… and now say hello to its replacement, the third-person tactical shooter The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
Set in 1962, The Bureau goes back to the beginnings of the alien-hunting organization and their efforts to keep humanity in the dark about the extraterrestrial threat. And without a Men In Black-style neuralizer, that’s going to require a bit more effort:
The Bureau tells the origin story of the clandestine XCOM organisation’s first encounter with a mysterious and devastating enemy. Originally established as America’s covert defense against the Soviet Union, The Bureau must adapt and overcome a threat unlike anything the world has faced before. As special agent William Carter, players will call the shots and pull the trigger, leading their squad of agents in the high-stakes secret war for humanity’s survival. Paramount to repelling the outside threat is The Bureau’s ability to cover-up the enemy’s existence in order to prevent worldwide panic.
Like the XCOM FPS before it, The Bureau is in development at 2K Marin (the same team behind BioShock 2). According to Creative Director Morgan Gray, the team at 2K Marin wants to respect the XCOM tradition in their third-person world: “The team has been working hard to leverage core XCOM elements like tactical decision-making and permanent death of squad mates in a purposeful way that makes this a unique tactical shooter. To that end, The Bureau will challenge players unlike any other third-person tactical shooter.”
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will be released for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on August 20. Players who pre-order the game will receive access to the “Codebreakers” DLC mission.
Nintendo Download: Rayman Legends Challenges App, Mega Man IV, More
Rayman Legends may have been delayed until August to put it on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but Ubisoft has made good on their promise and added the Wii U-exclusive Rayman Legends Challenges App to the Wii U eShop. It’s a free download that includes access to four of the game’s levels: Land of the Livid Dead, Neverending Pit, Infinite Tower, and the GamePad-controlled Murfy’s Dungeon. If that weren’t enough, weekly online challenges are also included in the Challenges App.
Also available this week, on the 3DS eShop, is Mega Man IV, the Blue Bomber’s 1992 NES adventure.
Hit the jump for more details on both of these titles as well as three other new games released as part of this week’s Nintendo Download. (more…)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition to be available on June 4
Were you holding off on purchasing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim until Bethesda collected all of the game’s DLC expansions in one package? Well, you won’t have to wait much longer as the publisher officially announced the “Legendary Edition” of the game today.
Available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on June 4, the “Legendary Edition” includes the original game, all three DLC expansions (Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn), and a variety of additional features (combat cameras, mounted combat, Legendary difficulty mode, and Legendary skills) Bethesda has added to the game since its release in 2011.
All of this can be yours for the suggested retail price of $59.99.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Nintendo won’t hold a traditional E3 Press Conference this year
The times they are a-changin’. Commentators have questioned the “need” for E3 as game makers and game players have grown more connected thanks to the Internet. Nintendo, owing to the existence of their already ridiculously popular Nintendo Direct presentations, has slammed one more nail into the idea of E3 as we know it by deciding to not hold a traditional E3 Press Conference this year.
Instead, the House of Mario will host a series of mini-meetings during E3 week, including a huge Nintendo Direct presentation that will be focused on their software lineup for the U.S. market. Smaller events for distributors and the press will also be held.
Nintendo has already confirmed that a handful of major Wii U and 3DS will be on display at this year’s E3 Expo including the next 3D Mario game, Mario Kart Wii U, Super Smash Bros. 4, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 2.
Star Wars, Marvel characters may be added to Disney Infinity in the future
“Series 1” of Disney Infinity is very focused focus on the studio’s animated efforts. Most of the figures announced so far have been pulled from the worlds of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, and Cars. But the Skylanders-like game also has a “real world” side represented by characters from Pirates of the Caribbean. And much like Jack Sparrow’s search for rum, many Disney fans have asked of Infinity… “Where’s Marvel and Star Wars?”
According a GamesIndustry International interview with Bill Roper, General Manager at Disney Interactive, there’s a chance that the Marvel universe and a galaxy far, far away could find their way into Infinity:
“”I think the beauty of something like Infinity is that it’s a platform that we’re building. So we don’t try to be coy about it – we’ve done a lot of work about identifying the properties that we felt would really make the platform sing at launch, but I never discount any possibilities with the vast array of characters and worlds that we can tap into across the company,” Roper said. He later singled out Star Wars as a possibility: “[The Star Wars acquisition] was definitely exciting when that [news] came down from within the company. We love the potential for Infinity – we always joke, well, ‘the possibilities are infinite’.”
While that’s far from confirmation, the Disney brass are clearly thinking about it. And with the extensive film schedule the company has planned for the Star Wars saga and the Avengers: Phase Two initiative, I think it makes perfect business sense to add characters from Marvel and Star Wars to Infinity sometime down the road (perhaps Summer 2015… when both The Avengers 2 and Star Wars: Episode VII hit theaters).
The Disney Infinity “Starter Pack” will be available for the 3DS, PS3, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360 on August 18.
Barry Sanders is your Madden NFL 25 cover athlete
The votes have been tallied and the fans have spoken… Barry Sanders, former running back for the Detroid Lions, has been chosen as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 25. The Hall of Famer absolutely destroyed his competition, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, and collected 58% of the vote.
In all, 700,241 votes were cast in the final round and more than 40,000,000 were cast throughout the entire tournament. It was an uphill climb for most of the “New School” players and even a final round matchup featuring today’s top running back felt like a lost cause. Of course, that’s what happens when you go up against the greatest running back of all time.
To celebrate the choosing of this year’s cover athlete, EA Sports has released the first Madden NFL 25 gameplay trailer, which you can find after the break. Nadden NFL 25 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 27. (more…)
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Madden NFL 25
Monaco’s XBLA release has been delayed
Monaco, the stylish co-op caper game from Pocketwatch Games, was originally supposed to be available on the Xbox Live Arcade today. Instead, an unforeseen issue has caused the game to be delayed.
This notice was posted on the game Facebook Page yesterday:
We just discovered that there is an issue which requires that we push back our Xbox Live arcade game release date a little. We’ve already submitted an update to Microsoft to fix the problem, and as soon as we know that the issue is fixed we’ll have a new release date. I know our fans have been waiting a long time for the game, and hopefully they’ll have the patience to wait just a little while longer. What’s mine will be yours very, very soon!
If you’re still interested in playing Monaco today, the PC version was released as scheduled.
Next Xbox will be unveiled on May 21
Microsoft just sent out an email to all Xbox Live members announcing that a date for the Xbox 720/Durango reveal has been set.
Touting “A New Generation Revealed,” Microsoft has confirmed that the presentation will take place on Tuesday, May 21 at 10 AM (Pacific Time). Gamers will be able to watch the unveiling themselves at Xbox.com, on Spike TV, or through Xbox Live.
Per Major Nelson, a more complete reveal, including the “full lineup of blockbuster games,” will take place at E3 2013.
Just 27 days to go…
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2013, Next Xbox Reveal