Call of Duty: Black Ops has been out and available on the market for several months now, and it has been on the top of the Xbox Live charts ever since. However, after all these months the game’s multiplayer can begin to feel a little redundant. The ‘First Strike’ add-on certainly helped breathe some new life into Black Ops’ multiplayer, with 3 new multiplayer maps and an additional map for Zombie mode, but it’s been nearly two months since it launched on the Xbox 360 and it’s already started to become a little stale.

As luck would have it, Treyarch has a cure for your “mapathy”, and it comes in the form of a brand new map pack titled ‘Escalation’.

As you may recall, the new ‘Escalation’ add-on was accidentally confirmed via an advertisement from an online retailer last week, but now it’s finally been made official and will be coming very soon. The new Black Ops downloadable content includes four new multiplayer maps and a new zombie map that are sure to spice up the game significantly. Treyarch is keeping pretty hushed on what the new zombie map entails, but have promised that it will feature a “unique Zombies experience.”

The new multiplayer maps in ‘Escalation’ include:

  • Hotel - This map takes place on the roof of a luxurious Cuban hotel and casino. That’s right, players will take the fight to Cuba in a classic rendition of the well-known city of Havana. Convoy - Convoy’s location is based off of an American convoy that has been ambushed by enemies. There is said to be a lot of close-quarter combat in this level, so nobody would blame you if your soldier was running around with a shotgun. Zoo - Set in an abandoned and war-torn zoo in Russia, this map promises plenty of excitement and danger at every turn. Don’t be surprised if you see monkeys sitting around in their cages here. Stockpile - Stockpile takes place in an old Russian farm town, but this location isn’t nearly as quaint as you may believe it to be. The farm town houses secret WMD facilities, which makes for an interesting twist on the locale.

All of the new maps included in ‘Escalation’ certainly sound interesting, but not the real question is when will they become available. It seems that Xbox 360 gamers won’t be waiting much longer, as they’ll be able to download the maps before anyone else on May 3rd. A price hasn’t been confirmed yet, but they should pan out to the standard $15 that every other Call of Duty map pack has been before it. There’s no official release date for ‘Escalation’ on any other system yet, but details should become clear in the coming weeks leading up to, and after, the launch of the new DLC.

What do you think of the new ‘Escalation’ maps? Will you be picking up the new Black Ops map pack on May 3rd?

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