With many gamers favoring the diversity of Battlefield 3‘s multiplayer in place of the tiring formula offered by contemporary rival Call of Duty, what can Treyarch do to inject some much needed life into the waning franchise as rumors of Black Ops 2 begin to surface. One can hardly forget the fever pitch surrounding the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the game continued to build on the formidable legacy of its predecessors by shattering worldwide sales records. Activision’s...

The marriage of the Spyro license with the upcoming Activision game Skylanders (to create Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure) is one that has many fans refusing to hold their peace. Skylanders brings together plastic toys and video games in a union that seems too gimmicky for the lofty realms of the purple dragon. This is a hero with roots in Insomniac Games and with a heritage that includes The Year of the Dragon, one of the most highly acclaimed PlayStation platformers. Let’s take off our...

Much has been written about Battlefield 3 and publisher Electronic Arts’ hope that the upcoming installment in their military shooter franchise will finally be able to topple the behemoth that is Call of Duty. I myself predicted that Battlefield 3, which boasts impressive graphics, groundbreaking new dynamic lighting and massively destructible environments, would finally surpass Activision’s monster in sales. Then the first few promos for Modern Warfare 3 came out and I almost forgot...

Spring is the time of year when the sun seems to shine a little brighter, the trees begin to regrow their fallen foliage, and rain becomes a welcomed event (especially after the relentless snow storms we have here in Minnesota). With that rain comes the revelation of leaks in one's house, and in the case of the game industry, leaks of information. It may seem like a stretch of an analogy but in the months prior to E3, information that publishers want to keep on the down-low flood out like...

Since Mordern Warfare 2, the precedent set for Call of Duty's DLC has gotten a little out of hand. Activision Blizzard CEO and non-gamer Bobby Kotick loves to wear his company's earning statement on his sleeve—even going so far in recent months to say that one day Activision may have the balls to compile CG cutscenes from, say, Starcraft II, re-package them and sell them to gullible fans as films—so the justification of spending $15 on n a handful of new multiplayer maps for...