Downloadable content inbound

After a relative drought in DLC-land, this week has several developers announcing fresh, new downloadable content for their top tier game franchises.

First up, Codemasters have released the first DLC pack for Operation Flashpoint: Red River. The Valley of Death pack is available now from the New Zealand PlayStation Store; Xbox 360 and PC players will have to wait until Thursday to download it.

The Valley of Death pack features eight new fire team missions that are playable either solo or online, four-player co-op. The DLC features new locales such as a Soviet manufacturing town and a riversidemud-brick village.

Next up is Bethesda with the first DLC for their shooter, Brink, title Agents of Change.

Agents of Change will be available in July and will be free for two weeks on Xbox Live, PSN and Steam. The DLC will feature two new maps, five new player abilities, new outfits and new weapon attachments.

A patch for the PC version of Brink is now available delivering netcode optimisations, improved AI and weapon balance tweaks. The update for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will be rolled alongside the release of Agents of Change.

Finally, Xbox 360 owners should circle Thursday in their diaries as that is when Activision are releasing the third DLC map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. As usual, Call of Duty:Black Ops Annihilation will be available first for the Xbox 360.PlayStation 3 and PC players will have to wait until a later date to get their hands on it.

The Annihilation DLC map pack features four new multiplayer maps: Hangar 18, Hazard, Drive-In and Silo as well as a new co-operative jungle-themed zombie map called Shangri La. Shangri La promises to give Call of Duty fans the opportunity the play in the most interactive environment yet; with mine carts to ride and water flumes to slide down, all whilst taking pot shots at the undead, this may be the best zombie map of the series.