We’re celebrating the release of one of the biggest titles of 2010 with a giveaway on Platform Nation. How about Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition by Treyarch? This comes with a custom medal, exclusive Avatar outfit and four co-op zombie maps.

Want to know how you can get your hands on this? It’s a little bit more involved:

1. Leave a comment below letting me know, in your opinion, which event had the biggest impact during the Cold War. It could be anything you found striking, like the construction of the Berlin Wall or Gorbachev’s announcement of the perestroika. What did you find to be most significant and why?
2. Tweet: “RT I just entered the @Platform_Nation contest for Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition: http://bit.ly/cWGkQg”
3. Leave your Twitter username so I can verify your entry. Make sure you’re following @Platform_Nation!

Make sure to leave a valid email address so I can contact you! Before you start commenting, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• Must be a US resident. Sorry international folks, but shipping outside US borders costs a pretty penny.
• Due to the teen rating of the title, you must be at least 17 years of age.
• We’re giving away an Xbox 360 copy of the game.
• Giveaway ends November 8, 2010, at 11:59 PM PST. Any entries submitted after this deadline will not be eligible. Winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond back. Failure to do so will force my hand into selecting another winner. So please check your inbox, and make sure you have Platform Nation on the “not spam” list.

Good luck! I’ll be looking forward to responses.

While Assassin’s Creed II received plenty of praise last year, Ezio returns in the next installment to journey into Italy’s greatest city, Rome, to strike against the Templar Order. While we know what we can expect of the single-player campaign, it is the franchise’s foray into online multiplayer that has gamers intrigued. After it was awarded “Best Multiplayer Game” by the Game Critics organization at E3 2010, there is plenty of buzz surrounding this mode.

Sebastien Puel, Executive Producer at Ubisoft Montreal, noted:

“Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is the largest and most ambitious title we have ever created. Not only will players get a fully robust and upgraded single-player game that is larger than Assassin’s Creed II, but an award winning multiplayer component as well.  Brotherhood is the biggest Assassin’s experience we have ever created.”

The game is finalized and ready to hit stores in North America on November 16, 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

EA Sports Active 2 is a fitness program designed to offer an interactive workout regimen. Available with Total Body Tracking, including the EA Sports Active heart rate monitor for on-screen monitoring, users will be able to optimize their workout performance. EA Sports Active 2 will be available November 19, 2010 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. While we know what to expect with the Wii, it will be interesting to see how fans take the game with Xbox 360′s Kinect and PlayStation 3′s Move. Check out the trailer below:

The first thing you’ll notice when playing Outland is the beautiful background contrasting sharply with the platform gameplay. It’s hard to ignore how gorgeous the game looks. Throw in some good old-fashioned action platforming and you have the makings of a solid title. What makes Outland stand out from the pack is the use of the dark/light mechanic inspired by Ikaruga.

If you’ve never played Ikaruga, simply know that it’s centered around the polarity mechanic. Basically, only bullets of an opposite color can kill the gamer. Stick to one color to get by and absorb any damage or switch polarity to attack. In the case of Outland, press the RB button to switch the character from blue to red. When the hero is red, absorb red projectiles while attacking blue enemies or vice versa.

Objectives sound simple enough. Switch colors to correspond with projectiles to avoid damage and progress through the levels. However, Outland becomes surprisingly challenging as you go deeper into the game. For example, some projectiles overlap colors, requiring you to time your color transitions carefully to avoid damage. Some platforms are color-specific; you must switch colors before jumping on another platform. These little quirks add a challenging twist, making the gameplay much more interesting.

Outland by Ubisoft will be hitting Microsoft’s XBLA and Sony’s PSN early 2011.

Killzone 3 is still months away from release, but Guerrilla Games recently announced a Public Beta Trial slated for October 25, 2010. It’ll be an opportunity for avid fans to thoroughly test the multiplayer aspect of the game and provide some valuable feedback to the developers.

Unfortunately, there is an exception to this particular beta. Besides key media outlets, it will only be open to PlayStation Plus subscribers. For non-subscribers, it will require quite a bit of luck. First, Guerrilla Games will only dole out 300 codes. Second, they’re splitting these codes evenly between SCEE and SCEA territories. The opportunity to sample Killzone 3 multiplayer mode, such as the ‘Operations’ game type, party system and jetpack, will be enough for fans to go scrambling for these elusive codes. Based on Guerrilla Games’ announcement, your best bet is to follow them on Twitter or keep a close eye on their website.

If you don’t like your chances, you can hedge your bets by subscribing to PlayStation Plus, even if it will cost you a pretty penny. Or just wait for the game to come out.

Zombies have been a prevailing rage in the video game world. Treyarch’s Call of Duty: World at War brought a fresh twist to the franchise by including a co-op Nazi Zombies mode, unlocked once players completed the campaign. In one of the worst-kept secrets, Treyarch finally announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops would feature a co-op zombie mode. Treyarch Studio Head, Mark Lamia, went on to say:

“Zombies have been such a hit with our community that we were committed to bringing brand new zombie experiences to Call of Duty: Black Ops.”

This news follows the announcement that four updated co-op maps from Call of Duty: World at War will be made available as part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige and Hardened Editions.

However, it appears that anticipation for Medal of Honor is heating up. Electronic Arts announced earlier today that the title reboot has set a new franchise record, hitting the highest number of pre-sell units in the franchise’s 11-year history. Of course, these pre-sales could be attributed to store buys, not exactly units converted into concrete purchases by gamers. Even so, it’s still impressive since there is still more than a week remaining until Medal of Honor hits retail shelves.

Prior to Medal of Honor’s release on October 12th, the PC Multiplayer is set to launch its open beta on October 4th. This beta features two new maps inspired by real world locations: Kunar Base and Shahikot Mountains. Kunar Base feature the Sector Control multiplayer mode: two sides fight to control sectors of the map. Shahikot Mountains is more objective-based with Combat Mission multiplayer: gamers battle through a series of objectives to defeat the opposing team. Both modes pit up to 12 players (for a total of 24 players) against each other.

While the Tokyo Game Show is over, there were some interesting reveals throughout the convention — not as much as we’d like, but enough to garner news, certainly. Bulletstorm has occasionally popped up the radar to remind folks that the game is in production. During TGS, the developers offered up a commentary video. Take a look:

It’s been a while since I’ve done a giveaway on Platform Nation. Let’s kick off Autumn 2010 with Valkyria Chronicles II! This PSP title comes at the heels of the underrated Valkyria Chronicles by SEGA!

Simply leave a comment below letting me know which Episode you found most challenging and why? Make sure to leave a valid email address so I can contact you!

Before you start commenting, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

• Must be a US resident. Sorry international folks, but shipping outside US borders costs a pretty penny.
• Due to the teen rating of the title, you must be at least 13 years of age.
• We’re giving away a PSP copy of the game. Console fans will have to sit tight for the next giveaway.
• Giveaway ends September 30, 2010, at 12:00 PM PST. Any entries submitted after this deadline will not be eligible. Winner will be contacted via email and will have 48 hours to respond back. Failure to do so will force my hand into selecting another winner. So please check your inbox, and make sure you have Platform Nation on the “not spam” list.

Good luck! I’ll be looking forward to responses.

4mm Games, Terminal Reality and Def Jam Interactive have all teamed up to bring you Def Jam Rapstar. Quite simply, it’s an interactive hip hop music game that will be hitting the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii on Novemeber 5th, 2010. With an exclusive focus on hip hop, there are more than 40 songs available at release, ranging from Busta Rhymes “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” to Lil’ Jon’s “Get Low.” While you wait for its release, watch rapper Fat Joe’s testimonial on Def Jam Rapstar: