Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine UK, executive producer Mark Rubin stated that, “I’m trying to think how I can word this correctly, We do have a way where we…it’s almost ‘Easter eggish’ – if you figure out in the level that there is something you can do, you get some other objective and some other part of the mission that you didn’t know [about] if you didn’t sort of do something.

“We don’t have the same branching system [Treyarch] do, obviously. But there is basically this way that, when you are in a mission, you might find something, if you grab it, then something opens up later in a different mission, or something happens later in that mission, that wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t do them.”

Rubin also stated that these so-called objects would appear “several times throughout the whole campaign”. Perhaps the best comparison would be to Star Fox 64, wherein you could discover different paths or fulfill different conditions in missions to open up branching paths. Will Ghosts go in the same direction though? We’ll find out when it releases on November 5th for Xbox 360, PC and PS3 with PS4 and Xbox One releases due later.

The 4 new maps are Vertigo, Studio, Encore and Magma. However,  the center of the card teases a new zombie map called Mob of the Dead. The images easily described the locations of Vertigo and Studo maps. Vertigo is located on a high rise, while Studio is located in a movie studio. Meanwhile, it’s hard to tell where Magma and Encore exactly take place. The background image of Mob of the Dead map suggests that it’s taking place in the Alcatraz, the former United States penitentiary. One of the community live members @LiamFTWinter managed to get an exact description of Uprising DLC  from the Xbox Live Marketplace upload registry.

The description says the following: “Call of Duty®: Black Ops II Uprising includes four incredibly diverse Multiplayer Maps: Magma, Encore, Vertigo, and Studio: a reimagined adaptation of the fan-favorite Black Ops multiplayer map Firing Range. Uprising also introduces Mob of the Dead, Treyarch’s most terrifying Zombies experience to date.

Top Hollywood talent rounds out a cast of four Prohibition-era gangsters that are forced to fend off hordes of the undead while imprisoned on San Francisco’s notorious Alcatraz Island. While guard towers and new weapons offer tactical advantages, survival offers an unprecedented new challenge for these four lost souls.” Keep your eyes peeled for Call of Duty Black Ops II: Uprising on April 16th 2013.

Source

The Nuketown Zombies bonus map for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is now available for all PS3 and PC owners to download. Well, not all. You can download the bonus map if you have a Season Pass for Blops 2.

The Season Pass, which gets you access to four exclusive maps and in-game calling cards, is the only way you get get your hands on the Nuketown Zombies map, so you might want to try and get one.

Nuketown has become a very popular map in the CoD franchise. After it made its debut in 2010’s Black Ops, Black Ops 2 saw a futuristic take on the map called Nuketown 2025, and now the zombies mode for the game has received this seemingly awesome map.

Have a look at this video, it might give you an idea of what to expect:

Stay tuned for more info.

Amazon has kicked off 2013 with a bang, with sales for the week ending January 5th including heavyweights such as Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Dishonored and more.

Games such as Final Fantasy XIII-2, Darksiders 2, Street Fighter X Tekken and Modern Warfare 3 are also on sale under the Clearance Deals, so those of you who haven’t bought the games so far can get them for a dropped price now.

Xbox Live Gold Membership 12-month cards are also on sale, being sold for a dropped price of $49.96 now.

Here’re all the deals at Amazon for the week ending January 5th:

GAME DEALS

• The Amazing Spider-Man (PS3, Xbox 360) – $29.99
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PS3, Xbox 360) – $39.99
• Capcom Digital Collection (Xbox 360) – $16.73
• Dishonored (PS3, Xbox 360) – $39.99
• Fable: The Journey (Xbox 360) – $29.99
• Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse (PS3, Xbox 360) – $39.99
• Halo 4 (Xbox 360) – $39.99
• Ivy the Kiwi? (Wii) – $12.99
• Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP) – $15.86
• NASCAR The Game: Inside Line (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) – $39.99 / $29.99
• Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PS3 w/ free PS Vita copy) – $39.99
• Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (3DS) – $34.99
• Saints Row: The Third The Full Package (Xbox 360) – $41.91
• Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (PS3, Xbox 360) – $17.14
• Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (PS3, Xbox 360) – $24.99

Clearance Deals

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3) – $39.99
• The Darkness II (Xbox 360) – $19.99
• Final Fantasy XIII-2 Collector’s Edition (Xbox 360) – $29.71
• Heroes of Ruin (3DS) – $28.46
• Just Dance Kids 2 (PS3) – $17.19
• The Secret World (PC) – $29.99
• Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3, Xbox 360) – $19.99
• Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3, Xbox 360) – $19.99
• Tera (PC) – $18.32
• UFC Undisputed 3 (Xbox 360) – $24.99

ACCESSORY DEALS

• 12-Month Xbox LIVE Gold Card – $49.96

[Examiner]

A promotional image for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been leaked, and it looks like a new DLC is headed our way. The promotional image shows that the DLC will be called Revolution and will contain 5 maps and an added weapon. Four of these maps will be for the multiplayer while one is used in the zombies mode.

The maps are titled Downhill, Mirage, Hydro and Grind, while the zombies mode map is called Die Rise (interesting word play).

Examiner reports that Mirage will likely be set in Chine since we can see large Pagoda-style buildings in the background in the image posted above. Downhill is a snow covered map, set in a ski-resort, while Hydro is set on a hydroelectric damn and Grind is set in state park.

The zombie map, Die Rise shows half-ruined, crumbling skyscrapers in the background, portraying a pretty bleak picture, as they should. Hopefully, we’ll be able to enter them.

Like all other CoD DLCs, this should cost $15 (1200 Microsoft Points) and release first on Xbox Live, followed a few weeks later by the PS3 and PC. Of course, none of that is officially announced- hell, this DLC isn’t even announced yet- and this is all just speculation and conjecture.

We don’t know yet if this will be released for the Wii U.

Stay tuned for more info.

[Source: CoD Forums]

The UK Charts for the PS3 for the week ending 15th December are out now, and it looks like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is still dominating sales, as expected. It’s topped the PS3 sales charts once more.

Hitman: Absolution and FIFA 13 were at #2 and #3 in the standings.

LittleBigPlanet Karting also somehow managed to break into the least, standing at the tenth position.

Here’s the full top 10 for you:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision Blizzard
2. Hitman: Absolution – Square Enix
3. FIFA 13 – EA
4. Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
5. Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft
6. Need for Speed: Most Wanted – EA
7. WWE ’13 – THQ
8. Wonderbook: Book of Spells – Sony
9. LEGO The Lord of the Rings – Warner Bros. Interactive
10. LittleBigPlanet Karting – Sony

It’s not really a surprise that Blops 2 has topped the sales, but I didn’t expect FIFA 13 to go behind Hitman.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

[Source]

The title update 1.04 is now live for the PS3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and it makes several fixes and enhancements, not to mention adding a few minor features to the game as well. Balancing issues have been fixed, and the update also fixes several issues with the Theater Mode.

Black Ops 2 grossed $1 billion in its launch month, and also topped the NPD sales charts for November, beating Halo 4 and Assassin’s Creed 3 to the top spot. You can also read our Black Ops 2 review here.

Here are the full patch notes for you:

New Features & Feature Improvements

• Added support for posting Live Stream URLs to Twitter.
• Improved audio/rumble responsiveness when hitting enemies with gunfire.
• Improved overall communication of Double XP when enabled.
• AAR better communicates how much XP was earned in each match.
• Added the ability to “View League Teams” from any player’s Playercard.
• Added the ability to “View Playercard” from League solo leaderboards.
• Added a number of security system enhancements.
• Added Hardcore Kill Confirmed playlist to the Hardcore category

Issues Addressed

• Fixed a rare hang (“Awaiting Textures”) upon loading into maps when joining a session in progress after fresh boot.
• Game now resets the Care Package for a non-owner if the owner re-rolls the package using the Engineer perk.
• Players with Black Hat PDA can no longer hack a Care Package faster than the owner can capture it.
• Addressed an exploit where modified console hackers could maliciously spread infected films to other users.
• Added a fail-safe to prevent spawn trapping in CTF.
• Increased sight checks on turrets to improve spawning algorithms.
• Fixed a number of new UI error messages reported by users.
• Addressed a number of issues that would cause friendly/enemy color indicators on equipment and scorestreaks to display as the wrong team.
• Improved overall Theater and Live Streaming stability.
• Improved film rendering stability and made progression bar more accurate while rendering a film.
• Addressed issues which prevented some master challenges from being completed.
• Precision challenge “Wet Work” will now unlock with 10 kills.
• The wins challenge will now account for all FFA modes when ending a match with a tie (if you are in the top 3).
• Players that help with the “Synchronized Attack” challenge now get credit for it.
• Players will not be able to manually take control of their AGR if they die at the exact moment that their AGR deploys.
• Emblem Editor no longer closes the current emblem when discarding changes.
• Players using Ghost will no longer be invisible at all times in Custom Games with the mini-map option set to “constant”.
• Players using Ghost and a Suppressor attachment will no longer appear on the enemy’s minimap while shooting and moving while a UAV is up.
• The median for the K/D graph in the AAR is set to 1.0 instead of 0.0.
• Players can no longer get on top of the shrubs in Nuketown 2025.
• Thermal vision overlay no longer appears using the VTOL glitch.
• Kills from the explosion on the explosive crossbow bolt now count towards challenges.
• Counter UAV no longer remains for the rest of the game after a host migration.
• Clan tag is no longer locked immediately after prestige.
• Offline profiles can no longer be exploited to join online games when an online profile is also signed in.
• Multi-team games no longer count as a tie if an entire team quits.
• Fixed an area in Express where K9 Unit dogs could get stuck.
• EMP grenades no longer affect the CODcaster HUD.
• Party Privacy count no longer affects how many bots will spawn in Combat Training.
• Shadows seen through sniper scopes now render more correctly.
• Players can no longer stand on invisible collision in Carrier.
• “Drop Shot” medal is no longer awarded after standing back up.
• Players can now copy a custom class to the extra prestige slot.

Gameplay Balancing

• Scorestreaks:
  • UAV: cost increased from 350 to 425.
  • Lightning Strike: added 750ms delay
• Equipment/Grenades:
  • Bouncing Betty: increased the grace period between trigger and activation by 200ms.
  • Sensor Grenade: increased the range (now 1000 units), frequency (now 800ms between pings), and amount of time (now 6s) that players appear after explosion.
  • Concussion Grenade: decreased movement penalty and turn speed penalty when hit.
• SMGs:
  • All: increased hip fire recoil.
  • All: increased max hip fire spread from 4.75 to 5.
  • All: reduced bullet penetration.
  • MSMC: increased recoil slightly.
  • PDW-57: increased recoil slightly.
• Assault Rifles:
  • All: reduced idle sway for more reliable long-range aiming.
  • XM8: reduced lethal range of 3-hit kills from 250 to 50 inches.
  • XM8 + Select Fire: increased recoil.
  • FAL OSW + Select Fire: increased recoil.
  • SWAT-556 + Select Fire: increased recoil.
  • MTAR: Made auto aim values consistent with all other assault rifles.
• Sniper Rifles:
  • All: increased hip fire spread.
  • All + Laser Sight: increased hip fire spread.
  • XPR-50: increased recoil slightly.
• Shotguns:
  • R870: reduced one-hit kill range by 45 inches.
• Pistols:
  • B23R: reduced headshot multiplier from 1.4 to 1.
  • KAP-40: reduced headshot multiplier from 1.4 to 1

Black Ops 2 has crossed $1 billion of revenue in just 15 days, taking one day less than last year’s Modern Warfare 3, which took 16 days to get to the $1 billion mark (if you’re too lazy to add 1 to 15). This makes Black Ops 2 the fastest selling entertainment product ever to reach $1 billion. The 2009 film Avatar made it to the milestone with 17 days on the box office.

If we take $50 to be the average price at which a copy is being sold, you get approximately 20 million units sales so far. Let’s say we subtract, shall we say, 4 million, taking into account revenue from other sources, accessories and of course, piracy, that still means Black Ops 2 has sold in the region of 16 million units in 15 days.

These are not officially released figures, of course. Just our calculations. There could be zero truth to them, for all we know.

Black Ops 2 grossed over $500 million in its first 24 hours on sale, and sold as many as 1 million copies during its GameStop midnight launch events across the US itself. It even crossed 11 million sales in a week, according to reports. It even topped the Xbox Live activity charts, toppling Halo 4, though that was actually expected.

Our reviewer of Black Ops 2 wasn’t very impressed with the game, and our Editor Ravi Sinha was also critical of the shooter in his opinion piece. However, in another one of our editorials, we took a look at the positive side of Blops 2 and why it might be the best game in the series since Modern Warfare. Read the article here.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Minecraft was sitting at the third position in the XBL activity charts, holding off last year’s megaton Modern Wafare 3, which had to settle for the fourth position.

Minecraft also topped the Xbox Live sales charts, with The Walking Dead coming in at No. 2.  There are also a few old geezers like Skyrim the list  Here’re the full chats:

LIVE Activity for week of November 19:

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)

1)Call of Duty: Black Ops II

2)Halo 4

3)Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

4)Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

5)EA Sports FIFA Soccer 13

6)Call of Duty: Black Ops

7)Assassin’s Creed III

8)NBA 2K13

9)Modern Warfare 2

10)Madden NFL 13

11)Battlefield 3

12)Borderlands 2

13)Skyrim

14)GTA IV

15)Halo: Reach

16)Gears of War 3

17)FIFA 12

18)Forza Motorsport 4

19)Hitman: Absolution

20)Forza Horizon

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

1)Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

2)The Walking Dead

3)Magic 2013

4)Pinball FX2

5)Spelunky

6)I Am Alive

7)Castle Crashers

9)Trials Evolution

10)Sega Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage

11)Rock Band Blitz

12)Fruit Ninja Kinect

13)Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe

14)Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World

15)Sonic Adventure 2

16)Quantum Conundrum

17)Trials HD

18)Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co.

19)Peggle

20)Battlefield 1943

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

1)CastleMiner Z

2)Murder Miners

3)CastleMiner

4)Avatar Laser Wars 2

5)Avatar Deathmatch

6)Avatar Farm Online

7)Avatar Laser Wars

8)Shark Attack Deathmatch

9)Avatar Legends

10)The Impossible Game

11)Block World

12)Total Miner: Forge

13)The $1 Zombie Game

14)Paintball War

15)Avatar Paintball

16)Don’t Die Dateless, Dummy!

17)End Of Days: Infected vs Mercs

18)Miner Of Duty

19)Miner4Ever

20)Toy Stunt Bike 2

Are you surprised by the latest sales figures? (Trust us, we are not!). Let us know in the comments section below.

Via CVG.

Look, I get it- Call of Duty is not the most dearly beloved franchise in the video gaming history. It represents everything “hardcore” gamers dislike about the business model so many publishers have now adopted- yearly releases. A focus on multiplayer. Mindless storylines. Hell, it represents Activision. CoD has to be one of the most hated franchises these days- our own review here at GamingBolt was less than enthusiastic about the game, and our author Ravi, too, criticized it quite a lot in his opinion piece. But somehow, each new Call of Duty game manages to sell in droves, crossing 15 million- and sometimes even 20- with each new installment.

People hate how games like Modern Warfare 3- the eighth game in the series- which is more or less exactly the same as Modern Warfare- the fourth game in the series which came out just 5 years before it did- sell more than games like Battlefield or Borderlands, which are carefully and meticulously developed games and provide you more than just 4 hours of single player gameplay. I’ve often bashed the series for the same reasons myself. I don’t just get the players’ anger towards Call of Duty in general, I share it with them.

But with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Treyarch and Activision have attempted to do something we all thought Call of Duty would never even think of touching with a twelve-feet pole. Black Ops 2 changes the Call of Duty formula, mixes things up, and as a result, it’s the first game that can honestly be recommended to someone who has played 2007’s Modern Warfare and doesn’t want a similar experience. But does this change up of the formula work? Has Black Ops 2 taken a risk, trying to fix something that ain’t broke?

Some might say it has. Well, some might say Treyarch hasn’t even tried to change anything, but that would be untrue. Anyhoo, Black Ops 2, surprisingly, is the first game in the series in 5 years that has managed to achieve something that previous entries hadn’t already, and is, as a result, the best Call of Duty game since CoD4.

But what exactly is it that Black Ops 2 does that previous entries in the series haven’t done already? According to me, the biggest change is the inclusion of player choice. Throughout the course of its (still) short campaign, Black Ops 2 offers players to make some pretty huge decisions- shoot a person in the head, or shoot him in the leg; knock out one of your major enemies, or kill him altogether; kill an important figure- actually, several important figures- or let them live. These are all choices that are, on the face value, black and white. The guy’s evil? Of course he deserves to die! That guy’s a positive character? I’ll just kick him in the face and be done with it.

However, Black Ops 2 masks the true nature of these decisions really well. Sometimes, it may not even tell you that you have a choice at all. For example, halfway through the campaign, in one of the 1980s missions, we play as Frank Woods, and we’re told to take a headshot on a guy under the hood we’re told is the main villain of the game, whereas that person is actually Alex Mason, the protagonist of Black Ops and Black Ops 2. Here’s what happened with me-

My superior tells me, again and again, to take the headshot. Again and again, always specifically saying the word “headshot”. Something’s fishy here, I think. Hudson, my superior, is being suspiciously mum about this entire mini-operation, and urging me, again and again, to kill the guy under the hood. And all the while, he sounds as if he’s under great duress. I don’t want to take the headshot. I know something is wrong.

But it’s Call of Duty, I think. I have to take a headshot, it’s not as if I had a choice, right? I mean, if I did have a choice, the game would tell me… right? Wrong.

I take the headshot, and lo and behold, my fears come true- Frank Woods has just killed Alex Mason, one of my favourite characters to have been introduced this generation. I’m stumped, absolutely gutted. The people at Treyarch are cruel bastards. It’s only a few hours later while discussing this event with a friend that I find out that if I had shot Mason anywhere but his face, he would have lived and he would have made an appearance at the end of the game. And now I’m even more gutted. I killed Alex Mason. I could have saved him, but I killed him.

Looking back, I now realize that Black Ops 2 had too many opportunities for the players to change the way the game ends entirely. Mason could have lived or died, the Cold War could have been ended or it could be raging on, Frank Woods could have lived and died, Menendez could have committed suicide or could have died at the hands of David. Black Ops 2 not only offers you the chance to make some really radical, really tough decisions, it also makes them matter, and what you do has an actual effect on what the ultimate outcome will be.

What does this do, other than making the game feel that much more awesome? It adds a ton of replay value to the game, and the four hour campaign immediately becomes an 8 hour experience, or maybe even a 12 hour one.

But all of it would fall apart if Black Ops 2 had a weak script. Sure, we all liked the set pieces in Modern Warfare 3- the collapse of the Eiffel Tower has to be one of the most memorable moments in gaming last year- but it would have been loads better and much more enjoyable had it been backed by a proper, well thought out storyline.

Now, the original Black Ops had a good storyline. A genuinely good one. The conspiracy theories were at full play in the 2010 shooter, and characters like Alex Mason, Frank Woods and Viktor Reznov made the game come alive. Not to mention the fact that the final twist blew almost all of us away. But with Black Ops 2, Treyarch was on its own for the first time ever.

Infinity Ward had helped Treyarch with the development of every single Call of Duty game till  now, and even the scripts had been co-written by the two studios. With Black Ops 2, Treyarch had full control over the game and the script, and it shows. They worked wonders with the story.

And that’s just the single player. Black Ops 2 makes so many much needed adjustments to the multiplayer component. Killstreaks have been replaced with Scorestreaks, the maps are all really well designed, there’s no more join-in matchmaking and it’s all much more balanced this time around. Even the Call of Duty newbies have a shot at getting to Prestige before Christmas, all thanks to Black Ops 2’s relatively balanced competitive online component.

And I haven’t even begun talking about zombies- it’s got zombies, and it’s full featured. How much more do you need to know other than the fact that you can easily get over ten hours of gameplay just shooting drooling zombies in the face with shotguns and flamethrowers? Instant win.

So yes- Black Ops 2 is the best Call of Duty game since Modern Warfare. No, I wouldn’t say it’s better than CoD4. The 2007 classic made too many revolutionary changes that still reverberate throughout the shooter genre- or gaming in general. But Black Ops 2 has to be the second best CoD game in the franchise’s second era.

Move over, Infinity Ward. Treyarch has taken the wheel, and it’s driving at a breakneck speed.