Hasta La Gadget!

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 players have had a rather long month considering the new Revolution Map Pack was announced 21 days ago, although we’re sure you were keeping count of that on your own. It looks like your patience and nightly multiplayer matches has lead you to today’s official release of the Revolution Map Pack, that is, as long as your an Xbox 360 Black Ops 2 player.

Xbox 360 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 players can now pick up the Revolution Map Pack for 1200 Microsoft Points, although if you purchased a Black Ops 2 DLC Season Pass, you’ll be able to pick up the Revolution Map Pack without paying anything extra. PC, PlayStation 3 and Wii U Black Ops 2 players will have to wait for their turn with the Revolution Map Pack as neither Trayarch nor Activision have announced when the new pack will be available outside of the Xbox 360.

The Revolution Map Pack contains four new multiplayer maps, a new co-op map and an all-new Zombies game mode called “Turned,” which allows players to play as zombies. And for the first time in a Call of Duty game, a new weapon called the Peacekeeper will also be made available in the map pack.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Hits PSN, Sony Teases Possible God Of War Announcement For February 1,

Eager gamers desperate for a taste of Crysis 3 can get their teeth into the title early, today, with the Crysis 3 Open Beta opening up for Xbox LIVE Gold members. The premature access – which comes ahead of Crysis 3′s general availability in February 2013 – is based around two unique maps, Museum and Airport, and gives a teaser of the multiplayer experience on the Xbox 360.

The beta is set in the 7 Wonders of New York’s Liberty Dome, and includes both Crash Site and Hunter game modes. Eventually, Electronic Arts said last week, PS3 and PC gamers will also have access to Open Betas on their platforms, though there’s no sign of the downloads at time of writing.

Hunter mode is the “survival” side of Crysis 3, with two multiplayer teams, one perpetually hunting the other. Hunted “troopers” automatically join the cloaked “Hunters” team when they’re killed, with the goal being to track them all down before the time runs out. As for Crash Site mode, that requires teams to capture and guard an alien pod, fending off the attempts of other players to steal it from them.

Crysis 3 Open Beta tutorial:

However, while the Open Beta is likely to be popular across all platforms, it won’t be around for long. The teaser will expire on February 12, EA says, suggesting the full release of Crysis 3 won’t be too much later after that.

Crysis 3 Open Beta hits Xbox 360 is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Get ready Dead Island fans, because Deep Silver has delivered the first gameplay trailer for the newest game in the series, Dead Island: Riptide. The gameplay trailer goes on for more than nine minutes, and puts the game’s new Hub Defense mode into the spotlight. In Hub Defense, players will scavenge for equipment to defend their base and then fight off wave after wave of zombies, with the goal of keeping all of the survivors alive.

Of course, it’s a little more involved than that, as it gives players the chance to build up their defenses in between waves. The person walking us through the demo, Deep Silver creative producer Alex Toplansky, says that you’ll need to use everything that causes damage during the onslaught, so you’ll need to be sure that you collect all of the guns and explosives you can in the lead-up to the attack.

We also get to catch a glimpse of boat driving, which Toplansky says will be necessary to get around parts of the island. The footage actually looks pretty good for being in the pre-alpha phase, if not a little too similar to the original. If you only wanted more Dead Island action without much of a shake in terms of gameplay, it looks like Dead Island: Riptide might be the game for you.

Keep in mind that since this is pre-alpha footage, a number of features could change before the game releases. That being said, we don’t have too much longer to go as Dead Island: Riptide is set to launch on April 23, 2013 in North America and April 26 in Europe. Will you be returning to the world of Dead Island after getting a look at this gameplay demo?

[via VG247]

Dead Island: Riptide trailer shows off pre-alpha gameplay is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Many gamers played a bunch of different games on Xbox Live throughout 2012, but there are a handful of titles that obviously rise above the rest in terms of activity. Today Microsoft‘s Major Nelson released a list of the top 20 Xbox Live titles of 2012, and we’re seeing some entries that are predictable and others that are somewhat surprising. Care to guess which game landed at the top of the list?

If you guessed Black Ops II, you were right. Activision’s latest entry in the Call of Duty series settled at first place for the year, followed in second by Modern Warfare 3. Halo 4 managed to work its way into third, pushing the incredibly popular Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition into fourth place. That Minecraft finished in the top five is important – normally, we’d expect the most-played games of the year to be full retail releases, while Minecraft is an Xbox Live Arcade title.

The original Black Ops (which has been on shelves since November 2010, remember) rounds out the top five, so it seems that only Halo and Minecraft had the player base to challenge the Call of Duty series. Borderlands 2 just missed the top ten with its 11th-place ranking, while it seems that a healthy number of people were playing Skyrim all through the year, as Bethesda’s epic managed to secure 13th place. Despite the fact that it was only released on December 4, Far Cry 3 broke into the list nonetheless, coming in at number 18. Here’s the full list of Xbox Live’s most-played games for 2012:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
3. Halo 4
4. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops
6. FIFA Soccer 13
7. FIFA Soccer 12
8. Battlefield 3
9. Halo: Reach
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
11. Borderlands 2
12. Assassin’s Creed III
13. Skyrim
14. Madden NFL 13
15. Gears of War 3
16. NBA 2K13
17. NBA 2K12
18. Far Cry 3
19. Grand Theft Auto IV
20. Forza Motorsport 4

Major Nelson also shared lists of the top Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Indie, and Games For Windows Live titles for 2012. Though Minecraft was pushed out of the top spot on the overall list, it came in at first place on the Xbox Live Arcade list, with CastleMiner Z taking the first place crown for the indie list. Surprisingly, Grand Theft Auto IV was the top Games for Windows Live title of 2012, beating out more recent games like Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition and Batman: Arkham City. If you’d like to see all four full lists, they can be found over on Major Nelson’s blog.

Call of Duty unsurprising tops Xbox Live activity list for 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Welcome back to Friday folks. Earlier today, we saw what’s rumored to be the Samsung Galaxy S IV pop up in AnTuTu’s database, with the listing suggesting that it will come equipped with an Exynos 5 Octa CPU. The iPad Mini has been projected to both drive and cannibalize Apple’s sales in Q1 2013, and Kim Dotcom’s new site Mega launched today for advance users. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Intel CEO Paul Otellini, and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt have all been ordered by Judge Lucy Koh to submit to questioning after allegations that the three companies entered into a non-poaching pact together, and we learned today that Windows 8 upgrades will jump up to $119 come February.

Facebook for Android took the jump up to version 2.1 today, and we were right there to go hands-on with it, while the first picture of the unannounced Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 surfaced. The chairman of the FCC wants gigabit Internet in all 50 states by 2015, and we got our first look at BlackBerry 10 voice commands today in a new leaked video. Opera has announced Opera Ice, a new browser for mobile devices, and today Amazon introduced the world to Kindle Rentals, which is obviously a new feature allowing users to rent eBooks for a pre-set period of time.

It seems that the Exynos security hole has been fixed in the Verizon Galaxy Note II, with a new update being sent out to users today. Bethesda revealed that all Skyrim DLC will be heading to the PlayStation 3 in February after months and months of waiting, and it seems that Google is working with Yubico for password USB rings. XBMC has come to Android and we tell you how to get it on your device of choice, and with the NHL lockout finally (finally!) over, NHL GameCenter has arrived on Xbox 360.

Dynamism today showed off its new KUPA Ultranote X15 Windows 8 Pro tablet today, while a new bill in the House wants stronger laws for video game ratings. AVADirect announced the world’s first quad NVIDIA Tesla system today, and Forbes named Google the best company to work for. Finally tonight, Chris Burns walks you through why Facebook not offering a “hide from search results” option isn’t anything to worry about. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: January 18, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.