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.

Saturday night, Spike TV held its annual Video Game Awards show which, as promised, gave the first looks at some huge trailers for 2012′s gaming landscape.

Naughty Dog gets to step away from their blockbuster Uncharted series to work on a new IP titled The Last of Us. This new title takes a different approach from the recent string of zombie / infected scenarios where it looks like it can be a game of stealth and horror mixed together. It isn’t a world like Dead Rising or Left 4 Dead where the creatures flood the street and makes the possibility of combining the stealth and horror genres pretty intriguing.

This has the possibility of becoming a fantastic PlayStation exclusive franchise. The trailer for The Last of Us is definitely one of the great surprises from the VGAs this year.

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Since its release back in 2006,  the Gears of War series has been met with both fanatic praise and scornful rejection. Some boast that it “redefined the third-person shooter,” while others claim it only furthers the stereotype of gamers as meat-headed blood junkies. Whatever your stance on the franchise is, the third and (possibly) final chapter of the trilogy is here – and credit must be given where it’s due.

The development team at Epic Games end the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad with a bang – both in the single-player / co-op campaign and across the online battlefield. From graphic updates to fine-tuning combat controls to completely redesigning one of the most popular multiplayer modes in recent history, all of the pieces of this blood-spattered puzzle fall gloriously into place.

Keep reading to find out how Gears of War 3 stomps on the juicy insides of its predecessors, while also managing to deliver one of the most satisfying ends to a gaming franchise.

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When it first arrived on the scene many people probably scoffed at the iPhone and iPod touch as unsuitable gaming platforms. After all, what can you do, graphics-wise, on the devices to make gaming worthwhile? Well, I’m happy to report that you can, at least in the hands of the folks at Epic Games, do quite a bit.

Since its debut on December 9th, Epic Games’ game Infinity Blade has grossed over $1.6 Million. Based on data from Apple’s Game Center, there were over 271,000 different users who played the game as of Sunday night.

Now here’s the math part, sorry if it hurts your heads. Infinity Blade costs $5.99 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which means the title grossed well over $1.6 Million in that short time span. Quite a success for the team at Epic.

Infinity Blade is the first Unreal Engine 3-based iOS game and, along with titles like Rage HD (Which also rocks, btw), it is helping to change the perception that the iPhone, iPad and such are not “real” gaming platforms. Lets hope the trend continues.

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Gears of War aficionados and Cosplayers rejoiced this morning with the announcement of a full scale Gears of War 2 1:1 scale Lancer Assault Rifle from Triforce, LLC. Having already designed a Locust Drone Maquette, TriForce combined the talents of sculptors Erick Sosa, William Valenzuela, Jorge Martinez, Toi Ogunyoku and painter Paul Komoda to create a 40 inch long, 15 lbs replica of Marcus Fenix’s iconic half chainsaw, half assault rifle, all bad ass weapon from the Gears of War franchise.

“When working on something as iconic as the Lancer Assault Rifle you have to get every detail right, in order to pay it the respect it deserves. Working closely with the incredible team at Epic Games we are confident we have created the most painstakingly accurate representation of this intricately designed weapon,” said Drew Seldin, a spokesman for TriForce. “You can only make great pieces if you work with the best and our design team is clearly the best. All you need to do is look at what they created and you will undoubtedly agree.”

Epic Games, the creators of Gears of War is also very happy with what they have seen from TriForce. Chris Perna, art director at Epic Games said, “The guys at TriForce have outdone themselves with this fantastic rendition of the Lancer, and the attention to detail is amazing. They went through great pains and spared no expense to bring to market the absolute finest quality reproduction of the Lancer to date. Working with these detail-oriented professionals has been a pleasure.”

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