My instruments are giving me mixed reports. Today sees Call of Duty: Black Ops, the year’s biggest release, dropping onto international markets like a continent-spanning commercial panther. Now, I’m hearing that some Steam pre-order customers have had their game unlocked already, but Americans are having to wait until 10am Eastern time, our own Alec is having to wait until between 3pm and 8pm [Alec Update - no I'm not. If you buy it in the UK it seems to unlock just fine; my problem was related to my account apparently having US review code applied>], and apparently although shop copies go through Steam, they’ll work right away. Buh. Are you playing it, readers? Any impressions?

If you can’t yet play Black Ops, and you’re livid, and your existence has shrunk to a world containing only, Black Ops and sharp objects, I have a temporary solution. Below, courtesy of VG247 you can watch the first 13 minutes of the game. Spoilers, obv, but I will say this: It looks like a somewhat different beast from Modern Warfare. (more…)