Call Of Duty: Black Ops II

[masteratt]

Don't want to get into Treyarch vs IW but I do prefer Treyarch so definitely am looking forward to this.




The only stone cold thing we know right now is Tacitus. This 4 motor flying thing with a submachine gun. CoD community is making a big deal out of it and what a powerful killstreak it's going to be, but to me looks around a 6-7 killstreak at best.





Hopefully they tease more than just that in the teaser. I also have to keep in mind I hated the Blops reveals but loved the game, whereas I loved MW3 reveal but hated the game lol. So I guess I gotta wish to hate the reveal on May 1st

[masteratt]

Reveal soon, in the meantime, someone found this directory on the official site (pre-order page) which lets us know what has been very heavy speculated that it is officially Blops2. And that found pre-order page lets you see the box which is very nice:

[D3adcell]

I think i'm all call of dutied out. Unless this one is vastly different with some big improvements etc i can't see myself caring.

[masteratt]

Hating MW3 gave me a nice year break from CoD (with the occasional Blops marathons), so I am excited to see what Treyarch has in store. I am not going to quote them [might be marketing BS] but they did say they are making core changes.

Reveal in roughly 30mins.

[solidsnakejej]

, Fake, possibly disturbing.

[Crazybone126]

The thing I like about Treyarch is that they aren't afraid to actually try something new with the Call of Duty series. Well at least SOMEWHAT new. Okay, new to the Call of Duty franchise, at least. With Infinity Ward, they don't try jack all with the series of which THEY created. Treyarch is just the better developer, in my opinion. They aren't afraid to shake up the formula a bit. For World at War they brought in large, open maps with vehicular combat. They actually had a pretty gripping and different styled story with Black Ops. They brought in all of the community aspects with Black Ops (wager matches, customisation, theatre mode, etc). All they have to do is expand on what they've already done with the first Black Ops, and if you follow some of the devs on Twitter you can tell they're doing just that. Which is rather enthusing.

I'm a total sucker for customisation, so that's primarily what I want them to expand on. How about a 'Create-A-Soldier' option? An even more in depth weapon customisation option? And please, Treyarch, can you make more saves files available for Theatre Mode, please? Make it more like Halo's file sharing feature, because what they had available in Black Ops 1 was totally not acceptable. And obviously, they need to add more modes for Wager Matches.

EDIT: Just saw the trailer went live. All I have to say is wow. Speaking of completely changing the formula! This is QUITE different.

[solidsnakejej]

Future War

[Crazybone126]

I was just about to post the trailer but Justin beat me to it.

[masteratt]

Very cool and up to date subject of story, I really liked it. And man Treyarch finally doing some modern / near futuristic stuff, I can't wait to get my hands on whatever toys they are going to give us.

I gotta say horses were the last things I expected to see in CoD lol.


Great first impressions, can't wait to find out more. It's that time of the year now where we dig for any info on killstreaks, maps, weapons, perks etc etc

[Crazybone126]

This is rather exciting because this is the first direct sequel Treyarch has ever done. Although it IS possible to argue that Black Ops was a direct sequel to World at War in a way. But by title, this is the first direct sequel they've done. You can really see Treyarch starting to branch out and that they actually CAN do something different with the Call of Duty series. They're no longer just "that other CoD developer."

[D3adcell]

The thing I like about Treyarch is that they aren't afraid to actually try something new with the Call of Duty series. Well at least SOMEWHAT new. Okay, new to the Call of Duty franchise, at least. With Infinity Ward, they don't try jack all with the series of which THEY created. Treyarch is just the better developer, in my opinion. They aren't afraid to shake up the formula a bit. For World at War they brought in large, open maps with vehicular combat. They actually had a pretty gripping and different styled story with Black Ops. They brought in all of the community aspects with Black Ops (wager matches, customisation, theatre mode, etc). All they have to do is expand on what they've already done with the first Black Ops, and if you follow some of the devs on Twitter you can tell they're doing just that. Which is rather enthusing.

I'm a total sucker for customisation, so that's primarily what I want them to expand on. How about a 'Create-A-Soldier' option? An even more in depth weapon customisation option? And please, Treyarch, can you make more saves files available for Theatre Mode, please? Make it more like Halo's file sharing feature, because what they had available in Black Ops 1 was totally not acceptable. And obviously, they need to add more modes for Wager Matches.

EDIT: Just saw the trailer went live. All I have to say is wow. Speaking of completely changing the formula! This is QUITE different.

IW was the ones that changed a lot of things up. Go from CoD2 to CoD4. I know MW2 didn't change too much, but by that point they were already pissed off and ready to leave. The IW that produced MW3 was only IW in name. IW doesn't even exist anymore.

Edit: The teaser looks promising.

[masteratt]

True. And only once IW dissembled, then Treyarch had the confidence to mess around with the formula. They were following IW way too closely up until Blops. Now Treyarch became the daddy and IW became...God knows what they are, hopefully a new studio gets on CoD soon because "IW" are a mess. 4-0-2 quit as well recently.

On Black Ops II...We just wait for more stuff now I guess. I am guessing teaser trailer didn't do much for you d3adcell? (nvm just saw your edit)

[D3adcell]

True. And only once IW dissembled, then Treyarch had the confidence to mess around with the formula. They were following IW way too closely up until Blops. Now Treyarch became the daddy and IW became...God knows what they are, hopefully a new studio gets on CoD soon because "IW" are a mess. 4-0-2 quit as well recently.

On Black Ops II...We just wait for more stuff now I guess. I am guessing teaser trailer didn't do much for you d3adcell?

It's interesting. I will want to see more though before buying it. It does seem kind of Terminator or MGS4 though from the story with the machines. I kind of wish they would just say "Ok this isn't CoD it's a completely different game in a different universe" (all the games have a different universe/setting anyhow). Then just go crazy trying new things instead of being tied too much to the CoD standards.

It will be interesting to see if it is actually going to be different though. I mean riding horses, nothing new just a new skin for a jetski. Flying vehicles, we have done that as well. So i'm hoping it's not just a new coat of paint on the exact same formula and gameplay mechanics.

[Crazybone126]

It's interesting. I will want to see more though before buying it. It does seem kind of Terminator or MGS4 though from the story with the machines. I kind of wish they would just say "Ok this isn't CoD it's a completely different game in a different universe" (all the games have a different universe/setting anyhow). Then just go crazy trying new things instead of being tied too much to the CoD standards.

It will be interesting to see if it is actually going to be different though. I mean riding horses, nothing new just a new skin for a jetski. Flying vehicles, we have done that as well. So i'm hoping it's not just a new coat of paint on the exact same formula and gameplay mechanics.

Activision will never allow that part. The name "Call of Duty" currently sells too well.

[masteratt]

CoD standards are not to be shunned though. Weapon, character, perk, skin, attachment, basically customisation in general and 60FPS butter through knife smooth gameplay are pretty much the best industry has to offer still. Which is crazy after ~5 years.

We haven't seen enough to say if those parts are just reskinned old parts really. Not to say if they are or aren't will define if they are good or not, as the chopper flying in blops wasn't that thrilling.

They did have that smart part where you are in the blackbird, playing RTS with your team and then zooming in to play as the team. Granted it didn't make you think tactics, but things like that show Treyarch still has spark left and I am excited to see how it is offered in a world and gameplay environment shown in that teaser.

And I am basically in "gimme gimme gimme" mode as far as any info on MP. Following Blops isn't going to be easy, since it hit the mark for many CoD fans it's the tough choice of "how much do we change it and keep it the same".

[Crazybone126]

Yeah, both the Blackbird mission and the helicopter mission were too 'guided.' Call of Duty has always had that 'on-rails' feeling, and those missions really showed that. That also doesn't help with the enemy spawn system either. How they just continuously pour out of a specific area until you go to point A or do point B. But Call of Duty isn't the only series guilty of that.

Speaking of enemy spawn systems, I've always had this idea. You know how the Big Daddies in Bioshock roam randomly so's that every time you play the game, you have a totally different experience? Sometimes you encounter him lots, other times you don't. I believe Killer Croc, in the sewers mission, was coded to randomly appear like that in Batman: Arkham Asylum as well. Anyway, can you imagine if there were a FPS game that did that but with military platoons instead? Enemy soldiers wouldn't spawn in a set area anymore. They would just be scattered about. That would add a totally new dynamic to the FPS genre. Much more tactical. And that mechanic would also express the spontaneous, eerie, scary, and 'always-on-your-toes' nature of war. That technology is probably quite a ways off, but it'd be quite impressive to play and see.

Because if there's one thing that doesn't exist, it's a 'Survival Horror Military FPS' game or as I choose to simply call it...a "war simulator"...a REALISTIC war simulator...

*opens Kickstarter account*

[masteratt]

Randomly placing spawns isn't way off at all Any game that wants to do it can easily do it. I think it's more a gameplay experience thing. They want you on your toes and build a level around how they see as the best way of doing that.

Imagine the snow level in Blops where you stealth around with the crossbow. They are placed so in some places you can get two kills with one arrow, or explode a barrel to get multi kill or whatever. Leaving it random eliminates all those set-ups the developer can build and all they can do is cross their finger and hope the level turns out interesting.

What they can do is, build one level with 5 set variants, and you get a random one each time. It is a very nice idea, and I agree with you. I keep saying, I feel one place games really have to improve in is feeling dynamic. But then dynamic equals less control for developers.

---------- Post added at 02:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 AM ----------

Oh you know the bit in trailer SMG turned into a pistol it looked like. You know what would be nice? If we lose the secondary weapon slot and the primary weapon has a '2nd weapon' builtin. And when you press triangle (or Y), it switches to it in a transformer style
This could also help with balance, "oh you want a super awesome rifle? well your secondary is going to be a slow shooting heavy recoil pistol".

---------- Post added at 02:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:51 AM ----------

This really puts you in the mood of the story:

[Crazybone126]

I don't know. I think at the scale I'm thinking, that's still a ways off. It may not be, I truly don't know. But the way I'm thinking is having the possibility (keyword: possibility) of encountering an area that's loaded with multiple platoons in one area. Sometimes there's just 5 people, others there's close to two dozens, and other times there'll be no one there at all. I don't know, I just feel that would require copious amounts of pre-rendering and pre-loading that would just ultimately rape frame rate. To choose when, how, where, and how many enemies to spawn at ALL times has GOT to be super-taxing on the hardware. Maybe I'm undermining. Either way, I'd definitely play that game.

And to your edits, that sounds kinda cool, but then that means all of the weapons are going to have to be weapons that don't actually exist in real life. They'll actually have to CREATE new weapons sci-fi style.

[masteratt]

I am hoping they are going that way, making up some weapons or going crazy with something that is in early prototype, being set in 2025 they should take some creative freedom.

I think I know what you are saying, and I, even a novice programmer can do that for you Maybe I am not getting the scale but without getting too technical, I can easily give you an area where random amount of enemies spawn in a random location within that area each time you play. Nothing to do with rendering, you render just like always, but just put the objects in a different place. Only problem would be if random number of enemies comes up as 99999 or whatever, then you will blow up the console lol, but you can obviously put a limit so the system doesn't go crazy.

Again excluding the control it takes away from the developer, I do agree it's a very nice idea. Like when you re-play on Veteran or whatever, the game is so boring when you go "there is a guy here, and here, and there...yawn", your idea will definitely keep the tension high for sure.

---------- Post added at 03:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:12 AM ----------

Does anyone know who the new community manager of Treyarch is? Gotta follow on twitter.

[KRA]

horses, robots...
why not robot horses ?