In the past, Activision has stated Call of Duty: World at War would be heading our way in the Fall, but always failed to pinpoint a release date. Enter the folks over at Only the Games who were told by an Activision rep at the X’08 event in Toronto that Treyarch’s shooter would hit retail shelves in November. How they enticed the PR rep to give up the goods is unknown, but I am thinking it was either some nice chocolates or they dragged the poor soul into a bathroom stall and gave them a swirly. Maybe they had pictures of the Activision employee in a compromising position with John Edwards dressed as Master Chief – who knows really. They got the job done, apparently, and that is all that matters.

Activision has yet to confirm November as the release month for the next installment for the PC, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360, but what other month would they release the game in if “Fall” is the time frame? Certainly not October because of the massive amount of AAA games already heading our way; December is pretty much Winter despite the first day of it “technically” being on the 21st. Regardless of Activision hem-hawing around with an actual date, November would indeed be the prefect month to release the game because it is just in time for the holiday shopping extravaganza, and we all know how well games do during the season to be jolly.

It was revealed this morning on MTV Multiplayer that during a demo for the upcoming James Bond title Quantum of Solace, that Activision polled gamers in advance before starting development on the game. Slated for a Fall release on multiplatforms, the newest entry in the James Bond franchise was heavily researched by game developers Treyarch, and according to Josh Olin, the community manager for studio, the survey produced a 60/40 split; thus crowing “first-person” the winner.

However, fans of the third-person shooter should not fret, for while the game is indeed a FPS, when Bond takes cover or engages in hand-to-hand combat the view switches over into third-person mode. In doing so, Activision is banking on giving both genres the game they crave. Hopefully it will pay off for them, and the Bond franchise as whole.

The game Quantum of Solace will cover both the most recent Bond movie “Casino Royale” and its upcoming sequel, “Quantum of Solace”. The game will be run will use the Call of Duty 4 engine, and since the game will be released onto multiple platforms, it will be interesting to see how it will differ from port to port. COD4 was not released for the Wii, so I imagine (correct me if I am wrong) that either they will have to tweak things a bit or use a different engine for the Nintendo console. Plus, a myriad of developers will be creating the game for different versions: Treyarch (Xbox 360 and PS3), Vicarious Visions (handheld), Beenox (Wii) and Eurocom (PC).

What this means, is that like most multiplatform games, you can expect each one to look drastically different from the next. Unless of course you are looking at PC/PS3/360 comparisons, which mainly just differ in matters of clarity – or so I have found. Of course, this could be because I added a bit of whiskey to my espresso earlier.

With the ability to play the iconic British secret agent in both FPS and TPS, do you dear readers, think that it will give us the best of both worlds? Or will it just prove that sticking to one style throughout is the best route to go?

Finally we get to see some actual ingame footage of the co-op mode in Call of Duty: World at War (aka CoD5). It looks pretty sweet, and on top of that, you can hear Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland giving commands to his comrade.

Hooray for Wolfenstein – that is until we get our hands on the game and figure out if it is good or not. Regardless, it is one of the very few WWII era games that I can get into (other than Call of Duty 1 & 2), and my reasoning for that is basically the plot line and the occult obsessed Nazis running around all over the place. Oh yeah, and they are fun little shooter games.

The new Wolfenstein game will be made available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 – and when we get a concrete release date, we will be sure to let you know. In the meantime, click here to watch the trailer from QuakeCon Jonathan posted yesterday and here for our previous posts on the game.

MORE SCREENS

It took much longer than some would have liked, but the first wave of Greatest Hits game for PlayStation 3 have finally arrived. Starting today, this line of budget games can be picked up in extremely ugly red boxes for the price of $30, which puts it $10 higher than the PS2’s Greatest Hits, but also $10 less than where Microsoft tends to discount its first-party 360 titles.

The nine games are Warhawk, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night Round 3, Need for Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Not a half-bad assortment, but which ones are worth buying?

PS3 Fanboy has assembled a buyer’s guide for the nine titles, giving you a quick rundown on what to expect from each game and which ones are worth buying. Unsurprisingly, Warhawk and Oblivion get a thumbs up, while Motorstorm should be avoided with the sequel, Pacific Rift, not that far off.

They do however refer to Ninja Gaiden Sigma as “THE definitive NG experience,” something that I think Itagaki-san would disagree with.

For the first time since the last week in January, Halo 3 has regained the its number one spot in the Xbox 360 top Live titles list. The list is based upon the number of unique users playing each game.

Halo has trailed behind Grand Theft Auto IV and/or Call of Duty 4 every week since the week of January 21. The July 7 release of the Cold Storage map (which was free of charge) likely helped, as did the pending E3 announcement about Bungie’s next Halo project — one which never came. Microsoft has said it will instead be showcasing the mysterious new Halo game at a dedicated event where they can do the game “more justice.”

Anyone want to guess if the game will hold onto its lead for a second week? I’m gonna go ahead and guess that it will, based on my expert analysis of absolutely nothing.

While I’ve enjoyed both The World is Not Enough and Everything or Nothing, no Bond game has ever come close to touching GoldenEye. It’s one of the best shooters to ever grace consoles and used the Bond license extremely well, considering what was capable on the N64 from a technological standpoint.

The new trailer for Quantum of Solace has left me with mixed feelings. While I do like the action I’m seeing, I don’t really trust Treyarch to make a good FPS, even if it is running on the Call of Duty 4 engine. Combine that with their attempts to tie the game’s story in with Casino Royale and the Quantum of Solace film, and it’s all a tall order to make this a good game. I hope my worries are misplaced, as there are few things that can match the experience of playing a great Bond game.

If you like the Call of Duty games, and you like explosions, then you will dig this trailer that was shown at E3 for the upcoming Call of Duty: World at War from Activision and Treyarch. I know that the WWII shooter genre has been done to death, but this looks pretty damn cool.

The game will utilize the CoD4 engine and in the game you will have the ability the burn down the buildings and foliage within the war-torn pacific. Gamers will be up against Imperial Japan this time around and thanks to Gulf War Veteran, and military adviser Frank Kearsy, the way the Japanse fight suppose to be authentic, brutal, tenacious and shocking.

I suppose this sort of news was just too good to keep under wraps until E3, but whatever Peter Molyneux’s reasons are for wanting to give the gaming public an extra bit of Fable 2, it’s his baby so he can do whatever the hell he wants – and I for one am not complaining.

OXM has the goods regarding the new info, and if you are a subscriber then you are already privy to this information. For the rest of you, who do not get OXM, here is a sampling of what the mag has insides its “pocketes”. Some of the info listed below is new, and some is just expanded upon – for the full monty you will have to get it from your copy of OXM – or just wait for someone to post the whole thing online.

• Good and Evil expanded. There are four traits to consider now, with purity/corruption and kindness/cruelty determining your overall character. One example cited is a beautiful girl who is about to be stricken by a curse of terrible scars – do you save her by taking on this curse yourself?
• Decisions change appearance. Those stained by corruption will find their teeth turning crooked and yellow, to give one example.
• No HUD. In an effort to streamline the experience as much as possible, Fable 2 won’t have a HUD.
• No cutscenes. Non-interactive cinematics take up less than five minutes of game time.
• No more bumpkins. The voice acting has been kicked up a couple of notches, as Fable 2 moves away from the country bumpkin speak of its predecessor. Stephen Fry is one of the confirmed voice actors.
• Magic spells revealed. Inferno, Time Control, Magic Blades, Raise Dead and Force Push are some of the spells you’ll be able to use.

If you would like to find out what the full list of magic spells are, how Molyneux was influenced by Bioshock and Call of Duty 4 and some cool details regarding co-op you will have to check out OXM for yourself. The article also goes on to detail how a second player can create a henchman character on the fly when you need help defeating some of the tougher monsters. They are the first members of the press to get their hands on the game, and considering it is an Xbox 360 exclusive, does that really surprise you?

In case, like me you are not a subscriber, Gaming Today will be causing riots and mayhem at E3 next week (I keep telling you that for a reason) so expect to know more about Fable 2 when Jon, Ron, and Shawn get out of the LA County Detention Center.

Via: OMX

Some news screens for Call of Duty: World at War have landed in our laps, and they are much more interesting than some of the ones we have received recently, if only because they show off some interesting air battle scenes. This looking at lot better than the last time Treyarch had a hand in a CoD game, so they are probably trying to make up for such a stinkfest by providing us with a nice solid title. Then again, I have not seen any actual gameplay other than the trailer posted last month, therefore I could be very wrong. Very wrong indeed.