What's Next With Activision? Well It's Not What You Would Expect

Look at that old logo. Legit if you ask me.
www.edge-online.com

What's next with one of gaming's biggest companies? Well, if you ask anyone, you would expect them to say, crappy 2 hour story line with nuclear bombs thrown in, and a lot of characters who do not really develop and seem...well 2-D. Today, May 21st, 2013, Activision and Infinity Ward revealed their upcoming title "Call of Duty: Ghosts" and for a gamer who has been disappointed by the past Call of Duty games, I am actually quite surprised at what I am seeing. With new features such as multiplayer customization, a dog in the story line, and a story line written by Stephen Gaghan, an American screenwriter who is most famous for winning an Academy Award for writing the screenplay for the movie Traffic, this game has new features that make even the most skeptical gamer even a little intrigued.

First off, I would like to say, that all of the information that I am sharing here came straight from a video from the "Xbox One" Reveal conference, where Activision went in to detail about a few new features in the first Call of Duty, to the next gen consoles. Eric Hirshberg, publishing CEO of the Activision took the stage, and displayed 3 videos. The first video, and the one I will be taking information from, was a look inside the offices of Activision, and and interview with Mark Rubin (the executive producer at Infinity Ward). The second was a quick video focusing on the upgrades from the past Infinity Ward game, Modern Warfare 3, to the newest installment of the best selling franchise in gaming. The third was the official reveal trailer for Ghosts (that's what I'm gonna call if from now on).

Pretty eerie right? I think it's eerie.
Photo: www.digitalspy.com

The new story is the first big thing to talk about. According to Rubin, "[s]o what we really wanted to do was create a cast of characters that you really felt more emotionally attached to." I'm guessing this means that we are going to see a little more character development in the game. I know I'm definitely not the only one who wishes to see evolution in the characters, like we saw in Captain Price in the Modern Warfare series. Like I said before, they did get an Academy Award winning screenplay writer to help write the story, so I'm hoping to not be disappointed. I found myself truly astonished at the amount of different levels of depth of in Modern Warfare 2, but disappointed in the story of Modern Warfare 3. Since story is something that can really bring back the followers of game series, I did not really follow Call of Duty as hard after Modern Warfare 3.

Look at that hound!
www.xbox.com

Remember the attack dogs from Black Ops, that they have used in EVERY SINGLE Call of Duty SINCE? Well, now they are adding a new dog main character to the main story line, and re-did the model for it, and get this it's modeled after an actual Navy Seal attack dog. Pretty legit right? I think so. I remember playing Black Ops and thinking, "wow look at how terrible these dogs look," and now looking at the newest models of the dogs, I cant help but be in awe. It truly is a testament to how far the graphics have come from back in the day.

The last thing I want to talk about, is the new multiplayer character customization. According to the release video, one can customize everything about their character, from the chest, to legs, to the arms. Does that mean they might go really into detail with everything you can do? I don't know, but they did say that you can customize whatever you want on your character. I know that I want to be able to make my character a hulking beast of a man, but would that come at a cost of speed? Again, I don't know, but lets just hope its detailed.

Well, thank you for reading. I'll try to post again in a couple days. Have a fun summer everyone, and be sure to keep reading. Follow me on Twitter, add me on Facebook, and email me with any questions or suggestions. I gotta get back to work, so I guess see ya everyone!

Payten's Review of the Most Mind Hurting Thing Since Inception

Pretty cool logo right?

The game I am going to be reviewing first, is Bioshock Infinite, developed by Irrational Games, and published by 2k Games. This game is the 3rd installment of the Bioshock franchise, but is not technically a "third part." It starts off on a whole new story line, apart from keeping in line with the same sort of game play  It is a FPS game and is absolutely amazing. Whenever I picked up this game, I automatically attached myself to this epic piece of art, and played until my brain hurt.

First off, this FPS will not be for everyone, because it is really a mind boggling tale. From the beginning, do not expect to get everything on your first play through. I'm not going to be giving any spoilers in this post, but just realize your head will be turning after you beat the game. The main character of Bioshock Inifinite is this former Pinkerton National Detective Agent named Booker DeWitt. Our protagonist is commissioned by two mysterious figures to "bring us [them] the girl (Elizabeth) and wipe away the debt." Booker then has to travel to a city in the sky named Columbia. Elizabeth, a woman with an intruiging power to open rifts in the space time continuum,  has been trapped by the antagonist Zachary Comstock in that odd city I mentioned earlier.

That's a handyman...pretty scary right? Try fighting one
 for the first time. 

From the very first scene this game gives off the odd suspense that I have always felt while playing Bioshock games. I am very easily scared, so it did not take long for this game to freak me out. The eerie beginning has the company of three (DeWitt, and two mysterious characters) rowing up to a creepy lighthouse. It only gets weirder and more odd from there. With floating ships with a cappella groups, gigantic and crazy handymen, and a story line that will keep your head turning, you will not be disappointed with this lurid tale.

Another big topic to talk about in this game is the controls, and fighting style. It stays in accordance to most FPS shooters, but I did have to adjust to more Call of Duty configured control styles. With gruesome melee moves, and an assortment of different weapons, any gamer can have a lot of fun with this game. Irrational Games of course brought back those crazy magical powers we've all learned to love (despite their grotesque appearance on the characters hands which of course has returned also). Ripping apart baddies, blowing someone's head off with a sniper rifle, and lifting enemies off the ground just to blow them forty feet back has never been this fun.

This game really centers on the multi-universe idea in
physics, and the space time continuum.
 Doc would be freaking out if he saw this. 

The last thing I want to talk about in this post is the replay value of Bioshock Infinite. Truly and honestly I believe someone has to play this game more than once to get the true value of all the aspects of the game. It took me at least twice to really get this multi-universal epic. Looking back, whenever I first played this insane brain twister, I missed many things, that I wouldn't have gotten had I not played the game twice.




All in all, this is a game that will definitely go down as an epic among video game titles. I loved it and I rate it 10 out of 10. (I know I said I rarely give out 10s, but my first video game was one of the best I've ever played. Give me a break.)

Check back in a couple days and I should have another review done. As always, follow me on Twitter, add me on Facebook, and email me if you have any questions. Thanks for reading.

A Little Introduction

Just sitting at the computer.

Well hello everyone, I'm Payten Zachary AKA Commander Vicious. I'm starting this blog to review video games, and bring any news about upcoming games and such to light. I've grown up playing video games and I love playing them. My very first video game was "Super Mario 64" for the Nintendo 64, followed by "Zelda: The Ocarina of Time." Since then I have played many video games, and love to try out new and genre expanding games. 

Although I am mainly a first person shooter type of guy, I play everything from RPG video games, to first person shooters, to puzzlers, and even a little bit of mobile gaming here and there. My favorite video game and (in my opinion) the best video game I've ever played, is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. " I'll probably catch a lot of flack for that one. I just love that game and love to play it, even to this day. I play mainly on the Xbox 360, and will be doing most of the reviews on the Xbox 360. 

I will rate each video game I review on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst, which I will rarely give, and 10 being the best, also which I will rarely give). I will try and review all of the newest games, but I might be behind because I can't just go buy every single video game out there. Be sure to add me on Facebook  and follow me on Twitter, and sooner or later subscribe on YouTube (whenever I get an account for this blog). 

Well, if you want to email me, I will put a little gadget on the side that you can email me with. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy.