At Comic-Con in San Diego we got the opportunity to take a closer look at the latest additions to Skylanders with Skylanders Trap Team. While we had already gotten a peek at the title, there were still some awesome announcements behind the game along with some great insight from the designers as well.

First came the announcement of the Skylanders Trap Team Dark Edition Starter Pack. Like last year’s SWAP Force Dark Edition, the set will come with some special dark paint variants of characters. Unlike last year’s though, there will be only three new Trap Team members without any sprinkling of classic characters.

It will also come with a new Portal of Power which will have a new feature in addition to a new look, the ability to use Traps to capture villains in game and use them while playing. The Dark Edition will come with a limited edition over sized trap allowing players to capture Chaos.

Only a few weeks after Disney decided it was time to shoot a volley in the smart toy war by introducing the Avengers to Disney Infinity, Activision has fired back with a premiere for the latest Skylanders sequel. Again, focusing on innovation with gameplay implications, Skylanders Trap Team is coming to systems in October.

As you’ll see in the trailer below, Skylanders Trap Team introduces a new element to the series. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this means traps. But it isn’t just a matter of trapping defeated foes. This game encourages players to take those villains and use them for good. Boasting 60 new Skylanders and 40 trappable villains, this could be the largest release of Skylanders to date.

It’ll be interesting to see how the traps work but it the trailer hints that specific traps work on specific enemies which means to catch them all, you have to buy them all too. How they are packaged will be interesting though. Skylanders may come paired with a trap or maybe a trap pack will be created with four or five traps sold together. Regardless, Activision has just renewed their license to print money.

Part of what we loved most about the High Moon Studios entry into the Transformers world is that it was the original G1 canon most of us had fallen in love with during our childhood. Wanted to know what happened before Optimus and the crew made it to earth, you got the story finally from Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. But Activision has gone and done something that is not only unexpected but for some of the most hardcore of Transformers G1 fans… unwelcomed.

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark will be a part of the G1 Universe but it will also be a part of the Michael Bay movieverse as well, with events taking place before Transformers Age of Extinction. That means that they are doing what could be the absolute worst offense when it comes to G1 territory by combining it with whatever Michael Bay is throwing at the wall this time.

A lot of people say I am too harsh when it comes to the Michael Bay films but after the first one, it just kept getting farther and farther away from the franchise I grew up on into a poorly put together film with sophomoric level comedy forced into it. In Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, we got Grimlock and the rest of his dinobot compatriots but now that could all be washed away because of the new Michael Bayified Grimlock that we were introduced to during the Super Bowl trailer.

With Gamescom came a slew of announcements from Activision. While you’ve probably already seen the latest BTS on Destiny or heard the news on Call of Duty: Ghosts, you may have not been privy to an exciting tidbit about Skylanders SWAP Force. In addition to revealing two new Core characters and two new SWAP Force characters, Skylanders SWAP Force will be making its way to the next gen consoles.

Though the specific release dates are not set, the Skylanders SWAP Force will be on the XBox One and PlayStation 4. As you’ll see in the screens below, the engine behind the game is able to take the simple and cartoonish style of Skylanders SWAP Force and translate it to gorgeous next gen visuals.

Take a look below at the profiles and vignettes for Zoo Lou, Slobber Tooth, Grilla Drilla and Boom Jet as well as a horde of next gen screen shots as well.

It is possible that Call of Duty: Ghosts may set the record for highest selling game as franchise tradition continues, especially with the game launching on more systems with the next gen coming out. Preorder numbers are already shooting through the roof with Call of Duty: Ghosts ranked first for games for the XBox One and third for the PlayStation 4 currently (since real console shooter players stick to the XBox platform).

In spite of that, Activision is announcing a preorder incentive for Call of Duty: Ghosts in the form of a bonus map called Free Fall which will dynamically change as the game progresses. Check out the full press release below as well as concept art as well. Call of Duty: Ghosts is due out this fall for the XBox One, XBox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PC and Wii U on November 5th.

While some arguments still rage after the E3 Press Conference backlash between the PlayStation 4 and the XBox One, what one can’t argue is the power of Activision/Blizzard in 2013. Whether or not you like their games, there is no denying that Activision/Blizzard is set to make a mint this year with the multiplatform releases for Diablo III, Destiny, Call of Duty: Ghosts and, of course, Skylanders SWAP Force.

In spite of Disney’s attempt to make its way into the collectible interactive figure game market with Disney Infinity, the legacy of the current Skylander player bases’ collections is going to continue to drive sales of both the game and the record setting release of new figures along with this iteration of the franchise.

In addition to the 256 combinations of new characters made by the 18 two part new SWAP force characters, there will be a horde of other figures both new and remodeled from previous series for players to collect as well leading to the largest expansion of the franchise to date.

With E3 just around the corner, the news cycle doesn’t start a few days early as publishers and developers look to get their smaller bytes out just before the flood gates open. It starts a week out. And with that first wave comes a look at LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. In the horde of stories coming out in the E3 before the next generation of console launches, Traveller’s Tales and WB Games were smart to get us these screens early.

The latest shots from LEGO Marvel Super Heroes shows some characters we already knew were coming to the game like Captain America, Wolverine, Iron Man and Thor in the staple of Marvel locales New York City and the newly announced Asgard. The crazy thing is Asgard and especially its rainbow bridge look pretty darn beautiful in LEGO. But with all the new visual glory coming soon from the PS4 and XBox One, it’s probably for the best we see these graphics now rather than after the Microsoft and Sony press conferences.

When you look at the XBox Kinect it is pretty easy to list off its successes. The Gunstringer. Fruit Ninja Kinect. The Dance Central series… and that’s it. While there were numerous Kinect releasing, only a few really brought the promise of the hardware to life.

And like Fruit Ninja Kinect, another piece of software that originated on iOS is making its way to the XBLA for the Kinect with Doodle Jump. Unlike Fruit Ninja Kinect though, we aren’t exactly sure how Doodle Jump is going to fair with its change of control. Fruit Ninja Kinect was kind of a no brainer to let players replace their finger motions with swipes of their entire arm.

Doodle Jump Kinect sounds like it is going to require players tilt their body in the same way they tilted their iPhone on the original game. In addition, various arm gestures will help them shoot, fly and perform various other functions. After seeing how well the Kinect reacts to simple tasks when watching Netflix, I still have my doubts.

If you’re a fan of Let’s Plays or Rage Quit videos on YouTube, you’ll probably already be well versed in this game. But if not, boy do we have something in store for you. Developed back in January at the 2013 Golden Game Jam in just 48 hours, Surgeon Simulator 2013 is far from a realistic simulation as its name might suggest.

In it, players are tasked with performing a heart transplant on a patient. There is a slow loss of blood to put players under a time constraint but as they make mistakes, the patient loses blood more rapidly. The original version is currently a free to play browser based game.

What is interesting about Surgeon Simulator 2013 is that the original version isn’t what one would traditionally call a “good game”. In essence, it is actually pretty broken. Not to knock the development on it because it is a pretty epic creation in mechanics and graphics in just two days time, but the controls leave a little something to be desired. But somehow that has become the appeal of the game.

After the recent sad news with layoffs happening at High Moon Studios following the completion of the Deadpool game which is set for June 25th release for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, there was a PR blip that went out late yesterday getting into detail with the Deadpool preorder incentives. Obviously, the team behind the Deadpool PR is still working hard at keeping Deadpool at bay when he gets his hands on their press releases.

Below, you’ll be able to check out the list of presale incentives from GameSpot and Amazon for those who are picking up this Marvel merc at the budget price of $49.99. Make sure to check out all the new screens below as well!

intimidated invited Activision Publishing, Inc. and High Moon Studios to make a video game starring Marvel’s most Marvel-ous character, me. And you being a gamer of unquestionable good taste wish to pre-order that game. Well I say bravo – you deserve some awesome rewards for putting your trust in Deadpool.