Right now, I am counting down the days until my savings account basically becomes non-existent. On one side, I have a new console generation so there goes a few hundred bucks instantly. On the other, we have the next version of Skylanders with the largest launch lineup of new characters since the game’s inception in Skylanders SWAP Force. In other words, “Goodbye monies.” But I can’t complain. I am the one choosing to buy them after all. But of course, Vicarious Visions can’t help but make the wait and anticipation worse by showing off the new characters.

Skylanders SWAP Force will take place in a new location called the Cloudbreak Islands. Here, there is some mystical volcano that erupts every hundred years and this is the source of the SWAP Force’s SWAP ability. Back to his old habits is the series’ antagonist Kaos. But this time he isn’t alone as he is accompanied by his mom. Because if there is one thing more intimidating than a horrible wizard, it is one that needs to bring his mom to a fight.

When the creators of the top XBox exclusive Halo franchise teams up with the publishing behemoth behind the Call of Duty franchise, at least on paper it is a recipe for success. After months of only hearing the project’s name Destiny, Bungie was finally ready to reveal just what it was during an event this weekend.

Below check out the first developer diary featuring the first concept art for Destiny. After spending a decade with Halo, Bungie looks to spend the next ten years working on Destiny. In the trailer, you’ll hear the start of the Destiny mythos. Unlike Halo where mankind was fighting back against an invading force, Destiny takes place in the aftermath of an invading force. Saved only by a figure known as the Traveler, the remnants of humanity struggle to survive.

One aspect of LEGO games that has always stood out was the central hub location where players would go in and out of missions. Originally, this was a small location of only a few rooms that chapters could be explored by entering. This was the primary setup for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. More recently, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes changed this format with an open world Gotham for players to traverse and go into story missions when they saw fit. Now, Traveler’s Tales needs to switch up for the format again for LEGO The Lord of the Rings.

While it made sense in LEGO Batman’s world for the caped crusader to be able to travel around Gotham at his whim, that just isn’t the case with the tighter narrative that needs to be told during The Lord of the Rings. Even in LEGO format, The Lord of the Rings needs to have a clear beginning and ending location that players can’t just skip to. As anyone who has watched, or especially read The Lord of the Rings, it isn’t the destination that mattered to the story as much as it was the journey that got the heroes there.

One of the most intimidating prospects for a game developer may be the chance to work on a franchise they grew up loving. There is so much pressure put on themselves to uphold the high standards they set because they don’t want to let down themselves, other fans or the creators of it. But it also gives great opportunity for talented teams to make something special that can stand alongside other creative works associated with that franchise. Traveler’s Tales is one of those teams that has shown both love and respect for everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter in the LEGO universe and are undertaking the formidable legacy of The Lord of the Rings in their next game.

When you look at LEGO The Lord of the Rings at first, what you may notice first is the world going on behind the characters. There is a blend of both picturesque landscape combined with scenics from the films created out of LEGO. Much like they did with LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will have a large open world format with side quests for players to take part in instead of just following the story of the game.

A man who’s shown his love for both the geek world and Spider-Man is Bruce Campbell. From cameos during the Sam Raimi trilogy to his narrative roles on previous Spider-Man video games, Bruce is probably the second most logical choice for a voice actor to appear in The Amazing Spider-Man game other than Stan Lee himself.

In the Amazing Spider-Man, Bruce voices the Extreme Reporter. The Extreme Reporter serves two roles in the game. First, it gives Spider-Man a friendly antagonist. Unlike Rhino, Puma or Iguana, the Extreme Reporter isn’t looking to killer the friendly wall crawler. He is however looking to capitalize on the newfound fame of the rookie hero.

Secondly, the Extreme Report gives a somewhat logical reason for the existence of the game’s various challenges. While most events in games are story driven, various super hero games have random and often unexplained time trials, races or various other “gamey” occurrences that players just accept. Now, there is a reason behind these random challenges as well as someone players they feel they can gloat to when they defeat them.

Check out the full behind the scenes interview with Bruce Campbell as he talks about the Extreme Reporter, Spider-Man and Stan Lee. The Amazing Spider-Man hits shelves tomorrow for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. Stick to The Flickcast for a review too coming soon!

After a two game hiatus since Beenox took control of the Spider-Man franchise, the webcrawler is returning to New York City with the tie-in release of The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s what fans of the series have wanted. As much as a linear experience has helped with the storytelling of the previous two Beenox games, it prevented them from capturing the true feel of the best games of the character’s past. Swinging through an epic metropolis at breakneck speeds is what being Spider-Man is all about.

In the developer diary after the jump, The Amazing-Spider-Man’s executive producer Brent Nicholas walks us through some gameplay footage that shows just how exciting Beenox’s take on swinging through the city is. One thing they point out is how the camera draws in closer to Spidey during his swings and drops as a way to show how fast the player is falling. Hopefully this won’t affect the ease of swinging through because of the limited view.

This trailer also gives more perspective on the Web Rush.  Using the web rush ability, players are able to more accurately travel through NYC by deciding where their lines will actually be shot instead of just depending on the game to choose for them.

Horses. Zombies. Drones. Walking tanks. What’s left really to say about Call of Duty: Black Ops II at this point? Microsoft knows how valuable a franchise it is. That’s why they dedicated the final section of their E3 Press Conference to an extended gameplay demo. But is it too much of a good thing? Obviously Activision and the gaming masses don’t think so.

As you will see in the Behind the Scenes preview below which was created for E3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II doesn’t want to just look and feel like any other sequel in the Call of Duty franchise. Players will be given new weapons and techniques in order to be given new experiences, instead of just shooting their way through levels in the same way they have for the better part of the past decade.

Treyarch knows the pressure they are under to deliver something new and is intent on doing so both in terms of gameplay and graphics. They give special emphasis on lighting as the final layer of graphical polish to make the game look as good as possible.

In the trailer, there is no mention of new details in the game’s multiplayer and only a very brief detail about the size of the Zombie mode which is intended to give players more options than ever before in it.

Take a peek at the full behind the scenes look at Call of Duty: Black Ops II which is coming out for every major platform and has the potential to again be the highest selling game of the year.

Since their announcement in the upcoming Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Transformers purists have debated how the Dinobots would fit into the G1 canon storyline for the game. As stated in our previous post which revealed Grimlock in combat and Slug, Snarl and Swoop’s designs, the Dinobots were created on planet earth in the cartoon. Now, High Moon Studios has taken a step in ret-conning Transformers history along with Hasbro by retelling the origin story of the Dinobots in a different way.

As seen below, the game’s director Matt Tieger talks about the process of rewriting history with Hasbro’s blessing and reveals the new origin to the Dinobots for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Original a crack special ops unit, the group falls victim to the experiments of Decepticon mad scientist Shockwave. Using a connection to earth (I won’t spoil the whole video for you), Shockwave creates the new designs for the Dinobots.

Take a look below and make sure to give your thoughts on the Dinobots and their new origin story. Stick to The Flickcast for more on the Dinobots and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron before it launches late August of this year for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Ever since Transformers: Fall of Cybertron was announced, there was one thing on the minds of Transformers fans: the Dinobots. With the reveal of Grimlock at New York Comic Con, speculation has run rampant about what this in canon story will reveal about the origins of the Dinobots. As we saw with Transformers: War for Cybertron, ideas only hinted at in the show were explained such as the fall and rise of Starscream. Now, the team at High Moon Studios gets to do the same for the Dinobots.

While in the original series, the Dinobots were said to be made on earth by Wheeljack and Ratchet, the Marvel comics series had the Dinobots being of Cybertronian origin. The Marvel series did leave this fairly ambiguous though and not many details were given about these origins. This seems like the space that High Moon will be responsible for filling in as Fall of Cybertron takes place long before the Autobots head to earth.

When playing as Grimlock, as seen in the trailer below, players get to experience a more hack and slash based gameplay as opposed to the more third person shooter with occasional melee combat seen in the characters of Transformers: War for Cybertron. Having both a sword and shield, Grimlock lends himself to a more in your face combat style which transitions into the much anticipated tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur form.

Just days ago, Radical Entertainment gave us the “Revenge” trailer for Prototype 2 which had the first and only real emotional moment the general public has seen yet for James Keller. Now, Radical goes back to their old tricks with the reveal of the Leader of the Pack ability as you will see in the Developer Diary below.

An ability new to James Keller that Alex Mercer never possessed, whether it be a mutation of the virus as it went from Mercer to Keller or because of Keller’s military background that caused it to happen, is the Leader of the Pack. When Keller uses this ability, he summons a group of Hunters, the hulking beasts that were the bane of many players during the first Prototype , that do his bidding as Keller is able to watch from a safe distance.

Looking at the this Dev Diary for Prototype 2, these Hunters provide massive chaos and damage to nearby targets. Ground troops, tanks and even helicopters aren’t safe as the Hunters rip through flesh and concrete alike. This looks to provide an interesting new gameplay strategy as well with a player directing the chaos from the distance as opposed to being stuck in the middle of it at all times.

Check out the full Developer Diary after the jump and be sure to check back right here for more on Prototype 2.