Tech Olive

According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, Black Ops has pushed Wii Play out of its #1 spot on USA’s all-time best-selling charts after only a few months on the market. Last October, Nintendo reported about 13 million copies of Wii Play had been sold since its December 2006 release, and reports are saying that Black Ops has surpassed that.

Activision has yet to release the actual number of units sold for Black Ops, but we do know that 5.6 million units were sold on release day, and that Black Ops had surpassed $1 billion in sales by late December.

via [Joystiq]

Video-making team DefendTheHouse posted a new video detailing their special plans for the month of March. Each day in the month of March, the team will release a new “Black Ops Mythbusters” video testing a new myth. Now’s the time to subscribe to their YouTube channel if you want to catch all 31 videos over the next month. Check out their announcement video after the break.

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Continuing our duty of telling you about new episodes in this awesome and informative internet mini-series, we are compelled to let you know that episode 5 of “Black Ops Mythbusters” from Defend The House has been uploaded. Check it out after the break.

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With the Xbox 360′s exclusive iron grip on Black Ops‘ recent First Strike DLC finally loosening, it seems PC gamers will get shafted just once more before actually receiving the DLC. The PS3 map pack will become available on March 3rd, but PC gamers get to wait yet again. It’s expected to hit sometime later in March for PC gamers, but no official date has been revealed. The good news is that, because of these delays, there’s a good chance it means PC gamers will get the DLC free. Only time will tell.

Moving on: Black Ops received another title update via Steam recently. The changes are as follows:

• Backward compatibility for films created before Patch 1.05
• Issues with weapon purchases after prestiging in some cases
• Leaving a server and joining a different server, could briefly show the Map of the previous server
• Duplicate player name on a server now becomes playername+slotnumber instead of ‘Unknown Soldier’
• During a ‘Demolition’ match, the ‘Auto-balancing teams’ options may cause a ‘Defender’ player to respawn with a ‘Bomb’ icon in his inventory
• Minor Shader Warming speed increase
• One In The Chamber no longer counts democlient as a live player
• 16x AA menu option for compatible graphics cards
• Additional Stability improvements

via [Shack News, Press Release]

Through his Twitter account, Treyarch community manager Josh Olin announced that Black Ops‘ first double XP event would be taking place on the weekend of February 4th to the 6th for all platforms.

On a related topic, with the “First Strike” first map pack hitting Xbox 360 on February 1st, we’ve got some screenshots to drool over until PC gamers are deemed important enough to get some map pack lovin’ (should be sometime in March):

via [Twitter]

Because we’re undying fans of Defend the House‘s awesome gaming Mythbusters series, we’re here once again to tell you about their newest episode. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, then check out their previous three episodes focusing on Call of Duty: Black Ops, and be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel for future updates! Check out episode 4 after the break.

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Bringing further fixes to the game’s multiplayer experience, a new patch has hit everyone’s Steam queues for Black Ops, but what changes are tagging along with this 63MB download?

Call of Duty: Black Ops

• MP Audio stuttering on certain systems.
• Playercards sometimes not showing properly.
• Added three Private Match Server Settings: Team Change, Team-Up Period, and Keep Balanced Teams.
• Added Alternate Color Scheme for accessibility: Settings / Multiplayer / Player Name Indicator.
• Changed Team-Up Period countdown interval to 10 seconds.
• Combat Training sessions are no longer counted in Server Browser Unranked tab.
• Friends on your team will now show as blue on your minimap.
• Prevention of various exploits.
• Objective markers localized for all languages.
• Various stability improvements

Call of Duty: Black Ops Rcon Tool
Recognize new “invalid password” server response

[Press Release]

According to @pcdev (the official Twitter feed for Black Ops‘ PC development team) the next Black Ops patch has just entered testing, so it’s safe to assume we’ll see it hit our Steam download queues in the next couple weeks.

“We are testing the next patch. It includes a fix for systems with the audio stutter problem. #codblackops #pc” – Twitter

Aside from the mentioned audio stutter fix, it’s unknown what changes the patch will bring to the title.

Because laboriously reviewing them as they release throughout the year isn’t enough, reviewers take a list of games at the end of every year and argue about which is the best in each category. It’s all very civilized. Because we think we know better than everyone else, here’s our best PC games of 2010.

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It goes without saying that Call of Duty: Black Ops has sold well, even for Call of Duty standards. After making more than $650 million in its first five days, surpassing Modern Warfare 2‘s record-breaking $550 million, Black Ops‘ sales have not let up, and have reached the colossal $1,000,000,000. Yes, that’s nine zeros. I suppose it’s too much to ask that Activision or Treyarch offer some cool DLC to mark the occasion and to show their appreciation to fans that keep the Call of Duty brand alive.

[Press Release]