Call of Duty: Black Ops

Get ready for some first-person shooter action.

Activision has launched Call of Duty: Black Ops for all three major consoles, the PC, and the Nintendo DS.

Call of Duty: Black Ops puts the player in various roles as soldiers "behind enemy lines." Players can also play co-op with zombies, Mark Lamia, head of Activision's Treyarch Studio, said in a statement. But as with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, many gamers will be picking up the title for its online multiplayer offering. And to that end, Lamia promises an "incredibly deep" experience for gamers.

So far, the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops has gone quite well. Video game retailer GameStop reported today that the title "set a new record with reservations." GameStop's senior vice president of merchandising, Bob McKenzie, said that Black Ops has bested "any other title in GameStop's history."

However, Black Ops has some huge boots to fill. Its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, was the biggest launch in gaming history. More so, it was the biggest launch in the history of the entertainment industry, according to Guinness World Records, grossing $401.6 million on launch day last year. Trying to match that success could be a tall order for the latest release in the Call of Duty franchise.

Call of Duty: Black Ops comes in three versions. The standard edition comes only with the game and sells for $60 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. The Hardened Edition comes with a Black Ops medal, an Avatar outfit, and four zombie co-op maps. It retails for $80. The Prestige Edition's main attraction is an RC-XD Surveillance Vehicle, which transmits video and audio back to the user up to 200 feet away. It sells for $150.

They Call It "Best FPS Sniper Rifle"

Strangely enough for a game that’s got everybody so nitpicky and middling in their scores the one place that Killzone 2 excels is in it’s weaponry, specifically the sniper rifle. I maintain that this is the best SR since GoldenEye showed us how to do it, and it’s for such a simple reason as control.

As warped and twisted as our hands become trying to grasp the slippery eel of the PS3 Dual Shock, and as much as our confused fingers end up resembling a plate of fat spaghetti, as we search for purchase on the triggers, once you’re looking down the sights of this bad boy it all becomes clear. We can let go of the nubby thumbsticks with their suppurating pustule rubber buttons on top and just lightly tilt the pad left, right, up and down and as long as you are pointed in the general direction of a Helghan warrior you can ease the sights dead center between his glowing red eyes and squeeze off a round or two to encourage his propaganda-addled brain to launch through the back of his Kojak slap-head.

It’s delightful, and if only it didn’t require you to wrestle your avatar into cover to initiate, it might be the perfect weapon. We need more PS3 developers making subtle use of the tilty control. Not in a way that’s crucial to the game, but in little ways that make you smile in the knowledge that you’re not going to find that feature anywhere else.

"Copying" is Bad According to Sony

Lately, with the release of the new Xbox Dashboard and its new features and talk about the Wii Remote has caused a lot of rumble.

First off, the release of the New Dashboard Update is the next best thing to Halo 3. Secondly, Imitation (Microsoft's strong point) is the second best thing to flattery. Microsoft does great things, but Sony might be good on this point. Microsoft sucks at coming up with things on their own. Here are a few examples of things they have or are going to steal.

• Wii Remote (Sony is too)
• Facebook type interfaces
• Social interfaces
• Optimize there income with other ideas

Yeah, Microsoft takes a lot of things but think about it. Here are also a few things that have been stolen from them.

• "Points idea" (Check out my top posts for how to get free Microsoft Points)

Oh wait, thats all there is. Although Microsoft is the leader of the gaming buz, they don't always get that spot because of their own ideas. Sony says copying is not the way they are going after Microsoft claimed their dashboard to be a much fresher approach than their competitors.

If you ask me, Sony is right on this one and that Microsoft needs to make one amazing thing on their own. Unless they feel like copying the PS3's free live idea, I'm all for that!