CoD BlackOps, Jessica Chobot, more!

    Unfortunately, no one showed, AFAIK, for Thursday's 2Old2Play CoD4 night. I played CoD4 Free-for-all, getting my ass kicked repeatedly, from 8:30 to 11:00 PM. Ah, well, maybe next time. I should probably have quit earlier, since I wasn't winning and only rarely placing. I had a couple of matches where I felt like my aim was way sloppy, and I knew it. OTOH, a couple of times I'm getting hit registers on guys' heads and they manage to shoot me anyway. By the last 2 matches of the night, I sounded like elpresador cursing and shouting (with the mic off) of course.
    There was a match on Chinatown where one douche was complaining any time anyone shot him that they were camping. He went on and on thru the whole match. I should have muted everyone. (Or, conversely, I should have recorded the ingame chat, too. This douchebag's whining would have been epicly hilarious.) I hooked up with JKDJose for a couple of HC CoD4 TDMs, and I managed to do even worse than in FFA. It was incredibly discouraging.

    Well, the anticipation is both over and beginning. So much for waiting for the announcement on Spike TV. ;) As you can see from the CoD links below, the next Call of Duty game will be Call of Duty: Black Ops, produced by Treyarch studios. The featured vid today is a neat FFA game/guide for Afghan. DirkTheDevil uses a edge-of-the-map circuit technique to baffle the newbs on PSNet. Second up is a spiffy Top 5 plays of the week compiled by wunderkind ThatGuyWhoCamps. Third up is a quick and nifty knife toss montage by xFLxProductionsx. On to the CoD links:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops website live. Release date is 9 November 2010. Blog announcement from Treyarch is here.
• VentureBeat: Treyarch predicted to announce Call of Duty VietNam. But they were wrong:

• BASHandSlash: Live bashcast tonight to coincide with anticlimactic CoD 7 Call of Duty: Black Ops reveal.
• GamaSutra: Analysis: How Does The Infinity Ward Fiasco Affect Call Of Duty?
• GamaSutra: Analyst: 'Well Along' Bungie Title Won't Devalue Call Of Duty Brand. Also, Modern Warfare DLC could see 10 million downloads.
• GamesIndustry.biz (Registration required): Analyst: Media uproar over Infinity Ward wrangling 'overdone'. I dunno. If 30 per cent of any company which just made $500 million US quit or got fired, it would be headline news. Just sayin'.

• EdgeOnline: Steam arrives on the Mac May 12th.
• The Dead Space 2 website has gone live. (Thanks, 75design!)
• Time: Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade make the Time 100.
• Destructoid: Team Fortress 2 statues are on the way.
• IGN: Daily Fix for 29 April 2010 with the luscious Jessica Chobot. YouTube version embedded below:

    Non-Gaming Links:

• FLickr: Earth seen from Mars.
• ABC Australia: NASA's space balloon smashes car in Oz, misses spectators.
• Kotaku: Roger Ebert uses his powers for good.
• CNN: Kure Beach, NC bans thongs on its beaches.

PS.