Back in the N64 days, Perfect Dark was the shooter that was second only to Goldeneye and that’s probably because it was from the same developers but was a brand new IP that didn’t have the cache that something like the James Bond brand brought to the table. A generation later when the XBox 360 launched with Perfect Dark Zero alongside it and helped hold fans over until Halo made its leap to the generation.

Later in 2010, five years after Perfect Dark Zero was released, there was an XBox Live version of the original Perfect Dark. What other reason could there be for the rerelease of a classic title if not to promote a new one? And then in August of 2013, Rare said they had new ideas for a Perfect Dark game that involved the Kinect (keep in mind this was before the lackluster reception of the Kinect on the XBox One). Since then… nothing.

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Scarily enough, Comic-Con in San Diego is already on its way. Pre-registration is done. Media credentials are due soon. And the mad rush for tickets and hotel rooms will soon be upon us all.

But unfortunately, there are some people who have not gotten to experience San Diego Comic-Con for themselves. So to help let you know what it’s like, we’ve put this together.

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Another year, another COD, right? It is the one thing you can always count on to terrify publishers from releasing on the same date which makes the week’s purchasing decision a pretty easy one. You’re either getting Call of Duty or you’re not. There aren’t other games to even consider. But with this being the umpteenth release of the blockbuster franchise, how does it live up to previous years and even more importantly, how does it compare to the hype?

The Long

With their being three developers in the rotation now for the Call of Duty franchise, Sledgehammer enters the fray with a new IP with the Advanced Warfare story. A drastically different tone than either Black Ops 2 or Ghost, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare follows the world of the privatized military which are effectively government sanctioned mercenaries. As seen by all of the marketing materials, this corporation known as Atlas is headed up by the one and only Kevin Spacey and the role he takes as the player’s surrogate father after his own son is killed in combat.

Without giving too much information about the story, it follows pretty much every one of the expected beats. It’s not that it’s bad, but it is not going to surprise anyone either. It’s like going into a summer blockbuster that has no need for plot twists. It has a ton of polish and explosions that prevent you from having to think too hard.

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Those who go to cons are used to seeing protestors. For the most part they are the judgmental type who tell us we are all sinners, going to hell, need to repent, blah, blah, blah. But at New York Comic Con, a new group took to the streets and though their message is pretty clear, who they are isn’t. Donning red hoods and white masks, these anonymous-esque folks gave messages leading back to a twitter account YoureWelcomeSOS as well as an associated YouTube channel (the video can be seen after the jump).

Under the name Dramatis Personai, the group is seemingly protesting the demise of privacy. Most likely looking to hit a cord with the technology focused NYCC audience, the messages of the group strangely resemble the classic messages from the classic Watchmen, possibly another reason why the group targeted New York Comic Con this weekend. Drastically different from the Westboro Baptist Church or even Anonymous, the group has so far been respectful of the people they interact with while calling for their attention they have not taken to invasive scare tactics.

As we hear more about this group and their involvement at NYCC, we will be sure to update.

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Last month right before Comic-Con, Loot Crate released one of their best crates with a phenomenal Villains crate that included a totally original and exclusive Joki shirt alongside, amongst other things, a pair of Deadpool socks. It was going to be pretty hard to follow that up. But who better to show up the Villains than… the Heroes.

This month WallE and JC put their physical prowess to the test in an effort to capture a bunch of items based off of some of their favorite childhood heroes along with an exclusive Pop made just for Loot Crate. As some of you have seen in past crates, WallE and JC have an addiction for the little guys and battling over an exclusive one could possibly end their friendship and Whiskey & Waffles as we know it.

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If you’ve touched social media (especially Facebook) in the last two weeks, you’ve undoubtedly seen the Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge was started with intentions to go viral as individuals challenged their friends to dump buckets of, you guessed it, ice and water on their heads. It has evolved past awareness for the ALS foundation as it has lead to record donations by the people icing themselves. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was most commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease and as Gehrig’s name has begun fading from the public consciousness even after a rekindling during Cal Ripken’s major league run in the 1990’s, ALS’s notoriety had fallen by the wayside as well.

With the challenge going viral like many other trends on social media such as the Cinnamon Challenge or the Fire Challenge, this one was one that pretty much anyone could pull off with relative ease and gave a quick laugh to those watching. With celebrities like Charlie Sheen and Lady Gaga putting their own spin on it, ALS charities raised over 15.6 million dollars so far and the number continues to grow.

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Take two things geeks love, collecting and gaming, and you have a recipe for fun. But add a price tag to them and you have a potential recipe for disaster. It is universally accepted that geek culture isn’t a cheap one. 

Most of it revolves around specific purchases that help people fall in to varying groups. You have Star Wars fans, Trekkies, Doctor Who fans, LotR fans, gamers, roleplayers, LARPers, miniature tabletop players and a horde of others who fall into at least one, but usually multiples, of these options. And how do they show it? Usually with t-shirts, wallets, bags, wristbands, or any other number of options. But there are certain geek hobbies like collectible card games that take the obsessions of the geek culture to dangerous levels.

Collectible card games (CCGs for short) are games where players build their own deck out of an ongoing and ever growing collection of cards composed of those from starter packs and booster packs. Usually the packs have a distribution of cards between mostly common, some uncommon and a single rare. The more packs you purchase and you’ll likely find even harder to find special cards. In Magic: The Gathering, these would be Mythic Rares.

Usually a box of 36 packs will only contain a certain number of these sought after cards. The better the card and more rare it is will lead to players spending more between either pack purchases or just buying a card directly.

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Hot on the heels of Comic-Con comes the next unboxing in the Loot Crate Wars series. For July and August, the guys at Loot Crate have created a two part crate. First, July kicked things off with Villains as its theme which started with an awesome super foe themed trailer on Loot Crate’s own YouTube channel. In it is some of the baddest of the bad as you’ll see in the unboxing video below.

Most notable of the Crate (while still trying to keep the article spoiler-free-ish) is a special variant comic for a number one that just came out from Marvel. Loot Crate’s subscriber base has gotten so big that just by putting it in the July crate, they literally doubled the preorders of the book.

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At Comic-Con in San Diego we got the opportunity to take a closer look at the latest additions to Skylanders with Skylanders Trap Team. While we had already gotten a peek at the title, there were still some awesome announcements behind the game along with some great insight from the designers as well.

First came the announcement of the Skylanders Trap Team Dark Edition Starter Pack. Like last year’s SWAP Force Dark Edition, the set will come with some special dark paint variants of characters. Unlike last year’s though, there will be only three new Trap Team members without any sprinkling of classic characters.

It will also come with a new Portal of Power which will have a new feature in addition to a new look, the ability to use Traps to capture villains in game and use them while playing. The Dark Edition will come with a limited edition over sized trap allowing players to capture Chaos.

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Comic-Con International 2014 is set to kick off in just over 48 hours and after selling out 130,000 passes in just 90 minutes, San Diego is about to be descended upon by hordes of Con newbies. Every year those of us who have survived and live to tell the tale make sure to pass on our knowledge (whether or not they ask for it) to try and help these rookies get the most of their SDCC experience.

The best most important piece of information to take from this article is to have a game plan. Without knowing what your goals are for the show, there is a serious risk of wasting a lot of time only to not get the experience you’re hoping for. Luckily there is no shortage of information about the show, the exclusives, the panels, the autograph signings, the celebrities and everything else going down in San Diego during the show.

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