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Activision is set to release a new online service specifically for the Call of Duty series. This new service Elite is said to enhance (their words not mine) your Call of Duty experience by adding social functions and better stats tracking.

The 1.06 update for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which was released on PlayStation 3 earlier this week, has finally been squeezed out onto Xbox 360.

Check out the changelog after the break.

Treyarch has brought the PlayStation 3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops up to version v1.06.

Check out the changelog after the jump:

Activision has pushed back the release of NASCAR 2011: The Game from February to March to allow time for some more polish.

The news was explained on the game's forum by Eutechnyx Community Manager Baker011.

The main reason is we simply wanted more time to polish it and hopefully make it the experience you guys are craving. Its never easy to delay a game as it can cause a lot of disappointment, but we genuinely feel that by doing this you guys will be even happier with the end product.

Believe me were all just as desperate to have this game in your hands now and get online and race against you guys. But sometimes more time is needed to get that fantastic end product we want to ship.

The UK industry body UKIE has revealed the best selling games of 2010 and you won't be surprised to see Call of Duty: Blacks Ops at the top of the list.

Second place was taken by FIFA 11, by Ubisoft's surprisingly popular casual game Just Dance 2 taking third.

"2010 was another strong year for the video games industry, with record breaking sales figures from games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops. 2010 also saw casual gaming really take off, particularly on social networking sites and on mobile phones," Michael Rawlinson, Director General of UKIE. "With more video games than ever before being played, on an ever growing range of games consoles, PCs, mobile phones, mobile devices and internet enabled TVs, the industry has widened beyond all expectations and will continue to expand exponentially in 2011."

Check out the top 20 and the platform specific charts after the jump.

Better late than never, it's our review of Call of Duty: Black Ops' multiplayer game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops has smashed the debut sales records of Modern Warfare 2 and become the biggest entertainment launch ever according to Activision.

The publisher's internal estimates put the total sell through for the UK and North America in the first 24 hours as $360 million. In comparison Modern Warfare 2 sold $310 million in the first 24 hours on sale.

In terms of units sold in the two regions that's 5.9 copies of the game compared to 4.7 million.

"There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year’s five-day global sales record of $550 million," said Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. "The game’s success underscores the pop culture appeal of the brand. Call of Duty: Black Ops is the finest game that Treyarch has ever made and raises the bar for online gameplay by delivering the deepest and most intense Call of Duty experience yet. The Call of Duty franchise has over 25 million players around the world that are engaged in billions of hours of online gameplay, and we are committed to supporting them with new content and features on a more frequent and regular basis."

For once we actually feel the game deserves it. Check out our review.

In the first of two reviews, we take on Call of Duty: Black Ops' single-player campaign.

Can it erase the bad taste of Modern Warfare 2's single player offering and prove Treyarch is no longer the weaker partner in the franchise?

Gloria checks out the long awaited remake of GoldenEye.

How does the ground breaking FPS stand up against modern shooters?

Activision boss Bobby Kotick - no stranger to pissing everyone off - has said he believes that Halo developer Bungie is the "last remaining high-quality independent developer".

Ouch.

"Bungie are a very unusual company," Kotick told the America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications, and Entertainment conference. "They're probably the last remaining high-quality independent developer...that has sort of has institutional skills and capabilities. And they're a real company."

Companies such as Valve and Gearbox may have a thing or two to say about that Bobby.

Source: CVG

Activision boss Bobby Kotick says that we should expect to see the Call of Duty franchise become richer, deeper and more engaging.

Kotick told attendees at the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference that over the next five years technology will allow for a more engaging and emotional experience from the popular shooter franchise.

"I think when you see Black Ops this holiday, that’s going to give you a great sense of how different the games will visually look. But if you look at that game, it’s only going to get richer, the characters are only going to get deeper, the stories are only going to get more engaging.

"The characters you see on the screen are going to be much more realistic than they are today. They’re going to be more compelling, they’re going to be more believable, there’s going to be so many more things you can do from a gameplay perspective than what we can do today.

"When you see innovations like Kinect or Move, where you now have the ability to use voice to actually control what you see on the screen, and for motion to control what you see on the screen, those are going to be big changes in the interface that will probably broaden the appeal of videogames."

Source: VG247

Gary Oldman and Ed Harris have joined the cast of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Harris is always a good choice for a military role, but what of Oldman? Well I haven't read the press release yet but my money is on him using an outrageous scenery-chewing Russian accent.

Let's see...

Yes, he's going to reprise his role of Viktor Reznov from Call of Duty: World at War. Harris on the other hand will play CIA operative Jason Hudson, which sounds right up his street.

Further details can be found in the press release after the jump: