If rumour speak true, the next Call of Duty game will be another entry in the Black Ops series. It'll also, allegedly, take place during the first Gulf War across 1990 and 1991, in which a US-led coalition of countries including the UK, Saudi Arabia and Egypt invaded Iraq in response to the Saddam Hussein government's conquest of Kuwait.
]]>Like a zipline descending into Verdansk, the quality curve of the Call of Duty campaign trends ever downward, year-on-year. Or so a casual observer might assume. But this is Task Force 141, soldier: we don’t do casual observation. Take my binoculars and you’ll soon see that the real story is far more complicated and compelling.
For every Ghosts in the graveyard of CODs past, there’s an unlikely space adventure to rival Titanfall. And no matter how many times Captain Price tells you to let ‘em pass, there’s always an experimental RTS mechanic or Hitman-lite stealth mission waiting around the next corner. Call of Duty has been far more brave and changeable than it’s given credit for, and while the best ideas haven’t always stuck, they’re still very much playable. What’s more, they rarely outlast a weekend - which counts for a lot in an age of life-consuming AAA releases.
Over 20 years of service, I’ve played every single COD campaign, and can share my intel freely with allies like you. So hop in for a ride through the ups and downs of the series. Just don’t take the helicopter - those things never land softly around here.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>Call of Duty: Black Ops III [official site] looks just about weird enough to be interesting. Whether it's Jeff Goldblum's zombie-splatting magician, the introduction of full-on Chaos powers or the general rocket-powered leap into a robo-soldier sci-fi future, BLOPS the Third does not appear to be constrained by reason. Of course, it may still be restrained by corridors but on the server and modding side we can expect some freedom. Treyarch have announced that modding and map-making will be coming to the game sometime next year.
]]>Tweets from developers dumping details are a bit like bubble gum wrapper trivia facts, aren't they? You won't be fascinated and enthralled, you won't learn the deepest secrets of the darkest beings, but you might raise your eyebrows a little, but approvingly, and at the back of your mouth grind out an approving throaty vocalisation like "Mmh!" or "Hhhoh!" or "Hmm!" or "Hrmmm!"
Now we've chewed the Cyberbazooka Joe gum of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 [official site] in that trailer, it's trivia time, with wrapfacts on dedicated servers, field of view, and other touchy issues.
]]>Ah good, it's time to start talking about Next Call Of Duty and how it's probably going to be Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 because a Snapchat campaign - yes Snapchat, shut up - implies as much.
While streaming some Black Ops 2, YouTuber Drift0r picked up on the addition of one of those QR code ghost things Snapchat introduced so you can befriend #brands and #engage with their #content easily.
"I have a feeling this is going to be like a viral marketing campaign," he notes on the video. "Like in a couple of days if you follow the little ghosty you will get a picture of Black Ops 3 tweeted out or Snapchatted out? I don't really Snapchat so I don't know how that works."
He was right.
]]>This was yesterday's news of course, but it seems too bleakly funny to neglect mentioning here. Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is suing Activision from his jail cell, claiming the use of his name and image as a CODBLOPS 2 baddie is unjust and misrepresentative. While his lawyers do note that "Plaintiff was portrayed as an antagonist and portrayed as the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes" (as opposed to his all numerous non-fictional heinous crimes)" the nub of the challenge seems to be less hurt feelings and more "creating the false impression that defendants are authorized to use plaintiff’s image and likeness." In other words, filthy lucre. Figures.
]]>Multiplayer Game Balancing AN-94: Damage slightly reduced. DSR 50: Rate of fire reduced. Ballista: Rate of fire slightly reduced.
You look at the patch notes, your whole body starting to go hot with rage. Your heart beats faster, your breath gets shorter. You HIT the Red Bull can from your desk, the murky liquid splashing your poster of Transformers-spoiling sticky-hottie Megan Fox across the arse. You stand and ram the back of your squadgy desk chair into the desk to hear it BANG, to get some relief from the rage you are feeling. You PUNCH the wall in frustration, and then hurriedly have to shake it hard because that was not the plasterboard part of the wall it was an actual stone brick. You SCREAM in anguish. "WHY?!" you yell. "WHY HAVE YOU MESSED UP MY VIRTUAL GUNS?!?!? HOW WILL I GET MEGAN TO LIKE ME NOW??!?!?!" You do a little sort of rage dance that makes you look like you belong in Populous.
]]>Another year, another Call of Duty. So Jesus told Moses, and so Moses told Gandalf, and so we all now know it. The obvious money's been on this year's slice of shooting man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man after man being a new entry in the Modern Warfare series, but UK supermarket Tesco briefly put up a packshot for something called Call of Duty: Ghosts earlier today. It's gone now, but not before I assembled the following high-res pic out of its weird image zoom thing.
(That sounds like it's a setup for a trick. It isn't, promise).
]]>I can't confess to having played much Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (I'm all Call-of-Duty-ed out, although I actually enjoyed BLOPS 1 well enough), but I have to applaud it for occasionally going a bit off the script. Case in point: while the main story was, of course, mostly a near-future/past military techno-stravasplosion, upcoming DLC Mob of the Dead is, well, exactly what it sounds like. The co-op campaign stars four old-timey mobsters attempting to break out of Alcatraz and also there are zombies for some reason. And naturally, there's heaps of Hollywood voice talent involved because Call of Duty. Sure, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (and maybe even Assassin's Creed III: WASHINGFACE) probably has it beat for sheer zaniness, but I certainly can't knock Treyarch for reining in its horse-based warcrimes for a bit of the good old-fashioned organized kind. Hilariously elaborate trailer after the break.
]]>I know many of you will be spending the weekend tending to your winter-blasted shoots as you celebrate the feast day of Serenus the Gardener, or perhaps remembering Red Army Day by engaging in tabletop recreations of the Battle of Kiev or, for the more ambitious, Operation Bagration. Commendable pastimes, I'm sure, but if the dusty red blocks that represent Soviet armoured divisions are lost in the attic, or Serenus' spirit is locked in the frozen turf, then you may be interested to hear that Gratuitous Space Battles is free to play on Steam until Sunday 9PM GMT.
]]>Call of Duty: Black Ops. CODBLOPS. BLOPS. COD. Cod. Heh, that's a fish.
This is the exact process every human brain goes through upon trying to create an acronym for Activision's record-obliterating mega-blockbuster, so it's only natural that someone would eventually convert that lush, meaningful imagery back into a game. Thus, I bring you Cod of Duty. The basic premise? Evil fish terrorists are planning... something. It involves guns. And barrels. And being in barrels. Yes, this is a game in which you literally shoot fish in a barrel. The commentary, it is palpable. CODPALPS. Or something. I don't know. Join me for some crunchy, lightly fish-flavored discussion after the break.
]]>Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is the 4192nd Call of Duty Game, and as such predominantly requires you to run forwards while firing a machinegun and following an indestructible friendly NPC whose main purpose is to open doors. It's developed by Treyarch rather than Modern Warfare-makers Infinity Ward, and it's the direct sequel to the Cold War-set Black Ops 1. This time, the setting switches between the Cold War and a new war on terror in 2025, as starring the son of Black Ops' protagonist Alex Mason.
It came out on Tuesday, and I blitzed through the singleplayer yesterday. (I probably won't write about the multiplayer because, not being terribly well-versed in the fine detail of the earlier ones, I can't say anything useful about it. Also I don't want to.)
]]>There are a few different ways BioWare could have reacted to their game, Mass Effect 2, being accidentally shipped in boxes of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2. It's looking like they've picked the best possible one. Rather than getting upset, the studio is seeing it as splendid marketing, a promotional opportunity, and explaining to those who've received a copy of their game that "the universe thinks you should be playing Mass Effect right now." They've gone so far as to create a competition for those with the wrong disc.
]]>We're still waiting for Call of Duty Black Ops 2 wot-I-think code here on RPS, but some punters who've already lain hands on the PC version of Activision's latest Manshooter Titan have found themselves equally unable to play the thing. But why? Had it been tampered with by the fugitive head of an anti-virus company? Had wolves eaten it? Would it not install until Mason told them what the numbers meant? No, none of those. Something for more eerie. Some purchasers have discovered that the second disc of their brand new foreigner-killing game was a copy of Mass Effect 2, that 2010 guns'n'conversation title from Activision's arch-rival EA. Conversation in the best-selling game of guns? Scandalous!
]]>I just got off a plane, which purportedly took me back to San Francisco. However, as a free bonus, it apparently also catapulted me forward in time by a whole month! That's the only explanation I can come up with for why there's already a Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 launch trailer. Or maybe - just maybe - Activision saw fit to roll out the red carpet for the mannest of manshoots a month early. But no, that's just crazy. Time travel is the only plausible call here. Definitely.
]]>Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will have zombies. At this point, that statement is almost as much of a foregone conclusion as "Black Ops 2 will have guns" or "Black Ops 2 will provide Activision with enough cash to put Bobby Kotick's brain into a fully weaponized robot body, ensuring this his dark dominion over Earth is equal parts swift and eternal." But, like other aspects of the slightly-more-ambitious-than-usual sequel, zombie mode's become a fair bit beefier. Observe, after the break, as intrepid survivors use whatever they can get their hands on to battle undead hordes on a bus, in a box, with a fox, in a house, with a mouse, and OK, actually none of those things except on a bus.
]]>After months of speculation and feverish, sweat-stained worry, Activision's finally seen fit to set the world's mind at ease. Turns out, the new Call of Duty game will have multiplayer after all. That's right: multiple players. And I think I might have spotted a gun or two in there as well. Activision won't confirm or deny that one just yet, though, so Black Ops 2 still has a very good chance of being a first-person slap-fighter. Right then. That's the part where I spew vitriol about the obtuseness of big-budget videogame ad campaigns out of the way. So yes, here's Black Ops 2's first multiplayer trailer. It has some pretty neat-looking gadgets, including some kind of microwave beam and, of course, so many drones that you'll keep thinking the word "drones," and eventually it'll lose all meaning to you. Drones drones drones drones drones.
]]>Trent Reznor, who it's still weird to see referred to as an Academy Award Winning Composer, will be providing the theme tune for Call of Duty Black Ops 2. Both he and the FPS have come a long way from Quake, although I'll leave it to you to decide in which direction each has been travelling. The news comes along with a trailer for the game that shows the villain for the first time. He has escaped from a place but doesn't have any weapons but that doesn't matter because he HAS TAKEN ALL OF THE BLOPS' WEAPONS. That's the plot. Oh, and it's the future, so jetpack dives from space and baby AT-ATs.
]]>Has it been a great 24 hours for revolutionary new tech developments or what? First Minecraft revealed "LAN" - named, of course, after LAN parties, which paradoxically didn't exist until just a few moments ago - and now Activision's pointing its scope at longer-range latency with a new addition to Black Ops 2's scary future war arsenal: dedicated servers. Unlike Modern Warfare 3's, however, these are ranked and everything. "Confirmed: Ranked Dedicated Servers for #BlackOps2," tweeted director of technology Cesar Stastny. See?
]]>It's 1:06 AM in the UK. Why in the sacred name of Galvatron aren't I in bed yet? Why am I posting the trailer for Black Ops 2 instead? These and more secrets will be revealed in Call of Meer's Bedtime: Groggy Morning 2 tomorrow. In the meantime, just watch the damn trailer, which has all manner of future death-machines and a level of outright absurdity that even my great cynicism didn't predict, and let me go brush my teeth. YES AMERICANS, BRITISH PEOPLE DO TAKE CARE OF THEIR TEETH, ACTUALLY.
]]>Call of Duty 9: Black Ops 2: Modern Warfare 4 was rumoured to exist but if you're anything like me, you'll be flabbergasted to hear that the series is indeed continuing and the website for the game is now live, although the trailer that takes centre stage doesn't work just yet. It's apparently due to be premiered (red carpet?) this evening during the NBA Playoffs. The website does reveal that the game takes place in the near future, during a 21st century cold war. I bet it's a cold war that involves surfing on top of a stealth fighter while shooting down a space shuttle full of nukes. November 13th is when the CoD blops once more. One more pic below.
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