It’s no secret that we like Call of Duty: Black Ops, you like Call of Duty: Black Ops and pretty much most gamers throughout the world like Call of Duty: Black Ops. It’s a huge game that’s sold extremely well and broken sales records pretty much everywhere it has been available.

Since the game’s release we’ve already seen one new add-on for it in the form of a new “First Strike” Map Pack. Now we can look forward to the next enhancement for the game with the announcement of the upcoming “Escalation” Map Pack. Available first to Xbox LIVE members on Tuesday May 3rd, “Escalation” is the second downloadable content pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops.

It contains 5 all-new maps including “Hotel,” where you’ll battle on the roof of a Cuban hotel and casino, a Russian “Zoo,” a WMD “Stockpile”, and “Convoy.” And what’s an update without some more zombies? Escalation will reportedly offer a new “Zombie experience,” with new playable characters.

No word yet on how much this new bunch of fun will cost but if you’re as big a fan of this game as we are, the cost probably won’t matter all that much. Unless, of course, it’s a hundred bucks or something. Then, we might have to reconsider.

This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics. Yeah, we copied that into from last week, what of it?

Some of those topics include the recent Superman casting of Henry Cavill, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Call of Duty: Black Ops Map Packs, the new PSP 2, 3D movie madness, how English actors are taking over Hollywood and much more.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the Mel Brooks classic Silent Movie and Chris’ pick of the John Woo action classic The Killer.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

You read that headline right folks. The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here. The Call of Duty: Black Ops new map pack, known as “First Strike”, has arrived and lo it is good.

As our own John Carle told you about before, the map pack contains some new goodness including four traditional multiplayer maps as well as one additional Zombie mode map. While no information was given on the Zombie map other than its name, Ascension, now that the map pack is available we will know a whole lot more very shortly.

Kowloon takes place in a revamped layout of the Kowloon single player level. Discovery takes place in an arctic research lab and shows what may be Call of Duty’s first steps towards destructible environments. Berlin Wall features a great design choice with the inclusion of a no man’s land. In this area, players can quickly get across the map but this time there isn’t much fear of other players.

Finally, Stadium seems to be the most traditional of the maps. In it, players will be more focused on pure classic strategy using a level’s design and tight corners as a way to ambush opponents.

The “First Strike” map pack is available now. To the XBox 360!

This week on The Flickcast brings more insight, innovation and innuendo from your favorite co-hosts. That’s right, Chris and Matt are back and discussing all sorts of new and returning topics.

Some of those topics include the Oscars, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Call of Duty: Black Ops Map Packs, the Verizon iPhone, Fantastic Four developments, Smallville’s final season and potential spin-offs, the Dead Space 2 ads and much more.

Chris and Matt also made new picks this week including Matt’s pick of the Sam Raimi film Darkman the and Chris’ pick of the new Starz series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Because it’s nice outside and I’m feeling sorta lazy, I’m just going to tell you we’ve got a new trailer for the Call of Duty: Black Ops “First Strike” Map Pack  for you today. Previously, we had a preview for the new maps and even had some video. Now, we’ve got a cool trailer that features some great music.

As you probably know from our own John Carle’s exhaustive discussion of the new map pack, the “First Strike” Map Pack will include four traditional multiplayer maps as well as one additional Zombie mode map. Who doesn’t love those zombies? Am I right?

Check out the trailer after the jump. Look for the “First Strike” Map Pack to arrive February 1st for XBox 360 and then later for PS3.

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While Call of Duty: Black Ops didn’t reign two years in a row as game of the year, that doesn’t mean we love it any less. After all, you don’t become one of the highest selling games of all time along with being the highest first day entertainment franchise in history if you aren’t a damn good game.  As previously announced, the first map pack titled “First Strike” will be coming first to the XBox 360 on February 1st before later being ported over to the PlayStation 3.

The “First Strike” Map Pack will include four traditional multiplayer maps as well as one additional Zombie mode map. While no information was given on the Zombie map other than its name Ascension, the trailer below gives a quick peek at the development behind and the layouts of the other four maps in this pack.

Kowloon takes place in a revamped layout of the Kowloon single player level. Having a very similar feel to the streets of Brazil from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Kowloon offers players their first and only opportunity to use a zip line to traverse through a level. This zip line looks like a quite risky venture as it will leave a player completely exposed and weaponless. The reward however is the ability to cross great distances of the map at tremendous speed.

Another unique map is Discovery. Taking place in an arctic research lab, Discovery shows what may be Call of Duty’s first steps towards destructible environments. In Discovery there is a choke point over the chasm that divides the level in half where players must cross a bridge to reach their opponents. This bridge can be destroyed with proper explosives. Imagine what this could do for the game with Red Faction style level physics on top of the already intense Call of Duty multiplayer.

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Amazon released its “Best of 2010″ lists late last week which highlight the online shopping powerhouse’s best-selling, most wished-for and most gifted products of the year. In the best-selling category, Amazon’s own Kindle topped the electronics category.

Kindle is now the best-selling product of all time on Amazon.com. Which, if you think about it, makes sense. It’s a great product and it has tight integration with the rest of Amazon. That’s what they call in the trade a “win win.” AT&T’s Samsung Captivate was Amazon’s best-selling device in the Wireless & Accessories category, reaffirming Android’s continued success in that market. Just sorry it had to be on AT&T’s network.

Call of Duty: Black Ops was Amazon’s best-selling video game, Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro topped the computer category and Sherlock Holmes was the company’s most streamed movie of 2010. So, kudos to Activision, Apple and Robert Downey, Jr.

Click through to check out the full list.

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As if breaking a couple records wasn’t enough, Activision announced Tuesday a third record-breaking milestone achieved by its hit, Call of Duty: Black Ops. The latest addition to Activision’s Call of Duty franchise first set a new launch-day sales record when it racked up $360 million in first-day sales.

Then, the game beat previous five-day sales records when it did $650 Million in sales during its first five days of availability. Now, Activision has announced that its extremely popular first-person shooter has pulled in over $1 Billion in less than a month. Yes, that’s quite a lot.

“In all of entertainment, only Call of Duty and “Avatar” have ever achieved the billion dollar revenue milestone this quickly,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in a statement. “This is a tribute to the global appeal of the Call of Duty franchise, the exceptional talent at Treyarch and the hundreds of extraordinary people across our many Call of Duty studios including Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer that work tirelessly on the franchise.”

As fans of the game, we can understand why it’s so popular. Let’s hope this means we can look forward to more games like this for years to come. Click through for the full press release from Activision.

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Holiday shopping is hard. There is so much going on like catching up on all the hottest games that came out in November that sometimes you just don’t have time to go out, brave the malls and deal with lunatic people who would gladly trample each other to save seventeen cents on an outdated plasma TV. But, you still have to buy gifts for the loved ones in your family. And with each item, we have included a helpful link to purchase the item without ever having to leave the comfort of your home.

Hardware

It couldn’t be Christmas without a big and expensive gift for “Santa” to put under the tree. Now, while you most likely have one for yourself, your best gaming friend may not be as hardcore as you are and isn’t going through his XBox 360 dashboard using Minority Report type controls of the Kinect.

Like we talked about in our review, the Kinect is fun and a great addition to any XBox 360 household.  Just make sure that the person you are buying it for has enough room in their living space for it to work properly.

Check out more of my picks for best geeky holiday gift ideas after the jump!

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I’m playing it. You’re playing it. Millions and millions of other people are playing it. More to the point, millions and millions of people are buying it . . . and in record numbers. As we told you before, Call of Duty: Black Ops sold very well, to put it mildly, in its first day of release.

Now, the game has broken another record and made over $650 Million in just five days. I’ll let that number sink in for a minute. This amount of sales breaks the previous record of $550 Million in five days set last year by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Also a great game but now, just second best.

“Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” said Activision Blizzard CEO, Robert Kotick in the release. ”The title’s success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media.”

For more on this announcement, click through for the full press release.

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This news doesn’t really come as a surprise to us. We’ve been following Call of Duty: Black Ops for months, and had a chance to play it early, so we know it rocks. Obviously, players in the US and UK agree as the game has sold a monster amount of copies and racked up over $360 Million in sales in the first 24 hours of release.

This total beat the previous winner, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which had $310 Million in first day sales. That’s an extra $50 Million for Black Ops. Not bad, not bad at all. I like to think we had something to do with it. Well, maybe just a little.

For the complete scoop on this impressive debut, check out the press release from our pals at Activision. Also, be sure to relive the fun by taking a look at the game’s launch trailer as well. Or, if you haven’t done it yet, just go out and get the game. It kicks ass.

CALL OF DUTY®: BLACK OPS SETS NEW OPENING DAY SALES RECORD WITH APPROXIMATELY $360 MILLION IN NORTH AMERICA AND UNITED KINGDOM ALONE

Most Anticipated Game of the Year Becomes Biggest Entertainment Launch in History

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Since we know many of our Flickcast listeners (And some Flickcast writers) aren’t the most athletically inclined, it’s likely not many of you were watching Sunday night football to see the debut of the Call of Duty: Black Ops launch trailer. While Treyarch has come under some criticism for their Call of Duty titles not being as strong as those from Infinity Ward, this has not hurt the anticipation one bit for Black Ops.

From what we’ve seen so far, the game looks to be one of the highest selling Call of Duty releases ever. After this trailer, it wouldn’t be surprising to see those numbers increase even more.

One of the more surprising moments comes about half way through when a former President makes a brief cameo. Be sure to check it out after the jump.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for a review on Call of Duty: Black Ops as soon as we get our hands on it!

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