"After years of manually assigning ratings, the Entertainment Software Rating Board will begin relying on computers to rate downloadable games. Traditionally, games have been rated by a three-person committee that reviews a game's contents and an accompanying questionnaire. This will remain in place for traditional retail releases.

"An Australian retailer has leaked the first details on the second map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which will be called the Escalation Pack. An advertisement on GAME Australia lists the new DLC's title and a release date of May 3, 2011. If that proves to be the release date for the Xbox 360 version in North America, PlayStation 3 owners can expect to see it in early June, assuming the exclusivity period is similar to that of the First Strike map pack.

We know Crysis 2 will be packed with state-of-the-art visual razzmatazz, but it looks like we'll also (hopefully) be able to expect a good story.

Coming in the wake of the Great Dedicated Server Controversy of Ought-Nine, Infinity Ward has announced another bit of Modern Warfare 2 news that might rile devoted PC gamers. Whereas multiplayer sessions in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare allowed up to 32 players on the PC, Modern Warfare 2's player cap will be reduced to 18, with 9-vs-9 matches just like the console versions. Before you grab your pitchforks, Infinity Ward does have a reason for the decision: "The max number of players on all platforms are 1v1 through 9v9. This is the number of players we focused on when we were balancing map size, perks, classes, challenges, etc.," explained developer Mackey McCandlish in a Best Buy live chat session (via Kotaku).