Back in January we reported on the breaking news that LEGO Marvel Super Heroes was coming. Yes, we know it was kind of a no brainer but it was great to see it was actually happening! Now we are proud to bring the first official trailer to the Flickcast faithful.

In the trailer below, check out the first official look at LEGO Spider-Man, Thor, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Deadpool and Black Widow who will be amongst the “more than 100 memorable characters to choose from, each with their own unique powers and abilities, players are in for a brick-smashing adventure”. Those actual gameplay isn’t shown, one can assume it will probably be similar in style to that of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. The trailer also gives a pretty good indicator who one of the game’s big bads is going to be.

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On Tuesday, Activision announced the third installment of Skylanders with Skylanders SWAP Force. You can check out the trailer here. Skylanders SWAP Force uses new dual “brain” technology to enable swapability between 16 special SWAP force figures. The top and bottle pieces can be reconfigured to create 256 unique combinations of characters and like all other Skylanders can be swapped on the fly during gameplay to accommodate for whatever the current gameplay situation calls for.

Take an exclusive look at the first live gameplay footage from the reveal event from New York city on Tuesday. We apologize for the quality but this was the only way to capture a first look at the new Skylanders SWAP Force in action. Also check out CEO of Activision Eric Hirshberg and CEO of Toys R Us Gerald Storch talking about the power of the Skylanders franchise.

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Yesterday, we got to head into New York City for the worldwide reveal of Skylanders SWAP Force. The third installment in the Skylanders franchise, the game will be backwards compatible with all current Skylanders figures, be releasing a horde of new Skylanders and new gameplay mechanics including swapability. For the first time, the team at Vicarious Visions will be heading the production of a Skylanders title.

As you’ll see in the trailer below, the new SWAP Force Skylanders will be two pieces, a top and bottom half. These pieces can be split and recombined with any other SWAP Force Skylander. When reconfigured, a new Skylander is created. For example, take the top of Wash Buckler, a pirate squid, and combine it with the bottom half of Blast Zone, a flaming robot, and you get Wash Zone who has all the combative powers of a pirate with the jet boots of a robot. With this new release, there will be 16 SWAP Force Skylanders released, which leaves 256 possible top and bottom combinations for players to explore.

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As much as we have enjoyed some of the new Skylanders introduced in Skylanders Giants, there is nothing cooler than adding one of the eight new Giants to your shelf. Up until now, only five of them have become available. That changes with the release of the Undead and Water Giants, Eye-Brawl and Thumpback.

Not only have the Giants been the focus of the latest Skylanders game between the title and the focus on putting the lightcore technology in all of the Giants figures, they have also been given some of the coolest concept design and detailed crafting towards the actual toys.

Eye-Brawl touts itself as being one of the most powerful Skylander in addition to being one of the most visually impressive. Thumpback looks to be a huge powerhouse and will likely become a favorite for players with a preference for Water Skylanders as well.

Check out the full character bios, trailers, screen shots and toy gallery for both Eye-Brawl and Thumpback after the jump.

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As much as we love Disney and a lot of the things they do like Wreck-It Ralph, even we notice that they don’t always come up with all their own concepts. Usually it is something that has been successful in the past and they put a Disney twist on it to turn it into an even bigger success. Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and tons more are all examples of this. So, it’s no surprise that Disney and Avalanche Software would be following the success of the toys to video game combo of Skylanders with the announcement of Disney Infinity.

Using a special hardware base accessory, players will be able to unlock new in game content and characters for Disney Infinity. Sounds familiar right? Disney Infinity will be following a model similar to that of Activision’s Skylanders franchise. Players will be able to take purchased toys and put them on a base that will read the figure and unlock characters and items in the game.

In the trailer below, you’ll see characters from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Incredibles, Monsters University, Cars, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and more that will most likely be on the list of playable characters and toys coming out for Disney Infinity.

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Now, I’m not going to come on here and pretend I know what every geek in your life is going to want. But if they are anything like me, there is at least something on here that they do want.

The nice thing is that even if they already have it (or you picked the one thing on this list they actually hate), every item is coming from a store they will be able to return it to and buy something they do want.

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If you have a young male gamer in your family anywhere between the ages of 6 to 36, you have most likely heard of Skylanders. What seems like a simple adventure game takes on the addictive nature of Pokemon style in-game collection alongside real life figurines (a staple of any geek lifestyle). Skylanders Giants comes as the second iteration of what will likely become a yearly franchise for at least the foreseeable future from Activision and developer Toys for Bob that adds some new gameplay dynamics and, more importantly, a slew of new figures for gamers to collect.

The Long

Skylanders Giants kicks things off following the events of the original Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. There is a little bit of meta going on with the story as the antagonist Kaos finds himself in our real world and sees the Skylanders trapped in toy form. After transporting himself back to Skylands, Kaos finds out about a mystical artifact that will allow him to control a robotic army and take over Skylands.

Meanwhile, the player finds out that the ancient Giants, who were the first Skylanders, have been found and they can be awakened to stop Kaos and the robotic army. Yes, it does sound like a Saturday morning cartoon but that is a part of the charm of Skylanders Giants.

Just as the story has a whimsical youthful feel to it, so does the character design. All of the Skylanders from the original game return along with eight new Skylanders and eight Giants. The designs stay in line with the different elements of the game like Life (trees), Death (skeletons), Tech (mechanical) and others while keeping the designs of the new characters original as well. The Giants are unique both in their size on-screen and in their design as well. They have a larger than life feel with the way they interact with other characters and objects on-screen.

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The madness has begun. On Sunday, Skylanders Giants was released in game and toy stores around the country. Parents waited outside on the brisk fall morning to be the first in line to get their hands on the new Skylanders Giants game as well as the horde of new figures released. After the shortages of various figures with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure it is no surprise that parents and collector’s alike flocked to stores so not to miss out on the latest line of Skylanders Giants.

Aside from the game itself which was launched with either just the Tree Rex Giant figure for owners of the original game or the Portal of Power, Tree Rex Giant, the new Jet Vac and the series 2 Cynder for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo 3DS, there was a horde of figures released with waves 1 and 2. Not counting Tree Rex, four of the eight new Giants figures have been released. There have also been the releases of series 2 Skylanders (remakes of the original Skylanders), Lightcore Skylanders (classic Skylanders remodeled with pieces that light up when put on the Portal of Power) and of course the new Skylanders made for Skylanders Giants as well. They have also released the first Battle pack three pack which includes Chop Chop 2, Shroom Boom and the Dragonfire Cannon which unlocks a new Combat Arena.

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Not since Pokemon has a “gotta get ‘em all” mentality hit gaming like it has with Skylanders. Shipments would hit stores and be gone within a few short days. And when someone had finally gotten all the new characters for themselves or their kid, the next wave would hit. And come October, we get to do it all over again.

When Skylanders Giants was announced, details were still a little unclear as to how the classic Skylanders would fit into this new game world. Even more questions arose when the new Skylanders Starter Pack was revealed. Would players of the original need to purchase another Portal of Power and a repeat Cinder Skylander to get to play Skylanders Giants? With this latest features trailer (seen after the jump) we get all the important facts.

First off, the Starter Pack will be available for the Wii, Wii U, XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS and will retail for $79.99. It will include Skylanders Giants, the Portal of Power, one Giant, one New Skylander and one Series 2 Skylander.

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Because we know just how important Skylanders are to both geeks and the parents of young aspiring geeks, we’ve got the reveal trailer for the latest Giant coming to Skylanders Giants and he goes by the name Crusher. Now as much as you’d expect a wrestler looking behemoth, Crusher actually more closely resembles a stone golem with a massive hammer.

Though we haven’t gotten the chance to get hands on with any of these Giants yet, we are wondering just how they will play in comparison to their smaller Skylander counterparts. Aside from the special moves like moving heavy objects and pulling islands closer together with their chains, it looks like the Giants dole out massive damage to regular sized foes based on the trailer

Take a peek below at Crusher in action after the jump.

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It’s already going to be the best-selling game of 2012. Even Activision Blizzard’s PC darling Diablo III can’t compare to the multiplatform might that is Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. For most gamers, it isn’t a matter of “if” they are going to get the game as much as it is “when” and “where” they plan on getting it. But now, with the announcement of three different special editions, “which” becomes the biggest question for them to answer.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will have two versions coming to the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 and one digital download version. The Hardened Edition will retail for its standard $79.99 for XBox 360 and PS3 as will the Digital Deluxe Edition for PC download. There will again be an epic collector’s edition to go alongside some of the Call of Duty masterpieces of the past as well-known as the Care Package. You can check out the full list of what comes in each special edition below but there are a few cool things to note.

The pinnacle of excess comes this time from the Care Package. In addition to all materials that come in the Hardened Edition, it comes with a MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone. In addition to using them in the game, now you will have the opportunity to harass friends, family and pets in real life with this flying terror. Sadly, it doesn’t come with a fully loaded machine gun like it does in-game. That would have made for some interesting hunting sessions for players of the game in heavily wooded area during deer season.

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After being announced by Activision as the top grossing toy line of last year, people are already lining up in anticipation of the release of Skylanders’ next endeavor, Skylanders Giants. To help satiate this group of kids, parents and gamers alike are the latest character reveals from Activision from Gamescom.

Gamescom brings two New Skylanders to the mix. While we have only seen three of the eight Giants, there are still a host of the smaller Skylanders which will be making a debut in Skylanders Giants. Chill is a new Water Skylander with a doublesided spear, the ability to toss ice bricks and even throw a narwhal at her opponents. The slingshot equipped Shroomboom is a Life Skylander that can launch himself or poisonous mushrooms at opponents or set up a barrier of the same mushrooms around himself to detonate.

Check out the full profiles of both new Skylanders and the latest Gamescom screen shots after the break and stay tuned to the Flickcast for more on Skylanders Giants before its Fall 2012 release.

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Yesterday, Activision Blizzard had its second quarter earnings call and surprisingly the focus of the call was not around either World of Warcraft or Call of Duty. Instead it was Diablo III that was heralded as the biggest winner of the past quarter for the company. Diablo III scored more than 10,000,000 units sold since its release.

Also not surprising if you know any kids who play games is that Skylanders, including toy sales, was the best selling game for the first half of 2012. CEO Bobby Kotick also made sure to add that the toy sales of Skylanders outsold the highest selling toy lines in both the US and Europe.

As a result of the $1.05 billion dollars in overall earnings, predictions have gone up a full million for their $4.3 billion in expected earnings for the year. Still to come this year, Activision Blizzard has a full lineup for the remainder of the year with World of Warcraft’s Mists of Pandaria expansion , the juggernaut of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, the toy powerhouse Skylanders Giants and franchise player Transformers: Fall of Cybertron featuring the dinobots. With the last Call of Duty breaking the billion dollar mark on top of these other huge titles, Activision Blizzard looks to maintain its top spot in the gaming world.

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With Skylanders Giants fast approaching in time for the holiday season, it is time for the team at Vicarious Visions to start letting us get a peek at some new Skylanders. After the E3 trailer though, things have been a little on the quiet side. Now, with just a few months before the expected October release date, we get the first character trailer of the new lightcore powered giant Skylander, Swarm.

SWARM

Bring the Sting!

Element: AIR

Character Type: Giant

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When we revealed the LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes “Open World” trailer, we also heard the first glimpse of the newly voiced LEGO Batman and Superman. Now, with their latest trailer, Traveler’s Tales lets us take a peek at more of the LEGO DC Super Hero family in action with voices for the first time.

In the video after the jump, Batman, Superman, the Joker and the Riddler are all finally seen in their full LEGO glory. Instead of being restricted to physical humor, an additional layer of depth is added to the LEGO games franchises by allowing characters to be voiced for the first time. Batman does a try hard gritty imitation of Christian Bale from the recent Nolan trilogy.

Superman seems like more of an airhead than ever. And the combination of the two has the makings of comedy gold. Just from the two interactions between the two stars from the trailer, there are already so many more potential character building set ups now available to the duo. Add in voice to the rest of the cast and this could very well be the best LEGO game yet.

Take a look at the full LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes trailer below and stick to the Flickcast for more as LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes hits all major gaming platforms next week on June 19th.

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