FPS General

This is something that is becoming more and more important for ourselves in professional gaming.

This isn't aimed at anyone specific and isn't me trying to say that I know everything there is about being professional, because I would be the first one to admit that I don't. The aim of this article is just to offer some general advice from lessons that I've learned over the years.

I'll just clarify exactly what I mean by professionalism; it is how you act, and what you say.

Team Curse EU, the competitive Call of Duty team based in Europe and sponsored by Curse.com, has announced some exciting new roster changes. In a statement this morning, team captain Scott 'The Mak' Brass announced that Jemelle 'Wonder' Rowe would be joining the team on a permanent basis in place of Jordan 'VapeZ' Haydney.

Wonder is a Call of Duty veteran, having played competitively in more than his fair share of Call of Duty games and tournaments over the years. He's also no stranger to the Team Curse EU lineup, having teamed with The Mak in years past.

20 years old and hailing from London, England, Wonder is an ex-Dignitas team member who is comfortable with high-level competition. We spoke to him earlier and he expressed his excitement to join the squad:

[I'm] happy to be given the chance to join such a prestigious organisation and team with top players again. Looking forward to working hard and hopefully we can go on and do big things.

In his statement, team captain Scott 'The Mak' Brass said:

When we initially made the decision to part company with Jordan, there were only a couple of candidates that we were even considering. We whittled the list eventually down to one; Jemelle.

He's someone that I basically started my Call of Duty career with and also have always wanted to team with again. He brings a wealth of experience from years of playing, motivation to win and most importantly, loyalty.

Jemelle has deserved a chance to re-break into the top teams of the game for a long time now, and I'm happy that it's with us that he gets that chance.

Be sure to follow the squad on Twitter at @CurseEU for the latest updates on Team Curse EU!

For the next personalization packs released in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Treyarch is letting the players decide their fate.

The options are:

• Paladin Personalization Pack
• Comics Personalization Pack
• Cyborg Personalization Pack
• Dragon Personalization Pack

And here's how you can vote:

1. Fire up your Xbox 360 and launch Black Ops 2 multiplayer.
2. A message will pop up asking you to place your vote.
3. Vote for your favorite pack!

That's it! Treyarch will put the top two personalization packs with the most votes up for sale after voting has closed. Go cast your vote today!

Team Curse NA, the Curse-sponsored competitive Call of Duty team has announced some roster changes in advance of this year's MLG Spring Championship in Anaheim, CA.

Without further ado, please join us in welcoming Eric 'Twizz' Servello and Ray "LyaR" Loftus to the Team Curse family! Both LyaR and Twizz come to Team Curse with strong competitive backgrounds, having battled their way to the top of the competitive Call of Duty scene.

We spoke to Team Curse NA captain Ryan 'Fatalize' Bogucki, who had the following to say in regards to today's announcement:

We are more then excited to have Eric and Ray on board with Curse. The professionalism and experience they bring to this team is unbelievable. They both have been around the scene for a while and have been extremely successful on every Call of Duty title.

Our focus is to have a team that can act as teammates on and off the game and with these guys we are able to have that.

The addition of LyaR and Twizz will guarantee Team Curse a championship seed at MLG Anaheim this year. The team is currently focused on preparing for the tournament which will take place from June 28th through the 30th.

For more on Team Curse - both our NA and EU Call of Duty teams - be sure to bookmark http://www.teamcurse.net/!

BlackOps2 PC Multiplayer Free Weekend is here again! Tell your friends they can play for free on Steam until Sunday 1pm PDT. Frag on!

— pcdev (@pcdev) May 9, 2013

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is going free to play this weekend on Steam, available for anyone who hasn't had a chance to check out the game to do so without any obligation to purchase.

If you haven't been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, we highly recommend that you do so for this weekend regardless of whether you have played the franchise in the past. The game is fantastic and a lot of fun to play, especially with friends online. We're thinking that anyone who takes part in the free weekend probably hasn't already played Black Ops 2 in any capacity, so here are a few things that you are not going to want to miss while you have your chance.

Multiplayer - hands down the bread and butter of Call of Duty, make sure you jump online and spend some time in the competitive multiplayer modes that Black Ops 2 offers. Get your feet wet with Team Deathmatch or Free for All if you're new to the game before you move on to objective based game modes. We recommend Domination and Hardpoint as enjoyable objective modes to start with.

Party Games - originally featured in the first Call of Duty: Black Ops, party games are an absolute blast. These free for all game modes all have a unique spin on them that drastically distances them from traditional MP modes. One in the Chamber, for example, spawns every player with only their knife and a pistol with one bullet and three lives. Kill an enemy and you take their bullet - knife them and you don't even have to spend your own ammunition, allowing you to stockpile bullets.

Working public relations can be a stressful job, especially when you're working for Activision-Blizzard - one of the worlds largest game publishers - on Call of Duty, hands-down one of the most profitable and expansive franchises in modern gaming.

Naturally, sometimes you just want to let your hair down, kick your shoes off and steal $28,000 from the company that signs your checks. It's human nature, really.

That's exactly what Kathryn Kirton did. The disgraced former PR boss of Activision UK was sentenced to 18 months in prison after it was uncovered that she had been spending absurd amounts of Activision money to fund her own lavish lifestyle.

Some of her finer purchases include:

• Nearly £10,000 on three shopping sprees on designer clothes from a place called Reiss which we're led to believe the Duchess of Cambridge is known to shop at.
• £2,000 for a hotel stay at a luxury hotel.
• £1,500 for an elaborate party, to celebrate her engagement to her fiance'.
• £1,000 to fund a bachelorette party for her and her friends.

So, what happens to a shamed PR executive after stealing such exorbitant sums of money?

If you've played any of the past Zombies maps from previous Treyarch-developed Call of Duty games, you're doubtless aware that the studio likes to include deviously tricky easter eggs for players to unlock.

These easter eggs put all other secret achievements to bed with their complexity and level of challenge. Gone are the days of simply taking a hidden path and unlocking the easter egg or putting in the Konami code at a certain place and time. Treyarch has raised the bar time and time again, only to have it raised further...by themselves.

In Mob of the Dead, Treyarch may have outdone themselves.

The easter egg in Mob of the Dead - the Zombies map in Black Ops 2: Uprising - gives you the achievement 'Pop Goes the Weasel' and this is probably where you want to stop reading if you're hoping to avoid spoilers.

As you may or may not be aware, Treyarch is launching the second DLC expansion for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 this week and it's kind of a big deal. 

We took a good look at Mob of the Dead last week and were rather impressed by what we found. The new Zombies map looks amazing, but now it's time to do the same with the rest of the content. The DLC goes by the name of Black Ops 2: Uprising and includes four brand new multiplayer maps as well as the aforementioned star-studded Zombies experience.

Mob of the Dead

Here's the premise behind Mob of the Dead (in a nutshell): four Prohibition era mobsters are arrested, tried and sentenced to prison time in Alcatraz.

Here's where things get interesting, however. You see, Alcatraz is a dark place, but our four mobsters didn't realize exactly how dark.

Turns out Alcatraz is crawling with a mob of their own, a Mob of the Dead if you will.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, the mobsters are brought to life thanks to the vocal talents of Ray Liotta, Michael Madsen, Joe Pantoliano and Chazz Palminteri. Honestly, we could stop here and Black Ops 2: Uprising would already be worth the price tag but Treyarch didn't stop there, so we won't either.

This weekend is Double XP in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, giving players a chance to rack up two-times the normal amount of experience towards their next rank or prestige level.

Doubtless many of you will be grinding all weekend, but there's a science to maximizing your earning and we're here to share some tips on how you can get the most bang for your buck this weekend, taking advantage of the Double XP promotion.

Keep reading for three foolproof methods to maximizing your XP earning in Black Ops 2.