If you’re interested in trying Black Ops 2, then it’s your lucky… weekend! The multiplayer modes of the game will be free this weekend, and there will be double XP for anybody who plays.

To celebrate giving things away for free, Activision are putting the game up for cheap — it’s now 33% off, down to $60 on Steam.

Of course if you really want to save money, it’s only around $45 at most CD key retailers because, hey, the Australia Tax. Anyway, get in!

For a long time I thought tall poppy syndrome was a uniquely Australian construct, or that we at least suffered from it to a far greater degree than other nation or culture. We are, after all, the only human cattle on earth raised from penal colony stock: if one prisoner were to escape, the rest would be beaten. So the fear of those looking to liberate themselves, shall we say, from the safe average might be hardwired into our ‘Straya.

Nowadays we aren’t getting around the yard in balls and chains, so it translates to: Rampant success = You’ll keep, mate. Maybe we’re more globally influential than we thought. Shame it’s not in terms of Vegemite or servo stick-ups with bananas.

A panicked editor from a reputable gaming publication came to me yesterday and said, “Toby. You like Call of Duty, right? I need someone to write an article on Black Ops II.” At this I could only fondly reminisce over a billion hours spent toasting nooblets on Black Ops, after which I cut my CoD cord and haven’t reattached it since. I was just over it and felt, “Self, if you wanna pen missives complaining about the unenviable status quo as purveyed by this clone machine business model, you can’t be a part of it.”

So I stopped literally putting my money where my convictions were. I have no idea what CoD is doing right now, and I don’t care. Neither did this editor. Neither did the multitude of staff members he’d asked to write this thing before he turned to more mercenary options like myself. Who is actually playing Call of Duty?

Evidently, lots and lots of people. I’d reference some statistic about how much this thing still sells but the zeroes stretch off very far into the horizon and it hurts your eyes to look at it. Lots and lots of people, but seemingly very few within the industry (and its close followers) itself, where it draws incredible ire for continuing to exist and, I guess, prosper, against the hopes and dreams of these men and women.

It has become somewhat the Nickelback of video games, sometimes hated for reasons as baseless as every game of Domination I have ever played. Frequently it’s derided because it’s there, because it’s always there, and because it keeps guaranteeing it’ll be there again soon regardless of what it actually is. It’s at the point where it doesn’t even have to try anymore. I remember looking at the back of a box for Black Ops II and it just had about three images with three dot-point exclamations, only one of which came from a publication: “A Must Have!” Then, attributed to nobody at all, “The Best-Selling Xbox 360 Franchise of All-Time Returns!” and “The Biggest Game of 2012!”

It’s created an interesting and cyclical schism: Those who must write about it might abhor it but must do so because a large percentage of those who read what they write are assumed to love it. If a game is so incredibly popular on paper but has a notable dearth of actual correspondents the least bit interested in investigating it, it is now Nickelback. Or Justin Bieber.

CoD is pop music, I realised. It will keep selling records because it’s more or less social currency on the playground by now and it doesn’t matter what gets said, by itself or other selves. If it was an artist on Twitter it’d have millions of fans illiterately defending its honour, and would exclaim upon a visit to the house of Anne Frank, “Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have played Call of Duty.”

“Maybe,” I hoped after the editor had left, punching walls, “We can just follow CoD around now and write about all the things it does and says in its public and private life and this will suffice as coverage.” It really only had one song anyway. Plenty of people still digging this one song; enough so that it could just put its face on a lunchbox? Cheque please.

It’s really hard to feel calm and collected with regards to the Great Platform Wars when exclusives rear their heads, but the wait is almost over. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2′s Uprising DLC pack finally hits PC on May 16 – probably more likely to be May 17 for those of us living here in the future (Australia and New Zealand).

Uprising adds a whole new game mode, the zombie-heavy Mob of the Dead, and four new maps – Magma, Encore, Vertigo, and Studio. We don’t have local pricing yet, internationally they’ll be paying USD$14.99. It’s been out on Xbox 360 since mid-April.

If you don’t have a season pass and are wavering, check out this trailer for the Alkatraz map in mob of the Dead – or of that sort of thing aways you, a live-action advertisement showing “Replacers” covering your shift while you put time into the new content.

Activision’s upcoming Mob of the Dead scenario for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2‘s zombie mode is turning into kind of a big deal. With Chazz Palminteri, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Madsen, and Ray Liotta popping in to star as four mobsters who find themselves trapped in Alcatraz after a zombie breakout, there’s some impressive star power behind it as well.

Check out the trailer below — Mob of the Dead comes in the Uprising pack, which is coming to Xbox on April 16 but has no PC date just yet.

Activision have just sent through the below trailer, showing off their next map pack for Black Ops 2. Going by the name of Uprising, this pack includes four new multiplayer maps by the name of Magma, Encore, Vertigo, and Studio. There’s also a new Zombies adventure, Mob of the Dead, set in an Alcatraz. Delightful! Or horrific. Or both? In any case, the below video demonstrates these maps in action, as well as The Replacers, who will take your place so you can go play them without having to worry about your regular life.

The map pack is due on April 16 on XBox LIVE, and will follow on to PC after the exclusivity period ends (date TBA).

Source: Press Release

The Activision-blog One of Swords has revealed that the personalisation packs, currently only available to Xbox 360 owners, will be coming to PC and PS3 on April 12.

Soon you, too, will be able to cover your gun in decals such as graffiti, kawaii, dia de meurtos, and of course — because this is the internet, after all — bacon.

Also revealed is the fact that the Nuketown 2025 map will be a free download for everyone — so if you missed out on grabbing it free with the launch of the game, it’ll be yours next month. It’s set to be added into the standard multiplayer map rotation “eventually”.

It’s just a small thing, but when you see a ping bar for a server instead of just a flat-out ping number, doesn’t it make you narrow your eyes a little, maybe clench your teeth? No? Just me then. Anyway, that and many other issues are now addressed in the latest PC patch for Black Ops 2, delivered late on Friday evening.

A further patch was also released on Wednesday, which resolves dozens and dozens of issues with multiplayer bugs, challenge tracking, and players and care packages flying unusually high into the air for no reason.

Check out the full patch notes for both below.

February 22, 2013 Update for Multiplayer

• Improvements to the Matchmaking System.
• Replaced ping bars with ping numbers.
• Players can set maximum ping in the matchmaking search preferences.

February 20, 2013 Update for Multiplayer and Zombies

• Feature Improvements
  • Party Members now appear on the mini map as purple when colorblind assist is turned on.
  • Added hint text tool tips for map voter buttons.

• Multiplayer Issues Addressed
  • Fixed an issue where players could lose functionality and have a blurry screen after viewing a Gamer Card during the round-ending killcam at the end of the first round of a round-based game.
  • Addressed an issue where the player’s EMP grenade blast would cancel out the effects of an enemy’s EMP.
  • Players will no longer fly into the air when knife lunging other players on certain types of inclines.
  • Fixed an issue with the Skulls Camo Challenge for the RPG unlocking by using other weapons in conjunction with the RPG.
  • Addressed an issue with taking control of an AGR while next to a friendly player causing loss of functionality for firing rockets.
  • Resolved an issue where spectating would default to 3rd person even though it had been disabled if the player was previously spectating in 3rd person.
  • Resolved an issue with dog spawns in Slums.
  • Addressed an issue where players could not link their Twitch account in the Multiplayer Party Lobby Options menu.
  • Fixed an issue where the player may not die by the train running over them in Express.
  • Players can no longer set their Clan Tag in non-Public Match lobbies if they haven’t reached the unlock level for the Clan Tag feature.
  • Players with Level 1 profiles will now see their XP bonus in the After Action Report after a League Play match.
  • Resolved an issue where the damage feedback sound was not occurring for the Combat Axe or cluster bomb from the Hellstorm Missile.
  • Addressed an issue where the UAV Scorestreak was not being called in for Multi-Team Hardcore matches.
  • Addressed an issue where the mini map for tablet Scorestreaks would not appear on the tablet under certain round transition conditions.
  • Resolved an issue with care packages bouncing unusually high.
  • Addressed an issue where players with the Riot Shield could survive dog attacks while prone with the Riot Shield on their back.
  • Rapidly pressing the Swap Weapons button no longer inverts the player model’s left hand with the M8A1 equipped.
  • Resolved an issue where the lobby score for the winner of a Gun Game match didn’t match the ending score of the match.
  • Players can now earn the Thief Challenge if they use Black Hat to steal an enemy care package.
  • Resolved an issue where the Equipment statistics for the Smoke Grenade were not accurately reflecting in the Combat Record what was achieved in game.
  • Addressed an issue with the wrong map appearing in theater lobbies.
  • Fixed the team filter in highlight reels for FFA games.
  • Fixed issues with the clicking on multiple items while in the Combat Record.
  • Addressed issue with not being able to use select fire when having select fire on the same weapon in another class.
  • Fixed an issue with the scroll bar in the Calling Cards Menu.

• Gameplay Balancing
  • Adjusted the red flash damage indicator when using the Toughness Perk.
  • Reduced Guardian damage in Hardcore modes.

• Zombies Issues Addressed
  • Disappearing fog addressed in Theater Mode when flying through the laboratory in Tranzit.
  • Players will no longer be given momentary control of a character before being put into spectator mode when Hot Joining a Custom Game on Nuketown.
  • Player names will now appear above players when in spectate mode upon hot joining a custom Grief game mode.
  • Addressed several locations where players can survive a landing in unplayable space.
  • Resolved several instances where players could avoid Zombie attacks by hiding in objects around Tranzit
  • Addressed an issue with taking screenshots in Theater mode
  • Addressed issues with the Buildables system
  • Addressed issues where players would say the wrong dialogue

Source: Call of Duty

Three months after the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Activision and Treyarch have finally revealed when PC users can expect to see the first wave of paid DLC. Dubbed Revolution, the new content will be available to purchase from Thursday 28th February, about a month after it landed on Xbox 360.

The download will feature four fresh multiplayer maps and (in a first for the series) a new weapon. According to the developer, the Peacekeeper blends “the mobility of a SMG with the range of an Assault Rifle”. The pack will also include a new zombie map, as well as a mode in which the player takes on the role of a shambling ghoul.

Revolution is the first of four planned DLC instalments.

Source: Call of Duty

The next DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has just been formally announced, after being leaked last week. It’s definitely called ‘Revolution’ and it’s set to bring in some sweet new stuff, including four new multiplayer maps, a co-op zombies map, a new weapon and a brand new game mode for Zombies, in which you can finally be a zombie.

The four new multiplayer maps include all new challenges, such as the Hydro map, which will occasionally flood certain areas with water and conveniently wash your corpse clean off the killing floor, and Grind, which is set in a skatepark in California and is comprised entirely of skate ramps and half-pipes, meaning all the surfaces are curved. Exciting.

All this information and more, including details on the new weapon, the Peacekeeper, is available in the trailer below. Check it out and tell us what you think. Revolution is coming exclusively to XBox 360 to begin with, on January 29, and then to other platforms later.

A keen-eyed Redditor has spotted a poster for Black Ops II DLC by the name of ‘Revolution’. Apparently slated for January 29th — at least on XBox 360, there’s no word about other platforms — the DLC will include the stock-standard bunch-of-maps, as well as a gun.

Included in ‘Revolution’ will be four new multiplayer maps: Hydro, Grind, Downhill (what looks to be a snow map) and Mirage (apparently desert-themed). Also included is a new zombie map by the name of Die Rise, as well as a new Peacekeeper SMG.

If the 29th is the official release date, we should hear something from Activision soon — we’ll keep you informed.

Source: Reddit via PC Gamer

A patch has gone live for the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and it’s a big one. Improvements include load-time decreases for users on AMD hardware, issues with 16:10 displays, and issues with TXAA.

Multiplayer changes include collision and clipping fixes on all maps, exploit fixes in Meltdown, as well as general matchmaking improvements. There’s also a huge list of balance changes, with the UAV and Lightning Strike scorestreaks slightly nerfed. SMGs have increased hip recoil across the board, as well as increased fire spread and reduced bullet penetration, which might hopefully act to stem complaints of SMGs dominating engagements.

Check out the huge list in full below.

• Global Changes:
  • Improved loadtimes when using AMD hardware
  • Fix for issues when binding mousewheel to fire
  • Using arrow keys to adjust Mouse sensitivity will increment the value by .01
  • Fix for some instances of “Error quit was not requested in the main thread”
  • Fix for issues with 16:10 displays
  • Fix for TXAA not disabling when an unsupported card is detected
  • Improvements to ambient occlusion
  • Increased Friends list limit to 300
  • Joinable friends now sort to the top of the friends list
  • Users now have the ability to unlink youtube accounts.
  • Added SFX to sliders in options menu
  • Fix for knife lunge not working when a gamepad is connected
  • Improved film rendering stability and made progression bar more accurate while rendering a film.
  • Improved audio/rumble responsiveness when hitting enemies with gunfire.
  • Fix for issues with changing the gamepad Button Layout in theater
  • Fix for Party host receiving infinite “Reconnecting to Party” message when clicking on “Bring Party” in a post-match lobby.

• Campaign Changes:
  • Fix for crash that could occur during credits
  • Fix for freeze when unlocking Death From Above achievement

• Multiplayer Changes:
  • Matchmaking improvements
  • Added Hardcore Kill Confirmed playlist to the Hardcore category
  • Game now resets the Care Package for a non-owner if the owner re-rolls the package using the Engineer perk.
  • Fix for incorrectly being able to purchase an 11th Create a Class slot
  • Collision and clipping fixes on all maps
  • Fixed a number of new UI error messages reported by users.
  • Improved CoDTV sort filters for browsing content
  • Players can now render films in addition to clips
  • Removed incorrect SFX for placing from party games
  • Fixes for issues with codtv images not loading in
  • Bots no longer count towards the party size limit in Custom Games
  • Added the ability to “View League Teams” from any player’s Playercard.
  • Added the ability to “View Playercard” from League solo leaderboards.
  • Map exploit fixes in Meltdown
  • Fixes for errors on Express when the train arrives
  • “Drop Shot” medal is no longer awarded after standing back up.
  • Fix for escort drone cuing incorrect audio
  • Added voice chat volume controls
  • CoDTV video playback improvemnts
  • Fixes for out of sync audio issues in rendered videos
  • Fixes for rendered clips showing the wrong length on youtube
  • Fixes with “Hacked” items not targeting the correct team
  • Shadows seen through sniper scopes now render more correctly.
  • Fix for Hijacked minimap displaying incorrectly
  • Fix for some equipment not being destructible by Friendly Fire in Hardcore mode
  • Fix for final killcams not displaying properly if it is an “Assisted Suicide” kill.
  • Fix for Bomb Defuser Challenge not progressing properly
  • Fix for Hero Medal not appearing in game at the correct time.
  • Fix for XP bar in League Play not displaying correctly
  • Fix for teams being kicked from league play when matched against a previously played team
  • Fix for crash when getting disconnected while viewing the like/dislike menu of a screenshot
  • Fix for partial loss of functionality when theater is started while a party member is in emblem editor
  • Fix for Arch Nemesis challenge unlocking incorrectly
  • Addressed issues which prevented some master challenges from being completed.
  • Fix for friends list showing the wrong rank icon for players
  • Fix for Escort Drones spawning under the map
  • Added a fail-safe to prevent spawn trapping in CTF.
  • Fix for floating corpse models on some maps
  • Players can now copy a custom class to the extra prestige slot.
  • Improved overall communication of Double XP when enabled.
  • AAR better communicates how much XP was earned in each match.
  • Fix for issues with having Assault Shield and no secondary weapon
  • Thermal vision overlay no longer appears using the VTOL glitch.
  • Fix for players not being able to capture their own Care Packages when using the Black Hat PDA in FFA
  • Fix for Camera Marker slide bar not functioning correctly
  • EMP grenades no longer affect the CODcaster HUD.
  • Fix for SFX that plays when player gets in the top 3 in FFA
  • Increased sight checks on turrets to improve spawning algorithms.
  • Multi-team games no longer count as a tie if an entire team quits.
  • Players with Black Hat PDA can no longer hack a Care Package faster than the owner can capture it.
  • Addressed a number of issues that would cause friendly/enemy color indicators on equipment and scorestreaks to display as the wrong team.
  • Precision challenge “Wet Work” will now unlock with 10 kills.
  • The wins challenge will now account for all FFA modes when ending a match with a tie (if you are in the top 3).
  • Players that help with the “Synchronized Attack” challenge now get credit for it.
  • Players will not be able to manually take control of their AGR if they die at the exact moment that their AGR deploys.
  • Players using Ghost will no longer be invisible at all times in Custom Games with the mini-map option set to “constant”.
  • Players using Ghost and a Suppressor attachment will no longer appear on the enemy’s minimap while shooting and moving while a UAV is up.
  • The median for the K/D graph in the AAR is set to 1.0 instead of 0.0.
  • Players can no longer get on top of the shrubs in Nuketown 2025.
  • Kills from the explosion on the explosive crossbow bolt now count towards challenges.
  • Clan tag is no longer locked immediately after prestige.
  • Fixed an area in Express where K9 Unit dogs could get stuck.
  • Party Privacy count no longer affects how many bots will spawn in Combat Training.
  • Players can no longer stand on invisible collision in Carrier.

MP Gameplay Balancing:

The following is a list of numerous gameplay balancing tweaks that were made after thorough review of statistical data from player usage of weapons, equipment, perks and scorestreaks since launch.

• Scorestreaks:
  • UAV: cost increased from 350 to 425.
  • Lightning Strike: added 750ms delay

• Equipment/Grenades:
  • Bouncing Betty: increased the grace period between trigger and activation by 200ms.
  • Sensor Grenade: increased the range (now 1000 units), frequency (now 800ms between pings), and amount of time (now 6s) that players appear after explosion.
  • Concussion Grenade: decreased movement penalty and turn speed penalty when hit.

• SMGs:
  • All: increased hip fire recoil.
  • All: increased max hip fire spread from 4.75 to 5.
  • All: reduced bullet penetration.
  • MSMC: increased recoil slightly.
  • PDW-57: increased recoil slightly.

• Assault Rifles:
  • All: reduced idle sway for more reliable long-range aiming.
  • M8A1: reduced lethal range of 3-hit kills from 250 to 50 inches.
  • M8A1 + Select Fire: increased recoil.
  • FAL OSW + Select Fire: increased recoil.
  • SWAT-556 + Select Fire: increased recoil.

• Sniper Rifles:
  • All: increased hip fire spread.
  • All + Laser Sight: increased hip fire spread.
  • XPR-50: increased recoil slightly.

• Shotguns:
  • R870: reduced one-hit kill range by 45 inches.

• Pistols:
  • B23R: reduced headshot multiplier from 1.4 to 1.
  • KAP-40: reduced headshot multiplier from 1.4 to 1

• Zombies Changes:
  • Fix for Reviving text remains on screen during scoreboard after game ends
  • Fix for Mystery Box beacon disappearing after host migration
  • Fixes for players getting inside of or clipping into objects in all ZM maps
  • Improved zombie AI pathing in all maps
  • Fixes for players falling outside of the map for all maps
  • Players will now take damage while holding buildable parts
  • Fixes for issues obtaining the Jet Gun
  • Removed debug text that sometimes appears after host migration
  • “You Have No Power Over Me” achievement is now awarded at the correct time
  • Fix for infinite loading screen when uploading short clips
  • Fix for errors that may occur when viewing long clips
  • Fixes for Green flashes appearing when exiting Nuketown Zombies
  • Dead players can now text chat with living players
  • Added voice chat volume controls
  • Fix for players having unbreakable zombie shield
  • Fix for issues with multiple players buying the same door
  • Fix for incorrect character audio while holding breath with sniper scopes
  • Fix for rare issue with players getting stuck in custom game lobby
  • Fix for players getting permanent perks
  • Fix for persistent upgrades never going away.
  • Fix for players not dying when falling from extreme distances after purchasing juggernog in survival modes

Source: Activision Community

Activision have announced the release of the Nuketown map for use in the Zombies mode of the annual triggerfest that is this year’s Call of Duty. The map sees you visiting beautiful Nuketown which is — stop me if you’ve heard this one before — overrun by the undead. Anyway, take a look at the trailer! Which is here.

Nuketown is only available to holders of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Season Pass, which costs a hefty $70 (and that’s at $10 off). The Season Pass grants access to Nuketown as well as “four epic DLC map packs”.

What’s zombie mode all about? Take a look in our review.

Gamesutra is reporting that Black Ops 2, the latest in Activision’s flagship franchise, is selling 14% worse than its predecessor Modern Warfare 3. In its first 15 days on sale Modern Warfare 3 pulled in 8.8 million units, while Black Ops 2 has only managed to nab 7.4 million in the same period.

The figures comprise of 4.5 million units on the Xbox 360 and 2.9 million on the PlayStation 3, but there’s no mention of PC sales, nor of those on the Nintendo Wii or the Vita versions of the game.

“We do not believe that Activision did itself any favours by putting out a press release touting that Black Ops II had crossed $1bn in just 15 days, faster than the 16 days required for Modern Warfare 3 to reach the $1bn mark,” claimed Longbow Research’s James Hardiman in a statement to MCV.

“What management did not mention is the fact that with an earlier release date, Modern Warfare 3 was able to reach $1bn a day before Thanksgiving, whereas Black Ops II was not able to get there until after Cyber Monday.”

Source: Gamasutra

It was both disappointing and amusing when, after finally receiving my copy of Black Ops 2 in the post, I started going over the feature list and began wondering what kind of competitive life it would have.

The original Black Ops was heavily anticipated around the world, in part thanks to the massive backlash against Modern Warfare 2 and the lack of dedicated servers, a console and other simple features (like not being matched up with gamers in the United States).

People were hoping that it would have been a return to old, something that might finally unify and supplant the original Modern Warfare. I am, of course, talking about the state of things on PC. The console community has grown into a beast of its own, although their hand is often forced. They don’t have the luxury of remaking maps from other games, adding new textures or rewriting balance with mods.

But the difference between the needs of the developer and that of a vibrant competitive scene are often at odds. The latter requires continuity and time: a commodity that many studios can ill afford or tolerate.

Free-to-play business models are starting to change that equation, but even then the environment is tightly controlled and too reliant on their owners’ graciousness.

This was the great disappointment of Black Ops. Treyarch threw enough ingredients into the pot for a truly delicious recipe, but left it sitting for far too long, with full mod support only eventuating a year after release.

To fully understand the effects of this, you need to go back and look at the differences between the second and third Modern Warfare games. Despite the myriad of problems with the consolification of what began as a PC franchise, the game was still perfectly functional as a competitive game.

But what made it work was the fact that you had enough variety across the different maps and modes that it wasn’t a big deal if one or two levels didn’t work. It wasn’t game-breaking if there was a gun or an item that didn’t quite fit; you could easily regulate around that.

My major problem with MW3 was that the entire experience was homogenised to a series of close to medium-range battles, excluding some of the more expansive maps that you’d traditionally see in, well, any shooter.

Size doesn’t mean you can’t make an amazingly memorable map. To this day, I still think Backlot is one of the most well designed levels in any FPS ever made. It’s small and has all those pokey fights but enough variety in the angles to allow for snipers and long-range players to make space for themselves.

Larger maps force you to play differently, and that’s why developers usually offer a mixed bag so that everyone gets something to their taste. Compare Afghan with Terminal from Modern Warfare 2. Or de_nuke with de_train from Counter-Strike (de_cbble being an even more apt comparison).

When everything is shrunk down, so is the distance from one spawn location to another — even more so when playing modes that routinely rotate spawns, like Domination. Now this naturally brings the fight to your doorstep a lot sooner, something Activision is obviously targeting because it appeals to the twitch-frenzied teenagers that make up the Call of Duty market.

But it’s downright awful from a competitive aspect — because it limits the amount of downtime between each actual firefight, which in turn hamstrings the time either side has to strategise.

Downtime is important, for several reasons

Part of the fun of a scrim (or a war or a prac; scrim being more common in North America, while the latter was more local terminology) was adapting to the situation as a team, working through your opponents and playing out the rest of the match in your head while you waited to respawn.

If you’re playing something like Capture the Flag or Domination, there’s less time and complication mid-game. It doesn’t also play out quite as excitingly for the spectators, save for those rare moments at the end where a flag’s about to be capped on the last second.

Most matches are decided well before the last thirty seconds though, especially in the case of Domination where the end is often like reading the last rites before putting the wounded out of his misery. Search and Destroy is more volatile, depending on the score, although the suspense builds up much more slowly and therefore lasts much longer when a comeback is on the cards.

It creates stories. It makes stories that are unfolding that much better. It gives team leaders a chance to second-guess themselves and a chance for the underlings to bite back and fight. And if you’re sitting at home or spectating live at the venue, you get to watch this all unfold in a myriad of consequences, missed shots, bizarre movements and various nervy responses.

Why would you want to compress all of this action out of the game?

The simple reason is that Black Ops 2 and MW3 before it are symptomatic of a philosophy that is completely adrenaline-focused, one that finds any lull in the action not related to the deployment of some overpowered helicopter or death robot to be coma-inducing and antiquated.

Instead of being a well-rounded tale of battle — and an engaging, entertaining match should unfold like a story, with teams pulling each other forth and back and big individual plays settling the score — what we’re left with is more like a Michael Bay movie, a never-ending collection of explosions, headshots and gunfire.

If you’re happy to load up a game in a public server and play for an hour or two until you’re exhausted — which is literally the case for a lot of people, so much so that it has turned people off the franchise altogether — then that’s fine.

But I want my stories back. I want my developing narrative that ebbs and flows throughout the course of my game. I want the time to sit back and ponder how the next three or four rounds will play out. I want to picture my enemy’s response, read it completely and have ten or twenty seconds the next round to enjoy the moment. Because that’s what really keeps eSports going: the memories and the stories you tell with your friends that make every game different and that make it not only worth playing, but worth watching.

Right now, it’s more like two seconds. And that’s not enough.

Black Ops 2 caught a lot of flak from PC gamers when it was revealed that the game’s FOV would be limited to 80, but the promised post-release patch to increase that to 90 has now arrived. There’s also been some attention paid to horses who like to fall through worlds, crashes, and improved matchmaking. Check out the list below:

• Max FOV increased to 90
• Fix: Horse falling through the world in Afghanistan when playing on some CPUs with 4 or more cores
• Fix: RC-XD and the AGR sinking into the map in MP when playing on some CPUs with 4 or more cores
• General performance improvements in SP, MP, and ZM for CPUs with 4 or more cores
• Fix: crash when a 7th player tries to join a 6 player league lobby
• Improved dedicated server matchmaking
• Fix: some cases of “Connection Interrupted” in MP while loading into a match

Source: Call of Duty Community

“Of course you’re pwning! [Your favourite gun here] is so OP! Use a real gun, why doncha, then we’ll see who’s really Teh Best!111″

Sound familiar? Of course it does. Since competitive multiplayer was born, its first shrill cries of life were drowned out by angry players shrieking “Overpowered!”.

Balance in games is a legitimate concern, but is the gun overpowered, or are you actually just pretty good at using it? Nowadays in Black Ops 2, Treyarch have a new system in place, called Black Box, that analyses player data to see what’s really happening, without all that visceral, reactive emotion getting in the way. “There’s a lot of instrumentation in this game, there’s a lot of data logging, so I know exactly what the power band of a weapon is at all times. So I can combine how something feels with how it’s actually behaving. I know, I know this is going to happen: A million people are going to Tweet me and tell me that the [for example] ‘PDW 57 is overpowered, Vonderhaar what are you doing?’” design director David Vonderhaar said.

“What I’ll do is I can go and look at the math and I’ll go ‘Actually, you know what dude? You’re just good with it. Have fun, because the math says that it’s not overpowered.’ I have the averages, you’re being successful. That means Pick 10 is working, and if it’s overpowered I’ll know it for real. Like not because someone said it was, or because I felt it was, or because you sent me an angry Tweet because you got killed by the SRM Shotgun one night 17 times so you’re mad. The data will tell me the truth.”

I am sort of a data nerd, so I think this sounds amazing. But more than anything, it will end that age old question: Are you winning because your weapon is OP, or are you just really good?

Source: Destructoid

In a staggering display of consumerism, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has made more than half a billion dollars in its first 24 hours of sale, delivering the biggest entertainment launch of the year, for the fourth consecutive year. Millions stayed up late to attend over 16,000 midnight launches and the game was a top trending topic on Twitter in 23 cities.

“Call of Duty has become more than a product people buy, it’s a brand people buy into.  And every November we do more than just the launch of a game, we kick off an annual, unofficial but worldwide phenomenon called the Call of Duty season,” CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg claimed, happily.

“I want to thank our incredible team at Treyarch for making an amazing game, everyone at Activision for making this brand a force of nature and our retail partners for their unprecedented support of this franchise. But most importantly I want to thank our millions of fans for their continued support and loyalty and for making us better every day.”

Source: Activision Press Release

By that we don’t mean actual war, although… that’s pretty much what Black Ops 2 already is, I guess. What we mean is a mode similar to the “War” game mode that you saw in Call of Duty: World at War.

“No plans to bring back War at this time,” said Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar on Reddit. “Never say never,” he continued. “Here is a hint. We have a very War-like mode, that isn’t exactly War, that I would love to tell you about, but I can’t because… dragged away by PR.”

“We have some [of] our own new gamemodes we are eager to try out,” he said later, but refused to be drawn on what they would be.

Meanwhile, we were able to sit down for a chat with Vonderhaar recently to discuss the massive changes Treyarch have made to Black Ops 2′s multiplayer. Check it out.

Source: PCGamesN

Playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2? Want up to 26% more frames per second? Of course you do. Get yourself to the NVIDIA website, where the company are promising exactly the above with their new 310.54 beta drivers.

But that’s not all! “Today’s driver also adds a new and improved version of TXAA anti-aliasing to Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Assassin’s Creed III,” writes NVIDIA, “allowing GTX 600 Series users to maximize image quality and eliminate unsightly temporal aliasing in two of the year’s most popular games.”

“Furthermore, there’s a handy new Sparse Grid Supersampling feature for all GeForce GTX users that improves image quality when using the advanced anti-aliasing technique, and for SLI users there are new Hawken, Hitman: Absolution, Natural Selection 2 and Primal Carnage profiles.”

Meanwhile, Treyarch’s @pcdev has tweeted that “Kick problems should be resolved.” Good news!

Source: PC Gamer

I recently had the pleasure to sit down at an exceptionally long conference table next to David Vonderhaar, Director of Gameplay Design at Treyarch. We spoke about the multiplayer changes in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, how he manages to keep players happy with balancing and if there’s any chance we’ll be able to play a proper LAN game.

GON: What was your design ethos when you put together the overarching concept for multiplayer?

David: Strip down everything we know, pull it down to its bare bones and challenge the assumptions about what it is that has to be in the game, why things work the way the work. Without a doubt, the entirety of the project we have been saying — just to pick a particular game play system — ”Is this the absolute best way we can make the Prestige system work?”.

Sometimes the answer is yes, that’s still the best way, and sometimes it was not, so we needed to go back and revisit and rethink that stuff. We just didn’t want to take for granted anything specifically, but really challenge the idea of how these systems intertwine and make sure we put something together that, you know, works really well as a cohesive unit.

GON: So, did you take on player feedback from BLOPS 1? As in, complaints that people may have had from the original mechanics and incorporate that into the new system?

David: You’re always taking player feedback. You’re taking feedback from everywhere, all the time. In fact, it can actually drive you crazy sometimes. (laughs) But it comes with the job, so yeah, I can point to numerous, very specific adjustments that have been made in this game as a result of player feedback, and we are pretty wired in as to what our community of players has to say.

You have to do this really smartly, you have to really listen to what they have to say. There are people telling you what they want to see happen, but not what’s actually wrong, so you have to translate and infer critically about “what is actually the problem here”, so you can have the best solution, rather than just “a” solution.

GON: Can you give me an example?

David: A lot of the UI systems, a lot of the UX as we call it, the user experience of interacting and how they feel. That’s one very simple example that you can see modelled a lot, everything now (in BLOPS2) is a very visual browsing experience, it’s all very accessible with nice big graphics. It’s a lot more interesting when you have a wide big game and you’re not just presenting it in lists. It’s not intimidating to select a picture then five more pictures, that’s a very interesting way to discover things.

If you have to drill down into a list, its overwhelming. But in general, we had a lot of feedback that people wanted more from the multiplayer experience, which is why we implemented the COD TV feature, where all the socialisation of community-created content lives. We needed it to be accessible and easily found by all users and I think that feedback went a long way to accomplishing this.

GON: Following that up, how did you address balance with the new weapons and equipment? The new 10 point system is a very aggressive change.

David: Aggressively awesome maybe? (laughs)

GON: Haha, well, its definitely a fundamental change to multiplayer.

David: It’s actually a very important change. The answer is that the amount of instrumentation we have done in the game — so literally the amount of logging we have done about how people are performing has been a hugely significant investment for us. Internally, it’s called “Black Boxing” (no pun intended), and “Black Box” is really just a term to cover the machines that collate and process the data. So I can tell you how it (a weapon) is fitting in its power band, as in, how it’s over or under performing, and then we take that information and merge it with player experience.

Whether it feels good, or not good enough, you take those two and you say “Is there a problem here, what does the math tell you?”. The ultimate answer is not the math or the emotion, its somewhere in the middle. So I am stoked about the tuning in this game, it’s incredible. I get lists of information all the time, about the previous days sessions and how things have been chasing or tracking. What’s cool is that I can make the slightest adjustment, literally, like milliseconds of time are shaved or added, and it makes a huge impact.

You can model those changes over time with previous data, so you can predict what will actually happen if you go ahead and make a change. You can compare that to the reality about 10 days later and adjust the model. It’s pretty nerdy, to be honest (laughs), but its super important to balance the create a class system.

GON: It sounds like an unimaginable amount of data to process.

David: Well, look, it’s just data. If you have a proper way to manage it, you can do great things with it.

GON: So, kill streaks are now score streaks and death streaks are gone, again, another big change to the status quo. What made you decide to change the reward system?

David: So, again, like we talked about at the start, it’s about developing the best way to reward players for doing what we want them to. Now, the thing is, just staying alive and killing people doesn’t mean you are doing what you need to do to win the game mode. You’re just a Slayer. Slayers are important parts of the game, those who can go out and dominate.

But there are entire game modes for Slayers, like team Deathmatch and Free For All. That’s the objective of those games. The objective of capture the flag is capture the flag, not kill 25000 people without dying. So we needed a “currency”, for lack of a better word, to reward the correct person, and score was the best option.

I can give you score for a kill, score for grabbing a flag, I can give you score for defending your team who is capturing the flag. So I can reward the desirable gameplay behaviour  and kills are the baseline, but I can reward those who exceed the baseline and complete objectives.

We changed this because we want to change how people think about winning the game. So it’s great that you are 72:2, but your team lost. It was an important part of what we wanted to do, and how to change this entrenched mentality that kills are everything.

GON: Do you think the more cooperative style of play will gel well with die-hard fans of the original “lone wolf” formula?

David: So here’s what I think they’ll do, this is my prediction. If you look at traditional competitive COD, and you extend that to a public arena, with a team of 6v6, it’s important that 3 of those guys are out pushing the front lines, running gunning and slaying. It’s an important part of the game. So those guys, if they are doing their thing, and move slightly to the right and focus on objectives, they are going to be “paid” more for this, rather than just circling the map boundaries for easy kills.

So I think that they can adjust, because it’s not going to be too hard to change from what they are used to. They still get to run out, and they still get to slay, and as long as they are protecting team members’s, their bomb site or capturing Hardpoints, they will still feel rewarded. It’s a slight change that makes all the difference and I can’t see players feeling like it’s a massive leap in their logic. The game still rewards kills, it just rewards objectives more.

GON: So the original Black Ops multiplayer was based on Modern Warfare, and subsequent modern COD titles have evolved from it. So people are used to this style, and Activision presumably prefer this model. Did it restrict you wanted to strip down or complete remove certain elements of the multiplayer?

David: No, I think it actually was a great foundation, and it’s a great franchise to work from. I don’t feel restrained by that stuff. I feel enlightened by it. It’s a great first step that leads to the next step, and eventually you are evolving and refining what people love. Millions of people love. There’s always going to be that guy who loves a previous game and will stick to it.

GON: So you wouldn’t feel worried about removing a game mode or -

David: I did. We took out Sabotage to make room for Hardpoint. There’s never been multi-team, so we put that in because it made sense for this game. It’s an international conflict, it’s the 2025 timeline, it just made sense for that whole “you don’t know who your enemies are” motif. So, I don’t feel constrained, I feel like everything before this one lead to this point.

GON: Can you explain how Black Ops 2 implements league play? Is this the first time a CoD game has implemented leagues in multiplayer, and if so, why now?

David: Well, we didn’t think of it.

GON: (laughs) Well, simple answer then.

David: Well, look, quite honestly the genesis of league play began when Black Ops was being played on the competitive circuit. It was the first time anyone had actually done anything like that with one of our games. Sure, some guy had a ladder but this was BLOPS being played at MLG. So, we sent a couple of (Treyarch) guys down there, and we’re just sitting in the audience watching this happen. So we told ourselves, this is awesome, we need to translate this experience into something everyone can have. We have to give this to everyone.

So it didn’t happen before because that didn’t happen before. We didn’t pretend to know about this stuff (eSports), and its lead to all sorts of interesting developments, like the CODCasting feature. We were watching these people spend thousands of dollars of their own money to livestream matches, so (slaps leg), let’s put this in the game. So, these things, that people were doing, it’s interesting stuff but it’s boxed in. As developers, we can make this accessible.

GON: So you want to develop a MLG style competition of your own? With cash prizes and all that?

David:  I’d love to tell you more about this, but I can’t. Sorry. Classified intelligence. (laughs)

GON: Treyarch has announced that Black Ops 2 servers will not be player-hostable. Is this the case even for LAN games? Can I host a Black Ops 2 game at a LAN party?

David: Well you can run a custom game. You are running a client and a server, the PC guys like to call it a “listen server”. So you can do that, but you can’t run your own server.

GON: Can you tell us why?

David: Honestly? I couldn’t tell you, it’s something our PC team deal with.

GON: Do you have any information on an ETA for PC Elite?

David: I don’t have that information, I’m sorry. I know it’s being worked on but I can’t give you an ETA.

GON: Thanks very much for your time David, I know you’re incredibly busy right now and our readers appreciate your input.

David: My pleasure.

In what is being described as an “error at the disc manufacturer”, a number of PC Black Ops 2 purchases last night opened their cases and went to install the game only to find that their second disc was, in fact, a different game entirely: Mass Effect 2. Players affected by this can still install the game, but they’ll have to do so by entering their serial number into Steam and downloading it that way.

EA and Activision aren’t exactly friends (in fact, some might describe them as rivals) which makes BioWare’s response all the more delightful. “If the universe thinks that you should be playing Mass Effect right now, who are we to argue?” reads their post.

“In fact, we want to help! The first fifty fans affected by this phenomenon to send us a picture holding their special disc 2 will receive a code for a FREE PC copy of Mass Effect Trilogy.” Delightful.

Source: Tweaktown, BioWare (Thanks, James!)

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Whichever way you slice it, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is a massive game. So massive, in fact, that when it came time to review it we had no option but to slice it into three distinct segments: one for single-player, one for multiplayer, and one for the newly expanded zombies mode.

Click on through to read our impressions of each of the modes individually — or if you’re more of a TL;DR person, you can scroll right to the end for our final thoughts. Enjoy.

“The first half felt ham-fisted, as if the team just couldn’t decide if they wanted to take any chances, and instead took the safe route through the same situations we’d all experienced many times before. The game then almost falls over itself to make up for its mistakes, stuffing every exciting set-piece, story fork, and gameplay mechanic into an exhilarating but ultimately very short second act…” [READ MORE]

“The lifeblood of Call of Duty is multiplayer, and Treyarch have pulled out all of the stops here. Fundamentally, this is still effectively the same template for online play that MW introduced all those years ago, but it’s clear that the gutting, reshaping and new additions have been meticulously playtested and revised multiple times to ensure success before they were finalised…” [READ MORE]

“The beauty of Treyarch’s new Zombies mode reflects the gutsy ethics of the team that decided, in this case, that they would not let a single thing be told or explained. After years of being instructed in explicit detail by Call of Duty games on how to accomplish the task ahead, I’m instead plonked into the middle of mortal hell, with a pistol and my sense of avid curiosity…” [READ MORE]

Final Thoughts

Treyarch deserve to be applauded for doing what no other Call of Duty-producing studio has yet been able to do: breaking free from the curse of the original Modern Warfare. Every single change, from the subtle modifications to the loadouts, to the intentionally-confusing nature of any Zombies match, is evidence that this team wanted to prove their critics wrong.

To a significant extent, they have. It’s a testament to the team that the multiplayer and Zombie components of Black Ops 2 are easily the best the series has developed to date.

It’s unfortunate, then, that the much-touted campaign drags to such an extent that it’s painfully clear less resources were dedicated to ensuring a consistent experience. For me, the single-player in Call of Duty has always been a standout, blockbuster ride that I look forward to and enjoy, and in this case I just can’t say I did.

There are too many shortcuts, mistakes and misfires, and that’s just unfortunate when mixed with easily one of the best branching story efforts I’ve ever seen in a first-person shooter. There was definite potential for perfection here as a total product — the holy trinty of shooters, if you will — but the single player component just does not cut the mustard. Overall however, Black Ops 2 still manages to shine, and is undoubtedly the strongest release in the series to date. You should make an effort to experience it for yourself.

Good

• Absolutely stellar multiplayer experience
• Chunky, innovative standalone zombies mode
• Creative and clever effort at a branching storyline

Bad

• Much of the campaign does not hit the mark
• StrikeForce missions have a brutal learning curve
• Lack of dedicated servers for PC

Disclaimer: The game was reviewed on an XBox 360 console at a review event alongside other journalists from Australia and North America in San Diego three weeks before release — this was the only option for pre-launch coverage. Flights to the event, accommodation and food on-site were paid for by Activision.

PC-specific changes will be added in a future addendum article, but we have been assured by the development team that these are minimal.

The worst-kept secret of Black Ops 2 has crawled itself out from under the heavy corpse of “a multiplayer game mode” and into its very own entity. Black Ops 2′s Zombies is now an expansive stand-alone game mode, with both single and multiplayer options. The developers have crafted a very detailed, almost frustratingly creative mode in the form of Tranzit, which can only be described as Left for Dead on a bus, but without the tooltips. You are given almost zero instruction on how to proceed or win, which creates very un-Call of Duty like moments of patience, discussion and experimentation.

To be honest, however, the less said about Zombies the better — but not because it’s bad. In fact, it’s fantastic. The reason for my lack of detail is, frankly, because anything said about the modes, outside of how they work, would spoil the sense of discovery.

However, the new “Grief” mode has to be specifically noted for the very obtuse methods that are required for victory. In this mode, two teams are temporary allies in order for zombie survival, but at the same time must try and obstruct one another in order to ensure the death of the opposite team.  The problem? You can’t harm the other team directly, other than the odd nudge off a balcony or via the use of a particular scavenged item. It’s a marvellously innovative twist on the co-op mechanic, and deserves to be applauded.

The beauty of Treyarch’s new Zombies mode reflects the gutsy ethics of the team that decided, in this case, that they would not let a single thing be told or explained. After years of being instructed in explicit detail by Call of Duty games on how to accomplish the task ahead, I’m instead plonked into the middle of mortal hell, with a pistol and my sense of avid curiosity. The zombies are still charging through repairable barricades, random weapon boxes still entice you and ammo is still very scarce, but the sheer desperation and anxiety of a real (likely) Zombie event is evident in these modes.

I have to admit, I was not a Zombies guy before – but I’m a changed man now.

The single-player of Black Ops 2 may be a mixed bag, but I can say with complete sincerity that the multiplayer portion of the game is, absolutely, the best iteration that the series has produced to date.

Everything, from the UX of pre-match menus, to the abolition of killstreaks and the introduction of new game modes (like the phenomenally fun and frantic ‘Hardpoint’) is dangerously close to Call of Duty perfection. Play is no longer structured around lone-wolf kill hunters, whose incessant quest of racking up a tight KDR was their one-way ticket to victory. Perks are no longer intrinsically linked to weapon performance — instead, a much more sensible set of modification unlocks (based on weapon level) provides a tighter, more balanced experience.

The multiplayer from the original Black Ops is still a phenomenally popular beast and, as a result, the millions of man-hours invested into its play have provided Treyarch with digital reams of data that they have used to tweak — and in some cases rewrite — the playbook after years of the same.

There are two major changes to the structure of multi-player here; the first being the replacement of Kills with Score as the predominant method of rank, and the other being the new 10-point system for loadouts. The former is possibly the most overdue change to the traditional system of play since the introduction of Killstreaks in Modern Warfare, and noticeably changes the dynamic of almost every game mode from the very first game.

Gone are the match-winning certainties of the run and gun, stacking up kills to create that horrible, unbreakable cycle of streak spamming. Now capturing points, assisting with UAVs, and defending a team-mate will be much more valuable methods of topping the board, alongside those  kills that actually provide a benefit to the objective. But fans who want to imitate Chuck Norris in The Expendables 2 haven’t been completely abandoned; dominating the match with kills will still net you a hefty stack of points, while the new ScoreStreaks still feature the same types of map pummelling missiles, drones, bombers and helicopters that you know and love.

The only difference is that this time, those playing as a team are much more likely to net those spoils.It’s a system that lends itself well to both new players and old alike, and forces people to play together if they want to win. In my games (with other reviewers, many of them extraordinarily competitive), I noticed immediately that there was less trash talk than you’d expect for a traditional Call of Duty match. Instead, people barked out enemy movements, suggestions for the next capture point and even tactics in regards to moving as a group or flanking a point.

Even though the environment that we played in was unique, I can’t imagine much would be different out in the wild. I’ll be willing to bet there’ll be more than a few players getting a rude shock after the first match, when they aren’t topping the board based on their KDR.

By the same token, Treyarch’s tweaks to Create-A-Class, namely the much discussed 10 point system, reduce the impact of heavily unbalanced builds and force players to create a number of custom classes rather than a single untouchable super soldier. Under the new restrictions you may only have 10 items in your loadout: this includes Perks, Weapons and Mods, Wildcards, Sidearms and Supplementary equipment.

This rule can’t be broken, or even bent. If a Wildcard provides an allowance for an extra primary weapon, tough luck. The system will throw up a screen that requests you drop something else to accommodate.

It’s an aggressive and very welcome change, even if it can feel a little totalitarian at times. I generally used to play the same custom class for almost every map, exploiting the ability to carry both an assault rifle, shotgun, and the perks to increase damage to both. Now, I can have those two weapons but I can’t outfit both of them to be ridiculous, nor can I stack perks on top of a full set of incredible weapon augmentations. I’m now forced to make tough choices — a common theme in Black Ops 2 — and make mistakes until I’ve found something that fits my particular playstyle.

The near-future elements introduced in Black Ops 2 have allowed for a slew of interesting tactical options, particularly in regards to equipment that stuns or disables your enemy. My favourite has to be the Shock Grenade — a sticky metal tube that plants itself into walls and floors, temporarily shocking and disabling your enemy long enough for a quick headshot. The beauty of this tool is that it’s easily noticed and just as easily disabled… if you are paying attention. Careful movement is rewarded here with a number of other traps, such as pop-up mines, designed to catch players too busy sprinting around the map to take heed of their surroundings.

Treyarch have also made a concerted effort to improve the native support for eSports, by introducing two new systems that are built directly into the multiplayer. The first is a new, fully ranked league system (that bears a lot of similarity to StarCraft 2‘s) where you can either create a team of friends or compete on your own to truly see if you are the best of the best. The second is COD-Casting, where players are provided with the ability to not only stream past or live games directly onto YouTube, but will even be able to add commentary alongside a fully featured suite of tools.

It’s noticeably impressive, and while it’s essentially nothing that hasn’t been provided via 3rd party tools before, the sheer ease of use is revolutionary, especially on a console. I was given a demonstration where a game was streamed across a PC, a Tablet and a Smartphone simultaneously, complete with a live score tally and player stat sheet. Combined with League Play, where two modes are available (one for hardcore players, and one for casuals) Black Ops 2 has put itself squarely in a position that makes it irresistible for commentators.

The lifeblood of Call of Duty is multiplayer, and Treyarch have pulled out all of the stops here. Fundamentally, this is still effectively the same template for online play that MW introduced all those years ago, but it’s clear that the gutting, reshaping and new additions have been meticulously playtested and revised multiple times to ensure success before they were finalised.

It’s slick, its fast, its ferociously addictive, and it might even attract a few new fans — although if there was ever a series which wasn’t struggling to attract a reliable and dedicated player base, it’s Call of Duty. Unfortunately, however, PC players are still going to be stuck using the same matchmaking system as Black Ops, although ping now reigns as the dominant search trigger for matches, rather than the very flaky “region” system used previously.