This is the first trailer footage that we’ve seen of the next installment in the insanely successful Call of Duty franchise, Call of Duty: World at War. While the fourth game in the series, developed by Infinity Ward, did incredibly well, this next game is going back to Call of Duty’s roots with developer Treyarch, creator of the extreme let-down Call of Duty 3. The trailer, however, looks pretty enough and features enough explosions, gun-downs and flamethrowers to make any FPS fan’s pants tighter. Let’s just hope that Treyarch stays true to the fundamental gameplay elements that made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare so great.

On another note, I said “Call of Duty” five times in four sentences. I didn’t think it could be done. Mom always said I was special.

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When lawl first clued me into the fact that a new Battlefield beta would be arriving on the 360, I was immediately skeptical. I had never before played a Battlefield game, and from what I had heard, there was nothing special about the series. Regardless, I applied for a beta and was accepted. How does the Battlefield: Bad Company compare to other war shooter games out there? Hit the jump to find out!

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This has been a really hot year for video games. One company in particular has had an amazingly successful year. According to The NPD Group (a company who provides consumer and market research information) Activision was the “#1 U.S. console and handheld publisher for the first eleven months of calendar 2007.

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People will shout out anything on Xbox Live, believing they are anonymous. Anyone who’s played online has heard numerous unprovoked slurs and gratuitous swearing, and people will say some pretty disturbing things for the sole sake of saying disturbing things. Something you probably haven’t heard though is someone threatening to shoot up a school - but recently, someone made that threat over Xbox Live and now has two misdemeanor counts filed against him as a result:

Two misdemeanor counts of disrupting a school operation have been filed against a Frostburg State University student who allegedly made an Internet threat of “shooting up the school,” according to district court documents.

Apparently he made the threat and even gave details on how he was going to do while playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live (which, contrary to what the Cumberland Times-News claims, is not a “gaming system.” That would be the Xbox 360). Upon hearing this unsettling threat, another player in the match from Oregon contacted the Frostburg Police Department and told them what he had heard. They immediately started an investigation, and schools in Frostburg were ordered to be in “lock-in” status when they opened in the morning on Tuesday. Various state troopers and police from different counties came, and there were 40 officials patrolling the school at one point.

With the help of Microsoft, they tracked the IP address to his room and he was taken into custody and led hand-cuffed out at about 2 p.m. Tuesday. He could face up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine, or both. However, according to the court documents he said “he was joking and had no intention of following through with the threats,” which seems plausible since when they searched his room no weapons or evidence was found.

[Via Kotaku]

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Single Player

From the very first mission to the fast-paced final minutes, Call of Duty 4 is an incredibly fun experience that immerses you completely in the game and places you right on the frontlines of war. It starts off with a training mission that is mostly taking out targets, walking, and finally completing a short, timed combat scenario. However, as soon as that is complete you are thrust straight into the action when you are dropped onto a ship in the middle of the turbulent waves of the ocean. The mission is fast and intense, and a brilliant way to begin the game, as it really gets you pumped. As soon as you leap to safety after an adrenaline-fueled race against the clock and the ocean itself, you finally have time to breathe and yet it, like nearby every level following, only leaves you wanting more. When the title appears it has a movie like quality; it begins with a fast-paced opening action sequence, followed by a momentary pause for the title, and then a scene that sets the story and tone for much of the game. However, unlike with movies, you are in complete control so the beginning is much more effective at getting you pumped than many well done action sequences at the start of movies. You are entirely responsible for getting out alive and in time, and instead of merely spectating as the action unfolds you are right in the middle of everything.

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Here at MEGATONik, we take pride in our knowledge of video games, past, present and future. That’s why we’ve taken the time to outline the best upcoming games for all consoles that are, at this moment, planned to be released in 2007. There seem to be a huge amount of great-looking games releasing this October and November, so stop eating for a week, sell a kidney, or do whatever you have to fill up your wallet. Hit the jump for our massive look at what games you should keep your eye on in the following months.
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To: zizzy
From: backflip
Subject: Collegiate online gaming woes

Ignoring the fact that this posting note format is strangely familiar, I have really had it with my university and online gaming. The way that they do things here all depends on your MAC address — if yours isn’t entered into their database, then say goodbye to your internet capabilities, and more importantly, online gaming capabilities. You see, I was recently accepted into the Xbox 360 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta, and have been dying to get into the action since moving in last Saturday. However, the school’s IT department (which should more appropriately be known as the SH-IT department) seem to be less comfortable with computers than even I am. It took them a good four days to move my Xbox 360’s MAC address to their server, but the 360 still says that the MTU is not connected. Now of course, lawl was nice enough to help me get it online using my laptop as a wireless router, but altogether, I’m pretty outraged. How can a university, that makes literally hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars a year, pull this crap? Not to mention, it’s going to take me a full 3 1/2 hours to download the CoD4 beta. Shouldn’t this be an easy, two-minute procedure?

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According to gaming mega-site, Kotaku, all of those who registered for the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta on Xbox 360 on August 29th should be receiving their beta code at literally any moment. The codes, however, are being released in batches, so, according to creator Infinity Ward’s spokesperson, “You might get it today, you might get it tomorrow, you might get it later than that.” Guess I’m in one of those latter two categories mentioned above, since I registered yesterday and have not yet received a key.

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