Call of Duty-loving PlayStation 3 and PC gamers: this is the public service announcement you’ve been waiting for. The Annihilation map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is easily the best of the bunch released so far, has an official release date now for non-Xbox 360 platforms. It’s soon too: July 28 for both PS3 and PC, which is less than two weeks away.
Woo hoo!
Annihilation adds four new multiplayer maps and one new zombie map to the Treyarch-developed first-person shooter. On the multiplayer side you’ve got: Drive-In, a small map set in a dilapidated ’50s-style drive-in movie theater, Hangar 18, an outdoor location at Area 51 (complete with alien autopsy room and a weird, floating apple), Hazard, a massive, sniper-loving map that is actually a remake of the World at War location Cliffside, and Silo, set just outside a Russian missile launch facility in an area littered with construction materials (read: cover).
As for the zombies offering, the new map is called Shangri-La. It’s the smallest of the zombie maps available for Black Ops, set around an ancient jungle temple. There are all sorts of progress-hindering traps as well as water spouts, a water slide and a mine cart you can use for quick travel. If you’re a fan of Treyarch’s zombies mode, this is the strongest one so far, perfectly designed for groups of three or four. The expected easter egg is also an epic one, and you PS3/PC players have the added bonus of not having to wait for the community to figure out how to solve it.
In short, more Call of Duty is coming, and it’s rather awesome Call of Duty. Mark your calendars now.
