How can this short action flick manage to knock out the previous title holder for best fan made Call of Duty movie? It's bigger, bloodier and has a more substantial budget. And it's from the same creative team.

The second chapter of Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski's Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing makes use of its comparatively massive budget—this one cost about $600 USD, compared to the $209.42 USD—with sharper effects, more bloodspray and loads of slo-mo bullet-filled action. It even switches to iron sights for a moment, just to show the makers of the Doom movie how it's done, Modern Warfare-style.

In fact, there might even be a story in there too, if you're looking for even more reasons to click play.

Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing Pt. 2 [YouTube - thanks, Oberoi!]

This might sound nitpicky, but it's not to veterans who game. And those who served in Vietnam might wonder why Call of Duty: Black Ops personnel in "denied" areas would want to advertise an American military unit on their forearm.

That's the point behind Aaron Schol's interesting research into the unit insignia tattooed on the protagonists depicted in the Call of Duty: Black Ops trailer. (Schol, a contributor to Off Duty Gamers, has previously written about Medal of Honor and why it should enable firing from a prone position.)

Schol found that the tattoo is a logo for the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group, which had the Department of Defense's secret authorization to infiltrate the entire Cambodian border and operate up to 20 kilometers inside it. Publicly, the United States wasn't supposed to be there, so such operations in denied areas would mean any personnel and their gear had to be "sterile" - which means not identifiably American in origin. A big ol' U.S. military tattoo would seem to be a disqualification.

Though Treyarch, the game's studio, has a consultant from the SOG advising this project, "This leads me to believe that the main character in Call of Duty: Black Ops is pure Hollywood," writes Off Duty Gamers contributor BaTs. "A SOG tattoo just wouldn't be worn and visible by an operator during those operations. But this leads to speculation that maybe these missions in the game are after Vietnam and the operator in the game has already been separated from SOG."

Or, maybe the guy's so badass his command knows he'll kill everyone and never get captured, so he could tattoo Abe Lincoln on his neck and still be of critical importance to these missions.

Let's Discuss Video Game Tattoos [Off Duty Gamers]

Listen to Modern Warfare 2 without playing it. The Hans Zimmer soundtrack for the game is now available on iTunes for 10 American dollars, give or take a penny. [Thanks, Paul]

Call of Duty games on the Nintendo Wii have been far from spectacular. But developer Treyarch promises that the Wii version of Call of Duty: Black Ops "will blow you away."

Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward will unleash the new Resurgence map pack for Modern Warfare 2 next week and creative strategist Robert Bowling is here, in video form, to tell you all about it.

When screen shots won't do, this new look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's second (and final?) batch of downloadable content may convince you to drop the 1200 Microsoft Points. Resurgence adds five maps, three new (Fuel, Carnival, Trailer Park) and two old (Strike, Vacant) to the Xbox 360 version of the game next week.

Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Map Pack - Official HD [YouTube]

Memorial Day is this coming Monday and what better way to celebrate your day off, here in the U.S., than by helping a group that finds jobs for veterans? All you have to do is "Like" Activison's Call of Duty Endowment Facebook page by noon on Memorial Day and they will increase their donation to Hire Heroes USA by a buck, up to 50,000 times. DO IT!

We've got a sighting of what may be a World War II Call of Duty game that was built for the Xbox 360.

The website for visual artist Terry Allen shows three brief clips from what Allen refers to as a " a COD game called Devil's Brigade set in Italy in WWII." The clips are intended to show Allen's effects work and appear to depict both first and third-person action. On-screen controller prompts indicate support for basic squad-based commands: Assault, Barrage, Hold the Line and Form Up. The squad commands are shown using the image of an Xbox 360 controller's d-pad.

One screen-shot shows the player being directed to order one of their fellow soldiers to execute a stealth kill.

Allen's site indicates that, from 2007 through early 2010, he worked on Guitar Hero and this Call of Duty project as an employee of Underground Development, the studio formerly known as Z-Axis, that created Guitar Hero: Van Halen in 2009. He describes "Devil's Brigade" as his first project at Underground, which suggests that the game was put aside some time before Van Halen was made.

If Devil's Brigade was real, it's vanished now. Kotaku has checked in with Allen and Call of Duty publisher Activision for more details and will let you know if we hear any.

Artist Terry Allen's website. (Thanks, Shaun)

With close to half of the team at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward bailing on the troubled developer, publisher Activision appears to have found a new source for Call of Duty development.

Raven Software, the developer of sci-fi shooters Wolfenstein and the recently completed Singularity, has been pulled off its current projects and may be the latest studio to pick up the Call of Duty slack, according to a source close to the studio. Kotaku was told that the developer has had its next game, one based on the James Bond franchise—to which Activision holds the rights—put on hold.

Raven's other future game, one based on the X-Men franchise and a follow-up to its work on X-Men: Origins Wolverine, is said to have been put on the backburner as well.

The team is said to now be on the path to Call of Duty development, with Activision allegedly "flipping out" about the current Infinity Ward situation. Activision execs said earlier this month that the IW team is working on another Call of Duty game in addition to further map pack development.

The next Call of Duty title, Call of Duty: Black Ops, is currently in development at World At War developer Treyarch, due for a November 9 release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii. One more map pack is due for Modern Warfare 2, now dated for a June release.

Kotaku has reached out to Activision and Raven Software seeking comment.

A few more details on Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops popped up today, answering a few of the more pointed questions arising from the game's debut trailer.

Intrigued by the presence of an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft in the clip? According to this report (though be warned, the wording is vague), you're flying it. Wondering about the kind of guns that will be in the game? There aren't just guns, there are also crossbows. And yes, all that snow you can see means that you won't just be fighting in the jungles of Cuba and Vietnam; you'll also be blowing stuff up in Mother Russia as well.

The game will also feature 2-4 player co-op, with the game's main story focusing on two characters over "multiple covert international conflicts"

That's about all that can be gleaned from a depressingly brief "preview" over on USA Today, but the flying stuff will be interesting, since previous games have only let you roll a camera around, not the plane itself.

UPDATE - USA Today has three different previews up, two of which say you pilot the SR-71, but the third clarifies by saying that you only control the camera and give orders to ground troops, not the plane itself.

The two other posts had said "Players spy on suspicious activity while piloting a Lockheed SR-71 recon aircraft over the Ural Mountains" and "From the initial piloting of a reconnaissance aircraft to on the ground combat in the Soviet Union". Sorry to get your hopes up.

More on 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' with Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia [USA Today]

A few more details on Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops popped up today, answering a few of the more pointed questions arising from the game's debut trailer.

Intrigued by the presence of an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft in the clip? According to this report there'll be another "C-130" sequence in Black Ops, with a level tasking the player with manning a camera in the recon bird while issuing orders to troops on the ground.

Wondering about the kind of guns that will be in the game? There aren't just guns, there are also crossbows. And yes, all that snow you can see means that you won't just be fighting in the jungles of Cuba and Vietnam; you'll also be blowing stuff up in Mother Russia as well.

The game will also feature 2-4 player co-op, with the game's main story focusing on two characters over "multiple covert international conflicts"

More on 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' with Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia [USA Today]