Here's something you probably didn't expect to see today: Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, defending Call of Duty: Black Ops and publisher Activision in a lawsuit filed by Manuel Noriega, the former military dictator of Panama.
Noriega was woven into Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 often ridiculous plot, which dipped into Panama during his rule in the 1980s. This July, Noriega got wind of his appearance and filed a lawsuit against Activision over the "blatant misuse" of his image, claiming that he's portrayed "as an antagonist and... as the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes." The lawsuit indicated that he was also upset about being reduced to a mission objective, saying at one point in the game the goal is "solely to capture the plaintiff."
Today, Activision filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and announced that Giuliani will serve as co-counsel to defend the company on the grounds that Noriega's depiction in Call of Duty is a protected right to free speech.
"What's astonishing is that Manuel Noriega, a notorious dictator who is in prison for the heinous crimes he committed, is upset about being portrayed as a criminal and enemy of the state in the game Call of Duty. Quite simply, it's absurd," Giuliani said. "Noriega's attack on the rights of Call of Duty comes as no surprise considering he's a lawless tyrant who trampled over the rights of his own people."
Activision has said that, if successful, Noriega's efforts would give political figures a veto right over their appearances in works video games and other works of art.

Comparisons to Titanfall were inevitable after Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer was revealed last week, but Sledgehammer have been playing with Advanced Warfare's jump-thrust move shortly after finishing work on Modern Warfare 3 in 2011, and Tribes fans will tell you that Titanfall hardly has dibs on the jetpack shooter. While the new exoskeleton movement options are interesting, I'm more excited about what they can do to refresh the design of Call of Duty's multiplayer maps.

The Call of Duty multiplayer experience has remained largely unchanged since the dawn of the Modern Warfare era. The opportunistic run-and-gun through flat, crumbling maps started to feel rote back in Black Ops 2, a game that could have done with a map like Advanced Warfare's Riot. Granted, it's also a crumbling concrete facility a prison, in fact but it's built around tiered structures and guard towers that make use of the exoskeleton's new jumping abilities. Like a couple of the other maps Sledgehammer showed, there's a quirk: The prison's high tech inmate monitoring system is still active, which means sensors at the top of guard towers draw laser pointers to passing soldiers.



Riot was actually one of the plainer maps. The others showed at Gamescom move away from the bleached urban aesthetic to something shinier, reminiscent of some of CoD's quirkier, more colourful DLC packs. There's a map set in the terminal of a space elevator which is bright, airy and layered with gantries and intricate spaceport corridors. Advanced Warfare will include a mode that bans exosuits, but I wonder if these maps will still be fun if you're flightless. The need to cater to the legions of fans who love the standard CoD formula is understandable, but once you've experienced extra speed and super-jumps bursts of flight, why go back?

This year you can customise your soldier with with dozens of facemasks, armour plates and colour schemes and tailor your loadout with a "pick 13" system, mirroring Black Op's "pick 10". You get 13 points you can devote to weapon attachments, special exosuit abilities like cloaks and shields, and kill streak rewards. More options can be unlocked by ranking up.



Leveling systems in shooters can hide the game's most interesting weapons and strategies behind layers of grind (see Battlfield, Payday 2), but the sheer amount of stuff packed into Advanced Warfare's customisation system is encouraging. As long as the leveling curve is fast, the expanded unlock system could provide valuable context and rewards for each 10-20 minute battle for those who don't care about 'prestiging' the practice of reaching the CoD's level cap and then resetting for a badge.

I'm quite excited about Advanced Warfare this year, for the multiplayer, at least. The single player may have Spacey, but in spite of the high-tech gubbins the set pieces look samey and predictable. I've never had a fun game of Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline leaves me cold and Titanfall is great, but lacks staying power. CoD could sweep the board this year. On the multiplayer side, it's the most exciting entry in the series for years.

Advanced Warfare is due out on November 4.

Manuel Noriega was the dictator of Panama for most of the 1980s, until he was removed from power by way of a U.S. invasion. His villainous exploits landed him a small role in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, but his image was used without permission, and that has led to what has to be today's most bizarre lawsuit.

The Courthouse News Service reports that Noriega has filed a lawsuit against Activision over the "blatant misuse" of his image in Black Ops 2. Amazingly, the suit claims his appearance "caused damage" to Noriega by portraying him "as an antagonist and... as the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes." He's depicted "as a kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state," it adds, noting that at one point in the game the goal is "solely to capture plaintiff."

"Defendants' video game, 'Black Ops 2,' features several nonfiction characters, including plaintiff, for one purpose: to heighten realism in its video game, 'Black Ops 2.' This translates directly into heightened sales for defendants," the suit states. "Defendants deliberately and systematically misappropriated plaintiff's likeness to increase revenues and royalties, at the expense of plaintiff and without the consent of plaintiff."

Of course, Noriega was a pretty bad dude, which is what makes the lawsuit so laughable, but according to lawyer Jas Purewall he may also lack standing to bring the suit in the first place. "In the U.S., individuals have what's called the right to publicity, which gives them control over how their person is depicted in commerce including videogames," he told the BBC. "But Noriega isn't a U.S. citizen or even a resident. This means that his legal claim becomes questionable, because it's unclear on what legal basis he can actually bring a case against Activision."

Noriega, who is now 80, is currently serving out a 20-year prison sentence in Panama.

This is what the end looks like. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2's final DLC, Apocalypse, comes to PC September 26, marking the final batch of new content for developer Treyarch's latest entry in the venerable shooter series, according to a press release. The DLC includes four multiplayer maps and a new zombie level full of enemies that mix the robotic with the supernatural.

Two of the four DLC landscapes are brand-new maps and two are re-skinned, re-worked versions of maps from previous Treyarch CoD games. The first new map, Pod, drops you and your team into the remnants of a failed Taiwanese utopian community from the 1970s. The second new map in this DLC package, Frost, introduces a frigid European backdrop separated by an iced-over canal and bridge that should create a choke-point during a variety of game modes. In what has become a classic tradition in Call of Duty games, the two re-imagined maps, Takeoff and Dig, are re-tooled versions of Stadium and Courtyard from the first Black Ops and World at War, respectively.

The new zombie set-piece, Origins, puts you in a French countryside that's seen a dieselpunk treatment, bringing to the battle tanks, drones, and giant robots. Thankfully you'll also have some supernatural weapons to unload on any undead, diesel-powered enemies you encounter.

Even as Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Ghosts looks set to bring its own vision back to the market this fall, for a short time at least, Apocalypse's dieselpunk nightmare will be state-of-the-art Call of Duty. You can pick up the new DLC individually or as part of the Black Ops 2's season pass program.

The Black Ops 2 development train is pulling into its final station. Soon it'll be replaced with Call of Duty: Ghosts, with its more advanced, mo-capped dog and intelligent fish. Before then, though, there's the small matter of the Apocalypse: the ultro-shooter's last DLC farewell. The "launch" trailer gives us a quick overview of the new maps, including zombie mode's Origins. Because even if it's the digital store of your publisher's greatest rival, developers can't stop using that name.

On the plus side, the Origins mode is described via a pretty excellent sentence: "An alternate-reality Dieselpunk Zombies experience that transports players to the undead-infested trenches of a World War I battlefield." Good work, video games.

The other maps include a failed '70s utopia, an archaeological site, a chilly European city, and a remote launch pad. All of which are descended upon by violent military men, because reasons. As is now customary, the packs have launched early on Xbox 360. A PC release will follow in the coming weeks.

It's become a tradition now for Call of Duty DLC to offer re-skinned, re-worked versions of classic levels and the final Black Ops 2 map pack is no exception. And in another nod to a deeply-held pastime, the new DLC—Apocalypse—releases August 27 first for Xbox Live customers, "with other platforms to follow," according to a press release.

Two of the four new multiplayer maps echo previous entries in the annual series and sit alongside a brand-new zombie playground right out of a steampunk nightmare. Longtime COD players should recognize Takeoff and Dig from previous Treyarch titles Black Ops and World at War, perhaps giving them a head start when the maps eventually release on PC. The two completely new maps, Pod and Frost, take us to a broken-down utopian commune in Taiwan as well as a snow-covered European locale, respectively.

The new zombie map—Origins—does give us all a look at some aesthetic innovation, at least for Call of Duty, in that we're getting a "dieselpunk"-zombie mashup with "1,000-foot, mechanical giants striding across the landscape," according to the game's executive producer Jason Blundell.

For a guided tour of the new maps or just to whet your appetite for that classic Call of Duty atmosphere, check out Blundell and Treyarch studio design director David Vonderhaar in the preview video below.

Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar has received death threats and threats of violence on Twitter, after patch notes for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 revealed that three of the game's guns were to be rebalanced slightly. Yes, that is a thing that has actually happened. The guns in question are the AN-94, which now does a bit less damage, and the DSR 50 and the Ballista, which have both had their rate of fire reduced a bit. If this news makes you want to hurl abuse at someone, I suggest you seek professional help.

"Not sure these fractions of seconds are worth the threats of violence," a magnificently patient Vonderhaar tweeted in response to the backlash, which is too horrible to quote. "Guns have powerbands and learning curves. Over time, both change. As one goes up, so does the other. That's the short answer to 'why now'."

Activision blogger Dan Amrich spoke out against the backlash, something that seems to occur with horrible regularity. "This has happened with every Call of Duty game that’s come out for the last few years, and it will continue to happen - a gun’s stats being adjusted should not be a surprise to anybody at this point.”

“Yet Vahn often gets told he should die in a fire or kill himself or is a horrible person," Amrich continued. "If anybody thinks for a second that this is okay, it is not."

“If you enjoy your games, have a little respect for the people who make them — and stop threatening them with bodily harm every time they do their job.”

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar has received death threats and threats of violence on Twitter, after patch notes for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 revealed that three of the game's guns were to be rebalanced slightly. Yes, that is a thing that has actually happened. The guns in question are the AN-94, which now does a bit less damage, and the DSR 50 and the Ballista, which have both had their rate of fire reduced a bit. If this news makes you want to hurl abuse at someone, I suggest you seek professional help.

"Not sure these fractions of seconds are worth the threats of violence," a magnificently patient Vonderhaar tweeted in response to the backlash, which is too horrible to quote. "Guns have powerbands and learning curves. Over time, both change. As one goes up, so does the other. That's the short answer to 'why now'."

Activision blogger Dan Amrich spoke out against the backlash, something that seems to occur with horrible regularity. "This has happened with every Call of Duty game that’s come out for the last few years, and it will continue to happen - a gun’s stats being adjusted should not be a surprise to anybody at this point.”

“Yet Vahn often gets told he should die in a fire or kill himself or is a horrible person," Amrich continued. "If anybody thinks for a second that this is okay, it is not."

“If you enjoy your games, have a little respect for the people who make them — and stop threatening them with bodily harm every time they do their job.”

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Will vengeance be yours? Really, that depends on whether your think Vengeance is a Black Ops 2 map pack, and not, say, some planned retribution on an international coffee chain for putting the wrong syrup in your morning drink. For the former, you'll now only have to wait until August 1st - the announced date for the PC version of the DLC. The latter? Oh they'll find out soon enough.

As is tradition for these things, Vengeance adds four new multiplayer maps to the Blops sequel, along with a new zombie scenario. Here's a video that explains the features of Cove, Detour, Rush, Uplink and Buried.



Why would you make a paintball arena, and then just have the players use standard guns? That's not particularly sporting.

Zombies mode is also getting a new feature in the Ray Gun Mark 2, which will be available in all zombie levels, not just the new wild-west themed map.

UK e-sports is about to get its largest tournament prize pool to date. Gfinity London 2013 will split £110,000 between League of Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, with both competitions boasting top professional teams from across Europe and North America. The invitational is being held in an undisclosed location, with fans able to take part through a live Twitch.TV stream starting this Saturday, July 13th.

League of Legends will feature eight teams, including Team Dignitas UK, Animate eSports and Curse Academy, while Black Ops 2 will boast ten teams, from All Authority and Complexity, to EnVyUS. Both tournaments will feature a round robin group stage, before an elimination knockout stage, leading to the grand final.

The whole thing is being streamed for free from the Gfinity Twitch channel. Subscriptions are also available, securing access to full 1080p broadcasts. You can find more information at the Gfinity website.