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Black ops

"Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Platforms: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Always bet on black

There are times when I lament the rampant “sequelitus” that's taken hold of the videogame industry, when nearly every new release is another addition in some ongoing franchise and where original titles (like the criminally overlooked Enslaved: Odyssey to the West) are often relegated to the bargain bin. Of course, more often than not, the objective, rational part of my brain is elbowed to one side by my inner fanboy; an obnoxious and easily placated button masher who salivates at the thought of the next triple-A sequel, even going so far as to drag me out to a parking lot in the middle of the night in order to freeze my unmentionables off waiting for a midnight game launch.

Which brings us to Call of Duty: Black Ops, a much-hyped game which trigger happy shooter aficionados have been awaiting for some time now and which is undoubtedly going to be both played and reviewed through rose-colored night vision goggles. The truth is that as a gazillion-selling franchise, Call of Duty could have its brand slapped on just about anything and chances are gamers would flock to it like moths to a flamethrower. And yet like all sequels, Black Ops is also built on the backs of its predecessors, particularly the blockbuster Modern Warfare franchise, creating a kind of development ouroboros between the two primary Call of Duty studios: Treyarch and Infinity Ward.

In any event, it's easy to dismiss the game as yet another sequel capitalizing on the franchise’s rabid fanbase. And Black Ops doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel. It's not particularly groundbreaking, nor does it subvert or dramatically improve on the Call of Dutyformula developed by its predecessors. That being said, there's a reason the Call of Dutyfranchise is so popular and Black Ops does a fantastic job of working within those familiar design elements as an incredibly polished shooter with enough single and multiplayer content to keep even the most cynical gamer sufficiently satiated. In other words, if you enjoyed shooting people in the face in Modern Warfare 2, you'll probably enjoy it just as much in Black Ops.

So let's start with the single player campaign. The plot, written by popular film scribe and director David S. Goyer, is a surprisingly well-scripted narrative. It's not exactly Apocalypse Now or even the tightly woven storylines of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series, but its careful blend of Cold War paranoia and Hollywood action movie tropes is a welcome reprieve from the normally hackneyed plots of most shooters. The story follows the career of Special Forces operator Alex Mason, a hard bitten soldier voiced by Hollywood's new go-to action guy Sam Worthington (who does a capable job despite his Australian accent occasionally creeping in). Players are then taken on a whirlwind tour of the shadowy underbelly of the Cold War, from the icy depths of a Soviet gulag to the tepid, snake-filled swamps of Vietnam. There are also a number of run-ins with a number of notable figures, from an attempted assassination attempt on Fidel Castro, to a cloak and dagger encounter with Robert McNamara and President Kennedy.

That being said, for all the game’s Michael Bay style shootouts and gritty storyline, the characters are under-developed. Fortunately there's more than enough going on to keep the pace moving and the variety of visually impressive levels and mission types are more than satisfying (even despite some occasionally clunky AI and a few frame rate issues). Despite the anachronistic setting of the Cold War there's also an impressive array of weapons to choose from, including incendiary “Dragon’s Breath” shotgun rounds and an explosive crossbow that looks as though it was pulled straight out of the depths of Rambo’s personal weapons cache.

Fans of Treyarch’s Nazi Zombie game mode first popularized in Call of Duty: World at War, will no doubt also enjoy the return of the living dead in Black Ops. It's a welcome addition that's as nail-bitingly tense as anything you’ll find in Left 4 Dead. One of the maps even includes a hilarious team-up of former Presidents, with Kennedy, Castro and Nixon battling shambling corpses in the Pentagon. Watching Tricky Dick blast apart a zombie’s head with a shotgun is worth the price of admission alone."

MW2 director working on his own debut film

Keith Arem, who worked in the trenches on CoD games, will be directing a film named Frost Road, his first feature filme served in Activision as the talent director of games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 and few other.

His forthcoming film Frost Road is a survival horror and is set in a small East Coast town.

He says, “Our main character is immune to what is happening while something is affecting the townspeople. They are essentially ripping themselves apart… It becomes a sort of a zombie film in reverse. Instead of this constant threat of being attacked by all these plagued victims, this becomes a story of survival and keeping these people alive.”

Arem has earlier also worked with video games such as Darksiders, Bioshock, Singularity, Guitar Hero 4 & 5, Army of two, Splinter Cell 4, Golden Axe and many more.

He started his career in video games in 1992. Before it he was a musician and specialized in electronic rock music. He had performed in Biohazard PCB and Contagion. He also use to sing and compose music. He developed his skills as an audio engineer.

Mw2 Resurgence pack confirmed

The Resurgence pack will feature five maps and, as with the Stimulus pack, there are three new maps and two maps ported from Call of Duty 4.

The new maps are Carnival, which is a disused amusement park, Trailer Park, which is pretty self-explanatory and Fuel, which is an oil refinery and is described as a sniper haven.

The two converted Call of Duty 4 maps are Vacant and Strike.

Again, the cost of three new maps and two re-cycled maps is 1200 MS Points.