Valve introduces eight new maps and fifteen new weapon skins through Operation Bravo.

Yesterday, Valve released a collection of eight maps, dubbed collectively as Operation Bravo, to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The maps can be accessed after purchasing a $5.99 operation Bravo ticket from the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive store.

The maps are exclusive to Operation Bravo and friends of Operation Bravo purchasers until January 20, 2014. The ticket also unlocks for the purchaser fifteen map-themed weapon finishes through the game's timed drop system.

The new maps are top-rated community maps from the steam Workshop. The maps are listed as follows: Agency, Ali , Cache, Chinatown, Gwalior, Ruins, Siege, and Seaside.

All maps are playable in deathmatch, casual, and competitive modes. This is the first time these maps have been available in competitive mode.

An Operation Bravo ticket purchase also gets the purchaser an Operation Bravo coin. The coin, upgradable through playtime and wins, will display number of match wins, number of kills, headshot percentage, and an array of other statistics for the duration of Operation Bravo.

This news comes on the heels of Valve's announcement Monday that it is using the revenue from in game item purchases to raise the SteelSeries DreamHack Counter-Strike: Global Offensive prize pool to $250,000.00.

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Dark Souls II to be released in March next year in Europe and the Americas; collector's edition details revealed.

Open-world role-playing game Dark Souls II will launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 11 next year in North America, publisher Namco Bandai confirmed. The announcement was made during Namco Bandai's pre-Tokyo Game Show conference today.

A collector's edition was also revealed and will include a soundtrack, artbook, 12 inch figurine, and a cloth map. A release date for PC was not confirmed.

Dark Souls II is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Dark Souls. PlayStation 3 owners in North America, Europe, and Australasia can sign up for the beta, which begins on October 12.

More news from the show can be found at our Tokyo Game Show 2013 hub.

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By Piya Sinha-Roy and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When fictional columnist Carrie Bradshaw helped HBO grab its first series Emmy award in 2001 for comedy "Sex and the City," the premium cable network's main competition came from broadcast networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Today, the field fighting for Emmy glory includes contenders from the past few years like basic cable channels AMC and FX, but also the much talked-about rookie, the video streaming service Netflix. And then there's a resurgent PBS, the U.S. public television channel. ...

By Piya Sinha-Roy and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When fictional columnist Carrie Bradshaw helped HBO grab its first series Emmy award in 2001 for comedy "Sex and the City," the premium cable network's main competition came from broadcast networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Today, the field fighting for Emmy glory includes contenders from the past few years like basic cable channels AMC and FX, but also the much talked-about rookie, the video streaming service Netflix. And then there's a resurgent PBS, the U.S. public television channel. ...

By Piya Sinha-Roy and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - When fictional columnist Carrie Bradshaw helped HBO grab its first series Emmy award in 2001 for comedy "Sex and the City," the premium cable network's main competition came from broadcast networks CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Today, the field fighting for Emmy glory includes contenders from the past few years like basic cable channels AMC and FX, but also the much talked-about rookie, the video streaming service Netflix. And then there's a resurgent PBS, the U.S. public television channel. ...