Sources tell us that the upcoming Call of Duty 5 game in development is already playable, and currently going through quality assurance.

Treyarch is also said to be the developer, and the title, we're told, is set in a WWII Pacific environment and will be using Call of Duty 4's engine, the same engine on which the upcoming James Bond: Quantum of Solace movie game is being built.

Yesterday, on the company's call to investors, Activision publishing CEO Mike Griffith said CoD5 would be coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and DS, in addition to a return for the franchise to PS2 and Wii for the first time in two years.

Hey guys, we’re quite sorry about the delay on this update, but the stuff we wanted to show off wasn’t quite ready to show off. We won’t let that happen again. Anyhow, I have a few things for you today. First off is some great music created by steb74. These pieces will be featured on our previously announced map, Battle of Yavin. If you missed the initial announcement for Battle of Yavin, you can check out the old news post here.

So, without further ado, this first piece is what you will be presented with as your map loads: mp3

This second piece is an appropriately dark fanfare that you will hear if the Empire successfully destroys Yavin IV: mp3

And finally, a beautiful fanfare that you will hear should the Rebel’s accomplish the impossible and blow up the Empire’s technological menace: mp3

Secondly, I have a new map to reveal to you. This map is one of two that will take place on the planet Rhen Var in the upcoming release and is known as “Rhen Var Research Facility”. It’s quite a different experience when compared to your standard battlefield map, but an incredibly fun one as well. The level takes place in a heavy blizzard with a very low level of visibility, creating a lot of large firefights around the various control points causing you to constantly be at the ready as you never know when you might bump into a squad of Snowtroopers.

The LMG72 was announced a long time ago with some renderpictures. After we passed some problems with inlcuding this toy we managed to give it the last finish.

We hope that we can start a big test with some clans in the next week. At the moment we´re testing the first internal "releasecandidate" to detect the last major bugs.

The 0.25 will be ready for delivery to you in the next few weeks. Although the summer is inviting us to go swimming or to spend a relaxed barbecue evening with some friends we always get back to our PCs and complete the 0.25.

Nervertheless developing still continues and over Pentecost the major problems should be solved. In the following we are looking forward to your feature requests and wishes. And be assured: the 0.25 will contain some surprises for you.

We would like to start by talking about some development in POE's Staff. First off, we would like to congratulate Michi.be for his win in the Crysis mapping contest for his map Borderline. Michi.be is leaving POE to continue his work in the Crysis Modding scene. We would like to thank him for his hard work for PoE and wish him the best of luck in the future.

Additionally we welcome a few new members to our team. Gab has joined us as a vehicle modeler and we already have him on his first project. Also joining the team is Dr. Destructo who's work you might have noticed posted in our forums. Dr. Destructo will be joining us as a mapper and static modeler.

Moving on to the fan map pack, we will be releasing it on Wednesday May 14th. The pack contains 7 fan made maps and PoE conversions of BF2 maps.

We would like to apologize for the long absence, we moved our homepage and forums to the Black Sand Studios server as we were unable to publish a new update on our old hoster. (note to all webmasters and communites: our domain changed to http://idf.blacksandstudio.com - please update your links!) Anyway, we are still working on our mod - with a very small team, but we are are working. And to everybody who always asked when there will be a version to download: There will be one as soon as we got maps and code, at least we don't have an mapping-artist neither an coder! So here is the call for all modders out there who are interested in helping, please contact us!

And for everybody who just waits for the screens, today we have some first person shots of our hand weapons.

In our Black Sierra update this month, we have a couple things to mention. One of the nicest changes we've made; happens to be the new website we've moved to. Yes, yes, we took everyone’s suggestion and got rid of the freewebs site. The new website will allow everyone to access everything all in one easy ad-free environment, this will include all our updates that we have here on Moddb, and some more exclusive information that will follow along the progress of production more closely. In addition to a much cleaner website, we've imbedded a new and professional forum in the same place.

As for actual game updates, Black Sierra has fixed the way it handles map switching. We've managed to link all maps together which allows for a quick ingame loading time, along with keeping all the information about the player, such as points, health, ammuniton and weaponry thoughout a whole game. This puts players into a position where a more logical approach is required to finish the campaign, as well as giving players a better reason to use team work. If a player rushes into battles, and loses health, his low-state of health will transfer to the next map resulting in higher chances of death later on.

We have also managed to put another weapon in-game, it is an effective fully automatic primary weapon that can be selected at the beginning of the game.

Another month, another new beta ready for you. That has been our plan since beta 1.0 and the compromise is still intact. Version 1.4 is our most complete release ever, isn´t easy to summarize the amount of work from a lot of talented people which has supposed. There are 2 new maps, many fixes and changes in existing levels, the much awaited dual peacemakers, many new sound effects and taunts, new music, final vigilante player model and a brand new feature to play with: whiskey!

Added:

• Whiskey man: equip the whiskey jug to help your teammates stay alive more time, not meant for personal use sorry! Replenishing rate is key to use it, if you die it decreases. Jug texture by GeorgH, sound fx´s by Stringed Evil. Drunkness effect (motion blur) by Garry.
• map fof_tijuana, level design by Freak/Ryell, sound fx´s by Stringed Evil, sky texture by Henri. This is a mexican village with spaghetti western style. Primary game mode: FoD, also available: FDM, DM.
• fof_nowhere redone, desert removed, bottom zone expanded with new art style, increased lighting. Primary game mode: FDM, also available: the rest.
• Final vigilante player model by Dieko
• Taunts reworked, many new additions.
• Bounty defeat/victory and piano rag music by Dimitris
• Dual Colt Peacemaker, animations by Racer445
• Bowler and Pale Rider hats

Journey back to the fantasy realm of Newerth to continue the epic battle between humans and beasts. Savage 2 combines real-time strategy and first person action in a dynamic multiplayer environment.

Choose your side, human or beast, and select one of seven different class types to take to the battlefield in intense first person combat. Feel like taking the reins? Choose to be a commander to play an in-depth RTS game that lets you lead your troops into battle as you build structures to unlock offensive and defensive capabilities. It’s all waiting for you in Savage 2.

"For Call of Duty, we're bringing the intensity of the recent Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare title to yet a new military theater to engage our significantly larger userbase which nearly doubled last year," said Activision Publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith.

Griffith said that the next Call of Duty will launch on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, DS and PS2 during this fiscal year.

He also confirmed that more DLC is headed towards current players of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. "We'll drive category sales of downloadable maps and enhance Call of Duty 4 retail SKUs," he said.