New COD2 Maps and More

Call of Duty 2 quickly became the Xbox 360’s top selling title, weighing in at over 70% game to console rate in the first months of launch. Despite several bugs and the ability to create private matches COD2 ruled the console as the best first person, multiplayer shooter. With PDZ, G.R.A.W. and Battlefield Modern Combat now available, the FPS market on Microsoft’s monster has leveled out.

Thanks to a promotion set to coincide with 2006’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the game might well take back some of its 800lb gorilla status. Activision has announced a total of 9 new maps for the title, both single and multiplayer, downloadable through the Xbox Live Marketplace. 4 maps will be available on the first day of E3, May 10th. 2 of the 4 maps will be free of charge and featuring Vossenack and Wallendar, Germany. The other two maps, a Kalach, Russia map and a Beaumont-Hague, France map, will run 400 Microsoft points (or about $5 U.S.).

Then in July, Activisions is slated to release the Invasion Pack for 900 MS points (about $11.25 U.S.). They include Antoville, France (Crossroads), St. Louet, France (Newvillers), Amaye sur Seulles, France (Normandy), Alam Halfa, Egypt (Decoytown) and Rostov, Russia (Harbor).

The marketing campaign dubbed “E3 Bringing it Home” offers a free Xbox Live Gold membership for the week of the Expo. 360 gamers will have exclusive content through their consoles inclduing news, video and special downloadable content (demos, perhaps? more to come…)