Review: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4)

For me Call of Duty: Ghosts was a low point in Activision's much beloved series. The game represented everything I had come to expect from a franchise being released year after year.

Too much familiarity. For every moment of brilliance in the game, there were ten more moments of familiarity. Going into Advanced Warfare, I was both skeptical and excited about the new direction the franchise was headed. I knew that Activision could only make so many games based on Modern Warfare and that eventually we would see a game set in the future with new weapons, gadgets and vehicles. Advanced Warfare represents the biggest jump for the series since the game shifted from World War II to Modern Combat.

Review: Skylanders: Trap Team (PS3)

"We have seen the evil of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in our midst; let us try prohibition and see what this will do for us."

- Thomas Jordan Jarvis

Swap out "intoxicating liquors" for "Skylanders" and you'll know where I'm going with this review of Skylanders: Trap Team. In fact, I really wanted to write this review in the spirit of a 1920's speech on the evils of liquor and the shortfalls of Prohibition because this is the era that Skylanders has started to conjure in my mind. Not just for the addiction angle and the corruption of youth, but because it would be pretty interesting to see what homebrew figures would look like.

Review: Destiny (PS3)

Because of lofty aspirations, Bungie’s first title following the phenomenal success of the Halo games was destined to leave many gamers disappointed in some way or another. It’s a difficult task in any entertainment arena to attempt a follow-up to such an overwhelming success as the Halo franchise was for Bungie. Destiny is that game.

And it has its share of disappointments, primarily in failing to be the massively multiplayer offering it had aspired to be, and having a primary focus on repetitive missions. But it clearly sustains many of the stellar qualities that made Halo a universally well-regarded and lucrative gaming hit, and has even showed improvement in first-shooting game-making, showing lessons learned from the past were implemented by Bungie in its present.

Review: Skylanders: Trap Team (PS4)

I first became aware of Skylanders last year at Activision's multiplayer event for Call of Duty Ghosts. We were whisked away on our last day to a hotel room that was showing off Skylanders: Swap Force. I was in awe because it was my first time playing a PS4 and seeing the Skylanders series. I rediscovered my inner child! This year sees the release of another Skylanders game called Trap Team. Trap Team introduces an interesting new concept that allows you to trap enemy bosses and play as them for a period of time.

Preview: Skylanders Trap Team (Multiplatform)

Just like all those times when Joker breaks everyone out of Arkham Asylum, Skylanders: Trap Team features a dramatic prison breakout thanks to the perpetually evil, Chaos, which plunges Skyland into a diabolical hell of violence, drugs, corruption, and organized crime. (I may be slightly overstating this.) Only this time, once the crazy guys are captured, they work for Batman.

Preview: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare *Hands-On*

Last week, Activision held a press event to unveil Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer in San Francisco. Activision flew us out to get a first glimpse at the game's multiplayer, prior to it's "official" unveiling at Gamescom. The Developers talked about the new features in multiplayer and gave us some hands-on time with the game.

Preview: Destiny (Multiplatform)

Unless you've been sleeping for the last fifteen years or so, it should be a point of common knowledge that Bungie makes some really excellent shooters.  They did it with the Marathon series, they did it again with the Halo series, and they're looking to make the hat trick with Destiny.  Bungie faithful have been following the project closely and with their public beta test coming up, it's shaping up very impressively.

Review: Wolfenstein - The New Order (PS4)

My first contact with Wolfenstein was two decades ago.

I still remember playing the original Wolfenstein on my piece of junk computer that had 4 megabytes of RAM and 33 MHZ of power. What a time to be a kid!

Throughout the years, Wolfenstein has made appearances on the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and finally makes it way to the PlayStation 4!  There haven't been many big name titles released in the new year for the PS4, so it was a great feeling to wipe off the thick layer of dust from my console that has accumulated over the past several months.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (360)

Movie-tie in games should almost be treated as a separate entity since the quality level on them seems to naturally start off with a handicap. For every Goldeneye, we get an ET… with many more movie tie-in games being destined for the garbage dump than any Hall of Fame.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is no Goldeneye, and mercifully not an ET either.

Review: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PC)

"Ready for round 2?”

In some respects, this is the question asked by expansion packs more often than sequels, these days. Sequels usually make changes, sometimes massive ones, that make them a distinctive entity despite being part of a series.  Expansion packs generally stay within the framework of the existing title, maybe making a few tweaks here and there to compensate for the original game's shortcomings.  Of course, some games need more than just a few tweaks when putting out an expansion. Diablo III was arguably one of those games.

Two years after its release, plenty of changes have been made incrementally, but Reaper of Souls puts everything in one nice neat package for those who abandoned the game long ago.  The end result is still not the game we could have gotten, but it goes a long way towards making it playable and even enjoyable in spots.

Review: Skylanders Swap Force (PS4)

It was last August that I had first played Skylanders. I was at the Call of Duty Multiplayer Reveal Event and on the last day of the event I received an invite to see the Playstation 4 version in action. The portal, the multiple characters and the colour, brought out of the little kid inside me. How had I not heard of Skylanders sooner?

Review: Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)

When the Xbox 360 and PlayStation released back in 2005 and 2006 there was one series that was present at both launches. That series was Call of Duty: Call of Duty 2 for 360 and Call of Duty 3 for PlayStation 3.

With this generation of consoles launching seven or eight years later, the situation is no different. Call of Duty: Ghosts is available as a launch title for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It's become an industry norm that launch titles available to a respective platform are usually mediocre at best. Ghosts is one of the better games available at launch, but at the same time, the series is starting to feel a bit stale.

Review: Call of Duty - Ghosts (PS3)

Since the series went yearly in 2005, the gaming community has come to expect a new iteration of Call of Duty each holiday season.

Each year it seems like the latest instalment in the series breaks the previous years sales records.  Regardless of sales figures, many gamers feel the series has grown tiresome and stale. In addition to that, Electronic Arts Battlefield series holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers. So, Call of Duty: Ghosts has it's work cut out for itself.

Review: Skylanders - SWAP Force (PS3)

As a series, Skylanders has garnered a cult-like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide and presumably multimillions in additional toy sales.

Skylanders can be best described as a toy-game crossover that at first glance seems like it's primarily aimed at children, However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll quickly learn that Skylanders offers something cool to players of all ages.

Feature Preview: Skylanders Swap Force (Part III)

Last week, Sidd was in Albany, New York to take a tour of developer Vicarious Visions studio. During the trip he got a chance to talk to the developers and get some hands on time with the game. In our first two feature articles (Part I, Part II, we took a behind the scenes look at the game talking about everything from the character creation to how the story was crafted. In this third and final article gives us some hands-on impressions of Swap Force for the Xbox 360.

The Skylanders series has garnered a cult-like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide, which is to say nothing of the number of toy sales that has generated.

Feature Preview: Skylanders - Swap Force (Part II)

Check Part I of Sidd's Skylanders: Swap Force.

Part 4: The Audio Behind Swap Force
We met with one of the sound designers who took us inside his studio where the walls are covered with soundproofing foam and a really cool audio board, full of computers and dials.

The designer revealed that the sound offered a challenge when you add the "swapability" elements to the characters, since the two characters might have different personalities. As a rule of thumb the developers would play up the more aggressive side of a character, but they would also have to strike a fine balance between something that is cool and not scary to kids.

One of the characters we were shown was Wash Buckler who features tentacles. The audio team wasn't really sure how to make an octopus sound when walking on land. The team came up with an idea like using a bath tub, bath mat and laundry detergent to create Wash Buckler's sound. It seems like inspiration can come from the strangest places.

Feature Preview: Skylanders - Swap Force (Part I)

On September 17th, Sidd was in Albany, New York visiting Vicarious Visions Studio where he was given a tour of the studio, spoke with members of the development team and got some more hands on time with the game. In the next few days we will be featuring some articles taking a behind the scenes look at the next game in the series and have some more hands on impressions. This article will cover how the concept of Swap Force came about, the game's technology, and the process of how the writers create an engaging story.

Part 1: How The New (Swapping) Feature Comes About
Skylanders Swap Force still supports all the old Skylander figures/characters, but introduces sixteen new characters. These new characters have top and bottom halves that can be separated from each other and recombined with the halves from other characters. This allows for 256 total combinations.

The top half controls how you fight, while the bottom half controls how you move. This was an idea that was presented early on to Activision CEO of Publishing Eric Hirschberg. Immediately he latched on to the idea and loved what it could mean for the third iteration of the game. As the developers described it, it was their "Aha!" moment.

Hands-on Preview: Skylanders SWAP Force

The day after the Call of Duty reveal event, Activision invited us to see a preview of their upcoming platformer title, Skylanders: Swap Force. In addition to revealing several new Skylanders , the preview also offered a chance to get some brief hands-on time with the game.

Skylanders is a series that has garnered a cult like following over the past couple of years and has sold millions of copies worldwide, which is to say nothing of the number of toy sales that has generated. Skylanders can be best described as a toy-game crossover that at first glance seems like it's primarily aimed at children, However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll quickly learn that Skylanders offers something cool to players of all ages.

Preview: Call of Duty Ghosts Hands-On

On August 14, 2013, Activision held a press event in Los Angeles to unveil Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer to the world. Activision flew me out to LA along with dozens of other journalists to see the reveal in person and get some hands on time with the Xbox One version of the game.

We were able to play a couple of the game's new multiplayer modes including Cranked and Search and Rescue.

Cranked is loosely based on the Jason Statham movie of the same name. Cranked is a new take on team deathmatch whereby your players movement and reloading speed increase as you build up a kill streak. The only catch is that once you start a streak, you have thirty seconds to kill your next opponent otherwise you explode. Cranked is very fast-paced fun and as the timer ticks down the last few seconds it successfully pumps up the adrenaline.

Quick Notes: Call of Duty Ghosts Multiplayer Details

On August 14, 2013 Activision unveiled Call of Duty Ghosts (CODM) multiplayer to the world. A summary of the press conference is below:

Call of Duty Ghosts Multiplayer Reveal Trailer
The multiplayer premiere trailer was shown with an unreleased Eminem song called "Survival" playing in the background. A short clip of Eminem came on afterwards where he talked about his new song and his collaboration with the Franchise.