Steam is holding another one of their famous Publisher Weekend sales, and offering some great Activision titles for up to 80% off. With every single Call of Duty game on sale for great prices, this is definitely a PC gamer's dream sale!

Call of Duty: Black Ops III, the newest addition to the Call of Duty franchise, is the featured game in the sale. In this futuristic FPS, which takes place roughly 40 years after the events of Black Ops II, the players can make use of advanced technological weapons, gadgets, and body armor. While the gameplay has certainly built on the ideas seen in Advanced Warfare, Black Ops III is definitely a massive improvement, and has received a great deal of critical and popular praise.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is on offer for $35.99 (£23.99) at 40% off, with the Digital Deluxe edition, which includes the Season Pass, going for $74.99 (£52.49) at 25% off.

Other recent Call of Duty games on offer are:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II - $19.79 (£13.19) 
• Call of Duty: Black Ops - $19.99 (£14.99)
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Gold Edition - $29.99 (£19.99)
• Call of Duty: Ghosts - $19.79 (£13.19)

The FPS franchise isn't the only thing on offer however; the popular Prototype franchise is also available in the sale, with Prototype 2 going for $9.99 (£4.99) and Prototype on offer for just $4.99 (£3.74). These two unique open-world action games feature futuristic weaponry, shape-shifting craziness, and a whole arsenal  of cool gadgets and tools which make the game very interesting.

Another infamous game on offer is Deadpool. An interesting twist to the normal beat 'em up style of games, Deadpool adds a completely different level of both fun, and funny, to the genre. Going for $19.99 (£14.99), the game is on offer for quite a bargain. In Deadpool's own words:

There are a few important things I need to say before you crack into my insanely sweet game. (Oof. Here we go again.) I'm a mercenary with an accelerated healing factor. I've been described as unstable, which is just plain coo-coo. (Wait, do sane people say coo-coo?) I'm gonna battle for the safety of humans and mutants. (And even mumans.) Be prepared for just about anything. (Holla!)

Other titles on offer include Fast and Furious: Showdown going for $7.49 (£4.99), Singularity for $7.49 (£3.74), King's Quest for $6.69 (£4.68), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows for $7.49 (£5.99) and Timeshift for $4.99 (£2.49). You can find all of the games listed above and more on the Steam Activision Sale page here.

This coming Monday, October 19th, 2015, Sledgehammer Games plans to award the most dedicated Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare players. On Sunday the 18th at 9AM (time zone unconfirmed), snapshots will be taken of every player's account indicating their player level. If any players are recognized as Grand Master Prestige (the absolute maximum rank in the game), they will be given 10 Advanced Supply Drops, free of charge on the following day.

16 days, 5 hours, and 14 minutes of in-game time later, I'm finally Grand Master Prestige. After progressing through roughly 1,580 individual levels, I believe 10 Advanced Supply Drops to be a lackluster award. There are a few reasons for this, but first: what are Advanced Supply Drops and how do they work?

Advanced Supply Drops

Advanced Supply Drops (ASDs) are the premium version of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's standard supply drops, which give a random assortment of items to players - such as in-game reinforcements, character customization pieces, and weapon variants.

A standard supply drop is not guaranteed to give anything in particular, where an ASD must give its opener three items, at least one weapon variant, and one item of professional rarity or better. ASDs also neglect to include Rapid Supply and Orbital Care Package reinforcements, as they are recognized as essentially useless by most of the game's community.

Supply drops are awarded to players at completely random times during their multiplayer experience, whereas Advanced Supply Drops are only given to players at certain milestones along their journey through the prestige modes. Unless, of course, players choose to buy them.

Advanced Supply Drops are available for purchase in a number of bundles:

• 1 ASD ($1.99)
• 5 ASDs + 1 ($9.99)
• 10 ASDs + 3 ($19.99)
• 20 ASDs + 8 ($39.99)

Considering that all the loot a player might receive in these drops is 100% random, the price for Advanced Supply Drops seems pretty expensive.

I know what you're saying. "So BlackTide, why are you complaining that you're going to get $20 worth of content, free of charge?" Let me tell you, dear reader.

Advanced Supply Drops are No Longer Available

Throughout the multiplayer leveling leading up to Grand Master, Advanced Supply Drops are awarded to players at levels 20, 30, 40, and upon reaching prestige mode (level 50 +1). These ASDs come free of charge and have the same potential for awards as premium bundles, or the ten free drops on Grand Master Prestige day. 

Once a player reaches Grand Master Prestige, they can no longer earn free ASDs. Instead, if a player wants to feel the sensation of opening the coveted crates again, they have to buy them (at a ridiculous price, I might add). Of course, standard supply drops are available to Grand Master Prestige players, but they're still just as useless as they regularly are.

Advanced Supply Drops were not present at the launch of Advanced Warfare. Therefore, players that had the game from Day One did not receive any of the ASDs for their first few prestige modes. For example, I was somewhere around Prestige 7 when Advanced Supply Drops became available at levels 20, 30, 40 and Prestige. I missed out on thirty-two-ish ASDs. Those are Advanced Supply Drops that the game will never give me back. A brand new player to the game will receive every single ASD on their journey, but dedicated fans who bought the game on Day One miss out on a huge amount of rewards.

I haven't yet mentioned that Advanced Supply Drops contain exclusive content that cannot be found in standard drops. Once a player hits the level cap, they will never be able to unlock these items without spending their hard-earned cash. 

The Skinny

Sure, Grand Master Prestige players will receive ten Advanced Supply Drops on October 19th, but is that measly "$20 of content" really a good enough award for Call of Duty's most dedicated players? I don't think so. Even though ASDs are supposed to hold all of these great items, I've opened plenty to no avail. I am strongly against ASDs and Call of Duty mircotransactions in general. I know that by next November, there will be a new game to buy, and any extra cash I spent on the current title will be going down the drain. (For a great example of my feelings towards supply drops, and the contents of an average ASD, check out this supply drop opening video on my YouTube channel!) 

Sledgehammer Games gave players thirty days of warning concerning Grand Master Prestige Appreciation Day, but I don't think a lot of players answered the call of duty (ha-ha). Ten ASDs are not enough of a reward to give dedicated fans who have waited at the level cap for four months. Ten ASDs are not enough of an award to players who have been grinding it out for the last thirty days to reach that maximum level. Advanced Supply Drops cost nothing for Sledgehammer to make. The least they could do is really thrill fans and give out twenty-five or fifty. How many people are actually Grand Master Prestige anyways? Only a crazy person would grind through thirty prestige modes!

Although I disagree with the awards, I've become Grand Master Prestige within the last thirty days so that I can continue a fan favorite series on my YouTube channel. Expect to see a new supply drop opening on Grand Master Prestige "Appreciation" Day.

Call of Duty's the name you hear when people say games aren't fresh anymore, but Advanced Warfare is looking to change that. A bold step forward for the franchise and the first major game by Sledgehammer Games, the gambit pays off. A solid mix of single-player and multiplayer shooting, tied around the new EXO suit mechanics, offers one of the best shooters available, regardless of your platform preference.

Game: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Platforms: Xbox One (Reviewed), Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac
Price: $19.99-44.99
Rating: 7.5/10

This game was reviewed using a commercial copy of the game bought with my own money.

All materials not recorded by myself are used for the purpose of reviewing under fair-use. All music, voice overs, graphics, and, animation are owned by their original IP holders.

If you are a fan of the eSports scene, you probably have a specific website you have to go to for news on each game. For example, if you are looking for information on some recent Starcraft 2 matches, you would most likely check Team Liquid's website and for League of Legends you would go to the official Riot website.

theScore looks to change this by bringing all of your eSports news to one spot with theScore eSports. You will be able to get live updates on matches, stats, alerts sent to your phone when a game begins, ends, and even the final score. 

On top of all of these features, the number of games you can follow and get all this information from is quite large. As of now the current roster of eSports you can follow is League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: GO, and Call of Duty.

If you have an interest in anything eSports and have an Android phone I highly recommend giving this app a download. Sadly iOS users will have to wait as it will need to be brought over to iOS, but they have said it's in the works.

The only negative issue I have with this app is, where is Super Smash Bros.? Maybe we will get to see it in a future update. However, for now you can check out the new theScore eSports web page or download the app directly from Google Play.

Over the weekend, Bungie released some intriguing data concerning Destiny in their weekly update.

Although the game itself has received mixed reviews, the powerhouse title is averaging 3.2 million players per day according to their daily play figures. The average player has logged in 20 times in the month since the release.

The average play time per player is approximately three hours.

Although Activision hasn’t officially released the sales figures, it’s clear to see the success that Bungie’s latest game has sustained over the first month since its release on September 9^th.

These numbers should be very exciting for Bungie to see, considering that the figures are substantially better than the totals of both Halo 3 and Halo Reach, Bungie’s last two games, combined.

"When we see the raw numbers, it's easy for us to say that the destination was worth the journey,” said David Dague Bungie’s community manager. "Stay tuned for the next evolution of our shared adventure."

Although Destiny has ruled the spotlight, it is unclear whether or not it can survive the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Last year the figures showed that players logged about 1900 years of Call of Duty every day, while Destiny is recording closer to 1100 years of gaming per day.

Those numbers will take a bit of a hit today, as the PlayStation Network servers will be down from 10 AM  to 5 PM PST in order to perform some routine maintenance.

With the upcoming release of the expansion “The Dark Below” DLC in December and the holiday season looming, Destiny is poised to go toe-to-toe with the #1 best-selling FPS franchise Call of Duty.

1)Destiny

How isn’t the video game at the center of the video game universe at the moment not be number 1 on this list? Since its release on September 9^th, Destiny has pulled in more than $500 million worldwide, making it the best-selling new video game franchise of all time.

The open world sci-fi first person shooter has gained notoriety for having several MMO like characteristics, such as classes and changeable armor. If you do not already own Destiny, I’m sure it will be number one on your holiday list, that is if you aren’t naughty.  

2) Super Smash Bros. U

The critically acclaimed Super Smash Bros. series is set to deliver again this year with its 4^th installment of the series. With dream matchups of Mario vs. Megaman and Sonic vs Pacman ready to be fulfilled in the nostalgic minds of people of all ages. Nintendo's cross-franchise fighting game will launch on 3DS on Oct. 3, but it's the console version that is generating the most interest. Most of the regular cast is returning as well, such as Samus, Link, Donkey Kong, and Kirby, but the most curiosity surrounds around the aforementioned additions of Megaman and Pacman. This holiday season, many people will want to smash their days away.

3) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

It seems like every year the new Call of Duty game is usually a hot commodity during the holiday season, and this year is no different. Created this year by Activision and being released on November 4^th, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. I mean, how many first-person shooters feature a 2-time Oscar winner in a starring role? Kevin Spacey plays the head of the world's largest Private Military Corporation in the not-too-distant future, which also means that you should own this game in the not-too-distant future as well.

4) The Evil Within

The Evil Within is essentially what will be the resurrection of survival horror games. The x-factor for this game is the director Shinji Mikami, who just so happens to also be the creator of the greatest survival horror franchise of all time: Resident Evil.  That should be enough of a reason to add a little bit of horror to your holiday season. With the recent drought of survival horror games as of late, The Evil Within seems to be setting itself up to bringing back the genre with a vengeance. If you haven’t seen any gameplay I advise you watch some, with the lights on of course. The Evil Within will be available on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.

 5) Hyrule Warriors

Hyrule Warriors is a hack and slash action video game by Nintendo that features everyone’s favorite pointy eared warrior. Released in North America on September 26 for the Wii U, it brings a new dynamic to Hyrule, in a kind of game that resembles none of the classic Zelda games. Although the main emphasis of other Zelda games is on the puzzles and the journey, this game emphasizes on the combat with Link’s entire repertoire specialty moves. The game has very similar elements to the Dynasty Warriors combat system as well, which will certainly bring a new dynamic to Hyrule never seen before.

With the summer over and stores actually beginning to pack out their Christmas cheer, let’s take a look at the top 5 video games that people will want to see under their trees this year.