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Word has already arrived concerning Apocalypse, the upcoming DLC for Black Ops 2, but now Activision and Treyarch have provided a closer (and more enthusiastic) examination of what the pack will include. Like Vengeance before it - and Uprising before it - Apocalypse will include four maps, and the addition that is sure to attract the most attention: the Zombies map dubbed 'Origins' by developers.

Arriving later this month, Apocalypse offers the last chance for the team behind Black Ops 2 to pay homage to where they came from, while proving to fans that they've learned as much about level design and community demands as the players have thus far. See the video to judge for yourselves if the lessons learned are the ones you'd hope.

Players will have the chance to do some "pod-hopping" of their own when Pods arrives - a map consisting of modular living spaces built as part of a "failed utopian city" in Taiwan. The video shows that the map will include more open spaces than the description might imply, but we're particularly interested to see just how much the playing community adopts the strategy of leaping from one pod to another without touching the ground.

Black Ops 2 Apocalypse DLC Trailer

Frost is now described as taking place in Amsterdam specifically - for those players who happen to be sticklers for geography - but we're most curious to see if the bridge dividing the two halves of the map will actually impact the team strategy. Since the canal over which the bridge is built is frozen solid, it's hard to tell if the division will prove meaningful in any way.

Takeoff is one of the more interesting additions to the game's existing maps, since what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in nostalgia. Based around the original Black Ops' Stadium map, the abandoned launch platform has been re-skinned for the new game's fiction. Whether that seems like a welcome walk down memory lane or a shortcut... well, we'll let each player decide for themselves. Dig goes even farther back into the series' history, "paying homage" to Courtyard from Call of Duty: World at War.

But it isn't the new/re-imagined maps that we're most excited to see, since we expect fans will be paying particular attention to the new Origins map being brought to the Zombies mode. Generally speaking, we're always willing to jump into the trenches of WWI-era France and take on hordes of the undead - the fact that the map is set around the first meeting of the original four characters in the Zombies mode is a plus.

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But as the previous Origins trailer promised, that isn't the only change the developers at Treyarch have made to give Apocalypse a special place in fans' memory. Dieselpunk zombies, a mobile tank that can move players around the map, and even the historically accurate weaponry is all well and good - but the 1,000 foot tall robotic leviathan is what we want to see in action. How it will impact combat isn't overtly shown in the trailer, so fans may have to wait until they can experience it firsthand.

Let us know in the comments which of these maps you're looking forward to, and whether you hope (as we do) that Origins is a sign that the developers of the Call of Duty franchise may be branching out in regards to their DLC structures.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Apocalypse is available for Xbox 360 on August 27, with other platforms to follow.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.