Usually 
when the film and video game worlds collide, it’s a messy affair. The latest run-in, though, is just plain weird.
Activision has unveiled Onslaught, the first downloadable expansion pack for Call of Duty: Ghosts. And in a twist straight out of a B-movie script, the game’s special guest star is none other than Michael Myers, the unstoppable serial killer from the ‘Halloween’ horror movies.
Numbers 
don’t lie, but they can be massaged a bit.
Activision celebrated the launch of Call of Duty: Ghosts with its customary sales trumpeting, announcing that the game sold $1 billion in its first day of release. Sounds impressive — and it certainly is — but it’s not quite as stunning as you might think.
Is 
Call of Duty going to the dogs?
Activision has high hopes for Call of Duty: Ghosts, but critics aren’t particularly impressed with the latest installment of the industry’s largest franchise.
EA’s 
first-strike in the biannual showdown of the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises is being embraced by critics, but perhaps not quite as lovingly as the publisher might have hoped.
Battlefield 4 is currently earning scores ranging from 81-88 on Metacritic — an unusually large range for a major release, and one that seems very split by platform.
While 
you typically play a hero in military shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield, some of your actions aren’t exactly heroic. You’ve likely partaken in more than a few actions that international law would frown upon, to put it mildly.
If so, the Red Cross wants a fitting in-game punishment for your crimes.
When 
you’re dealing with a multibillion dollar franchise, new releases tend to be well-telegraphed affairs.
Activision, though, surprised everyone Thursday by releasing an iOS version of Call of Duty without pomp or circumstance. And, in another surprise, it’s being made by a team led by a pair of Rockstar Games veterans.
If 
you want to get technical about it, the human race has played Call of Duty longer than it has existed.
New data from Activision shows that since the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, fans of the game have spent 25 billion hours playing Call of Duty games. That works out to 2.85 million years. In contrast, the human race has only been around for 2.3 million.
In 
the videogame world, there is no bigger behemoth than “Call of Duty.”
For the past four years, the franchise has dominated the sales charts, outselling every other game. Last year’s “Black Ops II” grossed over $500 million in just 24 hours, topping $1 billion within 15 days—and is on track to be the best-selling entry in the 10-year-old franchise’s history.
While 
video game sales totals have been anyone’s guess for the past few years, the rankings on the video game industry’s sales charts have been fairly predictable.
Megafranchises like “Call of Duty” and “Assassin’s Creed” have been at or near the top—with family friendly “Just Dance” not too far behind when the final rankings come in. And the midyear check typically doesn’t show a lot of divergence from that pattern.
Although 
brick-and-mortar video game sales are down 14 percent year to date, a few titles have managed to stand apart from the trend, capturing players’ imagination and cash—even when they’re part of a 10-year-old franchise.
“Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” which got off to a stellar start out of the gate hasn’t lost much momentum. Catalog sales of the title have been much higher than 2011’s “Modern Warfare 3.” Plus, downloadable content sales have been strong enough to offset Activision’s lost revenue from declining “World of Warcraft” subscriptions.
Chris Morris: Journalist 