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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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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We like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, you like it and so, it seems, do a whole bunch of other people. How can we be sure?

Well, Activision on Tuesday announced that week-one sales of Modern Warfare 3 were 12.3 Million units, making it the biggest launch of all time. That number of units sold also brought in about $738 Million in revenue. Not bad for the first week.

The Xbox 360 version of the game was in the lead with sales of more than 7 million units, a record for game sales on a single console that was previously held by Call of Duty: Black Ops and its 5.8 Million units sold. 4.8 Million copies were sold for the PlayStation 3.

But what of the Wii? It had about 500K copies sold for it along with the PC version of the game, which also had about the same. In addition, in case you hadn’t heard, Activision announced late last week that COD:MW3 sold 6.5 Million copies and made $400 Million during its launch weekend alone. That’s also a record, by the way.

I’m sure Hollywood must be salivating pretty hard right now wishing they could get these kinds of sales figures for some of their movies. Of course, that would mean they would have to make good movies first. And let’s face it, most of them aren’t.

Look for our review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 very soon. We know John is working on it and it’s going to be great.

One of Cartoon Network’s most popular shows has been Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It is only fitting that only days before the show begins its third season, players will get the chance to jump in on Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures.  On September 15th, players will be able to begin their unique online Star Wars experience. And on Friday the 17th, the newest season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars begins.

At Comic Con, we got the chance to speak with Sony Online Entertainment about the upcoming title and get a walkthrough of some of the features in the game including both the Star Fighter and Lightsaber Duel minigames, both seen in the video below.

We were told that the main goal of Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures was to make the player feel as though they are a part of the Star Wars: Clone Wars universe with iconic characters to interact with and environments to explore. Unlike Star Wars: Galaxies, players are intended on being able to get instant gratification in this rather than grinding their way through levels in order to unlock upper tier content.

This also closely works in favor of the game’s younger target market. Right from the start, players can go up and talk to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Captain Rex. These characters help introduce players to the minigames.

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Take the tight first person control of Call of Duty, add the ominous feel of Bioshock, toss in some old school Cold War paranoia and insert some cool time altering powers and you find yourself with a recipe for success in Singularity.

Gameplay:

Especially in a shooter, there is so much importance on quick and reactive control and Singularity nails it. In single player, the player follows a fairly linear path where they must shoot their way through modern day elite forces, underarmed Soviets from the 1950s and a host of mutated monsters made up of the former residents of Katorga 12.

In addition to traditional assault rifles and shot guns, players get to take control of some new and interesting weapons like a remote control rolling grenade launcher and an exploding harpoon gun. Depending on the player’s preference, they will find themselves either relying on the classic tried and true weapons or experimenting with these new ones in combination with the TMD.

The TMD, the Time Manipulation Device, is the crux of Singularity’s unique gameplay. Over the course of the game, the TMD gets upgraded with new powers. At the start, it can only age or renew objects from their modern day to 1955 states. This also works on soldiers and mutants, leaving them with a quick and painful looking demise.

This power also allows players to uncover clues left by an unknown source in the form of messages left on walls in the past. Eventually, players gain the ability to control gravity and create small bubbles in which time stops for them which leads to some interesting combat scenarios.

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After launching Warhammer Online, it was only a matter of time before an MMO set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe would be released. THQ, publishers of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and its expansions and sequels, have finally announced and revealed a trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.

Not much information has been released for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online other than more is to come at Gamescon in August. What we can tell from the trailer however is that the game will have a focus on at least three of the Warhammer 40,000 races/factions. Space Marines, the soldiers of the Imperium, may also get a hand from the Imperial Guard as well as there are some unarmored soldiers seen in battle.

Orcs, like they have always been in Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, will be given a spotlight as foils for the Space Marines. Taking the fight to both races will be the corrupt demon worshipping Chaos Space Marines which spread violence and destruction throughout the galaxy.

Not present yet are Warhammer 40,000 staples, the Tyranids or the Eldar. It is possible that these races will be added in during future expansions.Most notably seen in the game trailer is the presence of titans, gigantic war machines that will presumably lead to epic boss battles.

Take a peek below at the trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online and let us know what you think of it in the comments.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t the only Star Wars highlight from last week’s E3 show. In addition to the still untitled LucasArts game being released for the XBox 360 Kinect, there has also been a trailer released for the upcoming online Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. Taking place in the same timeline of the Clone Wars animated film and series, younger players get the opportunity to play as either Jedi or Clone Troopers in the war against Count Dooku, General Grievous and the rest of the droid army of the trade federation.

With its cartooney graphics and light hearted feel, this game is certainly aimed at a different demographic than the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II trailer that was also released this week.  Geared towards the same youth demographic as the cartoon, Star Wars: Clone War Adventures looks to be a combination of casual mini games combined with simple droid destroying lightsaber and star fighter combat. It may not have the crossover appeal to get mature players but some of the most hardcore Star Wars fans will likely use it to get their fix as they await Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures will be releasing this fall for the PC. Check out the trailer and screen shots for it after the jump.

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XBox 360 (Also available on PlayStation 3 and PC)
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
$59.99
Score: 7.0

Alpha Protocol is a great example of a game that tries hard to do a lot of things and ends up pulling some of them off. When you look at what Alpha Protocol is attempting to do on paper, it is a pretty lofty list. Being the first espionage RPG, the game gets to define itself. Is it a spy game? Is it a shooter? How much roleplaying is actually involved? The truth is that Alpha Protocol almost gives too many options in how it approaches this concept.

Gameplay:

Alpha Protocol is all about options. Much like other RPGs, character customization is a big deal. Not in the way of appearance but in terms of skill sets, selection of characteristics plays a huge part in how each person’s Alpha Protocol experience will play out. There are two very distinct ways that players can progress through missions.

The first is guns blazing. For Gears of War or Halo fans, this may be their method of choice. Shoot their way through and ask questions once everything is dead. Using any pairing of either a pistol, SMG, shotgun or assault rifle, players get the opportunity to use special weapons abilities that help them progress through waves of enemies.

Along the way, players can also use stationary sniper rifles or turret guns to aid in their mayhem. This is one of the more rewarding and visceral experiences of the game as enemies fly off their feet after shot gun blasts or crumble to the ground with a series of well placed headshots.

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To say the single player campaign of Assassin’s Creed II left players wanting more is an understatement. And that doesn’t mean the gameplay experience was lacking. It was the complete opposite. Ubisoft had crafted such an enthralling experience that when gamers were left with a cliffhanger ending that introduced a whole lot of information regarding Ezio and his ties to Desmond and the Templars, they needed to find out where it was going.

Luckily, this year will introduce Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood which further explores the adventures of Ezio and his fellow assassins. In the first trailer below, you’ll witness the power that a group of assassins working together has that Ezio never would have had a chance of pulling off on his own.

While Ezio may look to take the role of the leader of this group, it’s going to be a whole new ball game in multiplayer. Instead of a simple death match where players will be running around shooting guns off in a constant chaos as they often play out, players will be hunting each other down in a horrific fashion, using the different assassination techniques that have made previous titles so fun. From blending in with their surroundings to using their hidden weapons, players will get the chance to take out their friends in competitive multiplayer like never before. Players will fight off in what looks to be a populated world where anyone could potentially be another assassin ready to take aim at them as their search for their prey.

Check out the trailers after the jump and stick to the Flickcast for more information on the sequel to our Best Action Platformer of 2009, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

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Of all the games coming out over the next year, there is only one that you could instantly pick out from just the music chosen for the trailer. With a song perfect for a 1940′s Vegas lounge, Fallout: New Vegas dropped its latest trailer at E3. In it, gamers were given their first peek at just what is in store for them in one of the few towns that was not devastated by the nuclear war that created the Fallout world.

Though not a direct sequel in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas inhabits the same world as Fallout 3 with its events taking place three years after. The trail below shows a barren desert surrounding the cesspool of Vegas inhabited by the same mutated dogs and Super Mutants that have plagued other Fallouts along with some fantastically devastating weaponry. It’s kind of sad that in a world torn apart by war, players are going to further tear it down… Actually, from the look of this trailer, it’s pretty damn cool. I can’t wait to shoot a rocket launcher of my own at one of those “Jingle Jangle Jingle” playing robots either.

The New California Republic. Sniper rifles. Green toxic waste. An Elvis impersonation school. Crucifixions. What’s not to love in this trailer? If this is what Obsidian Entertainment has cooking up for us with Fallout: New Vegas we say bring it on. But don’t take our word for it. Take a peek below at the E3 2010 trailer for Fallout: New Vegas and let us know what you think.

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XBox 360 (Also available on PlayStation 3 and PC)
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Bizarre Creations
$59.99
Score: 8.0

Growing up, we all loved Mario Kart. There was something about getting four friends together and surrounding a TV, playing split screen and systematically screwing over your best friend at the last second with a well timed red shell to capture first place. The series continued to shine as it moved from Super Nintendo all the way to the Wii but at the same time, it didn’t feel like that different of a game. Instead, it was more of a wash, rinse, repeat formula with updated graphics. And we all grew up along the way as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the fat plumber who seems to be stuck in platonic-friend-land with Princess Peach even though he has saved her life a million times. But eventually, go carts don’t do it for me anymore. When I think of a racing game I could walk out of a store purchasing, it has real cars in it. I still want the insane chaos of blowing my friends off along the way though. Enter Blur.

Gameplay:

Blur is everything described above and then some in terms of gameplay. Instead of just mirroring what Mario Kart did well, Blur improves upon it. Instead of straight up races with weapons, Blur features multiple game modes. While it does feature the traditional combat racing, I’ll get back to that in a second. Also included are Checkpoint and Destruction modes.

Checkpoint is pure speed. Players need to cut corners perfectly, time speed boost power-ups to the millisecond and collect stopwatches to add more time as they try to not just finish a race within its time frame, but to have as much time left as possible on their leaderboard score. There is no true opponent in this mode as players are only racing against themselves. For people who love time trial modes, this is where they will find themselves most.

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