Call of Duty Black Ops

[Berzerk]

is their a pc version of the prestige edition?

[Reaper2051]

Nothing has been announced yet but I wouldnt get it anyway I would be satisfied with the Standard Edition I dont want the RC car next thing it BLOWS UP an takes the building with me.

[Berzerk]

him sounds like fun. 

[Notnice]

Introducing the RC-XD Video Surveillance Vehicle, only available in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Prestige Edition.

The Prestige Edition is what every hardcore Call of Duty fan needs. It includes everything in the Hardened Edition, along with a real remote-control vehicle modeled after the in-game RC-XD killstreak reward! The RC-XD's features include:

- Video & audio sent wirelessly to remote transmitter (200 ft. range)
- 2" backlit TFT 220 x176 color screen built into RC controller
- Digital proportional steering and throttle
- Independent suspension
- High and low speed settings
- Custom pistol grip style RC controller
- Display stand

Hardened Edition:

- Call of Duty: Black Ops full game
- Premium, special-edition SteelBook™ case
- Limited edition Black Ops collector's medal w/display case
- 4 additional co-op maps not included in the standard edition of the game
- Special Black Ops Xbox Live or PlayStation Home avatar outfit

They real know how to milk money lol

[TG.Saga]

it just keeps gettin better and better

[Reaper2051]

Zombie Mode Returns In Call of Duty: Black Ops?

Online retailers are on a roll this week. First Amazon lists details about the Battfield: Bad Company 2  Ultimate Edition, and now Best Buy has let the undead cat out of the bag by revealing that Treyarch will be bringing the wildly popular zombie mode to its Call of Duty: World at War follow up, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

CVG spotted the listing from Best Buy’s Canadian site, which claims the Black Ops Hardened Edition will include “Four Zombie Maps Pack made famous from COD: World at War.” Best Buy's US site leaves out the zombie portion when describing the “4 extra playable co-op maps not in the standard edition.”

Activision has made no mention of the totally expected zombie mode in its previous announcements regarding special editions of Black Ops, including yesterday’s collector’s edition reveal. I’ve reached out to Activision to see what they have to say about all of this, so stay tuned.

Source 1
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[W1nTry]

You 'reached out' to Blactivision? seriously? really? ....

[Spazosaurus]

If that was an attack helicopter with explosive ordinance and built in minigun, i'd soooooooo preorder that Prestige edition. I simply dont have the yard space for another terrestrial bound vehicle.

[Arcmanov]

Typically...that Prestige Edition would be console only.  Its enticing, I'll admit it,
but I'll just end up buying the game on Steam.  I see no need to buy a physical
copy of a PC game again.

[Reaper2051]

I'll take a retail copy the only games i will have on steam is BC2, Alien Swarm and Portal.

[Reaper2051]

BETA Confirmed?

Who would have thought that the two most popular requests (Zombies & BETA) would be hinted at on the same day? There has been little information and news in the past few weeks and then this week has had a LOT of news. From a Multiplayer teaser, news on Collector editions, for Zombies and now a Beta!

PejeXD » was messing around on the Bing search engine when he searched for "Call of Duty Black Ops Beta" and stumbled upon callofduty.com/beta ». It's clear that this is a Beta page on the official Call of Duty but has this always been there for previous Betas or has it only just appeared for a upcoming Black Ops Beta?

The page when registering » on the official website also has another interesting hint for a Beta. The page says that as a member you will have clearance to "First-in-the-world access to REDEACTED -- you are not yet cleared for this information". Could this mean a Beta?

The callofduty.com/beta » page now appears to redirect visitors to the Call of Duty homepage, either because this is a old page or because they noticed the page was getting views and thus giving away hints to a Black Ops Beta.

Yet again, take this with a pinch of salt rather than a confirmation. You be the judge, does this confirm a Black Ops Beta or not?

Source: http://forums.digitalwarfare247.com/index.php?/topic/28995-there-will-be-beta/

[Reaper2051]

Gamescom 2010: Black Ops Co-op 'Like Zombie Mode'

Treyarch has hinted further at details for the four-player co-op mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops was always set to include a four-player co-op mode, but details were thin on the ground.

Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia said at an Activision press event a couple of months back:"The game will feature distinct multiplayer and co-op modes, and though specifics regarding our co-op mode have not yet been revealed I can tell you that we'll be delivering a unique online co-op mode for up to four players, with local split-screen for two."

Treyarch community manager Josh Olin remianed coy when NowGamer asked if the mode would be similar to Modern
Warefare 2's Spec Ops.

When asked if it would resemble the popular zombie mode in Treyarch's last game, Call of Duty: World at War, Olin said: "a little closer to that."

He also confirmed that the campaign could feature locations relevant to the story. "Anything that happened during the cold war is fair game," Olin said.

Source: http://www.nowgamer.com/news/3999/gamescom-2010-black-ops-co-op-like-zombie-mode

Gamescom 2010: Black Ops 'Uses Avatar Movie
Tech'

Call Of Duty team working with Cameron's capture technology

Call Of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has revealed that the latest game in the Call Of Duty franchise uses technology developed by James Cameron for his hit movie Avatar.

Black Ops Community Manager Josh Olin told us that Treyarch has employed Cameron’s Full Performance Capture for creating Call Of Duty: Black Ops’s cut scenes in order to create a more ‘cinematic feel’. Treyarch even used Cameron’s purpose built studios for the work.

Full Performance Capture is unique in the motion capture world as it captures face, body and motion all at the same time, resulting in a more accurate recreation of the actors’ performance.

Black Ops is the first videogame to utilise Cameron’s tech.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops will be released 9 November on, well, every format known to man.

Source: http://www.nowgamer.com/news/3993/gamescom-2010-black-ops-uses-avatar-tech

Gamescom 2010: Black Ops Has Local Matchmaking

Treyarch reveals exclusively to NowGamer that local matchmaking is finally in!

Hot off the press from NowGamer’s one-on-one interview with Treyarch community manager Josh Olin at this year’s gamescom in Cologne, comes the world-shattering revelation that for the first time in the series, multiplayer matchmaking “will enable matchmaking with people in the local area.”

Those particularly attuned to Modern Warfare news may remember that Robert Bowling, creative strategist at Infinity Ward disappointed a lot of people when he tweeted back in September of last year that “There isn’t an option to search specific regions/ countries when matchmaking, but there is improved matchmaking to auto-assist.”

Will this see an end to transatlantic sponginess? We can only hope. We love our American friends dearly, but playing against them with transatlantic lag can be a real trial and vice-versa. This could see an end to it. To be fair the Modern Warfare franchise is perhaps the only game big enough to make sufficiently populated local communities a real possibility.

Hats off to Treyarch!

Source: http://www.nowgamer.com/news/3990/gamescom-2010-black-ops-has-local-matchmaking

[Arcmanov]

I have to tip my hat to Treyarch for really making a stellar effort to rescue this franchise.
Here's a dev that is actually listening  to its community for once.  Capcom would do well to take some notes. 

[Reaper2051]

Call of Duty: Black Ops Unusual Solo Campaign Hides Secrets by Kotaku

The line one of the makers of the next Call of Duty uses about the series is that these games are movies we can play. This one will be a war thriller that hides a mystery.

A few weeks ago in New York, John Olin, community manager fort team creating November's Call of Duty Black Ops showed me the game's Victor Charlie level and did his best to be cagey about the game's campaign. With Gamescom started in Germany, I'm now permitted by the game's creators to tell you what I saw, though I'd like to focus on the mysteriousness of the whole thing.

There was some stuff that Olin showed me, that I could see and believe because it was in front of me. And then there was the stuff about which he was coy.

In the confirmed category: The Victor Charlie occurs after your helicopter is shot down in or near Vietnam in the late 1960s. In Black Ops you are playing as elite cold war soldier (or soliders; it's unclear if you play as different protagonists.) Gunfire zips into your chopper. You get out and are in a jungle gunfight.

Olin's got some skills, so he aimed for a killshot... cue a new effect, the game's camera hitching a ride on the bullet from his in-game rifle and, in slow-mo, into the enemy. That's the moment that prompted Olin to use that "movie you can play" line.

Black Ops runs on the visually impressive tech that has powered recent Modern Warfare and Call of Duty games, so the jungle battle Olin showed me looked terrific. Combat moved to some thatched-roof buildings, where many explosions were caused.

I noticed that the game didn't include the signature yellow-star compass display that traditionally has pointed the player to their next goal in the series' more-or-less linear campaigns. Olin said that system didn't suit Black Ops, which is, more than other CoDs, a game about being part of a team. Instead of the star, I saw text on the screen doling out simple mission orders such as "clear area" or "follow" (the latter of which was pinned to an ally soldier).

Olin transitioned into a tunnel sequence that had been shown briefly at E3 in June. His character crept through the darkened underground, making shadows flicker with a flashlight, sneaking up on some enemies for the kill.

In the cagey category: The tunnel sequence, for some reason, made me think of how emotionally dark Treyarch's previous Call of Duty, 2008's World at War was. That game's campaign began with your American character facing torture at the hands of Japanese fighters in World War II and, in rare memorable instances, tested the player's moral compass. In one late level in Germany, for example, the player had the choice whether to slaughter German soldiers who had surrendered or to leave them captured.

Olin would not confirm that Treyarch is doing more of that dark player-testing stuff. At my mention of moral choices, he became cagey, promising that the single-player campaign will reward players who go through it, that pieces that may feel disconnected will click at its conclusion. He expects gamers to have an "oh wow" epiphany by the time they finish the game. Naturally, he wasn't going to say what it is. He said we shouldn't expect Treyarch to divulge much more and that it is is important to Treyarch that single-player gamers have a "gripping" experience. That's also part of the reason, he explained, that the new game's campaign is single-player only. (Co-op is a separate mode, supporting two players on the same system or four players online.) This is not the standard way a solo campaign in a Call of Duty is described, but it seems fitting in a game about Black Ops.

Our guys in Germany hope to have more time with Call of Duty Black Ops at Gamescom this week. Stay with Kotaku for more coverage from the big show. Black Ops will be out on all gaming consoles and PC on November 9.

Source

[rb]

Capcom actually interacts with their community much better than MOST developers. Pick another dev dey.

[Redlum08]

Capcom actually interacts with their community much better than MOST developers. Pick another dev dey.

I think Arc just sour still about SSF IV rb..LOL

[W1nTry]

I have to tip my hat to Treyarch for really making a stellar effort to rescue this franchise.
Here's a dev that is actually listening  to its community for once.  Capcom would do well to take some notes. 

You mean Tryarch is trying not to get a bad name like infinity ward did, just remember who pwns the franchise and as long as blactivision does the developers can/will only be able to save soo much, the mighty dollar is king, if they figured they'd make more money following the same MO as MW2, believe me, blackops would have suffered the same way.

[Reaper2051]

Digital Spy interviews Josh Olin of Treyarch about Black Ops.

Working alternatively with Infinity Ward on Call Of Duty during the past few years, Black Ops  will be Treyarch's first non-World War II entry for the franchise. Community manager Josh Olin teases what to expect from the multiplayer, the new patching measures that will be in place and the new development cycle for the studio.

It's the first time Treyarch has worked outside of World War II for a Call Of Duty game. How has that been for the designers?
"Kinda liberating. It's not that they don't like working on World War II games, it's just there's so many more opportunities they could work with for the Cold War era in this Black Ops game. You know, we've been making WWII games for a long time and we're pretty good at it and we have a lot of fun with it, but any time we start a new project we want to start telling new stories and create gameplay that people haven't seen before in the Call Of Duty franchise. Back in World At War, our solution to that was to create the Pacific Theatre, but now Call Of Duty has done WWII, Call Of Duty has done modern, let's make a brand new genre, so that was important."

Did the designers take any cues from Modern Warfare in terms of locations and missions?
"No, we've created our own story from scratch, it's a unique fictional story, completely one hundred percent original. We're not there to tell history and we're not there to make any political stances, it's strictly there to be an entertaining game. So when you play through the story you're going to get, it's pretty awesome, it's a rollercoaster ride for sure. It's a complex story but not so complex to the point where it's confusing, we don't want to cross that line, we don't want to be confusing with the story or plot world."

Can you tell us anything about the multiplayer right now?
"You've seen the teaser for sure and you're probably picking it apart for clues and hints, and the point of the teaser was to create more questions than answers, we wanted you guys to wonder and theorise. I can tell you that a lot of your theories are pretty accurate, but I can also say that everything in that teaser is just the tip of the iceberg and there is so much more to multiplayer. I think people are honestly going to be really, really surprised when we unveil all of our multiplayer. I think they're going to go, 'Holy s**t, we didn't see that coming'."

What's the extent of the customisation in multiplayer?
"Pretty thorough. A lot of that lives in Create a Class, it's very much renovated and overhauled, but that's not it. There's other elements to it as well that I can't reveal quite yet. But it's a big part, and I don't know that to the first-person shooter gamer, they want to create their own online identity, they want to make the game their own, play it the way they want to play it. So we're going to be giving them the platform to do that."

Both World At War and Modern Warfare 2 have been prone to glitches and exploits online. Have you taken any measures to prevent these?
"Absolutely. That's one of the advantages of [Black Ops]. They all started coming out after World At War's development, they also started coming out pretty much at the end of Modern Warfare's development cycle, which didn't leave that much time to put in preventative measures, they left them chasing their tails in terms of patching it. Black Ops we've had plenty of time. We know how all those hacks are done, and we have preventative measures built into Black Ops built around those. Of course, hackers are very smart, they'll find new ways to break the game I'm sure, and when they do we'll have security measures in place to enforce our policies, enforce our leaderboards, enforce our matchmaking and lobbies to keep those clean, so that shouldn't be an issue for Black Ops."

Will you be able to patch faster, or is that still restricted by Xbox Live and PlayStation Network?
"A lot of it is still restricted from the first parties, they have to certify the patch and it takes time, that's the unfortunate side-effect. But we do have this hotfixing technology where we can push out network updates, updates that live on the network side, which live on our servers that you guys can pull down. So a lot of things can be fixed and prevented there."

What kind of things can you hotfix?
"This is a really technical discussion that is actually pretty boring, but basically how these hacks work is that they change system level variables, that we didn't expect to be exposed because we expected the consoles to be these closed systems, and [on] our PC we have anti-cheat technology. On the consoles, that kind of came out left-field when they broke the signing authorities for Xbox. So we had to improvise. With those variables that they are exploiting, well those network variables are the things that we can hotfix. So whenever they would mess with one of those, we could just release a hotfix where we would replace the bad variables with the good ones, and everything's back to normal, so we can do stuff like that. But if you're going to do a big patch, like patching actual code and script, then that has to be done through a title update, and that takes longer."

How are Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward juggling their involvement on the Call Of Duty franchise?
"Pretty autonomous, I don't know what they're doing to be honest. They don't have any implications on us, we're still making our game, and we'll still be making our games too. We've always operated very independent of each other, Infinity Ward and Treyarch, and so Sledgehammer Games coming into the mix doesn't change a thing."

Are you still working on a two-yearly cycle for Call Of Duty games?
"That's what the last couple of games were, yeah. Two years is a pretty good development cycle, it's a long one. It's plenty of time to make a great game. Any longer than that it's pretty touch. A one-year cycle is way too short, it's not enough time to make a game, so two years is fine."

In the past, Treyarch has been doing ports of different games and all sorts. Are you still doing that, or are you now focused on Call Of Duty?
"Yeah, we're focused on Call Of Duty now."

So you're just a Call Of Duty studio?
"Right now, yeah. Actually at the end of World At War's development, that year we shipped Quantum Of Solace and Spiderman: Web Of Shadows for that holiday season, and boy that was tough. We have 250 developers for a studio but they're split across three blockbuster titles. After that shipped, we refocused all our development efforts exclusively on a Call Of Duty unit. Right now, everyone's working exclusively on Black Ops. We have 250 developers, rather than working on three games, they're working on three components in one game, that's going to be in one box - campaign, multiplayer and co-op. We've had dedicated teams on those modes for day one, working in parallel, and it's the first time we've been able to do that at Treyarch."

Call Of Duty: Black Ops will be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC from November 9.

[Red Paradox]

sigh 2 more f***in' months of wait 

[Fkacn_tt]

where is the beta