As part of Xbox’s console announcement today (read Matt’s recap here), Microsoft introduced a couple of games that will be featured this fall as part of the Xbox One experience.  One of the most highly anticipated games is Infinity Ward’s follow-up to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, a wholly new Call of Duty video game featuring a new story and characters called Call of Duty: Ghosts.  The full reveal trailer for Ghosts is now online, and it’s very, very promising.  The video game was written by Oscar-winning Traffic and Syriana scribe Stephen Gaghan and takes place in the near future in which America’s forces have been nearly obliterated.  The protagonist is part of the resistance, a ragtag team made up of former members from various armed forces services such as Navy SEALs and Marines.  I love the underdog approach here and Gaghan’s involvement is incredibly promising.  Also, mo-cap dogs!

Hit the jump to watch the reveal trailer along with a behind-the-scenes look at the game’s enhancements.  Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available on November 5th.

Microsoft just wrapped their presentation for their next-generation console, XBox One.  The name comes from being an “All-in-One System” that will be at the center of your home entertainment system in a way that’s never been quite this intimate/creepy.  There was a lot of information during the presentation, but I took copious notes in between mocking the presentation on Twitter.  In all seriousness, Xbox seems to have taken a real next step as opposed to Nintendo (new controller!) and Sony (better graphics!), but let us not get into a console flame war.  The verdict is far from in, but the Xbox One does look promising albeit with some serious reservations.

Hit the jump for my recap of the presentation, and click here for the news regarding Xbox’s live-action Halo series produced by Steven Spielberg.

Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One today, and embedded in its bounty of announcements relating to the new console was the exciting news that Steven Spielberg is developing and will produce a live-action TV series based on the popular Halo franchise.  Microsoft has been trying to get a big screen iteration of Halo off the ground for years, with Peter Jackson previously producing the feature film effort that Neill Blomkamp was poised to direct.  Things went sour when Blomkamp’s vision for the film didn’t jibe with Microsoft’s strict rules regarding how the franchise was to be handled, but it worked out alright with Blomkamp instead making his directorial debut with the stellar 2009 sci-fi pic District 9.

Now it appears that Microsoft will go it alone with regards to a narrative Halo effort, and they’ve got Steven Spielberg on their side.  Hit the jump for more.

Today, Microsoft will finally announce the successor to the Xbox 360.  It’s the last of the next gen consoles to be announced after the release of the WiiU last fall and the announcement of PlayStation 4 earlier this year.  The 360 was released on November 22, 2005, but the new console will be entering a very different marketplace.  The role of the home console has truly expanded into a media center, but the gaming market now faces stiff competition from casual gamers who prefer to use their phones and tablets.  Over the past several years, Microsoft has been desperately trying to push Kinect, a technology that just isn’t where it needs to be quite yet (but it’s amusing to watch your friends yell instructions at their Xbox and the Xbox doesn’t respond).   Microsoft has kept a tight lid on what to expect from their new console with the biggest rumor involving an “always-on” connection.  Other than that, my best guess is that we’ll also be seeing the next generation of Kinect, and I hope it doesn’t require a giant living room.

Hit the jump to watch the live-stream of Microsoft’s presentation, which begins at 1pm EST/10am PST.  Hopefully, it will be better than the one for PlayStation 4, which boiled down to “Better graphics and shorter loading times!”

I played this game for Xbox 360.  Full disclosure: I am a sci-fi nerd.  I love both Star Trek and Star Wars and was really looking forward to playing this game.  That said, I wish they would have taken the opportunity to really flesh this one out.

Let’s get this out of the way early; if you don’t like Star Trek, you should probably stay away.  If you do like it, be prepared for some good voice work by many of the movie actors in what feels like a Trek-veneer of an old game.  Hit the jump for my full review.

I adore Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City is a pretty good follow-up, but those were both developed by Rocksteady.  The franchise has now moved into the hands of WB Games Montreal, so there’s some uncertainty.  Furthermore, longtime Batman voice Kevin Conroy was replaced Roger Craig Smith with Troy Baker voicing The Joker instead of Mark Hamill.  Last week, we saw Batman fighting Deathstroke in a non-gameplay trailer for the prequel, Batman: Arkham Origins.  The game takes place in an even larger open world Gotham in which eight of the world’s deadliest assassins gather on Christmas Eve under direct orders from Black Mask to kill Batman.  A full trailer has now been released, and while it still doesn’t show any gameplay, it does show off a neat fight scene in addition to Batman villains Black Mask and presumably Deadshot.  WB Games has also announced that those who pre-order will be able to play as Deathstroke.  According to WB Games, “Deathstroke will come complete with his own unique weapons and special moves, and will be playable in all challenge maps in the game, as well as two additional challenge maps that will be included with the pack.  The pack will also contain two alternate Deathstroke character skins.”

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and images.  Batman: Arkham Origins will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, WiiU, and PC on October 25th.  Click here to go pre-order.

The first teaser trailer for the video game Batman: Arkham Origins has been released online.  Following Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, the prequel Origins takes place in an open world Gotham City environment in which eight of the world’s deadliest assassins gather in Gotham on Christmas Eve under direct orders by the Black Mask to kill Batman.  This trailer does a nice job of teasing a brutal fight from the game, and while I’m eager to delve back into the open world environment that was so excellently executed in the previous two games, I’m a little dubious given that Rocksteady Studios—which developed Asylum and City—is not involved with Arkham Origins in any way.  Instead, Warner Bros. Games Montreal is behind Arkham Origins and Eric Holmes takes over the lead designer chair from Sefton Hill, who oversaw the previous two games.

Hit the jump to watch the teaser trailer.  Batman: Arkham Origins will be released on all platforms on October 25th.

Last month, Disney shut down video game developer LucasArts.  It was part of Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, and the studio has now decided to place Star Wars games in the hands of Electronic Arts and subsidiary developers BioWare (Star Wars: The Old Republic), DICE (Battlefield 3), and Visceral (Dead Space).  While many fans bemoaned the loss of LucasArts due to the company’s proud legacy, their recent Star Wars games—The Force Unleashed and Star Wars Kinect—were less than impressive.  That being said, EA is the “Worst Company in the World” according to Consumerist voters, and while that’s obviously an exaggeration, the company has received a bevy of criticism for multiple issues.  The press release also notes that Disney “will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.”

I expect plenty of Star Wars video games start streaming through the pipeline, but I remain skeptical regarding their quality.  Hit the jump to check out the press release.

Rockstar has released three new trailers for Grand Theft Auto V with each trailer focusing on one of the game’s protagonists: Michael, Franklin, and Trevor.  As we previously reported, players will be able to switch between the characters at any point, and as you can see from Trevor’s trailer, there will be some interaction between the protagonists at least as far as Michael and Trevor are concerned.  The trailers also show not only the size of GTA V’s world of Los Santos, but the varying tones.  Michael and Trevor are more on the comic side of the GTA world while Franklin is off in an urban drama.  It will be interesting to see how Rockstar plans to blend all three plotlines into one cohesive story.

Hit the jump to check out the trailers and click on the corresponding links to pre-order the game on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  Grand Theft Auto V will be released on September 17th.

New images were revealed today for the video game Batman: Arkham Origins, a prequel follow-up to the highly successful Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The prequel takes place in an open world Gotham City environment, where 8 of the world’s deadliest assassins gather in Gotham on Christmas Eve under the direction of the Black Mask in a plot to kill Batman.  There have been some important changes made in the direction and studio for the game, however.  Warner Bros. Games Montreal will be taking the helm for Origins, instead of Rocksteady Studios.  Likewise, Eric Holmes, lead designer of the world action hit The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, will be directing, instead of Sefton Hill, who successfully helmed the previous Arkham games.  The question is, will Holmes be able to follow up Hills’s games, which won a great deal of accolades, including Game of the Year for Batman: Arkham City? Time will tell.

Hit the jump to check out some screenshots from the game.  Available on Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, Batman: Arkham Origins will be released on October 25^th, 2013. 

Rockstar Games may be reinventing the Grand Theft Auto series by offering three protagonists in the fifth installment, but the studio is sticking to the classic box art design.  Rockstar Games has revealed the box art for Grand Theft Auto V, and it’s the same multi-paneled look gamers have come to know and love.  It also features the three lead criminals: Franklin, Michael, and Trevor.  Of course, this is Grand Theft Auto.  Rockstar could put the game inside of a bear trap, and fans would still be lined-up to buy it at midnight.

Hit the jump to check out the box art, and click on the respective links to pre-order it on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  Grand Theft Auto V will be released on September 17th.

William Shatner should probably never reenact anything he did from Star Trek.  It only calls attention to the fact that he’s really old, and also has a love-hate relationship with the franchise that made his name but also reduced his opportunities as an actor (although late in his career he won Emmys for The Practice and Boston Legal).  He’s the guy who will make a self-congratulatory movie like The Captains but then turn a cold shoulder to individual Trek fans.  A new promo for Star Trek: The Video Game highlights this dichotomy as Shatner provides fan service by reenacting his famous battle with the Gorn from “Arena”, but is still about highlighting “Look what a good sport I am!” even though he’s collecting a paycheck for selling the upcoming video game, which re-imagining Shatner out of his famous role.  It’s interesting to watch.

Hit the jump to check out the promo, and click here to pre-order the game on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.  Star Trek: The Video Game is due out on April 23rd.

If you’re looking for the biggest video game of 2013, it’s probably going to be Grand Theft Auto V.  It’s been the longest wait (5 years), the most main characters (3 that you can switch between at any time), the largest map, and will likely be the biggest seller.  GTA is an event, and with five months until the game is released, Rockstar will continue to roll out the marketing.  Ten new images have been released, and some show off the gorgeous scenery while others give attention to the violence and vehicles.  GTA V is going to be bigger; we’re going to have to wait and see if it’s better.

Hit the jump to check out the images, and click here for the previously-released trailer.  Grand Theft Auto V is due out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 17th.

I’m picking up BioShock Infinite at midnight tonight, and I’ll be up until 2am every night this week until I finish it.  As the true sequel to BioShock (developer Irrational Games had nothing to do with BioShock 2), BioShock Infinite has looked incredible since the first trailer was revealed at E3 2011, and so expectations have been ridiculously high.  Judging by the 96 score on Metacritic, the game has lived up to the hype.  The launch trailer has been released, and it makes the 10 hours until midnight (EST) feel even longer.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  BioShock Infinite will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Seven new images have been released from Star Trek: The Video Game.  I previously joked that the game would be fantastic if it had a quicktime event where Kirk battled the Gorn from the original series.  It turns, out the Gorn will be villains in the game, but unfortunately it won’t quite as charmingly lo-tech (although maybe there will be a slight delay from when you hit a gorn to the time when it actually reacts to the hit?).  One of the new images also shows Spock on New Vulcan, so you have to give the Vulcans some respect for getting right back on their feet and claiming a new planet.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Star Trek: The Video Game is due out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on April 23, 2013.