Call of Duty: Black Ops Message Board older than one year ago

Take on the notorious authentic Russian cosmonaut monkey zombies in the Ascension map, part of the First Strike DLC for Black Ops' multiplayer.

The road to prestige is paved with the bodies of millions of noobs. However, you can halve that number this weekend to get that arbitrary icon you're after -- a double XP weekend for Call of Duty: Black Ops is in full effect right now.

Players on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC have access to the additional experience until 8AM PST/11AM EST on Monday, March 7, at which point planting a tomahawk in some chump's back will lose just a bit of its luster.

#speakuponkotaku Today in Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter WhoKnew? wants to know where all of the Call of Duty hate is coming from. Is it just because it's beautiful? More »

#video The technology behind popular brain-control games like Star War's Force Trainer and Mindflex could make future video games more challenging, more frightening. More »

For many, the fall of the Berlin Wall represents the triumph of freedom over facism. Long an icon of social repression, the Berlin Wall has evolved into something far greater. It's a Call of Duty map now. One that stages a musical number.

Sony fans get First Strike.

Epic single player mission, WMD, comes to Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network.

#speakuponkotaku Kotaku commenter Goldwings is having problems connecting to mutliplayer games in Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PlayStation 3, so he voices his displeasure in video form in today's Speak-Up on Kotaku. More »

#sports Caught by a gamer at the recent NBA All-Star game, here's Miami Heat superstar LeBron James talking about which games he plays (and why he doesn't play online). More »

Good news: Just for President's Day, Activision is unlocking Call of Duty: Black Ops' two secret modes: Dead Ops Arcade, the top-down dual-stick shooter hidden in a DOS emulator, and the Presidential zombie fight known as "Five" that's unlocked upon completion of the single-player campaign. They'll remain unlocked throughout the weekend -- free of charge -- so get 'em before they return to Easter Egg status.

The NPD Group's analysis of games industry business for January 2011 has hit -- and the real hits are dancing games. The top 10 best-selling titles for the month include four dancing games: Just Dance 2, Zumba Fitness: Join the Party, Dance Central and Michael Jackson: The Experience. In fact, even the month's two biggest new releases, Dead Space 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2, were outsold by Ubisoft's unstoppable Just Dance sequel.

On the hardware front, sales were down eight percent overall versus January 2010, with software and accessories also dipping by five percent and six percent, respectively.

Keep reading past the break for the full top 10 in software sales.

#pc I have very publicly championed Call of Duty: Black Ops. I found the single player provoking, the multiplayer addictive. But was picky about which version of the game I like. That's because my choice for Game of the Year seemed packed with bugs when I played it on the computer and Playstation 3. More »

#feature Long hours, hard work, crap weather. Then there's the boredom, the long hours of boredom, followed by the bursts of heart-pounding adrenaline. This is war. More »

New maps, zombie level and more.

More maps, more zombies, more headshots.

The wait is nearly over! Treyarch and Activision are happy to announce that the Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike Content Pack launches worldwide for the PS3 on March 3rd, 2011. Battle it out in four all-new multiplayer maps including Berlin Wall, Discovery, Stadium, and Kowloon. Expand the cooperative fight for survival in Ascension, the latest chapter within the terrifying Zombies saga.

Berlin Wall features combat on both sides of the imposing wall

Discovery is a desolate, frozen German outpost in Antarctica

In Kowloon, battle in the rain along the rooftops of a towering Chinese sprawl

Stadium is an intense locale with Zombies Ascension

The battle for Democracy expands to new territories in less than one month!

The first map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, dubbed First Strike, will be released for the PlayStation 3 and PC on March 3. It hit the Xbox 360 on February 1 and includes four maps, one zombie level. More »

Activision's latest financial report boasted some pretty huge figures for Call of Duty: Black Ops' first piece of multiplayer DLC, "First Strike" -- the most staggering of which being that the pack was purchased 1.4 million times within 24 hours of its February 1 launch on Xbox Live. The publisher is looking to bolster that number in the coming months: In the same report, Activision revealed that the map pack will come to PSN on March 3, and then to PC "later in the quarter" -- corpo-speak for "sometime before March 31."

This staggered release falls in line with Microsoft's timed-exclusivity deal with Activision for Call of Duty DLC through the rest of the year. We guess "a month and two days" isn't the most ridiculous amount of time for PS3 owners to be forced to wait. Then again, in Internet-Gaming Time, that's about 15-and-a-half years, so ... yeah. Never mind.

- 27 million gamers have spent an average of 52 minutes per day playing online - for comparison, the average Facebook user spends roughly 55 minutes on the social networking site - 2 billion hours of playtime, - rough equivalent of 229,000 years - as of January 31, 2011, the number of players actively playing Black Ops during the [...]

Guitar Hero and True Crime died to bring you more Call of Duty.

Did you know "about as many people have played Black Ops as there are members of Netflix?" That should, hopefully, put into perspective how massive the Call of Duty audience is -- and why Activision's Bobby Kotick is so focused on "the sustained online engagement and enjoyment of Call of Duty audiences."

Map packs have been generating big bucks for the company, so it's no surprise that Activision has created a new studio to work exclusively on "the development of an innovative new digital platform and special services for our Call of Duty community." Without going into specifics, the studio's role will be to "[focus] on the delivery, digitally, of new, innovative Call of Duty content and services will enable tens of millions of players around the world to continue to enjoy the experience that Call of Duty offers." While this sounds like a potential subscription service, Activision has previously promised to "never" charge for multiplayer. What could this exactly mean? More map packs? Or is Activision proving Pachter right?

Activision's latest financial report boasted some pretty huge figures for Call of Duty: Black Ops' first piece of multiplayer DLC, "First Strike" -- the most staggering of which being that the pack was purchased 1.4 million times within 24 hours of its February 1 release on Xbox Live. The publisher is looking to bolster that number in the coming months: In the same report, Activision revealed that the map pack will be released come to PSN on March 3, and then to PC "later in the quarter" -- corpo-speak for "sometime before March 31."

This falls in line with Microsoft's temporary exclusivity agreement for Call of Duty DLC, which it announced during its press conference at E3 last year. We guess "a month and two days" isn't the most ridiculous amount of time for PS3 owners to be forced to wait. Then again, in Internet-Gaming Time, that's about 15-and-a-half years, so ... yeah. Never mind.

#mentalhealth Hundreds of thousands of U.S. war veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by their experiences on the front lines. According to Stay Strong Nation, games like Call of Duty: Black Ops can bring those experiences rushing back. More »

That's right, your time spent perusing the internet is all for naught -- you could be greedily lapping from a Call of Duty: Black Ops chalice filled to the brim with crisp, cool experience points. The gist of the intel is this: Treyarch's hosting a double experience multiplayer event until February 7 at 8am PST, across all platforms.

The event was set in motion to celebrate the launch of "First Strike" on the Xbox 360 -- oh, you left? You're not even reading this anymore? Gotcha.

Chaos breaks loose on the new maps of Black Ops, available via the First Strike DLC pack.

Treyarch's first DLC map pack has hit the Xbox 360.

I've got about a dozen codes for the Call of Duty: Black Ops's First Strike map pack to give away. Head on over to my Twitter and follow me so you can see when I drop them tonight. They'll be hitting within the next hour or so. These are Xbox 360 only codes. More »

#video I'm sure there are more complex video game Easter Eggs out there, but this is the most complex one I've ever laid eyes on. More »

#video YouTube is clogged with drearily long replays of Call of Duty: Black Ops. They account for most of the most popular gaming clips on the giant site. Thankfully, someone has finally made a better, more beautiful one. More »

This week's game releases might be light be on the ground, but CODBlops fans can rejoice (if they have an Xbox), as the first DLC is here in the shape of First Strike. Coming in at 1200 points, First Strike offers up four new multiplayer maps - Discovery, Kowloon, Stadium, Berlin Wall - and a new Zombie mode map - Ascension. On the movie front, The Fighter is this week's heavyweight contender laden with award season glory including six Oscar nominations, three BAFTA nods, and handful of Golden Globes and SAG awards to its name. We've outlined the highlights of this week's releases for your perusal below. <hr> <b>Games</b> Mario Sports Mix (Wii) <object id="vid_4d39e5280457bf439f0042f2" class="ign-videoplayer" width="480" height="270" data="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="url=http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/01/21/mario-sports-mix-let-the-games-begin?objectid=77721"/></object><div style="width:480px"><a href="http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/01/21/mario-sports-mix-let-the-games-begin?objectid=77721">More Mario Sports Mix Videos</a></div> "The game doesn't really feel like the Mario sports titles from before. It's more more like a party game." <a href="http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/109/1098705p1.html">Read the preview here.</a> Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem (DS) <object id="vid_4cdde8dd2db5b91aa300a6f4" class="ign-videoplayer" width="480" height="270" data="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="url=http://uk.ign.com/videos/2010/11/13/mario-vs-donkey-kong-mini-land-mayhem-video-review?objectid=77825"/></object><div style="width:480px"><a href="http://uk.ign.com/videos/2010/11/13/mario-vs-donkey-kong-mini-land-mayhem-video-review?objectid=77825">More Mario vs. Donkey Kong Mini-Land Mayhem Videos</a></div> "This is one of the best DS games of the year. It's not at all a departure from previous entries in the series and essentially provides more of the same, but I'm not going to complain about more of a good thing." <a href="http://uk.ds.ign.com/articles/113/1134070p1.html">Read the full review here.</a> <hr> <b>Digital Downloads</b> Call of Duty: Black Ops - First Strike (XBL) <object id="vid_4d33d1452db5b92cc7002b44" class="ign-videoplayer" width="480" height="270" data="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="url=http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/01/17/call-of-duty-black-ops-first-strike-trailer"/></object><div style="width:480px"><a href="http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/01/17/call-of-duty-black-ops-first-strike-trailer">More Call of Duty: Black Ops Videos</a></div> "First Strike, hitting for an undisclosed exclusive period on Xbox 360, might be a steep 1200 Microsoft Points, but also features all original maps. No retreads of old maps here." <a href="http://uk.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/114/1144268p1.html">Read the preview here.</a> Killzone 3: Multiplayer Beta (PSN) <object id="vid_4cc9f2680457bf0589000307" class="ign-videoplayer" width="480" height="270" data="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="http://media.ign.com/ev/prod/embed.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess