FPS General

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.

It looks like the next Call of Duty game is going to be titled Call of Duty: Ghosts, after all. Unless the images at the top and bottom of this post are nothing more than an elaborate hoax, we have our next Call of Duty title.

Rumors have been circulating for a while that the next game from Infinity Ward would be titled 'Ghosts' but they were all but unsubstantiated until today. The image above surfaced on retailer Tesco Direct's website before being taken down shortly thereafter. The question remains, did Tesco drop the listing because  Activision demanded it or simply because the information was inaccurate?

If that wasn't enough, Kotaku has spotted an advertisement from Target offering consumers that chance to save $10 when they put $1 down on a pre-order for Call of Duty: Ghosts.

With two pretty separate sources, it seems like this will indeed be the next Call of Duty experience but we're expecting the title to be officially announced in the coming weeks. Stick around, we should have more information in the next month!

Sources: Kotaku, CharlieIntel

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.

When Treyarch announced the second DLC expansion Uprising for Black Ops 2, we had mixed feelings. On the one hand, the maps looked good and the Zombies experience seems unique but on the other, it was just the same old formula...again.

Activision has made it a habit to follow the tried and true formula with Black Ops DLC for both of these last two games; a handful of multiplayer maps and a new Zombies map.

Lather, rinse and repeat.

With Black Ops 2, call us naive, but we were hoping for something new. Is that what we've been given with Uprising? Let's take a look at the latest trailer for Mob of the Dead, the new Zombies experience and see what's new.

You can see the trailer at the bottom of this post and follow along while we dissect this new look at the DLC.

Unless you were living under a rock, you're probably aware that the Call of Duty: Championship took place over the past weekend in Los Angeles, CA. Some of the greatest teams in Call of Duty history were convened under one roof to duke it out for the title of Call of Duty Champion and a delicious $400,000 payday.

We were lucky enough to be on hand for the final day of competition and you can check out some of the footage we grabbed while we were there at the top of this post. 

Give it a look and be sure to subscribe to our channel on YouTube for more Call of Duty videos like the one above.

Released moments ago during the Call of Duty: Championship finals in Hollywood, CA, take a look at the brand new trailer for the upcoming DLC expansion Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Uprising!

The Call of Duty: Championship is taking place this weekend in Los Angeles, CA and we've put together the complete viewers guide to watching this massive Black Ops 2 tournament.

Everything you need to know for the Call of Duty: Championship is available right here, so without further ado - let's get to it!

What is the Call of Duty: Championship?

Over the last few months, qualifying events have been carried out around the world in an attempt to gather up some of the worlds greatest competitive Black Ops 2 teams. From those events, Activision has gathered 32 of the most dominant professional teams in the game to compete in the Call of Duty: Championship for a prize pool of $1,000,000. That's one million dollars for those of you counting zeroes.

These teams have been formed up in groups and will compete in a round-robin format tournament.

With the prize pool being split between the top 8 teams, these guys are competing for a $400,00 payday for first place and that's not even to mention the prestige that comes along with taking home top honors at a stage this big.

The Call of Duty: Championship is set to get underway this weekend in Los Angeles, CA and our very own Team Curse will be on hand representing our fine organization. If you've ever wondered what it's like to mentally prepare for an event like this, we had a chance to interview Ryan 'Fatalize' Bogucki from our North American Call of Duty team.

During our interview, we chatted about the upcoming Call of Duty: Championship and what he perceives to be the biggest challenges facing Team Curse.

What was the biggest lesson that you guys took home from MLG Dallas?

MLG Dallas taught us that we need to stay hyped during every game so we have momentum. We would be up in maps and not hype each other causing to take no advantage. It as well taught us that we have to come more prepared into a event , we feel like playing league play for so long really threw us off a bit.

With everyone having now played a major LAN event, does that eliminate some of the nerves of being up on the stage like that?

I feel like it does , we are so new as a team MLG Dallas was helpful to show us what we need to work on and that was CMPLX first ever event so it was good for him to play in such a intense atmosphere. 

Fresh from the grave, we have a brand new trailer for the worst kept secret in DLC, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Uprising. 

The map pack, rumored for weeks but officially announced this morning, includes four brand new maps and a Zombies experience of epic proportions. First, let's look at the multiplayer maps.

Magma takes place in a modern Japanese village, ravaged with volcanic eruptions that trace paths across the map and will probably burn you alive if you step foot into them. Encoreis set in London, in the wake of a music festival. The map caters to run and gun play styles and close quarters fighting. Vertigo harkens back to Highrise from Modern Warfare 2 or Overwatch from Modern Warfare 3, set on the top of a towering skyscraper, this time in India.

Finally, we have Studio which is actually based on Firing Range, one of the more popular maps from the first Black Ops. Studio, however, is not set on a firing range but rather a Hollywood movie set with a handful of film themes from Sci-Fi to Western.

Major League Gaming has confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be returning to the lineup for the 2013 Spring Season. This news isn't entirely surprising as Call of Duty is one of the biggest gaming franchises of the current day, but it's great to hear just the same.

The Spring Championship will take place on June 28th - 30th in Anaheim, CA but the road to that event starts much sooner for aspiring Call of Duty teams. Four online qualifiers will be held between now and then, giving teams a chance to fight their way into the Championship in Anaheim.

The schedule for qualifying tournaments looks like this:

1.            April 13^th to May 1^st

2.            May 4^th to May 15^th

3.            May 18^th to May 29^th

4.            June 1^st  to June 12^th

You can click those dates to register on Gamebattles for your chance to compete at the Spring Championship later this year.

Best of luck to everyone who is gunning for a chance to play on the big stage, including our very own Team Curse!

Speaking of games, our parent site Curse.com is running a poll to understand how you guys like to game. The poll is quick, easy and will really help Curse deliver the kind of content that you guys are interested in seeing. Our #1 goal is always to provide the content that you, the gamers, want to enjoy. This poll is a great way to do your part by letting us know what you love and why you love it.

Check it out at http://curse.polldaddy.com/s/online-gamer-survey-1 and thank you for your time!

The Call of Duty: Championship is right around the corner and Cal of Duty ELITE has been previewing the teams that are set to compete at the event. As you may be aware (if not, shame on you), Team Curse NA is one of those lucky teams who kicked enough ass to qualify for the event.

Well, earlier today ELITE debuted the preview for Team Curse and you can give it a look for yourself after the break. This video includes interviews with each of the boys, Rizma, Fatalize, CMPLX and Apathy.

Don't forget, the Call of Duty: Championship is set to take place between April 5th and 7th in Los Angeles. Join us in rooting on the team on Twitter and right here on FPS General, where we'll be covering the event all weekend!

If there's one thing PC gamers love, it is micro-transactions in $60 games. This is exactly why companies like EA are consistently voted in as 'Best PC Publisher', year in and year out. It's this sort of customer appreciation that the PC community has come to rely on these days.

Okay, no more sarcasm.

Treyarch is going to be bringing the option micro-transactions that have been doing well on Xbox Live to PC and PlayStation 3 starting on April 12th. This means personalization packs, those bundles that include three calling cards, three optic reticles and a weapon camo for a single $1.99 price tag.

As much as we tend to decry micro-transactions of any sort, we do sincerely think that these are the best form of them, if you're going to put them in.

No tactical advantage, no gameplay boost, just a purely cosmetic purchase to help you reflect your style in the game. We'll take that any day over pay-to-win micro-transactions that often plague these sorts of things.

Also on April 12th, players will be able to download Nuketown 2025 for free while Nuketown Zombies will be available for $4.99 on all platforms. 

According to some lines of HTML and marketing copy found inside the code on Call of Duty's official website, it looks like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's next DLC is going to be titled Uprising.

With a leak of this nature, we naturally don't have much information but what we do have is surprisingly descriptive. To start with, a line of code was found that revealed the name 'Uprising', linking to an image with the following bit of HTML:

background: #000 url(‘/content/dam/atvi/callofduty/blackops2/cod-bo2/dlc/dlc2-uprising-bg.jpg’) center top no-repeat;

Naturally, this image link is broken when you complete the link by following the syntax of the rest of the images found on the website.

Thankfully, more information was uncovered from the site, namely this little tidbit:

Download the epic Call of Duty: Black Ops II Uprising Theme, featuring Studio, Vertigo and the Mob of the Dead, Treyarch’s most terrifying Zombies experience to date.

While this alludes to a Black Ops 2 theme on Xbox Live, it's clear that they are also referencing what appears to be two multiplayer maps in Studio and Vertigo as well as Mob of the Dead, which would be the new zombies experience.

Hopefully, Treyarch will roll with this leak and spill some details in the coming days. We'll be here when they do, so check back in with us the rest of this week.

Source: CODOnline

Team Curse NA is on hand in Dallas, Texas for the MLG Winter Championship, getting things started against Team Dare in Round 1 in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Championship bracket.

The games got underway with a little Hardpoint on Raid, with Curse getting off to a sluggish start. It seemed like Rizma and Apathy needed a little warming up before they reached top form and Dare got off to a pretty healthy lead. That gap would be widened as the match progressed, reaching up to a 40+ point lead before the fireworks started. CMPLX absolutely lit up Team Dare, going on a rampage in the middle of the match, holding down the Hardpoints and absolutely dominating the opposition.

Submachine Guns have been touted as being nerfed to the point of disrepair in Black Ops 2, but CMPLX went ahead and disproved that with his performance in this match using the Skorpion. Before all was said and done, CMPLX ended up dropping 50 kills and Team Curse comes back from the depths of a surefire loss to win the first game.

Next up, Search & Destroy on Express. Again, Curse seemed to struggle towards the beginning with Dare taking a massive lead, winning the first 4 rounds handily. That dominance, however, was to be short lived. Curse rallied and proceeded to win six rounds in a row to come back and once again take the second round in the Best of 5 series.

Activision has announced this morning that Black Ops 2 microtransactions are moving in from the south, rapidly approaching on your position. Grab your wallet, because your extra spending money just went oscar mike.

Starting tomorrow, players have the option to spend a little money for some custom in-game items. These include things like new camouflages, optic reticles and Calling Cards. Activision was explicitly clear that none of these microtransaction-based items are going to give you an edge in the game. They are purely cosmetic, purely optional and do not help you win if you buy them.

The new items are going to come as part of a personalization pack that includes the reticles, camo and Calling Card for 160MSP. We can't tell if they're serious or not, but the only personalization pack mentioned by Activision community manager Dan Amrich was the Bacon Personalization Pack in which your gun is wrapped in bacon. Gives a whole new meaning to the term smoking your enemy.

In addition to these personalization options, Treyarch is making both Nuketown Zombies and Nuketown 2025 available for all players. These were previously available through pre-orders only. Nuketown Zombies will run you 400MSP while Nuketown 2025, the multiplayer map, will be available for all players for free.

There are a few more minor bits of content being released, including some new calling cards that let you represent your country with your national flag. Check it all out at http://oneofswords.com/.