NASA Scientists have released 3D renderings for a concept design for a warp drive spaceship currently being prototyped.

Dr Harold “Sonny” White is working on the warp drive program at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, and along with 3D artist Mark Rademaker, has created a concept for what a future ship capable of allowing us to explore the galaxy might look like, though the project is still at such an early stage that nothing is concrete. The proposed design involves “a sleek ship nestled at the centre of two enormous rings, which create the warp bubble”, with some elements seeing to resemble parts of the famous USS Enterprise from Star Trek.

White has spent his career working on ways to propel spacecrafts to faster than the speed of light, and this model would do so by bending the space around it, making the distance shorter. This means, Diaz writes, that the Enterprise wouldn’t break Einstein’s theory of relativity, as within its little bubble it wouldn’t be moving faster than light.

If that confuses you, think of space as like a train. You, the passenger, are the spaceship in its bubble. Let’s say you walk from carriage to carriage as the train is moving at 300mph. As you walk through the train you never break from your standard walking pace; but imagine someone watching your train go by from outside. To you, you’re moving forward at 3mph; but to the outsider, you’re moving at the same speed as the train. That’s how a warp bubble would work.

NASA are already experimenting with the concept of warp bubbles in small-scale; and it turns out, White and his team are closer to this goal than you might think. White believes that if his work is successful, it will create an engine that could get us to Alpha Centauri in two weeks.

Enterprise, one to beam up.

Four years ago, Nintendo discontinued making physical appearances at E3 in favour of digital presentations – deciding that, as trailers and video make up a large part of what gets shown off for a video game, it’s cheaper to just put the whole event on-screen than actually send people to turn up at the event and talk. This year was no different, but Nintendo DID see fit to make a joke of on-screen presentations with the intro to this year’s Digital Event, with clips of a CGI audience who would heckle Reggie Fils-Aime twice during the course of the event – and subsequently get laser-eyed or beaten up before moving on to the next presentation. It’s a charming Nintendo-isation of the realities of E3 and a perfect demonstration of what Nintendo’s about – making you smile.

Yes, Day 1 of E3 kicked off today and to kick off proceedings, Nintendo took the “stage” for its annual Digital Event. In an hour of non-stop reveals, trailers and on-screen appearances and interviews both real and digitized, over a dozen games were revealed or had further information shown off about them; and we even heard of a new Nintendo toy line coming out and how it’ll tie in with Mario Kart 8 and future Nintendo titles, plus a new character reveal for Smash Bros.!

Over the coming hours I’ll be writing articles on each game and what was revealed. But here’s a quick run-down:

• Super Smash Bros.: Mii characters become playable fighters for the first time and can be customised for three specific types of fighting.
• Amiibo: New line of NFC-enabled toys from Nintendo that will be compatible with Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros Wii/3DS and many future titles.
• Yoshi’s Wooly World: Gameplay footage, discussion of the concept, 2-player co-op revealed.
• Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker: Puzzle game featuring Toad as main character, release Winter 2014.
• Open-World plans for a future Zelda title discussed.
• Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: New Trailer launched with some game-play footage and first look at Groudon and Kyogre’s new formes.
• Bayonetta 2: will include original Bayonetta; and Zelda and Samus costumes.
• First look at Hyrule Warriors, launching September 19, 2014.
• Digmbot gets angry on Twitter following last announcement.
• First look at plans for a new, as-yet untitled Kirby game coming 2015.
• Xenoblade Chronicles: New footage.
• Mario Maker: Create-your-own-Mario-level Wii U game revealed.
• First look at Splatoon, “a 4-on-4 game about controlling territory” – by dressing as squids and shooting ink. Seriously.
• “One more thing”: Lady Palutena joins the fight in Smash Bros; two S.FM staff members go crazy at the news.

There was a lot of exciting news to be seen in the hour-long presentation; and Nintendo even ended by saying that they still have much more to reveal that they just didn’t have time for. Personally, I think the titles they focused on this time around were carefully selected and made a lot of sense – mostly big titles, a few First looks in the middle, new first-party titles being announced that aren’t anything like what you may have expected, an interesting third-party effort to round off and Smash Bros. buffering both ends. I was personally surprised to see Mario Maker announced – the ability to make your own Mario levels had been a common fan request for Mario titles from almost the beginning; but while fans have often made their own self-developed game engines to do the job themselves, or have ROM-hacked the official games to introduce their own levels (we at Sanitarium.FM do NOT condone this practice!), over the years the idea of a Nintendo-authored, official tool or feature to do this just began to felt like a pipe dream. Now it’s finally happening, my question is – what took you so long, Nintendo?!? (Admittedly, the Wii U may well be the best platform for the tool what with it’s controller with built-in touch-screen offering an excellent interface for level creation; and the large TV screen offering tons of space to work with – a DS screen may not have offered anywhere near the real estate for the game or its interface.)

However, my pick of the crop has to be the announcement of Amiibo – the idea of NFC-enabled Nintendo figures was actually discussed in the Wii U promotional material before it even launched; and with Skylanders already showing how it can be done, it’s about time Nintendo got into the game too. The idea of the figures not just representing the characters though, but also acting as storage to keep your own character’s stats and enhancements on within compatible games seems like an interesting concept though; and seeing how the figures will be cross-compatible with multiple Nintendo titles which are likely to be very different in play – Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. aren’t even in the same genre! – it may well turn out to be something quite big indeed for Nintendo. Stay tuned!

The rumors of Halo 2 Anniversary weren’t only true, they were better than true.

Master Chief will indeed return on Xbox One with a remastering of his epic 2004 sequel – arguably the most anticipated and beloved game in Xbox history – and he will hit Microsoft’s newest console with the original Halo 2 multiplayer completely intact.

Microsoft and 343 Industries will, in fact, release Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 11 – nearly a decade to the day since Halo 2’s November 9, 2004 arrival – and it will include Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4. All will run in 1080p and 60 frames per second and include their full multiplayer suites in their original forms, with the added bonus of running on dedicated servers. Oh, and it’s also packing your ticket to the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta that begins in December 2014, as well as the digital film Halo: Nightfall, an episodic release that will premiere on November 11 and run in multiple weekly installments

Lets take a look at what was announced…

The main part:

    All four Master Chief Halo games on one disc
    Custom playlists that allow you to string together missions across multiple games
    Halo 5 beta key included

All four games – developed as a collaboration between 343 Industries (user interface, online infrastructure, etc.), Saber Interactive (Halo 2 Anniversary campaign), and Certain Affinity (multiplayer) will ship on a single, $60 Blu-ray disc; the individual games will not be available as separate digital downloads. You’ll run a single master user interface, from which you can queue up anything you want. All campaign levels are unlocked from the get-go, and playlists created and curated by 343 will allow you to experience moments from across all four campaigns in a variety of ways. For example: want to play all the Warthog levels in every game? Jump into that playlist and you’ll be able to do just that.

Meanwhile, multiplayer matchmaking will offer the usual assortment of playlists you’ve come to expect from Halo games – Team Snipers, Rumble Pit, etc. – and let players vote on which map they want next. But what’s cool is that you may be presented with three choices that span three different games. Say, Halo: CE’s “Wizard,” Halo 2’s “Lockout,” and Halo 3’s “The Pit.” Whichever gets the most votes is the game that MCC will launch, after which you’ll be taken back to the multiplayer lobby with your friends. Finally, the Extras menu is home to the Nightfall digital feature as well as the launch pad for December’s Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta. It will run from December 27, 2014, and end on January 22.

This Collection packs a whopping 4,000 Achievement points, as they’ve been allotted 1,000 per game from Microsoft. Some of those will be exact replicas of their original Gamerscore-earners, but some will be new, too.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the collection, keep an eye on the Sanitarium.FM website for more news as we get it!

Microsoft has announced Forza Motorsport 5 Game of the Year edition.

Which will include the original game, plus 18 extra tracks and the Top Gear car pack featuring ten downloadable vehicles.

The game will cost £50/€70/$60 when it launches on July 22.

Do you think Forza 5 deserves GOTY edition?  Personally I do and it is the first new gen racer off the start line.

But let us know below.