May 20, 2011 14:01 GMT  ·  By

Publisher Activision Blizzard and developer Treyarch have announced that those who are playing their first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops on the PlayStation 3 will be able to take part in a Double XP weekend, starting today at 10 AM Pacific Standard Time, which is 7 PM Central European Time.

Players will be able to level up twice as fast during the weekend, which unusually will only end on Tuesday, May 24, against at 10 AM Pacific Standard Time.

It seems that the Double XP weekend has been implemented to mark the return of the PlayStation Network service, which means that PlayStation 3 owners are again able to engage their friends in multiplayer matches of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Treyarch has also said that it plans to deliver another double experience period in the coming future when it launches the Escalation map pack on the PlayStation 3 from Sony.

The bad news is that the developers are not sure when the launch comes, with work still being done to the map pack and gamers set to get a launch date as soon as possible.

Treyarch says that the Escalation map pack will be launched on the PC on June 2 and the company might use the occasion to deliver a Steam-powered freeplay weekend for Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The Escalation map pack is available on the Xbox Live service from Microsoft since May 3 and players who have it can enjoy a number of multiplayer only maps and a new zombie-powered level, Call of the Dead, which draws inspiration from George Romero.

Activision Blizzard has recently confirmed that Infinity Ward is working on a new Call of Duty, titled Modern Warfare 3, which will be launched apparently on November 8.

The single player story and a lot of multiplayer details were revealed earlier in the week via a massive leak.