It’s a safe bet that Call of Duty: Black Ops will become the de facto multiplayer shooter of the fall, deservedly so for the intelligent, exciting online features that developer Treyarch is adding to the series—most notably, gambling.

Of the hours’ worth of Call of Duty: Black Ops that I played at Activision’s multiplayer preview event in Los Angeles tonight, it was the newly revealed Wager Matches that packed the most punch. Nothing of substance was on the line as I was gambling with other people’s “money” in the form CoD Points. (CP is the stuff players will use to buy new weapons, perks, killstreaks, etc. and is different from the Experience Points, or XP, acquired while playing multiplayer.)

The meat and potatoes modes—the frenzied Capture the Flag, the destructive Search and Destroy, Team Deathmatch—were intact, a delight to play, but familiar. Capturing enemy flags and defending the one guarded by my team of strangers on a map dubbed “Slaughter House” was as adrenaline filled and chaotic as ever. Capture the Flag, a staple, plays almost exactly as it did in the most recent Call of Duty. Perfectly fine.

Those now expected modes were spiced up by some of Black Ops’ new killstreaks, like the RC-XD remote control explosive car which brings pint-sized but deadly driving to Call of Duty multiplayer. Players can also drop a SAM Turret onto the playfield that will target aircraft like the killstreak-called Attack Chopper. The vicious Attack Dogs of Call of Duty: World At War return in Black Ops, one of the late killstreaks that can help root out campers. Mortar Team was an interesting addition. Acquiring that killstreak lets the player paint three targets onto the map with mortar fire raining down on the map. It’s similar to World At War’s Artillery Strike.

The Care Package killstreak can, in addition to dropping other killstreaks, provide players with rare weapons, like a mini-gun and rocket launcher. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try those rare weapons on for size.

Black Ops appears to nail the obligatory online competitive aspects of a Call of Duty game, but Treyarch has something new and exciting to complement the multiplayer suite.

You Want Some Of This Action?

Wager Matches are wildly different custom game types. Comprised of four distinct free-for-all game types—One In The Chamber, Sharpshooter, Sticks and Stones, and Gun Game—players will ante up in a matchmaking lobby, wagering a set amount of the CoD Points they’ve accumulated by playing this and other multiplayer modes.

The most nail-biting of those four Wager Match types, from my experience, was Gun Game. The rules are simple. Each player starts with the lowest tier weapon, a revolver. Each time a player scores a kill, he’ll upgrade to the next weapon.

There are 20 tiers of weapon in Gun Game, so players will advance from pistol to dual wielding pistols to shotguns to semi-automatic machine guns to assault rifles to grenade launchers… and beyond. While the power of those weapons tends to increase from tier to tier, the transition from tier to tier can be jarring, resetting the player’s expectations of what his weapon is capable of.

The tension of Gun Game increases sharply as players reach the final two tiers—the explosive crossbow and the ballistic knife. Those are two weapons that carry very limited ammo and slow reload times, leaving the player extremely vulnerable at top weapon tiers—and that’s right around the time when other players are armed with assault rifles and “Thumper”-like grenade launchers.

The other twist in Gun Game is that suffering knife kills drops players down a tier, a most painful regression.

As much as I adored Gun Game, no Wager Match type managed to disappoint.

Sticks and Stones was enjoyable for different reasons. Players are armed only with an explosive crossbow, ballistic knife and one tomahawk. Kills with the crossbow and knife will accumulate in-game wealth. A successful hit with the tomahawk—a thrown blade that requires expert accuracy—will bankrupt its victim.

The weapon selection in Sticks and Stones leaves each player with minimal ammunition. Players must choose their shots carefully, for reloading or recovering one’s tomahawk is slow, leaving a player vulnerable to attack. Sticks and Stones sometimes takes a turn for the comical as players engage in a deadly dance that slowly plays out as opponents square off, taking single shots, reloading in unison, firing again, missing again, reloading. It’s as if it will ultimately devolve into each opponent throwing their crossbows at each other, then their boots, then settling the contest with a fist fight.

Sharpshooter was another great equalizer. There is no weapon imbalance here. Every player in Sharpshooter is using the same type of gun at the same time. Players will start with a choice from the game’s massive arsenal then switch to the next randomly chosen weapon. You may be playing with a shotgun at one point, then cycle to dual-wielded SMGs the next, a missile launcher 30 seconds later.

The only differentiating factor in Sharpshooter are perks that players acquire with each kill. Skill and familiarity with Call of Duty: Black Ops’ broad range of weapons will be key to seeing success in Sharpshooter.

And while One In The Chamber, a Wager Match game type that grants each competitor three lives but just one bullet, was fun to play, it was my least favorite of the quartet. Players can acquire additional bullets by killing their opponents, so you’ll need to be accurate with a pistol or skilled with a knife. One In The Chamber can lead to some tense hand-to-hand combat moments, but it was too lacking in variety, less panic-filled than Gun Game to make the top of my list.

However, I spoke to other Black Ops players who felt the opposite, that One In The Chamber managed to stand out at the strongest Wager Match type.

Location, Location, Location

During my hands-on time with Call of Duty: Black Ops, I played on only a handful of maps. “Summit” is built on a snowy, flurry-filled Russian base. There’s a large, covered command center at its core, with pathways that run along the map’s border and a handful of small sheds in which to take shelter. Otherwise, it’s very open in its design.

“Radiation” was my favorite of the lot. It’s full of nooks and crannies in which to explore (or camp), dark passageways in which to sneak and hide. There’s a large open area in the center, flanked by platforms that offer high ground and a great view of the map. There’s also an underground pathway in Radiation that can be accessed by doors. Players can choose to open or close those doors via a switch on a raised platform.

“Launch” is a tight, close quarters map set on a missile platform. I played both Radiation and Launch in Gun Game mode, with the latter providing a much zippier experience, thanks to the tight proximity of players. At certain intervals, one of the massive missiles will blast off, violently rocking the playfield. Players can initiate these rocket launches themselves, perhaps to disorient the competition.

I also played a few Capture the Flag rounds on “Slaughter House,” a decimated urban area of Vietnam built from blown apart buildings and mini-mountains of rubble. Slaughter House is filled with pathways to explore, alleyways and buildings interweaving for a map that’s stuffed with avenues to sprint through. The map flows splendidly.

Perks & Killstreaks

You want a list of the unlockable and purchaseable perks and killstreaks in Call of Duty: Black Ops? Here you go!

Perk 1
Lightweight – Move Faster (Pro)
Scavenger – Pick up ammo from fallen enemies. Replenish lethal grenades. (Pro)
Ghost – Undetectable by the Spy Plane and the Blackbird.
Flak Jacket – Reduces explosive damage.
Hardline – Killstreaks require 1 less kill.

Perk 2
Hardened – Bullets penetrate better.
Scout – Hold breath longer.
Steady Aim – Increased hip-fire accuracy.
Sleight of Hand – Faster reloads.
Warlord – Equip two attachments to your primary weapon.

Perk 3
Marathon – Longer sprint.
Ninja – Silent movement.
Second Chance – Pull out your pistol before dying.
Hacker – Ability to detect enemy equipment and explosives.
Tactical Mask – Reduces the effect of flash and concussion grenades.

Killstreaks

• 3 – Spy Plane
• 3 – RC-XD (remote bomb)
• 4 – Counter Spy Plane
• 4 – SAM Turret
• 5 – Care Package
• 5 – Napalm Strike
• 6 – Sentry Gun
• 6 – Mortar Team
• 7 – Attack Helicopter
• 7 – Valkyrie Rockets
• 8 – Blackbird
• 8 – Rolling Thunder
• 9 – Chopper Gunner
• 11 – Attack Dogs
• 11 – Gunship

Final Thoughts

Treyarch appears to be on its way to delivering an impressive follow up to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a multiplayer experience that builds smartly upon that seminal shooter. Players’ expectations for a rock solid multiplayer component in Black Ops should be well met, with Wager Matches providing a surprising variation on the robust suite of familiar game types. It would be nice to see Wager Matches extend to more game types, including team-based play and standard deathmatch game types. But Call of Duty: Black Ops’ multiplayer is, without a doubt, very promising.

We’ll have more from our hands-on experience with Call of Duty: Black Ops soon.

As of noon today all GameStop stores located on military bases will no longer be advertising or selling copies of Electronic Arts’ upcoming military shooter Medal of Honor because an aspect of the game includes playable Taliban characters, sources tell Kotaku.

Confirmed by calls to several GameStops located on military bases, the decision was made “out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform,” according to the letter sent to all GameStop employees this morning and obtained by Kotaku.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Services has confirmed to Kotaku that they requested the game pulled from the 49 GameStop’s located on bases in the continent U.S. The ban, an AAFES representative told Kotaku, also extends to all military PXs worldwide.

“GameStop has agreed out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores…,” the email reads. “As such, GameStop agreed to have all marketing material pulled by noon today and to stop taking reservations. Customers who enter our AAFES stores and wish to reserve Medal of Honor can and should be directed to the nearest GameStop location off base.

“GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter.”

The stores on bases contacted by Kotaku all confirmed that they no longer will be selling the game and referred us to GameStops in town to pick up the title when it comes out.

Electronic Arts declined to comment further for this story.

The commanding general of the Army and Air Force Exchange Services confirmed today that his decision was based on the inclusion of Taliban in the game.

Today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios are unleashing an all-new trailer for the highly-anticipated video game Mortal Kombat releasing in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The rocking trailer features several classic Mortal Kombat fighters hidden in the shadows preparing for their next vicious attack. Even in the darkness, players will recognize the blue blaze of Raiden’s electricity and the iconic spear attack of Scorpion. You’ll find these kombatants are just as brutal, if not more, under the veil of darkness.

See the original music video by Disturbed here.

Little-publicised flight sim Apache: Air Assault will release on November 9 for 360 and PS3, Activision said overnight. Who knew?

Gaijin Entertainment, developer of IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey, is doing this. It’s the firm’s first “helicopter combat simulator,” apparently.

The game features air-to-air and air-to-ground action, in locales “from the jungles of Central America to the mountains of Central Asia”.

You can either pilot solo or co-pilot with a friend over 16 multi-stage missions, real-world satellite photography included.

For the record, Birds of Prey was pretty much amazing, and the inclusion of co-op here should definitely put Apache on your radar.

If you don’t already own this, you’re about to have no excuse to catch up.

EA just said put out an HD trailer for an Ultimate Edition of Battlefield Bad Company 2, confirming all its contents.

The pack includes the game, four-player co-op-based Onslaught mode, Battlefield 1943 and access to six vehicle and weapon upgrades in alternate vehicle fire, improved vehicle armour, a new SMG, the M1911 pistol, a tracer dart pistol and something else that either isn’t listed or we missed. Que sera.

The last hurrah for EA Dice’s much-loved shooter releases on September 3 for 360 and PS3.

The Xbox 360 controller gets a little more fighter friendly later this year, with a new version featuring a transforming d-pad and monochrome buttons hitting stores on November 9. So what’s a transforming d-pad?

As Major Nelson demonstrates in the video below, users can change the new Xbox 360 controller’s directional pad from a flat surface to an actual raised d-pad with a twist of the base. One second it’s flat, the next it’s beautifully raised, perfect for performing quarter-circles until the cows come home.

Plus it’s got those lovely grey buttons, which should be extremely confusing to anyone that’s memorized the normal controller’s four colors instead of the letters, like me.

But hey, raised d-pad!

The new controller will be packaged exclusively with the new Play & Charge kits Microsoft is releasing on November 9. The package will retail for $64.99.

Gaze into the shiny face of this wondrous new thing and forget all about that $10 Xbox Live price hike.

Christ. Here we go.

Microsoft just announced that it’s raising the cost of an Xbox Live Gold subscription in Canada, Mexico, the US and the UK as of November 1.

Captain Common Sense said, “This will not go down well.”

Up, up, up

Nelson’s just announced the move, saying Microsoft wants to thank “loyal members and give you the opportunity to lock in your current price with an additional discount”: you can do so now.

Let’s see how hard Sony can beat the “we don’t charge for PSN” drum now.

Ready for a little cognitive dissonance? Check out this footage of the Gamescom build of Bulletstorm, featuring commentary by producer Tanya Jessen. The game is as violent, gory, and inexplicably disgusting as ever (you can even hear the infamous “Yum yum blister juice” line spoken in this clip), and Jessen’s discussion is calm and conversational, even as she describes four-barreled shotguns and mutants covered with pus .

Yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia was granted a temporary injunction by the nation’s Federal Court to block the importation and sale of the new PS3 modchips.

The injunction means that until August 31, none of the modchip’s Australian distributors will be able to import, sell or otherwise offload the devices. What’s more, they have to take all the stock they already have and leave them with Sony’s solicitors until the August 31 deadline passes.

Sony has from now until August 31 to convince the courts that the injunction becomes a more permanent arrangement (temporary injunctions are designed to maintain the “status quo” until a matter can be settled). If they succeed, it’ll mean the end of legal sales of the device in Australia, but if they fail, then once September 1 rolls around the chips will be able to go on sale.

This is an interesting development, since a 2005 Supreme Court ruling determined that the sale of modchips was legal in Australia (though Nintendo was recently successful in banning the R4). We’ve contacted Sony to see how they managed to get around this, and will update if we hear back.

If the North American special edition of Dead Rising 2 wasn’t good enough for you, you’ll likely love Capcom’s High Stakes Edition, packed with swag and available now for preorder via the Capcom Store while supplies last.

This is the ultimate collector’s edition for Dead Rising 2 fans, and it’s only available in extremely limited quantities from the Capcom Store. For $89.99 for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions, you’ll score a copy of the game, a lovely Dead Rising 2 poker set complete with blood stained dealer chip and playing cards, a Fortune City Visitor Map, and a code for redeeming the Psycho costume and skills downloadable content.

On top of all that, one lucky winner will find a Golden Terror is Reality XVII ticket, which can be redeemed for a six foot tall replica of Burt the Zombie.

Here’s the full list of what’s included:

• Dead Rising 2 Game (Xbox 360 or PS3)
• Poker set in a black high-impact case sporting the Fortune City logo and including:
• 100 poker chips- 4 different colors featuring the Fortune City logo
• 2 decks of ‘blood-stained’ custom playing cards featuring character art
• 5 green dice
• 1 ‘blood-stained’ dealer chip
• Fortune City Visitor Map featuring the game map and ads for Fortune City locations and attractions
• Terror is Reality XVII admission ticket with redemption code for the unique Psycho costume and skills downloadable content
• One Dead Rising 2 High Stakes Edition will contain the ‘Golden’ Terror Is Reality XVII admission ticket, which is redeemable for Burt the Zombie, a 6′ Dead Rising 2 zombie replica

Again, supplies are extremely limited, so hop on this now or risk being left out in the cold with all the zombies

In part one of EA’s Medal of Honor experience video series, titled Fallen Angel, there’s a great deal of running, shooting, exploding, and colorful language.

Last week at Gamescom, Crecente got to play through a level of Medal of Honor flying a gunship. Now EA lets us explore the more down-to-earth aspects of the title’s gameplay, running and shooting.

I’ve done so much running and shooting in my lifetime that it’s hard to distinguish one from the other. It would be an interesting experiment to strip the UI elements from the latest five or six modern-day military shooters and see if the uninitiated could tell the difference. The be completely honest, I might be hard-pressed.

Now show me what happens when a player dies in each game, and I become Mr. Wizard. I am a connoisseur of first-person shooter death. My mother always told me to find something I am good at and stick with it.

Rockstar has dished more detailed on the Liars and Cheaters Pack slated to hit Red Dead Redemption next month.

Think you’ve got what it takes to dabble in competitive multiplayer? Then read on below, cowpoke.

The pack focuses on the expansion of the free roam multiplayer experience, as well as adding a new competitive multiplayer mode.

New features include Multiplayer Poker and Liar’s Dice, and also includes the content previously announced as the Free Roam Pack.

The Free Roam Pack was originally planned as a free download, but due to the platform networks’ restrictions on numbers of free packs Rockstar can give away, it instead added it to The Liars and Cheats Pack as one Free Roam release.

Here’s the full rundown on what you’ll get:

• Multiplayer Poker and Liars’ Dice Games

• Multiplayer Horse Races – Ride out against your friends and foes online – with mounted combat guns blazing.

• The Explosive Rifle – An devastatingly destructive new weapon with its own new single-player and multiplayer challenges.

• Seven New Gang Hideouts

• Four New Hunting Grounds

• Stronghold Competitive Multiplayer Mode – Teams take turns in attack and defense in multi-tiered Competitive games.

• Posse Scoring and Leaderboards – Compare stats with other posses and compete to see who are the kings of the Free Roam frontier.

The pack also adds 15 additional multiplayer characters from the RDR storyline, along with new Achievements and Trophies.

The Liars and Cheaters Pack will be released on September 21 worldwide on PSN and XBL for $9.99/£7.99/800 MSP.

PSN will undergo routine maintenance on Monday August 30 from 8.00am-9.00pm BST, SCEE said today.

During this time, the PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home an any part of Account Management, such as your Download List, will be unavailable.

You will, however, be able to play games online and sign-in on the PlayStation Blog.

Too bad it’s happening during a Bank Holiday.

Ubisoft’s released the walkthrough video of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood shown at gamescom.

We have it for you below.

In it, you’ll see the large city of Rome, a metropolis three times bigger than Florence in Assassin’s Creed 2.

The video shows the sorts of antics and assassinations you can get up to in the game. Obviously, your game may not play out like it does in the video. Viva la differenza.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood releases on November 16 in the US and November 19 in the UK, and will be made available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 in regular and Limited Edition format, creepy Jack-in-the-Box included.

As if MAG, the truly massive action game from Zipper Interactive wasn’t intense enough, the freshly released MAG beta is PlayStation Move compatible making it the first FPS on the market to support the upcoming motion controller. So… just how accurate is the PlayStation Move when using it to aim in a fast-paced FPS. We’ve got the very first gameplay footage right here.

Using the Dualshock 3 controller’s analog stick for movement and using the PlayStation Move to aim, shoot, etc. looks a little something like this.

More videos are posted over here.

More black and white teaser art for Batman: Arkham City. You can never have enough of that.

The image is shown on the newest cover of OPM, which features Harley Quinn and Batman.

Quinn was in the original teaser for the game last December, alongside the Joker.

Get the full art below.

Batman: Arkham City launches next fall on PS3, 360 and PC.

EA just put out a video of the multiplayer perks afforded by the Crysis 2 Limited Edition, showing off bonus classes, a weapon skin and more.

The game’s premium versions were announced last week at gamescom.

“Bonus XP” means day one access to five pre-set classes in Assault, Scout, Sniper, Demolitions and Defence.

A SCAR weapon skin is included. This is a “digital camouflage” for an assault rifle. A bonus weapon attachment will be given to buyers in the form of a SCAR hologram decoy, an under-slung fake soldier launcher for the SCAR rifle. Neat.

If you’re willing to shell out for one of the super-packs, you’ll also get a “unique platinum dogtag,” which displays rank and status after you’ve been killed..

The Limited Edition is available for no extra cost, but it is, obviously, limited, and you’ll only get it by pre-ordering.

A Nano version is also available, but that’ll set you back £119.99 as it “extremely limited”.

It includes the Limited Edition housed in a steel case plus an 11” statue of the game’s hero, Prophet, on top of a New York taxi cab, a high-quality art book, all packaged inside a backpack modelled after the Nanosuit itself.

Crysis 2 ships on March 25 next year.

The gods have answered (or so it seems), because the one, one feature most MAG players have wanted since the game’s release in January was multiple character slots. Come August 31st, though, you can do just that at the cost of .99 cents per slot, and per month!

You can purchase up to two slots for a total of three all together, and with each slot purchase you make you can use that character for up to 30 days, at which point another payment will need to be made. If, however, you don’t want to renew your subscription just yet, the character stays in a ‘sleep’ mode until you wake it up with another payment.

I don’t know about this one, it seems Zipper dropped the ball with this feature. Will you take advantage of a new character slot?

Commander Fury & Urgent Fury’s new Director Of Marketing Julian Dossantos share a pint. Plus, EA/DICE faces a possible legal fire fight because of questionable content in the forthcoming Medal Of Honor reboot.

Classic game show Press Your Luck will have a video game incarnation available starting tomorrow, August 24, on PSN. The game features online and couch co-op for up to three people, along with solo play and over 2,500 trivia questions. The game will likely be $10, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation tomorrow.

Sadly, the video game based on the ’80s game show does not feature announcer Rod Roddy nor host Peter Tomarken, who died in 2003 and 2006, respectively. However, it does feature the Whammy, whose lifeforce is filled through human suffering and a steady diet of $100 bills. Check out a video of the game below.

Directed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil™ series, comes Vanquish™ a sci-fi shooter of epic proportions. The story of Vanquish™ takes place on a vast space station in a near future world where nations war over the planet’s remaining energy resources. Against this backdrop, players take the role of Sam Gideon, a government agent kitted out with a futuristic battle suit. A versatile fighter with a huge arsenal of weaponry at his disposal, Sam also has an array of martial arts skills that he can use to take down his robot enemies.

PlatinumGames has released a new trailer for Vanquish, its about the Pre-order DLC content (weapons) and it also includes new scenes and gameplay, Check it out!

While PC modders were completely locked out of Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch’s confirmed modding tools will be available for Black Ops, no doubt to the delight of many.

“We plan to open the game up for modding sometime post-launch,” said a Treyarch staffer on the game’s forum.

“We do not know yet to what extent you will be able to mod the game. There are some purely technical issues related to engine and internal tool enhancements that do not easily fit the modtools paradigm.

“We have looked at it close enough to see that it is non-trivial and we will have to pick it up again post-launch. Right now we are completely focused on finishing the game.

“And, dev console: confirmed.”

The news will be welcomed in the PC community, which went flat-out nuts when Infinity Ward decided the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 wouldn’t include dedicated servers or modding.

Black Ops releases on November 9 for PC, 360 and PS3.

See this, Dr Kawashima? This is danger close right up in your bespectacled face.

Chart-Track’s confirmed that Modern Warfare 2 is now the biggest selling British game of all time.

The Infinity Ward shooter achieved the feat this week, 41 weeks from launch. The game has spent only three weeks outside the top 10 since releasing in 2009.

MW2 has stolen the UK crown from Dr Kawashima on DS, which took around 36 months to overtake the previous holder, GTA: San Andreas on PS2, Xbox and PC.

As ever, no firm figures were released by Chart-Track. Suffice it to say, Modern Warfare 2 has sold “a lot”.

Activision will be looking for another CoD smash with Treyarch’s Black Ops on November 9.

The British Government has distanced itself from comments made by defence secretary Liam Fox, which asked UK retailers not to stock EA’s Medal of Honor, calling the game – which is set in the ongoing Afghanistan conflict – “shocking”.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport pushed the comments into the unofficial space this morning.

“Dr Fox was expressing a personal view and we understand why some people might find the subject matter of the game offensive,” said the department in a statement to GamesIndustry.

“Personal view”

Fox blasted the game last night, saying it shouldn’t be sold.

“It’s shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban,” said the politician.

“At the hands of the Taliban, children have lost fathers and wives have lost husbands.

“I am disgusted and angry. It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game. I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.”

The game allows you to play as the Taliban in multiplayer. Video below.

EA responded, speaking to the Sunday Times: “The format of the new Medal of Honor game merely reflects the fact that every conflict has two sides.

“We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven: someone plays the cop, someone must be robber.

“In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone’s got to be the Taliban.”

“Inaccuracies”

The publisher has further pushed back against the story this morning, claiming the Sunday Times’s report was incorrect in that British soldiers don’t feature in the game at all.

“Medal of Honor is an 18-rated highly authentic depiction of the soldier’s experience in Afghanistan – matching US forces against the Taliban in today’s war,” an EA spokesperson told VG247.

“Multiplayer combat is a long-standing, common and popular feature of video games. In multi-player, teams assume the identities of combatants on both sides of the conflict. Many popular videogames allow players to assume the identity of enemies including Nazis and terrorists. In the multi-player levels of Medal of Honor, teams will assume the identity of both US forces and the Taliban.

“The Sunday Times and other media stories on Medal of Honor contain inaccuracies. For one, Medal of Honor does not allow players to kill British soldiers. British troops do not feature in the game.”

“Clear choice”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport added that systems were already in place to monitor games content in the UK.

“There is a ratings system in place which exists to categorise games appropriately, in this case the game in question is rated 18 so should only be sold to, and played by, adults.

“There is a clear choice for consumers which they can exercise when making decisions about purchasing videogames.”

“Daily sacrifices”

Initial signs from retail indicate that, very obviously, this entire affair will be tomorrow’s chip paper.

“ShopTo fully supports and commends the bravery of the British Soldiers fighting in all conflict areas, including Afghanistan and would never condone anything that disrespected the daily sacrifices they provide to the British people,” ShopTo PR and marketing manager Phil Driver told MCV.

“As a retailer ShopTo.net follows all official government policy regarding the sale of video games. In the case of of Medal of Honor no other government decision has been made other than its PEGI classification of 18, which we have on the game. Should a ban be introduced based on a government decision we will of course stop the selling the game.

“Whilst we are aware that Defence Secretary Fox has a grievance that we understand, we have received no other similar feedback from our customers. The Medal Of Honor series is exceptionally popular amongst gamers and as stated in a response by EA, which we agree with, has always had teams of opposing forces in its content.”

“Hard little fuckers”

Hank Keirsey, a US military advisor with 24 years experience, added his tuppence, saying the media was incorrectly linking the Taliban with al-Qaeda.

“Those are hard little fuckers,” Keirsey told Eurogamer of the Taliban.

“From a soldier perspective, I gotta admire certain qualities in those guys. They’re not fighting for Al-Qaeda. Maybe one or two of them is. Most of them are fighting ‘cos they’ve always fought.

“They’ve got what someone told them is a foreigner in town. They’re gonna come down from the mountains with their little AKs and rally with other guys and try to beat the foreigner out of there.

“You gotta get into your enemy’s mind set. There’s courage on both sides.

“[The media is] making a connection that these are the guys that cut the heads off of women and kids in the night, then the next thing they do is climb into an aeroplane and fly into our buildings. That’s not necessarily the case.”

Medal of Honor, BBFC 18 rating and all, ships for PC, 360 and PS3 on October 15.

Straight from Gamescom 2010 engage in multiplayer battle in the snowy mountain peaks of Afghanistan in Medal of Honor.

The gamescom trailer for Namco Bandai title Splatterhouse has been released, showing the differences between the old and the new.

In the trailer, we get a nostalgic look back to the Splatterhouse days of old as well as some footage of the new game, which seems to get more violent the longer you watch.

Perhaps the main reason for the look back to the original is that Splatterhouse 1, 2, and 3 will be included with the 2010 remake.

Splatterhouse is due to release October 26 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

LucasArts has said a demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 will be made available before the game’s release in October.

Speaking with Joystiq at gamescom, a representative for LucasArts said it will be similar to the one shown at the show.

According to Stiq, the demo it played featured Starkiller trying to escape from Kamino. To get out of this prison, he “plummets down a tower”, crashed through a dome, and proceeds to fight his way out using the Force, mind tricks, and lightning.

If you succeed in escaping your confines and thwart your enemies’ attempts to stop you, you’ll get on a ti-fighter and escape the planet.

Neato.

No date on the demo was provided, but at least it’s coming.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 releases on October 26 in the US and October 29 in the UK for PS3, 360, Wii and DS – while the PSP version has been canned.

Ubisoft’s upcoming air-combat game isn’t just about the fancy fixed-wing fighter aircraft. The latest trailer for Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 shows you’ll be in charge of helicopters and the massive AC-130 gunship too. The demo’s already out on both consoles.

“A new Goldeneye has arrived,” the trailer below matter-of-factly states, “so what are you going to do?” That, Mr. Trailer, is an awfully open-ended question. We imagine we’ll stick to our usual routine of waking up at noon, then turning on whatever television station is currently running an America’s Next Top Model marathon, but — oh, we see. That’s one of those rhetorical questions. We’re supposed to say “multiplayer, of course,” and then you show a bunch of clips from Goldeneye 007‘s multiplayer component. Sorry for the confusion. See video below.

Check out some new-but-familiar maps (hey, it’s the Facility!), guns (hey, it’s the RCP90!) and features (hey, it’s Paintball Mode!) in the trailer posted after the jump. Or, if you’re interested in the game’s single player campaign for some reason, you can check that out in the nifty galleries posted below.

Check out the newest gameplay trailer shown at GamesCom 2010 below.

Medal of Honor is going to be released on October 12th, 2010 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

From Gamescom, four player split-screen and a golden controller. Watch as they take GoldenEye 007′s multiplayer for a spin on an original map.

Unlike the original GoldenEye, Daniel Craig will be playing Bond instead of Pierce Brosnan. GoldenEye 007 will be released on November 2nd, 2010.

Below is a pic of the Golden Controller.

This has been an exciting week for MAG, and we’re continuing that momentum today with a closer look at the improved character customization that’s debuting in our new MAG Beta program starting August 24.

To begin with, the MAG Beta will support up to three different character slots per PSN ID so that players can try their hand at any PMC without having to start over again. Please note that when you boot up the beta for the first time your existing MAG character will be auto-copied to “Slot A.” However, this copied character is now completely independent of your original character and he exists solely in the beta universe. In other words, whatever happens to the beta character after the copy process does not affect your character in the retail game.

Another new feature premiering in the MAG Beta is the increase in level cap. Whereas your character stopped advancing at level 60 in the retail version, the beta now allows him to keep going until level 70. Pretty sweet, we know.

You can access the supply depot from your primary menu screen.

Of course, the biggest difference you’ll find in the new MAG Beta versus the retail game is the progression system. Broken into two main parts, the improved progression offers both an in-game economy and an enhanced skill tree. Combined, they allow players to create and upgrade their alter egos in ways that weren’t possible in MAG before.

MAG’s in-game economy works just like a storefront; Currency Points (CP) are earned by netting kills and completing objectives and are then used to make in-game purchases which outfit and equip your character. Especially important is the fact that weapons and gear are no longer unlocked via the skill tree, because they are now unlocked via your character’s level and Currency Points. Once characters have achieved the level necessary to unlock a weapon or gear item, that item is then made available for purchase in the “Supply Depot.”

Paying for the weapon you want is easy!

The Supply Depot is a new menu item where all Currency Point purchases are made. Here, items that are currently available for procurement are shown with their CP cost highlighted next to them, while items not yet accessible are shown grayed out. Items that can be bought here include everything from most weapons and gear (divided into classes for easy navigation) to wearable goodies like hats, uniforms, and glasses. Plus, as an added benefit for players who may not like their choices as much as they’d first hoped, all items can be “returned” to the store for a percentage of their original cost. Oh, and don’t worry if you don’t have enough CP to buy what you need just right off the bat — CP doesn’t max out, so you can continue to earn the points even after you hit the level 70 cap and buy what you want when you can afford it.

Because of the beta’s new CP setup, the means of upgrading your character has been enhanced to support it. For example, players no longer have to save skill points to unlock skills since all skills now cost only 1 Skill Point to unlock (or more specifically, you can add one new upgrade with every “level up”). Sure, each individual upgrade may be smaller but now you can control your pace and end more specialized and powerful in the end.

Our updated skill tree is much more customizable.

In addition, we’ve also introduced a number of extra skills to the tree. “Improved Repair Speeds, Health Kit Recharge Rates” and “Sprint Speed” are just a few of the abilities you can expect to see for the very first time. Plus, we’ve categorized skills into classes for better navigation. In fact, here are the meta-categories you have at your disposal:

• Assault
• Marksman
• Close Quarters
• Spec Ops
• Medical
• Engineering
• Athleticism
• Vehicles
• Resistances

Alert! Here’s a “thanks for reading this far bonus!”
As our little message above says, as a thank you for reading the entire article so far (or for skipping ahead, whatever!), we’re including one last bit of bonus info in this post — namely, the additional weapons that the MAG Beta is going to let you test out. Totaling nine in all, the bonus guns come in sets of three for each PMC (one Assault Rifle, one Machine Gun, and one Sniper Rifle). The following checklist tells you what they are, and you can click on each one to see what they look like.

Raven: Gotha Elite (Assault Rifle) | KP21 (Machine Gun) | Kinmark SRS (Sniper Rifle)
SVER: Tamsen MK2 (Assault Rifle | Ariet SFW (Machine Gun) | Rubakho SVR (Sniper Rifle)
Valor: M31 CIR (Assault Rifle) | M245 (Machine Gun) | Sentinel M421 (Sniper Rifle)

Obviously, there are number of other elements to our improved character customization system that we didn’t cover here, but we have to leave something for you to discover on your own. Even so, we’re confident that this updated setup makes MAG the most immersive and customizable shooter available for PlayStation 3 and we’re anxious to let you try it out. August 24 can’t get here soon enough!

Catch more footage of the Oil Rig mission from the campaign of Killzone 3 from GamesCom 2010 in Germany!

Check out the new F3AR Trailer from Gamescom

The shooter has slipped into 2011, as you well know by now, but once released it will grace PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Treyarch reveals exclusively to NowGamer that local matchmaking is finally in!

Hot off the press from NowGamer’s one-on-one interview with Treyarch community manager Josh Olin at this year’s gamescom in Cologne, comes the world-shattering revelation that for the first time in the series, multiplayer matchmaking “will enable matchmaking with people in the local area.”

Those particularly attuned to Modern Warfare news may remember that Robert Bowling, creative strategist at Infinity Ward disappointed a lot of people when he tweeted back in September of last year that “There isn’t an option to search specific regions/ countries when matchmaking, but there is improved matchmaking to auto-assist.”

Will this see an end to transatlantic sponginess? We can only hope. We love our American friends dearly, but playing against them with transatlantic lag can be a real trial and vice-versa. This could see an end to it. To be fair the Modern Warfare franchise is perhaps the only game big enough to make sufficiently populated local communities a real possibility.

Hats off to Treyarch!

Capcom clarified today at Gamescom that the Resident Evil 5 patch that introduces Move functionality will be available on September 19 (the same day Move launches). As previously mentioned, the automatically downloaded patch will only be available for the Gold Edition of the game. If you live in Italy or Spain you didn’t get a “gold edition,” but Capcom is releasing Resident Evil 5: Move Edition in those countries.

A Capcom representative also let us know that folks playing together will be able to play co-op online or offline with any supported controller configurations (a Move and Navigation Controller pair can play alongside a DualShock 3, for instance). The Move controls (and all the other control options) will be available in the main story, Mercenaries and bonus episodes.

Sony Japan is celebrating the release of Gran Turismo 5 the only way it knows how, by releasing a brand new blue PS3.

The Gran Turismo 5 racing pack  arrives on November 13 for ¥35,980 ($421), complete with a special “Titanium Blue” 160GB PS3 Slim.

Arriving on the same day is the actual game, which will be available for ¥7,980 ($93), although Sony Japan will also release a Limited run Edition with five DLC cars and a 308-page book, for the same price.

So you want to be a boxer in the golden ring eh?

The golden ring; your living room, your fists; the Move controller. Are you ready to box baby?

The Fight: Lights Out will be hitting PS3 a month after the launch of PlayStation Move, it take you in a darkened ring and beats you senseless, but it does look like it could be a hit.

Check out the Gamescom trailer below.

A new trailer has hit for DC Online Universe, asking whether you will choose to save the World or destroy it.

The footage shows characters climbing buildings, flying and fighting against familiar looking superheroes in backdrops you are sure to recognise.

DC Universe Online releases on November 2 for PS3 and PC.

Update: EA released the video for the VIP Map Pack 6.

According to the in-game store on Battlefield Bad Company 2, VIP Map (Mode) Pack 6 will launch tomorrow. This pack includes Panama Canal Squad Death Match and Laguna Presa Squad Rush. So fans of those two modes can now enjoy an extra map to play on.

With Gamescon going on this week in Germany, many Battlefield fans are hopeful that more information will be released this week concerning Battlefield Vietnam or Battlefield 3.

You won’t have to wait until SOCOM 4 to see PlayStation Move owners duke it out with standard DualShock players. During Sony’s Gamescom press conference, Zipper showed off an enhanced version of MAG that adds support for Sony’s motion controller. Hopefully, someone will coordinate a 64v64 battle of the controllers to see exactly which control scheme reigns supreme once this update goes live.

Posted by Steven Ter Heide // Senior Producer, Guerrilla Games

These are exciting times for Guerrilla. It only seems like a couple days ago that we showed you the first glimpse of Killzone 3’s campaign mode. But here we are, more than two months later, ready to give you an exclusive taste of the multiplayer mode ahead of our gamescom press demo.

Killzone 3’s multiplayer mode adds heaps of new features to the strong fundamentals laid by its predecessor, creating a fresh multiplayer experience that everyone can enjoy. It offers 2 new game modes, a new matchmaking system, vehicles, Brutal Melee attacks and more ranks, abilities and rewards than you can shake a stick at!

The trailer contains never-before-seen footage from one of the multiplayer levels, called Corinth Highway. It is situated on the edge of Pyrrhus, the city which was nuked by Visari in an attempt to decimate the occupying ISA Forces. Now, a handful of surviving ISA and Helghast troops find themselves fighting for every square inch of remaining infrastructure in this broken city, while on the other side of the Pyrrhus River a new theater of war is already developing. The Corinth River level demonstrates a number of exciting multiplayer features, including Exoskeletons – the first of several player-operable vehicles in Killzone 3.

Sony’s finally announced Resistance 3 during its gamescom press conference in Cologne tonight.

A trailer was shown of the Insomniac shooter sequel at the event, beginning with a train going through a countryside, before showing a gun being readied in a destroyed landscape town.

People on the train are then seen clasping their hands in fear, before gunfire erupts and the Chimera emerged.

The reveal will finally put gamers at ease in regards to the game after first being outed in a billboard last year, followed then by a retail listing in July.

No date other then 2011.

Sony has released the gamescom trailer for inFamous 2.

In the trailer, you see plenty of electricity and plenty of destruction in the city, all in lovely slow motion.

inFamous 2 is out next year.

Posted by Ollie Barder // Senior Games Designer, doublesix Games

Hello again! This is Ollie Barder from doublesix. Since I spoke here last, the studio has been really busy with Top Gun – a new air combat game for the PlayStation Network based on the classic 80′s film. Needless to say it’s been a lot of fun making Top Gun and I’m happy to announce you can download Top Gun starting tomorrow (August 17th) on PSN. Screeching across a blue sky in a F-14 Tomcat will never get old.

For those curious as to how we’ve tackled the game we went down a more arcade focused route for air combat, more so than other games in the genre. So instead of having to micromanage finite ammunition, stalling and the vagaries of an overly complex flight model, we’ve streamlined all that down and removed as many restrictions as we possibly could. The reasoning behind this was to have the player focus on just enjoying air combat and keeping things simple while choosing either your guns or missiles. This means things like your health replenishes over time and your guns won’t ever overheat. You’ll have the freedom to fly through the blue sky and get to feel like a fighter ace.

We were also really keen on getting atmosphere and tone of the film into the game and make all of that nicely functional too. From using the same HUD elements as you see in the film (such as the missile lock), to your co-pilot spouting one liners each time you down an enemy – it’s all there to tie into the game’s functional feedback. In fact, we had Jack Epps, Jr., the original screenwriter for the Top Gun movie, write the script for the game to maintain the feel and attitude of the Top Gun property. Naturally, the game features the wonderfully nostalgic “Danger Zone” too as well the Top Gun theme.

The final element that we thought that would make all this gel was the addition of Controlled Flight Instability (or just CFI), as this acts as both a target camera and modifier to the flight model so you can pull much quicker turns mid-air. This came from that annoying habit of players in multiplayer doing loops to avoid being shot, CFI basically means the enemy has nowhere to hide now.

From 11 campaign missions, a horde mode and 16 player online multiplayer (with 5 modes) there’s quite a fair amount of content for a digital download game. You may also play as any one of six different jets: the US Navy’s F-14, F-16, or F/A-18 or the enemy’s MiG-29, MiG-31, or Su-27 We even support a custom button mapping for Saitek’s Aviator flightstick too. We all hope that people enjoy the game as much as we have had making it and always remember, you can be our wingman any day.

Make sure to download Top Gun tomorrow on the PlayStation Network for $14.99.

Finally, be sure to join Top Gun screenwriter and game author Jack Epps in PlayStation Home Central Plaza tonight for the Top Gun Troop Parade, starting at 5:00 pm PDT / 8:00 EDT. Better yet, wear your new Top Gun shirt, which you can win by watching the trailer in the theater.

When you think Square-Enix’s Japan studios, do you think violent shooter with people wearing over-sized rabbit heads? Gun Loco, a 2011 disc-based Xbox 360 exclusive fits that bill. The game’s website launches on Wednesday, so this might be a Gamescom thing.

The oddest aspect of the pre-release describing the game is that the characters are based on action figures made by designer Kenny Wong. The figures were made first, fully pose-able, and then scanned in for the game.

Well, I guess the other odd thing is that I’m told that this game is being developed by Square-Enix Japan, not, as I had guessed after looking at the shots, by an American or European studios. Nope. This is Japanese a Square Enix rep told me.

What do we know about how this plays? Time to quote the press release:

“At the farthest reaches of the solar system, a collection of the craziest criminals in the universe are incarcerated on a remote prison planet with no walls and forgotten by society. In this long-abandoned world, the only rule is anarchy, as each faction fights in a bloodthirsty race for survival, power and freedom. Through several seven climate zones and numerous stylized maps, players must fight through the ruins of the world’s previous civilizations, taking on each region’s inmates in a frantic and frenetic struggle to survive.

“Featuring third-person, sprint-action shooter gameplay, players can assume the roles of unique and memorable characters in a game that redefines the run-and-gun shooter. While pursuing enemies and being chased by their opponents, players must make use of the sprint-action play by running, jumping, ducking and vaulting, using the environments to their advantage. With a powerful arsenal of weapons at their disposal, each character comes complete with their own kill move, coupled with a mocking take-down taunt to ridicule their victims. The frenzied and furious comic style gameplay comes into its own with full 12-player online multiplayer matches across the planet, with a range of game modes and multiplayer arenas.”

Watching game trailers are great. You can see all the cool cinematic scenes or get a preview of the gameplay, but have you ever wondered if it was possible to create your own game trailer. The people at Double Helix Games and Square Enix are giving you the option to create their Front Mission Evolved trailer.

All you have to do is select one of four customized Wanzers equipped with unique loadouts and watch as your robot eliminates enemy forces. Try it out down below and see what you get.

Below is the full Press Release.

Square Enix Inc. the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in North America, announced today that the North American launch date for FRONT MISSION EVOLVED™ has been updated to September 14, 2010. Developed in collaboration by Double Helix Games and Square Enix, the riveting third-person shooter will be available on PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and in stereoscopic 3D for Windows PC.

FRONT MISSION EVOVLED breaks the mold of the franchise, delivering the action-packed experience of a third-person shooter within the distinct aesthetic of the FRONT MISSION® universe. Set in a world full of destruction, conspiracy and crumbling alliances, players will take on the role of Dylan Ramsey to face enemy armies while in control of a giant, customizable, bipedal tank known as a wanzer. Every wanzer is outfitted with extreme firepower, and players must fight through critical battles across a world on the brink of total war. As they make their way through metropolises such as New York City over 150 years in the future, FRONT MISSION EVOLVED will embed players in heart-pounding, large-scale action unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.

In addition to the single-player campaign, four different multiplayer modes allow players to enter a new battlefield solo or in a team. Players will be able to pit their highly customized wanzers against opponents from around the world so they may prove the superiority of their own war machines.

“Both Square Enix and Double Helix Games are committed to delivering the ultimate, evolved FRONT MISSION experience,” said Ami Blaire, Vice President, Marketing of Square Enix, Inc. “This installment advances the franchise into the third-person shooter genre, and come fall, fans will be blown away by the high-octane action that FRONT MISSION EVOLVED offers.”

For more information, please visit www.frontmissionevolved.com and the official Facebook page. Additionally, keep up with the all the latest insider news from the team through the official development blog: http://member.square-enix.com/na/features/fme/.

Story

In the future, the world is a changed place. Technology has advanced. Countries have merged into massive geopolitical blocks. But one thing, sadly, remains the same — humanity’s appetite for war. When a terrorist attack destroys one of the U.C.S.’s prized orbital elevators, the military is mobilized to eliminate the threat.

Dylan Ramsey, a young engineer, finds himself quickly caught in a swirl of destruction, conspiracies and crumbling alliances. Experience his story in this high-octane third-person shooter.

Choose from dozens of weapons and parts, including weapons that can be equipped on both hands and shoulders, to customize your wanzer and blast your way to victory.

When you think you’re ready for a new challenge, join the ranks of online pilots for intense multiplayer battles!

Features:

• Engage enemies amidst the concrete of labyrinthine cities, across the frozen wastes of the Antarctic and a host of other unique battlefields. Master the speed, firepower and adaptability of the multipurpose wanzer to ensure survival and success
• Choose from dozens of weapons and parts, including weapons that can be equipped on both hands and shoulders to build a war machine suited to any play style
• Equip weapons ranging from standard-issue machine guns to high-powered rifles and heavy-hitting, shoulder-mounted rocket launchers to administer widespread destruction
• Optimize wanzer mobility for any type of terrain with specialized leg parts
• After trashing enemies in single-player mode, enter a new battlefield online — solo or in a team — and match skills against other players fielding their own, highly customized wanzers
• Become immersed in a rich story crafted by the storytelling masterminds at Square Enix
• Experience the full force of battle in stereoscopic 3D for Windows PC through NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology

FRONT MISSION EVOLVED is rated T (Teen). Please visit the Entertainment Software Rating Board website at www.esrb.org for more information about ratings. FRONT MISSION EVOLVED will be available at North American retailers for the suggested retail price of $59.99 for the PlayStation 3 system and Xbox 360, and $49.99 for Windows PC.

FRONT MISSION EVOLVED will also be available for PC users via download, including through Valve’s Steam® platform for digital content distribution.

The upcoming Electronic Arts game Medal of Honor for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 has generated a bit of controversy over the fact that it portrays events from the War in Afghanistan in 2001.  Because the conflict is on-going and American lives are being lost, some like the Gold Star Moms find the concept of a game allowing gamers to play as members of the Taliban and shoot American soldiers during multiplayer to be disrespectful.  Fox News had one of the Gold Star Moms on their morning show this morning to get her opinion on the game.

Karen Meredith lost her son in Afghanistan says, “War is not a game period.  Right now we are going into a really really bad time in Afghanistan.  We’ve just come off the worst month of casualties in the whole war and this game is going to be released in October.  So families who are burying their children are going to be seeing this and playing this game.  I just don’t see that a video game based on a current war makes any sense.

EA responded to the controversy by saying, “Medal of Honor is set in today’s war, putting players in the boots of today’s solder.  We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides.  Most of having been doing this since we were seven.  If someone’s the cop, someone gotta be the robber, someone’s gotta be the pirate and someone’s gotta be the alien.  In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone’s gotta be the Taliban.”

Ms. Meredith, though, finds it unrealistic to compare the current war in Afghanistan to kids playing cops and robbers.  The Fox News correspondent pointed out that the average age of gamers who would purchase this game is around 35 to 39 and that these are adults who should have the right to purchase these games for better or worse.  Ms. Meredith however contends that EA shouldn’t even be making the game out of respect for those currently fighting and should follow the lead of Sony who chose not release a game called Shock and Awe and Atomic Games who chose not to release Six Days in Fallujah.

Check out the video of the interview below and let us know your thoughts on the controversy.

GTTV Writes: The bearded men of Tier 1 infiltrate the graveyard of empires in our exclusive Medal of Honor single-player campaign reveal!
See for the first time a killer new story sequence from Medal of Honor’s single-player Campaign!

Whilst Gamestop may have leaked the information a little earlier than supposedly planned, Treyarch have just confirmed that the Zombies maps are to be available to those that purchase upcoming title, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

In a short message, Josh Olin, Community Manager at Treyarch, confirmed that the four co-operative maps set to be included within both Hardened and Prestige editions of the game are, as rumoured, the zombies maps seen within their previous Call of Duty title, World at War.

Olin’s full message was as follows, “All 4 existing CoDWaW Zombies maps will be included in Hardened & Prestige editions of CODBlackOps as callback co-op levels!”

Call of Duty: Black Ops is due to release worldwide on November 9th.

Ubisoft has announced a H.A.W.X. 2 demo will land on August 16 and 17 for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

The demo offers two different single-player missions:

• Interception Course: Take to the air as a Russian pilot sent to intercept a group of stolen aircraft high above the Caucasus Mountains, a hot spot on the world conflict radar, you will be playing a Russian pilot in this mission part of the new multinational cinematic story narrative in H.A.W.X. 2.

• Seek and Destroy: Playing from the perspective of the elite U.S. HAWX squadron deployed to settle conflict spilling over in Africa, you are tasked with taking out specific targets with smart ammunition at night. Take off from a carrier under the cover of night and strike against a weapon smuggling operation using precision guided laser bombs

H.A.W.X. 2 is out in Europe on September 3 and in the US on September 7. It will also be made available on PC and Wii.

You say you want more sidekick characters in your Uncharted 2: Among Thieves online multiplayer? How about three Sullivans, two Chloes, and an Elena?

The Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skins pack answers players desperate need for more sidekick action, with multiple skins for three of Drake’s best buddies, plus Dillon and Mac from the original Uncharted. Will you play as UDF Sullivan, Winter Sullivan, or Borneo Sullivan? Do you prefer Chloe in her heist outfit, or in her Borneo duds?

There’s only one Elena, but it’s Wetsuit Elena, and frankly that’s all the Elena I could ask for.

The Sidekick Skins pack drops on August 17 on the PlayStation Network for $2.99, the same date and price as the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves dynamic theme, featuring Nathan Drake trudging endlessly through the snowy mountains of your television set.

On the same day, an UC2 Dynamic Theme for PS3 will also be released and it features a scene from Chapter 15 – Train Wrecked. It will also cost $2.99.

Due out this November, the special edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops will include a tiny remote control “video surveillance vehicle” inspired by the game’s multiplayer.

The remote control vehicle, inspired by the RC-XD found in the game’s multiplayer, has a range of about 200 feet and a fully-functioning remote camera that transmits both color video and audio. The car will only come with the yet-to-be-officially-priced Prestige Edition of the game, which also comes with all of the extras included with the Hardened Edition.

The Hardened Edition includes a custom Black Ops limited edition medal, exclusive Black Ops Avatar outfit (for either Live or Home), as well as four playable cooperative maps.

Both editions will be coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 when the game ships on Nov. 9. No official price has been announced for either edition, but GameStop lists the Prestige Edition for $150 and the Hardened Edition for $80.

No word on who is manufacturing the vehicle, but since the night vision rig looked an awful lot like it was made by toy maker EyeClops, and toy maker Spy Gear also makes a video camera-sporting truck, I suspect it could be a toy company.

Zipper Interactive is pleased to announce today that the new patch for MAG is coming tomorrow that fixes and adds a lot of things to make playing more enjoyable.

Version 1.07 should be available early tomorrow. As always, the update will take some time to be pushed into each the player’s console.

Below are the list of things MAG players should expect once they downloaded the new patch:

* A new “Happy Hour” Double XP bonus that’s applied to the first hour of any player’s gameplay session in a 24-hour period
* Suppression will join Sabotage as a “Faction Neutral” gameplay mode, allowing any PMC to battle each other on any Suppression map!
* Faster download and patching code that allows us to update MAG with more content and bigger file sizes in a speedier way
* Updated versions of the Flores Basin (Raven) and Alyeska Terminus (Valor) Domination maps
* New lighting effects for more attractive and realistic environments
* Various fixes to address bugs or glitches to improve MAG’s overall performance

Duke came here to finish development and chew gum. And he’s finally all out of gum.

According to anonymous sources that spoke with Kotaku, Duke Nukem Forever has – like the phoenix of legend, except with an even longer lifespan – risen from the ashes. Apparently, however, this time Borderlands developer Gearbox is taking the reigns, which sounds like the best thing to ever happen, if we’re being honest.

A playable demo of the game may even drop later this year, indicated one source, since Gearbox is allegedly picking up where 3D Realms left off development-wise. Where this leaves Gearbox’s Duke Nukem Begins spin-off, meanwhile, is anyone’s guess at this point.

As far as actual confirmation goes, every lead’s run smack dab into a brick wall. Imagine a choir chorus of “No comments” and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what we’re dealing with. However, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford loosened his lips just long enough to hint that more news might be on the way at PAX, which convenes at the beginning of September.

For now, though, fingers crossed. This, we think, is a match made in game development heaven – and not just because it’s much preferred to Duke’s old residence in game development purgatory.

Since this is a family podcast…we can’t show you what really happened in Los Angeles during E3. But, PSNation.org’s Glenn Percival tells everything!

FEATURING Linkin Park’s “The Catalyst”. Available on iTunes.

Clan Name Weapon Decals

01:01
Now this is exciting. Some of you may have spotted the smiley-faced red dot sight. Some may have even seen the potentially custom smiley decal on the side of the gun at 00:11. But how many of you spotted the clan name on the gun itself? It’s so in your face, we almost missed it. Check at around 1:01; on the horizontal stock widget on top of the barrel, you’ll see the letters TMKS scratched into the gun, just below your team-mate (MatTKS) running ahead of you. How awesome is that?

It’s amazing what you see when you keep ‘em peeled.

Callsigns Have No Titles

00:10
Although they might by the time the game comes out. The Callsigns’ total lack of title may mean something else – which incidentally, sits quite nicely with Treyarch’s user-generated content credos – that the titles may be able to be written by the users themselves? So long as it has the world’s most expensive, meta-complex swear-filter, this could be brilliant.

BGM-71 TOW Fly By Wire Missile

01:09
The fly-by-wire missile seen in the trailer – which is launched down a corridor, smashes through some plate glass, then annihilates a sniper – is none other than the catchily named BGM-71 TOW. Not at all a mouthful during fitful comms chatter; “Look out, there’s a BGM-7 … oh, you died …” Most likely to be dubbed the TOW (Toe) by players then, its name stands for Tube-launched Optically-tracked, Wire data link guided missile.

AH-1 Cobra Gunship

00:51
The narrow profile of the mini-map attack helicopter and its setting in 1968, means only one possible candidate. Bell Helicopter’s slimmer members of the Bell Huey family – sometimes referred to simply as ‘Snake’ (as in ‘Snake… Snaaaaaaaaaake!’) – were brought into service during Vietnam in response to the effectiveness of Việt Cộng ground support against the bulky, and largely unarmed Bell UH-1 Iroquois; did Kojima have a hand here? It’s all gone a bit Metal Gear.

User-created Emblems

00:40
We hope not to offend Treyarch, but the emblems on show during the MP reveal, hint to us that they may be user-created. They differ from Infinity Ward’s efforts in being composed entirely from two-dimensional cutouts. To us, this smacks of a poseable decal system in which players can create their own art from a set of prefab clips. It’s the next natural step, when you really think about it.

Внимание! Не Входиte без разрешения

00:58

Attention! No Entry Without Authorisation. It’s written everywhere throughout the trailer. That’s what it says in English. We have a Russian in the office. And so ends the most useless observation a human being has ever made in regard to a game trailer.

No Entry To Unauthorised Personnel. Apparently.

Motion Tracking Mines/Grenades

01:05
Just before the sniper is wiped off of the face of the Earth by an incoming TOW, check the mini-map. In it, you’ll see the sonar-like wave emanating out from the point behind him, highlighting an approaching enemy. A leaf out of Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s book? Perhaps, but we’re yet to discover whether this will be in the form of a grenade, or as a limpet device of some kind, which could well be the icon which appears on the up D-Pad direction at around 00:17

CH-47 Care Package Drop

00:35
It’s the big old Chinooks (CH-47s) bringing in the drops this time out. And by the looks of things, they hand around longer, and lower, than their Modern Warfare 2 counterparts, leading us to believe that they can, and will be shot down. That’s if they don’t crash all by themselves; Chinooks are good at that.

Sledgehammer Games is currently at work on Call Of Duty 8, which is due to arrive next year. And a Twitter post from a studio exec has teased the very first details of what we can expect.

Studio co-founder Glen Schofield has leaked that the next Call of Duty game will feature situations encountered by real military soldiers – or at least inspired by them.

“Working w/ military guys- their stories will blow you away. Names/locations will change but some situations going in the game- real stuff!” he Tweeted today.
Sledgehammer Games is headed up by ex-Visceral Games employees Schofield and Michael Condrey, who left EA’s Dead Space team to work on CoD titles for Activision.

And Schofield’s CoD-based Tweeting today referenced his past glories, too:

He added: ‘Picking composers 4 the game. Fun stuff, think we found a great fit. Audio will b better than what we did on Dead Space.’

A bold claim indeed.

Sledgehammer’s Call Of Duty game will be an ‘adventure FPS’ spin-off from the CoD series – and shouldn’t affect the arrival of Infinity Ward’s ‘proper’ next entry in the franchise in 2011.

Some have rumoured that the Sledgehammer’s Dead Space heritage may mean it’s tackling CoD: Space Warfare.

In a stroke of exceptionally bad luck for SNK, a glitch has been discovered that unlocks free access to the full versions of five of the publisher’s XBLA games for users who already have the demos on their hard drives. To make it worse, the glitch occurs within Modern Warfare 2 (a game that bajillons of Xbox 360 owners already have) — or its recent demo (which is freely available).

Somehow, running Modern Warfare 2 coincidentally fools the system into thinking it’s authorized to temporarily unlock full versions of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match, Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug XX, and Samurai Shodown II. Joystiq tested the exploit with Garou and KOF ’98, and can verify that it works. For now, at least.

We’re certain this issue will be patched by one of the three affected parties — SNK Playmore, Activision, or Microsoft — in the near future, now that it’s known. In the meantime, just because you can get these games for free doesn’t mean you aren’t a major jerk for doing so.

Activision is working on a subscription model for the multiplayer of Call of Duty: Black Ops, according to an MCV report.

The report states an announcement will come next month, most likely coinciding with the full multiplayer reveal of the game on September 1 in LA.

That’s despite Treyarch community boss Josh Olin debunking any speculation of a subscription model for its multiplayer last month alongside comms boss for Infinity Ward, Rob Bowling.

Call of Duty: Black Ops releases on November 9 for PS3, 360, PC, Wii and DS.