DJ Fuzzy wants to know what happens after an information leak in the videogame business. Are there fines, fees, or harsh words for spoiling someone’s surprise? I tell you what I know, anyway.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have a question for One of Swords TV, send it to youtube@onefoswords.com and I’ll do my best to answer it on a future episode.

If you haven’t picked up the Revolution DLC pack for Black Ops II, this weekend, you get a chance to try before you buy. You might have missed this on the Xbox 360 Message of the Day in the game, especially if you were in a hurry to vote for the new Personalization Packs, but here’s a quick screen grab that explains it:

Check the second paragraph.

I can’t remember Call of Duty doing this with DLC before, but I’m happy to see it. Right now I can only confirm it on Xbox 360, because that’s where I see it listed. Perhaps it’s tied to the Personalization Pack promotion.

Bungie’s got a little Destiny sizzle to share before E3. Do you like stories?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Destiny will be part of Sony’s PlayStation E3 press conference on June 10th. This gets me excited to see what else will be revealed at the show.

Fear not! Infinity Ward has confirmed, via Twitter, that Call of Duty: Ghosts will not only be coming to PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, but PlayStation 4 as well:

Yes @smithson89 we’ll be releasing #CODGhosts on both platforms #PS3 #PS4

— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) May 22, 2013

Even if you stronlgy suspected it to arrive on PS4, or thought there was no logical reason for it not to come to Sony’s next-gen platform, it’s always good to have confirmation from the source.

UNCANNY!

If the first round of Deadpool preorder bonuses was not enough for you, now we have info on what you can get at Best Buy, Steam, and GameStop’s PC download hut:

Best Buy

• US: A $5 voucher for ANY Marvel comic book, while supplies last
• Canada: An exclusive Deadpool poster for everyone who pre-orders the game

Steam & GameStop PC Download

• The Merc with a Map Pack DLC! Featuring two new levels – GRT Plaza and Inside the Tower – for Deadpool Challenge Mode and Infinite Mode, as well as two new costumes, the D-Pooly and Uncanny X-Force suits (only available in Infinite Mode)
• Deadpool digital wallpaper

Deadpool will be reaching stores on June 25; look for it on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. For your own safety, preorder already.

Paul Boustany is one of Activision’s secret warriors — one who works behind the scenes to get player feedback from customer support to the development teams who can fix their problems. We talk about how Activision’s CS team is structured, the preferred toys for the office, meeting a Replacer, and how customer support got someone grounded. Meanwhile, Xbox One has been revealed, so Kat and Hugh and I talk about what we know and what we don’t, what it means for Ghosts, what it means for Destiny, and what it means for two-console families. We also chat about Hugh’s harem, new Black Ops II camos, stomach virii, terrible Star Wars games, Kat’s new website, sitcoms with second lives, cheap cables, and ironically enough, what to do when your internet connection goes down.

Get the podcast on iTunes
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: Paul Boustany, Senior Manager, Service Design and Supportability, Activision

Host: Dan “OneOfSwords” Amrich, Activision Community Manager, author, musician, puzzle nerd, and fire juggler
Co-host: “The Lovely and Talented” Katrin Auch, photographer, graphic designer, bassist, Mechromancer, and inventor of Headshotmas
Co-host: Hugh “DJ Darkhugh” Sterbakov, screenwriter, author, comic creator, Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken, and Governor of Somewhere

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

Relevant show links:

• Meet Xbox One & Wired’s very good feature article
• COD: Ghosts reveal trailer & BTS video plus the tech comparison
• Destiny confirmed for Xbox One
• Xbox One not backward compatible for 360 or XBLA
• Vote for Black Ops II camos starting this week
• katrinauch.deviantart.com
• Monoprice
• Arrested Development on Netflix
• 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 (or Stick It To The Dan)
• Suggest topics for The Third Degree
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag

I don’t care about my KDR — I just want those Domination flags!

I will be playing Black Ops II on Wii U this Friday, May 24 from 6pm PT to 8pm PT (convert that to your local time if you’re unsure). I prefer Core Domination, but I also enjoy Party games like One in the Chamber and Sharpshooter, so we might jump into some of those toward the end if we have enough folks interested. My NNID is OneOfSwords, and everthing else you need to know is in the PWS FAQ. See you online!

Here’s the tech comparison video showing just how much of an improvement the Call of Duty: Ghosts engine already represents. This was shown during the Xbox One reveal event.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Raven Software has been acting in a supporting role on the Call of Duty franchise for the last few games — you may have spotted their logo as an unlockable emblem in MW3, or knew that they’d worked with Beachhead Studio on the most recent updates to Call of Duty Elite.

Today, Infinity Ward confirmed that Raven will be involved with Call of Duty: Ghosts, as well as another familiar name: Neversoft.

Now that our reveal is live, we wanted to give a special thanks to@ravensoftware & @neversoft for their support in developing #CODGhosts

— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) May 22, 2013

Neversoft added the Call of Duty logo to its website some time ago and mentioned first-person shooters in its job listings, but it was never entirely clear as to exactly what the studio was working on. Now we know.

IW is leading development on COD: Ghosts, but that’s one hell of a support team. Hey, if you can leverage the expertise of multiple world-class developers for your game, why on earth wouldn’t you?

Bungie confirmed today that Destiny will be released for both the current and next generation platforms from both Sony and Microsoft.

#Destiny will absolutely be shipping on four platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the newly announced Xbox One.

— Bungie (@Bungie) May 21, 2013

I kind of expected as much, but you know, nothing is official until it’s officially official, which is to say, until a developer’s account talks about it on Twitter. So there you have it.

So…whether you get PS4 or Xbox One or stick with the hardware you already own…you can play Destiny when it comes out.

You saw the teaser trailer, but during the Xbox One reveal event, Infinity Ward unveiled something a bit more meaty. Here is the official reveal trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here is the behind-the-scenes preview video, which I don’t think people were expecting:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Much more information will be revealed and discussed throughout the year. The next big milestone is E3, which takes place June 11 through June 13 in Los Angeles. So while you probably have a lot of questions, the answers are coming — but as always, it will take some time for them all to appear.

By all accounts, the Micro Items for Call of Duty: Black Ops II were a hit – I’ve seen customized camos and optics in nearly every match I’ve played since they were released. The surest sign of popularity to me was all the people asking if there would be more Personalization Packs released in the future.

Good news, then! Treyarch is getting ready to release two new Personalization Packs, but there’s a twist: This time, you’ll choose which ones are released. Starting Thursday, May 23, you’ll be able to vote for one of four new Personalization Packs — each with a weapon camo, three reticles, and a calling card — directly from within the Black Ops II Message of the Day on Xbox 360. The two Personalization Packs that receive the most votes by the deadline will be made available via the in-game store, beginning on May 29.

The four options are as follows [UPDATE 5/22: Better images, using 3D models!]:

COMICS: Add some retro-heroic POW! to your matches.

CYBORG: High-tech stripes let you go with the glow.

DRAGON: Reptilian scales and a scarred hide for your personal firebreather.

PALADIN: A noble suit of armor for your noble defense of the B flag.

Voting starts May 23 and ends May 28, and the winning Personalization Packs go on sale May 29, so you’ll only have a limited time to weigh in on this — but your vote definitely has an impact. If you want to make an even bigger impact, you’ll be able to easily share your vote on Facebook and rally your friends to your cause.

See something you really, really like? Start your campaigning now — we’ll see which designs win next week.

Aaron Staebell of St. Louis, MO (better known on Xbox Live as OccamRazor) wants to know about the physical logistics of game development — like, is the team all in one building, or does the magic of technology mean the creators are scattered across the globe? I have been to a developer or three in my time, so I’m happy to share what I’ve seen.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Got a Q about the game biz, Activision games, or something else you think I can answer? Drop me a line at youtube@oneofswords.com and I’ll do my best.

Vertigo takes place on a building so tall, it breaks the cloud layer.

Uprising, the second DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, is available for PS3 and PC today. This pack contains four new multiplayer maps — Magma, Vertigo, Encore, and Studio (which is a reimagining of one of my old favorites, Firing Range) plus Mob of the Dead, which offers some serious star power in a zombie adventure set in Alcatraz. The DLC is $14.99, unless you have already purchased a Season Pass, in which case there’s no additional fee — you’ve already paid for it. Head to the Store menu in-game and download away!

To mark the occasion, I’ve written an entry for the PlayStation Blog (and the commenters there are usually…very forthright) and the Call of Duty team has a new video for you, this time going behind the scenes with The Replacers:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And before anybody asks: Sorry, I still have no update on if or when any DLC content will be released for Wii U. The companies have not worked it out amongst themselves yet and no announcement or promise of content availability has been made. If and when I hear anything beyond that, I will let you know, but so far, no news to report.

As we suffer the information blackout that always precedes E3, The Third Degree makes an appearance this week as Kat, Hugh, and Dan argue over the ultimate gaming weaponry. We also tackle new Black Ops II DLC, Hugh’s foolish choice of midnight entertainment, Happy Meal toys, the results of the 25K Giveaway, the nature of diamond camo, Dan’s neck, Batman vs. Boba Fett, how Hugh angered Acclaim back in the day, the lack of power of yelling weird words at people, a great example of how not to be on reality TV and/or Facebook and/or planet Earth, and a small Michael Jackson reference topped only by a smaller Saturday Night Live reference.

Get the podcast on iTunes
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…

Host: Dan “OneOfSwords” Amrich, Activision Community Manager, author, musician, puzzle nerd, and fire juggler
Co-host: “The Lovely and Talented” Katrin Auch, photographer, graphic designer, bassist, Mechromancer, and inventor of Headshotmas
Co-host: Hugh “DJ Darkhugh” Sterbakov, screenwriter, author, comic creator, Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken, and Governor of Somewhere

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

Relevant show links:

• What I Learned from The 25K Giveaway
• Black Ops II Uprising DLC on PS3 & PC
• Pinball FX2 on Steam
• So You Think You Can Dance
• The Amy’s Baking Company fiasco
• 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 (or Stick It To The Dan)
• Suggest topics for The Third Degree
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag

Tip of the hat to Kotaku (update: and others — see below!) for finding this one: If you’ve ever wanted to walk through Nuketown — or at least a reasonable facsimile — then make sure your summer vacation plans include a visit to Paintball Explosion in East Dundee, Illinois. They build paintball arenas with specific themes, including arenas inspired by a missile base, a creepy abandoned carnival, the pirate-ship-themed Mutiny Field, and now, Nuketown 2013 — complete with both houses, the moving van, the school bus, and mannequins in the windows. Check out the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s dedication. Or copyright infringement — I’m not sure. But let’s go with dedication, because building Nuketown for real is pretty cool.

UPDATE 5/16: I first saw this story on Kotaku, but credit where it’s due: They apparently spotted it on Charlie Intel, who learned about it from TheGeekIntel, who found it on Tippman’s Facebook page. That’s a lot of people bringing you this story! 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows will be released this summer for Xbox LIVE Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and PC via Steam. Today, we get a closer look at Raphael. Cutting and pasting from the email that came with the trailer:

Hot-tempered and aggressive, Raphael is the bad boy of the Turtles squad. He’s competitive, rebellious, and often prefers being on his own. But underneath the sarcasm lies an unbreakable love and loyalty for his family, particularly his younger brother, Mikey.

A true street brawler, Raphael’s brute-force single-target damage, knockdown strength, and combo damage make him a walking powerhouse. Raph’s unique Iron Fists weapon upgrade lets him toss his Sais aside and have his fists do the talking.

But like any hot head, Raph’s fury is also his greatest shortcoming. His zeal for up-close and personal combat limits his range, as well as his ability to juggle multiple opponents simultaneously, leaving him vulnerable to attack when outnumbered or being targeted from a distance.

The game’s official Facebook page is here. And have you met Mikey?

Magma offers several small engagement points…and lots of deadly lava.

The Uprising DLC comes out for PS3 and PC this week, so let’s celebrate with a session of Black Ops II on PlayStation Network. I’ll be on Friday, May 17 from 6pm to 8pm Pacific time. I always like to play Domination; if we get a bunch of folks, we might move to Party Games toward the end of the evening. And if we get tons of people showing up, I’ll probably have to play a bit and move around to different groups. I will also make some room on my friends list before the event. As always, the Playing With Swords FAQ knows all.

Huzzah!

In gratitude for reaching 25,000 Twitter followers, I promised I would give away one code every five minutes for 44 hours…and I did. It’s over! You can re-follow me again if you bailed! And overall, it was…educational. I saw a lot of interesting reactions, gave away a lot of loot, made a few mistakes, and managed to dodge a few bullets (not to mention slings and arrows). Ultimately, I am proud to say that I made it rain. Here’s the post-mortem on what I saw and learned, with comments directly from the Twitterverse. 

In terms of public response, I’d say the positive-to-negative ratio was about 6 to 1. Most people who rode it out were having fun trying to get free stuff or at least enjoying the riddles, and I got many thank-you notes from both winners and folks who were just having fun figuring out the trivia and riddles. Those good vibes definitely made up for the handful of nitwits, only a few of which I actually blocked for being disruptive or rude (or repeatedly begging). So while there were a few of these…

@oneofswords no way someone entered this faster than me #sofraudulent

— PSN-JamesDeanONdaLOW (@JamesDeanONdaLW) May 12, 2013

@oneofswords fuck ugay ass motherfuckerrr

— leon (@leoleo1313) May 11, 2013

There were many more of these:

I just want to say thanks to @oneofswords I haven’t claimed any codes because I don’t have the games, but man, I appreciate it so much.

— Kyron Parsons (@Pushaman55) May 12, 2013

@oneofswords I now own all the Personalization Packs. Thank you very much! :) #BlackOps2 #Xbox360

— Juanito Sanchez™ (@liljrSanchez) May 12, 2013

@oneofswords didn’t win, but I thank you! It was fun trying! #GRATITUDE

— Ed Rios (@Rios_77) May 11, 2013

I thought the main 25K Giveaway article about the giveaway would answer everybody’s questions, but a lot of people simply didn’t read it, even after I sent out the URL to them personally. I don’t have a solution to this; I can’t fix willful ignorance. But it was probably the most frustrating thing for me.

Sometimes I feel sorry for @oneofswords – All the bitching and whining… And he even reply to them! There’s a FAQ, reading doesn’t hurt.

— Vladimir Ljubetic (@VDH360) May 12, 2013

Many people got frustrated by the fact that the clues were redeemed very quickly.

@oneofswords HOW IS THIS ALREADY GONE WTF IT HASN’T EVEN BEEN 20 SECONDS

— A J (@aajjajjaa) May 12, 2013

They are one-use codes, as explained, and some people are very fast, even if I added the clues to try to slow them down. I included links in the main article for how you can redeem codes via web browsers, so I suspect many people took advantage of my advice. Also, depending on what Twitter client you use, there might have been a delay between when I posted and when your client updated — not something I can control, sorry. Some folks said “the code doesn’t work” when in fact it had simply already been redeemed by someone faster. I also had complaints that the clues were too hard or too easy or whatever. That’s the nature of trivia: one size does not fit all.

By the way, that was another common question:

@oneofswords how long did it take you to come up with all these riddles.That dedication is amazing

— Asmalloo2 (@umg_asmalloo2) May 12, 2013

Originally I thought it took me about 12 hours, working on and off over about a few weeks. But now that I think about how much I did on this project at home, I’d say it as 12 hours in the office and maybe another 12 on my couch. So…a lot of work went into the clues but I really enjoyed making them.

Mistakes were definitely made. On a few of the clues, I forgot to block out the full code with question marks — total freebie! — and one of my clues about Roman numerals was simply wrong. I’m sorry about that. Also, apparently some of the codes turned out to be expired or something, which is unfortunate, but I have no way to test the codes ahead of time — if I’m told they’re good, I go with that. But people make mistakes. Sorry about that, too.

Many people seemed to appreciate the heads-up about mutetweets.com, so they could silence me without unfollowing me. And I appreciate that people were willing to use that instead of unfollow me altogether — which does defeat the point of reaching a big follower milestone, if you immediately drive them away! I probably would have muted me too, so I totally understand not wanting to see constant tweets, even if they are offering freebies.

@oneofswords You tweets bring some the same comfort as the distance voices of children do to the elderly lady in a care complex.

— V. Cadaverini (@East_) May 12, 2013

I thought that the codes I was giving out would not work outside of North America, so I didn’t want to get people’s hopes up — I stated up front that I did not think they would work. Turns out I was wrong — PSN codes didn’t work in the UK, but both XBL and Steam codes were reportedly redeemed by folks across the pond.

@oneofswords @the686man The #BLOPS2 micro items codes work on UK XBL… (I nabbed one)

— Cameron (@InsaneCakes) May 11, 2013

@oneofswords works in Australia to

— Daniel(@Ralphytimesfour) May 12, 2013

@barboron @oneofswords Steam codes will work, PSN codes will not

—Matt (@Storm360) May 12, 2013

So that was great news, even if a lot (and I mean A LOT) of people took the lack of UK or EU codes as a personal slight — or worse yet, made the illogical leap that a simply not having any UK or EU-specific codes to offer meant that I actively hated an entire continent.

@oneofswords so much hate for #EU #psn #xbl players no codes for us

— syed munib hussain(@the686man) May 11, 2013

For the record, that wasn’t the case. Region locking is not something I can control, and I simply don’t have access to UK/EU codes. That’s something I established both in the main article and in my contest FAQ, which has been online for three years now (and was linked from the 25K Giveaway article, too). So please don’t take it as a personal insult just because I am offering something that you cannot personally use. There are plenty of UK contests for which I am ineligible, you know? Hate is a really, really powerful word. Let’s not use it as a synonym for “I didn’t get something free.”

Finally, I am happy to report that one Tweet every five minutes does not cause Twitter to lock you out. I was even able to chime in with replies here and there, carefully, and I didn’t go to Twitter jail!

Would I do it again? Maybe. I would definitely need to give people a good week’s warning again, and…well, I’d have to find a lot more codes, because that was something of a clear-out-the-closet giveaway. But overall, I think it was worth it. I think the good outweighed the bad.

I hope you agree. Thanks for the support.

How about a little free MP this weekend?

It’s a free Black Ops II MP weekend on Steam, which means you can download the multiplayer client right now and play for free until Sunday afternoon. If you like what you try, you can get the game for 33% off this weekend, too. It’s also a double XP weekend.

See? If you are a PC gamer, now you have no excuse not to join me for Friday night’s Playing With Swords event.

Shirts! Shirts? SHIRTS! You cannot get enough of them, and that’s an order. I have found another batch of shirts to give away, all size Large, from a wide variety of games — games you love, games you own, games you might not remember, games for which you had no idea shirts even existed. Let’s take a look at what one lucky winner will soon be adding to their wardrobe:

Three GH shirts: GH Aerosmith 3/4 sleeve, a cool Dickies GH work shirt with “Event Staff” on the back, and a rare tee from the GH:WoR launch party where Soundgarden played in a rebuilt CBGB on a Hollywood backlot!

Two Singularity shirts — both have that cool TMD graphic on the back, but one is a tee and one is a golf shirt. Also, one of those great War for Cybertron shirts that don’t even say Transformers on them for the ultimate in insider-reference coolness.

Four GoldenEye shirts — one original, one Reloaded, and both the white and rare red version of the Oddjob “Cheater” shirt.

A cool DJ Hero 2 tee, a Wipeout shirt with a double entendre, and a Call of Duty Endowment shirt that was only given to employees

That’s 13 shirts — feelin’ lucky? You might be the person to win all of them. Fill out the form below completely (one entry per person please) before the end of Thursday, May 16, and I will draw one winner at random using my usual method. I’ll post their name here shortly after the contest concludes. Good luck and thanks for the support!

UPDATE 5/17: Congrats to Dakota Holder of Stephenville, Texas — two boxes full of shirts are headed your way!

Double XP kicks off tomorrow at 10am/PDT (360,PS3/PC/WiiU) and runs through Monday 10am/PDT. What’s that? You feel a sick day coming on?

— Treyarch Studios (@Treyarch) May 9, 2013

This dovetails nicely with a few things: my Playing With Swords event for Black Ops II on PC, Treyarch’s community game night, and it’s the run-up to next week’s release of the Uprising DLC on PS3 & PC. Huzzah!

sodagumx says, “I hate Skylanders. Is the old Spyro ever going to come back?” I think we need to talk about where Skylanders came from and for whom it was created and put this one in perspective. So I do.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For the record, here’s what Insomniac CEO Ted Price has to say about Skylanders.

If you have a question for One of Swords TV, send it in to youtube@oneofswords.com. Thanks!

It’s a slow news week and Dan took a few days off, so let’s hit your letters. Hugh, Kat and I discuss World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers, Kat’s birthday blowout, EA’s Star Wars deal, Iron Man 3, the best times to visit Disneyland, expectations of free DLC, UK TV shows in the US, things Spider-Man wants, gadgets for photographers, pinball live on the internet, and why big publishers still sometimes make bad games.

Get the podcast on iTunes
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…

Host: Dan “OneOfSwords” Amrich, Activision Community Manager, author, musician, puzzle nerd, and fire juggler
Co-host: “The Lovely and Talented” Katrin Auch, photographer, graphic designer, bassist, Mechromancer, and inventor of Headshotmas
Co-host: Hugh “DJ Darkhugh” Sterbakov, screenwriter, author, comic creator, Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken, and Governor of Somewhere

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

Relevant show links:

• Activision earnings media coverage and press release
• The 25K Twitter Giveaway
• Light in the Box (HDMI cables! Link outfits! Avril’s guitar! This thing!)
• CamRanger
• PAPA Livestreaming Kickstarter
• Hugh and Sophie on an airplane:
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

• 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 (or Stick It To The Dan)
• Suggest topics for The Third Degree
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag

In my expeirence, Slums remains one of the most popular maps

I haven’t done a PC Playing With Swords night in a while, and I know there are many active Black Ops II players there. Let’s get something going on Steam this Friday, May 10, from 6pm PT to 8pm PT. My Steam ID is OneOfSwords (have you joined the 1oS group?) and my friends list is the easiest way to find me. That said, I will likely be hanging out in the Domination lobbies, maybe moving into Party games later in the night — so if you are not on my friends list, just try surfing a few lobbies. Steam event page is here, and if you haven’t read the PWS FAQ, it’s probably worth a skim. See you Friday!

Deadpool is Marvel’s greatest mercenary. Just ask him — he’ll tell you!

Earlier in the year, the team at High Moon Studios told me that the goal for Deadpool was to really embrace their crazy subject matter. Thanks to multiple voices inside assassin-for-hire Wade Wilson‘s crazy head, over-the-top cartoony violence, and the ability (if not requirement!) to break the fourth wall into tiny little bits, Deadpool gave the developers the freedom to make a superhero game that wouldn’t be like every other superhero game out there. The goal, I was told, was to deliver something “visceral and funny.”

The hands-on session I received checked both boxes. 

Don’t worry. Deadpool measures up.

Unlike so many other comic-based games, this one’s rated M, and not just for Marvel: Expect blood, boobies, and foul language with a capital F — plus a fair amount of potty humor. The good news: It’s not gratuitous so much as juvenile and silly. Wade displays all the restraint and taste of a hyperactive 13-year-old, so this game is seriously not going to be serious at all.

Combat is fast and fluid; you can mix melee and gun attacks at will as “gun-fu.”

The trademark self-awareness means Deadpool knows he’s in a game, so he can get away with instructing the player to, say, use the teleporter to dodge rockets in a direct way we’ve all heard in tutorial levels. The difference is that here, you don’t roll your eyes; it’s funny and knowing and it fits, instead of being insulting and awkward. But the door swings both ways: If you do poorly or take too long to move on with the action, expect Wade to berate you for it, because he knows you are the player.

Every king needs a throne. This one could also use a maid.

The game opens with Deadpool in his apartment, awaiting approval of his game from High Moon Studios; he kills time by calling his own voice actor, Nolan North, on the phone. “People tell us we sound alike,” says Deadpool.  I was able to take the controls myself to explore and interact with Wade’s disgusting apartment. I checked the internet; I ate some pizza. I, um, blew up a female doll. “If this game had a shame meter,” said the more reserved of Deadpool’s two inner voices, “it’d be full right now.” When I went to inspect the doll, the same voice cautiously asked, “Um, we’re not gonna put our penis in that, are we?”

There was plenty more to explore, but I finally answered the ringing doorbell to find a package from High Moon Studios. It was the game’s script. Deadpool proceeded to edit it with crayons and stormed off for his first mission.

Using your eyesight is, like, cheating.

On the Xbox 360 build I tried, combat controls felt straightforward – X for light attacks, Y for heavy, B for teleport, right trigger for guns – but any of those can be linked together for crazy combos. The team calls this on-the-fly mixing “gun-fu” and it can lead to some pretty insane carnage. In one sneak attack, Deadpool slides between the enemy’s legs, then opens fire with twin SMGs. Blood splatters, limbs detach…it was ridiculous in a good way. In another segment, Deadpool backflips over an enemy, lops off his head, and cuts off both arms for an encore. Remember: Deadpool kills people for a living, even if he cracks jokes while he does it.

Ladies love Deadpool because he’s…well, okay, they don’t really love him.

The more bad guys you take out, the more Deadpool Coins you earn, and the more weapons and skills you can buy and upgrade. There’s also quite a bit of jumping, double-jumping, and wall-jumping, which I often find frustrating, but I was thrilled to find I could tap B after an unsuccessful attempt to teleport back to the starting platform, instead of walking all the way back. Thanks, Deadpool!

Mixing up light, heavy, and projectile attacks leads to some gloriously over-the-top combat sequences.

In addition to combat in a sewer, inside and outside a skyscraper, and behind the gatling gun of a helicopter, I got to see a story segment with Cable on Genosha, which included arena combat against an enemy three times Wade’s size. Cable’s not the only guest star; we know from online announcements that Domino, Psylocke, Mister Sinister, and a sexy version of Death will make appearances in the game. I can also confirm that Arclight, Vertigo, and Blockbuster will appear in the game as well.

It’s Deadpool’s game. You’re just along for the ride — and holding on for dear life.

The biggest impression I was left with was simply this: This is a Deadpool game. That sounds stupid at face value, but this is a game that truly represents the character, in all his twisted, violent, hilarious, gory glory. Comedy in gaming is difficult to pull off, but the Merc with a Mouth that millions of comics fans love really does come to life in this game. With Nolan North’s spot-on voice-acting and longtime comic scribe Daniel Way’s snappy dialogue and pop-culture snark, the game already feels as authentically Deadpool as I was hoping it would. I’m optimistic based on what I played, and as an avowed fanboy of the character, June 25 can’t come fast enough.

Three years ago: “25K on Twitter? Gimme five months!” LOL…

This week, I will hit 25,000 followers on Twitter. I see this as a huge milestone, and one for which I am deeply grateful — that number represents three years of support from the gaming community. I want to say “thank you” to as many of you Twitter followers as I can manage. To that end, I’m doing a massive code giveaway that will absolutely thrill some of you and temporarily annoy others, so I wanted to give everybody a heads-up. Here’s how it will work.

I have rounded up some redeemable codes for games and DLC on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. Basically, I went begging to see if anybody had stuff left over from previous game launches, and they did! To my surprise, it turned out to be more than 500 codes. Among the stuff I’ve been given:

• Xbox 360 & PS3: Black Ops II Micro Items, Fall of Cybertron DLC, Amazing Spider-Man DLC, Black Ops DLC
• Xbox 360: Prototype 2 DLC
• Steam: Amazing Spider-Man full games & bundles, Fall of Cybertron DLC

All of these codes are only valid for & redeemable in the US/North American region. They might work elsewhere but I do not believe they do, so you can try it, but I cannot guarantee success. And I’m sorry that I don’t have codes for everybody in every territory, but this is what I have to offer. See my giveaway FAQ for more info on this. [UPDATE: I have gotten multiple reports that XBL and Steam codes ARE working for folks in UK and Europe.]

Rather than turn this into a “fastest cut & paste” contest (you can redeem codes via a web browser for XBLM, PSN, or Steam), I have created mini-riddles for each code. A few characters have been removed and replaced by question marks; based on the posted clue, you have to figure out what they are. These clues are based on pop culture, science, gaming, history, movies, geography, sports, music…a little bit of everything. The idea is that even if you don’t have the game or platform in question, if you see the tweet, you might still be entertained by trying to work out the puzzle.

A sample tweet for you (the code has already been redeemed):

#BlackOps2 #Xbox360 Zombies Pack:G4K72-JGQGK-G2??6-HYHFC-W6RFZ [?? = Animal Crossing's Slider] 1st to enter full code on US XBLM wins

— Dan Amrich [1oS] (@OneOfSwords) April 11, 2013

In this case, if you figured out that the missing characters are “KK” (Animal Crossing‘s guitar-playing dog is K.K. Slider) and you are the first to enter the complete code at the Xbox Live Marketplace, you’d win the DLC. Each code is only valid once, so you have to be fast, and you have to be right the first time. Some of the answers you will know off the top of your head and some you will have to research. Remember that Google and Wikipedia are your friends.

This 25K giveaway will get underway this weekend, starting at 6pm PT this Friday, May 10 — one code pre-programmed to post automagically every five minutes, until they’re all gone. By my calculations, 532 codes, one every five minutes…that’s somewhere in the vicinity of 44 hours of non-stop giveaways. You’re looking at almost two straight days of freebies.

So, fair warning: If you want to mute my Twitter feed this weekend because you see this as a nuisance or Twitter spam, I respect and understand that, and I won’t take it personally. I do hope you will unmute when the giveaway is over, though, as I’d still like to have you as a follower — obviously, or I would not be trying to reward my followers. :) But if you can withstand the non-stop barrage of cool things you don’t have to pay for this weekend, your chances of winning a Twitter giveaway have likely never been better.

Again, sincere thanks for the support, and I hope you get some of that sweet free stuff!

UPDATE 5/9: This event is big enough that it calls for its own mini-FAQ:

Is it okay if I unfollow you for the weekend? I like you and all, but that’s a lot of tweets.
Totally understand — but I would prefer you simply mute me using a free service like Mute Tweets. It will automatically silence my feed for as long as you want, then automatically unmute the feed when the event is over. FWIW, the first tweet is slated for Friday at 6:00pm PT, and the 532nd and final tweet is scheduled for Sunday at 2:15pm PT — a little more than 44 hours. So if you unmute Sunday afternoon, it should be all clear. Once you sign up for Mute Tweets, just send them a direct message on Twitter at the start of the event:

d @mutetweets @oneofswords 44h

Are you going to stay awake for 44 hours to do this?
No, because technology is my friend! I am preprogramming the tweets so they will post automatically. I often do this for Twitter giveaways. In fact, I may not even post anything else to Twitter during the giveaway for fear of posting too much in too short a span of time.

What happens if you get shut down by Twitter? What happens if Twitter goes offline during your event?
I do not believe I am violating any of Twitter’s terms of service, and I think my tweets are spaced far enough apart that I should not invoke any of Twitter’s anti-spam bots. However, if anything stops the codes from being posted — either a rule infraction or simply a technical error — I will simply reschedule the affected codes for a later date. And if anything goes wrong, I will post updates on my alternate/emergency account, @1ofSwords.

Exactly what content are you giving away?
Xbox 360:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II Micro Items: Jungle Warfare, Benjamins, Dia de Muertos, Graffiti, Kawaii, Party Rock, Zombies, Viper
• Call of Duty: Black Ops: Escalation DLC, Rezurrection DLC
• Prototype 2: Excessive Force DLC, Colossal Mayhem DLC
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: Havoc Pack DLC
• The Amazing Spider-Man: Lizard DLC

PlayStation 3:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II Micro Items: Extra Slots, Bacon, Benjamins, Dia de Muertos, Graffiti, Kawaii, Party Rock, Zombies, Viper
• Call of Duty: Black Ops: First Strike DLC, Escalation DLC, Annihilation DLC, Rezurrection DLC
• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: Dinobot DLC, Massive Fury DLC,
• The Amazing Spider-Man: Lizard DLC, Stan Lee DLC, Rhino DLC, Oscorp Mini-Games DLC,

PC (Steam):

• Transformers: Fall of Cybertron: Dinobot DLC, Massive Fury DLC
• The Amazing Spider-Man: Full game, full game + DLC bundle

Can you tell me when DLC for [the game I own] on [the platform I own] is going to be posted?
Sorry, I can’t. Once I wrote all the riddles in a giant 532-line list, I randomized the list order. Whatever code is coming next will be as big a surprise to me as it is to you.

So you expect me to sit by Twitter and wait all weekend?
No, I expect you will just check my feed now and then over the course of the weekend and see if anything interests you. It’s just like any normal day on Twitter, only you might win something instead of just finding a message from me about my cats or whatever.

Why aren’t you giving away [the DLC I want] on [the platform I own]?
As I mentioned, this is a big grab bag of whatever codes I could get, so there will be things offered for one system that are not offered for another, and I have many codes for some of content and only a few codes for others. It’s not evenly distributed — it’s just random free stuff.

Why don’t you do giveaways for people who don’t have Twitter?
I do, and I have been for three years now. Check the Freebies category here on the website to see what you’ve missed, and feel free to enter the weekly podcast contest, which is an easy way to not only win but maybe even pick your prize.

Can you just send me [the DLC I want] on [the platform I own] in a direct message? Please? I really want it and it’s my birthday and I have no money.
No.

These games suck and Activision sucks and you suck too.
Do not redeem any codes that do not interest you. You are under no obligation to get free things.

In the wise words of the prophets, it’s on and it’s on and on on and on, and the beat don’t stop until the break of dawn. While we haven’t heard much from the DJ Hero franchise since the release of the last DJ Hero 2 DLC in April 2011, that does not mean I don’t still get kind words and fan messages about the series. So when FreeStyleGames studio head Jamie Jackson was in town for a meeting recently, I not only pulled him onto the podcast, but I asked him to sign an Xbox 360 Renegade deck for a special giveaway. And he did! See?

The signature reads “N-Joy J-Nok,” Jamie’s nickname, with a FSG doodle to the side

To add to the package, I’ve got a sealed copy of DJ Hero for Xbox 360, a copy of the DJ Hero Renegade Jay-Z/Eminem 2-CD soundtrack, a rechargable battery and USB charger, a DJ Hero hat, a DJ Hero 2 t-shirt, and a chrome keychain of a miniature DJ Hero turntable controller, which is my personal favorite of all the promo keychains I’ve seen over the years. And it’s heavy!

All this plus a copy of DJ Hero itself, of course

So for you stalwarts who haven’t missed a beat, thanks for your passion and support — here’s hoping you win. All you need to do is fill out the form below, answer the trivia question correctly, and submit it before the end of the day on Thursday, May 8. One entry per person, please — I will disqualify duplicates. I will pick one winner using the usual method and rules stated in the FAQ and post their name here when the contest is over. One winner gets all the stuff. This is not a requirement for entry, but if you aren’t following me on Facebook or Twitter, I sure would appreciate that. Good luck! 

UPDATE 5/10: Lots of people got the trivia question to this one wrong, including the first few entries that were picked at random to win. But if the answer is wrong, I move on to the next random number. I guess those folks didn’t realize that the answer was revealed in Jamie’s podcast interview, which was linked at the top of this very article. In any case, Tracy Ammaz of North Port, Florida had the right answer: Colin McRae Rally was the racing franchise Jamie worked on before heading into the world of music games. Tracy, your loot is en route!

We have someone worthy of the Gauntlet of Swords! Jamie Jackson, studio head of FreeStyleGames, happened to be in the building this week, so I asked him about Sing Party, his personal gaming history, threw in a trivia question and a bad joke, and then made him play an Atari 2600 classic. Hugh is off on family biz this week, so Kat and I hold down the fort with chatter about COD: Ghosts, pastry, Black Ops II DLC, her impending birthday, quickscoping jerk lobbies, how not to get a corporate representative to confirm a rumor, pizza nights, Arms Race, Disney hangovers, Mozart, and exactly who exhausts me.

Get the podcast on iTunes
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: Jamie Jackson, studio head, FreeStyleGames

Host: Dan “OneOfSwords” Amrich, Activision Community Manager, author, musician, puzzle nerd, and fire juggler
Co-host: “The Lovely and Talented” Katrin Auch, photographer, graphic designer, bassist, Mechromancer, and inventor of Headshotmas
Co-host: Hugh “DJ Darkhugh” Sterbakov, screenwriter, author, comic creator, Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken, and Governor of Somewhere

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

Relevant show links:

• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Arms Race in Black Ops II
• Uprising PC/PS3 release date
• Dark Minions on Amazon Prime
• Light in the Box
• Three Answers to Impossible Gaming Questions
• The opening of the Beauty and the Beast “Work in Progress” cut:
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

• 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 (or Stick It To The Dan)
• Suggest topics for The Third Degree
• Write to the show’s Megamailbag

“There are those who wear masks to protect themselves. And there are those who wear masks to protect us all.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

After weeks of speculation, leaks, and downright hilariously bad fake logos (Dark Skyline, guys? Really?), Activision has confirmed the next Call of Duty game, through the release of the teaser trailer seen above and the existence of an official Facebook page. As the rumor mill suggested, the game is called Call of Duty: Ghosts.

UPDATE: Here’s the official press release and the official web page too. A few notable lines from the press release:

The new title delivers a riveting all-new gameplay experience built on an entirely new story, setting and cast of characters, all powered by a new, next generation Call of Duty engine that redefines the series for the next generation.

Call of Duty: Ghosts will release on Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and PC on November 5. Call of Duty: Ghosts will also be available for next generation platforms.

If that’s all you needed to hear and see, preorders are being taken now at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Toys R Us, and I suspect others retailers will follow soon (call your local store later today). If you want some more information about the game itself, you will need to wait a few weeks; the first look at the game is promised to be revealed as part of the Xbox event on May 21st.