Fans of Black Ops have something to be very happy about. The latest map pack titled “Rezurrection” will be coming to the Xbox 360 followed by PC and PlayStation 3 later. Sadly these maps will not be multiplayer maps though.

You get a new map level called “Moon” along with four re-mastered zombie maps: “Nacht der Üntoten,” “Verrückt,” “Shi No Numa” and “Der Riese.” They should be released on August 23rd for the XBox, with PS3 and PC following later.

Say what? Sony’s new handheld console already passed through the FCC and the rumor was that it had an October release date. But now it looks as if Santa has let us down this year.

Bloomberg is reporting that Kazuo Hirai says the Vita won’t launch in the US and Europe until early next year, but Japan is still getting the device before Christmas. We hope this is not the case. It’s like getting coal in our stockings several months early.

Sony’s highly anticipated PlayStation Vita has finally arrived at the FCC for wireless testing and approval. The Commission’s test documents do not shed any new light on features, but the approval suggests the company is on schedule to launch the device in time for the holiday season.

Rumors have the Vita hitting stores this fall. There is an ad supposedly from Blockbuster UK that points to an October 28 date as well.

According to a British Blockbuster flyer, the PlayStation Vita will land in the United Kingdom on October 28th. This fall release date fits right into Sony’s “end of 2011″ launch window, so this may be accurate.

Of course, without official confirmation you should take this with a grain of salt for now. If this does pan out it will be a nice Halloween surprise. Hopefully it’s a treat rather than a trick.

Redbox has announced that it will add video game rentals to an additional 5,000 kiosks starting August 1st. The company announced last month that game titles for the Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii would be added to 16,000 more redbox kiosks by the end of June, and the total after this next round of additions will approach 27,000.

Redbox owns and operates about 33,000 rental kiosks around the country, and the company did not indicate if or when video games might be added to the remaining 6,000 kiosks that will not have them. All games carried in redbox kiosks are $2 per night.

The PlayStation 3 isn’t on it’s way out yet, but we all know that Sony is working on a PS4. We just don’t know when it will arrive. Whenever it does, we hope that it has some of the style found in this concept PS4.

This PS4 concept would be made from 60% recyclable materials, magnesium alloy and carbon, and use zero watts of power on standby. This is achieved with a switch that will turn the power off from the outlet every half hour, drawing power from its rechargeable battery for about five minutes to keep it going.

The Kinect for the Xbox 360 is a hit and opens possibilities up in gaming that weren’t there before. So it is only natural that Sony would want their own version. Sony’s next Playstation 4 console could have full-body motion tracking according to Digitimes.

Sony has already confirmed that a new Playstation 4 is in development. Launch of the new Sony Playstation 4 is expected in 2012 according to Taiwan-based component makers. We can’t wait to see what else the console has to offer.

Most of us have already collected those PSN freebies when the promotion launched last month, but if you have not, you have another day to download your pair of free PS3 and PSP games, 100 virtual items from PlayStation Home, and 30 days of PlayStation Plus.

After that, you will have to pay up for your copy of Dead Nation or LittleBigPlanet and the other extras vanish as well. It all goes offline at 9AM Pacific Time tomorrow. Better hurry.

Word of the new “CECH-3000″ model PlayStation 3 surfaced earlier in the month and now a retailer is claiming to have received a briefing on the new model. The CECH-3000B is an updated 320 gigabyte system. Power consumption goes from 230W to 200W, and the weight from 3.0kg to 2.6kg.

The power and eject buttons are changed and the LED lights removed, but we don’t have specifics on that. Pricing will be the same as the current model. You can expect the new version to ship to retailers when the current stock runs out.

Despite the recent downtime due to hacks, Sony has reported that PS3 sales actually rose during the PlayStation Network downtime, promising that its system is “stronger than ever” at retail. Sales of the PS3 are up 14% year-over-year.

That’s pretty amazing considering that Sony was suffering one of it’s biggest disasters ever, both in terms of security and PR. Proof that you can’t keep a good console down.

When is an SD card not an SD card? When it’s in the Sony Vita. The new handheld’s internal memory cards look like SD cards, but they aren’t. The above pic was snapped at E3.

They are very close to being SD cards, only there’s a little notch in the side, making them a proprietary form of storage. We have no idea what they will cost, but hopefully we will hear more soon. Most would have preferred SD cards, but I guess Sony felt different.

A million in Japanese sales is pretty awesome, but even Satoru Iwata admits that the 3DS isn’t doing quite as well as they had hoped. It took a little while but Nintendo’s 3DS handheld hit the million mark after 13 weeks, which is a long time compared to the original dual-screen handheld, which accomplished this in four.

In comparison, the PSP sold its first million in about seven weeks. The 3DS could still hit the top spot, but remember, the PlayStation Vita is coming. They should be scared.

It was thought that the PlayStation Vita might be able to do video output using the multiport on the bottom, but now it is looking like that’s a big no according to the official FAQ. However, Sony exec Michael Denny said today that the PS Vita will be region-free just like the PS3. That’s some good news.

Sony has ruled out a UMD reader of any sort. No surprise there, but Sony says that it will “consider every possibility for support on bought UMD games,”. I wonder what they will do on that front. Nothing at the moment, but soon perhaps.

The new SGPT113JP/S and SGPT114JP/S tablets that just passed through the FCC are variants of the S1 tablet, the 9.4-inch tablet with Android 3.x Honeycomb and custom-made “Quick and Smooth” UI and “Swift” web browser.

Other features include 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi and WCDMA bands II and V radios, and an Ericsson F5521gw HSPA+ capable modem that’s mentioned. The PlayStation Certified tablet will arrive later in the fall for an unknown price.

Sony has finally confirmed details about its NGP at E3. It is really called the PS Vita and the handheld device will sell for $250 when it arrives next year. That’s for the Wi-Fi only version. The $300 3G PlayStation Vita will arrive in partnership with AT&T sometime in this year’s holiday season.

Specs include a 5-inch OLED touchscreen, front and rear touch pads, a quad-core processor and dual analog sticks. It’s also has a camera on both the front and back sides.