Not to be one-upped byyesterday’s World War II-game-related announcement, Activision has announced plans to release a handful of new maps for the ever popularCall of Duty 3on the Xbox 360. Set in French locales, there will be six maps in total; one will actually be (gasp) free. The freebie is called “Champs,” and takes players to Port Royal de Champs, France, and will be set in the World War II era....

I’m taking over AAF just for this week, as the Hamza “CTZ” Aziz is at PAX and apparently can’t be bothered with “common” posts such as this. Not only is CTZ much sexier and charming than I am oncamera, but he’s also getting to live it up with the Penny Arcade guys while I just sit here in my smelly underwear and think about where it all went wrong. All this self pity got me thinking in a “What if” sort of way, as in “What if I was as dripping with sex appeal like CTZ, would my underwear still smell?...

Sorry about the Ass Creed bit. I can only fit so much in the headline bar. Ubisoft has just announced that PlayStation 3 owners will get their hands onAssassin’s Creed Revelation’smultiplayer. Kind of. From September 3-11, only PlayStation Plus members and Uplay members will get exclusive access to the multiplayer beta. If you spring for one of these two gaming serves, the multiplayer beta you’ll have access to offers will feature characters (The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion), three maps (Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople) and four playable modes (Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault)....

Our sports man, Samit Sarkar,wasn’t a huge fanof NaturalMotion’sBackbreaker, ultimately concluding that it “simply isn’t fun to play.” This was due to a number of problems, many of which the developer hopes to correct with a huge game-changing patch that it’s calling “Greathouse.” So what’s it do? Quite a bit, actually. Here’s the list, straight from the developer and the game’s publisher, 505 Games: And those are just the “major features”; there may even be more goodies hiding inside Greathouse....

The eater of men, the venerable Mike Tyson, wasn’t on-hand at the British Academy of Film and Television awards show. Just as good — the BAFTA’s media-whoring side step makes the event all the more meaningful, especially to the winners, whom are now in the process of receiving their prizes. Batman: Arkham Asylumleft the building with the “Game of the Year” award, beating out our favoriteUncharted 2(which took home four other awards)....

Here’s the first trailer for Konami’sBeyond the Labyrinth, a very pretty 3DS game that I’ve been really keen on nabbing. It features a little girl being cute, which could get endearing or annoying depending on whether or not Konami hires a decent voice actor in the West. Of course, given the state ofSilent Hill HD Collection, that might be the big problem.

WayForward’s upcoming Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network titleBloodRayne: Betrayalis already turning (and rolling) heads. We gotour first glimpseat the gorgeous HD side-scroller in action last week with the game’s debut trailer. This week, publisher Majesco has released the first in a series of developer diaries featuring designer/director Sean Valasco. The developer starts by shedding light on the game’s visuals, powered by its next-generation side-scrolling HD tech. What that means is thousands and thousands of frames of in-game animation… and a whole hell of a lot of blood....

It appears that Brash Entertainment had at least two superhero-themed videogames in the works before it closed. At least, that’s what the above vignette indicatesif YouTube “director” misterbigmouthisn’t in the business of pulling legs via the Internet. The footage is a raw reel of a videogame based on The Flash. The director makes it seem as though he worked for Brash, making small notes we can’t verify about the title both in the video’s description and comments....

In pleasantly shocking news, mainstream media outletThe Star-Gazettereports todaythat parents, not videogames, are responsible for the development of their own children. I’m sure you’re reeling from the shock of such an announcement, so I’ll give you a minute to let that sink in. Everyone good to go? OK, moving on. A concerned parent, displaying a disturbing aptitude for regurgitating prime time factoids and an inability to communicate with her own child, wrote in with this question:...

Ladies and gentlemen, we have successfully returned and are pleased to give you episode 7 of BritToid — Destructoid’s European-focused gaming podcast — with a usual cast of Daniel Seto, Daniel Carniero, Sean Justice, and myself, Hollie Bennett. In this week’s episode we make it a whole minute before we start talking about dicks. We also discuss what games we have been playing this week, the poor sales of Enslaved, how more British studios are getting closed down, and the apparent lack of creativity in today’s industry....

We don’t do “check out this box art” posts that often, but we make our exceptions. Double Fine’sBrütal Legendis one of those exceptions. So, you know, “check out this box art.” Of note is designer Tim Schafer’s name plastered proudly on the front of the box, above the the game’s logo. “A Tim Schafer Game.” Not sure how much that will resonate with the average consumer (maybe “A Tim Schafer game starring Jack Black” would have been a smarter marketing move?...

Hey guys, have you heard the news? Things get LEAKED on the INTERNET! Yeah, I never saw that one coming either, but apparently the latest victim isGears of War 2, having been hacked and distributed on torrent sites two weeks before release. GamesIndustry.biznotes that on one site, 600 people were seeding the 6.76GB file for 6000 eager leeches — a mere fifteen hours after upload. This happens to every major retail game and frankly, it’s rather ridiculous and more than a little low....

I’m largely apathetic towards Xbox LIVE Achievements and PS3 Trophies, though I certainly don’t mind earning a few for a little extra effort. Just a little (sorry,Dead Rising 2‘s “Zombie Genocider”). However, it’s moments like these that make me almosthostileto the whole concept. Y’see, the achievement list for Atlus super-hot action-puzzler titleCatherinehas been leaked, and while they provide some gameplay information, they also spoil all kinds of details, including juicy bits about the game’s multiple endings....