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
- Spore: An oral history – Design Room (2026)
- 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)
Most Recent: Xbox One
Kylo Ren angsts up the latest Character Trailer for Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Exactly a week from today, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be available on store shelves for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. So WB Games has released one last Character Trailer, this time focusing on Kylo Ren’s exploration of “the lighter side of the Dark Side.”
Featuring new dialogue from Adam Driver, be sure to pause Kylo Ren’s vignette after seven seconds to get a great look at his bedroom. It looks like something of a college comedy, but I think the Warhol-inspired Darth Vader portrait is an especially nice touch.
And in case you missed it, a Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens demo is now available to download through the PlayStation Store and Xbox Games Store for the PS4 and Xbox One.
NetherRealm’s Ed Boon still wants to do a fighting game starring “horror icons”
After Freddy Krueger’s post-launch inclusion in Mortal Kombat was announced back in 2011, Creative Director Ed Boon revealed that when he was employed by Midway, his team considered including characters such as Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and Michael Myers in a special horror movie-themed entry in the series.
With three-fourths of his wishlist now playable in 2011’s Mortal Kombat or Mortal Kombat X, Game Informer once again pitched Boon on a fighting game filled with “horror icons” ahead of last week’s E3 Expo, and the famed developer still seems into it:
When asked about the possibility of using this trend of guest characters to throw them all together in one big horror icon showdown, Boon was not dismissive of the idea. “Yes, yes! You know, as we’ve been accumulating them, that idea has been coming up more and more frequently,” he says. “You brought it up and a few other people have brought it up like ‘why don’t you do a horror movie fighting game?’ Maybe one day we’ll do it.”
It’s five years later and I’d still sell my soul to make this game become a reality.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Mortal Kombat X
New Retail Releases: Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE, Mighty No. 9, Mario & Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, More
The major game publishers clearly didn’t want to compete with the annual E3 Expo last week, but a number of them are back this week with a handful of intriguing new titles.
Leading the way is Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE, an Atlus/Nintendo collaboration for the Wii U that mashes together characters you’d find in a Fire Emblem game with the mood of a Persona title.
Nintendo is also getting ready for the Summer Games this week with the release of Mario & Sonic at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games for the Wii U. Players will get to try out 14 Olympic sports including soccer, track, and rugby.
Another highly-anticipated title this week, though for very different reasons, is Mighty No. 9 for the PS4, Wii U, and Xbox One (it’ll also be available digitally for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360). Keiji Inafune’s tribute to the Mega Man franchise has been facing development woes since the very beginning, and it’ll be interesting to see how the final product came together.
Elsewhere on store shelves this week will be The Technomancer, an action RPG for the PS4 and Xbox One from Spiders; and MXGP 2, the latest motorcycle racer from Milestone, for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Finally, Microsoft will re-release Minecraft: Xbox One Edition in a special “Favorites Pack” bundle that includes the base game and seven additional add-ons (Battle & Beasts Skin Pack, Battle & Beasts 2 Skin Pack, Natural Texture Pack, City Texture Pack, Fantasy Texture Pack, Festive Mash-up, and Halo Mash-up).
We’ll be back later this week with a look at all the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
UPDATE: The release of The Technomancer was pushed back a week to June 28.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mighty No. 9, Minecraft, Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem
Xbox Store Today: Tour De France 2016, Bard’s Gold
The 2016 Tour De France will pedal into view in just two weeks, so Cyanide Studio is back with their latest adaptation of cycling’s biggest event in today’s Xbox Games Store update. Tour De France 2016 for the Xbox One includes all 21 stage from this year’s event and players will need to become proficient in attacking, sprinting, and counter-attacking to claim the yellow jersey.
Also available this week is Bard’s Gold, a side-scroller for the Xbox One that serves as an homage to 90s platformers such as Rainbow Island, Rick Dangerous, and Alex Kidd.
More information on both of these games can be found right here, courtesy of the Xbox Games Store:
Xbox One Games
Tour De France 2016 ($49.99)
Embody the greatest cycling champions competing to conquer the yellow jersey along the 21 official stages of a Tour De France 2016, packed with exciting new features! Experience the emotions of a pro-rider by attacking, sprinting, counter-attacking; picking the best trajectories and taking the best tactical decisions to lead your teammates to victory. Take to the road in solo, compete against your friends, or play in co-op on the same screen.Bard’s Gold ($4.99)
Bard’s Gold is a challenging platformer that let’s you explore eerie worlds in a quest for a Goblin that stole your gold. Help the Bard to overcome the dungeon’s many dangerous perils and use your new-found treasures to improve your character and to buy new weapons and gear!
Marcus Fenix returns in Gears of War 4’s E3 2016 trailer and Windows 10 launch confirmed
Introduced on the E3 2016 stage by series co-creator Rod Fergusson, Microsoft’s latest Gears of War 4 trailer features a wild night on Sera with JD Fenix and friends as they battle a never-before-seen enemy. And be sure you watch until the end for the return of JD’s “old” man, Marcus Fenix.
Here’s what the Xbox Wire had to say about the new gameplay trailer:
The demo features JD Fenix and his friends Kait and Del as they fight for survival against ferocious new enemies amidst violent wind flares that bring new dynamic gameplay as they rip through the lands of Sera and alter the battlefield.
Gears of War 4 takes place in the course of one night as JD, Kait, and Del embark on a desperate mission to rescue the ones they love and discover a monstrous new threat. It’s a game that’s more intimate, but at the same time more epic and intense than any previous Gears game.
Gears of War 4 will be available on October 11 for the PC and Xbox One as part of Microsoft’s Play Anywhere program. That means player will receive both versions of the game with a single purchase, and be able to jump back and forth between versions with the same cloud save. Microsoft also promised to include cross-play between Xbox One and Windows 10 users for all co-op modes and 4K support on Windows 10.
Oh, and Horde Mode will return in Gears of War 4 with “new classes, skills and abilities tied to cards and more.”
Posted in News, PC, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Gears of War 4
See all six announced characters from Injustice 2 in this video
Ed Boon, the Creative Director at NetherRealm Studios, stopped by the PlayStation LiveCast studio yesterday to show off a little bit of Injustice 2 at the 2016 E3 Expo.
All six announced characters (Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Supergirl, Atrocitus, and Gorilla Grodd) get a chance to fight it out and the gameplay video even shines a spotlight on returning features like Super Moves, the Clash System, and stage transitions. Also, for the record, Aquaman still has the coolest Super Move… though Supergirl’s isn’t far behind.
Injustice 2 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One sometime next year.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged E3 2016, Injustice 2
Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour Hands-On Preview: Disturbing For the Wrong Reasons
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Resident Evil 7 has officially been announced. The reveal itself wasn’t that surprising… it was pretty much assumed the game would be announced at this year’s E3 Expo… but I don’t think anyone could have guessed it would look like this. With a new first-person perspective, a total absence of familiar characters, and no immediate ties to the previous games in the series, the seventh game in the series seems like a fresh start altogether. (more…)
Xbox Store Today: Trials of the Blood Dragon, Monkey King Saga, E3 Demos
If you’re looking for new games on the Xbox Games Store this week, you won’t find much, but you will find a handful of new games and a few E3 demos that are definitely worth talking about.
First up is Trials of the Blood Dragon (Xbox One), Ubisoft and RedLynx’s mashup that combines “the top notch gameplay of Trials with the unique style and attitude of Blood Dragon.” That means players can expect a lot of side-scrolling stunt action set within a ridiculously over-the-top universe. But I guess that’s to be expected when your main character is named Rex Power Colt. Also available this week is Monkey King Saga (Xbox One), a top-down tower defense game based on the Journey to the West, one of history’s earliest novels.
However, if you’d rather try out a few free games this week, both id Software and WB Games have added new demos to the Xbox Games Store this week in honor of the E3 Expo. Doom was released a month ago, but anyone who skipped out on the gloriously gory first person shooter can try out the first level now. Meanwhile, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be released in two weeks, but fans can try it out now.
More information on both of this week’s new releases can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Doom (2016), E3 2016, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Trials of the Blood Dragon