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Limited Edition Call of Duty: Black Ops Dolby® Digital True 5.1 ProGaming Headset - Xbox 360 / PlayStation 3

For the professional gamer who demands the highest levels of audio quality, the Call of Duty: Black Ops Dolby Digital True 5.1 ProGaming Headset delivers uncompromised performance and a highly dynamic surround sound field. Complete with fully braided cables and gold plated connectors, the True 5.1 ProGaming Headset connects to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 console and through a total of eight drivers (4 in each ear cup), delivers a wholly authentic Dolby Digital 5.1 experience. Each ear cup houses a front, rear, center and sub driver, which replicates a traditional 5.1 speaker configuration, immersing gamers in the action like never before and producing a 100% accurate audio environment. Detachable boom microphone allows gamers to communicate via Xbox Live™ or PSN™, and a convenient backlit in-line audio controller, with ‘break away’ safety feature places audio controls within easy reach, allowing gamers to adjust in-game audio and chat levels. In addition, gamers can individually adjust the front, rear, center and sub channels to match their personal preferences. Two sets of ear pads are included, allowing gamers to choose between leather and cloth textures. Fashioned with authentic Call of Duty: Black Ops artwork, the True 5.1 ProGaming Headset features a stealth ‘backlit’ glow, illuminating both ear cups when in use. Comes complete with an exclusive high quality padded Call of Duty: Black Ops Travel Case which allows for easy transportation for headset and cables. When purchased in North America, the Call of Duty: Black Ops Dolby Digital True 5.1 ProGaming Headset will be available exclusively at Best Buy®.

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After Call of Duty: World at War, we set out 3 goals for our next PC title:

1] PC gets every single game feature that the consoles get, but in a way that makes sense for PC.
2] PC gets even more features – the ones that PC gamers want like dedicated servers and more customization.
3] Keep it fun. Protect the integrity of the title through design and post-launch support.

Keep that in mind as you read through the decisions outlined below in our FAQ.

Call of Duty: Black Ops PC Multiplayer FAQ

Full feature support: Confirmed
Ranked Servers: earn XP and currency. Wager Servers: gamble your currency. Customizable Unranked Servers. Combat Training against practice dummies. Theater. Create-a-Class "2.0." Contracts. Emblem editor. Everything the consoles get. Implemented in a way that makes sense for PC (*cough* no lobbies *cough*).

PC Features: Confirmed
Dedicated Servers. New Server Browser. Dev console. /record. Customizable game modes, perks, killstreaks, classes, and higher player counts on unranked servers. Map rotation. RCon. Kick & Ban. MOTD. In-game custom Server Banners. And more.

Mod Tools: Confirmed
We will release mod tools sometime post-launch. We need to finish the game first. Then we will make sure any urgent issues are handled. Then we will begin work on tools. The extent of the mod tools package will not be known until this time.

Global Persistent Stats, Profiles: Confirmed
Your profile data is stored on servers for you and is accessible from anywhere on the internet. Stats, XP, COD Points, configs, etc.

Leaderboards: Confirmed
Yes, leaderboards - globally persistent leaderboards (i.e. NOT per-server based).

Steam Exclusive: Confirmed
Millions of Call of Duty fans are already on Steam. Their Friends are on Steam. Steam will provide the ease of auto-updating instead of manual patching. Auto-updating will also help keep the community playing together on the latest version. The Steam cloud will make your profile and configs available to you on any computer.

VAC: Confirmed
We are serious about protecting the integrity of this game from hackers and cheaters who would otherwise ruin the fun for the honest players. Used in conjunction with our own anti-exploit measures, Theater reviews, trusted servers, and supplemented by server admins with kick and ban powers we believe that Valve Anti-Cheat will be an effective solution for Call of Duty: Black Ops PC. We are committed to working closely and diligently with Valve to deal with new threats as they appear.

No “Public Server Files”: Confirmed
Many of these game features are predicated on having a trusted host or server. Otherwise these features would be wide-open to easy exploits and rampant cheating. Also, anti-cheat solutions can be significantly more effective on games that rely on trusted servers. We chose against “public server files” in favor of providing full feature support and protecting the integrity of this title. This doesn't mean you won't have customization or admin capabilities with your servers - because you will. This simply means we've partnered with an exclusive server provider.

GameServers.com Exclusive: Confirmed
We have partnered with GameServers.com as the exclusive provider of dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Every dedicated server for this title will be running on top quality hardware and infrastructure with excellent bandwidth. There will be a ton of official servers at launch for everyone to play on for free. If you want to run your own server you will be able to rent one at a great price (which will never go higher than $0.99/slot). They are actively adding new server locations and staffing up to meet global demand. If you don’t see your location you can suggest it here: http://www.gameservers.com/blackops/

Max Players: Not Confirmed
We have not yet finalized the maximum number of players in ranked or unranked servers. More playtesting is required to determine how high these numbers can go. This happens as late as possible in the project otherwise the game is likely to change in ways that could invalidate the results.

Minimum System Requirements: Not Confirmed
The game is still in development, and the PC team is hard at work making further optimizations. We will announce the min specs in the near future.

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Hopefully that answers the majority of the outstanding questions not answered from our MP Reveal coverage. There are still some questions we do not have answers for at this time, so as always, we appreciate your patience. We will have all questions answered before November 9th.

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pcdev
kick / ban for server admins: confirmed. more answers later today. #codblackops #pc

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pcdev
Max player counts have not been finalized for ranked or unranked servers. This happens late in the project by design. #codblackops #pc

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"We have a lot of anti-cheating, anti-boosting stuff going on behind the scenes, so we are monitoring that," Bunting assured us. "We're going to have a very heavy hand in the online security of our game."

"We're taking it very seriously. We had an engineer dedicated pretty much from the storat of the project to it."

Cheaters won't be able to hack their hardware to get around this either claims Bunting, "If people hack their hardware, we've got the ability to detect that and report them to Sony or Microsoft."

So there you have: cheating in Black Ops won't pay. It'll just bring down the ban hammer on you.

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