That’s right. The mega gaming franchise Call of Duty is going back to the beginning. Well, to the 1940’s to be exact with the newly released trailer for Call of Duty: World War II.

Here’s some more info from the official press release: “Over two years in the making, Sledgehammer Games delivers a gritty, personal experience in the setting of the largest worldwide conflict in history to a new gaming generation in Call of Duty: WWII.

Play through the story of ordinary men turned soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division as they fight to preserve freedom in the face of tyranny.”

We’re in. Check out the trailer after the break. Call of Duty: World War II hits the beaches (and stores) on November 3rd.

With all the uncertainty in the world, at least there’s one thing we can pretty much always count on: new Call of Duty games. The latest one is called Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

This new chapter in the franchise takes place in “a dark, gritty future where a new breed of Black Ops soldier emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the cutting-edge military robotics that define the future of combat.” That does sound cool.

Judge for yourself by watching the first trailer for the game, which has just been released. Look for Call of Duty: Black Ops III to arrive on November 9.

The trailer is after the break.

On January 24, 1984 the first Macintosh computer from Apple was launched. And the world was never the same again.

Regardless of your personal feelings towards Apple or its products, there’s no denying the company changed the personal computer world forever with the introduction of the Macintosh. And in the 30 years since, many of us here at The Flickcast (and elsewhere to be sure) couldn’t imagine going through our day, or getting work done, without one.

To commemorate this milestone, Apple has a special home page on its website and a video to celebrate “30 years of Mac innovation.” The company has also created a special section on its website dedicated to the 30 years of Mac.

On one of the many pages at Apple’s website dedicated to the Mac, there’s a quote from Steve Jobs which helps set the stage and encapsulates fully the lasting legacy that is the Mac.

“We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone,” said Jobs.

How right he was. Check out the video after the break. Happy 30th Mac!

Even though we don’t really care all that much who or what wins an Academy Award, the rest of Hollywood does. It’s also likley many of you care as well.

So, in that spirit, here’s a list of the nominations that were announced this morning. There’s a lot of them and, to put it bluntly, not that many surprises. The movies and performances that seem “Oscar-worthy” were nominated. It was kinda a no-brainier year.

Of course, there’s also a few regulars who made the cut, like Meryl Streep, you would expect to see on the list. One notable exception is Tom Hanks, who seemed to be a shoe-in for a nomination for his role as Captain Phillips. He got nothing.

I guess every Oscar nominations list needs at least one surprise, just to try and keep it interesting and prove the Oscar voters don’t just vote for whomever or whatever wins a Golden Globe. Of course, Hanks didn’t win the Golden Globe either, but I’m sure it was just a pleasure to be nominated.

Anyway, here’s the nominations list (stolen from the folks at Deadline):

Believe it or not, the actors in a movie or TV program don’t just make up their dialog on the spot (well, sometimes). Nor do the director or producers just make up the story as they go along (well, not very often).

In most cases, a person (or more than one) has to write a screenplay so the rest of the team can get together and make something. That person is called a writer. And most writers in Hollywood use a program called Final Draft to work their magic.

And now the makers of Final Draft have released a new version, Final Draft 9, and it’s got over 30 new and improved features to help writers (and the rest of the team) take care of the business of show.

Here’s some of them:

• New look and feel for both Mac and Windows users
• Navigator feature now offers story development tools for Scenes, ScriptNotes, and Characters
• Watermarks for PDFs and printing
• Improved Spell Checkers
• Mac specific features like retina display compatibility, dictation support and full screen mode

For more, check out the website right here.