As it begins, your name is Alex Mason and you're sitting in an interrogation chair, getting electric shocks and being asked about a man called Dragovich while random numbers flash up in front of you on a screen. What do they mean?

Treyarch has played second fiddle to the ego-maniacal efforts of Infinity Ward for too long and Black Ops is the violent and inevitable coup we'd seen coming since World at War rocked out and Modern Warfare 2 arrogantly exploded onto PCs.

CODP is an awesome addition to multiplayer; The multiplayer is really well balanced; Singleplayer story is well written; Voice acting is largely spot on

A little lack of polish in parts; Nuketown map flat out broken

If you're still playing Black Ops, there's no reason to not buy this map pack. There are a number of gameplay tweaks, namely in the Zombies mode, and these help propel the Escalation Map Pack to greatness.

The underlying perception over the years, when looking at the Call of Duty franchise, has been that Infinity Ward is first team, and Treyarch sits on the bench to be used as a sort of rolling substitute every other year.

Great storyline and atmosphere; Diverse gameplay elements keep things intense and moving at a rapid rate from start to finish; Extremely addictive and rewarding multiplayer improves on Modern Warfare 2 in almost every way

Single-player campaign could have been longer; Hosting issues for local gamers

When a franchise consistently delivers massively popular, high-quality games, each new entry in the series comes laden with expectation. Call of Duty: Black Ops has some big shoes to fill, but it does so admirably.

Thrilling variety throughout campaign; Fractured story creates an intriguing atmosphere; New multiplayer currency system is invigorating; Combat training lets anyone enjoy multiplayer excitement; Theater lets you share and enjoy triumphs and failures

Short campaign

Hurray! Finally a Call of Duty where you can somewhat follow the story which succeeds to actually interest you from the intro to the hardly original – but decent nonetheless – final endscene.

Two years ago I made a formal apology to Treyarch. I was worried that Call of Duty: World at War would pale in comparison to the Modern Warfare titles that Infinity Ward developed in alternating years.

Treyarch gets a bad wrap for being the developer responsible for the non-Infinity Ward Call of Duty games. Sure, both of the Modern Warfare games are considered pinnacles of the current generation's first-person shooter genre, but that doesn't mean that Treyarch's efforts ( Call of Duty 3, Call of...

As the first Call of Duty game since the split between mega publisher Activision and the talented team at Infinity Ward, there was a lot riding on the back of Black Ops . Could Call of Duty as we know it continue to exist even without the original partnership that produced the best titles in the...

Well, cover me with explosives and detonate at will! Another Call of Duty game is upon us. Yes, as dreary as it sounds, Activision and the folks at Treyarch made one more addition to the long-running shooter series, which boasts an impressive financial success each and every year.

Every piece is in place here; the story, the characters, the atmosphere, the music, sounds and voices and, of course, the gameplay

Again; we feel that the CoD recipe needs some new elements; we have grown tired of the same old mechanics; and yes; the campaign may still be too short for some gamers