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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch
Genre: First-person shooter
ESRB rating: Mature
Release date: Available now
It seems like every game today comes with downloadable content one way or another. It can be something to personalize your avatar, themes to customize your layout, or content to expand your gameplay experience. Why would Call of Duty: Black Ops, arguably one of the greatest games of all time, be any different? Now, try not to do cartwheels in excitement just yet, because you might just cartwheel into a room with an untold number of claymores and camped enemies.
Spending only 1200 Microsoft points ($15) gets you five new maps from the First Strike map pack from Treyarch. They are Berlin Wall, Discovery, Kowloon, Stadium, and Ascension (the zombie map). Each brings all of what you come to expect with the Call of Duty series, with some added surprises.
 Berlin Wall is a large map divided in half. Each half symbolizes the two sides of cold-war Berlin, West and East. This division has highlighted parts in red (on your mini-map) where you cannot travel, unless you want to get gunned down by auto-turrets. Buildings are scattered around the map, and streets have minimal cover where snipers can bunker down and take aim. Discovery is a very large map set in the German base in the Antarctic from the single-player game. The map is divided into two halves that funnel towards the two bridges in the middle; the upper bridge is a solid structure, while the lower is a destroyable natural bridge. Each half has buildings with fairly open areas from where sharpshooters can take advantage of the foolish running in the open. There are also a few small paths leading around the main focus of the map. Kowloon, based around another map found in the single-player game, takes place on the rooftops of Hong Kong. A medium-sized map where there are few main paths with countless small paths intersecting around the map. Take all this and add significantly different altitudes to make for a fast map. On top of that add the ability to quickly move around the rooftops via zip-line. This is great for hastily getting behind the enemy, but it leaves you completely open and unable to defend yourself until you land. Stadium is the smallest map in the DLC, but larger than the small Nuketown map that is bundled with Call of Duty: Black Ops. Its environment is, you guessed it, based outside and inside a hockey stadium. This can create a very fast map. The focus is at the entrance and its surroundings; sadly, you cannot walk on the ice rink. On either side of the open entrance are high-altitude areas where you can survey the maze-like focus area in the middle. Ascension is the last map package with First Strike for zombie mode. It takes place in a Soviet launch facility. The players start in a room with a centrifuge device and branch out to expand the map while fighting off hordes of zombies. New weapons and perks are added from previous zombie maps.
I want to first say that most of my multiplayer experiences with Call of Duty: Black Ops were played in hardcore mode. I did have to play it in regular (“nOOb”) mode because that is what is required. We do have to make some gaming sacrifices now and then. The second thing I have to say is, what’s not to like about the first DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops? Each map has its own environment, along with the challenges they present with each game mode. Berlin Wall has a wide open feel to it, but it gives a welcomed cramped feel with the restricted areas in the middle. The large environment with open areas goes great with my ACOG scope with the Discovery map. The scattered paths, close-quarter combat and fast travel of Kowloon creates after-game smack-talking goodness. Stadium, which is my favorite map of the First Strike pack, spawns fast game play by having the middle area clustered with precisely placed maze-like walls. This map is perfect for bomb-placing modes.
 There is a chance I am the only one, but the frustration of new maps becomes very clear when playing Call of Duty games. Knowing the maps is half of the battle. It does take some time when new maps come around to understand all the new camping spots, the typical battle fronts, and where locations are when teammates try to communicate with you. It is a small price to pay when you want to master the game. I love four out of the five maps, with Ascension being my least favorite. Zombie mode, while it is fun and has a cultish following, does not mix with me. I am so bad at the mode I rarely get past the double-digit rounds. Because of this, I really could not experience fully what the new map has to offer. It is great reading about all the new added features, but unless I have three amazing teammates, I will not last very long.
If you love Call of Duty: Black Ops, then you must download First Strike. The map pack does not carry a hefty price tag. No matter what the game style, hardcore mode is the only and best way in my book. Each map adds everything you’ve come to cherish, making this DLC a must buy.
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Our Recommendation: 
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You said regular mode is noob mode and hardcore is the non-noob mode ? Dude hardcore is full of campers man, you have to camp to do good in hardcore. If your good in regular team death match, then your actually probably good. Anybody can do good in hardcore all you have to do is camp. It’s the noob game mode not regular bro. BTW if your saying to yourself this guy sucks he doesn’t have the stats to back up this talk, my gamertag is XTIMES3. Go check out my stats. I guarantee they are better then yours. I guarantee me and my boys can beat you and whoever you play with in any game mode.
Hmmm if everyone camps then no one can win… Hardcore IS harder no matter what arguement you bring. You are dead with a minimum number of shots – you don’t have to run and gun like a newb and go through a whole clip just to kill someone. Anyone who thinks regular team deathmatch is harder than HARDCORE team deathmatch obviously does nto play enough in all of the gametypes. Gamertag – Major Nelson
its a video game who cares???
Cams – You are so full of beans it is not even funny. Tangelo said it right, if everyone camps then no one will win.
Also,
I will take on your challenge!!!
4v4 (I have 3 buddies to play with)
Harcore team deathmatch (regular game settings with kill streaks)
any map
Best of 5 (that means first one to win 3 games wins)
Gamertag – Medykuss
“It does take some time when new maps come around to understand all the new camping spots”
That alone from the article backs up my whole comment.
To hear anyone say regular TDM is “noob” mode is just stupid. I’m 78,000 out of millions of people on PSN’s server, with a win/loss ratio of 1.92 (roughly 720-380 most of the losses from the servers honestly), and I can tell you that hardcore TDM is a joke. Reading this article made me cringe to see the words ‘good camping spots’ for the sole reason that that’s what hardcore TDM is. I tried to play that mode with people I work with and found that around EVERY corner was someone laying down ready to shoot me… and if I happened to shoot them first, they have that BS second chance crap. Yeah, hardcore is “harder” simply because it is full of people that camp, and unless you have reflexes of steel, you aren’t going to kill a camper fast enough. You can win if people camp, as the time will run out… this isn’t rocket science, people. I’ve played against teams where the score was 3500-1900 simply because they would not come out of hiding.
Real combat does involve a smidgen of “camping” but it also requires actual tactics and brains. You could never just sit in a corner for hours on end and actually accomplish something on a battlefield, which is what cracks me up to read these people’s angry comments about hardcore TDM…
…don’t worry, I’ve been through college. I have a good paying job and a brain, and I’ve also played a lot of FPS’s… hardcore is more realistic, but if realism is what you’re going for you might as well enlist and get deployed over to Egypt. I guarantee when you tell your CO you should all sit and wait for people around corners, they’re gonna slap you in your mouth.
Another quarrel I have is reading that $15 is a good price for four maps for multi. That IS NOT a good deal. Activision could charge $5 and make a boat load of money, yet they KNOW people are going to pay $15. It’s quite unethical really… charging people a quarter of what the game cost new… for an entire game…
PSN: handmedownheart
best game in the world
This just in!!!
PEOPLE ARE CAMPING IN CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS
Camping comes with the shooter genre in one way or another so everyone really needs to get used to it. Realism is not what I am going for when I play hardcore mode. It is the no HUD and the more damage taken/more damage given. I think it makes for a better play experience than regular mode. If I was ever in the armed forces, get deployed, and see combat I would plant a claymore at the entrance to a room and wait for people to come in.
“…don’t worry, I’ve been through college. I have a good paying job and a brain”
Congratulations!!!
“Activision could charge $5 and make a boat load of money, yet they KNOW people are going to pay $15”
I think $15 for a map pack is cheap. It is ***NOT REQUIRED***. So if you love the game buy it. So if you want to play a grown-ups game mode hop on hardcore mode and leave the regular game mode to the children.
Hardcore is suppose to be more realistic retards.. In real combat u will die with less times being shot lol… U don’t have to shoot someone 15 times to kill them.. Plus you don’t run around with map of where everyone else is on the top of your head…
does any 1 know y my x box wont read kowloon,nuke town and some times any map it is rare 4 me to find a game plz help thanks
in every game hardcore or core there has to be campers and runners/finders because if it was just runners/finders vs. runner/finders= killing kaos if just campers vs. campers= ambush gost town and that no fun, you need balance like food (im not fat or a chief) you need a full serving of runner/finders topped with campers and what comes out is a good fun game of Call of Duty: Black Ops or the new COD modern warfare 3
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