This week in video games: May 9, 2016

This week, find out what new frontier Call of Duty is entering with Infinite Warfare, Respawn announces Titanfall 2 and a new Star Wars game, and we've got the lineup of free games for Xbox Live Gold members. But first, Lego does something different with its new franchise, Nexo Knights.

Lego goes multichannel with Nexo Knights

The newest Lego franchise, Nexo Knights, mashes up the medieval with the modern with characters that are armed with swords and shields that can download special powers.

Lego has leveraged its properties with television shows and video games before, but with Nexo Knights it all works together in ways that it never has before.

A mobile app, Merlok 2.0, is a touchscreen-enabled game that has characters from the world battling enemies. But the app is more than just a beat-em-up game. It's also the connection point for the episodes and the building sets.

Particular images found on shields in the television show and on the mini figures can be scanned into the app, providing powers to the characters in the app.

Merlok 2.0 is a free download available for Android and iOS.

Games with Gold titles for May

It's a new month, which means new free games are coming to anyone with a membership to Xbox Live Gold.

Xbox One games include Defense Grid 2 (available from May 1 to May 31) and Costume Quest 2 (available from May 16 to June 15).

Xbox 360 games, which are also playable on Xbox One because of backwards compatibility, are Peggle (available from May 1 to May 15) and Grid 2 (available from May 16 to May 31).

Titanfall 2 announced, Respawn also making Star Wars game

There’s precious little information at this point, other than the game is in development. But at least we know that Titanfall 2 is actually in development.

The announcement, made a couple of weeks ago, came with a trailer (watch it below) that gives a sense of what the storyline to the sequel might be about.

The first game, developed by Respawn Entertainment, founded by veteran developers who helped turn Call of Duty into a massive franchise for Activision, was a solid first-person shooter that anticipated what was to come with Destiny and The Division.

As much fun as that first game was to play, though, I felt that it was limited by the lack of any true single-player game experience. And it was released early in the year, and seemed to get forgotten by the time we got to summer. I’m interested to see when EA decides to schedule the release of the sequel.

Although we don’t know much about Titanfall 2 now, there will be more details at EA Play prior to E3 in Los Angeles this June.

We might also learn more about a new Star Wars video game that is in development at Respawn. EA has the license for games based on the popular franchise, and last week the company revealed that a third-person action adventure would be coming from the studio. That, at the moment, is all we know.

Call of Duty going into space with Infinite Warfare

The next Call of Duty game, coming on November 4 for PS4, Windows, and Xbox One, looks to be a big step for the franchise.

Infinite Warfare takes the first-person combat action into the solar system, giving players the chance to captain a space-faring warship, and even get into space-based dogfights.

Footage from the game, currently in development, is stunning. The part where the fighters take off from the surface of Earth, and go through the transition into space is really something.

It may just be me, but some of the melee sequences in space made me think of the Sean Connery film Outland.

Also coming from Activision and developer Infinity Ward this fall is a remastered version of Modern Warfare, which is the game that really put Call of Duty at the top of the pack of shooter games.

The two games are being packaged together in a "legacy edition". The "digital deluxe edition" also includes a season pass for downloadable content.