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Call of Duty: Ghosts runs at a native resolution of 1080p (1920x1080) on PlayStation and 1080p upscaled from 720p (1280x720) on Xbox One, Infinity Ward Executive Producer Mark Rubin said via TwitLonger. This may be a factor for those deciding on which version of the game to purchase come this November, weighed against the Xbox One's timed exclusive DLC deal.

"We optimized each console to hit 60 FPS and the game looks great on both," Rubin said. "Still on the road, but glad to see the great reception to Extinction. Can't wait for next week's launch."

Extinction is an alien-infested, co-op wave mode announced for Ghosts earlier this week.

In related ghosts news, it's Halloween tomorrow! Oh, and those who order the game for PS3 through PSN can begin pre-loading it at 3PM PT on November 3. On Xbox 360, the game requires less than 3GB free to install the single-player campaign, but the multiplayer component doesn't require any install. For PC players, here are your minimum requirements.

It’s T-minus six days from the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts on PS3 November 5th, and we wanted to share a few cool things we’ve been working on as we’re gearing up for the big launch.

Pre-order Call of Duty: Ghosts on PlayStation Store and you’ll be able to start downloading the game any time after 3:00 PM PT on Sunday, November 3th so you can begin playing as soon as 12:01 AM PST on November 5th. This feature will be available for both the standard game and the Digital Hardened Edition.

Then, after you’ve picked up your game, take advantage of the Double XP event during launch weekend from Friday, November 8th (10:00 AM PT) to Monday, November 11th (10:00 AM PT). You’ll earn twice as much XP on all of your multiplayer accomplishments.

Also, for those of you planning on picking up a PS4, don’t forget you’ll be able to upgrade your PS3 version to the PS4 version for $9.99 — get the full details on that program here.

Meanwhile, at Activision HQ:

Bobby Kotick: Call of Duty is the pinnacle of artistic expression, an opinion echoed by all humans (who currently live in college dorms and crush between one and seventeen beer cans on their foreheads per day). But we have a problem: we’ve covered so much beautiful, subtext-laden ground. Guns, military men, explosions, zombies. What’s left, I ask you? Forsooth, are there any other topics in the whole of human history? Any more rich veins of untapped meaning that we, both this generation’s Shakespeare and Hemingway (or Hemingspeare for short, a weapon we’ll soon release as paid DLC), can loose upon this poor, unthinking world?(more…)

Someone at Activision thought it would be a good idea to hand out $200 editions of the next Call of Duty game to the first 500 people who could get to the game's booth at the Milan Games Week. No other rules. Just get there first. It was not a good idea.Read more...

With about a week to go before the latest Call of Duty hits shelves, this is high season for pre-release leaks from those who managed to cajole an early retail copy out of someone. Did you know Call of Duty: Ghosts is on two discs for the Xbox 360? Yeah, well, neither did I. There's other stuff coming out, too.Read more...

With a new Wii U Deluxe set coming out on November 1 featuring two Mario games, how can Nintendo possibly sell new Wii buyers on the basic unit? How about an exclusive Skylanders: Swap Force figure? Read more...

Activision has revealed the final system requirements for the PC version of Call of Duty: Ghosts, a game that requires a large chunk of your hard drive, a sizable amount of RAM and most crucially, a 64-bit operating system.

As with all "minimum requirements" lists, those who have hardware that exceeds the specifications laid out by Activision will see improved performance. That said, those who meet the following list of requirements should find the game playable (if not stunning) on their computer: Minimum System Requirements: OS: Windows 7 64-Bit / Windows 8 64-Bit
CPU: Intel(R) Core[TM] 2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHZ / AMD Phenom[TM] X3 8750 2.4 GHZ or better
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 40 GB
Video: NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTS 450 / ATI(R) Radeon[TM] HD 5870 or better
Sound: DirectX compatible sound card
DirectX(R): DirectX(R) 11
Internet: Broadband Internet connection for Steam and Online Multiplayer. Alongside this hardware list, Activision also states that Call of Duty: Ghosts "is set to be one of the best Call of Duty experiences ever." Whether or not that claims holds up will remain a mystery until the game's debut on November 5.

Explosions.

The US flag.

A plane.

A helicopter.

Riley.

Eminem.

And. In. The. Game.

[An eagle screams, like a weeping angel]

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I was not expecting this at all. Don't click if you don't want to spoil it. Read more...

Know for its scenic mountain vistas and sheep farms with an economy based on fishing, tourism and whiskey-distilling, Scotland's Isle of Skye is now the first real-world location officially twinned with a video game setting. One of the prettiest places on the planet, now a Skylanders: Swap Force marketing tool. Read more...

Attention Skylanders parents, you're going to Toys R Us tomorrow morning. Swap Force launched this past weekend with some important elements and travel powers unrepresented. The twelve new figures going on sale tomorrow morning exclusively at Toys R Us should help fill in the blanks. Read more...

John wrote about Activision Blizzard going independent back in July, but then there was a shareholder lawsuit, after which a US court placed an injunction to put the deal on hold. That was lifted last week, allowing the multi-billion dollar share buyback to go through and thus making ActiBlizz independent of its parent company, Vivendi.

The deal involves Activision paying $5.83 billion for shares, and an investment group led by Bobby Kotick paying a further $2.34 billion to complete the deal. If you can’t be bothered to do the maths, that’s a combined total of infinity dollars. What happens next?(more…)

Now that the console version of Skylanders has finally caught up with the portable one in terms of jumping, the 3DS version of Skylanders: Swap Force ups the ante, letting players load all of their toys into the game at once. Read more...

I just want to listen to some music and look at dogs, but no — here's Eminem droning on and on about shitting on his microphone and making stupid G-Unit puns. Read more...

When I first read over the newly released specs for Call of Duty: Ghosts, I heard a high-pitched wail from within my PC’s case. Now, it should be noted that my PC is, in fact, haunted by an actual ghost, so I initially thought nothing of it. But then, when the ghost announced it was going out to buy a carton of milk, the pained whimpering continued. That’s when I understood: it was my hard drive. CODBOO’s 50 GB requirement filled the poor slab of storage with a primal terror, and it clawed helplessly at unfeeling walls in an attempt to escape. That, in turn, startled my molasses-slow Internet connection, which began bellowing in horrific dial-up tones. Neither will stop. So thanks, Infinity Ward. Thanks a lot.

(more…)

Activision is in the publisher sale spotlight on Xbox Live, with select games and add-ons receiving discounts up to half off.

Deadpool is down to $40 on Games on Demand, while Prototype has been bumped down to $10. Entries in the Spider-Man series are all on sale, as are select X-Men and Transformers games.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is marked down to $5 on the Xbox Live Arcade side, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is down to $7.50. True Achievements has compiled a list of everything on sale, which you can feel free to pore over here.

We break down the new alien race and more in the new Destiny gameplay trailer.

Here's the latest trailer for Activision's upcoming MMO/shooter, Destiny. This one's set on the moon, and is designed to introduce us to one of the game's enemy races, "The Hive."Read more...

Two games dependent on physical toys that interface via magical portals? Of course it's tempting the drop a Skylander down on the Infinity base to see what happens, but we don't. Not if we want happiness to survive. Read more...

Is all that pesky learning getting in the way of your school year? Boy howdy, does StarCraft 2 have a deal for you. Through September 30, grab StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm for 25 percent off and Wings of Liberty for 50 percent off, and enjoy a 100 percent XP boost all week.

During the promo, players can also unlock portraits depicting Kerrigan, Raynor and Zeratul in high school yearbook-photo style, exclusive to the back-to-school special. The portraits are unlocked with the You Got Schooled achievement, earned by winning five games in any combination of Arcade, Custom, Ranked, Training, Unranked, or Versus AI online games.

So, hit the books. No, really - just take all your textbooks and smack them or something, and then go play StarCraft 2.

Those who have Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 might want to jump in at some point this weekend to take advantage of the double XP boost in online matches, and the free trial of the game's Uprising DLC, which offers four maps, plus the "Mob of the Dead" mode.Read more...

Following successful outings with World of Warcraft and Skylanders, Mega Bloks completes the holy trinity of Activision properties with Call of Duty collector construction sets. Want to watch me put one together? Read more...

The Call Of Duty: Ghosts‘ – which I don’t think actually features any ghosts, sadly* – single-player trailer (below) has gone all a bit Shattered Horizon, by way of Gravity (and doesn’t that look awesome). Yes, it’s briefly in spa(aaaa)ce, and the astronauts have assault rifles. You knew they would. Don’t worry though, it’s soon back to men with sunglasses and helicopters. It’s Business As Usual, Dammnit.

The game is out on November 5th, just in time for Alec’s yearly CoD fix.(more…)

Activision has gone out and hired a lobbyist—one of the biggest lobbying firms in Washington—for representation when Sen. Jay Rockefeller's violent video games bill, which would order research into any causal links between violent video games and violent behavior, comes to the Senate floor.Read more...

Gamestop's VP of merchandising has put the kibosh on Call of Duty not being its blockbuster self this year.

"Call of Duty is an entertainment juggernaut and cultural phenomenon. We are excited for the upcoming release of the new installment of this blockbuster franchise, Call of Duty: Ghosts," said Gamestop exec. Bob Puzon. "We look forward to celebrating the worldwide November launch of this great game that is on track to be the most pre-ordered title of the year."

The statement by the mega retailer comes as a slight surprise, given the annualized release of the series had yet to show fatigue, especially in the face of next week's Grand Theft Auto 5 launch.

Last month, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg was quite clear that pre-orders for Ghosts were "well below the record-setting pace set by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 last year."

"Our quantitative consumer research indicates that hesitation amongst past COD pre-orderers is primarily due to not knowing which platform they will be playing on, which is natural at this time in the console transition," said Hirshberg recently, referring to the imminent launches of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

It's easy to understand how someone can look at a brand new mobile game carrying the name of one of the world's most popular video game franchises arriving completely unannounced and think "cheap cash-in". Members of Activision's Blast Furnace mobile studio say that's not the case with Call of Duty: Strike Team. Read more...

A new Call of Duty ambushes us out of nowhere - on iOS no less! Call of Duty: Strike Team is a first-person shooter/squad-based RTS hybrid, out now for iPhone and iPad at $7.

Developed by Activision mobile studio The Blast Furnace, Call of Duty: Strike Team puts players in an squad of operatives sent to deal with the latest worldwide conflict in which the US has become embroiled. That's a brief synopsis of the single-player campaign, while there's also a Horde-like survival mode that's integrated with leaderboards.

Activision dropped a surprise mobile Call of Duty on iOS today, and it's two, two, two games in one. Call of Duty: Strike Team gives players the ability to switch between first-person shooter and top-down tactical strategy with the press of a button. Want to see how it works? Read more...

Today, Activision is rolling out Call of Duty: Strike Team, a $7 mobile-exclusive Call of Duty title for iOS devices.Read more...

Infinity Ward this week revealed the pre-order bonus for its upcoming Call of Duty: Ghosts, a multiplayer map called "Free Fall" that the developer claims will add a touch of the cinematic single player campaign to the game's deathmatch modes. Does that sound familiar to anyone?Read more...