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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This week, JC & WallE get into it with their thoughts on the recent trailer reveals for The Last of Us, Fortnite, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Amazing Spider-Man and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. JC also gives his final edition of The Long Grind focusing on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Don’t worry though, the Long Grind will return in 2012 with new epic games to discuss.

The Topic of the Week this week is a very special one. A few weeks ago, the Bitcast crew talked about realism in games. This week, JC had the honor of sitting down and talking to a member of the United States Marine Corps who was involved in the conflict at the Battle of Fallujah in late 2004, considered to be one of the harshest battles in modern warfare history. This marine shares his perspective on gaming, movies and television  and how it relates to his experiences. We thank this individual for his time, his service and for sharing his experiences with us.

For their Now Playing, JC gives some insight in the recent Voltron XBLA release as well as how Christmas shopping reminded him of his time playing Dead Rising while WallE talks Madden 12. The duo even gives some not so subtle hints on what games they wouldn’t mind getting for Christmas.

Don’t forget to tune in next week for the Best Games of 2011 show and make sure to follow everyone on Twitter including @theflickcast, @thebitcast, @thejohncarle & @JWWallE. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to The Bitcast on The Flickcast iTunes feed.

The Bitcast returns this week with their record setting 8th Episode featuring the Flickcast’s own version of Mario & Luigi, though JC and WallE will both always lay claim to being the star of the episode.

In the News of the Week, JC and WallE discuss the upcoming Spike Video Game Awards show and speculate on the upcoming announcement from Epic Games, the makers of Gears of War and the Infinity Blade franchises. They also discuss the 10th Anniversary of Grand Theft Auto III coming to iOS before getting into detail with South Park: The Game coming from Obsidian. They even talk Beta numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic and announce the current and upcoming DLC for Goldeneye 007: Reloaded, sadly with the absence of Sean Bean.

In the Long Grind in Skyrim this week, JC gets in detail on both the dragons and music of the Elder Scrolls V.

For the Topic of the Week, WallE shows that he can handle both movies and gaming as he discusses the scores composed for some of the most influential titles in gaming history.

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On last week’s episode of The Bitcast I was challenged to put my video game money where my film score loving mouth is. So this week I decided to give you all a special edition of Film Score Friday: a top five rundown of my favorite video game scores of all time.

The music in video games has often been considered an after thought that had little to no bearing on the games themselves. Only a handful of franchises had transcendent music, and everything else was just deemed filler.

Now that video games are growing to near cinematic heights of popularity and quality, the music in these games has also seen a renaissance. High profile film composers are taking on video game projects, marquee games are releasing sound track albums and the film score community is finally accepting video games as source of quality music.

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Holy $#!^. It really is a challenge to clean up your mouth after playing Saints Row: The Third. It’s not because you are going to say the game is $#!^ or a waste of your &@*%ing time, but because there are so many moments where you burst out with, “Did that $#!^ really jut happen?” that the game’s foul mouth and your own just get blended together.

Saints Row: The Third is the end of a trilogy of progressively more extreme satires of the original Grand Theft Auto experience. The first Saints Row was somewhat grounded in reality while the second added a more fantastic storyline and more head scratching plot twists and more “Can they really get away with that?” moments.

Saints Row: The Third is like the Spinal Tap of the series. Take everything they have built… and turn it up to 11.

Gameplay:

Saints Row: The Third controls much like a standard third person open world action game on the surface. Players punch, shoot and carjack their way through various missions or just reign chaos upon the poorly defended denizens of Steelport. What Saints Row: The Third has done to change things up is a constant stream of mix and match gameplay mechanics to keep the player constantly feeling like they are doing something new.

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Capcom are the kings of frenetic, carpel-tunnel inducing fighting games. They are also the kings of selling you those games multiple times. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a super-sized revision of one of the best fighting games of the last few years. The original Marvel vs Capcom 3 came out earlier this year, but that proximity doesn’t do anything to lessen the impact of its brand new counterpart.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 brings a dozen new characters to the fun, as well as opening up several new levels to fight on and addresses a whole mess of balancing issues. The whole package is available for the lower price of forty bucks, and offers the most complete version of the game possible.

This sort of re-release might seem odd in the age of the DLC, but the additions to the game and the refinement of its engine are so robust that they needed to send the game back out as a new disc. Thankfully, Capcom had mercy on us by giving the game a budget rate, but the lowered retail price is only one of the game’s many high points. All twelve of the new characters offer some sort of exciting game play gimmick or interesting in-game look, with Rocket Raccoon being one of the most oddball and Hawkeye providing the most fun.

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JC and WallE are back again with a new episode of The Bitcast. This week in the news, the duo talks about some exciting news for the Max Payne and Bully franchises from Rockstar, the upcoming movie news for Rampage and address analyst Michael Pachter’s thoughts on the next XBox launch.

This week, The Bitcast introduces The Long Grind, a new segment featuring a longform review of a huge upcoming or classic title. This first edition of The Long Grind will feature The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for this episode and the next three weeks.

In the Topic of the Week, The Bitcast crew examines the classic Mario and Sonic franchises, as well as others, that have gone drastic reboots and remakes and continue to evolve both in gameplay and graphics.

In their Now Playing, WallE talks all things Sonic Generations while JC tackles the thug life of Saints Row: The Third. Make sure to subscribe to The Flickcast iTunes feed to get your weekly episode of The Bitcast automatically downloaded. Also, be sure to follow us on @thebitcast and JC at @thejohncarle and WallE at @JWWallE on Twitter.

A game that racks up sales of three quarters of a billion dollars in just five days of release is something anyone should take notice of. With the records Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has been smashing, the video game industry has been in near upheaval. Is it Call of Duty vs. Battlefield?

Is the game a cheap cash in for what should be just an expansion? Are services like Elite necessary for players? Regardless of what controversies may arise or what questions you may ask, the answer is really quite simple: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the definitive military shooter of 2011.

Gameplay:

There is a reason that Call of Duty has been at the forefront of military shooters since the inception of the series. The control is crisp and tight. Players move and react as close to they should in actual combat (with the exception of regenerative health of course).

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Two summers ago, Activision announced the rerelease of one of the most popular first person shooters ever with Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo Wii. With updated graphics (for the Wii…) and control, there was still something missing from the experience: players.

While the Wii has been a focus of the casual gaming market, the hardcore fanbase who would care most about the Goldeneye name had grown up and moved away from the Nintendo systems and their waggle controls and instead found their way to the XBox 360 or PlayStation 3. Enter San Diego Comic Con 2011 and Activision lets us take a peek at actual gameplay of the revamped Goldeneye 007: Reloaded. Business is about to pick up.

Gameplay:

It’s hard to review a reimagining of a title without looking at the original inspiration at the same time. The most noticeable difference is gameplay. In the early days, people didn’t really know what a shooter should play like on a console and the gameplay compensated for the limited control scheme with the Nintendo 64′s single analog controller. Now, Goldeneye 007: Reloaded feels and plays like a standard twin stick shooter.

New to the series is the disappearance of health packs since the emergence of regenerating health which has become the industry standard in shooters since the initial release. What is nice though for the Goldeneye “purist” (if those even still exist) is that players can opt for the Classic difficulty setting which takes away regenerating health to give the game a more old school feel.

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Check out the latest episode of the Bitcast with JC and WallE as they explore the world of gaming. In the news, the two reflect on the Grand Theft Auto V launch trailer and recap their predictions from the last episode and see who did better. Also discussed are the November 8th PSN releases of Crono Cross, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI.

In the Topic of the Week section, the Bitcast takes a look at the Free to Play gaming model which is becoming more and more prevelent in gaming today. The two discuss both the merits and concerns of the concept, look at how it has been implemented in existing titles and talk about what it can have in store for the future.

In their Now Playing, WallE has a throwback moment as he looks back at the original Uncharted for the PS3. JC expands further on his time with his review for Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure.

The world of video games and the world of toys have always had an interesting dynamic. Many people will remember the main outlet for purchasing their original NES games was from the cage at Toys R Us. Then, as gaming evolved and players matured along with the content of the titles, video games began getting their own stores and found their way into electronics superstores like Best Buy.

As that happened, many people began their arguments that video games were a form of art and not just simple boys. But… why can’t we have both? Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure works behind the concept of “Bring Your Toys To Life” where players blur the lines between their collectible figures and their gaming console experiences.

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A year ago, Activision proved you could have too much of a good thing with their Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock release which has been the last major band based rhythm game to come out with any sort of real backing to the mass market. For years, guitar and band games dominated sales charts between Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Those who presumably had taken this the worst had to be Harmonix who had pioneered the plastic instrument market with the original Guitar Hero only to see their own new franchise Rock Band take a beating from the oversaturated market caused by Activision. But from the ashes of so many plastic guitars and drum kits, a new genre came back to life with the dance game with both Dance Central and Just Dance.

Dance Central would captivate the world by measuring the full use of the dancer’s body to see how accurately they could replicate the motions on screen which quickly made it the defining piece of hardware for the newly launched XBox 360 Kinect peripheral. Now, Dance Central 2 returns to show you really can’t have too much of a good thing… as long as you do it right.

Gameplay:

Dance Central 2, like its predecessor, revolves around players standing in front of their TV and mirroring the dance moves in front of them. At heart, it is an incredibly simple concept but anyone who has tried dancing at any point in their life can vouch that just because you can see it done in front of you, it doesn’t mean you can do it too without a little practice.

Dance Central 2 works with all levels of dance skill thankfully so people who are experienced dancers can be challenged while rookie rump shakers can still enjoy themselves even though their arms and legs flailing in the air may make them look like they are having a seizure to passersby. Thankfully, individual dances still have the freestyle sections where the Kinect takes pictures of players to remind them just how silly they look in motion.

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