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.