When I first got this press release, I wasn’t very happy. After all, it was only six months ago I packed my bags and left New England to come to LA and now I find out that there is going to be a gaming show with celebrities being taped in my old backyard. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were just short drives for this Connecticut native. But things aren’t always as they appear at first glance.

A combined effort of Blind Sheep Studios and GameFlak, Celebrity Gaming Challenge takes the term celebrity and stretches it a little thin. Right now, the only thing known about the two celebrity team captains is that they will both be members of the New England Patriots. And the shooting will take place in October, right in the middle of the NFL season.

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these celebrity team captains probably aren’t going to be the cream of the Patriots crop. But none the less, I give them credit for their ingenuity and clever use of technicalities of the English language.

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.

Earlier this week, we touched upon the Mob of the Dead portion of the Uprising DLC pack coming to XBox 360 on April 16th for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. In it, mobster movie icons Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, and Ray Liotta take on the roles of four Alcatraz inmates getting ready to bust out only to find out an undead, demonic horde has broken in to the tightest security prison in the world.

In the trailer below, you’ll get some back-story on the fictional mobsters modeled after these stars and find out just where they fall into the prison hierarchy before everything starts going south. As with other new versions of the infamous Zombie mode, you’ll also see new zombies to deal with and traps to hatch. There is also a brief look at the new purgatory game mode as well.

This past weekend, 32 teams of four took up arms in the ultimate XBox Call of Duty Championship. In the end, it was the team Fariko Impact that took home the gold and $400,000 cash prize. Damon “Karma” Barlow, Adam “Killa” Sloss, Marcus “MiRx,” and team captain Chris “Parasite” Duarte (collectively known as Fariko Impact) faced off against EnVyUs in the final round Sunday after the three day tournament.

Fariko Impact would emerge victorious with the winner’s share of the $1,000,000 total pot. But don’t feel too bad for EnVyUs as the second place team would walk home with $200,000 themselves and third place team OpTic Gaming taking $120,000 with them.

Also revealed this past weekend alongside the images of the new Uprising DLC Map Pack was the latest Replacer trailer. After the original Replacer was revealed, it would only be a matter of time before more Call of Duty: Black Ops II players would need to call upon the services of these men in black.

This time, original Replacer Peter Stormare is joined by J.B. Smoove. This time, as you’ll see in the trailer below, the Replacers find themselves in even more awkward scenarios, the kind it takes two people to tackle.

Great news for those of you using a PS3 or a PC to play Call of Duty: Black Ops II. That’s right, the Revolution DLC is here!

Check out the full press release below:

Just a quick note to let you know that Call of Duty®: Black Ops II players on PlayStation®3 and Windows PC now have access to the game’s first DLC Map Pack – Revolution. Revolution delivers an unparalleled amount of variety and content for all types of Call of Duty: Black Ops II players, featuring four all-new multiplayer maps set around the globe:

• Grind: Set in a skate park in Venice Beach (the birthplace of skateboarding!), quarter-pipes and curved surfaces drive players away from easy cover and into intense firefights.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

$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.

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.