Despite describing Call Of Duty: Ghosts' engine as "all-new" in the initial press releases, Infinity Ward has stated that it's instead been heavily upgraded from their existing tech, and packs enough sweeping improvements to legitimately be referred to as a brand-new.

Infinity Ward have released a portion of their Xbox One reveal presentation that demonstrates the advances Call Of Duty: Ghosts makes over Modern Warfare 3 in terms of graphical grunt. The newly unveiled shooter uses a new next-generation (cross-generation, technically) engine that finally makes motion-captured dogs a reality.

Call Of Duty: Ghosts is dated for November 5th on current-gen consoles and PC, while it's also confirmed for PS4 and Xbox One. You can watch the reveal trailer and dev diary through the link.

Diablo III recently turned one, and Blizzard have released a sprawling infographic packed with player statistics. Did you know, for example, that the entire population of the Earth could be fed for four days if the total number of gold pieces generated were grains of rice? Do you care? If so, you'll love poring over facts, figures and details below.

Mo-Capped Dogs Confirmed

Call Of Duty: Ghosts took to the Xbox One stage to reveal our first look at their next-generation engine, which seems to do a fantastic job of handling foliage and facial expressions (the latter of which is odd for a game about "masked warriors," but hey ho). Infinity Ward promise that it will be the "best" and "most emotional" Call Of Duty game to date, with writing duties falling to Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana).

You can watch the gameplay trailer above and hit the jump for the more detailed behind-the-scenes dev diary - along with some more details.

Some Australian Call Of Duty fans were shown a snippet of Call Of Duty: Ghosts footage, and apparently got rather excited. Watch below for insightful critique and commentary, like "sick" and "that's scary."

Why yes, it is a slow news day today, thanks for asking. Mainly because of that great big next-gen reveal event scheduled for 18:00, during which we'll presumably get to see that footage ourselves. However, if they're actually running live code on that MACBOOK, this might be one of today's biggest stories...

Releasing short gameplay snippets on Vine has become very trendy these days, and Infinity Ward is the latest developer to jump on the bandwagon. A new short clip for Call Of Duty: Ghosts shows off some in-development footage ahead of its full reveal at the next-gen Xbox event tomorrow night.

Call Of Duty: Ghosts is described as a "brand new Call Of Duty experience," featuring a new storyline, characters and cross-generation engine. You can watch the spectacularly unhelpful reveal trailer here.

Treyarch have announced that the next double weapon XP event will be kicking off this weekend for Black Ops II. With the Uprising DLC landing on PC and PS3 this week, it's certainly a timely little treat.

“Don’t even think about resting those thumbs, because Double Weapon XP weekend is coming this Friday, May 17, starting at 10am/PDT and running though Monday, May 20 at 10am/PDT," read the in-game message.

Read our Blops II Uprising DLC review here.

Platforms: PS3 (reviewed) | 360 | Wii U

Developer: Terminal Reality

Publisher: Activision

I should begin this review with a public warning announcement. This Walking Dead game has nothing to do with the multiple award-winning downloadable series The Walking Dead by Telltale Games. Whereas that game was based on the comics, this is based on the AMC TV series and is a first-person action game.

Seeing as the critically acclaimed one that features multiple story choices and plays more like Heavy Rain than Dead Island has just been released at retail too (review incoming), we wouldn’t want you to pick this one up by mistake.

Oh dear, it looks like I’ve spoiled the rest of my review. Well is it really a surprise that The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is a festering sack of giblets? About as much a surprise as it was that kid turning up inside that barn. There, I’ve saved you half a season of fucking awful TV too. SPOILER! [You’re doing that wrong – Ed]. No, I’m not.

This week's Game Buzz kicks off with a look at Disney farming out the Star Wars licence to EA, and the hopes and fears that come with such an arrangement; we take a look at the Precursor Games crowdfunding push, and assess the messy tangle that has been the Silicon Knights saga; once again we find ourselves chatting about the Wii U, only it's not us ragging on Nintendo's machine this week, it's Avalanche; we touch upon the recent re-departure of Patrice Desilets from Ubisoft; and we look at the recent handbags between Activision and ShopTo.

Game Buzz | Episode 31 - Devil's Dance. Recorded 10th May, 2013.

Parental Advisory: We've tried to keep it as conversational and informal as possible, and you should be warned that there may be some instances of strong language.

Click the banner or the title link above to play the podcast, or right click and select 'Save Link As' to download the file onto your hard drive.

Want more? Check out the rest of our PWNCAST posts onsite, hit us up on iTunes, or subscribe to the PWNCAST Feed here.

Online Retailer Refusing To Sell Upcoming Titles From The Publisher

Leading UK e-tailer ShopTo has announced that it will not be selling any upcoming titles from publisher Activision because of its policy with release dates and pre-orders. The final straw has come with Call Of Duty: Ghosts, which due for release on 13^th November, a Tuesday, with Activision stating that retailers cannot post pre-orders any earlier than the Monday before. ShopTo has responded by saying such decisions hurt online retailers, both in a financial manner and in customer satisfaction, leading to the bold move of not stocking any new games from the publishing behemoth as a result.

"An All-New Call Of Duty World"

Following weeks of leaks and rumours, Activision have finally officially confirmed that Call Of Duty: Ghosts will release on November 5th for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Developed by Infinity Ward, Ghosts promises to offer an "all-new" story, characters and Call Of Duty experience running on a brand new engine designed to bridge this generation and the next - which means both the PS4 and Microsoft's mysterious machine.

We've got a vague reveal teaser trailer and more details below.

UPDATE: Facebook Page & Amazon Pre-Order Go Live

Call Of Duty: Ghosts has now been all but confirmed as this year's Activision shooter, with the official site proclaiming that "the ghosts are real." Infinity Ward have also confirmed their involvement with a telling tweet, which would be more of a surprise if we didn't already know what the box art looks like. Current rumours suggest that Ghosts will use a brand new engine (about time too, really), and somewhat obviously focus on fan-favourite character Ghost.

It's high time for a reveal, and exactly a year has passed since Black Ops 2 was officially announced at the NBA playoffs. It's possible that Activision will follow suit with a commercial this afternoon, though we'll have to wait and see.

UPDATE: Amazon US have slung up a pre-order page (with a placeholder release date, presumably), while a fairly legit-looking Facebook page has gone live.

All signs have been pointing to Call Of Duty: Ghosts being this year's Infinity Ward shooter, and the official website has now all but confirmed it. As evidenced by a ruddy great Ghost skull. The name of the game is still redacted, but with box art doing the rounds, I think we can expect a reveal fairly soon.

But how soon? Activision often use the NBA playoffs to deliver their debut trailers, but perhaps they'll wait for Microsoft's next-gen console reveal on May 21st.

Activision has confirmed that the Merc With A Mouth will be breaking the fourth wall on June 28th, thanks to High Moon's Deadpool game on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. As you'd expect, GAME have snagged some pre-order bonuses, which we've detailed below.

Some stunning Destiny concept art has hit the net, showing off the futuristic post-apocalpyse players will explore and defend in Bungie's multi-platform shooter. Details are still thin on the ground beyond a basic premise and always-online gameplay, but if you're a fan of rich Sci-Fi imagery, I daresay that you'll want to pore over these in detail. Before, you know, they're willing to actually reveal it properly. [via The Save Room minibar and VG247]

Destiny is likely to launch next year on PS3, Xbox 360, PS4 and whatever Microsoft is set to announce on May 21st. Pre-orders have been open for a while, but we're not sure exactly why you'd pledge to buy something that's basically just a name and release platforms.

Tesco may have spilled the beans on the this year's Call Of Duty title, subtitled 'Ghosts.' A shortlived listing contained both the title, release date and what appears to be official box art for both PS3 and Xbox 360, which we've detailed below.

Platforms: Xbox 360 (reviewed, 1200 MSP) | PC | PS3

Developer: Treyarch

Publisher: Activision

It's increasingly fashionable to rail against Call Of Duty and everything it stands for, but despite a few predictable grievances, millions of players still flock to its enjoyable blend of skill, uncomplicated fun and rampant spectacle to unwind after a long day. It's interesting, then, that the latest map pack for Black Ops II favours the latter. In an effort to give players something interesting to look at beyond wartorn streets, Uprising goes heavy on gimmicks, bells and whistles, offering four maps and a new Zombie level that all feature a unique 'thing.' Whether you're dodging through lava, stomping across a miniature city that makes you feel like a giant or punting zombies into a demonic maw as Ray Liotta, there's no denying that Uprising is gun fun on a bun.

If you've fallen out of love with Call Of Duty, don't regularly play Black Ops II or spend your days whining about there being "too many shooters" without making the effort to enjoy the cornucopia of different genres out there (you know who you are), there's nothing for you here. But if you're still enjoying Treyarch's blockbuster, Uprising is going to be a welcome breath of fresh air over the coming months.

Industry veteran Gordon Walton has slammed big publishers for seeing developers as "replaceable meat puppets", praising EA for at least trying to do new things under John Riccitiello, and has prophesied thatActivision's business plan will "end in catastrophe".

We were having a chat the other day about No One Lives Forever and lamenting the fact that Monolith's 60s spy spoof had somehow failed to make it onto the digital marketplaces (especially GOG). But now we know why.

No-one has a clue who actually owns the rights to the IP.

Black Ops II's latest DLC pack, Uprising, promises to eat into your daily life if you like the idea of Aliens, Rock Concerts and zombie mobsters... so Activision have kindly offered to cover your shift* when the content releases on April 16th (Xbox Live).

If you want to know more, check out the announcement trailer, which actually shows gameplay throughout rather than shoehorned in at the end.

*Activision will not actually dispatch J.B. Smoove to cover your workload. Your job may be at risk if you decide to play Black Ops in your pants instead of turning up to work.