In his latest movie, The Woman In Black, Dan traded his Hogwarts uniform for a totally new role as a Dad.
Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is going to be in a video game, and it’s going to be awesome.
Gellar will star alongside Robert Englund, Michael Rooker and Danny Trejo in ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops,’ fighting off zombies, of course.
Noted horror film director George Romero will lend his likeness to the game, inspired by his zombie film works. The new level, called “Call of the Dead,” will be included in the upcoming Escalation downloadable content pack.
“This is Treyarch’s tribute to the legendary George Romero, who truly defined the zombie genre and whose incredible work has been such an inspiration to our team,” said Black Ops director Dave Anthony. “It was an absolute honor to work with such an amazing and talented cast whose passion and energy brought their characters instantly to life. Fans are going to love this.”
Watch the video below to hear Gellar speak about the process. I’m so excited for her to come back into the spotlight, but I never anticipated this. It’s beyond my wildest dreams! (Yes, I’m fan-boying here, a little bit.)
The trailer for the game can be viewed here.
Activision Blizzard created an organization for charity called Call of Duty Endowment to help veterans combat unemployment. Endowment will direct resources to organizations helping soldiers transition to civilian careers.
The organization is created with a goal to raise and donate millions of dollars and help raise awareness of veterans unemployment. A portion of Modern Warfare 2 sales will go directly to CODE and since the game has already been a runaway hit it is safe to assume they are on their way to making a difference.
I woke up at 6 am to realize the comic I was working on was left at a friends house.
This comic is time sensitive, so I decided to do what is the fastest recreation ever.
Forget my terrible art, know it was done in less than 30 minutes.
The point of the comic is important, since tomorrow is officially Modern Warfare 2 day!
For some reason there are people playing the game all too early thanks to a couple of retailers.
These retailers will do anything to get you to buy games from them. Anything.
Enjoy!
Oh and next week expect a MUCH better comic.
Click on the image for the full sized glory.
Activision has announced the newest Call of Duty is being released exclusively for the Nintendo DS this fall. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized (two colons… let’s not make that joke) is going to feature intense PvP action as gamers fight ground battles, hack into enemy computers, shoot from gunships, battle tanks, and much more. (more…)
Somehow we all knew this was coming!!
Today Activision announced Call of Duty4 Modern Warfare will be released on Nintendo Wii on November 10th along side Modern Warfare 2.
The game will be ported by the fine people at Treyarch who have proven their skill set with with porting titled to the Wii and things are looking pretty good.
No word on the rating of the game and any gameplay changes the title might take.
It was rather sad seeing modern warfare love to every console except the wii.. but now thats being taken care of.
One of the most-played online shooters is upping the anti as Activision and Treyarch confirmed plans to release a third map pack DLC for Call of Duty: World at War this coming August.
This map pack will feature three multiplayer maps called ‘Battery’ ‘Revolution’, and ‘Breach’ as well as a new zombie map called ‘Der Riese’ For the Xbox 360 and PS3.
No other details are as of yet announced, but check out www.CoDWaW.com for more details.
I never liked Call of Duty. There, I said it, every Call of Duty game I had ever played was boring, frustrating and annoying to control, every Call of Duty until Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out. That game is by far my all time favourite first person shooter title, my all time favourite war game! So when I was given Call of Duty: World at War to review for the Xbox 360 (which I didn’t pick up earlier because I had so many other games to get through first), I was a little nervous. Add on top that this one was made by Treyarch instead of Modern Warfare’s Infinity Ward and my tension grew. While my first Call of Duty (Modern Warfare) review was one of the longest I had written, I will be saving time and sanity (hey, there’s a lot of games to get through this holiday season!) and not repeating everything that was similar between the two, if your curious, feel free to check out my review for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Yes, it’s true, Call of Duty has gone back to World War II, back to their original roots after a hiatus in present times but with their travel back in time, they seemed to take everything that made Modern Warfare great and bring it with them. This version of WWII battle takes you across two campaigns, one as an American soldier captured and tortured by the Japanese (with an intense near death intro into the game), and the other as a Russian defending his home country against the Nazis. While The scale of battle is grand and this was indeed a war of the worlds, I found it revitalizing to play a war game that doesn’t focus solely on the German invasion, not enough games take Japan as an enemy during WWII.
The graphics in World at War are fantastic, as you begin the game you’re soldier buddies rescue you, give you a gun and as you step out of the tent you’re immersed in what I can only imagine what war would feel like, loud, overwhelming, and confusing. Burst of small explosions everywhere, people falling over blood spurts everywhere and fire on EVERYTHING. The model animations are smooth and pretty realistic as was Modern Warfare’s but utilizing the scenery and not having all the high tech gadgets (such as night vision), World at War uses their detail to put tones of enemy soldiers hiding everywhere, in grass, in trees, playing dead, the possibility of hordes of enemies coming from anywhere is endless… and frightening. I think the biggest graphical improvement comes from the new flamethrower, which just looks beautiful (although with no ammo and a single tap to kill any enemy in campaign mode, it seems a little too useful compared to other flamethrower equipped games). Another point to mention is the scale, while modern Warfare had maybe one or two tanks and a helicopter going at the same time in campaign mode, early on in this one, there is a battle between tanks, I think I counted maybe 6 tanks on the screen at the same time as all the friends and enemies.
Sound is fantastic, sound has been fantastic in Modern Warfare and is just as good now; I don’t think there was even a way to improve the audio quality except for the increase in hearing opposing team voices during close combat. As well, the controls have remained exactly the same.
Now, my biggest gripe with World War II games are the weapons, don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect laser cannons in a WWII game (although that would be a cool concept), I just don’t like the slowness and inaccuracies of this time’s weaponry, all the guns look the same, they all feel the same and they all in the end… do the same thing. That being said, there were a few improvements I particularly was fond of this time through. You have a bayonet on some of your rifles, I’m not sure if this is stronger or has a longer reach than your knife, but it is pretty gruesome to see an enemy run at you only to get the sharp end of your gun in their chest. Secondly is the introduction of the flame thrower, which, the first time you pick it up in campaign mode, must use it to torch a barricade with badass music playing temporarily in the background making you feel very… badass. The final update that I felt was well warranted were the special grenades, smoke screen, mustard gas (similar to stun grenade in Modern Warfare) and the flare which can light up areas and temporarily blind players. I don’t think I’ve seen these types of options in any other WWII game in the past.
So now that the game explanation is out of the way, time to discuss what I thought of the campaign mode. First off, CO-OP!!! For those that know me or have been reading these reviews long enough, you know I adore any type of co-operative game play! Sitting down with a friend or three to fight against each other is great and all, but sitting down with friends to unite against a common enemy always has a warm spot in my heart and I think by far, the inclusion of 2 player split-screen co-op and 4 player online co-op are the biggest improvements between Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War.
Next I’m going to have to sadden your hearts a little, The story here is a little weak, don’t get me wrong, it is historical and intense, but the game just feels too scripted. The worst instance of this scripting comes near the beginning of the game, your sergeant is standing beside a closed door debriefing his troops, you hear a yell from behind the door so I automatically point my shotgun to the door, it swings open and an enemy lunges towards the sergeant. Before he can get to your commanding officer, I release 3 shots at point blank into the enemy who doesn’t even seem to notice me, kills the sarge then gets blasted by the other NPCs. He (the enemy) was supposed to get the drop on us surprise and kill the sarge but even if you’re expecting it, the script must play through. Another issue I had with the campaign was that you were the last survivor after being tortured and interrogated by the Japanese, you are half dead and just saw your friends murdered in front of you. You’re rescued by this infiltration platoon, and then they get you to do all the dirty work, like send a truck down a hill to blow up, planting explosives and oh I don’t know, taking out an entire tank platoon on your own. You just went through hell, why can’t these fresh soldiers do anything themselves? Finally my last issue with campaign mode is the problem of invisible walls. In Modern Warfare any door that was open was fair game to walk inside, however, in World at War your surrounded by invisible walls. See an open hut beside you with a fully rendered interior and windows? Nope, can’t go in and snipe because there’s an invisible wall blocking your entrance. Want to crawl under a dock and sneak up on the enemies? Nope, invisible wall there too (however, your enemies can do just that to flank your platoon). The game is plagued with more invisible walls than a Mime’s arsenal!
Another point that I’m still debating a pro or con is the introduction to the Russian private you control for half your missions. If you’ve seen the movie Enemy at the Gates, you might recognize the entire introduction to sniping as it is exactly like the introduction in that film, while I’m a little disappointed at the lack of originality… I really liked the beginning of that movie and thought it was amazing and totally badass to be able to play that scene using Call of Duty controls. All in all however, Call of Duty: World at War is an intense, gritty past war title, if you’re a fan of band of brothers or saving private Ryan as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, this is the title for you. If however, you only enjoyed the gameplay of Modern Warfare and already own that title, you might be disappointed by the lack of upgrades from the two.
All this being said, the game is still a blast to play online. For the most part, World at War’s online layout is set up exactly like Modern Warfare with a few tweaks. The more you play, the more experience points you get giving you access to more weapons, modes of play and challenges, perfect for those addicted to games as it is! Some new aspects include a fourth perk (specific for mounted weapons and such), new perks (like gas masks). The introduction of these new weapons grenades and perks make this feel more like an expansion to Modern Warfare than anything else, but my favourite new addition is the pack of dogs you get after a 7 kill streak over the attack helicopter from Modern Warfare. They have also manipulated the types of gameplay and what is unlocked when (you must be level 4 before you can create a custom setup for example) and as well, new maps and challenges. My favourite mode of play is only unlockable after you beat the campaign mode however, so for spoilers sake, I won’t divulge too much information about it, lets just say it involves zombies.
All in All Call of Duty: World at War seems like a small stumble back instead of a leap forward as the next Call of Duty title, in my opinion, I enjoyed Modern Warfare a little more than World at War but only because World at War’s weapons annoy me. That being said, I felt that World at War was a lot darker, a lot grittier, and a lot more intense (there’s A LOT more blood and profanity in this one). The main frustration I had while playing through this game though were that every time I died, it was due to enemy grenades, which happened often, while my own grenades did very little damage to the opposition. Final verdict, if you have Modern Warfare stick with it, if you’re a fan of WWII games, pick this one up, and if you’re in both camps, why not pick this one up anyways, it’s always fun to shoot Nazis!
Graphics: 4.5 / 5.0
Gameplay 4.5 / 5.0
Sound 5.0 / 5.0
Replay value 5.0 / 5.0
Over the years war games came and went, I usually didn’t pay much attention to them. Not often enough do we get a game that utterly blows our minds and makes us come crawling back for more, especially with a sequel. Luckily this year we got Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision, this first person shooter (FPS) is the first of the Call of Duty franchise to be placed in modern times (hence the name, Modern Warfare) and while most fans of the series thought this might be the end of their beloved Call of Duty (COD) series, it was more of a rebirth into the mainstream gaming spotlight.
As the first COD game to take place outside of World War II, Modern Warfare is set in today’s world, and you play as three separate characters. You begin your training as a British special operative in Russia, then move to an American Force Recon operative in the middle east and even play as a flashback of Captain Price (from Call of Duty 1 and 2) as a lowly frontline soldier in the Ukraine fifteen years earlier. As you progress through the game, you find yourself bouncing between these three characters.
The game begins with high energy gun firing, explosions and people dying all around you. The sense of action and chaos can seem overwhelming at first, but hey, it’s war. The game is intense beyond words, and you will feel the adrenaline immediately.
The graphics are as realistic as they can be without actually being there. From extremely detailed level and landscape design to the realistic and elaborate models, this game will take your breath away. You may be on the offensive, pushing enemies back and seeing the way they move and hide for cover while other times you are being pushed back yourself and as you hide behind a ravaged crate you can see bullet sparks whizzing by, allies flying overhead due to grenade attacks and bullet holes coming through the walls progressively closer to yourself. The player HUD doesn’t clutter the screen and gives just enough information to keep you aware of your surroundings without distracting you in the heat of battle. The continuously high frame-rate never so much as flickers. During one part of the game, you control a helicopter. My jaw literally dropped at the animation and detail given to this in-air fire fight. I felt like I was watching a live feed from an army report. The weapons are all modeled after modern army issued weaponry. You can watch how the gun fires and understand the real life mechanics of guns from the comfort of your seat (or at least the edge of it). At other parts of the game, story takes precedence and you’re thrown into a very intense, detailed and emotional cinematic experience unlike any other realistic game out there. The colours are crisp and are perfect for the type of game Modern Warfare aims to be.
The sound effects, musical undertones and use of voice in this game are equally amazing compared to the visual stimulation to the eyes. Infinity Ward utilizes the Dolby Digital sound in this war game help bring the hard gripping, teeth clenching, sweat dripping virtual battle to life. If you have a surround sound setup with subwoofer, this game will have you on edge; as you creep towards your objective you will hear screams from enemies and allies alike, mortar shells falling all around you, commands being shouted, and quite possibly the most intense aspect of this game, you will hear bullets coming at you from all directions. The use of head set communication in online play is also great. Communication is crucial for planning attacks and notifying allies on enemy positions. Modern Warfare utilizes this with easy to use, crisp clear communication and even takes it one step further by allowing you to eavesdrop on nearby enemies.
COD’s controls are fast, responsive and simple. Call of Duty 4 allows players to carry two types of guns (most of the time, a side gun and a main gun), a knife, and two types of grenades as well as several other tools and weapons. You have a choice between different standard layouts for controls, some more traditional, while others for fans of different FPS’s (like Halo for example) and you can choose your axis intensity or invert it all together. Something that is missing in this title is squad commands. Thanks to the eerily intelligent AI, your allies already know exactly what to do to help you out of a jam or press forward when your busy hiding behind a wall. Taking the controls of this game one step further, you have the ability to customize your player for online play. You can give your character specific guns, grenades, camouflage, and three perks such as more frag grenades, eavesdropping, and faster reload.
This game is by far the best army game I have ever played. It is not perfect however. This game would be utterly amazing if there was a four player co-op story mode, or even a two player co-op story mode. However since the game is pressing the limits of the next-gen systems, it seems you can only handle the chaos of war alone. When playing offline multiplayer, the graphics are scaled back a little and there are only a few modes of play. With no AI running around, it can get pretty lonely looking for your other friends. A second flaw of this amazing shooter is the length of the single player mode. The story can easily be completed in a weekend (but you won’t be disappointed by the ending). Now onto the good stuff!
The game plays astoundingly. After a little bit of learning, training and testing, the game will feel like an extension of your body. The AI has been revamped and both enemies and allies are smarter than ever, not to say that every once in a while there might be a small glitch in their logic leaving them exposed or facing the wrong direction, but more often than not the enemies will team up and pin you down in a corner, then your allies will in one way or another find a way to help you out of the jam or maybe even win the war for you! Modern Warfare also tries to take into consideration the realism of army conflict. Depending on your distance, and the caliber of your gun, you can actually hit enemy targets behind cover. Since COD 4 has a large variety of modern realistic weapons, it’s up to you to educate yourself on what gun to use for the specific occasion. At points you may take up a cannon on a helicopter but other than that, the game is without vehicles for you to control. This brings out the important role you play in the fight as you take down enemy tanks with your squad mates and infiltrate buildings. The game keeps itself fresh with a variety of mission types such as infiltration, intel gathering, saving allies, defending positions, assaulting enemy bases and so forth. You pretty much do everything one would think a super soldier would do and every minute of it is intense. The game can feel like an arcade shooter every now and then as it moves fast but still seems realistic overall. You can sprint to cover and hide to regenerate your health. A headshot or a couple of shots to the body usually takes you down though, as Kevlar and helmets don’t seem to do much in the way of protecting.
Once you complete the story mode, there are plenty of reasons to go back and play again. You can unlock cheats and an arcade mode that gives you a set of three lives and scores you per mission. You can also go back and try to find all the intel laptops strewn across the game to unlock new cheats (such as inverting gamma, cluster grenades and my personal favourite, olde tymer mode). As well, there’s the basic yet fun offline multiplayer match set up.
Playing online is fun, playing online is challenging, playing online is addictive. You could pick up the controller, plug in your headset and play for hours. The game works on a ranking system in which you gain experience for kills and scenarios won. As you gain ranks not only does your title become cooler but you also unlock new perks and weapons to use. As you may be winding down a session, you hit a level, unlock a new gun or perk and decide to reconfigure one of your custom set-up slots. Along with new weapons for leveling up, there are challenges specific to your weapon, game mode, or skill as a player. These challenges can unlock things such as skins for your weapons, modifications for your guns (like scopes or silencers), or just give you a boost to your experience.
There are over ten modes to play online from death matches to team tactical matches to one on one cage matches. For whatever type of fight you’re looking for, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has you covered. Another interesting difference between this game and other online shooters is that you are rewarded for killing streaks. After three kills in a row without dying you can send out a UAV radar to see where opponents are, and this radar is shown to your entire team. After five kills you can call in an air strike to a specific location. After seven kills without dying you get an automatically piloted helicopter flying around picking off any enemy out in the open, and yes, these kills count as your own. Once you have reached the highest level of 55, unlocked all the perks, all weapons, finished all the challenges and got all the skins and scopes, you can enter prestige mode. This mode lets you trade in your rank, your experience, weapons, everything and start over again at level one, but with an insignia beside your name, letting everyone know you were once at a high level but are giving it all away to play with a challenge all over again. You can enter prestige mode up to ten times with different insignias each time.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare by Infinity Ward. Available for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Nintendo DS is a realistic modern day war masterpiece that sets the standards high for all other war games. Amazing graphics, sound, control, gameplay and replay value make this game a contender for game of the year and definitely a contender to steal the spotlight from Halo 3 in people’s living rooms this year.
Graphics: 5.0 / 5.0
Gameplay 5.0 / 5.0
Sound 5.0 / 5.0
Replay value 5.0 / 5.0
Fans of Call of Duty 4 can try out a mutliplayer beta version on Xbox live next week. Activision plans to make the game available at 3PM EST only on Xbox Live. Users must visit www.charlieoscardelta.com at noon for a chance to receive a token to play the game.
“From day one we’ve set out to make Call of Duty 4 the best multiplayer experience ever,” said Grant Collier, Studio Head, Infinity Ward. “We’re excited to bring to our fans around the world this early look at Call of Duty 4 multiplayer. The gameplay possibilities are limitless from leveling-up and utilizing perks, to creating-your-own class and matchmaking. We’re only days away, so get ready!”
Features of the new game include:
- Customizable Multiplayer Battles
- Create-a-class
- Player Ranking
- New Perk System
The early beta will be available to all US residents with more information on the worldwide rollout available on the web site www.charlieoscardelta.com.
Call of Duty 4 hits stores Nov. 5th.
Activision’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare game has been awarded the “Best Game of E3 2007″ and “Best Xbox 360 Game of E3 2007″ by G4 TV.
“We are very pleased that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare earned top honors at E3 2007,” said Will Kassoy, senior vice president of global brand management, Activision, Inc. “These awards are a testament to the talented team at Infinity Ward and their unique ability to combine creativity with technological innovation to deliver ground breaking entertainment that appeals to gamers worldwide.”
Grant Collier, president of Infinity Ward added, “we are extremely thrilled to be bringing home G4’s top honor, among a showing of strong contenders, from this year’s E3. The team at Infinity Ward has been eager to share their excitement in creating Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and E3 provided the perfect forum to showcase the title among our peers, retailers and media.”
E3 is the video game industry’s annual trade show.
About Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the new action-thriller from the award-winning team at Infinity Ward, delivers the most intense and cinematic action experience ever. Armed with an arsenal of advanced and powerful modern day firepower, gamers are sent to the most treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group threatening the world. As both a U.S. Marine and British S.A.S. soldier fighting through an unfolding story full of twists and turns, players use sophisticated technology, superior firepower and coordinated land and air strikes on a battlefield where speed, accuracy and communication are essential to victory. The epic title also delivers an added depth of multiplayer action providing online fans an all-new community of persistent, addictive and customizable gameplay.
