Another day, another dollar. Another Loot Crate, another unboxing. Our apologies if you already came across it yesterday, but if you haven’t, you can check out Whiskey & Waffle’s Loot Crate War on the Adventure themed box. (Actually, even if you have already seen it, you can watch it again.)

This month’s Loot Crate theme is all about Adventure. As you can probably guess from the cover image above there is some Minecraft and some Legend of Zelda swag inside but also some Adventure Time love as well as some gear from some of our fellow YouTubers like Captain Sparklez and Markiplier.

Announced earlier today, Taco Bell is entering into a partnership with Sony for the launch of the PlayStation 4. To help promote the launch, for a limited time Taco Bell customers will be able to input a code into the Crack The Code portal from select Taco Bell items where they can will a PlayStation 4. These giveaways will happen every fifteen minutes which means almost 100 PlayStation 4’s a day will be given away. Even more exciting though is that the PlayStation 4’s will arrive to winners BEFORE the PlayStation 4 releases to the public.

Late last week, I was invited to come down to Taco Bell HQ where I found out this awesome info and along with some top digital influencers, we also got to try out some new items coming soon to Taco Bell stores. Included in that was the Triple Steak Melt (though we only got a half sized portion. But what stood out the most was the new Nacho Wrap which has the Fiery Doritos inside. While I am not a regular at Taco Bell, this one was damn good and I will probably be stopping in to get it occasionally to pick one up.

Knowing full well that no matter what, when review season was going to come around Halo 4 would be on my list, I couldn’t bring myself to wait in the horde of players hoping to get a brief hands on in San Diego at Comic Con. With so much going on, it wasn’t worth missing an entire day’s worth of events just for ten minutes of multiplayer. But with preview night of NYCC being less crowded, the proposition of waiting less than an hour to get hands on with Halo 4’s multiplayer seemed much more reasonable.

In our game, we had the opportunity to play Team Slayer on Ragnarok. As the name would suggest, this map is the successor to Valhalla from Halo 3. Not much has changed about the physical layout of the map though. The same basic structures still exist as they did before but with higher res textures. The only major change to the level was the position of weapons, taking into effect weapons new to the game. We also had the mech walker in our level which when used properly was a beast on the battlefield. Unfortunately, everyone was rushing for it at most times so we didn’t get to spend too long with it.

At Comic Con, The Flickcast team got to finally get our hands on the Wii U and Nintendo’s minigame packed NintendoLand. Like we talked about in our E3 coverage, NintendoLand will feature a collection of mini games inspired by Nintendo franchises, past and present. In total, NintendoLand will contain 12 mini games with half of them already announced and five were playable for us in the Nintendo lounge at SDCC.

First we got to try out Animal Crossing: Sweet Day. Inspired by the stuffed animal-like art design of Animal Crossing, this mini game puts three players on a map where they must collect candies that are placed in various locations, sometimes requiring multiple players to stand on a location together to release the candies. The more candies the players collect, the fatter their heads get and the slower they move. At the same time, they are being pursued by a fourth player who is controlling two guards using the Wii U controller, independently controlling each guard with the different analog sticks and using the controller’s screen.

Communication is key between the players in their hunt for the candy as they need to warn each other about oncoming threats and gather at certain locations to unleash the larger stashes of candy. The player using the Wii U controller gets to really have the most fun though as they get to chase and troll the other players by using pincher style attacks to corner them.

At Comic Con, Capcom took the time to let us check out some of their newest titles coming out over the next year. During our time at the Capcom booth we got hands on with Resident Evil 6, the rebooted DMC and the next installment to the Lost Planet franchise.

For Resident Evil 6, we were treated to extended versions of the demo currently available to those who purchased Dragon’s Dogma. In the campaigns we got to play, the action was fast and furious but there was also that intensity often found in Resident Evil games where every bullet needs to count. In addition to deranged people with firearms of their own there were creatures that would assault us with a blast of spikes that would knock you off your feet, leaving you open to further attack.

Also, check out the newest Resident Evil 6 trailer after the jump. Don’t forget that Resident Evil 6 hits the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 2nd, 2012.

For many of us gamers, MMORPGs can seem like a huge commitment. They can be time consuming and expensive, and other than World of Warcraft, none of them really seem to retain players for a long period of time.

That’s why many MMOs are choosing to move to a different model of pricing. League of Legends has proved that free to play MMOs with in-game transactions- extra weapons or characters or outfits that players can purchase with real world cash- not only maintain players, but maintain profits.

Firefall is another one of those free-to-play MMOs, and I got a chance to check it out on the show floor at PAX East. During my time playing Firefall, I got a chance to create a character and complete a few quests. I chose a female Assault character.

You won’t have to play cooperatively in Firefall, as I was doing quests on my own, and you won’t have to participate in PvP either. I found the questing system really unique- I was sent on a quest to investigate a water shortage, which turned into me killing the monsters in the area who were causing the problem. A lot of other MMOs would have just sent me after the monsters in the first place, but Firefall gave me a chance to investigate and figure things out on my own. It was a nice touch that I can foresee making the level grinding in the beginning of the game a little less repetitive and more enjoyable.

I have to admit, my favorite part of the gameplay and controls of Firefall was my jetpack, which the entire environment seemed to be built around. The environments of Firefall are really open and well designed. I loved the cell shaded graphics in the game- it made it feel even more removed and unique from other MMOs out there.

If you played the game at PAX East you’ll be able to access the closed beta of Firefall, and the full game will be released later this year.

Last year, indie developer Owlchemy Lab’s Smuggle Truck was a part of the Boston Indie Showcase, and I had a blast playing it. Which was why I was pleased to see them back on the show floor this year with a new game for mobile devices, titled Jack Lumber.

There’s a bit of a tragic story behind Jack Lumber– your character, Jack, lost his grandmother at a young age when she was viciously slaughtered by a falling tree. Now, using your supernatural powers, you’re out to avenge your granny’s death by destroying as many trees as you can, armed with your axe and your trusty sidekick Buck the Beaver always by your side.

Jack Lumber is an action arcade game with familiar mechanics, but it’s a lot of fun to play. Flying bits of lumber zip across your screen, and using your finger, your mission is to chop up as many as you can using one fluid motion. The faster you destroy as many logs of wood as you can, the more points you’ll score. Some trees need to be chopped horizontally and vertically, so you’ll soon be frantically dragging your finger across the screen in crazy patterns trying to annihilate the lumber and avenge Jack’s poor grandma. Due to the mechanics of the game, it works best on a touchscreen, but I’d love to see this game someday ported to the Kinect.

Jack Lumber will be released sometime this summer for mobile devices. In the meantime, watch the latest teaser video after the jump.

You’re a gopher, minding your own business, trying to enjoy a nice picnic, when all of a sudden dinosaurs crash the party and try to steal your delicious barbecued meats. So of course you have no choice to defend yourself, tower defense style, against the oncoming onslaught of giant reptiles. This is Go Home Dinosaurs, and I got a chance to check it out last weekend on the show floor at PAX East.

In Go Home Dinosaurs, you’ll start out with one lone gopher. By collecting trees you’ll earn enough coconuts to start building defenses around the board. Between harvesting trees, adding defenses, and keeping track of how far the dinosaurs are getting, the game board can get frantic, but if you reach the end of the level without letting any dinosaurs through to your barbequed meats, you win!

As you continue to play and collect coins, you can purchase equipable upgrades- some will increase how many or how strong a particular troop is, or start a level with coconuts already in hand. These upgrades come in the form of trading cards, and you can equip up to three upgrade cards and three types of troops at one time.

Tabletop gaming has recently become one of my favorite hobbies, but work and other life commitments sometimes make it hard to make time to sit down and play them.

That’s where Playdek comes in. They port games from their physical, tabletop form into full-fledged iOS games. The really great thing is that these games are playable online, so even if you can’t sit down with your friends for your favorite board game, you can play at your leisure on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, or play and pass on long car rides or in long lines.

Another great thing about what Playdek does is that the digital version of these tabletop games clearly defines the rules and explains them, which helps take some of the intimidation factor for those of us who are new to tabletop. And if you love the iOS version of these games, you can buy the physical game fully understanding the rules and ready to play!

With their two mega mobile games Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, Halfbrick had a pretty big presence on the show floor last weekend at PAX East, and I was excited to see what’s next for Jetpack Joyride, one of my favorite iOS games.
If you’ve played Jetpack Joyride, you already know that the game comes packed with vehicle upgrades and additional jetpacks to enhance the gameplay experience, but in an upcoming update, the game will also introduce new “gadgets.”

Purchasable from the stash, you’ll be able to equip two gadgets at a time. These gadgets all have a unique ability. One that I tried out while talking with Halfbrick was a freezing agent, which activated whenever I crashed and allowed me to slide much further before the game ended, increasing my distance traveled. Another power up allowed me to see exactly what vehicle power up lay ahead, instead of the usual shiny power up symbol.

I’m really happy that Halfbrick is going to continue supporting Jetpack Joyride, since it’s a really fun game and adding these gadgets will only make it more addicting to play.

There will be 15 new gadgets in all, which can be purchased using in-game coins.

Jetpack Joyride is currently available for iPad and iPhone for free. The update should be available sometime this month, also at no cost to you, so just start saving those coins!

You can check out the teaser trailer for one of the gadgets, the “Air Barrys”, after the jump.

Twisted Pixel’s Splosion Man and Ms. ‘Splosion Man have made a big bang the past few years at PAX East, and this year was no exception, because the first day of the convention they announced that Ms. Splosion Man will be making the jump to iPhone, iPad and Steam later this year. I stopped by their booth on the show floor later that day to see for myself how the game translates over to touch screen controls.

For touch-screens, Ms. ‘Splosion Man has been reduced to a directional stick that moves you left and right. To jump and ‘splode, you just tap the screen. It took me several minutes to get used to this new control scheme.

It’s not as exact as using a joystick or directional pad, and the slippery nature of the iPad screen sometimes caused me to slide the directional a bit further than I would have liked. But after a few minutes it became more natural, and I’m sure once the full game is available for iPad, players will easily make the switch from controller to touch controls.

Retooled for iPad, Ms. ‘Splosion Man looked great. I’m definitely looking forward to this title, and it’s making it even harder to resist picking up an iPad.

We can look forward to Ms. ‘Splosion Man on our iOS devices and PC later this summer.

I think it’s safe to say that Borderlands 2 was the most popular game on the show floor last weekend at PAX East. Luckily, I got a chance to check out the game thanks to the people at 2K.

Partnered up with another player, I chose the Siren, assigned some talent points, and jumped into the game. I was thrown into a giant bunker which, when opened, revealed an industrial, barren landscape surrounded by green pools of slime. Our mission was to reach a locker, but it was by no means easy to maintain, as we were constantly barraged by enemies.

This particular level featured bug-like creatures- some that swarmed up above, others that burrowed underground and rushed us from below or behind- so I was constantly swinging my camera around to meet my next foe with a blast of gunfire. My character also had an ability to freeze enemies midair while my partner pelted them with bullets- just like Borderlands, co-op is well executed in Borderlands 2.