Xbox Gaming in South Africa

The Call of Duty: Black Ops launch is just around the corner, and just to keep everyone in a frothy state of fan frenzy, Treyarch community manager Josh Olin has published a bunch of Little-Known Facts about Black Ops' multiplayer mode.

First up, Treyarch has brought split-screen online multiplayer back to the franchise. Basically, you'll be able to sign in a guest onto Xbox LIVE, and take the split-screen experience online. The guest slot is open to both Gold and Free Xbox LIVE members, however, only Gold accounts will retain their rank and unlocks after logging out, while Free Xbox LIVE members won't.

There's also a new custom games editor, that sounds pretty much exactly the same as Halo's map variants - players can configure a match according to all sorts of custom variables, including available weapons, Perks, and gear. You'll also be able to share your custom game type in an online File Share. This will certainly make setting up tournaments a lot easier.

Then there's an in-game friend list, that's really more or less exactly the same as the Xbox LIVE friend list, but built into Black Ops for the PS3 gamers.

The game now features regional matchmaking options too, so players can choose to prioritise low latency connections, as well as party privacy options, which should mean less lag for us South Africans.

Finally, emblems will no longer reset when entering the next Prestige level. Everything else, however, will be reset as normal (XP, COD Points, Challenge progressions, Loadouts, etc).

Call of Duty: Black Ops will available in retail stores across the globe on 9 November.