Those who played through Call of Duty 4's somewhat punishing campaign will probably recognize the locale featured in the newest downloadable multiplayer map, "Broadcast", as the theater of operations for the single-player level "Charlie Don't Surf". While we wonder how the stage's apparent indoor focus will affect the usefulness of helicopters and airstrikes, we definitely dig the idea of having a stage dedicated to more intense close-quarters encounters.

If you haven't played the game, and all this photorealistic gunplay bothers you, just imagine that the bullet-riddled station featured in Broadcast has a programming schedule composed only of "The Nanny" reruns and the few episodes of the short-lived prime time trainwreck, "Viva Laughlin". It makes all the violence a tad more justifiable.

Infinity Ward' Fourzerotwo has announced on his blog that the Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack is coming to the PlayStation 3 approximately 21 days after the Xbox Live release. Given the 360 pack is expected April 3 or 4, that puts the PS3 release on or near Thursday, April 24.

PlayStation 3 owners will pay the same $10 price for the four maps: Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown and Killhouse. Fourzerotwo also said they were working out the logistics to bring the maps to the PC. No word on a Call of Duty 4 "Game of the Year" edition for PS3 owners.

A new site just sprung up on Xbox.com announcing the Call of Duty 4 variety map pack will arrive Thursday, April 3 for 800 MS points (US$10). The pack includes four new maps: Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown and Killhouse. The page also confirmed that Call of Duty 4 Game of the Year Edition is also coming April 3. No word yet on the equivalent PS3 release, for either GOTY or the map pack. We'll update when we find out.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]




Call of Duty 4 landed in the top ten in our 2007 Game of the Year Awards, but who filled the other nine spots? We've got Halo 3, Portal, Rock Band, Peggle (yeah Peggle), and more. Take a look.

It's a scientific fact that there's no reason you shouldn't have bought Call of Duty 4 yet. What, you don't like shooters? Too bad. Get motion sick while playing FPSs? Take a Dramamine. Don't have a next-gen console or PC? Get a second job. Not only do we think it's one of the year's best, you're possibly the only person who hasn't purchased a copy yet.

Keeping all that in mind, if you haven't bought the game, you may have good reason to hold off, if only for a bit longer. MCV brings word that Activision will release a Game of the Year edition of the game next month. Aside from new packaging, expect a token to allow you to download the forthcoming map pack for the game. Not exactly earth-shattering, but (depending on the price) this sounds like the only version of CoD 4 you latecomers should be looking for.

At the moment, MCV's only reporting on a 360 version of the GOTY edition. Activision tells us that more details should be coming this week, we'll let you know when we hear if PS3 owners will be getting some love.

Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling ("fourzerotwo" to you Call of Duty 4 fans) promised us something different from the game's first map pack, and Gamespot recently got a hands-on with two of the maps to put that to the test. The first map is called "Broadcast," set in the TV station from the single-player mission "Charlie Don't Surf." The largely indoor level has been expanded significantly from the single-player campaign though.

Next up is "Creek," a sprawling outdoor map full of natural cover from foliage and (you guessed it) a creek. There will be two more maps in the final pack, "Chinatown" and "Killhouse," which is apparently inspired by the single-player campaign's training level. You can read more about all of them right here.

If the annual shame parade known as the Spike TV Video Game Awards have taught us anything, it's this -- famous people love video games. Take, for example, "Arrested Development" star Will Arnett and "SNL" funnyman Jason Sudeikis, both of whom outed themselves as FPSophiles last week on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".

While we were amused by Arnett's endorsement of Call of Duty 4 and his tales of domestic disrespect, we think Sudeikis pulled away with a higher chuckle per joke ratio. You can watch his entire interview after the break -- jump to 4:17 for his gaming testimonial, or to 5:48 to watch a grown man demonstrate Halo 3 teabagging in front of a live studio audience.

[Thanks, Colin.]

You may remember last week when we told you about the chock-full feature patch that would be hitting Call of Duty 4 sometime in the near future. Well, friends: The future is now. ... At least, it is for Xbox 360 owners. We're assuming PlayStation 3 players will be getting it soon if they haven't already, we just haven't had a chance to test yet.

In case you missed the post (for shame!) expect host migration (even when a host drops teams stay together), better accuracy for snipers and ACOG scope users, an expanded Kill Cam that includes claymores, airstrikes and grenades, nine new spawn points on each map, quick mute and some other tweaks. ... Well, what are you waiting for? Go play already!

Eric Hall, a 24-year-old Floridian and retired Marine, has now been missing for a week. His friends say that shortly after playing Call of Duty (4, we assume), Hall "just got up and said that he had to go." He was last seen departing his home on a motorcycle, which was later found on the side of a road. The local sheriff's office claims that the man was suffering from hallucinations and flashbacks to his time spent serving in Iraq, where he was injured during a patrol by an exploding bomb, which did tremendous damage to the left side of his body, and reportedly decapitated Hall's best friend in front of his eyes.

It's not exactly confirmed that Call of Duty was behind Hall's disappearance -- after all, we found the story on Fox News, who has a less than objective view of video gaming as a whole. Regardless, we wish Hall's family the best of luck in locating him, though, as Hall's father pointed out, it's tough to find a Marine that doesn't want to be found.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Despite nabbing 12 nominations for the (deep breath) Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, BioShock was bested in the Overall Game of the Year category by cinematic tour de force, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Both games were awarded four, err, awards at this year's event, held alongside D.I.C.E. at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Orange Box's Portal made off with some shiny statuettes, as did fake instrument extravaganza, Rock Band. Super Mario Galaxy was deemed the best "adventure" game in absence of a "platformer" category (a sad commentary in itself), while Assassin's Creed got a hearty stab pat on the back for its fancy animation. The complete list of winners can be found after the break -- a list of whiners is sure to follow shortly.

Read [PDF link]

One of the nice things about being the top US publisher in a booming game industry is that it affords you the privilege of announcing record holiday sales. Activision's third fiscal quarter, stretching from October to December 2007, saw the publisher's sales increase by 80% over the year prior to $1.48 billion, with profits amounting to $272.2 million. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are the key titles to praise if you're Activision and blame if you're a consumer wondering where all your hard-earned money went.

Activision anticipates a further $350 million in sales to originate from its fourth fiscal quarter (ending in March), ultimately contributing to a projected $2.65 billion for the entire fiscal year 2008. As long as shootin' and shreddin' remain popular and the upcoming Vivendi merger stays on track, we don't expect to put "bankrupt" and "Activision" in the same sentence for a very long time. Well, not unless one those words is preceded by "creatively."

The Call of Duty 4 fans demanded it and this week Zero Punctuation finally reviews one of the best games of 2007. Yahtzee isn't keen on Americans or patriotic "gun wank" games, so it probably speaks to CoD4's amazing design that he actually seemed to care during that scene (watch the review if you want the spoiler). Take heart CoD4 fanboys, Yahtzee seemed to enjoy his time in nameless-sandy-country. The experience didn't bring him Portal levels of elation, but he did enjoy it enough that he forgot to eat dinner.

After the break is where you'll find this week's NSFW review of CoD4.

At last, after more than three years of clumsy existence and thousands upon thousands of tiresome, incompetent instances of waffling, we've managed to condense an entire news story into a remarkably efficient headline. It's quite miraculous, really, and it likely signals our arrival at the pinnacle of our blogging prowess. No longer will hasty readers have to suffer through pompous opening paragraphs and interminable tangents before laying eyes on the actual news!

So anyway, Activision has announced that new downloadable multiplayer maps for its smash-success shooter, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, are "on the way" to the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. Questions regarding release date, price and quantity went unanswered by the publisher, thus leaving the headline as the only useful sentence in this entire post.

Much like the dim-witted kid you constantly taunted in kindergarten, Activision is having extraordinary difficulty making it past the number "1." Constantly cited in press releases, it appears uno is the only number the publisher cares to count on: #1 US publisher in 2007; a $1 billion dollar franchise in Guitar Hero; and #1 game in last week's Xbox Live Activity. Perhaps you too would be laughing all the way to the bank if you weren't such a mean-spirited brat in your early years.

Activision's latest claim to #1 fame is based on sales figures obtained from The NPD Group, Chart Track and The GFK Group, which label Infinity Ward's critically acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as the best-selling game for 2007. The frantic first-person shooter is said to have sold in excess of 7 million units worldwide, a particularly impressive victory considering the game's relatively recent November release. Of course, those keen on the shooting of the aliens will recall that Microsoft claimed an 8.1 million sales 'splosion for Halo 3 earlier this month, bringing the title of "Best-selling Game of 2007 OMG" title into minor dispute.

We've contacted both boasters to clarify the figures ... just so we can be sure to stick the air pump into the right ego. Regardless, you'd best take this as a sign to start counting down the months until the inevitable Call of Duty 5 arrives. Let's just hope it's not a #2.

Activision became king of the hill in 2007 as the number one US publisher. According to NPD data the company's current market share is 17.7%, a 7.2% increase over last year. Of course, Activision utilized the powers it has as a third-party publisher to sell Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,the number one and three titles in sales respectively, across multiple platforms. This is the first time in the company's history that it reached the top spot.

Activision was certainly on a financial and critical acclaim rampage in 2007. COD4 got a spot on our Top 10 list and GHIII was the number one game for our significant others. As successful as last year was, it's now looking like Rock Band is poised to make GHIII yesterday's news, which could be troubling for Activision considering how financially successful the Guitar Hero series has been. Then again, this year we'll start seeing the armed and fully-operational Blizzavision (yeah ... still working on that name).

The frustrating thing about trying to write about Call of Duty 4 is that all of the phrases that best describe it have already been applied to and, in turn, drained of their impact by far less deserving games. It's a "non-stop thrill ride," its graphics are "almost photorealistic" and it is, in fact, "so real that you'd almost think you were there." What Call of Duty 4 so authoritatively manages to do is reclaim those action game clichés and, in doing so, infuse them with a new, fresh power.

What Call of Duty 4's single player campaign could best be described as though, is a master's class on making good game design choices. From beginning to end, moments last just as long as they need to, difficulty is perfectly balanced and the action ebbs and flows between full-on chaos and chilling silence. From a pulse-pounding start to the final, desperate ending, it's a meticulously crafted experience. We haven't even made mention of the game's multiplayer yet, which mixes the game's explosive presentation with some RPG fundamentals to predictably addictive results.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the game is how few actual revolutionary concepts are contained within. It selects existing game design tools, hones them to practical perfection and creates what is, in our opinion, the military shooter against which all others must be judged.