Call of Duty: Black Ops

George A. Romero, the legendary filmmaker behind Night of the Living Dead and its sequels, has died from lung cancer aged 77.

Minigames are interesting things. They're purpose built to distract the player - to give them something different to do for ten minutes in order to break up the flow of the main game. In a sense, they're tacit admissions of the fact that sometimes games - especially long ones - can get a bit monotonous.

UPDATE 5.00pm: Microsoft has now confirmed the arrival of COD: BLOPS on Xbox One, via corporate mouthpiece Major Nelson:

Activision wants you to know that 100 million people have played Call of Duty since the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007 - the game that fired the series into the stratosphere.

The PC version of the game is compared against the PS3 SKU running patch 1.03 which improves image quality a touch.

Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3 in what is likely to be the biggest game of 2012.

Black Ops 2 is probably the highest earning Call of Duty game in the space of 24 hours, Activision has announced. But actual sales figures weren't revealed.

Like-for-like scenes between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Black Ops 2 compared.

UPDATE: Activision is working "tirelessly" to fix the online issues currently affecting Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 PS3 owners.

In addition to decimating part of the US' east coast and inspiring internet memes, Hurricane Sandy has shut down the online services for certain Activision games.

I'd finished my interview with Tom Cassell, and it had gone fairly well. Although, something did feel like it was missing. "Would you mind if I walked with you for a bit?" I asked. "So I can see it happen?" Tom was enthusiastic - he is about most things. So we took to the floor of the Eurogamer Expo.

Close your eyes and guess what the top 10 video game brands in the UK are, as measured from 1996 to 2012.

One year, seven months and 21 days late, Cold War romp Call of Duty: Black Ops has been announced for Mac.

UPDATE: The Ultimate Edition promotion will not be available in the UK, Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer, although many of the DLC bundles are already available in Europe.

A 20-year-old man has been jailed for 18 months after making thousands of pounds by distributing a Call of Duty hack that was really a virus.

This year's entry in the Call of Duty franchise is a direct sequel to Treyarch's 2010 Cold War-focused Black Ops and arrives in stores on 13th November, according to a retailer leak.

An image of PS3 and Xbox 360 pre-order cards for US chain Target posted by IGN is the source of the info.

This shouldn't come as a huge surprise to anybody - every single Call of Duty game to date has launched during the month of November with the exception of the very first installment, which released on 29th October 2003.

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Activision subsidiary Vicarious Visions was at one point working on a tactics-based spin-off of the main Call of Duty series, judging by the online résumé of one of the studio's animators.

Call of Duty sales are slowing: Modern Warfare 3 sales are behind where sales for predecessor Black Ops were a year ago.

That's according to analysts at Macquarie Equities, who believe Modern Warfare 3 sales to be 4.2 per cent lower, reported Gamasutra.

Apparently, Modern Warfare 3's March 2012 sales were half of Black Ops' March 2011 sales. But specific sales figures aren't publicly available to check.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been listed by large, reputable Spanish and Portuguese online shop FNAC.

The identity of this year's Call of Duty title may just have been outed by the French arm of online retailer Amazon.

2010 shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops has the greatest video game ending of all time, according to Guinness World Records.

More people logged on to Xbox Live to play Call of Duty: Black Ops during 2011 than any other game, Microsoft has revealed.

Activision has announced a new iOS Call of Duty spin-off titled Black Ops Zombies.

Due out on the App Store tomorrow as a £4.99 universal app, it's a scaled down version of Treyarch's Zombie Mode featuring the Kino der Toten map from Black Ops and 50 levels of Dead-Ops Arcade.

According to Joystiq, there's four-way multiplayer with voice chat, and more maps, features and upgrades are planned post-launch.

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An entrepreneurial gamer is attempting to sell his services as a virtual bodyguard in various popular Xbox 360 FPS titles.

Thank goodness the year-late Call of Duty: Black Ops only costs £47.99 or €59.99 on PlayStation Store - for a moment there I thought it would be more expensive than Modern Warfare 3!

As balance, the "ridiculously absorbing" Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD has halved in price to £6.29. Definitely buy it.

Also worth serious consideration: excellent games Beyond Good & Evil HD at a new price of £4, and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light at a new price of £5.

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Treyarch has admitted that Call of Duty: Black Ops' Second Chance perk was a duff design decision.

Premier Manager 2012 and Call of Duty Elite headline this week's European PlayStation Store update.

Call of Duty Elite unlocks free access to 20 pieces of Modern Warfare 3 DLC, which will be released from early 2012. You also get access to premium video service Elite TV, plus a huge array of post-match statistics.

Sadly, you can't download the full Modern Warfare 3 PS3 game. You can, however, download Call of Duty: Black Ops, providing you have £47.99 and 14GB hard-drive space spare.

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More than 20 million map packs have been sold for Call of Duty: Black Ops, Activision has bragged.

Call of Duty: Elite has been released on Xbox Live.

Battlefield 3 has failed to knock Call of Duty from its perch on top of the weekly Xbox Live activity chart.

Microsoft has offered up further proof, should any be needed, of Call of Duty's total domination of Xbox Live.

The Call of Duty Elite beta shuts down at 8pm tonight as Activision prepares to launch Modern Warfare 3.

The Connect, Compete and Improve sections will remain closed, but access to the Career page will soon open to all.

When it does, Call of Duty gamers will have access to Black Ops stats.

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Treyarch is working on a version of Call of Duty for "a new console", according to a recent recruitment call.

Gears of War 3 has failed to usurp perennial chart hog Call of Duty: Black Ops as the most played title on Xbox Live.

Ancillary services like Call of Duty: Elite and Battlefield 3's Battlelog will be "a necessity" for all mainstream games in the not-too-distant future, according to Activision's digital VP.

PC and PlayStation 3 users can finally get their hands on Call of Duty: Black Ops' Rezurrection DLC from today.

Every Sunday we dig an interesting article out of our massive archive for you to enjoy again or perhaps read for the first time. With a new Call of Duty out on Tuesday, this week we thought we'd take you back to Call of Duty XP, the 2011 event Activision put on in Los Angeles to celebrate the series. This article was originally published on 14th September 2011.

Still unsure whether Call of Duty Elite's premium content warrants £34.99 of your hard-earned cash? Activision has just released a full feature list to try and sway you.

Activision has sold 18 million Call of Duty: Black Ops map packs, the publisher has announced.

Zombie expansion out now on Xbox 360.

Cod science.

Exclusive games and downloadable content are "critical" for the Xbox 360, Microsoft has said.

Exclusive content - even if it's only for a set period of time - is crucial for differentiating the Xbox 360 from the PlayStation 3 and Wii, Microsoft's European boss Chris Lewis told Eurogamer.

"They are important," he said. "DLC windows of exclusivity are critical for us for differentiation. We'll continue to bring those exclusives through our own studio work, Gears and Forza and other titles."

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Beachhead Studios has told Eurogamer that if "uber fans" of Modern Warfare 3 don't end up wanting premium accounts for Call of Duty: Elite then the developer will regard that as a failure.

Sitcom stars Jason Bateman and Will Arnett have signed with Activision to provide original video programming for the mega-publisher's Call of Duty Elite service.

Another Call of Duty: Black Ops DLC pack is on its way, according to Activision's latest earnings report.

Its Q2 fiscal year financials released today noted that the publisher intends to ship the Rezurrection pack at some point in the next three months. No details were offered as to what will be included in the pack or how much it'll sell for.

The last add-on, the Annihilation map pack, arrived on Xbox 360 in late June, with a PC and PlayStation 3 launch following last week.

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The Xbox Live Enforcement team is "moving into a realm where we're applying more automation to the process" of policing gamers.

The UK qualifiers for the Call of Duty XP Black Ops tournament take place next Sunday, 7th August in London.

Delightful action RPG Bastion has debuted at the top of the Xbox Live Arcade sales chart after its first week on sale.

The PC and PS3 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops have been patched.

The PS3 patch is version 1.11. It brings:

Security updates

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New Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack Annihilation headlines this week's massive PlayStation Store update.

Xbox 360 owners have had it exclusively for the past month. Available from tomorrow on PS3, its five new maps will cost you £11.49.

Looking for something a bit cheaper? Sony's massive summer sale reaches Europe this week, with more than 30 downloadable titles discounted over the next seven days. Highlights include Popcap's Peggle, Hothead's Swarm and Telltale's Sam & Max and Back to the Future.

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Battlefield 3's pre-order numbers are "roughly comparable" with those of Call of Duty: Black Ops, according to industry analyst firm Cowen & Company.

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PC and PlayStation 3 gamers will have to wait to jump into the Call of Duty: Elite beta, Activision has said.

The social network and stat tracking service is already live for Xbox 360 owners.

PS3 gamers get Elite "this summer". PC gamers have to wait until the autumn.

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UPDATE: Activision has confirmed the Annihilation map pack launches on PC on Thursday, 28th July, too.

ORIGINAL STORY: The third Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack, Annihilation, launches for PlayStation 3 on Thursday, 28th July, Sony has announced.

The five map pack, which costs £10.99 on PS3, includes four new standard multiplayer arenas: Silo, Hangar 18, Drive-In and Hazard, and the deadly jungle Zombies experience, Shangri-La.

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The first wave of invitations for the Call of Duty: Elite beta go out today, Activision has confirmed.

As explained by community man Dan Amrich on his One of Swords blog, those who signed up should check their email inboxes to see if they've made it in.

Access is being granted, for the most part, in order of who signed up first. If you don't get a call-up today, fret not - further waves of invitations will go out "later".

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Call of Duty has a big enough fan following to warrant an expo, a fanfest, a CODCon. So that's what Activision is doing.

Say hello to Call of Duty XP, a two-day event at a 12-ace compound in Los Angeles, America. Call of Duty XP takes place on 2nd and 3rd September.

Tickets cost $150, and there are a modest 6000 of them. They go on sale from 19th July, and can be snapped up by people outside the US and Canada as well as from within.

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A fourth set of downloadable maps for Call of Duty: Black Ops? Can it be true?

Call of Duty: Black Ops has edged past Modern Warfare 2 to become the best selling game ever in the UK.

Jungle! Mine-carts! Explosive monkeys!

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A new limited edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops is on its way, according to a new retail listing, apparently bundling in the game's DLC packs for no extra charge.

Treyarch takes you through new maps.

The third gaggle of Call of Duty: Black Ops maps will be known as the Annihilation pack.

It's arriving 28th June, VG247 reports.

Like all other Call of Duty map packs, Annihilation will cost 1200 Microsoft Points or the equivalent (£10.99) on PS3.

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The third Call of Duty: Black Ops add-on will add a further five maps: Hangar 18, Hazard, Silo, Drive-In and another Zombies scenario.

A private-public beta test for Call of Duty Elite will begin on 14th July, Activision has announced.

Participation will be by invite only.

Invites will be given to gamers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer. No platforms were specified, which suggests a mutli-platform beta test.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops' Escalation DLC finally arrives on PlayStation 3 from 10th June.

The pack, which launched on Xbox 360 back in early May and on PC today, adds four new multiplayer maps and a star-studded zombie expansion dubbed Call of the Dead.

To mark the occasion, developer Treyarch has announced another double XP weekend for PlayStation 3 users, running from Friday the 10th through Sunday 12th June.

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Activision has teamed up with Steam to let all-comers try out Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer free of charge this weekend.

Call of Duty: Elite's subscription services will set gamers back around $5 (£3) a month, so say a selection of industry analysts canvassed by Eurogamer.

Call of Duty: Elite is a new Activision service that expands the multiplayer side of gargantuan first-person shooter series.

Do you need a new social network in your life? Activision thinks you do. It's betting so hard on it, in fact, that it's set up an entire developer, Beachhead Studios, just to create and maintain one – or something that certainly looks like one, anyway. It's aimed at the millions of people out there who play Call of Duty multiplayer.

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Activision shows COD subscription service.

A new title update has just hit Steam for the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops, developer Treyarch has announced.

The patch - fully detailed below - re-balances weapons, fixes exploits, smooths over a few bugs and makes preparations for the impending arrival of modding tools.

A post today on Treyarch community manager Josh Olin's Twitter feed confirmed that those modding tools are still on schedule to arrive before the end of the month.

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Not yet bought six month-old shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops? Want the game with a new PS3 to play it on? Then you're in luck.

The limited edition pack contains a PS3, a copy of Black Ops and the game's initial DLC First Strike.

Sony's new bundle releases in the U.S. on 31st May.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops' Escalation DLC is available on PC from 2nd June, developer Treyarch has announced.

Treyarch is welcoming PlayStation 3 users back to its servers with a double XP weekend for Call of Duty: Black Ops, starting tomorrow.

A new report suggests the story of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - thought to be codenamed Project Collossus [sic] and due out 8th November - will be of a much grander scale than previous Modern Warfare games.

As the story unfolds, multiple countries will be drawn in to the conflict, Kotaku heard from a source - creating a potential World War III scenario.

As for a time-line, Modern Warfare 3 apparently starts where MW2 stopped. Urban warfare, where tanks rumble through streets used by cars, will be the game's bread and butter.

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Eurogamer has heard from multiple sources that the new Call of Duty game, thought to be Modern Warfare 3, will launch on 8th November 2011.

Eurogamer France snaps impressive pics.

EA has ramped up the saber rattling ahead of this year's Battlefield vs Call of Duty showdown, arguing its game is "superior" to Activision's franchise in every way.

Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack Escalation has been released on Xbox Live Marketplace.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has lined up a starry voice cast for the game's forthcoming Escalation DLC pack.

The Call of Duty franchise continues to dominate Xbox Live, according to the latest weekly usage chart.

A leaked internal memo has revealed why Activision believes the Call of Duty series is in no danger of suffering a Guitar Hero-esque demise.

The second DLC map pack detailed.

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Sick of potty-mouthed pre-teens fouling up your Black Ops multiplayer sessions? Get used to it, because an 'adults-only' mode isn't going to happen, so says developer Treyarch.

For a third consecutive month, Xbox 360 has been crowned North America's best-selling home console.

Microsoft revealed a March tally of 430,000 Xbox 360 sales: a significant amount more - 28 per cent more - than in March 2010.

In only one of the last 10 months has Xbox 360 not been top of the home console pile.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops was the biggest entertainment property of 2010 in the UK, beating out 3D sci-fi blockbuster Avatar and the latest album from Take That.

Treyarch aims to launch a mod tool kit for Call of Duty: Black Ops in May – half a year after the game's launch.

Publishing behemoth Activision is public enemy number one in many gamers' eyes, but according to one executive at the company, it has an undeserved reputation.

The rumoured Escalation DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops has been confirmed.

As detailed on Major Nelson's blog, Escalation will feature four new multiplayer maps and "an epic Zombies experience with all-new playable characters."

The Hotel map is set on the roof of a luxury Cuban hotel and casino; Convoy offers close-quarters combat at the scene of an ambushed US military convoy; Zoo takes place in an abandoned Soviet Zoo and Stockpile drops players into a remote Russian farm town housing secret WMD facilities.

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The impending Battlefield 3 vs. Call of Duty marketing battle will cost the games' respective publishers around $200 million, EA boss John Riccitiello has claimed.

The second map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops will be known as Escalation. And it's due for release on 3rd May.

Call of Duty: Black Ops maker Treyarch is hiring for staff to work on a new game – and it sounds like another COD.

Black Ops developer Treyarch shows PC gamers a little love today with the belated arrival of the First Strike DLC and a new patch.

As previously announced, First Strike is available now from all your standard digital vendors for £11.49, adding in four new multiplayer maps and one additional zombie co-op map. It launched on Xbox 360 in February and PlayStation 3 earlier this month, winning a 7/10 from Eurogamer.

There's also a new patch available, addressing various bugs and exploits. For those keeping score, this is update 1.07. There's a full list of all the tweaks, fixes and new additions below.

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PC users can finally get their mitts on the First Strike expansion for shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops this Friday, developer Treyarch has announced.

Battlefield 3 developer DICE has fired off a few rounds at its competitors, accusing other military shooters of recycling the same old formula.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is now the best selling video game of all time in the US, according to The NPD Group.

Playing war-themed videogames like Call of Duty can help soldiers deal with the mental trauma of front line combat by blocking violent nightmares, according to a new study.

Worth singing about.

First-person shooter phenomenon Call of Duty: Black Ops is the best-selling PlayStation 3 game ever, Activision has claimed.

UPDATE: The First Strike DLC is available to download from PSN now.

ORIGINAL STORY: Treyarch has issued an update to the PlayStation 3 version of first-person shooter phenomenon Call of Duty: Black Ops ahead of the launch of the First Strike downloadable content later today.

The patch 1.07 notes are below.

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Whereas Battlefield 3 boasts a new engine that gamers are raving about, Call of Duty has made do with a modified, ageing IW engine - version 4.0 was used for Modern Warfare 2.

A 1.3GB single-player demo for Call of Duty: Black Ops can be downloaded from the PlayStation Store today. It coincides with arrival of the Black Ops First Strike Map Pack (locked until tomorrow), which costs £11.49 and measures 1.4GB.

PixelJunk Shooter 2 also arrives today (7/10 Eurogamer), as does old PSone game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.

There's a lorry-load of DLC to bolster your games with, as revealed by the EU PlayStation Blog, even some for Dragon Age II, which isn't out until next Friday.

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Title update 7 for the Xbox 360 edition of gargantuan first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops has been released.

The fix-list ranges from improving matchmaking to fine-tuning Chopper Gunner runs. The Zombie lobby errors have been looked at, as have the exploits within the zombie game itself.

A patch for the much maligned PS3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops will arrive on Thursday, 3rd March, alongside the First Strike DLC.

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UPDATE: Activision claims the countdown timer website is a hoax. "There seems to be a great deal of speculation about the next Call of Duty project," said the publisher in a statement issued this evening. "Let me be clear that we are not revealing yet. Anything indicating otherwise is a hoax."

George "Geohot" Hotz, currently being sued by Sony for cracking the PlayStation 3's security wide open, has denied his actions have led to hacks ruining first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Record-selling shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops has manoeuvred back to the top of the UK all-formats chart.

Gamers who haven't yet unlocked all of Black Ops' zombie-based multiplayer modes are to get free access to the hidden content this weekend, developer Treyarch has announced.

Dead Space 2 entered the January US sales chart at number three, one spot behind Wii-exclusive rave-up Just Dance 2, according to new NPD data.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops dominate this year's BAFTA Game nominations, released today.

Assassin's Creed has the most nods with six, followed by Black Ops and Galaxy 2 with five each. Kudos to indie underdog LIMBO for picking up four.

Wondering why GOTY contender Red Dead Redemption doesn't feature more prominently? Developer Rockstar Games decided not to enter it into competition.

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With over-exposure cited as one of the key factors behind the demise last week of Activision's once mighty Guitar Hero franchise, industry talking heads have now turned their attentions to the publisher's other cash cow – Call of Duty – and asked if it's hurtling towards a similar fate.

It is a little-known US developer, but it is behind the downloadable content of some of the biggest videogames of this generation.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick has played down speculation that the publisher is looking to introduce online subscription fees for its Call of Duty franchise.

The 10-game shortlist for this year's public vote prize at the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards was announced this morning.

Overnight Activision announced the formation of a new studio with a single aim: to create "exclusive content" for the Call of Duty community.

The First Strike DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops launches on PlayStation 3 on 3rd March, publisher Activision has confirmed.

Activision has just announced a new studio called Beachhead.

Epic design chief Cliff Bleszinski reckons developers that attempt to emulate Activision's shooter behemoth Call of Duty are barking up the wrong tree.

Lampooning Call of Duty works - more than 1.25 million people have downloaded Duty Calls, a free parody game created by Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly.

In the land of Call of Duty, the battlelines are clearly drawn: Modern Warfare maker Infinity Ward creates the near future shooters and Black Ops maker Treyarch creates the shooters set in the past.

Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has brought in increased security measure following the much-publicised PlayStation 3 security breach last month.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero was the top Xbox Live Arcade game of 2010, Microsoft mouthpiece Major Nelson has revealed.

Out of 15 available Call of Duty: Black Ops perks, Treyarch has revealed the three that are picked most: Marathon, Sleight of Hand and Lightweight.

The increasingly negative, argumentative attitudes of many gamers and critics is stifling creativity and discouraging developers from taking risks with their games, so says Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch.

First Strike DLC deploys new maps.

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Berlin Wall! Kowloon! A hockey stadium!

A childhood safety advisor has called on the government to tell schools to educate kids about safe videogaming.

Following the extensive PlayStation 3 update earlier this week, it's now the turn of the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops to get patched up.

Title update 6, as detailed on the game's official forum, adds in a few minor new features, support for the impending First Strike DLC pack and fixes a number of glitches and exploits.

Here's the full-list of changes:

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What Treyarch and Activision definitely didn't want yesterday's Call of Duty: Black Ops patch to do was, embarrassingly, tell a disgruntled PS3 community they have "no Xbox Live party chat".

Blink, however, and you will have missed it - a hotfix has since been released to erase the error.

But luckily CVG dug through the game's forums and found a supporting picture.

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Treyarch has released an update for the PS3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops - the day consumer rights group Gamers' Voice reported Activision UK to the Office of Fair Trading over the "never-ending list of problems" associated with the game.

In a tweet game design director David Vonderhaar simply stated: "Update v1.06 for PlayStation 3 is now live. Official sticky post on #CODBlackOps forums will be updated shortly.

"Have a nice day."

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DLC air-drops on 1st February.

Consumer rights group Gamers' Voice has made good on its promise to report Activision UK to the Office of Fair Trading over the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of Treyarch's shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Consumer rights group Gamers' Voice plans to report Activision UK to the Office for Fair Trading for the "never-ending list of problems" gamers have found within the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Sony and Media Molecule's enchanting user-generated platformer LittleBigPlanet 2 has entered the UK all-formats chart at number one.

Five new maps arrive 1st February.

Activision's rip-roaring shooter success Call of Duty: Black Ops has manoeuvred back to the top of the UK all-formats chart.

Call of Duty: Black Ops was the biggest-selling game of the year in the UK last year, according to the UK Interactive Entertainment Association and Chart-Track.

Maybe Activision isn't content with three studios working on Call of Duty - perhaps Raven Software is being deployed on the record-shattering brand as well.

Videogames can lose value faster than used cars, a new report claims.

Analyst Wedbush Securities reckons Activision will launch a "second tier" of online Call of Duty multiplayer in the next few months – and charge gamers for it.

The increasingly bitter war between mega videogame companies Activision and Electronic Arts levelled up this week when the Call of Duty publisher attempted to drag its chief rival into its countersuit against ex-Infinity Ward stars Vince Zampella and Jason West.

Treyarch has released a new patch for the PlayStation 3 version of billion-dollar shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Patch 1.05, as detailed on CallofDuty.com, improves party reliability and expands the game's capability to open NATs on routers, among other things.

The full list of changes is as follows:

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Like many people, I've been been playing a lot of Black Ops lately. A little too much, perhaps. When you smear yourself in camo paint and start looking for decent camping spots on your way to the bus stop, you know you're overdoing it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has now netted more than $1 billion in sales since its November launch, publisher Activision has confirmed.

That makes it the fastest grossing videogame of all time, according to CEO Bobby Kotick.

"In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and Avatar have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly," he claimed.

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The UK all-formats Christmas number one for 2010 is Call of Duty: Black Ops, the fastest-selling game the world has ever seen.

Microsoft mouthpiece Major Nelson has announced the first map pack for mammoth FPS Call of Duty: Black Ops.

As expected, the map pack will appear on Xbox 360 first. The First Strike will hit Xbox Live on 1st February and set you back 1200 MS Points (£10).

Four competitive maps are included. Discovery is set in the Antarctic research station from the campaign. Kowloon is set on the rooftops of Hong Kong, again, from the campaign. Berlin Wall has you fragging at Checkpoint Charlie. And Stadium is set in an American hockey rink. There's a zombie map, too, called Ascension.

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John Riccitiello believes that EA, not Black Ops studio Treyarch, could be the developer to pick up where Infinity Ward left off and deliver "the next great FPS".

Yesterday, PS3 owners complained vociferously of a second-rate online Call of Duty: Black Ops experience. Today, Treyarch admits there's a problem and pledges to do something about it.

Oops - that still-warm Call of Duty: Black Ops patch seems to have amplified problems with PS3 online multiplayer.

A comprehensive update for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops has gone live today, developer Treyarch has announced.

Community manager Josh Olin gave users the go-ahead to download the patch on his Twitter feed, before adding "the next #CODBlackOps PC patch is targeting for release this week.

The full list of tweaks that the new console update makes was detailed last week but the update mainly focuses on tying up multiplayer exploits.

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See the game you'll never play.

Activision's money-maker has beaten its other money-maker: Call of Duty: Black Ops remains top of the UK charts while World of Warcraft: Cataclysm spends a first week in third.

A Manchester teenager was arrested after preventing thousands of players from logging on to Call of Duty using a DDOS program.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has become the 7th biggest-selling game ever released in the US after just three weeks on sale.

The next patch for the console version of Call of Duty: Black Ops patch takes aim at glitchers ruining everyone's fun in multiplayer.

Developer Treyarch detailed what to expect from the patch, due in a few weeks time, on the game's official forum.

Alongside a number of minor gameplay tweaks, the update will fix a number of multiplayer exploits and make it easier for developers to detect and ban anyone up to no good. Consider yourself warned.

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The world's fastest ever selling videogame, Call of Duty: Black Ops, has risen once more to the top of the UK all-formats top 40 chart.

EA has revealed its out-there strategy to take the FPS crown away from Activision and its Call of Duty series: make a superior game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has explained why it can take as long as five weeks for reported bugs and glitches to get patched up.

In a lengthy post on the game's official site, Treyarch community manager Josh Olin painstakingly described each stage of the patching process.

First up, "As soon as the game is released, we scour the forums and play online with fans to gather feedback."

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England and Chelsea star Ashley Cole is addicted to Call of Duty.

Based on the opening two-day sales of Kinect, Microsoft's fortunes haven't reversed in Japan just yet.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has gone straight in at number one in Media Create's weekly Japanese sales chart.

A group of PlayStation 3 users are demanding a refund from Activision for Call of Duty: Black Ops, claiming their version is "inferior" to the Xbox 360 game.

Activision has once again promised gamers it will never charge them for playing Call of Duty multiplayer.

If you were to suggest to The Rolling Stones circa 1975 that one day sales of their songs would spike because of a videogame, they would no doubt have laughed you out of the recording studio.

Xbox Live chief of police Stephen Tolouse will ban anybody who uses a swastika as a Call of Duty: Black Ops logo.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has denied Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit a top spot in the UK all-formats chart.

Restructuring is complete at beleaguered Modern Warfare factory Infinity Ward, owner Activision has announced.

Treyarch has told Wii players of Call of Duty: Black Ops to expect a patch "within the next week or so" to solve a number of outstanding online issues.

"Wii community," Treyarch's Josh Olin began in a post on the official forum (thanks VG247). "Thank you for helping us to identify the various connectivity issues you have been experiencing.

"We have fixed many of the problems you have reported and are currently testing those fixes in anticipation of releasing an update."

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Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 were the two most active titles on Xbox Live last week.

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops beat Modern Warfare 2's five-day sales record by $100 million.

In one week, Call of Duty: Black Ops has sold an unprecedented two million copies in UK shops.

Update: Number cruncher GfK Chart-Track has explained to Eurogamer why sales of Kinect Adventures - the game the Kinect camera is bundled with - haven't been included.

Xbox 360 scaling up against the PC's real deal.

Console sub-HD meets PC native 720p in this comparison.

Call of Duty: Black Ops on console is a great game and in many ways the PC release is significantly better. Having played through both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, we approached our third playthrough somewhat wearily, a touch burned out after all the effort put into last week's PS3 vs. 360 Face-Off. Happily, this third playthrough was in no way a chore. Indeed it's safe to say that we'd managed to save the best until last. Assuming you have a suitably meaty machine, Black Ops PC delivers an unbeatable experience.

Call of Duty: Black Ops sold a whopping 1.4 million copies in its first day on sale in the UK.

That's the biggest UK day one performance ever – it sold 14 per cent more units than Modern Warfare 2 did during its first day on sale.

Let's put that day one sales figure into perspective. Namco Bandai's Enslaved has sold 800,000 units worldwide. MTV Games' Rock Band 3 sold 7386 units for the week ending 30th October in the UK. Microsoft's Xbox 360 exclusive Fable III sold 129,000 units in the UK during its first week on sale.

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Published as part of our sister-site GamesIndustry.biz's widely-read weekly newsletter, the GamesIndustry.biz Editorial, is a weekly dissection of an issue weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. It appears on Eurogamer after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.

Treyarch's improving gargantuan phenom Call of Duty: Black Ops with a string of updates.

An update for the PC version promises a "performance improvement" for dual and quad core systems.

Lag seems to be the biggest bugbear among fans. Has the update helped?

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Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies in the US and UK combined - in one day. That's more than Modern Warfare 2's opening record of 4.7 million copies.

Those sales generated $360 million for Activision. Modern Warfare 2 only made $310 million, scoff.

"There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year's five-day global sales record of $550 million," commented Activision's Bobby Kotick.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops has no doubt found millions of fans this week, but the Cuban government is not among them. On the contrary – it's seething about a sequence detailing a failed assassination attempt on leader Fidel Castro.

Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has warned anyone thinking of exploiting glitches in the game that they will be taking a zero tolerance approach to cheating.

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Xbox 360

PlayStation 3

Disc Size

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Activision is giving away codes to download Call of Duty: Black Ops Avatar clothes for free – but only for female characters.

PS3/360 comparisons in like-for-like scenes.

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Activision's Call of Duty is the biggest first-person shooter franchise of all time, and Treyarch's recently released Black Ops is expected to be the biggest game of 2010 – but one developer reckons it can match COD's phenomenal popularity with a FPS series of its own.

PS3's 3D mode fails to impress from a performance standpoint.

Frame-rate comparisons of cut-scenes and gameplay.

Call of Duty: Black Ops' servers have had a busy day, with nearly one million Xbox 360 users logging on to check out Treyarch's highly anticipated shooter during its first 24 hours in the wild.

The next game in the Call of Duty series will be set in space, industry sources have claimed.

Shortly before midnight last night, 350 people stood queuing outside the flagship HMV store on Oxford Street, London.

Activision has urged Call of Duty: Black Ops owners to report exploits, server reliability issues and bugs directly to creator Treyarch.

Call of Duty is for so many all about precision first-person shooting, but in Black Ops, out now, there's another perspective from which you can get your gun on: top-down.

Comparison footage of 2010's biggest game.

Full face-off very soon.

Capture of the complete Cuba mission.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has notched up more pre-orders at US games retail giant GameStop than any other title.

One day Activision and Blizzard may share; one day Call of Duty may work inherently with Battle.net - but for now the companies remain, in the words of Battle.net overseer Greg Canessa, "two separate entities".

Where's the cheapest place to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops tomorrow (or tonight in some cases)?

HMV will also be opening shops up and down the country tonight to sell the new Call of Duty game, Black Ops.

GAME - the UK's biggest videogame shop-chain - has already outed its plans.

HMV is flaunting the bargain £7.99 tag for Black Ops when you trade-in none other than rival shooter Medal of Honor.

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"Remember, no Russian." When the dust settled, Modern Warfare 2 took as much of a shoeing from critics as it did from politicians for its controversial terrorist smashup in an airport terminal, but while Call of Duty: Black Ops has the potential to cause even more offence – blending real and fictional events during the Cold War, even impersonating JFK and Robert McNamara to add gravitas – the closest it comes is during a pre-credits cut-scene revelation that is more "gotcha!" than grisly.

Instead, finally freed from the shadow of Infinity Ward (albeit by something of a PR mushroom cloud), Treyarch takes us back to the sixties for the birth of the US Special Forces. The action jumps between a few characters, but the story is about Alex Mason, a CIA operative who ended up in a Russian labour camp following the Bay of Pigs fiasco, which saw him captured and handed over to villainous bad guy Nikita Dragovich by Fidel Castro.

At the start of the game, Mason wakes up strapped to a chair being tortured by unknown silhouettes hiding behind frosted glass windows, and through this interrogation you relive various chapters of his adventures and those of his handler, sunglasses-loving iceman Jason Hudson, who is voiced well by a throaty Ed Harris. Mason's recollections take you through Cuba and his pivotal spell in prison, to a Russian space centre and all over East Asia as you hunt Dragovich while the game reveals his ghastly plan.

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GAME and gamestation will be selling Call of Duty: Black Ops for just £24.99 until 14th November.

Even Jimmy Kimmel and Kobe Bryant.

Activision's mega-blockbuster Call of Duty: Black Ops has been given an age rating of 18 by the BBFC.

Microsoft has explained the recent hike in Xbox Live subscription costs and pointed towards Xbox 360 exclusives as justification that gamers are getting their money's worth.

In August Microsoft announced that the price of an Xbox Live Gold membership would increase for selected packages in the US, Canada, UK and Mexico.

The price increases, which triggered yesterday with the Xbox 360 dashboard update, saw an increase in one month ($7.99 to $9.99), three month ($19.99 to $24.99) and 12 month ($49.99 to $59.99) gold subs in the US.

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Guess who you'll play as in Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombie mode when co-operatively protecting the Pentagon from zombies:

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Call of Duty: Black Ops will include split-screen options for online multiplayer, a custom game mode editor and sharing facility, and a range of other interface tweaks to make your time being shot in the face by teenagers in Utah more agreeable, Treyarch has revealed.

Havana nice day.

GAME will open loads of its stores on midnight 8th November for gamers eager to get their hands on Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer will be different to Modern Warfare 2. How? There won't be any drop-shotting. Instead, you'll be diving to prone.

US car manufacturer Chrysler Group has revealed further details of the special edition Call of Duty: Black Ops Jeep that it announced last month.

The minimum specs required to run Call of Duty: Black Ops on a PC have blown their cover and are out in the open.

Reports overnight that retail copies Call of Duty: Black Ops have been stolen from a factory in Alabama appear to have been a load of rubbish, judging by conflicting posts by semi-literate gentlemen on various Xbox 360 hacking forums.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the UK's best selling game ever, but retailer HMV has reason to believe new instalment Call of Duty: Black Ops will beat it.

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Dedicated multiplayer servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops were always part of the plan, developer Treyarch has insisted.

Call of Duty: Black Ops DS developer n-Space "is down, but definitely not out" after the rug was pulled from under it by a "licensor" that had a change of heart.

A teaser for a trailer.

So, boom! Activision opens its secret payload to deliver a special Christmas tech megaton - Call Of Duty: Black Ops will hit in proper, stereoscopic 3D. That was the news being blasted out as I sat in a swish New York hotel last week, expensive electrical glasses perched on nose. Expectations were high and for the most part, Activision didn't disappoint.

Treyarch has eased the Xbox Live party chat restrictions for Call of Duty: Black Ops because not all of the blocks instated by Infinity Ward for Modern Warfare 2 were really necessary.

All three versions of guaranteed behemoth Call of Duty: Black Ops will support stereoscopic 3D at launch, Activision's announced.

The headline, I'm told, became an all-too-regular mantra for Activision's beleaguered communications team long ago.

Modify your modes.

Zombies have finally been confirmed for Call of Duty: Black Ops by publisher Activision.

A spooky viral Call of Duty: Black Ops website has been spotted. It confirms that zombies are in the game. But are they Nazi zombies, Vietcong zombies or Russian communist zombies?

Treyarch's signature Nazi zombie co-op may have been secretly stuffed into Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has declared its support for EA's Medal of Honor team following controversy over its decision to let gamers play as the Taliban.

Figurines and art books are all very well but nothing demonstrates devotion to your favourite franchise quite like a custom-made automobile. With that in mind, Chrysler will roll out a limited edition Call of Duty Jeep for the launch of Black Ops.

Activision has no desire to charge gamers to play the Call of Duty franchise online, according to the publisher's chief executive.

A handful of the world's leading videogame analysts have questioned Microsoft's confident claim that Halo: Reach can and will outsell Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops will be censored in Japan, Square Enix has announced.

Call of Duty: Black Ops' campaign will not be playable cooperatively, creator Treyarch's confirmed.

Hollywood actors Gary Oldman and Ed Harris have done voice over work for upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops, Activision's confirmed.

The developers at Treyarch must be feeling immense pressure right now. They have to be, when one considers the environment Call of Duty: Black Ops is about to land in. To start with it's the latest instalment in what has now become a world-conquering franchise. Its predecessor broke international sales records and also placed itself firmly on the mainstream's radar with the "No Russian" level. Talk to 10 people who have no interest in videogames and it's likely that, along with GTA, Pac-Man, Mario and Sonic, they'll have heard of Call of Duty.

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Update: For full details on Black Ops' multiplayer modes and new features, check out our huge Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer hands-on preview, which has just gone live.

Original story: Treyarch has unveiled Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer including Wager Matches, which utilise a new COD Points system, Combat Training mode and gun customisation.

The new COD Points currency is earned as you play, and can be spent in various ways, one of which is to gamble it on the new Wager Matches.

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Treyarch has confirmed that it will open the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops up for player modding after launch.

"So," says the silver-haired man with the steely blue eyes, "What's your favourite videogame?"

Zombies will turn up in Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops via map packs, a retailer has confirmed.

The popular zombie mode from Treyarch's last COD, World at War, will return according to a listing on US shop Best Buy's website.

The Hardened Edition, announced yesterday alongside the Prestige Edition, will feature "four Zombie Maps Pack made famous from COD: World at War".

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HMV, GAME and Gamestation are taking pre-orders for the Prestige Edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has warned gamers of a scam that involves impostors posing as members of the development team over Xbox Live.

Full reveal on 1st September.

Activision has so far received 5000 applications to work at Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer following the sacking of Vince Zampella and Jason West.

EA COO John Schappert has admitted Activision Blizzard's behemoth Call of Duty and Microsoft's all-conquering Halo will remain top FPS dogs this year - but insisted they won't be so for long.

Activision may be offering similar bundle deals for Call of Duty: Black Ops to those it offered for last year's Modern Warfare 2.

Call of Duty players will be given the choice to "opt-in" to a premium model of the game, analyst Michael Pachter has predicted.

The combined forces of publisher Activision and developers Infinity Ward and Treyarch have told gamers that they will never have to pay extra to play Call of Duty online.

Activision will charge gamers to play first-person shooter behemoth Call of Duty online by the end of the year, analyst Michael Pachter has predicted.

Westwood Studios co-founder Louis Castle, now CEO of InstantAction, reckons we could be playing blockbuster console titles like Call of Duty through web browsers for free within a year.

60 per cent of gamers who subscribe to Xbox Live do so primarily to play Call of Duty, Activision Blizzard's head honcho Bobby Kotick has said.

With the future of Modern Warfare unclear, Infinity Ward respawning and Medal of Honor back in the game, Treyarch has thrown down the gauntlet to rivals, stating that Call of Duty: Black Ops "will be the best Call of Duty in the franchise".

We speak to developers Treyarch and EA LA ahead of their Q4 showdown.

If Bobby Kotick could do one thing, he would make Call of Duty "an online subscription service" as soon as tomorrow.

Few new scenes, bit of rapping. What's not to like?

Microsoft has announced an "exclusive multi-year agreement between Xbox and Activision" that will see Call of Duty add-ons and map packs appearing first on Xbox 360 for the next three years.

We're on our way to the conference... Not long now!

Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia has said that Call of Duty: Black Ops will include multiple co-operative modes separate from the single-player story.

Treyarch studio leader Mark Lamia has affirmed that his team is now completely focused on Call of Duty.

Treyarch's Josh Olin has said that multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops was underway so early that the single-player guys have been using multiplayer assets to speed up production.

First come the historians and then, increasingly, come the game designers: the second waves to break on the shorelines of our recent history. Just so long as that history's violent, obviously. Just so long as it has options for cover systems and alternate fire modes.

To Infinity and beyond.

Developer Treyarch believes Call of Duty: Black Ops will finally put the studio on level pegging with IP pace-setter Infinity Ward.

"We've taken some creative risks," studio boss Mark Lamia told Official Xbox Magazine (scanned by WePlayCOD and picked up by VG247). "We want to do something different than we've done before.

"It's time," Lamia added. "We want the game to speak for itself."

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Activision has confirmed to Eurogamer that Call of Duty: Black Ops will launch on Wii, as well as Xbox 360, PC and PS3, on 9th November.

Although platforms weren't discussed when Black Ops was originally announced, we noticed that a Wii version was mentioned in the USA Today preview we reported on this morning.

We contacted Activision for comment and the publisher said that "Black Ops will be available on all four platforms, PS3, X360, PC and Wii, on 9th November."

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American newspaper USA Today has gained an exclusive look at a level of this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops, and has confirmed that the game's co-op mode will support four players.

Activision has confirmed that Infinity Ward is working on a Call of Duty game.

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UK retailer GAME has revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops will head to Vietnam, Cuba and the Arctic.

The next instalment in the Call of Duty series will feature a co-op mode, according to a statement from developer Treyarch.

"We can't wait for our community to experience Call of Duty: Black Ops," said studio boss Mark Lamia "We have focused our entire studio on this game, with dedicated multiplayer, single-player

and co-op teams creating the most intense, gripping and riveting experience possible for our fans on all fronts."

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Developer Treyarch has revealed the name and release date of this year's Call of Duty game.

Update: Turns out it's actually called Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The official announcement of the next game in the Call of Duty series is coming later this week.

A promotional video for the next episode of Spike's GameTrailers TV promises a teaser trailer for the game that "will be talk of the Internet this weekend" and "put all the rumors to rest".

The new episode will air in parts of the US starting at 5:40 am GMT this Saturday, 1st May.

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Activision has announced plans to expand the Call of Duty series into new genres, regions and digital formats and confirmed the departure of Jason West and Vince Zampella from Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward.

In addition to a new Call of Duty game from Treyarch this autumn, Activision has said to expect a new game in the COD series in 2011, and said that Sledgehammer Games - the studio set up by EA veterans Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey - is working on a COD game "that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre".

(The wording in the release is ambiguous here, however, suggesting that the 2011 title and action-adventure may or may not be the same entity. Judge for yourself: "The company is also for the first time announcing that a new game in the Call of Duty series is expected to be released in 2011 and that Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed, wholly owned studio, is in development on a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre.")

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Speculation that the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty 7 is set during the Vietnam War has resurfaced following an Activision call for motion capture and voice-over actors

Activision boss Mike Griffith has told analysts that in 2010 there will be more Call of Duty, more Guitar Hero, more Spider-Man and more Shrek thank goodness.

Call of Duty 7 is "currently in production" according to the LinkedIn profile of one of developer Treyarch's senior animators.

Activision has been licensing Vietnam War-era music for Call of Duty 7, according to a "reliable source" on That Videogame Blog.