Call of Duty: Vanguard
What makes this version of the Activision franchise, which debuted in October 2003, so unique? According to our video game–loving testers, Call of Duty: Vanguard, from Activison,  is the best gift to give or receive this year. In Call of Duty: Vanguard, the first-person shooter game returns to World War II, and there are zombies. But what our gamers love most are the 20 multiplayer maps that are available at launch. “They give Vanguard so much more lasting power than the other installments of Call of Duty,” explains our tester.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Kids of all ages enjoy the adventures of the mightiest marsupials, Crash and Coco, as they fight the villainous Neo Cortex and Doctor N. Tropy to save the future of the multiverse. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is published by Activision Blizzard. It is the latest offering from the fun franchise, which launched in 1996. “This version has the coolest alternate dimensions,” shares our gamer. “There are more playable characters and so many unexpected new abilities. It’s the coolest installment of Crash Bandicoot ever.” 

Nintendo Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda

Nintendo celebrated the 35th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda by creating a whole new easily portable console. Consider this to be the Game Boy all grown up. The Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda offers picture-perfect pixel ports of both Legend of Zelda NES games, Link’s Awakening, a remake of Vermin — which features Link — and a Zelda-themed clock with a timer.

Xbox Series X

Fans of Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite must have the Xbox Series X, because this top-of-the-line offering from Microsoft gives spellbinding 4K graphics targeting 60 FPS on many games, with select games also including ray tracing and 120 FPS. It’s also fully compatible with the Xbox One library, making it the perfect choice for classic game lovers. “It’s a perfect platform for the Activision Blizzard games, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2,” says our game tester. “The graphics and speed are absolutely sick.”

Diablo 3 Season 22
Is it the end of days in Diablo 3 Season 22? It sure seems that way. Players of the Blizzard Activision title return to the town of Tristram to investigate stories of a fallen star, which is an omen that the End Times has come. According to our gamer tester: “This game happens 20 years after the Prime Evils were defeated and banished from the Sanctuary world. There’s so much tension because as a player, you feel like evil has been reborn.”

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I’ve been fascinated with multiplayer gaming environments for years. In 2006 I occasionally blogged about the creative opportunities that Second Life provided — but I had never delved into that world, and more recently, I never played World of Warcraft (WoW). I didn’t know what I was missing.

Through my chats with Gigi, I discovered that the creative platform behind this long tail pastime is incredibly powerful. The animation engine used in WoW is called Machinima. She and her animator friends have used Machinima to create dozens of music videos and parodies. Each is loaded with inside jokes and references that bewilder the clueless (like me) but beguile her fellow WoW players.

A Long Tail Celebrity

To those in the know, she offers a gourmet feast … catchy, fun music and commentary on the game. It’s content that is blogged about, commented on, and viewed by tens of thousands of fans. She tells me she’s perfectly safe to walk the streets of Milwaukee’s East Side, but in WoW, she’s a full-blown celebrity — often forced to assume more anonymous avatars when playing, lest she get stopped and chatted-up by awestruck fans. “I don’t mind,” she said, “But when I’m in WoW I want to play like everybody else!”

I’ll let her tell you more herself. The video includes a trailer to /afk, the feature film coming out in November. It’s about WoW, or course, and she directed all of the animated sequences.

I’ve asked her a few questions about how she uses social media to stay in touch with fans. If you have other questions for her, please don’t hesitate to post them as comments. If I gather enough of them, perhaps I can once again inhabit my dashingly handsome avatar and pose them personally to Gigi.

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