As everyone expected, the mod community is having a heck of time with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim the same way they did with the past open worlds of the Elder Scrolls series. With the official launch of the Skyrim Creation Kit through the Steam Workshop, players are able to build and distribute mods through the support of Bethesda and Steam which allows the community to come together and let each other know what the best and most promising mods are.

Instead of just being a free for all, this community allows players a piece of mind that they are downloading actual content and not a hack or virus that could harm their system. The first of these mods which every player should snag is the High Resolution Texture Pack which will greatly improve the visuals for most players.

The next piece of content any player with a sense of humor that also isn’t too hung up on silly things like continuity is Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1. Created with the help of Valve, Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1 brings Portal 2′s third favorite A.I. core to the medieval world of Skyrim.

To celebrate the opening of the Steam Workshop for Skyrim, Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring you the Portal 2 Space Core mod, which will let the aggressively space-centric little robot tag along on your adventures in Tamriel.

Also, since Skyrim was the only major release of 2011 without Nolan North in it, you should consider this mod a patch to fix that problem. You can now feel free to include Skyrim in the “Nolan North” section of your video game library, which is to say, your video game library.

Check out a video preview of the Space Core in action and stick to the Flickcast for more Skyrim and Portal news and all things gaming.

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Head to any Toys R Us and take a look at their video game section and look for the large space where the Skylanders figures should be and you will see a trail of utter decimation. In talking to a Toys R Us employee, we were told that the only day the Skylanders’ rack isn’t empty is the day deliveries come in. And by end of that day, it is already down to half of its stock. So, it’s no surprise that Activision will be officially unveiling the follow-up to Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure at Toy Fair in New York City next week with Skylanders Giants.

With promises of eight brand new regular Skylanders and eight completely new Giant Skylanders that also light up when close to the Portal of Power, it looks like the creators are going to have a ton of fun expanding on the Skylanders universe.

Skylanders Giants builds upon the breakthrough fundamentals of the first game-merging the physical and virtual realms with an innovative line of cross-platform toy figures that have “brains,” which players everywhere can magically bring to life in the world of Skylands. This next installment of the franchise features a variety of new characters, new challenges, a thrilling new story-driven adventure, and advanced integration across console, handheld, mobile and online:

Going Big: Skylanders Giants introduces eight new highly collectible figures that are more than twice the size of the main skylanders cast in both physical and virtual form. Their in-game powers and abilities reflect their colossal scale.

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Members of Call of Duty Elite for both the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 have already started reaping the benefits of their yearly membership with the first content drop in January. As promised, Activision is intent on keeping up with their Content Drop schedule for Elite Subscribers to prove the value of the service.

This month, subscribers will be getting their hands on the new map Overwatch. Somewhat similar in aestetics to the rooftop multiplayer map of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, this one is much more dangerous as its central passage is one that provides little cover or protection from falling for the players crossing it. It does give some nice variety to the other maps that have already been released and it will be interesting to see how it plays out when more game modes are added as well.

Call of Duty Elite Drop 3: Overwatch drops you into a construction site atop a New York City skyscraper. The battle takes place along two levels in a near symmetrical layout, with the central bridge and side routes open to attack from multiple angles. Watch your every step, as a lack of safety barriers surrounding the perimeter leaves nothing between you and a 70 story fall to the ground below.

Overwatch is the third Content Drop in Modern Warfare 3′s Content Season, which will include more than 20 pieces of brand new content over the 9 month season. Elite Drops 4-6 will be available in March for Premium Members on Xbox Live and will include the multiplayer map Black Box and two brand new Special Ops Missions, Black Ice and Negotiator. The full calendar of content is outlined here.

Check out the screens after the jump and stayed tuned for more Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 news as it becomes available.

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Telltale Games is known for working on some of the most revered point and click games in PC gaming, with many of its key contributors coming from the famed LucasArts team that created Tales of Monkey Island. Since splitting off from LucasArts, the team at Telltale was able to take their credentials and acquire more well known mass market properties like CSI, Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. Though this is the fifth Law & Order game to be released, Law & Order: Legacies it is the first to come from the team at Telltale.

Gameplay:

When talking about a point and click adventure game, many people recall instances of being left in a world where they must click on or pick up objects in a certain order to achieve a specific goal. Instead, the aspect of the point and click adventure that carries over to Law & Order: Legacies is that of a cerebral experience which players are carefully lead through, almost too carefully at times.

The focus of Law & Order: Legacies’ gameplay is on remembering the facts presented at crime scenes, interviews with witnesses and cutting off the tactics of defense attorneys.

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Pretty much every guy has questioned their friends on who they would rather sleep with between Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Just the same, every girl has probably questioned her friends if they’d rather marry Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Matt Damon.

But what about those times where you can’t say “I’d sleep with all of them” and had to decide to actually marry a hot mess like Spears, Lohan or Hilton instead of just kicking them to the hoe-side curb they deserve to be on? Or, what about choosing between killing off Batman, Superman or Spider-Man? Kill/Marry/Fuc by Sarah Huber combines all three.

The way it works, turn to a random page and you have decide one person / object / concept /etc. that you’d want to marry, one you’d want to kill and one you’d want to get down with. Some of these are easy decisions, but others really make you think. That’s right. A book about hooking up, marrying and killing really starts turning the gears for some people.

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Just when you thought Activision had filled your shelves with enough little plastic figures for Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, they release a third wave of these collectible interactive toys. Now available are the Cynder and Double Trouble individual blister packs as well as the Empire of Ice Adventure Pack which features a new playable level to the game, the character Slam Bam and two new in game items (including a very familiar looking shield).

Check out the screens and videos for all three new characters below.

Cynder

Volts And Lightning!

Element: Undead

Primary Attack: Spectral Lightning

Secondary Attack: Shadow Dash

Upgrades include:

• Cynder Flight
• Black Lightning
• Shadow Reach

Bio: While just an egg, Cynder was stolen by the henchmen of an evil dragon named Malefor and raised to do his bidding. For years, she spread fear throughout the land until she was defeated by Spyro the dragon and freed from the grip of Malefor. But dark powers still flow through her, and despite her desire to make amends for her past, most Skylanders try to keep a safe distance… just in case.

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One thing we’ve always supported is independent production of film, tv, comics and games. As an independently operated news site, we understand how hard it is to break through to that next level. It is also great to hear when one of The Flickcast’s supporters gets an opportunity to bring one of their artistic visions to life.

Alex Greenfield is one of those supporters. Alex is best known for being the former lead writer on WWE’s SmackDown brand as well as two TV movies, Street Warrior and Jack’s Family Adventure. Last week, Alex and his writing partner Michael K Eitelman released The Temple through Amazon Studios.

We got the chance to talk briefly with Alex and he told us about both his inspiration behind The Temple as well as a little bit of the creative process.

My dad read me “The Rats in the Walls” when I was like five, literally sitting around a campfire. Let’s agree to ignore the parenting questions that anecdote raises and skip right to the fact that I became a Lovecraft addict before I could read. It was only a matter of time before I would dip my pen in the Mythos well.

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Since its announcement last June, gamers have been awaiting the arrival of the latest Alien franchise title. With the lackluster response from the most recent Aliens vs. Predator title, it looks like it is up to Aleins: Colonial Marines to pick up the pieces of the franchise and put them back in the right places.

SEGA makes an odd choice of making this trailer fully cinematic while the previous one released featured in game footage. The reason behind that is the game has a look and feel that we have experienced many times before with FPS Marines versus Aliens gameplay. If they focus too much on this in the trailer instead of building on the possible story points like the chaotic nature of a full battalion of marines taking on an infestation, the game could potentially just feel like one of those “been there, played that” scenarios.

In terms of scale, Aliens: Colonial Marines may be the largest single player battle gamers have had the opportunity to encounter. Expect lots of grizzly cut scenes with dozens of different marines acting as cannon fodder to the xenomorph menace.

For now, check out the trailer after the jump. Stick to the Flickcast for more on Aliens: Colonial Marines coming to the PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 scheduled for Fall of 2012.

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We had already heard that Cole from Infamous and PlayStation Japan’s anthropomorphic cat duo of Toro and Kuro were coming to the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita version’s of Street Fighter X Tekken. But now in their latest trailer, the team at Capcom may have put the final two nails in the coffin of the argument over which version of the game to buy.

Exclusive to the two Sony consoles will be two gaming classics. First, making his return to the fighting games arena after being left out of Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is Mega Man. But, this isn’t the same Mega Man that people have become accustomed to over the past twenty years. This Mega Man is returning all the way back to his old school gaming box cover roots from the very first Mega Man release. With his classic gritty costume in all its yellow and blue glory, this Mega Man even holds a gun as opposed to his arm equipped Mega Buster.

In another surpisingly wacky move, Pac Man has been added to the roster as well. That’s right. Pac Man. Now, we were as skeptical about how this would work when we first read it too. But if you check out the trailer below and see him in action, it almost begins to make some sense. Pac Man isn’t just going in by himself. Instead he will be operating some crazy wooden mech in combat. Think of it as a low tech version of Tron Bon’s robot from Marvel vs. Capcom.

Take a peek after the jump of the latest trailer featuring Pac Man, Mega Man, Cole, Toro and Kuro all in action. Stick to the Flickcast for more information on Street Fighter X Tekken as it becomes available.

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Earlier this week, a rumor came out on InsideMobileApps.com stating that Microsoft may be getting rid of its Microsoft Points system in favor of a more traditional transaction system like that of the Android App and Apple App stores.

Though Microsoft gave the expected “we do not comment on rumours or speculation” response, InsideMobileApp reports of mobile developers being told to plan upcoming DLC and In-App purchases in accordance with this change. Whether this will affect just the Windows Phone which uses the Microsoft Points system that started with the XBox 360 or carry across all Microsoft platforms at this point is all speculation.

The Microsoft Points system has come under fire since the initial Marketplace pricing structure on the XBox 360 was revealed. At its origin, downloadable titles on the XBox Marketplace were either 400 or 800 Microsoft points which translates to $5 and $10 respectively.

The problem however quickly presented itself that points were sold in 500 point increments. This resulted in leftover points. It would force customers to make further purchases in favor of having unused currency sitting on their account. This problem further compounded itself when DLC evolved and was priced at other irregular point values.

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Take square blocks and build whatever you can imagine, limited only by your own creativity. It’s a description that could fit perfectly with one classic toy franchise as well as one of the most groundbreaking PC games of 2011. For decades, children have put together the little pegged blocks in billions of combinations building castles, cities, vehicles and creatures in ways the creators never could have expected.

For the past year, gamers have dug squares out of a virtual landscape and created everything from replicas of famous landmarks to Godzilla-sized Pokemon recreations. And now, the two franchises which look to be a perfect fit for each other, LEGO and Minecraft, are coming together.

As reported on LEGO’s CUUSOO blog, the Minecraft project has been approved to move on to the product development stages:

Since the Minecraft™ project reached 10,000 supporters on LEGO® CUUSOO, many of you have been eagerly awaiting our update. Until now, the project has been in the LEGO Review—a stage before product development begins where a LEGO Jury evaluates the idea’s feasibility as a product and makes a decision.

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Playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and not sure if Elite membership is right for you? Check out the latest two trailers from Activision and Call of Duty Elite featuring Rob Riggle, the cop from the Hangover who had way too much fun with the taser in the classroom, as he explains the benefits of Elite as well as walks you through the first two maps from Call of Duty Elite’s nine month content drop.

As the Elite trailer goes to explain, the biggest benefit for Elite membership isn’t just getting maps first. They are actually cheaper if paid for up front. Instead of getting four packs at $15 a pop, players can pay for them all with the Elite membership for only $50 (or already have it free if they purchased the Hardened Edition of the game) and as mentioned, they get them much earlier than waiting for content packs.

As promised, Elite delivered its first two maps yesterday. In addition to new gameplay modes which will be coming soon, new multiplayer maps have been the biggest and most important DLC on XBox Live since Halo 2′s map packs.

This pack features Content Drop 1: Liberation which resembles a Central Park setting, complete with mounted miniguns (just like real life), long lines of sight for snipers and tons of tree cover and close quartered underground locales as well. Content Drop 2: Piazza takes players to an Italian seaside village filled with tight winding roads leaving lots of chances for close combat encounters.

Check out the January Content Drop trailer below as well as screens of both Liberation and Piazza. Stay tuned to The Flickcast for more on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty Elite.

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