It’s Memorial Day, and as they have done in past years, the Call of Duty Endowment has an easy charity drive going on. Just Share their image on your Facebook wall this weekend, and the Endowment will donate a dollar to Hire Heroes USA. Take a few seconds, spread a little awareness, help a great cause!

Look Ma, I'm on (Elite) TV!

I don’t know if Call of Duty Elite premium members always check Elite TV as soon as new content is posted, but I got the chance to host a few special episodes of Roll Call recently. It’s not a long-term gig, so my ego would ask you to check out the last few segments before the nice folks at Elite get wise and hire someone better than me as their host. I’m on the Black Ops II reveal, Oasis, and Content Drop 9-12 videos so far.

All the Elite TV segments — Roll Call, Friday Night Fights, training videos — are available to Call of Duty Elite premium members via the website or through the PS3 and 360 Elite console apps.

That dude with the riot shield could be from Sledgehammer...

This week, Collection 2 comes out for MW3 on Xbox 360, and it also happens to be Memorial Day weekend. To mark both events, some of the crew from Sledgehammer Games — one of the studios that’s been busy bringing you all this new MW3 content — wants to get out there and see what you’ve got. So they’ve decided to join in on take over this week’s Playing With Swords event, which will take place Friday May 25 from 5pm Pacific to 7pm Pacific on Xbox Live. Naturally, you are invited. Facebook event reminder is here.

Sledgehammer Games has posted about the event on their website, and my usual PWS FAQ is here. Here is a list of the Xbox 360 gamertags from the gang at Sledgehammer Games — look for these and ask (politely!) for an invite:

Dworf
AHalon
BKCrisp
Ronpopill
NDovesH
Weakpoint
Oscar Mike
pocket sheik
r4mp4ge 256
Gov Greybush
DemonPretzel
SHG Red Sonja 

And of course OneOfSwords but you knew that. :)

I’m thinking they’ll split off into a few small groups so more gamers have more chances to play with the folks from the studio, and I’ll be jumping around as well. I expect if you get to play, it’ll probably be one match and then rotate so they can meet the maximum amount of people in two hours. We might play Face Off, we might play regular MP lobbies, but we’re definitely going to be focusing on Collection 2 content, so be ready.

Please understand there will be a lot of people who want to play and it will be impossible to get to everybody. Also, if you sign in at the beginning of the event and don’t get picked immediately, don’t log off. Try a little later — it’s a two-hour event, after all!

Follow @SHGames on Twitter and prepare yourself for the big event!

The cover of NASCAR The Game 2011 featured…cars. The cover of NASCAR The Game: Inside Line will feature whichever driver you as a community choose.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To cast your vote for which driver should have this honor, go to www.NASCARTheGame.com/Vote. It takes you to Facebook, but hey, it’s easier this way. You should also follow @NASCARTheGame on Twitter, as they are very active and respond to fans’ questions on a regular basis.

This week, I was able to pull Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin away from the noise and fun of the Modern Warfare 3 Grudge Match so I could grill him about Collection 2′s new Face Off mode, why those maps are the way they are, and what to do about boosters. Kat and Hugh join in for the rest of the show to discuss Moonraker, NASCAR, passing gas, Activision’s new UK studio, Yellow Submarine, Hugh’s bad back, Tony Hawk soundtracks, Men in Black, Silver Surfer on NES, failed napping, and, perhaps inevitably, vasectomies.

Get the podcast on iTunes
Get the podcast on Zune Marketplace
Get the podcast on your own with RSS Feedburner
Or use the links below to listen in the browser or download direct.

More info after the jump…

Special Guest: Mark Rubin, executive producer, Modern Warfare 3, Infinity Ward

Co-host: Katrin Auch, photographer, light gun enthusiast, graphic designer, bassist, Jedi Sage, Demon Hunter, and inventor of Headshotmas

Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, author, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Soundtrack: Yameen - available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and finer online music stores

Relevant show links:

• MW3 Collection 2 and the Grudge Match
• Sound + Vision talks THPS HD soundtrack
• Activision’s UK mobile studio
• NASCAR The Game: Inside Line
• Men In Black: Alien Crisis
• Kat’s upcoming photography art show - buy tickets here!
• Tron: Uprising
• Woody’s Gamertag

• Kat and Hugh and Dan on Twitter
• Dan’s book: Critical Path: How to Review Videogames for a Living
• Hugh’s book: City Under the Moon
• Enter your own question for Hugh Don’t Know Jack/Stick It To The Dan
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag

Yesterday, NBA stars Gordon Hayward and Brandon Jennings faced off on the new MW3 Collection 2 DLC content. It came down to a 1v1 situation between the two athletes, and Gordon took home the W. Major Nelson and I squared off for our third go-round…and it was a tie. Can you believe it? I cleaned his clock in the big team games, he took me to school in the 2v2, and…well, the final round was just Gordon against Brandon, so we sat out. The upside: Our rivalry continues.

Here are a few of Kat’s shots of the event; look for some more on the MW3 Facebook page soon.

Press, friends, and even a few 1oS clan members got their game on.

Gordon and Brandon were both great guys -- I was impressed by the sportsmanship both when they won and when they lost.

Infinity Ward's Mark Rubin -- executive producer of MW3 -- ran with the clan tag iDub. That's 1oS clan member Nerfeller next to him.

We didn't get a winner, but we got a cool photo.

As I said, look for more on the MW3 Facebook page in a little while.

Sound and Vision Magazine has an interview with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD developers Robomodo, featuring a list of information everybody’s been eager to know: The list of songs that will appear on the game’s soundtrack. As Tony Hawk promised some weeks back, it’s a mix of songs from the first two games and fresh material — after all, these old favorites were once new, too, so it’s good to see the series still giving exposure to up-and-coming bands.

The interview’s a good read, and the devs discuss why and how they chose both the classic and new tracks. But if you just want the list, here’s the returning songs:

“Bring the Noise” Anthrax featuring Chuck D
“Superman” Goldfinger
“When Worlds Collide” Powerman 5000
“Heavy Metal Winner” Consumed
“May 16” Lagwagon
“No Cigar” Millencolin
“You” Bad Religion

And here are the new songs, fresh for THPS HD:

“The Bomb” Pigeon John
“We the People” Lateef the Truthspeaker
“Marathon Mansion!” Pegasuses-XL
“Teenage Blood” Apex Manor
“Please Ask for Help” Telekinesis
“Flyentology (Cassettes Won’t Listen Remix)” El-P featuring Trent Reznor
“USA” Middle Class Rut

The game still has no firm release date — just “summer” until further notice.

Machinima has a scoop today — a behind-the-scenes video on the Dinobots as they will appear in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Matt Tieger talks passionately (as usual!) about his quest to get the Dinobots into current TF continuity and what role they play in the new game:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So it’s Memorial Day Weekend in a few days — a solemn holiday in memory of America’s fallen armed forces — and it also means most Americans get Monday off. Throw in the release of Collection 2 DLC for MW3 on Xbox 360 and you have the makings of a double XP weekend. But Infinity Ward must really want that weekend to start early, because they flipped the XP switch today. Quoting @InfnityWard on Twitter:

Double XP for all ‪#MW3‬ playlists (including all platforms) 5/23 through 5/29

So that’s now — and that is good news. Enjoy it while it lasts, and join in for your chance to play against some of the developers from Sledgehammer Games Friday night.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With the next Men In Black movie kicking off the summer movie season this weekend, it only makes sense that Men in Black: Alien Crisis ships this week too. The game is not based on the film, just the film universe. It features action, driving, and secret interrogation sequences (!) and it’s compatible with light-gun peripherals including the Wii Zapper, the PlayStation Move Sharpshooter, and Activision’s own Top Shot Elite. There’s also split-screen support and a four-player “hot seat” mode. It’s $60 on the big three platforms, sunglasses and flashy thing not included.

Hey! No fighting on vacation!

You knew it was coming — I haven’t shut up about it — but today’s the day you can grab the Collection 2 content pack for MW3 on Xbox 360. This round features one new multiplayer map, Oasis; two new Special Ops missions, Iron Clad and Kill Switch; and two more Face Off maps (Getaway and Lookout) to go with the two free maps that were released last week. Collection 2 is out now on Xbox Live for 1200 Microsoft Points, and will be released for PS3 next month. (And of course, if you are a premium member of Call of Duty Elite on Xbox 360, you already have this content waiting for you, as part of your subscription.)

So far, I think Getaway is my favorite. There’s something slightly twisted about having a shootout in this posh beachfront home. Also, if you go prone in the swimming pool for too long…you will drown!

I will be celebrating this momentous occasion by kicking Major Nelson’s butt.

When 007 Legends was announced, promising six missions inspired by classic James Bond movies, my first guess was Moonraker — it’s so iconic and unlike all the other Bond films, I thought it would fit into a game well. Well, turns out I guessed right! Here’s the trailer confirmation:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of those “5 more missions to be revealed,” I think someone forgot that they confirmed Skyfall would be one of those in the announcement press release. So, let’s debate possibilities for the other four between now and October 16, when the game comes out.

On Tuesday, DLC Collection 2 for Modern Warfare 3 arrives on Xbox 360 (PS3 gamers get it in June), and to celebrate, there will be another MW3 Grudge Match pitting two pro athletes against each other tomorrow afternoon. The guests of honor this time are Gordon Hayward of the Utah Jazz and Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks. They’ll be facing off in — what else — Face Off matches.

From left: Winner, Loser

The guests of dishonor are once again Xbox Live’s Major Nelson and myself. If you’ve been following our friendly feud, the score is tied, as he won round 1 and I took round 2. Each time, we were on teams with other players; I wonder if we’ll get the chance to go 1v1 to really determine this tiebreaker?

Watch Twitter — @GordonHayward, @Brand0nJennings, @MajorNelson, @OneOfSwords and of course @CallofDuty – for updates on the event. Kat’s shooting photos so I should have some to share shortly thereafter.

Check out Amazing Spider-Man‘s locomotion mechanic, Web Rush, that lets you zip between lampposts, buildings, signs, and even moving cars as you move through Manhattan.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I got a chance to play with this — very cool, and a little scary in a good way. You really move fast.

"If only we had a room where we could, you know, confer."

I regularly post about our special events and internal celebrations, but that has led people to ask “what does the office look like on a normal day?” So if you’ve ever wondered what the halls of Activision HQ look like, I have posted a handful of photos over on my Facebook page. There are more interesting spaces elsewhere in the building, and things are always being redecorated and updated — but if I get bold enough to take a few more photos when nobody’s looking, I will add them to the album.

Hey — do you have kids? Do you want them to shut up? Because let’s face it: Summer is almost here, and summer means the kids are out of school, and maybe even in the car with you on a family trip. And kids make noise. I know, you love them, they’re your pride and joy, and they will take care of you when you are old and infirm, assuming they don’t emancipate themselves or something like that — but right now, this summer, part of you just wants them to shut up.

I have a way to help ensure not only the shutting up part but maybe even currying favor for the taking-care-of-you-in-your-twilight-years thing. I have a nice stack of Nintendo DS and 3DS games to give to one lucky winner, and that stack should last your little angels the whole summer.

"If I give you a game, will you please shut up?" is remarkably effective.

To win, all you need to do is fill out the form below in full. One entry per person, please, and check the FAQ if you haven’t entered one of my contests before. You have until the end of Thursday, May 24th and I’ll pick a winner the next day. Then all you have to do is survive the Memorial Day weekend and find your own way to get those adorable darlings to shut up until the games arrive. I mean this with all sincerity: Good luck.

UPDATE 5/25: Congrats to Charles Johnson of Sioux Falls, SD — your kids will soon shut up!

Picture this going really fast.

Last year’s NASCAR The Game 2011 got generally favorable responses from fans, as well as a ton of feedback. Developer (and NASCAR license owner) Eutechnyx has been pretty open with its plans to make a game for 2012 on Twitter, but it’s official as of today, with the release of the first screens and the final title: NASCAR Inside Line. Improvements this year include a deeper career mode where drivers can attract sponsors and upgrade their car during their Sprint Cup run. They’re also promising some online improvements, including realistic race weekends. I know the community liked the online mode but felt it could be better, so this will be the result of all that fan feedback.

The game is slated for release this fall on Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. I don’t know yet if this game will be released in the UK, but I’ve heard from plenty of international NASCAR fans who want that to happen (and it didn’t last year). Also, if you’d like to help pick which driver will appear on this year’s box art, chime in on the official Facebook page.

Venice Beach is in the core game. What do you want as DLC?

Mashable reported yesterday that DLC is definitely coming for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD — and specifically, it will be levels from THPS3 that the fans select. That’s good news!

This was kind of funny timing, because their story broke shortly as I was finishing up this week’s podcast, which contains an interview with Robomodo president Josh Tsui, in which I asked him about the possibility of DLC for the game. We also discussed the fact that, while THPS HD is based on the first two games, THPS3 introduced the revert move, which dramatically changed how gamers construct combos. While DLC usually doesn’t include changes to gameplay mechanics, the levels from THPS3 were built with the revert move in mind, so Josh suggested they probably would include the revert move for those DLC levels out of a sense of historical accuracy, and to deliver the experience that fans remember. To quote Josh from that interview:

I think sticking to our early mantra with the base game, which is, everything you remember from 1 & 2, mechanics wise, is going to be there. Moving into 3 and possibly 4, it’s the same idea. Those levels were made with a set mechanic in mind. People have a muscle memory where they go back and play a level from, say, 3, they’re going to expect certain mechanics to be in there. We want to stay true to that, for sure.

Listen to that chat here – we talk about reverts around the 41:30 mark.

In any case, if you have a favorite level from THPS3 that you’d like to see included as DLC for THPS HD, go to Facebook and plead your case. Tony himself will make the final call.

Modern Warfare 3 takes place all over the globe…and apparently that includes the Old West. Check out this stylish-but-not-obnoxious trailer that highlights the new Face Off mode:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Call of Duty Elite premium members on Xbox 360 already have all the content show in that video; everybody else on 360 can buy it as part of DLC Collection 2, due out Tuesday the 22nd. PS3 release date is sometime in June; when I get more specifics, I’ll let you know.

Robomodo president Josh Tsui catches up in a chat about Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD this week, discussing the latest confirmed info on the game, whether or not “summer” means “June,” and whether we’ll see reverts return as part of potential DLC. Kat joins Dan in person while Hugh Skypes in to talk about intestinal gas, MW3′s new Face Off mode, motorcycles with sidecars, suicide sandwiches, the prices of digital downloads, IW’s new CM, Minecraft, Hot Doug’s, GH DLC on sale, Diablo III, Nolan North, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded on PS3, medieval beverages, unfinished train tracks, and cheerleaders in leather jackets. Plus, Kat really wants you to attend her art show, dammit.

Get the podcast on iTunes
Get the podcast on Zune Marketplace
Get the podcast on your own with RSS Feedburner
Or use the links below to listen in the browser or download direct.

More info after the jump…

Special Guest: Josh Tsui, president, Robomodo

Co-host: Katrin Auch, graphic designer, bassist, photographer, light gun enthusiast, videographer, worgen mage, and inventor of Headshotmas
Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Soundtrack: Yameen - available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and finer online music stores

Relevant show links:

• MW3 360 Elite drops 9 through 12
• MW3 double XP on Elite playlists extended
• GH & DJ DLC on sale
• Kat’s upcoming photography art show - buy tickets!
• Lindisfarne Mead

• Kat and Hugh and Dan on Twitter
• Dan’s book: Critical Path: How to Review Videogames for a Living
• Hugh’s book: City Under the Moon
• Enter your own question for Hugh Don’t Know Jack/Stick It To The Dan
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag

Getaway: Not exactly the summer home I'd imagined

If you are waiting for the all-clear, it’s all clear — Call of Duty Elite premium members on Xbox 360 can grab content drops 9 through 12 as of now. This includes a new multiplayer map Oasis, two new Special Ops missions Iron Clad and Kill Switch, and two new Face Off maps, Getaway and Lookout — PLUS the two free Face Off maps (Aground and Erosion) that everybody else on 360 won’t get until tomorrow. So that’s the five content drops for the month, plus two bonus bits. Take today to warm up and be ready to own in those 2v2 matches when the fresh meat drops in on Wednesday!

Want the goods? Go to the Store link from the MW3 multiplayer menu and it will send you right to the new maps.

As broadband becomes more prevalent, big-name games as digital downloads only makes more and more sense. Latest case in point: GoldenEye 007: Reloaded debuts as a PlayStation Store downloadable game today for $59.99. Same game that came out on disc — 60 FPS, four-player split-screen, 16-player online matches, and PlayStation Move Sharpshooter support. Check out the launch trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s a free demo, too. Just check out the PlayStation Store.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After a few weeks of head-scratching and easy jokes, it’s time to find out for yourself: How do you base a game on a movie that’s based on a game? Battleship: The Video Game is available today nationwide, and to prove it there’s an official press release. Look for it on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS, and 3DS.

Sanctuary: One of several Elite maps that gives you 2x XP at the moment

Face-Off hits Elite premium members on 360 this week, plus you’ll get double XP on Elite playlists this week and weekend. Sounds like perfect timing for a Modern Warfare 3 PWS event this Friday, May 18 from 6pm Pacific to 8pm Pacific. If you’re new to it, here’s how it works. See you online!

Or as I like to call it, the “Several high-profile critics like Prototype 2 a lot, so what are you waiting for, here is some gratuitous gore to encourage you to not miss out” trailer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I really am having a hell of a lot of fun with it.

Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia

I had a great conversation with Treyarch’s studio head, Mark Lamia, on this week’s podcast. We talked for a good 40 minutes about several topics — how and why the team chose to radically rethink the single-player campaign with branching options and storylines, how the studio feels about leaks, what details people may have missed during the reveal of Black Ops II, and even a few interesting tidbits about how he and David Vonderhaar met all those years ago. You can hear the interview in its entirety here; it starts at the 20-minute mark.

One of the key questions I asked Mark was a question I’ve been asked by several people since the game was announced: “What engine powers Black Ops II?” Mark’s short answer: The Black Ops II engine, which has been upgraded from Black Ops to meet the current game’s design goals. Mark’s long answer, however, is far more interesting.

I pulled out some relevant parts of the conversation below and reordered them a bit for easy reading (as I used to do when I was writing magazine features). They are still in their original context, and of course, you can listen to the recording yourself if you prefer. But if you just want the highlights, here’s some of what Mark discussed:

People always ask me, “Is this a new engine?” I liken it to people who live in an older house that has been remodeled. Just because you’re remodeling the house and it will look new or it will have a new kitchen, you don’t tear out the foundation, or break out some of the framing. You might even go as hardcore as replacing the plumbing, and we will do that sort of thing, as an analogy. It’s a gross simplification, but it’s one way to say that. There’s a lot of good still in that foundation that you wouldn’t get rid of, and we don’t. We look to advance in the areas that support our game design.

Engines, each time they get touched, they change. The creators alter them; they don’t modify what they don’t need to, and then they alter what they need to. You can’t make a competitive product if you’re not upgrading that engine along the way.

I think the whole thing about a new engine…sometimes that’s a great buzzword. Well, I have a new graphics engine — is that a new engine? Where does it start and stop? Elements of the code, you can trace back for a very very long time…but whole parts of the code are entirely new. Two areas we did focus on for this game were the graphics and the lighting — a pretty significant amount of work is going into that.

I think what people are asking for is for us to push. They want us to make a better-looking game; they want things. I don’t think those are things people can’t ask for. We asked ourselves that very same question — we wanted to advance the graphics. I think the questions are valid. The answer may not need to be an entirely new engine, but you might need to do an entire overhaul of your entire lighting system. The trick is, we’re not willing to do that if we can’t keep it running at 60 frames per second — but we did that this time. So this is the Black Ops II engine.

Again, there is much more than just engine talk in this excellent 40-minute conversation. You can hear Mark’s interview in its entirety here.

Your princess is in another castle. Congratulations are in order to Tina Palacios, who many people know from 1UP, IGN, and GameSpy — and the host of the 1UP Oddcast. It’s just been announced that she’s moving over to Infinity Ward as the Senior Community Manager. Since IGN is her current employer, they have the scoop with a fond farewell post today. She tells the story of how it all went down on the final episode of the Oddcast.

Once she gets her feet under her after the transition, I will try to trick her into being a guest on my podcast, too.

The Call of Duty team posted a behind-the-scenes video with some of the lead developers on the new Face Off mode — 2v2 showdowns on fresh maps built specifically for this style of gameplay. It’s coming to Xbox 360 next week with two free maps, and two more will be available as DLC. They also detail some of the new Special Ops missions and Collection 2 content.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I got to play some on Getaway and really liked it — very tense, very fast. You can play 4v4 on these maps in private matches, too, but the public playlists are going to be no more than 2v2.

Face Off and the two free maps go live May 16th, and according to Infinity Ward on Twitter, Elite premium members will get their next content drops the day before.

GameTrailers TV is doing a big piece on Transformers: Fall of Cybertron tomorrow night — the first reveal of Cliffjumper is part of it. Here’s a teaser.

GameTrailers TV airs on Spike. Check your local listings, yo.

UPDATE 5/11: Here’s the full episode. Can’t embed it, sorry, but the TFFoC segment is the very first one. Enjoy!

Now that the big reveal for Call of Duty: Black Ops II is complete, I got a chance to talk with Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia about horses, failing missions, branching storylines, and Vahn’s secret past. We even tackled that fan-favorite “what engine is this game using” question. We talk for a good 40 minutes, so it’s worth hearing. And it’s a thrill to be able to post this show due to the nasty tech problems we endured, but Kat and Hugh do appear as well, to discuss MW3 PC DLC, Bond villains, MW3 PS3 DLC, Jack Black, MW3 360 DLC, The Avengers, Prototype 2 DLC, Skylanders updates, Family Guy, and a Spidey preorder perk that Hugh actually likes. Plus, a monster truck rally breaks out at a dance concert.

Get the podcast on iTunes
Get the podcast on Zune Marketplace
Get the podcast on your own with RSS Feedburner
Or use the links below to listen in the browser or download direct.

UPDATE: Goofed on the music levels in the first segment, so the file has been replaced. If in doubt, redownload!

More info after the jump…

Special Guest: Mark Lamia, studio head, Treyarch

Co-host: Katrin Auch, graphic designer, bassist, photographer, light gun enthusiast, videographer, worgen mage, and inventor of Headshotmas
Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Soundtrack: Yameen - available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

• MW3 360 DLC info - Elite drops, Face Off & Collection 2
• MW3 PC DLC info
• MW3 PS3 Elite content drops 7 & 8 info
• Play as Stan Lee in Amazing Spider-Man
• Prototype 2 Colossal Mayhem DLC
• Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse
• Kat’s upcoming photography art show
• @Hughmungous007 & Hugh M. Ungous on Facebook for the 007 Legends: Get in the Game promotion
• Shaping Sound, Kat’s new favorite dance company

• Kat and Hugh and Dan on Twitter
• Dan’s book: Critical Path: How to Review Videogames for a Living
• Hugh’s book: City Under the Moon
• Enter your own question for Hugh Don’t Know Jack/Stick It To The Dan
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag