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Call of Duty: Black to the Future


Murr

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That's looked terrible in every way.

 

One of the most boring trailers I've ever watched, and considering it was the Reveal Trailer which is meant to get you all hyped up!

 

The game looks so confused!

 

This is where it starts... bye bye Call of Duty.

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I'm... conflicted about this. I am absolutely on board with having more science-fiction action shooters, but there's no part of this that smells like somebody trying to produce that. This is more of a "our designers have come up with some cool shit, but how do we fit it in the game? Fuck it, just set in the future, now we can do anything we want!"

 

Mainly what I hate is how far CoD has gone from it's peak with the first MW, where it deliberately and profoundly subverted its own "my country tis of thee" theme, to going all the way back around to the most basic comic-book Team America-without-the-irony plots. This is a cycle that was completed with MW3 and now it's just digging itself deeper.

 

I reckon it'll still sell well for the multi-player though, that's what this series is now - it's a sports series. An annual one too.

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I still haven't finished the first Black Ops. I got fed up of the campaign at around the absurd rooftop level. I absolutely hated how the gameplay was constantly interrupted by slo-mo explosions and stuff that took away control from you.

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I still haven't finished the first Black Ops. I got fed up of the campaign at around the absurd rooftop level. I absolutely hated how the gameplay was constantly interrupted by slo-mo explosions and stuff that took away control from you.

 

I got 5 minutes in, to where you have to kill Casto and thought 'No, I'm not killing someone I actually respect', died, sent it back to LoveFiLM and thought it was one of the greatest games ever.

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Conceptually it sounds like easily the most interesting entry since CoD4. If they can step far enough away from the numbing spectacle of where Modern Warfare went I could see myself buying this one rather than renting it.

 

I haven't read any written previews yet, but the Giant Bomb podcast about it talked about things like branching storylines, some very limited squad control and moments where you can choose from multiple objectives. Those certainly aren't unprecedented game features, but they could do wonders for a series that has become so tiresomely prescriptive in the player's approach.

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I got 5 minutes in, to where you have to kill Casto and thought 'No, I'm not killing someone I actually respect', died, sent it back to LoveFiLM and thought it was one of the greatest games ever.

 

Are you being serious? I cant tell.

 

It wasnt him

 

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Looks great, I will consider getting this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trollface.jpg

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It begins......

 

Love it or hate it, expect more stories like this in the coming months. Black Ops II is already breaking retail records.

 

According to Amazon, day one pre-orders for the latest Call of Duty game are three times higher than those achieved by its 2010 predecessor Black Ops.

 

“Set to be one of the biggest games of the year, it’s great to see so much enthusiasm and anticipation for Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” said Amazon UK’s video games manager Graham Chambers.

 

“Bolder and better than before and with everything from a futuristic storyline through to single player mode, Zombies and multiplayer, Black Ops II promises something Call of Duty fans have never seen before.’’

 

Why is that news, you ask? Because Black Ops remains the biggest-selling game in the history of the CoD franchise, and by extension one of the biggest-selling games ever. Blops II looks like it might be even bigger. Must be the horses.

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No one else has commented on the visuals, am I the only one who thought they looked below par?

 

They look considerably down on MW3, and way down on the next MOH.

 

The trailer did look odd but previews say its the best looking one so far.

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Apparently China hacked the US military mainframe. They probably guessed buffalo as the password.

 

China? then why were the middle east scenes there with the Al Qaeda like terrorists?

 

wait let me guess the terroists hack the network, but then as a twist you find out they are Chinese backed and go to china only to find it was a Russian general was actually pulling the strings and go after him.....And discover he'sa CIA double agent and actually a corrupt US politician caused it all to prove his agenda that the country wasn't as safe as it was and to make money for his military firm

 

 

Maybe i should have spoiler tagged that since i may have just revealed the plot

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  • 3 weeks later...

Preview time.

 

Someone once said that "war, war never changes", but given room to exercise a great deal of creativity, developers in the military FPS genre can bring plenty of fresh innovation to the table, and can break free from what has gone before. In Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Treyarch has done just that.

 

Through the original Black Ops, the Santa Monica-based studio proved that it had finally come of age, and while it wasn't a radical departure from ingrained Call of Duty staples, there were plenty of signs that Treyarch was desperate to break free from Infinity Ward's far reaching shadow.

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will mark the moment that Treyarch surpassed the Modern Warfare series and became a true force to be reckoned with among the FPS elite. Why? Because Black Ops 2 breaks new ground in ways that haven't been felt since the first Modern Warfare hit the scene. Read on to find out more.

 

Black Ops 2 puts the president's life in your hands

Herded into an exhibition hall in sunny Santa Monica, the games press quickly found their seats and watched Treyarch play through of two Black Ops 2 missions. The first was called Protect P.O.T.U.S. and it introduced us to the volatile world of 2025, and Black Ops 2's protagonist David Mason, son of the first game's hero Alex.

 

In this volatile future, ruthless terrorist Raul Menendez has waged a bloody vendetta against America, by hijacking the nation's vast unmanned army. Menendez has sent the army to downtown Los Angeles, in a bid to wipe out the world leaders at a G20 summit taking place there. Mason and his comrade Harper - both members of the S.O.G. Unit - are tasked with evacuating the president.

 

The mission begins and Treyarch doesn't waste anytime in setting out its stall, with a brash tone, startling violence and the best visuals in a Call of Duty game yet, underlining that Black Ops 2 means business.

 

We see the sheet-white face of a presidential bodyguard as he wretches and spews blood all over the armoured getaway vehicle, dying violently from a gunshot wound. The new game engine boasts some of the best facial animation this side of LA Noire.

 

Mason surveys the scene and receives a plan of action from the president who, confirming recent rumours, is female. The plan is to escape the already evacuated downtown Los Angeles and regroup to form a counter attack againt Menendez and his drone army. The vehicle crashes as a speeding truck runs it off the road. As Mason emerges from the rear door, the severity of the situation becomes clear.

 

Black Ops 2's human enemies are everywhere

The LA skyline has been reduced to burning skyscrapers while an unfathomable amount of unmanned drones and stealth bombers tear the city apart. It is absolutely insane. Essentially, take the madness of Modern Warfare 3's New York opening and double it.

 

As Mason finds his feet, the gameplay begins as human troops - the nationality of which we weren't told, although sources suggest China - begin flooding the freeway and unloading on Mason and the president's van. Zig-zagging up the freeway while using smouldering cars and rubble for cover, Mason returns fire with his advanced Type 95 assault rifle.

 

The chaos makes for low visibility, so Mason uses the rifle's x-ray ACOG scope to help him pick out targets and blast them through walls. But still they come, flooding out of parked trucks, emerging from boutiques by the road side, as drones scream overhead, unloading gunfire that can kill you in seconds if you linger in the open for too long.

 

With the human enemies dispatched, Mason hops on the turret of a crashed military truck and launches a devastating barrage of Skyburst missiles to thin out the packs of strafing drones, giving the president a better chance of escape.

 

Black Ops 2 gives you moral and tactical choices that lead to multiple endings

Taking point and surveying the freeway ahead, Mason reaches a section of road that has crumbled, and is given a tactical choice - rappel down to the street below and help the president at close quarters, or use his Type 95 scope to pick off threats from a high vantage point.

 

Treyarch informs us that these decisions will come thick and fast throughout the campaign and, together with sandbox missions called Strike Force Operations, will change up the routes, plot and final ending with each playthrough. The days of static corridors, infinitely respawning enemies and intense hand-holding are dead. We'll return to Strike Force Operations shortly.

 

Gunning down hidden troops with his X-Ray scope and KSG shotgun, Mason rejoins the group at the mouth of a huge shopping mall. The street outside is collapsing around the group, forcing them indoors. However, the place is crawling with troops, so Mason uses his wrist computer to send a swarm of around ten quadrotor drones on first to thin out the ranks.

 

Black Ops 2's quadrotors, mechs and planes are hackable and not on rails

If you're a fan of Battlefield 3's vehicular combat, you'll love the drones in Black Ops 2. Securing the shopping mall, Mason can choose to send in quadrotors and fight alongside them on foot, or simply enter one of them from a FPS perspective and control it first-hand. How you approach and use drones is entirely up to you.

 

But the enemy troops manage to eventually thin out the quadrotor swarm, so Mason runs in ahead of the presidential team, battling alongside his remaining quadrotors.

 

The pace is, once again, intense. Reaching an open air cafe, Mason encounters a CLAW mech which, contrary to the impressions given in the debut Black Ops 2 trailer, are actually no taller than humans.

 

Mason can choose to fight the CLAW or hijack it by using his wrist-mounted hacking dart that fires like the Ballistic Knife from the original Black Ops. Again, the choice is entirely yours. Mason uses cover to get close and sticks the CLAW with a dart, which then gives him full FPS control over it.

 

The CLAW stomps around - again, entirely off rails - unloading on human troops with its deafening minigun. It's an empowering feeling, as it's a strategy that can turn the tide of battle in moments. However, a menacing roaring sound can be heard over the chaos, causing the team to panic in fear. Something very bad is about to happen.

 

Black Ops 2's jet combat is sandbox and is both incredible and off rails

Now back on the street, Mason and his team continue fighting but once again hear a deafening roar in the distance. Suddenly, without warning the earth shakes and a skyscraper in the distance begins to topple towards Mason. The destruction on hand looks incredible, once again underlining Treyarch's enhanced engine.

 

The building hits the ground violently and kicks up a dust storm that throws Mason back. The fighting goes silent, giving the player a moment to breathe and get his bearings. Harper contacts Mason to tell him that the president has been shot and is making a break for it in a convoy of armoured vehicles.

 

Ordered to provide air support, Mason hops in a harrier jet and takes to the skies. On the HUD, the president's convoy can be seen under attack. This is entirely sandbox and free form, similar to Tom Clancy's HAWX series, putting the dull, on rails jet section from Battlefield 3 to shame.

 

Gunning down attackers on the street, Mason protects the presidential convoy before a pounding synth soundtrack kicks in and a pack of around 15 unmanned stealth bombers bear down on his position. The chase is on.

 

Mason swoops and corkscrews around skyscrapers, peppering drones and stealth bombers with the harrier's chain gun, heat seeking Skyburst missiles, and giving them the slip using the breakneck boost function. This is the moment that many onlookers realised that Black Ops 2 isn't the same old Call of Duty, and that war definitely can change.

 

Black Ops 2's Strike Force Operations are the biggest thing to happen to Call of Duty in years

The only on rails section of Mason's jet fight is when he kamikazes a drone and uses the ejector seat to fly to safety. This is when the mission ends and the action moves to Singapore, and the first live presentation of Black Ops 2's Strike Force Operation missions.

 

Described by Treyarch head Mark Lamia as "proxy wars", these campaign missions are small sandbox wars where you are in full control. You choose which wars to wage, how to approach each objective and in doing so, will steer the plot in different ways to one of many multiple endings.

 

Singapore puts you in charge of a strike force as it rappels down to a dockyard swarming with enemies. The target is a freighter containing mission-sensitive cargo that cannot be allowed to leave the dock. The team has 20 minutes to disengaged two missile shields so that they can blow up the freighter. Fail, and the narrative shifts and continues regardless.

 

Black Ops 2's Strike Force Operations allow you total battlefield control

In this mode, you can jump between any member of your team in an instant to give you the best tactical perspective possible. You can go up a layer and pilot a quadrotor to provide air support while the AI controls your troops on the ground. Finally, you can go into Overwatch and view the map from above from an RTS perspective.

 

In Overwatch, you can use x-ray vision to identify hostiles, place waypoints and direct every member of your squad - both living and robotic - to help you reach your goal faster. Back on the ground, the squad are fighting through a maze of freight containers while repelling and hijacking enemy quadrotors, CLAW mechs and smaller robot sentries on tracks.

 

The process of hacking and turning these drones over to your side helps turn the tide of battle and the team eventually break through and secure the first shield generator. But more troops flood in and rush the unguarded area, prompting the player to switch to Overwatch view and send a swarm of quadrotors over to where they are firing from.

 

All three perspectives work beautifully together, giving you total battlefield control. Fans of Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and other objective based tactical shooters will adore how fluidly it all comes together. With the shield generators destroyed, the team launches a missile at the freighter, destroying it and ending Treyarch's presentation.

 

Black Ops 2's campaign, zombies and multiplayer make it the biggest Call of Duty disc package yet.

 

Mark Lamia goes on to explain that this is only a glimpse of what is the most ambitious and generous Call of Duty package yet. The campaign has huge replay value, thanks to multiple choices, routes and endings. Zombies is now integral to multiplayer, with a four vs four mode in which two packs of survivors fight the undead and each other for points.

 

Multiplayer, Lamia promises, has largely been built from scratch, and will cater to all skill levels - from beginners in Training Camp mode, to new modes geared towards e-sports players who play like pros. Treyarch mean business and this lengthy and exhilarating showcases gives us no reason to doubt them.

 

All eyes will be on Black Ops 2 in coming months to see just what other tricks the studio has up its sleeve, and as always, NowGamer will be on hand to give you the inside scoop as it happens. Stay tuned.

 

It all sounds great. I like the sound of the four vs four zombie mode.

Edited by Hero-of-Time
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