The Hitari Paparazzi: PreOrders, The Wii U, Far Cry 3 and More!

Good news Hitari blog readers! We now come complete with a pre-orders page! Which, by anyone’s standards, is extremely fancy. Point your cursor toward the Pre Order Zone in our navigation menu on the left hand side of the home page and you’ll be transported to a realm of upcoming gaming extravaganzas! Have a click through our list and see if you can’t find something you, or that special someone in your life, will want to tear open on Christmas Day, silently shun the family and sit in a room in festive bliss until dinner time! We’re pretty sure you’ll find just the ticket.

And the good news is, there’s a ton of new releases on their way this week! Most prominently of all, of course, is the tangibly excitable Wii U. Launching with a tumultuous array of titles, from the old reliable New Super Mario Bros. U to the incredible Batman Arkham City Armoured Edition to the mini-game merriment of Nintendoland; have a look through our deals on the PreOrders page and find your perfect package. We’ve made sure there’s something for everyone there, but there’s no need to thank us. Just make sure we’re on your Christmas list.

Across the way, hang gliding on to the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC also this Friday, is the third instalment in the prestigious Far Cry series. And have you seen the reviews? Whilst the first was a humdinger for its time, the second left a little to be desired, but we can confirm that Far Cry 3 settles all debts and is one of the most polished and complete open world games you’ll play! Again, hit up our pre-orders page, and secure your copy for release day today!

And, if your tastes are slightly further abroad, we’ve also got the legendary Zone of the Enders, heading out to post boxes in delicious HD flavour for the astonishing price of just £22.99! Get in on this one while you can, and remember, you’ll get access to the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance demo when you pick up your copy!

That’s all from us today, but keep checking back for updates!

Happy gaming!

Behind the Scenes on Black Ops II’s ‘Surprise’ Trailer

But of course we’re all going Call of Duty nuts again, and as such, we simply can’t stop posting about it! If you caught the excellent live action ‘Surprise’ trailer just before Black Ops II was launched, perhaps you’ll take a moment to peel yourself away from your controller, tear your eyes from those ironsights and give the zombies half a chance so as to consume this wonderful supplement to that very trailer!

Yes, featured below, we have a Behind the Scenes expose of the trailer, in which we’re talked at by some rather famous faces (anybody you recognize) and we’re given a little insight into how the whole thing went down on set! You lucky, lucky folk you.

So what do we reckon then; how long will it be before the Call of Duty movie gets officially announced? Not long is our guess, what with Tom Hardy called up as Splinter Cell’s raging caging Mr. Sam Fisher, and Michael Fassbender confirmed for the big screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed. Ubi are really going to Hollywood on us at the moment, evidently.

Have a peak at this video and let us know what you think! Any good ideas for video game movies floating around in that all-gaming head of yours? Drop us a comment below!

Nuke Town map on Call of Duty Black Ops II availability issue explained

here has been confusion overnight around the availability of the Nuke Town map on Call of Duty Black Ops II, as of this morning, a playlist called “Chaos Moshpit” has been added which includes the most hectic maps in the game along with Nuke Town 2025. If any consumers are unable to locate the map in multiplayer matchmaking, this is the place to send them as the map is included in this playlist specifically. It can be found by going to the “BONUS” playlist menu when in multiplayer mode, then selecting “Chaos Moshpit”.

IMPORTANT: Please note that the map is part of a playlist containing multiple maps as options to be selected, and as such, Nuketown 2025 is not always guaranteed to appear or be selected. The full map rundown is:

Chaos Moshpit

Nuketown 2025

Carrier

Cargo

Express

Hijacked

Slums

Standoff

Call of Duty: Black Ops II: Derails the Competition, Breaks Records

It’s Call of Duty time again ladies and gentlemen, as I’m sure you’re all aware; and as hundreds queued up at midnight on Monday 12^th, and many millions more waited impatiently by their letter-boxes (that’s you, by the way, Hitari readers!) Black Ops II was birthed violently into existence! It was a frenzy! Nobody could move! There were COD emblazoned headsets and keyrings everywhere! And of course, as everybody rushed online to begin feeding the rest of the world some delicious bullet sandwiches, the records began to be broken.

It was announced on the 16^th of November that, for the fourth consecutive year, the unstoppable behemoth franchise that is Call of Duty, overthrew all competitors, dragged wannabe upstarts off by their heels, and crushed gigantic foe without ever breaking a sweat, and came out the other side as the biggest entertainment launch of the year.

With more than $500 million worldwide sell-through in the first 24 hours, this astonishing figure sits along the series’ past efforts with ineffable competency. Bobby Kotick, the man behind the magic, (not Paul Daniels) Activision Blizzard’s CEO whose infamous, often unbelievable statements seem to have been quelled of late, commented:

“With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row, life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars,” Which he made reference to, as they are the biggest selling movie franchises ever; which by all means, is an incredible feat. Well done Bob!

With 30 million YouTube views accredited to the ‘surprise’ launch trailer, and hundreds of videos springing up in the same time, chiefly due to game’s in-built ability to stream your gameplay straight to the internet video channel, it’s an inarguable fact that Call of Duty fever is back! Are you playing Black Ops II? Have you got yourself a season pass? How about a CoD branded set of Turtle Beaches? You want ‘em, we got ‘em!