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
First wave of Xbox Originals include Atari landfill dig documentary, Halo TV series, more
A film crew from Microsoft’s Xbox Originals production studio was knee-deep in refuse this past weekend as part of their search for the fabled burial site of “millions” of unsold E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges. The excavation of the New Mexican landfill will serve as the centerpiece to Atari: Game Over, one of the first films in development for Microsoft’s streaming video service. With the excavation a success, Microsoft has decided to unveil all 12 projects that are currently in production within the Xbox Originals office.
The first two Xbox Originals productions will be available for your viewing pleasure this June. They are Bonnaroo, a “live concert destination” for those who cannot attend the annual festival, and Every Street United, a documentary series on street soccer that will culminate in a championship match held during the World Cup this July.
Atari: Game Over will air sometime this year as part of the Signal To Noise documentary series, which will focus on “little known stories of how modern technology has radically altered the way we interact with our world.” And don’t forget, Microsoft still has Steven Spielberg’s Halo Television Series and Ridley Scott’s Halo Digital Feature in production as well.
Looking further out, the studio plans to produce Humans, a series set in a world where life-like robots co-exist with humanity; Deadlands, which is based on the popular pen-and-paper campaign; Extraordinary Believers, a new show from the Robot Chicken team; Fearless, a reality series that follows “individuals who risk their lives to make the world a better place;” Gun Machine, a series based on Warren Ellis’ hardboiled detective novel; Winterworld, a post-apocalyptic series set in an icy future; and an untitled show from the JASH comedy collective.
Every Xbox Original will be viewable through the Xbox Video app, which is available for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8. Complete details on all 12 projects can be found after the break. (more…)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Atari cartridges found in New Mexico landfill
While it was long suspected that millions of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial cartridges were buried in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill after the great “Video Game Crash of 1983” an Xbox-sponsored dig has finally proven that the failed console company did indeed bury a variety of unsold cartridges in the desert. Historical sources (such as The New York Times) stated the mass burial as fact at the time, but over the years, a number of former Atari executives denied (and occasionally, confirmed) that the cartridges had been discarded.
Today’s dig is part of a planned documentary due to be distributed through Xbox Live by the newly-formed Xbox Entertainment Studios. Zak Penn, the co-writer of X-Men: The Last Stand and The Incredible Hulk is leading the dig as well as directing the documentary.
Before the dig began, Penn told IGN: “Other than garbage and the truth, I have no idea what we’ll find. I think that’s what’s exciting, we won’t know exactly what’s down there until they start digging.”
Well, now we know (knowing is half the battle). One of video gaming’s great urban legends is a legend no more. It is truth. And that’s kind of awesome.
Star Wars EU wiped clean; All future movies, books, games to be part of one continuity
We all expected it, but Lucasfilm made it official yesterday by doing away with the existing Star Wars Expanded Universe in preparation for Episode VII. Originally infamous for the multiple levels of canonicity it imposed on the franchise, going forward, every Star Wars project produced by Lucasfilm (including all movies, games, and books) will hold an equal place in franchise’s continuity. This includes both of EA’s in-production games: DICE LA’s Star Wars: Battlefront and Visceral’s “open world” game.
“We have an unprecedented slate of new Star Wars entertainment on the horizon,” said Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm’s President. “We’re set to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, and continue the adventure through games, books, comics, and new formats that are just emerging. This future of interconnected storytelling will allow fans to explore this galaxy in deeper ways than ever before.”
In addition to the six movies, two previous Star Wars television productions will remain valid in the new continuity: The Clone Wars and the upcoming Rebels. But that doesn’t mean that your favorite Star Wars novels will fall into the Holiday Special hole. Many of the books, including the Thrawn Trilogy, will be republished under the “Legends” banner. However, Lucasfilm was quick to point out that “the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded.” New writers may use previously published EU material in the new continuity, with the approval of the new Lucasfilm Story Group, of course.
And about those future books… io9 has revealed that the first Star Wars book in the new continuity will be September’s A New Dawn, which will serve as a prequel to Rebels. It will be followed by Tarkin on November 11, and Heir to the Jedi and Lords of the Sith in early 2015.
So say farewell to the characters from all the fantastic Star Wars games over the years. Shadows of the Empire, Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron, Knights of the Old Republic, The Force Unleashed, and many others… they may be gone, but they’ll all live on in our memory banks.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Visceral
Mad Max “Magnum Opus” trailer shows customizable cars and new 2015 release date
WB Games has released a new trailer for their Mad Max game that highlights the vehicles Max and the bandit gangs drive through The Wasteland. The customizable car designs shown in the trailer, including the “Magnum Opus,” a replacement for Max’s “Interceptor,” are also meant to promote a Mad Max-themed episode of West Coast Customs, which will air this Sunday, April 27, on Fox Sports 2 at 10:00 PM (Eastern).
A spearate version of the trailer was also released by WB Games UK with a troubling addendum… a new (and delayed) release date. The Avalanche Studios-developed Mad Max was originally scheduled to be released for the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One this year, but a tag at the end of the UK trailer revealed the game’s new date: 2015. Perhaps this applies only to the UK, but that seems unlikely. Instead, we’ll have to warrior on and deal with the news that Max has been pushed down the road into 2015.
Unreal Engine 4 adds PS4, Xbox One support; Epic confirms next-gen game in development
Epic Games has announced that the 4.1 update to their Unreal Engine 4 subscription service will include support for the PS4 and Xbox One. To showcase the abilities of their new engine on next-generation systems, Epic founder Tim Sweeney told Edge that the company has an “ambitious” PS4 and/or Xbox One title in development: “It’s going to push next-generation graphics as you’d always expect Epic to do.”
In addition to the untitled console game, which won’t be officially announced for “some time,” Epic is also working on an Unreal Engine 4-powered mobile game and Fortnite, their PC-exclusive survival strategy game.
Developers looking to dive into Unreal Engine 4 development are encouraged to peruse all the new features found in 4.1 by viewing the Release Notes on Epic’s website. A Twitch stream with Epic developers is also available for a more in-depth look at the Unreal Engine update.
Skylanders: Trap Team introduces a new Portal on October 5
Toys For Bob, the original development team behind the Skylanders phenomenon, will return for the next game in the series… Skylanders: Trap Team. Trap Team will be available on October 5 for the PC, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and, for the first time, the PS4 and Xbox One. A 3DS version of the game, which Activision is calling a “completely unique adventure,” will also be released on October 5.
Trap Team introduces a new gameplay mechanic to the Skylanders universe and requires a new Portal accessory for the game’s figures, the Traptanium Portal. With the Traptanium Portal, the Skylanders will turn into quasi-Ghostbusters and trap some of the game’s biggest baddies. After trapping them in the Portal using a Trap Master token, players can send the villains back into the game as reformed heroes.
In Skylanders: Trap Team, Kaos continues his ongoing quest to rule over Skylands. He has discovered the location of the legendary Cloudcracker Prison — a fortress built entirely out of the magical substance Traptanium and home to Skylands’ most nefarious baddies. In an attempt to build his own army of foes, Kaos blows up the prison, releasing the most wanted villains and blasting shards of Traptanium to Earth in the form of Traps. Now it’s up to Portal Masters to recapture all of the escaped villains using powerful Traptanium Traps and defeat Kaos before it’s too late! The new adventure delivers a diverse and dynamic story-driven gameplay experience, filled with adventure, combat, puzzles, mini-games, activities, platforming and drop-in/drop-out co-op play — all set within new compelling environments.
As you might expect, an entirely new line of Skylanders figures will be available alongside Trap Team’s October launch including a new series known as Trap Masters, new “Core Skylanders” characters, and reposed “fan-favorite Skylanders characters.” Your wallet will be sorry.
Can Watch Dogs hack it as a movie? Ubisoft and Zombieland writers think so
Even though it’s still a few weeks from release, Deadline is reporting that Sony Pictures and New Regency are collaborating with Ubisoft to produce a film adaptation of Watch Dogs. The film version of Aiden Pearce’s quest for vengeance will be written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the screenwriting duo behind Zombieland.
Watch Dogs isn’t the only Ubisoft property currently stationed in New Regency’s production office. The company is also adapting Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed. Tom Hardy is set to star as Sam Fisher in the Splinter Cell adaptation while Assassin’s Creed will feature Michael Fassbender (though its unknown if he will play Altair, Ezio, Desmond, or someone else entirely).
It’s currently unknown who will play superhacker Aiden Pearce, but I could see Jim Caviezel doing a good job with the role. Oh, wait…
Rayman Legends Review: Old School Bliss
You can go ahead and keep your “Last of Uses” and your “Grand Theft Autos” – when it comes to amazing titles of the previous generation, I’d put Rayman Origins at the top of my list. The game was perfect in so many ways. The animation, the music, the gameplay – every aspect of that game was a work of art. And although it had quite a bumpy ride – going from a Wii U exclusive to being delayed to releasing on all consoles – its sequel, Rayman Legends is finally available for the next-generation consoles… and not much has changed. It’s more of the same from Rayman and his buddies, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. (more…)