Activision has officially named the next title in the lucrative Call of Duty series. Previously known as Call of Duty 7, the title is now confirmed as Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game is being developed by Santa Monica-based studio Treyarch, responsible for several previous instalments in the military first-person shooter series, including Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty 3.

The press announcement provides little extra information, simply promising that Black Ops will, “take players behind enemy lines in an entirely new chapter in the groundbreaking and record-setting, No. 1 first-person action series of all-time.”

For the last few months, news sites have been rife with rumours that the game would be set in Vietnam – and the title announcement does not necessarily contradict that. As the Official Xbox Magazine reported, Treyarch put out a casting call in LA earlier this year, looking for an actor to play one ‘Frank Barnes’, a WW2 veteran and member of the Studies and Observations Group, a black ops unit active during the Vietnam war.

TEASER TRAILER

• You get the Normandy back and you are in command.
• You get new people to follow you the only remaining ones are Garrus & Tali.
• There is no real inventory, which some hardcore rpg fans will not like.
• You can scan planets for resources and send probes to collect it.
• There are still biotic powers.
• The enemies seem to be more annoying and hard to kill.
• The damage system drives me crazy the red scar tissue effect when taking damage is awful and looks comic like.
• You can gain loyalty from the members of the team by doing personal missions for them.
• You can still have a little romance!

So above are a few things that I can remember from the game, one of the main characters is played by Yvonne Strahovski who is also in Chuck on NBC which I thought was quite cool. The download content gives you some armour, a chance to find the old Normandy crash site and 2 more characters. This probably wont be enough to make you buy it so check these links out!

WARNING SPOILERS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_2
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Effect_Wiki

Small Gameplay Video

Bungie Day – Bungie vs the rest of the world in a Halo 3-fest is coming around again and I for one will be raring to go this July 7th.

This years event has been announced on the Bungie podcast and includes a 4v4 player playlist this year. Players will be able to play against Bungie team members for the full 24 hours of the 7th and there is a chance to win recon armor along the way.

There’s gonna be tons of community maps on display (your maps!), dozens of Bungie employees rocking flames and stomping mud-holes in your soon to be thoroughly stomped and mud-holed faces, and of course, ridonkulous amounts of Recon armor on offer. We’re (as the kids are wont to say) gonna make it rain.

Looks like the Halo 3 servers are going to take a beating on 7/7 and with good reason, it’s going to be a great event!

Majesco Entertainment have confirmed that classic FPS star Serious Sam is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade in the summer. The company are working alongside Croteam and Devolver Digital on ”Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD” currently with a view to releasing on XBLA with features such as four-player online co-operative mode.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD will cost 1,200 Microsoft Points to purchase on release.

Xtival is back for 2009 and will be happening all next weekend. Lasting from 1st May to 4th they’re be loads of competitions and tournaments to take part in. Xtival 09 is touted to have more entertainment than ever before.

Xtival is open to all live members whether they’re gold or silver members. All silver members will also be upgraded to gold membership for the weekend, so if it’s a while since you’ve played online, take the chance to be part of Xtival and play against your old friends and new ones.

Microsoft are to offer free online for GTA IV and the upcoming expansion, The Lost and Damned. This offer will run for a week from the 17th of February until the 22nd. The offer coincides with the DLC release giving players even more reason to stick GTA IV back in their 360.

If you’ve missed out on the online achievements, this is perhaps a perfect chance to try and grab them. It’s very likely they’ll be a lot of Devs on as well during this time, so get after them!

Via: GTA Sector

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

A month later I picked the Wii up after deciding I wanted that as well as the PS3 and then would sell my 360. Quite frankly, the Xbox 360 was the next-gen console I wanted the least. A friend had one and I wanted something to keep me going until the PS3 came out which is the only reason I purchased one. I wasn’t a fan of the original Xbox either.

Since then though, I’ve sold my PS3, despite how much I wanted it before release. Yet I still have my 360, and many more games. This isn’t some 360 fanboy or fangirl post about how great it is. It’s an” ex” Sony fangirl praising the 360.

Remembering my mindset back then, it makes me realise, how great a console the 360 really is. I love my 360 now but used to “despise” it. If it can turn someone from disliking the 360 so much to loving it, then I’m sure I’m not the only one, perhaps even other Sony fans turning to the “dark side”.

So, what does make it so great and what changed my opinion on it? The great games, such as Gears of War, Halo 3, Saints Row, Call of Duty 4. Yes Call of Duty is multi platform, but is also why I have my 360. Some other games which may not be considered great to some, are amazing to me, such as Crash Bandicoot, which to me, has always been a Sony brand. Ultimately, it was the last thing that made me sell my PS3. All the games I wanted were on the 360, some of them not even on the PS3.

The other reason being live and multi-player. Having tried on-line on all three next gen consoles, and the PSP, it was clear from the very first moment, that the 360 was made for that. Maybe I tried the wrong game on the other consoles, but first impressions really do count. While they were OK, I found the 360 to be much more fun on-line then off as opposed to the Wii and PS3, which I preferred off-line.

I may get a PS3 again in the future, because don’t get me wrong, I still do love Sony, my PS2 and PSP are close by my side, but I feel for now, they’ve let us down. With Little Big Planet and Resistance 2 though, it could turn things around, but it isn’t enough to convince me to buy another PS3 just yet. Not until it’s at a more competitive level to the 360 anyway price and games wise.