Tag Archives: Call of Duty: Black Ops

UK Charts – Call of Duty: Black Ops stays top

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Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops has held off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to hold onto Number 1 in the UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats Top 40. It means that Call of Duty: Black Ops spends a second week at the top, following its record breaking debut.

The continued success of Activision’s shooter means that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has to settle for second place, despite some extremely impressive review scores, and many retailers putting on special deals for the latest in the Ubisoft series. Sainsbury’s is currently selling Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for just £29.99 with no strings attached, but the deal won’t last forever! Meanwhile, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit also makes a strong debut, entering the charts in third place.

The new entries of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has pushed other titles down the rankings. FIFA 11 drops from second to fouth, while Just Dance two also moves down two places from third to fifth.

Two Nintendo Wii titles have re-entered the top ten with Wii Party climbing from twelfth to sixth while Wii Sports Resort jumps a massive 12 places from nineteenth to seventh. A Nintendo title also features in eighth spot with Professor Layton and the Lost Future for the Nintendo DS having dropped two positions from sixth.

Kinect Sports drops from fourth to ninth in its second week on sale while New Super Mario Brothers Wii rounds out the top ten having dropped two places from eighth spot.

Previous chart toppers Fallout: New Vegas and Football Manager 2011 have both dropped out of the top ten, falling to thirteenth and nineteenth respectively. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II also leaves the top ten, having dropped five places to fifteenth.

However, the three top ten leavers are still above EA’s licensed Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1, which could only manage 20th in its first week.

The full Gfk-ChartTrack top ten for the week ending November 20th is as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
3. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
4. FIFA 11 (EA)
5. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
6. Wii Party (Nintendo)
7. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)
8. Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo)
9. Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
10. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo)

So Train2Game, did you think that Call of Duty: Black Ops was always going to hold off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit? Or are you surprised to see it still selling so well after its massive first week? And with Gran Turismo 5 being released on Wednesday, do you think we could be seeing a new number one next week?

You can leave your thoughts about Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo 5 or any other game in the UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats chart here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood review round up

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Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has been released today, and the review scores suggest that the latest in Ubisoft’s franchise is going to be a big hit.

Metacritic currently gives Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on the PlayStation 3 a very impressive score of 91, while the Xbox 360 counterpart is one point behind on 90. That means Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has a higher average review score than Call of Duty: Black Ops, which Metacritic rates at 88.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is therefore one of the highest rated games of the year, with Eurogamer even giving the title a perfect 10/10 and call it “one of the best games of 2010.”

CVG are also highly praising of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. They say “Overall, Brotherhood is an awesome package with enough new content to kill the competition this Christmas. There’s enough quality and scope here to put Brotherhood in the running not just as a top Christmas purchase, but one of the best action games of the year.” CVG give Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood 9.2/10.

Meanwhile, Kotaku claim that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the best game in the series to date. They lavish praise on the game in their review summary:

“The game that comes to mind while playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Not since Rockstar’s potent crime drama has a game so massive, so polished, so impressively improved from its predecessor been released just a year after the prior installment. But people won’t remember how long Brotherhood took to make. They are likely to remember its quality. Ezio’s new adventure may be less personal than his previous one, but it is as interesting and as mischievously manipulative of real history as the series has ever been. Nearly bloated with fun things to do Brotherhood is Assassin’s Creed in peak form.”

GameSpot UK are slightly less praising of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, giving it 8.5/10.  They say “Almost every aspect of the series has seen enhancements in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. There is joy in leaping across the Roman rooftops, taking in the grand sights in front of you and realizing that it is all your own playground. This may not be Assassin’s Creed III, but like Ezio’s smirk, Brotherhood is too irresistible to ignore.”

If you’re still wondering why Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is receiving so much hype, you may want to check out both the Single Player Launch Trailer, and the Multiplayer Launch Trailer.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is available now for both the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360.

So Train2Game, have you got your hands on Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood yet? If so what do you think about it? Is it deserving of the very high praise it has received? Do you think that the excellent review scores could help it do the seemingly impossible and knock Call of Duty: Black Ops from the top of the UK Chart?

You can leave your thoughts about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – The biggest entertainment launch ever

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Its official, Call of Duty: Black Ops holds the title of the biggest entertainment launch ever.  As MCV notes, Call of Duty: Black Ops was launched in the same week as popular beat combo Take That reformed and launched a new album. Even a new Harry Potter film was premiered, but it was the video game that came out on top.

Here in the UK, Call of Duty: Black Ops broke all previous day one records for a video game, shifting 1.4 million copies and making £58 million in revenue. Call of Duty: Black Ops went on to sell over two million copies in its first week on the shelves, generating over £80 million in revenue.

These figures easily beat every other entertainment product around at the moment, and MCV point out “Even the ‘fastest selling album of the decade’, Take That’s Progress, only managed 235,000 units in its first day on Monday this week, around 2m in revenue.”

The success of Call of Duty: Black Ops, combined with the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect motion controller, means that the UK has had its biggest week ever when it comes to game sales. An estimated £114 million was made last week, beating the previous record of £107.6 million set in the final week of 2008.

Sales were possibly also improved by the various deals retailers provided in attempts to encourage consumers to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops from them.

Naturally, the massive sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops mean that it easily took the top spot in the UK video game charts. All of the games success has come on good, if not outstanding reviews, but its unlikely Activision and Treyarch will be too bothered with review scores given the massive success of the game across the globe.

If you somehow managed to miss all of the Call of Duty: Black Ops pre-launch hype, you can check out the launch trailer, and details of the new zombie mode featuring some famous faces here.

So Train2Game, do you believe the massive success of Call of Duty: Black Ops is good for the games industry? Or do you believe that it’ll just encourage developers to churn out the same old games?

And given that video games cost a lot more than going to the cinema, or buying a CD, do you think that the industry is getting too excited about the amount of money made by Call of Duty: Black Ops?

You can leave your thoughts about the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Kinect launch doubles Xbox 360 sales

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Kinect for Xbox 360

The high profile launch of the Kinect motion controller has doubled Xbox 360 sales in the UK. That’s according to MCV who say Chart-Track figures show that the Xbox 360 has had a massive boost in sales since Kinect became available.

The launch of Microsoft’s motion controller was a huge event, with many retailers opening their doors at midnight last Thursday to allow gamers to be among the first in the UK to own Kinect. The combined sales of Microsoft’s Kinect, and Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops made last week the best ever for video game sales in the UK.

55% of Call of Duty: Black Ops sales were for the Xbox 360, and it’s likely that a few console bundle deals also helped push up sales of the Microsoft console.

Nevertheless, it seems that Kinect has been responsible for the majority of Xbox 360 sales in the last week, and over one million of the motion controllers have already been sold worldwide. Microsoft aim to have sold five million by Christmas, and the company has previously stated that Kinect will become as core to the Xbox 360 as Xbox Live.

Kinect is available on its own for £130, but its launch has definitely had an impact on the sale of Xbox 360 consoles.  Microsoft have been keen to push the new device as part of Xbox 360 bundle deals, with Kinect being available in a 250 GB Xbox 360 bundle for £299.99.

Of course, the massive marketing campaign by Microsoft has probably played a part in encouraging Kinect sales, and therefore the purchase of brand new Xbox 360 consoles.

So Train2Game, has the launch of Kinect made you invest in an Xbox 360? Could it in the future? Or do you think sales have gone up due to Microsoft’s ‘family friendly’ marketing campaign?

You can leave your thoughts on Kinect for the Xbox 360 here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer launch trailer

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assassins-creed-brotherhood multiplayer characters

Ubisoft has revealed an Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer launch trailer to coincide with the games release in the USA today.

The new Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer launch trailer tells us that “People are rarely who they seem” and “This is a truth often released in one’s final breath” The trailer demonstrates the characters and locations that are available in the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer mode.

Oh, and of course it shows a wide variety of ways to do away with an enemy in the cat and mouse world that is Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer.

You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

You can check out more details about the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood online multiplayer, including game modes and character classes, in this previous post on the Train2Game blog.

The brand new multiplayer mode is just one aspect of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, with the game of course featuring a vast single player story starring Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II. You can check out the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood single player launch trailer in this post from a few days ago.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is released here in the UK on Friday for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer mode? Is it something you’re looking forward to? Or are you only interested in the single player story? And do you think that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood could do the seemingly impossible, and knock Call of Duty: Black Ops from the top of the charts?

You can leave your thoughts about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Microsoft say over 1 million Kinect units sold

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Kinect for Xbox 360

One million Kinect motion controllers have been sold in its first ten days on sale, say Microsoft.

The hands free device for the Xbox 360 was launched here in the UK last week, and two weeks ago in the USA. And in an interview with MSNBC, Xbox boss Don Mattrick says the company are pleased with the progress Kinect is making:

“It’s a strong start. Consumers are loving it”

“We are appreciative of the response we have seen from consumers that has culminated in sales of more than 1m units in the first 10 days on the market for Kinect for Xbox 360,”

“This is a great start to the holiday season, and we will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than 5 million Kinect sensors worldwide by the end of this year.”

Sales of Kinect for the Xbox 360 and its release titles, combined with the massive launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, helped make last week the biggest ever for video game sales in the UK.

Microsoft are confident that five million Kinect units will be sold before Christmas. The company has previously said that they expect the Kinect hands free controller to become as core to the Xbox 360 as Xbox Live is.

Hardcore gamers may be somewhat put off by the very casual looking launch line up of Kinect right now, but Microsoft have repeatedly stated that there are hardcore titles in the works.  Reports suggest that this will include a Kinect compatible Gears of War game, though whether it’ll be a brand new title, or the Kinect features will be added to a previous game in the series remains to be seen.

Nonetheless, Microsoft can surely expect sales of both the Xbox 360 and the Kinect device to receive a boost during the Black Friday sales, which will also be hitting the UK for the first time this year.

The company also say that Kinect will be available in over 60,000 stores in 38 countries by the vital Christmas period.

So Train2Game, are you among those who own one of the million Kinect units that have been sold? How are you finding it after a week? Do you think it has the potential to reach that figure of five million by Christmas? And what are your thoughts on a Kinect compatible Gears of War game?

You can leave your thoughts about Kinect here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

UK has ‘best week ever’ for video games sales

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Moneys

The launches of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Kinect for the Xbox 360 have helped the UK experience its biggest week of all time for game sales.

Call of Duty: Black Ops topped the UK chart with 1.4 million sales, breaking a number of UK records in the process. Meanwhile the release of Kinect and its 11 launch titles also contributed to the rise in sales.

Week 45 of 2010 has therefore become the biggest grossing week of all time for video games in the UK, with an estimated total of almost £114 million. The previous record holding week for games sales was the final week of 2008 which grossed £107.6 million.

Michael Rawlinson, Director General of video games trade body UKIE said:

“The video games and interactive entertainment industry has already seen a great start to quarter 4 2010 and the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Microsoft’s Kinect adds to this. The positive sales figures of titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops, new hardware launches like Kinect, the emergence of casual/mobile games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope and social networking games such as Farmville show that video games and other forms of interactive entertainment continue to be played by more people than ever – with 1 in 3 people in the UK now being gamers.”

“Given the huge audiences for games on all formats, 2010 has been a year of unprecedented activity and focus. And with more video games than ever before being played, on an ever growing range of games consoles, PCs, mobile phones, mobile devices and internet enabled TVs, the industry has widened beyond all expectations and will continue to expand exponentially in 2011.”

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on this weeks’ boom in video games sales? Does it bode well for the game development industry as a whole? Does this news make you feel even more confident about your decision to pursue a job in the games industry?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum

UK Charts – Call of Duty: Black Ops is Number 1

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Number 1

In perhaps the least surprising gaming news of the year, Call of Duty: Black Ops has stormed to the top of the UK games chart. In other news, The Pope is a Catholic, and bears do indeed do their business in the woods.

The latest edition of the Call of Duty franchise has predictably taken top spot, after smashing all previous day one sales records. A combined 5.6 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops were sold on day one in the USA and UK, with 1.4 million gamers here handing their hard earned cash over to Activision. Some special deals by retailers are also likely to have played a part in the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops. More copies of the game were sold on the Xbox 360 than the PlayStation 3, with 56% of Black Ops sales on the Microsoft console.

The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops has been even bigger than that of its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops wasn’t the only huge launch this week, with Kinect for the Microsoft 360 also getting a star studded welcome to the UK market. Eight Kinect games entered the top 40 this week, with Kinect Sports the highest placed in fourth spot.

Kinect sports fourth place means it’s behind the rising Just Dance 2 in third place, and previous chart topper FIFA 11 which remains in second after continuing strong sales.  Meanwhile, Last week’s number one, Football Manager 2011, drops down to fifth spot.

Elsewhere in the top ten, Professor Layton and the Lost Future drops one place from fifth to sixth,  while Fallout: New Vegas – itself a previous number one – remains in seventh spot. New Super Mario Bros Wii from Nintendo slips down two places to eighth.  The Sims 3 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II round out the top ten in ninth and tenth respectively, having swapped positions with each other since last week.

Fable III was King of the charts only two weeks ago, but this week sees the Xbox 360 title drop out of the top ten all together. Sonic Colours has had a disappointing debut week, entering the charts in only 36th place.

The full UKIE ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top Ten for the week ending November 13th is as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
2. FIFA 11 (EA)
3. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
4. Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
5. Football Manager 2011 (Sega)
6. Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo)
7. Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda)
8. New Super Mario Bros (Wii)
9. The Sims 3 (EA)
10. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (LucasArts)

So Train2Game, it was always obvious that Call of Duty: Black Ops was going to be dominant number one this week, right? Do you think it’ll stay there for many weeks to come? Could it be the Christmas number one? Or do you think Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood or Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit could take the top spot next week?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts about Call of Duty: Black Ops, or any other game in the charts, here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Call of Duty: Black Ops smashes day one records

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Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops has shattered n the record for day one sales in the UK, and by a long, long way too.  MCV report that day one sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops in the UK were 14% higher than that of its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

While 14% more units of the game were sold, Call of Duty: Black Ops made Activision an extra 22% in sales. Overall, 1.4 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops were sold in the UK on November 9th, making £58 million in revenue.

This of course means that Call of Duty: Black Ops is bound to be number one in next weeks UK Chart!

The news of Call of Duty: Black Ops record breaking achievements in the UK comes after Activision hailed the release as the biggest entertainment launch in history. The publishing giant say that  5.6 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops have been sold in the USA and UK, compared to Modern Warfare 2’s 4.7 million copies.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is of course pleased with the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops

“There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year’s five-day global sales record of $550 million,”

“The game’s success underscores the pop culture appeal of the brand. Call of Duty: Black Ops is the finest game that Treyarch has ever made and raises the bar for online gameplay by delivering the deepest and most intense Call of Duty experience yet. The Call of Duty franchise has over 25 million players around the world that are engaged in billions of hours of online gameplay, and we are committed to supporting them with new content and features on a more frequent and regular basis.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops generally received very positive review scores, while retailers have been trying to out do each other in order to encourage strong sales.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops? Is the game well deserving of its massive sales, or has the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops just been down to a massive hype campaign by Activision? Or perhaps it’s a combination of the two?

You can leave your thoughts on Call of Duty: Black Ops here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Call of Duty: Black Ops review score round up

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Call of Duty: Black Ops

Well, it’s finally here. After all the hype, all the preview videos and all the predictions of record breaking sales, Call of Duty: Black Ops is now available.  The long awaited Call of Duty: Black Ops was officially launched at midnight with hundreds of GAME, HMV, GameStation and supermarket stores selling the game to eager Call of Duty: Black Ops enthusiasts as soon as November 9th arrived.

A big Call of Duty: Black Ops launch event held at Battersea power station saw celebrities, the press and gamers counting down the hours until the all important clock strike of midnight. The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops means that the review embargo has been lifted, with the latest Call of Duty title currently getting very positive reviews. Currently, Call of Duty: Black Ops has a score of 90 on Metacritic.

So what do some of the major gaming news websites have to say about Call of Duty: Black Ops now the review embargo has been lifted? Well, GamesRadar have given Call of Duty: Black Ops a review score of 9/10. They say:

“With the hype and excitement surrounding Treyarch’s first Call of Duty where they aren’t bound by a World War II setting, it’s a shame that they went for more of the same MW2. This isn’t say it’s poor but personally I feel they’ve missed an opportunity to really stamp their authority with Black Ops. Still, as a complete package with a great story, strong FPS action and a killer multiplayer mode, Black Ops remains unmissable.”

IGN also appear to suggest that Treyarch have stuck to a very familiar formula with Call of Duty: Black Ops. They give Call of Duty: Black Ops an 8.5/10, and suggest the multiplayer mode is better than the single player campaign.

“Call Of Duty: Black Ops is a classic game of two halves. Perhaps even more so than last year’s Modern Warfare 2, the gulf in quality between the two game modes has rarely been as apparent or as exasperating. With Treyarch seemingly content to tread water in the single-player arena, it feels like its focus has been well and truly on ensuring that its multiplayer offering is right up there with the very best. To that end it has succeeded, and thanks to its superb run of Wager Matches, Treyarch has literally raised the stakes. Whether extensive customisation options and inspirational multiplayer makes up for the ragged single player portion is sure to be a subject of controversy in the weeks and months ahead. Maybe next time we’ll get the full package…”

Eurogamer also follow a similar pattern in their Call of Duty: Black Ops review, praising the multiplayer mode but suggesting the Call of Duty: Black Ops single player campaign could have been so much more in their 8/10 review.

“Call of Duty has long since settled into an enormously successful rhythm, and the good news for Activision is that Black Ops does little to disrupt it. The campaign is relentlessly aggressive and spectacular – a Jerry Bruckheimer tribute act stuck in permanent encore – while the multiplayer modes are a mixture of smart tweaks to working formulas, as focused on protecting that guaranteed bottom line as the campaign’s yellow objective cursor is on making sure you never falter. The results are never less than entertaining whatever you choose to do, then, but not exactly brave and bold either. Say what you like about No Russian – at least it was something different.”

In their Call of Duty: Black Ops review, CVG suggest the opposite to reviews above and say that the single player campaign is the best yet, but the multiplayer modes feel too familiar.

“A thrilling and brutal single-player campaign that’s one of the series’ best. But will you be blown away by multiplayer the fourth time around?”

They give Call of Duty: Black Ops a review score of 9.3/10

VG247 are providing a full list of regularly updated Call of Duty: Black Ops review scores, so if you want to see more judgement on the latest Call of Duty title, check it out.

If the review scores have tempted you into buying Call of Duty: Black Ops, be sure to read this post in the Train2Game blog that reveals where you can get it for the cheapest price.

So Train2Game, what do you think about the Call of Duty: Black Ops review scores? Are they higher or lower than you were expecting? If you’ve actually got your hands on Call of Duty: Black Ops, what do you think of the game so far?

You can leave your thoughts on Call of Duty: Black Ops and its review scores here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.