Sometimes those XBox 360 users have all the fun, right? That may be what you’re thinking if you’re a user of the PS3 or a Windows PC to get your gaming on and are waiting patiently for some great DLC content like Call of Duty: Black Ops II Uprising.

Well, fear not, as your wait has ended. That’s right, beginning May 16, you PS3 and Windows PC users will have the opportunity to play Uprising, Activision and Treyarch’s DLC Map Pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. This rather cool map pack includes four new multiplayer maps as well as the “Mob of the Dead”, which takes players to Alcatraz island and pits you against hordes of flesh-eating zombies.

But that’s not all, the “Mob of the Dead” also features a cool twist: you take on said zombies in the shoes of one of four Prohibition-era mobsters, which are voiced by some major Hollywood actors: Billy Handsome (Ray Liotta), Al “The Weasel” Arlington (Joe Pantoliano), Salvatore “Sal” DeLuca (Chaz Palminteri), and Michael “Finn” O’Leary (Michael Madsen). All four are serving time in Alcatraz Prison, only to discover that being behind bars is the least of their problems.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops II is addicting. Between the standard competitive multiplayer and the Zombie mode, thousands of lifetimes of game hours have already been played online. Now while the game doesn’t exactly go into a slump over time after its release, there is definitely a renewed spike in gameplay with the release of new maps.

Things may have been a little different last year with the early access that Elite members received in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 but with Call of Duty: Black Ops II Season Pass holders and the general public gaining access to the new maps at the same time, expect servers to fill up and social lives to diminish. But how do you help salvage social relationships with friends, family, work and significant others? Activision says it’s time to call in a Replacer.

In the video below, you’ll check out the real benefit of taking on a Replacer. For those moments that you don’t really need to be there for like putting together furniture or the first few annoying hours of labor, a Replacer is the ideal substitute.

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In under two months, more than 427 million hours have been logged into Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer and zombie modes. At this point, it is reasonable for players to be clamoring for some new content. Treyarch has responded with a resounding, “It’s coming!” with the the Revolution DLC pack (which had some tidbits leaked late last week). The Revloution DLC pack will be coming out first to XBox 360 on January 29.

The Revolution DLC pack will include four new multiplayer maps, a new zombie map, the first new zombie DLC mode and the first ever DLC weapon. Check out the level descriptions below as well as the full preview trailer after the jump.

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Don’t worry. We aren’t giving any more awards to Angry Birds. At least not today. But we do have four more games for the best of 2012. If you haven’t seen the previous two days awards, click here for Monday’s and here for Tuesday’s awards. Make sure to check back tomorrow for our final specialty awards and then again on Friday for the ultimate award from The Flickcast and Bitcast teams, the Game of the Year.

New IP With the Most Potential – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

With writing from R. A. Salvatore and art design by Todd McFarlane, many would have thought that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would have the makings of a surefire hit. With over 300,000 units sold by March of 2012, Reckoning gave a good showing for a brand new IP and had many people talking about it. Unfortunately due to financial problems with a loan from the state of Rhodes Island, 38 Studios was forced to close and with it went the possible future of the Kingdoms of Amalur series.

Despite coming from a brand new studio, Reckoning had all the makings of a hit game. Beautiful design, interesting and complex story with tons of back matter and, the most important, incredibly fun combat and gameplay. It was a huge world with tons to do that players could get lost in. Whether or not they even cared about the narrative, there were unending areas to explore and enemies to vanquish. Now, one can only hope that someone else picks up this IP and gives it a second chance to continue giving more people the chance to explore its epic world.

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Already got your fill of everything in Call of Duty: Black Ops II in the month that it has been out? Well, your bullet hungry prayers have been answered with the first piece of content coming out today for Call of Duty: Black Ops II Season Pass owners. For the discounted price of $49.99, Season Pass holders will get four DLC Map packs as well as the Nuketown 2025 Zombie map which goes live today on XBox 360.

The Nuketown 2025 Zombie map doesn’t just throw players into the bright, 50′s retro stylized suburbia that players have already experienced in Call of Duty multiplayer. Instead, they see the post apocalyptic version of the map. While the basic floor plan has stayed the same, the buildings are in ruins giving zombies tons of access points to the players. In addition, the burnt out mannequins are just creepy as hell.

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So, it’s official. Call of Duty: Black Ops II can boast earning more money in just 15 days than some countries can as their GNP for a full year. Call of Duty: Black Ops II has also reached this epic milestone of $1 Billion in sales in a shorter time than any other entertainment property. The fastest grossing video game of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 did it in 16 days. Avatar, the fastest grossing film of all time and highest grossing film of all time, took 17 days.

“The release of Call of Duty® has been one of the most significant entertainment events of each of the last six years,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “Since Call of Duty was launched, cumulative franchise revenues from players around the world are greater than current worldwide box office receipts to date for the top-10 grossing films of 2012 combined. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star Wars,’ the two most successful movie franchises of all time.”

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Now, I’m not going to come on here and pretend I know what every geek in your life is going to want. But if they are anything like me, there is at least something on here that they do want.

The nice thing is that even if they already have it (or you picked the one thing on this list they actually hate), every item is coming from a store they will be able to return it to and buy something they do want.

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$500,000,000 in 24 hours. That is just a sickeningly absurd number. That means that on launch day, Call of Duty: Black Ops II not only shattered sales records but it was making more than $5,000 PER SECOND in its first twenty four hours on sale. To say people still want more Call of Duty in their lives would be an understatement. So, Activision has decided to give them more with the Behind the Scenes trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s “Surprise” trailer.

The internet celebrity filled trailer (which also included geek hero, Iron Man himself Robert Downey Jr.) was directed by Guy Ritchie. In the trailer below, Guy talks about how he only directs one commercial a year. He chose to do Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s commercial because of its technical challenges along with the fact that his son thinks it’s cool. He actually goes as far as saying he’d probably do this job for nothing because it is actually that interesting to do.

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The Call of Duty series is the gaming industry’s equivelent of a Michael Bay summer blockbuster film. While the story might be slightly convoluted, millions of people flock to it and spend their hard earned money on a explosion filled, high octane, testosterone laced good time. In addition to the campaign, Call of Duty: Black Ops II includes both the standard mutliplayer and the Zombie mode from Treyarch which has given the studio something for people to remember them by.

It’s no surprise that Black Ops II had huge midnight launches at over a thousand locations across the country but lines of people don’t necessarily ensure a game will live up to the hype. But, Treyarch continues to prove why they are trusted with such a franchise.

The Long

First and foremost, regardless of anything else in the game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II captures shooter gameplay and control on a console at its finest. Everything from movement to aiming and shooting to damage detection all feel perfect in Black Ops II. The default control scheme is perfect for the genre and everything really just fits perfectly into place (at least on the XBox 360 controller) for the FPS experience. If you stripped down the graphics and setting, the engine behind Call of Duty: Black Ops II would still be an ideal shooter.

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If there one thing that Activision has mastered it is knowing how to hype up their Call of Duty franchise releases. Whether it has been pairing with Eminem for an E3 concert or huge advertising budgets, each year they make the franchise bigger and bigger With just two weeks to go, Activision and Treyarch kick things up one more time with the Live Action Trailer follow up to Jonah Hill pushing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from last year.

In the “Surprise” Trailer below, there is an interesting combination of celebrity cameos combined with various gameplay mechanics to help push Call of Duty: Black Ops II. While we will let you catch the cameos on your own, we will let you know that the air strike, the tank combat mechs and even the horse all make their way into the trailer. For the first time too, the Zombie mode gets a spotlight in the trailer as well. Director Guy Ritchie brings together everyone from Hollywood A-Listers to internet sensations together for this trailer.

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At the Nintendo press conference two weeks ago, tons of new details were given about the Wii U including the bundles the system would be packaged in and the games being put into the launch window. Yesterday, even more details were given to the launch lineup with 23 titles being confirmed for day one. This looks to be one of the largest launch lineups of any system in recent memory with lots of big name games in it.

Aside from bundling the Deluxe system with Nintendo Land to show off the Wii U’s unique capabilities, Nintendo made sure to back the system with the support of major well known franchises for both the casual and hardcore gamer.

For the Nintendo gamer, the system will launch with New Super Mario Bros. U which is the first time since the Nintendo 64 where a Mario game was made available day one for a home console.

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With that gaming event in Germany still in full swing we’re always on the lookout for new stuff from games we’re really looking forward to seeing. One such game is, of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Recently, new screenshots from the upcoming game made their way onto the Internets. Of course, our pals at Activision were kind enough to send them our way as well so we can share them with you.

We won’t waste much of your time talking about the new screenshots but will only say this: they look pretty awesome. They also look kinda familiar, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Familier can be a good thing too — especially if it’s also fun. Check out the new shots after the break. Call of Duty: Black Ops II hits stores on November 13th.

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When you’ve made pretty much the most successful first person shooter game of all time, what do you do for an encore? Well, if your Activision and Treyarch, you make a sequel of course.

The game is Call of Duty: Black Ops and the sequel is, for the moment, to be known as Black Ops II. And now, thatnks to our pals at Activison, we’ve got a brand new multiplayer reveal trailer for Black Ops II to share with you.

Let’s just say we can’t wait to play this one. Check out the trailer afte the break.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II arrives in stores on November 13. Can. Not Wait.

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Let’s just say right now Call of Duty: Black Ops II is going to be a huge hit. It’s inevitable. However, that hasn’t stopped Activision from rolling out all sorts of promotional material just to make sure anyone not aware and ready to buy the game knows about it and gets as excited as the rest of us.

There’s a new trailer out for the game today. In it we get the first glimpse of Raul Menendez, who is, according to game producer Treyarch “the most insidious villain in Call of Duty history.”

Sounds pretty good to us. As we said before: Can’t. Wait.

Check out the new trailer after the break. Look for Call of Duty: Black Ops II to hit stores in time for Christmas.

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Horses. Zombies. Drones. Walking tanks. What’s left really to say about Call of Duty: Black Ops II at this point? Microsoft knows how valuable a franchise it is. That’s why they dedicated the final section of their E3 Press Conference to an extended gameplay demo. But is it too much of a good thing? Obviously Activision and the gaming masses don’t think so.

As you will see in the Behind the Scenes preview below which was created for E3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II doesn’t want to just look and feel like any other sequel in the Call of Duty franchise. Players will be given new weapons and techniques in order to be given new experiences, instead of just shooting their way through levels in the same way they have for the better part of the past decade.

Treyarch knows the pressure they are under to deliver something new and is intent on doing so both in terms of gameplay and graphics. They give special emphasis on lighting as the final layer of graphical polish to make the game look as good as possible.

In the trailer, there is no mention of new details in the game’s multiplayer and only a very brief detail about the size of the Zombie mode which is intended to give players more options than ever before in it.

Take a peek at the full behind the scenes look at Call of Duty: Black Ops II which is coming out for every major platform and has the potential to again be the highest selling game of the year.

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