Xbox Live Update: Black Ops DLC, Red Faction: Armageddon demo

It's a bustling week on Xbox Live, as Microsoft updated its virtual storefront with a heap of new digital content, including the latest map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops and a demo for the upcoming third-person shooter from Volition.

Leading the charge this week is the Escalation (1,200 MS points, or $15) downloadable content for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The DLC includes four multiplayer maps: Hotel, set "on the roof of a Cuban luxury hotel and casino against the vivid backdrop of old Havana"; Convoy, which offers up "intense, close-quarters combat at the scene of an ambushed US military convoy"; Zoo, set in a derelict Soviet-era animal park; and Stockpile, which is set in a small Russian town that contains secret facilities housing weapons of mass destruction.

Black Ops gets its second batch of $15 content today.

Also included in the Escalation pack is a new level for Black Ops' zombie mode, called Call of the Dead. It will feature a storyline inspired by famed horror director George A. Romero and will feature the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Danny Trejo, and Romero himself. The zombie-slaughtering co-op level features a '70s movie aesthetic that sees four action stars fending off hordes of zombies on and around a ghost ship.

Switching to the Xbox Live Arcade lineup, Microsoft will add two new games to that download destination tomorrow, the first of which is Moon Diver (1,200 MS points, or $15). Created by Koichi Yotsui (Strider), the game is set in the 22nd century, after a technological uprising sees all manner of inanimate objects rebelling against their makers. Amid this turmoil, an elite group of ninjas--known as Moondivers--rise up to reclaim the world for humanity.

Gamers can get theirs hands on Armageddon today, via a demo.

Moon Diver features many of the classic tropes of the side-scrolling beat-'em-up genre, including massive bosses and waves of enemies. However, it also includes modernized graphics, a leveling system, and four-player local or online co-op.

The other new XBLA game due out tomorrow is Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury (800 MS points, or $10). Missile Fury mixes arcade shooter action with puzzle-solving gameplay. Missile Fury also features more than 100 stages and a level editor tool that lets users create and share with friends.

Available today from the Games on Demand hub are two new titles, the first of which is Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops ($60). The other new full-game download now available is Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia ($40).

Gamers looking to try before they buy can download two new demos from Xbox Live now, the first of which is for Volition's upcoming third-person shooter Red Faction: Armageddon. The other new sampler now available is for Traveller's Tales' Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean.