Yesterday, Ryan told you about what looked to be an early glimpse of the third map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Although clearly in “rumor” territory, the artwork on the leaked image very clearly resembled that of similarly leaked (and later confirmed to be accurate) artwork for the game’s second map pack, Escalation. A little more poking on the Internet even came up with a release date, June 28, which seems awfully soon when you consider that the previous two DLC packs came out roughly a month after they were announced.
What a surprise then that Activision has confirmed the coming of the Annihilation map pack with a press release listing the launch date as June 28. The information that slipped out yesterday is indeed accurate, and our four new multiplayer maps will be called Hangar 18, Drive-In, Silo and Hazard. The new zombie map, which went unnamed in yesterday’s image, has been confirmed to be called Shangri-La. No price is listed, but you can almost certainly expect it to fall at 1200 MS Points (also known as $15).
The pack will arrive on Xbox Live first, as part of Activision’s ongoing partnership with Microsoft. The release of the map pack will be accompanied by a double XP weekend, starting July 1. No word on the PC or PlayStation 3 release, as has become the standard, but you can probably start expecting to hear more information on other versions a month or so after the initial release.
The press release offers little in the detail beyond a statement from Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia that is specific to the new zombies map: “Players will also enjoy an all-new Zombies experience, Shangri-La, an exotic and mysterious map filled with deadly traps, dark secrets and innovative gameplay that will challenge even the most daring Zombie hunters.”
Sounds awesome. Probably not the moonbase setting that some fans have been expecting, but any excuse to grind up more zombies with a death machine is a good thing indeed. Let the speculation begin now on new boss zombies and weapons!
