In addition to this, Activision have also announced the cancellation of the True Crime reboot, which was under development at United Front Games – the guys behind Modnation Racers.

It’s now thought that the publisher will focus on it’s three core franchises: Call Of Duty, World Of Warcraft and StarCraft – with all of this being confirmed during a financial call, happening later tonight.

Our thoughts are with those affected by the lay offs.

Source(s): TheSixthAxis // GameIndustry.biz // Eurogamer

That’s somewhat of an achievement on its own.  Call of Duty is a franchise that appears to come under more scrutiny than over titles. It’s year-upon-year set  sales increase sets the bar high, and means the next game is always going to have to improve in order to keep diehard fans pleased. This is something Black Ops has achieved with great success. The developer  has managed to keep the familiar gameplay as good as ever, whilst introducing new elements, in both single and multiplayer, to give the game fresh appeal.

There’s no doubt that this has to be one of, if not, the best single player campaigns in the Call of Duty series so far. The story is played out as flashbacks from Alex Mason’s memories whilst he’s being interrogated. This sees you visiting destinations such as Cuba, Central Russia and Vietnam during the cold war. It’s a great, well told, story which is likely to keep you engaged right to the end. However, it’s not without it’s problems. The main issue is the AI characters, be they enemies or allies, can be annoyingly poor. This leads to some frustrating moments and, equally, moments where you can not help but laugh at what you’ve just seen. It’s far from gamebreaking, but is certainly disappointing.

Treyarch have also included the nice little treat of two mini games into this title. Dead Ops and Zork. Dead Ops is a top down shooter game, which sees you take on waves of zombies in order to progress throughout the stages. Zork, if you don’t know, is a text based RPG. Both of these games are accessible on the main menu of the game and are worth a shot if you need a break from tearing it up online.

The online portion of Black Ops is very similar to Modern Warfare 2, but the extra additions Treyarch have brought to the table help keep it fresh and fun, even for series veterans. First of all they’ve introduced a new COD Points system that runs along side the usual XP system from the previous games. COD Points are used for is buying your weapons, perks, attachments, killstreaks and all that stuff. This gives players a lot more choice what in what order they receive items. With the addition of COD Points comes online ‘Wager Matches’. This mode allows players to wager points against each other in certain match types and can really help if you need help unlocking that next great gun.

Treyarch have also introduced a lot of customization options. Players can now make their own emblems, which will show on your Playercard in the lobbies. You then also get the option to have you emblem placed on your weapons along with your clan tag. Attachments can also be customised. A heart-shaped reticle, certainly adds insult to injury. These are added on top of the options like camo from the previous instalments. They might be purely aesthetic, but it’s nice to see nonetheless.

Of course, the success and balance of the multiplayer compared to the likes of Modern Warfare 2 will only be clear over the first few month of play by thousands of gamers – but by all the great points so far it is hard to see why Black Ops can not become the best multiplayer experience to date.

The much loved Nazi Zombie mode, first seen in World of War, is back. Whilst Nazi’s don’t make sense in this context, it’s still a lot of fun to defend yourself from the zombie hordes. This sees you earning money per wave survived, be it for repairs to smashed windows or broken walls, buying new weapons from the weapon points placed around the level, or unlocking doors to progress. The choice is ultimately yours to make. This mode is available on both single and multiplayer mode,  but it excells when played with friends.

With the best a single player campaign in the series, and a fantastic, yet familiar, multiplayer mode, Treyarch have finally stepped up to the plate and have finally got rid of the ‘second rate studio’ tag.

9.4/10

IGN is reporting that, during a call to investors, Mark Blecher, SVP and General Manager of Digital Media and Games at Activision, said: “This is the most highly-rated, critical success of any game that’s had the Hasbro brand yet,” and that the company was “looking forward to a sequel in 2012.”

Activision have already teased another Transformers game for next year, which means that’s likely to be something completely different. It’s not all that surprising really, considering the company’s love of ‘anualisation’.

Source: IGN

Prizes include:

• Jeep Wrangler Rubicon
• Polaris ATV
• Fighter Pilot Experience
• Harley-Davidson Motorcycle
• Microsoft Prize Packs
• Ghillie Suit
• Autographed Fighter Pilot’s Helmet
• Flip HD Camera
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Downloadable Content
• Exclusive Call of Duty: Black Ops Branded Wearables

and much more.

Black Ops has seen record pre-orders at GameStop, so it only seems right for fans to be rewarded. You can enter the ‘Surprise Attack’ sweepstakes by pre-ordering the game online. This will then grant you a code, which can be entered here.

This September players will be able to rock out to tracks by artists like: Neil Young, RX Bandits and Dillinger Escape Plan, using their plastic axes. These additions add even more of rock’s subgenre’s to, what’s being called, “the quintessential rock music collection”.

Even with this announcement, it seems that Activision will find it hard to keep pace with Rock Band 3. Seeing as most tracks end up in both games anyway, it’s going to be a hard sell for those uninterested by what Warriors Of Rock has to offer. Hit the jump for the full list of 11 new songs.

·         Anberlin – “The Feel Good Drag”
·         Arch Enemy – “Nemesis”
·         The Dillinger Escape Plan – “Setting Fire To Sleeping Giants”
·         John 5 – “Black Widow Of La Porte”
·         Neil Young – “Rockin’ In The Free World”
·         Orianthi – “Suffocated”
·         Queensrÿche – “Jet City Woman”
·         Red Rider – “Lunatic Fringe”
·         RX Bandits – “It’s Only Another Parsec…”
·         Snot – “Deadfall”
·         Tesla – “Modern Day Cowboy”

That’s right, the Devon-born songstress will be lending her voice to a new Bond-girl and providing an exclusive song for the game’s soundtrack. Alongside her will be Daniel Craig, Judy Dench and other faces fans of the movies will be familiar with.

There’s been rumblings that the Blur developer was working on a new Bond game and now we know that was the case. The fact it’s not a racing title is certainly a surprise. Bloodstone will be a third-person action adventure game, something that’s pretty much a world away from what the developer is used to doing.

Players can expect “an explosive third-person action adventure where they will unravel an international conspiracy across exotic locales” as well as “full-throttle, behind-the-wheel action on land and sea while using the most high tech gadgetry”. Activision hope to capture the feel of the Bond movies, which is no easy task, especially with no movie to base it on.

You can check out the first screenshots after the jump.

Activision have released the official box art for Call Of Duty: Black Ops. The image has been used throughout the promotional campaign for the game, so it’s unsurprising that it’s made the cover. It’s certainly different to what we usually see from Call Of Duty box art. This is a more foreboding looking image in comparison to the ‘heroic solider striding through dust’ look of Call Of Duty 4 or Modern Warfare 2.

Also, anyone else think it looks like the cover of a rap album? Call Of Duty: Black Ops is set for release this November.

Check out the full box art after the jump.

Well it looks like Beenox might be here to save us all from the peril of yet another, god awful, licensed game. With the success of Batman: Arkham Asylum last year, developers need to step their game up in the superhero genre. From the looks of this video, posted over at Destructoid, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is definitely what Spiday fans have been looking forward to.

The ‘Amazing’ and ‘Noir’ universes are looking really good. Hopefully we’ll find out more very soon.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is set to release this September.

Check the video out, after the jump.

It’s an unsurprising move considering Activision’s love of releasing their key franchises each year. However, Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick admitted that the music game genre will “continue to compress”, meaning less success in this field. Kotick also talked about Activision’s shift in focus from peripherals to software.

As for Guitar Hero 6, the outspoken CEO says the franchise “remains the leader in the category” and stated that both Hero titles would be receiving “exciting downloadable content”

Call Of Duty: Black Ops will be developed by Treyarch and is due to be released on November 9th 2010 (a fact you’ve already garnered from the image above). We’ve no details on the game as of yet, but I’m sure we’ll have some soon enough – what with all that E3 business. Also GTTV will have footage of it tonight, so there’s something.

Source: Joystiq