Treyarch unveils Black Ops multiplayer

Update: For full details on Black Ops' multiplayer modes and new features, check out our huge Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer hands-on preview, which has just gone live.

Original story: Treyarch has unveiled Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer including Wager Matches, which utilise a new COD Points system, Combat Training mode and gun customisation.

The new COD Points currency is earned as you play, and can be spent in various ways, one of which is to gamble it on the new Wager Matches.

"Wager Matches are these four brand new, free-for-all based game modes that we created for Black Ops. These game modes were designed to be pure kind-of adrenaline junkie fun," design director David Vonderhaar explained in the announcement gameplay video below.

"These are separate from your standard ranked progression in your online competitive play," said Dan Bunting, online director. "In Wager Matches you take the currency that you've earned and you can gamble it against other players, and what you're gambling on is that you're going to come in the top three on the final scoreboard."

"If you're in the top three players, it's called being In The Money, those three players get paid and the rest go broke," said Vonderhaar.

As you can see in the video, those four modes are called One in the Chamber, Sticks and Stones, Gun Game and Sharpshooter, and each has a solid core concept along with a cute little twist.

In One in the Chamber, everyone spawns with a pistol, one bullet and three lives. If you kill somebody, you get to take their bullet, but if you miss then you're down to just melee attacks.

Sticks and Stones, meanwhile, gives everyone a crossbow, ballistic knife and tomahawk, and if you toss the tomahawk and hit someone, you "bankrupt" that player, presumably meaning they lose all their COD Points.

In Gun Game, players start with the pistol then move onto a new weapon with every successive kill. The player who progresses through all the weapons first wins, but if you get knifed then you're set back one tier.

In Sharp Shooter, finally, every player starts with the same randomly selected weapon, and everyone uses it for fixed amount of time, after which everyone is cycled to the next random weapon. With each kill you earn a perk and eventually a score multiplier.

Outside Wager Matches, there's a new Combat Training mode featuring computer-controlled bots and its own progression system, as well as gun customisation options so you can add clan tags and other stuff that you can rotate and resize.

Apparently Treyarch also unveiled a new type of grenade launcher and a mini-gun at its announcement event in Los Angeles, which just ended. Our man on the ground is busily typing up his impressions of the new content as you read this and it should be online soon. (Update: Check it out!)

Call of Duty: Black Ops is due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 9th November. Wii and DS versions will also be released.