As most of you are probably aware, Treyarch released Shangri-La zombies as part of the Annihilation Map pack that became available to download exclusively for the Xbox 360 on June 28th. PS3 gamers are yet to play the new map of course, as Treyarch will most likely make the game available for the PS3 at the end of July, or the beginning of August at the latest.

Back to the issue at hand though – what level have you managed to get to on Shangri-La zombies so far? Are you struggling to deal with the Napalm and Shrieker zombies, or have you found the perfect strategy to see you easily get past level 20 and higher. If you have been keeping a close eye on our coverage on the main Shangri-La easter egg, you’ll know that your chances of getting to a high level increase significantly once you have completed the easter egg.

This is because the reward for finishing it, is seven perks which do not disappear from your inventory. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that all four players in a co-op match can complete the easter egg so all players can have seven perks that stay with you even if a zombie takes you down. With this in mind, we see no reason why four experienced players can not reach heights of say level 45-50 with a calculated strategy set up.

Speaking of pro strategies, it’s well worth checking out a experienced team to see how they get to the high levels if you are having problems getting past level 20. If you head over to the NGTZombies YouTube channel, you’ll see that there are countless Shangri-La zombie strategies for you to browse and learn from, as we’re certain that these videos will be able to help you in your quest to become a Shangri-La pro.

On a side note, their YouTube channel also contains detailed strategies on how to complete the easter egg if you are still working out how to get 7 perks. Alternatively, you can check out our article here for information on it as well.

What level have you managed to get up to on Shangri-La so far, do you find it easier than Call of the Dead or more difficult?

Treyarch usually waits until the very last moment to share details on their upcoming zombie releases, but we’re pleased to say that the company has decided to release a portion of gameplay for the new map along with the other multiplayer maps.

During the Shangri-La teaser, you’ll see that monkeys are back in the game, and also the original characters from the series, who we’re guessing will resume duties from the celebrity figures that were featured in Call of the Dead. We have to say that we’re loving the jungle setting for the map, as it is a stark contrast to the ‘dark building’- type zombie setting like we’ve become used to seeing from Treyarch.

We also see various traps in the map, as well as minecarts, new weapons and also what looks to be a brand new type of ‘fire’ zombie enemy to deal with. Hopefully more details are revealed soon about the map, as the anticipation is killing us.

As a reminder, Annihilation is due out June 28th on Xbox 360, priced at 1200. Check out the gameplay trailer below and let us know your thoughts on it.

Treyarch’s Community Manager Josh Olin has been keeping users updated on the situation on his Twitter account as usual. Obviously he is going to be hounded with questions asking when the map pack will release on PS3 exactly, and here is what he has just said:

”No exact PS3 #Escalation release timing unfortunately, but it’s tonight – And yes, Double-XP/CP will go live afterward on PS3, 360, & Wii.”

So as you can see, you’re just going to have to stick to the normal method of refreshing the PlayStation Store to see when the content goes live. Alternatively, you can keep checking Olin’s Twitter page for the latest updates. On a more positive note, you can see in the tweet above that he confirms that Double XP will also be activated as soon as the Escalation maps go live – so that’s an added bonus to look forward to.

If you are waiting for the maps now, let us know if you have received them yet. Remember to state your location to give our readers a heads-up.

UPDATE: The Escalation map pack is now avaialble from the Sony PS Store, go grab it and let us know what you think of it!

As most of you are already aware, the main easter egg has already been solved in solo mode, but not co-op mode, until now that is. You can head here for details on how to unlock the wunderwaffe on solo mode, but now it’s all about co-op.

We’re going to skip straight to the golden rod stage, and contrary to previous rumors, you DON’T have to shoot a wall inside a cave at the start of the map. Instead you have to solve a series of complex lighthouse dials, and we can tell you the correct code is 2-7-4-6 and you have to input this code from top to bottom. Each dial affects other dials below, so starting from the the top: change the first one to 2 to make a 7 appear in the 2nd dial. After this, change the forth dial until you get a 6. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to return to the 2nd dial and input until you get a 4 in the third dial. Finally, return to the first dial until you get a 2 and 7. It’s slightly confusing to read we agree, but as long as you get the complete code 2-7-4-6, you will complete this step.

You’ll be pleased to hear that the next step is a lot easier, as you just have to activate the four large radios that have noise coming from them, in the correct order. You can find out where these radios are in the video below.

The next step is to proceed to the ship’s cabin as you have to activate the levers just like you would in the solo mode. The correct combination is left lever 1, right lever 3 times and move wheel 2.

Now onto another part which gamers are having difficulty with – activating the green light in co-op mode. This is done by the fog horns you see around the map, as you have to activate them in the correct order. There are four in total, and the correct code is best explained by watching the video below.

Thankfully, completing this step will turn on that green light, and the last step is to shoot a zombie into the green light with the V-R11 and then shoot him again with a ray gun or scavenger whilst he is being sucked in. Doing this will give you the golden rod and complete the easter egg after you’ve given it to Richtofen. Just like the solo easter egg, the reward is the Wunderwaffe and an achievement, but sadly the Wunderwaffe is only for one member of your team and runs out when you’re out of ammo.

Full credit for completing this mystery goes to the Spanish team of Poxe7, DualRevolver, Lefty4711 and Amadoru. You can read their tutorial over on their YouTube description here. We’ve included the video with all the steps below.

Let us know if this guide works for you and if you have also completed the co-op easter egg mystery. Have you found out any new secrets for the map?

This method is totally different to the ones we mentioned yesterday, and if you manage to take him down, you’ll actually be rewarded by Treyarch with some generous goodies.

From what we can see, players will need to have the Scavenger sniper rifle menu, and will need to once again lure him into the water outside of the building (Although it does work with other weapons). Once you have him there, you need to shoot a metal plate with the scavenger and have it explode next to Romero to slow him down. Once you’ve done this, keep blasting away at him until he moves closer to you.

Repeat the process over and over again and you’ll soon take him down. Once you have done it, he will retreat back into the water, and you’ll be rewarded with a new perk, a death machine powerup and also the ‘Quiet on the Set’ Achievement! Not too bad at all.

We’ve heard that he does still come back, but it won’t be straight away. We’re also hearing whispers that you can take him down more easily with an pack-a-punched V-R11 weapon, but doing so won’t get you the powerups and achievement. We’ve included two videos below both showing how to kill Romero, skip to 3.25 in the longer video to get to the action.

If you have taken down Romero, let us know how you did it, and if the steps mentioned above is the best way to do it, or if you’ve found a quicker way to kill him and still get the stuff. Look forward to more Call of the Dead secrets soon.

IGN has written up a report, summarizing the information which Treyarch revealed about the four multiplayer maps which will be featured in the First Strike map pack, due out on Xbox 360 first on February 1st.

While Treyarch made no mention of Acsension during the trailer, IGN have reported that the new map will feature a few new weapons and perks, as well as the inclusion of the Cosmic Silverback monkey, who will steal your perks! We’re guessing that this monkey will come in after round 5, replacing the hellhounds and zombie scientist seen in the Kino Der Toten and ‘Five’ Zombie maps.

As for the new weapons, Ascension will feature the Gersch Device, described as a ‘Black Hole Bomb’, and Matryoshka Dolls, which we’re thinking is some kind of claymore / monkey bomb type weapon. Will the Gersch device be the new version of the Thunder Gun? – hopefully we’ll have more details on this soon.

As for new perks, you’ll be pleased to know that there will be at least two new additions. These are the ‘PhD Flogger’ and the ‘Stamin-Up’ perks. We’re not sure exactly what each does specifically, but we’re guessing that the Stamin-Up perk will give you unlimited sprint or something along those lines.

We’ll let you know when we receive fresh details on Ascension. What are your thoughts on the new perks and weapons? – Do you like the idea of a perk-stealing monkey?

Treyarch were obviously aware that the 1.04 update didn’t go as smoothly as they would have hoped, and it was evident in the hundreds of complaints that we received shortly after the download became available.

Skip forward to today though, and Treyarch has pushed out patch v1.05. It’s available to download the next time you boot up the game and it weighs in at 27MB. Treyarch has made a list of the changes which they’ve fixed in the new version. Here is it below according to the official forums:

Patch v1.05 Release Notes

• Improved party reliability when leaving with party – an additional step in an ongoing series of party improvements continued in the next patch
• Improved UPnP functionality – further expands the game’s capability to open NATs on routers with universal plug and play enabled
• Enabled mute functionality in Playercards in the pre-game lobby
• Enabled kick functionality in party and private match lobbies
• Addressed an issue where the pre-game lobby would not always display properly when multiple players leave the lobby after a team split
• Addressed an issue where the pre-game lobby would appear stuck on the countdown timer while waiting to balance teams

We haven’t tested out the update yet, but we’re guessing Treyarch has finally got it right with regards to the huge connection problems that PS3, and also Xbox 360 users have been facing. On a side note, we’re a bit disappointed to see that they STILL haven’t patched an annoying bug when viewing challenges. Whenever you view sub-menus in the challenges, you’ll see that you can only view the challenges at the top of the list. For example, trying to view the Killstreak challenges only lets you view details for the Spy Plane, and trying to view Perks only allows you to view the first perk under Perk 1,2,3 – Have you experienced this, or do you have no idea what we’re talking about?

The main beef is with the connection problems though. Let us know if you are now finding it easier to get into a game on v1.05, or if you’re still experiencing problems.

Firstly, just take a look at our initial report if you don’t believe us. We told you the exact moment patch v1.04 went live on the PS3, and then shortly afterwards, we were unexpectedly bombarded with message upon message about how frequently players were getting kicked out of matches for no reason.

We’ve picked out a few comments for you to read below:

From Ben: ”In my experience, it has gotten worse. i am trying to connect to a game since 10 minutes, and every session i join either gets closed, host leaves or whatever. seriously, it went from annoying to unplayable for me”

From Daniel: ”Firstly, give them their due for listening to us gamers and TRYING to fix the problems but it just didn’t work, after installing the update 3 of out my first 4 match’s were ended early due to connection error (I’ve not had to reset PS3 yet today but only been on for an hour so) unlike a couple of days ago when it was 5-6 times in the space of 4 hrs.”

From Sly: ”It’s WWWAAYYYYY worse since i have installed the patch 1.04. 9 times out of 10 i’m kicked out after 1 minute of play with a transmission error. I can’t believe this has been tested before beeing relase. PATHETIC.”

With that said and done, we needed to test out the problems for ourselves. 180+ complaints speak for themselves, but we also saw the problems first hand too. First game, started with a host migration after 10 seconds, the game didn’t switch host. Second game, same thing happened again – but instead of not switching host, the game actually froze and required a hard restart of the PS3 console.

It’s not ideal is it guys? Especially when Treyarch continue to shift the blame to the user by saying it is a router problem and not a fault of their own. Take this latest Tweet by Community Manager Josh Olin for example when replying to a user complaining about lag in the game.

”That means your Router has a strict NAT, causing your lag. It’s not the game.”

Surely its not down to the router every time someone gets kicked out of a game? Hopefully we’ll get a word from Treyarch regarding this, as it’s a worrying sight seeing the sheer amount of people who are affected by this.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you still having connection problems with the game or not?

As we told you previously, the change log for the latest update is pretty long, and it looks like some of the major problems in the game will finally be fixed up on the PlayStation 3.

We’ve just download the update and it didn’t take long at all – we’ll be posting up our feedback on whether the problems have been fixed up in a short while. We’re hoping that the matchmaking has been sorted out as it was becoming a constant pain being kicked out of lobbies for no reason, especially with the frequent ‘tranmission errors’ that do their best to really make you angry.

Treyarch has also said that they have fixed up the exploit that players were using to keep killstreaks and custom classes even though they had prestiged, so let us know if this particular fix has been implemented successfully in v1.04 or not.

Interestingly, Treyarch has also added an additional security measure to the game, one which is said to ”enhance detection and banning capabilities” – what are your ideas behind this?

The update is available to download the next time you boot up the game. If you are still suffering from any connection problems, previous issues which havent been fixed, or indeed brand new problems since installing 1.04 – leave us a message in our comments section.

Probably not a lot of you, since it is well hidden, but we have a guide to show you now, which will help you to locate this secret Easter Egg, one of many scattered throughout the campaign.

The gun is located on the ‘Numbers’ map, and players will need to perform a series of tasks in the level, in order to get the ThunderGun available for a period of time until your ammo runs out.

Below is a list of steps, which we found courtesy of the Call of Duty Wiki Page. If you follow them in order, you should be able to unlock the gun for the yourself. The steps are as follows:

1. After the Interrogation scene ends there are six canisters to the front of the player.
2. Shoot all six canisters until smoke comes out.
3. Run back to Weaver and Clarke and make a left to the desk.
4. If done correctly the player will see a black tape sticking out of a cassette player.
5. Hold down the action key and the tape will disappear from the cassette player, or the obvious shake in the screen as cue.
6. Continue on until you get to the first of Clarke’s weapon caches, behind the fridge after the rooftop jump
7. Look at the left and you should find a cassette player
8. When at the cassette player press the use button and notice the cassette go in.
9. If done correctly notice the tape goes in and the player makes several tunes, and the game shakes.
10. The Thundergun will appear out of the wall.

Try them out now and let us know if it worked for you. If you get stuck, there is also a video below that we’ve included which will help you further. Have fun guys!