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.

Yesterday, Activision gave the first detailed glimpse at Onslaught, the first DLC pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts. As has become the standard, the pack will include four regular multiplayer maps, one new weapon and one survival map, this time for the Extinction game mode. As you’ll see in the trailer after the break, the multiplayer levels are more goal oriented than ever before with a “reward” system that looks to really change the dynamic of each individual match.

The most exciting new map has to be Fog. A dark and spooky backwoods map with cabins and a barn, the real excitement comes from the completed field order which turns a player into Michael Meyers. Yes, from Halloween. When you’re Michael, you get armed with an axe… and his signature theme music. When you get close, your victim knows it’s coming and hear it before you take them out.

See what we did there? Okay. We didn’t do it. I found it on a meme Facebook page but at least I made the effort to post it. Considering in about twenty four hours I am going to disappear for a week after Activision shoots Call of Duty: Ghosts my way and I “mysteriously” am not found in the office from an “unknown illness”.

In all seriousness, I won’t be able to wait until the XBox One comes out later this month for the next gen version of Call of Duty: Ghosts. This is an instant gratification nation and I want the game inspired by one of the best supporting characters never seen on my screen now.

And what would a Call of Duty launch be without a live action trailer. We’ve had the Replacers. We’ve had FPS Russia and Robert Downey Jr. This time, we get Megan Fox… You know what? I’ll take it.

Anything to keep her away from the Transformers franchise because at the end of the day, she isn’t going to be IN Call of Duty: Ghosts. Below you’ll check out the full live action trailer from director James Mangold on a trip with four buddies in Vegas that is way more epic than the Hangover.

The collection mentality is a dangerous thing, especially amongst the geek world. Nowhere else do you see the level of completionist mentality as you do amongst gamers. Trophy Whores and Achievement Hunters are both signs of this obsession to get them all. On Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th, both the Pokemon and Skylanders franchises intend to bankrupt me in both time and financially.

I bought my first copy of Pokemon Blue back when it first released fifteen years ago in 1998. With that, I set out on my mission to get all 151 of the original Pokemon. Though I never finished the list, I still spent way more time than I should have on that mission. Two years ago, I got my hands on Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and a few hundred dollars later, an entire shelf in my room is filled with the damn things.

Next weekend, I get to deal with a double whammy as both Pokemon X/Y and Skylanders SWAP Force are released.

As we get close to the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, the next installment in the hugely successful franchise, we’re getting more and more info about the game pretty much every day. This time said info comes in the form of a new “Squads” trailer.

What is this “Squads” thing you may wonder? Well, read on.

Squads introduces a whole new level of competition to Call of Duty: Ghosts. Combining the unrivaled Multiplayer experience with cutting edge AI, Squads lets you play a variety of new game modes with your customized squad-mates. Play solo against another player and their squad, or cooperatively with friends, competing versus an AI-controlled squad. Best of all, the XP earned in Squads is directly connected to your Multiplayer progress!

Got it? Good. Look for Call of Duty: Ghosts to arrive on November 5. Check out the new trailer after the break.

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.

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.

As we all know, things at E3 can be a tad hectic and unfortunately since the Flickcast isn’t a massive team of contributors, sometimes things do slip through the cracks but if it is important enough, we’ll make sure to circle back and cover it. And one of those trailers we are happy to revisit is Titanfall. In addition to the fantastic trailer below there are a ton of reasons to actually care about Titanfall.

The first is the game’s pedigree. Titanfall is the first game from Respawn Entertainment. And while most people would hesitate to jump to a studio’s first game, others remember that Respawn Entertainment was founded from those who left Infinity Ward, the studio behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, after disagreements with Activision.

That means that this multiplayer only shooter is being created by the team that perfected modern online FPS gameplay. While the Call of Duty games always tried to push for a single player story, it was the online multiplayer that kept the games amongst the top played games online at all times. Even though there will be some single player style elements such as NPCs, the goal is still multiplayer.

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.

After seeing 100 million Skylander units sold between the games and figure packs, one would imagine it is fair game for Activision to overextend the popularity of the series. That was the model back in the 80s though. Create a toy line and use TV to promote it to the point where feature films become an option. Then capitalize on the success of the film with more new figures. But this isn’t the 80s and Activision is being more responsible with the Skylanders franchise. (Yes, I know. The guys who drove the Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk franchises into the ground are doing the right thing!)

In a recent interview with MVC, Activision Publishing VP of consumer marketing John Coyne said “the game is the entertainment.” Along with further statements, it sounds like the Skylanders will be kept to their gaming and toy mediums alone for the near future at the least. Whereas a game is usually the way for a popular TV series to capitalize on its fame, this apparently isn’t the way Skylanders wants to go with telling its stories. (Probably a good thing I didn’t waste the time drafting up those Skylander comic book submissions.)