Call Of Duty - Advanced House Of Cards Reveal

The fine folks at Sledgehammer/Activision 'leaked' (It's a game industry cliche at this point) a look at their upcoming next gen Call Of Duty - Advanced Warfare installment, and it's looking pretty damn neat. Aside from the fact that we're finally past the very played out modern warfare theme, the game actually looks next gen unlike the so-so Ghosts, which received lukewarm reception.

Now as a select number of game developers seek to up the ante in the treacherous AAA development bracket, the folks at Activision seem to be getting more creative to keep their playerbases engaged (I'll admit, the Predator patch made me laugh). While the previous titles were limited to celebrity cameos in advertising, this title features none other than digitized Kevin Spacey as the antagonist. He's recently been making waves with his Netflix original House Of Cards (A must see) series, in which he plays a cold-blooded senator with a lust for power.



Now if you've watched that series, the problem here is that Spacey is literally the same character from House Of Cards, straight down to the familiar traces of a southern twang in Call Of Duty. A little differentiation of character would have been quite welcome, as my brain experienced significant confusion seeing my favorite conniving senator in the last game I'd ever expect. Spacey's a terrific actor nonetheless, so I'm hoping they can deliver a storyline that won't follow the historical trend of being convoluted and nonsensical. Yet another calculated step into 'movideogame' territory and astronomical budget territory.

Xbox One Reveal In A Nutshell

The internet was close to exploding yesterday after Microsoft's announcement of the Xbox One, mostly due to the fact the complete lack of games. While Sony's Playstation 4 reveal was still far from steller, the announcement still focused on what many still buy video game consoles for; video games. The interface for the Xbox One is definitely pretty awesome, but the sheer lack of anything other than TV, Sports, and Call of Duty during the the reveal was a bit of a disappointment. If you missed out on the insanity yesterday, the above video sums up anything you think you might have missed.

At least there's always E3!

Activision Introduces Modern Warfare 3: Elite; The Call of Duty Subscription Service Begins

NOPE. NOPE. NOPE. F*** everything about this. Earlier yesterday, Wall Street Journal revealed Activision's (ActiBlizzion?) plans for a subscription for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and all future titles. While I was hoping all rumors were leading to a big fat "no", something deep within told me it was going to happen(that or this interview). Now, the talk has been proven true as seen by the above trailer for Call of Duty Elite.

While Call of Duty Elite looks to be nothing more than a subscription based Bungie.net with exclusive DLC sprinkled in, we're still treated with a more than reasonable predicted-price of $7.99 per month. And yes, that fee is on top of whatever fees you might currently be paying. Essentially this will require you to rent map packs on a month-by-month basis and allow access to the same type of system Bungie has been offering for free.

Honestly, I'm not really sure what pisses me off more in this situation. It might be the fact that Activision is introducing one of the most corporate-based decisions I have ever witnessed within the video game industry, or it might also be how hard this trailer tries to appeal to gamers. I had the toughest f***ing time getting past even the first 3 minutes. I'm not really sure Activision knows which group of gamers to market this for.

Internet meme references? Check. Overly-excited "bro" gamer? Check, and bonus points for coming off as that Dad who desperately strives to be seen as cool by his 13-year-old son's friends. BABIES WITH FLAMETHROWER JOKES LOL? Holy f***ing sh**, are you serious?

Does anyone plan to pay for this?