Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- 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
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)
Most Recent: Xbox 360
A Halo/Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition crossover is in the works
Microsoft’s PlayXBLA blog is teasing a Halo/Minecraft crossover that will likely take the form of a new Mash-Up Pack (like the previously released ones based on Mass Effect and Skyrim):
We don’t have specific details just yet, but we can confirm that Halo is coming to Minecraft. Details soon.
If you can’t wait to put Master Chief into Minecraft, don’t forget that a Master Chief Skin was released as part of Skin Pack 1 back in July 2012.
XBL Store Today: Peggle 2 (Xbox 360)
After an Xbox One launch last December, PopCap’s Peggle 2 is ready to ricochet onto the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade today. Priced at $11.99, the puzzler will include all the Peggle Masters, magic powers, multiplayer modes, and levels of the Xbox One edition:
Peggle 2 ($11.99)
Everything is better with Peggle! Catch the fever now on Xbox 360 with Peggle 2, where you’ll master over 120 new levels and trials in the sequel to one of the most engaging puzzle-action games of all time. Unleash amazing magic powers as you learn from Peggle Master Bjorn, and four all-new masters like the dark and mysterious Luna, while you shoot balls at colorful, challenging boards of pegs to reach Extreme Fever. But there’s more! Unlocked costumes allow you to dress up the various masters for laughs and for multiplayer fun. And try four-player Peg Party mode or two-player Duel mode, which let you deploy your Peggle skills to the utmost against friends and family. Peggle 2 is a game for our age, and, indeed, all ages!
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark will transform into a released game on June 24
Activision will release Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark on June 24, three days ahead of the fourth film adaptation, Transformers: Age of Extinction. Rise of the Dark Spark won’t be a traditional tie-in game and will instead merge the movieverse with the High Moon-developed War For Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron games.
Even though Rise of the Dark Spark is just seven weeks away, we still don’t know much about it. But that hasn’t stopped GameStop from beginning to take pre-orders for the game. If you pre-purchase Rise of the Dark Spark, the game retailer will grant you access to the Weathered Warrior Pack, which includes two characters (Skywarp and Thundercracker) and two weapons (the Glass Gas Cannon and the Electro Bolter) for use in the game’s Campaign and Escalation Mode.
The Weathered Warrior Pack will be included with pre-orders of the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One editions of Rise of the Dark Spark. The game will also be available on June 24 for the Wii U and 3DS.
NHL 15 skates onto current-gen, next-gen consoles this Fall
EA Sports has officially announced that NHL 15 will be available for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One this Fall. As in years past, fans will be able to choose the game’s cover athlete at NHL.com/CoverVote. Voting begins today with eight players (Patrice Bergeron, Logan Couture, Drew Doughty, Matt Duchene, Erik Karlsson, Phil Kessel, T.J. Oshie, and P.K. Subban) taking part in the competition.
According to EA, NHL 15’s next-gen leap will feature a slew of additions to the game including enhanced player collision and puck physics, more authentic player models, and a revamped player AI system. A brand new crowd rendering model and the addition of NBC Sports commentators rounds out some of NHL 15’s new features.
You can check out NHL 15’s teaser trailer above and read all about the game’s new features after the break. (more…)
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer talks about the company’s E3 2014 plans (and beyond)
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer spent some of his Sunday answering questions on Twitter and the Head of the Xbox Division revealed quite a bit about the company’s future plans. Looking forward to this year’s E3 Expo, Spencer had this to say…
- He confirmed that at least one new property and (shocker of shockers) several sequels will be announced at E3.
- These new game announcements will include several new studios that Microsoft is working with.
- And as we’ve been hearing for months, an Xbox One game from a Japanese developer will be announced at E3.
- But we won’t have to wait for E3 for all of Microsoft’s announcements. Spencer said that several pre-E3 announcements will happen in May. Hey! That’s this month!
- Finally, Microsoft plans to make the hardcore gamer the “main focus” of this year’s E3 Expo, whatever that means.
Spencer also told his followers that Fable Anniversary is most likely not in development for the Xbox One and that Microsoft and Mojang are getting close to a Minecraft: Xbox One Edition announcement, but they’re not there yet. Minecraft might be one of the last digital games Microsoft has a direct hand in as the company is currently moving away from publishing third-party digital games. This is due to the fact they would prefer to focus on “opportunities with IP we own that we’ve neglected.” However, he didn’t elaborate on which properties he was referring to.
And in case you were hoping for an Xbox-branded handheld to be revealed at this year’s E3 Expo, you might want to know that it’s probably out of the question. However, development on games for Windows Phones and Windows 8 tablets will continue, possibly with controller support in the future.
Finally, one thing Spencer didn’t talk about was Halo 5, stating “I can’t talk about anything related to a 343i IP.” Hopefully, we’ll learn more about that one at this year’s E3 Expo.
Posted in News, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2014, Fable Anniversary, Halo 5: Guardians, Minecraft
New Releases: Borderlands 2 Vita Bundle, Bound By Flame, MLB 14: The Show PS4, More
This week’s new release report once again focuses on games that have found new homes. Games like…
- Borderlands 2. Gearbox’s insane shooter is now available on the Vita thanks to the Borderlands 2 Vita Bundle. A standalone version of the Vita port will be available next week.
- God of War Collection. The God of War and God of War II compilation has also been shrunk down to Vita size.
- MLB 14: The Show. Sony’s baseball simulation has made the next-generation leap to the PS4.
But there’s still a trio of NEW new releases this week as well. Bound By Flame, a medieval action RPG from Spiders Studio will be released this week for the PC, PS3, PS4, and Xbox 360. It will be joined by Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure, the first new Tex Murphy game in over 15 years, and Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi, a visual novel-style RPG for the PS3.
Naturally, a bunch of new games will be added to the PlayStation Store, Nintendo eShop, Xbox Live Store, and Steam throughout the week. We’ll talk more about those games soon.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Xbox 360
Tagged Borderlands 2, Bound by Flame, God of War Collection, MLB 14: The Show
Activision unveils Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare trailer a bit early after leak
Activision was all set to unveil Call of Duty 2014 on Sunday, May 4. But late last night, the trailer found its way onto the Internet (specifically, Destructoid), so Activision sped up their timetable.
The next Call of Duty game will be titled Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and it will star Kevin Spacey as a private military contractor who is attempting to take over the world. To do that, Spacey’s character has outfitted his troops with power armor, cloaking devices, Spider-Man-esque climbing gloves, hoverbikes, portable bulletproof walls, and other futuristic weaponry.
Activision trademarked the Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare name in 2010 (along with Future Warfare and Space Warfare), so it good to see them finally doing something with it. The game is in development at Sledgehammer Games and will be released on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One (with possibly more platforms to come) on November 4.
Call of Duty 2014 to focus on private military contractors; full reveal set for Sunday
Activision has confirmed that the next Call of Duty game, the Sledgehammer-developed Call of Duty 2014, will be fully unveiled on Sunday, May 4. Aside from a single image, the game has been kept heavily under wraps. But a teaser video posted to the franchise’s official YouTube channel has confirmed that Call of Duty 2014 will focus on a private military corporation (PMC) takeover of the United States.
To promote the reveal, Activision has partnered with Vice to produce a mini-expose on PMCs, which is embedded above. The video takes a very dim view of PMCs, so it will be interesting to see how the game’s story will handle PMCs and the soldiers that work for them.
Call of Duty 2014 will be released this November and is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The game is also likely in development for the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U as well, but we won’t know for sure until Sunday.