CoD: Black Ops 2

Scott Tortorice

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Looks like we have another near future shooter like Ghost Recon Online & Blacklight Retribution. Yup...near future/cyberpunk is the new trend. Cool with me.

[video=youtube;x3tedlWs1XY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3tedlWs1XY[/video]

I wonder how many game-killing bugs Treyarch is going to leave in the PC version this time? :hmmm: Definitely NOT a pre-order for me after wasting my money on the original BlOps. Gonna wait for a sale and a lot of unwitting beta testers to give it a go first and only then snatch it up on sale. :D
 

Scott Tortorice

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I have to admit, I really like this idea. In fact, I think the idea of perma-death in a shooter is long overdue!

http://kotaku.com/5906851/black-ops-iis-strike-force-mode-adds-a-branching-narrative-with-a-tactical-twist

In the game's story, it's 2025. There is a cold war going on between China and the United States. In addition to the timeline-hopping story of Alex and David Mason and Frank Woods, Black Ops II's story will feature several points during which the player is given a number of different operations to undertake.

"You'll get to these points in the campaign," said Treyarch head Mark Lamia. "There'll be these hotspots around the world, as you'd expect in a cold war. And you'll get your intel drop on them and JSOC will come to you and say 'Here's what's going on. We need to drop a black ops team in. Which mission are you gonna assign your team to."

"You'll choose a mission, and that is actually a branch for the story, and the structure of the campaign." According to Lamia, if you die, that won't end the game but rather will be included as a part of the story—your characters are disposable, though the high-level narrative will (allegedly) play out differently depending on how you do in the missions. It's not clear whether the effects will be story-only or whether they'll actually have an affect on the gameplay or settings of missions in the rest of the game.
EDIT: PC Gamer has this interesting tidbit:

The Strike Force mission we saw was a raid on the Port of Singapore by Navy SEALs. A team of four fast-roped into the shipping port from a helicopter with a mission timer of 20 minutes. These missions operate a little like a skirmish mode; this one felt like a multiplayer map populated by bots. That’s a compliment, honestly. More interestingly, you could hop into “Overwatch Mode” at any point, a flying camera view, and assign movement waypoints to all team members. From there, you’re able to take control of any friendly unit—drone or man—at any time.
Plotting waypoints? Sounds like BlOp 2 is entering Rainbow Six territory.
 

Scott Tortorice

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Oliver North has been enlisted (ahem) to help promote BlOps 2:

[video=youtube;Gm5PZGb3OyQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5PZGb3OyQ[/video]

AdWeek had an interesting comment on this ad, as well as the blurring of war as entertainment (see my blog entry on the same topic - beat you, AdWeek! :p):

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-call-duty-black-ops-ii-140017

The docu-style spot is truly brazen. Here's a notorious military man talking about the frightening future of warfare in a spot that's impressively news-like—yet is completely designed to build drama for an elaborate fiction. The real world and the fantasy world seamlessly combine. There is no difference, it seems, between real war and entertainment war—or at least, none worth fretting over.

...

In a way, it's refreshing to see a gaming campaign so directly acknowledge that the vicarious thrill of fake war is directly based on pretending to experience the real thing. In gaming, war is entertainment—it's just not polite to say so. This may be liberating.
War as entertainment...what do you think?
 

Scott Tortorice

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They are making a lot of significant changes to this entry to the CoD series! I particularly like the move away from killstreaks to scorestreaks, and the built in "League Play" - both should make it easier for all thumbs players like me. :D The heavy emphasis on e-sports is also long overdue as that is what distinguishes CoD from the Battlefield series. Features like shoutcasting and video streaming at the click of a button should really help kick things up a notch in this regard.

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/2d88kz/call-of-duty--black-ops-ii-gc-2012--multiplayer-features-overview

Looks like Treyarch is committed to breaking the "more of the same" critique. This is definitely something different when it comes to the SP campaign and the MP play.

Looking forward to it! Something tells me that the "CoD is dead" crowd might have to eat their words in November. Based on all the "I stopped playing CoD but this looks really good" comments I've been reading lately, I see another record breaker in the works....
 

Scott Tortorice

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A full TDM MP match from GamesCom!

[video=youtube;x012BegjGlY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x012BegjGlY[/video]

I really like how the map is being re-arranged as you play by the shipping containers being moved here and there. BlOps 2 is supposed have a lot of that.

Yeah, some CoD sales records are going to be broken in November. :D
 

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Another rave preview:

[h=4]Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Multiplayer Hands-on Preview -- Modern Warfare Evolved and Futurized[/h]
Whether you’re a veteran of the franchise or new to shooters, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 multiplayer is poised to blow you away. It’d be easy to give it a quick glance and dismiss it as more of the same, but what’s different is what makes this edition shine, and what’s the same makes this COD experience all the more addictive.

...

Instead of simply giving its die-hard audience more of the same, Treyarch has gone the extra mile to keep the Call of Duty brand fresh. A revamped Create-a-Class and Score Streak system is more than icing on the cake of the futuristic multiplayer game, which still remains very ‘pick-up and play’ friendly. So far, Treyarch has positioned Black Ops 2 as the best Call of Duty ever, and we still haven’t seen everything yet! But the proof will be with the finished game when it’s released on November 13.
 

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The media hype campaign begins...and I am already hyped! :D

[video=youtube_share;yY32yReMiFc]http://youtu.be/yY32yReMiFc[/video]

That was a much better TV spot than the first one. :cool:
 

Scott Tortorice

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As a reward for surviving 11 days in the 18th Century, I pre-ordered BlOp 2 today. :D Treyarch has wisely allowed pre-loading on Steam so all that CoD goodness is already trickling onto my HD as I write this. :smoke:

Here's the latest live-action trailer:

[video=youtube_share;4wIZp_E2CxQ]http://youtu.be/4wIZp_E2CxQ[/video]

Who else is going to war on 11/13?
 

Scott Tortorice

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I missed so much these past 11 days....

Nuketown trailer:

[video=youtube_share;XBTVkIxSx5o]http://youtu.be/XBTVkIxSx5o[/video]

I love the retro Activision Pitfall logo. :)
 

Scott Tortorice

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Looks like Spike TV is going to cover the launch of BlOps 2 live tomorrow night:


[video=youtube;urECXvTu2C8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urECXvTu2C8[/video]
 

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So in other words, you're not waiting for the "testers" get everything worked out and it goes on the "sale" rack? :laugh:

Yes, it does look really good. I've not played any of the CoD games since 3, and most likely won't be getting this one either. I just don't enjoy the setting of the recent CoDs that much and I just don't do online, which from my understanding is where the series really excels.
 

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Cyber-terrorists, Team Deathmatch and zombies...oh my! But I just wanted to come up for air and say....


This game is friggin' awesome! :clap:

I mean, really, really awesome! Treyarch out did themselves with this title. In fact, I think they outdid the entire of the CoD franchise to date! BlOps 2 will be the new gold standard for shooters as far as I am concerned (shove that out of your self-righteous blowhole, Battlefield/DICE/EA).

I hope to delve into this some more in coming blog entries (and maybe a review), but the game is packed with wonderful innovations and ideas. But you want to know what is the most magical part of it all is (as far as I am concerned at the moment)? This:

[video=youtube_share;VCk2dsSRncg]http://youtu.be/VCk2dsSRncg[/video]

"Oh Scott, there you go again posting some CoD clips that you stitched together to show off you mad skills." (I get that all the time :D).

Here's the magic:

I didn't put that video together...BlOps 2's COD TV did it for me! All I did was to tell it that I wanted a collection of my best moments from such and such a match, and it did the rest! It even uploaded the video to YouTube for me! How awesome is that?!?

If you consider yourself a shooter fan, GET THIS GAME NOW!!!!!!

EDIT: The critics seem to agree:

What Critics Say About Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Review Revue)

–”The team at Treyarch could have played it safe and Black Ops II would have sold well, but instead they challenged assumptions and pushed the series forward in awesome new directions….Combined with the host of subtle and overt improvements to the array of other systems, the additions to make it more appealing to Esports, and the more fleshed out Zombies mode, this is not just a fantastic Call of Duty game, but one of the best shooters of the last decade,” IGN.
I am usually the first to criticize IGN as being a hype-generator, but this time I totally agree. :love:
 

Scott Tortorice

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The whole picture is here...for the first day at retail, anyway: :)

http://www.gamesquad.com/news/black-ops-ii-sets-new-retail-record

Activision Publishing today announced that for the fourth consecutive year, the Call of Duty franchise has delivered the biggest entertainment launch of the year. The highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops II has achieved an estimated sell-through of more than $500 million worldwide in the first 24 hours of its release, according to Chart-Track, retail customer sell-through information and internal company estimates.
I love proving the "industry experts" wrong. Come to think of it, the "industry experts" have been wrong more than they have been right. First they declared gaming to be "recession proof", and then they said COD was "played out". :rolleyes:

BTW: $500 million in 24 hours...has anyone seen this mentioned on any of the cable business networks? Isn't it amazing how the old media like to pretend the new media doesn't exist at all? :nuts:
 

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So....

the game any good?

Anyone tried it?

See my post #15 in this thread. :) I hope to have some more thoughts posted soon.

Quickie: I am loving the campaign so far! The efforts of David S. Goyer (co-writer of The Dark Knight Rises), Trent Reznor (The Social Network), and P. W. Singer (author of Wired for War) are noticeable. I think this BlOps 2 campaign is the first one to really feel like it has a story, rather than a pretext for some action sequences.

Here's a snippet of me playing some MP last night (and foolin' around with the movie maker):

[video=youtube_share;tdWPjPQsr3U]http://youtu.be/tdWPjPQsr3U[/video]
 
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