The perks page has now been completely redone and a total of 15 perks have been added, some with their icon too. The perk structure has changed a lot when compared to Modern Warfare 2.

Your characters appearance is now tied to slot 1 perks, e.g., the Flak Jacket makes your character wear armor. Modern Warfare 2 veterans will be pleased to hear that the Commando, Stopping Power, One Man Army and Danger Close perks have been removed from COD7. Pro perks will be returning.

Click here to see the perks.

This is the latest trailer from Treyarch. You unlock weapons, equipment, etc. in the game with Call of Duty Points; you earn them by playing the game and you can also gamble your points for a bigger pay in Wager Matches.

Interested? Watch the trailer below.

Today is the big day of the Black Ops multiplayer reveal, well except for the co-op, as it will be shown later this year. The event will start in Los Angeles at 6:00PM (Pacific), which should be 1:00AM (GMT +1), 2nd of September, in the UK. Unfortunately it looks like us Europeans are left out once again.

Only members of the press will be attending the event.

Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer event was a huge success last year and revealed a lot of new information about the game, so let's hope Treyarch won't disappoint us. It will obviously take a while to gather all the new COD7 information that will be posted in the next few days by dozens of gaming sites. Expect many of the pages to be updated with fresh new content during the weekend and next week.

Couple of weeks ago some Black Ops beta ads were found on Bing (search engine) and now similar ads have started to appear on Google as well. The multiplayer beta test hasn’t been officially announced yet, but based on the new ads on Google, it’s not that far away: "Sign up for the exclusive Xbox 360 multiplayer beta on September 1." This should be taken with a bucket of salt!

The beta is supposedly only on Xbox 360, which shouldn't surprise anyone, considering the fact that all future Call of Duty add-ons will launch first on the Xbox 360. The deal between Activision and Microsoft will last until 2012 and should include beta tests as well. Treyarch's previous game, Call of Duty: World at War, had a beta test and every big release these days has one, just look at Halo: Reach, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the dozens of games before them.

The URL in the ad has been used in the World at War beta, but it's currently redirecting visitors to the Call of Duty homepage. It's also been known for a while that the user registration page at the official website hints at a possible beta for members: "First-in-the-world access to REDACTED -- you are not yet cleared for this information."

Stay tuned for the full multiplayer reveal on 1st of September. We might learn more about the beta test at the end of the trailer, but don't get your hopes up.

EDIT: Josh Olin, Treyarch's community manager, has now confirmed that these ads are not official. "Bing / Google / ads for a #CODBlackOps BETA are not official ads. As always, if I don't say it, it's not official!"

New Black Ops singleplayer footage was shown behind closed doors at Gamescom. The same was done with Modern Warfare 2 last year and the footage was leaked - just like this year with Black Ops.

The shown level is called WMD and it takes place in the Ural Mountains. Glimpses of it have been seen before, but now the full level was played live by someone from Treyarch. It took him/her approximately 13 minutes to breeze through the level, so ~20 minutes would be a good estimate for someone playing it for the first time. I won't spoil anything regarding the level.

Activision keeps removing these as fast as they are added to Youtube, so watch it while you still can.

WARNING SPOILERS!

The AK-47 page has been updated with new images and the following weapons have been added:

GALIL ARM

KS-23

MAKAROV

The Gamescom trade fair has kicked off and plenty of new COD7 Black Ops previews have been posted around the internet. If you have the time, check out these previews from various gaming sites, they are worth the read.

GameSpot: Call of Duty: Black Ops Updated Impressions
It's a tense sequence that sees you making a desperate escape while swimming through murky water with more than a few dead bodies in it. If the sight of those bodies sinking to the bottom of the river while you're trying to swim to the top of it doesn't grab you, then the level's rollercoaster pacing will...


IGN: Gamescom: Call of Duty: Black Ops Impressions
A number of weapons were available for use, including scoped rifles that could cripple enemies with a short burst and a crossbow for when it was best to stay hidden. Or, if you don't want to listen to the advice of your teammates to keep quiet, you can affix an explosive bolt to your crossbow bolt and send it into a tanker truck. The result, in case you hadn't guessed, is a giant explosion that draws the attention of everyone in the area, including the guy manning the alarm...


Shacknews: Call of Duty: Black Ops Hands-on Preview
Chaos breaks out when the Activision rep fires a single shot to scare the enemies surrounding the helicopter and he hands me the controller. Immediately the action feels familiar as I fire into crowds of Russian Special Forces who attempt to take cover, unaware of my position. Dismantling the area is simple from atop a hill and the action goes silent.... Josh Olin has revealed that Black Ops will have local matchmaking, thus allowing players to search for games within their area. Modern Warfare 2's "improved" matchmaking wasn't up to the job, so this is good news for all console owners. Treyarch has also confirmed that PC gamers will be receiving extra goodies: leaning, dev console and modtools. Black Ops will be open for modding sometime post-launch.

Last but not least, here are four new screenshots from Gamescom, click on an image to enlarge it.

Josh Olin, Treyarch's community manager, has confirmed that COD7 Black Ops will be at Gamescom. Josh Olin:
Waiting at my gate at LAX - if you're going to Gamescom in Cologne this week, look for #CODBlackOps on the show floor! =) Modern Warfare 2 did make a showing at Gamescom 2009, but Activision kept it behind closed doors, so this announcement is good news. But with the full multiplayer reveal coming on 1st of September, and IGN having hands-on with the multiplayer on the 2nd of September, what's there to show at Gamescom?

The full focus is on the multiplayer in just a few weeks, so the only thing they can really show is the single player campaign - or perhaps zombies? If Black Ops is playable on the show floor, it's most likely the WMD level which takes place in the Ural Mountains, although the Payback level from E3 is also a good candidate. Gamescom is the European equivalent of E3 and will be held from 18th to 22nd of August 2010.

Treyarch's community manager has finally confirmed the existence of the zombie maps. Josh Olin:
All 4 existing #CoDWaW Zombies maps will be included in Hardened & Prestige editions of #CODBlackOps as callback co-op levels! It's still strange that Treyarch isn't officially confirming the Zombie Mode; they are just saying that the zombie maps will be featured in Black Ops. What's Treyarch hiding? Even more co-op modes?

While you ponder that, check out these new weapons that have been added to the weapons page:

AKS-74U

DRAGUNOV

After months of speculation, it looks like the cat is finally out of the bag. GameStop is handing out pamphlets and one of the pages has confirmed that the 4 co-op maps in the Hardened Edition are zombie maps from World at War.

The "Zombie Mode" could be played in Call of Duty: World at War after beating the single-player campaign. The mode takes you and up to 3 other players against zombies. The objective is to survive as long as possible as the zombie waves get harder and harder.

The Hardened and Prestige editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops have been revealed. Sorry, no night vision goggles with the Prestige Edition, instead it comes along with a real remote-control vehicle modelled after the RC Bomb killstreak reward:

The Hardened Edition includes the full game, special-edition SteelBook case, collector’s medal w/display case and 4 additional co-op maps. The Hardened Edition comes with a $79.99 price tag and is available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The Prestige Edition comes with everything that's in the Hardened Edition, along with the remote-control vehicle RC-XD, which raises the price to $149.99. The Prestige Edition is available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners.