Call of Duty: Black Ops Preview

By Ellie Gibson Published 19 August, 2010

Soldier to soldier.

"So," says the silver-haired man with the steely blue eyes, "What's your favourite videogame?"

"Tomb Raider," I say. The man nods and looks back at me as if expecting a longer answer. Maybe it's his steely blue gaze, maybe it's the commanding tone of his voice, maybe it's the fact it says "MILITARY ADVISOR" on his polo shirt, but I feel like I have to keep talking.

"Um, and FarmVille. I like FarmVille," I babble.

"I've seen that on Facebook," says the man. "People always offering me baby pink cows."

"You don't play FarmVille, then?" I reply, as a voice in my head says, 'This man was in the US army. He has killed people. And you are asking him about FarmVille.'

"I don't play anything except Call of Duty," says the man. "Not enough time. Wood to chop. Rocks to split."

And military advice to give, of course. The man I'm failing to make decent small talk with while I wait for the Gamescom Call of Duty: Black Ops presentation to start is just one of many advisors working on the game. As community manager Josh Olin explains, they have some astonishing stories to tell.

2

Treyarch's not talking about the multiplayer aspect of the game yet, but expect more news soon.

"These guys have got balls of steel," says Olin. Not just eyes, then. "When you see those stock black-and-white photos of North Vietnamese army patrols - they weren't set up, somebody actually took those photos. They went behind enemy lines and they weren't holding a gun, they were holding a camera.

"Of course, they were doing more than just surveillance," Olin continues. "They were also blowing sh** up."

It's this aspect of the job which Treyarch appears to be focusing on with COD: Black Ops. Explosions seem to occur about 48 times per second in the two levels we're being shown today. At no point does anyone attempt to take any snaps. Disappointing for those hoping this instalment in the COD series might feature some Afrika-style photography missions, then.

Instead we find ourselves in Vietnam, in 1968, in the back of a helicopter which has just crash-landed in the middle of a murky lake. The first pilot didn't survive the crash. The second pilot is alive, but only long enough for him to turn round and get shot in the face. Coming under heavy fire, the helicopter sinks below the surface of the water. We watch as the playable character jimmies the latch on the door and swims away to safety.

1

Weapons include the always popular AK 47, among others.

Except, as this a Call of Duty game, he actually swims over to an enemy boat, pulls himself over the side and despatches the occupant with a swift knife to the throat. A VC on the banks of the lake is firing furiously at our hero, who unleashes a single round from his pistol. Everything slows down for a few seconds as the camera zooms in on the bullet and follows its trajectory through the air, across the lake and straight between the enemy's eyes.

This, Olin explains, is a scripted sequence; you can't just jump into a bit of bullet time whenever you feel like it. "We wanted each level to have cinematic moments people would remember," he says. "The Call of Duty titles are scripted games where you follow specific paths, and we don't want to mess with that formula."

This particular path now leads us into the jungle, where we're rejoined by some other members of our troop. We're heading towards an enemy village. The inhabitants are oblivious to the carnage which has just occurred down by the lake, judging by the way they're just hanging about in hammocks.

But it's not long before their peace is interrupted by a bit more neck-knifing and some strategically lobbed semtex. As the alarm is raised the scene quickly turns to chaos - the air is thick with bullets, wooden huts explode at a rapid rate and the chickens go mental. Women and children are curiously absent from the scene but there are plenty of grown men to shoot. Our hero takes advantage, blasting away until they've all stopped moving.

Time to move into the tunnels running out of the village and into the jungle. A bloke called Reznov chucks us a torch and we wish he hadn't, seeing as all it just makes it easier to see the scurrying rats, crawling cockroaches and bits of leg lying about the place.

A tense scene follows. A soldier drops suddenly from the roof of the tunnel and our hero instinctively fires, only to realise he's actually a bloke called Swift who is on our side. But there's no time to apologise. Before Swift even has time to tell us to keep our sh** together, an enemy appears and stabs him in the face.

Pressing on, we catch up with another team-mate, Reznov. "Where is our friend Swift?" he asks.

"Dead," our hero replies.

"Everybody dies, Mason," says Reznov profoundly. "Your turn, my friend. I will follow."

But before we get the chance to see how Mason fairs when leading the way through the tunnel, and whether he learned his lesson regarding the whole Swift incident, it's time to look at the second level on show today. Titled Payback, it's a set piece which involves flying over a Vietnamese valley in a helicopter, dealing death and destruction to the enemy below.

More on Call of Duty: Black Ops

And to think there seemed be a lot of explosions in the other level. It's non-stop here - bases, ships, tanks, tents, telecomms towers, rope bridges, munitions dumps and endless rows of palm trees burst into flame all over the shop. This goes on for several minutes without any kind of retaliatory interruption, suggesting the title of this level has as much to do with rewarding the player with a bit of carefree carnage as it has to do with the plot of the game.

The plot isn't something Treyarch's revealing a great deal about today. Olin does promise us a "deep, complex narrative", but also one that "follows the fine line between complex and confusing". He goes on to admit that "creative liberties" have been taken with regard to the timeline - that helicopter we just saw, for example, didn't actually exist in 1968. "Fun is the most important thing to us; authenticity is second," Olin confirms.

Besides, he says, the truth is often stranger than fiction. "The military advisors we've been talking to did the most crazy, incredible things. People look at some of the sequences in the game and say, 'That's over the top, that's not realistic.'

"But some of the things these guys were telling us were so over the top we said, 'We can't put that in the game. No one would believe it.'"

With that the presentation's over. When I head back out into the booth there's no sign of the military advisor I was chatting to earlier, so I can't ask him about any of the crazy, incredible things he did. He's probably off chopping that wood, splitting those rocks and practicing his steely gaze. Or, you know, blowing sh** up.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (69) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Desheep #1 2 years ago

    There were worries about the ragdolls being rubbish in Eurogamer's first look at the game. Has that been addressed since then?

  • DoctorFouad #2 2 years ago

    another call of duty game

    when innovative games like ICO, Shadow of Colossus, Heavy Rain, Oddworld strangers wrath, shenmue,...etc struggle to sell 1 million copies, and you see call of duty games selling 15 million copies year after year...It is sad and you feel there is a problem in our industry, what is it , I dont know...
    Edited by DoctorFouad at 19/08/10 @ 11:33

  • Fab4 #3 2 years ago

    "and we don't want to mess with that formula"

    Go on! Grow a pair of steel balls ffs!!

  • Osmond #4 2 years ago

    The varied, more realistic settings in blackops should be a much needed change to IW's sub par james bond campaign.
    Treyarch , unjustly have a bad rep among many CODMW fans but their titles have allways been quite decent imo (prefer WAW MP maps to MW2's) , while IW peaked with COD4 imo and going off the sequel MW2 ,they had ran out of ideas. Maybe its a good thing the IW split and treyarch finally given the resources, less pressure and time they need.
    The veichle sections do look somewhat dodgy though, apart from COD4's "death from above" level, they have allways been ill fitting to the COD series imo.
    Edited by Osmond at 19/08/10 @ 11:44

  • ZizouFC #5 2 years ago

    Farmville fan previews FPS.

  • Skooch #6 2 years ago

    You know what, I feel a bit bored of Call of Duty now, I am not trolling, they are great games and MW2 I prestiged twice online - so I have played them a lot...but now I just can't be arsed anymore.

  • dbranchevans #7 2 years ago

    I've lost all interest in these games after MW2, loved 1 but everything else since has just been stifled of innovation. Looking at the multiplayer it also appears to bear absolutely no correlation to the timeline in the main game!

  • dbranchevans #8 2 years ago

    Oh and plus 1 to DoctorFouad, couldn't agree more, at least Borderlands tried to do something different but thats the only FPS I can think of thats offered anything different from sucking the life out of innovation. Although Bad Company 2 at least offered the destructable scenery and squad based encouragement rather than Call of Dutys 'Everythings basically death match as there's no incentive to work as a team...'

  • BlackKraken #9 2 years ago

    No doubt the man chops wood with his bare hands and splits rock with his teeth.

    @DoctorFouad; sadly, its not the industries fault, call of duty sells millions of copies because thats what the majority of people buy. The innovative games don't sell well because people don't want to play them.

    (In short the majority of people are stupid and would rather have another shrek movie than another citizen kane.)
    Edited by BlackKraken at 19/08/10 @ 11:50

  • Hunam #10 2 years ago

    What's Sh** and why does it need blowing up?

  • dacicus #11 2 years ago

    Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was a real surprise for me. I was just finished MW2 and went in DICE's game with a lot of skepticism, just in time to discover how well DICE fared. I was pretty disappointed by MW2, seeing big plot holes, things that were announcing a MW3. WAW annoyed me because of the restrictive world and Treyarch did the horrible Spiderman games. So, forgive me for doubting Treyarch to be able to do something decent. The things described in interview sounds good, but I'm not sure if Treyarch will be able to keep up its promises. And let's not forget that EA invested a lot in the reboot of its Medal of Honor franchise.

  • smithdown #12 2 years ago

    Not much mention of how the game looks, feels, plays in this preview.

    Not that I'll be buying it, mind. MW2 singleplayer was decent, but just couldn't be arsed with the MP once everyone started spamming double shotguns...

  • flaming.carrot #13 2 years ago

    "The inhabitants are oblivious to the carnage which has just occurred down by the lake, judging by the way they're just hanging about in hammocks."

    That sounds worrying, so a chopper crashes into a lake followed by machine gun fire and the nearby villagers just carry on with their normal routine. This happens too much in games, and really breaks the immersion I think.

  • Golgo #14 2 years ago

    @DoctorFouad: I'm not sure it's a problem, it's just that people like to run around playing school-playground soldiers from time to time, and the CoD games have always been a good way to do that.

  • ParanoidZombie #15 2 years ago

    "They went behind enemy lines and they weren't holding a gun, they were holding a camera"

    I would love to play a game like this - some sort of gritty beyond good and evil with hitman-style stealth where you do nothing but infiltrate, be smart and gather intelligence. That would be sweet, but it will never happen ;_;.

  • Dave52 #16 2 years ago

    "Not much mention of how the game looks, feels, plays in this preview"

    Nope, but plenty about farmville... Fucking pointless article really - but hey.

    As for the game, I've a feeling that MOH might be a little more tasty...

  • SFG_Clan #17 2 years ago

    Im not getting this, I think the Battlefield franchise is far superior to Call Of Duty. Treyarch did an alright job on World at War - but then the only excellent part that kept me coming back was the zombie mode.

    Overall I think CoD lost it after CoD 4, it just went too Red Dawn for me in MW2, it's not at all realistic. The footage from E3 did not impress me at all and the l33t n00b killa tactics of MW2's multiplayer put me right off of the multiplayer aspect.
    Not to mention that the Americans were never in the USSR during the cold war.

  • higganos #18 2 years ago

    "We wanted each level to have cinematic moments people would remember," he says. "The Call of Duty titles are scripted games where you follow specific paths, and we don't want to mess with that formula."

    Fuckin bollocks....MW2 here we come.
    Ugh....just shitting ugh.

  • SAMagic #19 2 years ago

    Olin does promise us a "deep, complex narrative", but also one that "follows the fine line between complex and confusing".

    Why can I imagine someone at IW saying the same about MW2 before it launched?

  • Genome #20 2 years ago

    There is no problem with the industry, DoctorFouad. The games you describe simply aren't that popular with the large masses. Like it or not, gaming is mainstream and this what sells in the mainstream.

    For instance, the number one bestseller book (Mockingjay) at Amazon.com right is from a series that Stephen King described to be like "shoot-it-if-it-moves videogames". That's followed by all three Stieg Larsson books, a few self-help novels, Scott Pilgrim and "Shit My Dad Says".

    At Box Office Mojo the number one movie for last week in the US was "The Other Guys". The only movie in the top five that could be considered to challenge your intellect for the last month has been Inception.

    And so on.

    The "problem" as you see it, isn't with the video games industry, it's with entertainment as a whole. But it's always been like this. In the last 25 years in movies, there have only been three big dramas that have been the highest grossers in the US (Rain Man, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan). Worldwide since 1989: major studio titles with lots of financial backing and low brainyness quota. And there hasn't been a lack of intelligent drama or innovative games or thought-provoking literature in the last twenty years.

    Take it or leave it, it's entertainment and this is what the public wants to be entertained with. It's never been easy to create material that challenges the viewer or reader or player and it's always been hard to get attention for it. When confronted with fart jokes or Hamlet back in the 1600s, people mostly chose fart jokes.

  • bodypopper #21 2 years ago

    @DoctorFouad
    Don't be a snob now. People have their own tastes and are entitled to them.
    I'd never buy a game just because it's widely regarded as innovative and scores well.

  • Bremenacht #22 2 years ago

    I wonder if someone from Activision has already been in touch with EG owners to request that Ms.Gibson doesn't review CoD:BOps.

    Do they do that sort of thing?

  • john_silence #23 2 years ago

    Well ZizouFC, a Farmville fan indeed; there may be something weird there, but actually it's just the right type of person to underline how ludicrous the CoD scenarios play out. MW1's story nailed something of the intimate and something of the epic, the tone made it possible to gloss over the gross exaggerations. MW2 threw balance out the window and incredibly weakened the franchise; multi was alright, although barely as good as WAW's and far inferior to BC2's.
    Someone with a bit of distance and irony in mind is able to blow up the entire pretense to seriousness and manly valor the CoD games have devolved into.
    This very morning I received an e-mail linking to the "Prestige" edition of Black Ops, including... a toy car. What am I, 7? And then an AGE GATE to access the trailer (I wanted to see how far they'd taken the joke). Suddenly I had to be 18 - and still think this toy car was "awesome", I guess.

  • Douche #24 2 years ago

    Well put Genome.

    I'd just like to go against the curve and say that i think Call of Duty is pretty ace. The controls are tight, the multiplayer addictive, the co-op awesome. A decent package if you ask me. There is a reason it has sold a billion copies.

    If Black Ops scores well i'll most definitely be purchasing it at some point.

    Treyarch need to start coming up with their own shit though. Having dogs instead of a chopper in WAW was just pants.

  • coolbritannia #25 2 years ago

    DoctorFouad, it's called choice. Summer blockbuster movies make more money than the more unique arthouse releases, way of the world kid.

  • Barbellion #26 2 years ago

    So, a completely pointless 'preview', offering bugger all insight into the game. What a waste of two minutes of my life. Is it me, or is Eurogamer going off the boil?

  • M_of_the_sys #27 2 years ago

    Where was the preview in this blog entry?

  • Golgo #28 2 years ago

    @BlackKracken: "(In short the majority of people are stupid and would rather have another shrek movie than another citizen kane.)"

    You awful snob. People's tastes might be highbrow, mainstream or even vulgar, and why not? I enjoy stuff from across the spectrum depending on what I want at that particular time. Anyway, how many Citizen Kanes do you need? Things would be very boring if every film were a Citizen Kane.

  • smithdown #29 2 years ago

    @Golgo"People's tastes might be highbrow, mainstream or even vulgar, and why not?"
    Unfortunately far too many people are unwilling to try anything outside of their own little taste bracket. That goes equally for highbrow, mainstream and lowbrow. So many people I know would refuse to watch an awesome movie like Oldboy or Amelie just because they are subtitled, so they think they are a) 'arty farty' and b) too much hard work. They are just depriving themselves of brilliant experiences. Same goes for gaming culture. Most people just want to play whatever is advertised on TV and are unwilling to delve a bit deeper to find more enriching titles. You're right, way of the world, but it's still a shame.

  • lucky_jim #30 2 years ago

    I'm so sick of first person shooters. Thank god for things like XBLA and PSN, at least we get a sliver of innovation from time to time.

  • Lalaland #31 2 years ago

    @Golgo I think BlackKracken's point is that he wishes more movies tried to be as innovative and mold-breaking as Citizen Kane was to cinema when it was released. I can only imagine the horror of a Citizen Kane remake along the lines of that Gus van Sant Psycho remake

    How do you preview a game like CoD these days? What is there to say? They've become incredibly rote and formulaic by now and even the producer flat out admits that they aren't looking to do much more than add a few more vehicle sections. Worse going by the shocking framerates in the final levels of WaW on PS3 there's a 50/50 chance they'll be an unplayable 'bolt-on' to suffer through rather than a neatly integrated part of the experience. This preview was way more interesting to read with all the digressions when the actual game preview can be summed up with "Shoot, kill, blow sh*t up in a quasi 'Nam filled with 'cool sh*t from another era' and random flow breaking 'cool' camera angles"

  • tossetaz #32 2 years ago

    Nice to see Ellie Gibson previewing this, for once someone who sees through all the ridicules bullshit that is Call of Duty is their to describe it!

    I hope she gets to do the review as well!

    EDIT: I get voted down because I like what Ellie Gibson writes? Jesus people really don't like her.
    Edited by tossetaz at 19/08/10 @ 12:58

  • richarddavies #33 2 years ago

    They was displaying these exact same levels back at E3. Why are we getting another preview of the same levels they were showing months ago?

  • Tonasaurus #34 2 years ago

    Not really sure on my COD feeling at the moment (no cheap fish gags please), for I game I have enjoyed so much in the past I'm really not that excited. I would say this is because it's become a yearly thing, but I am one of those who gobbles up FIFA every time and will be doing so again this year. Also, there have been plenty of Halo bits since number 3, but I am far more excited about Reach than COD. So I can't quite put my finger on why this is not getting me going, maybe it's because I actually play football and don't shoot people in the head, or maybe it's that the first Halo was a big milestone for me, but COD is just not doing it for me this year. I think maybe it's that the game lacks personality, the characters running through COD are not endearing and there is no real continnuous story arc to be had. I thought Bad Company 2 did a good job in this respect, although the characters were relatively generic they had some personality which made experience more fun for me. COD is too impersonal perhaps and although I'm sure it holds some nostalgic value for some (like my Halo does) I have nothing like this to fall back on and the series is fast losing its appeal in my case.

  • AphoticCosmos #35 2 years ago

    "women and children are absent"

    So we don't get to napalm innocent children then? No casual wartime rape or summary executions of suspected VCs?

    Why is it that games are always afraid of tackling issues in war rather than how "hellafuckin'ballstothewalllawesome" it is? When they do throw controversy in, it's typically a cheap marketing stunt (COUGH AIRPORT LEVEL COUGH) rather than a meaningful section. I'm not expecting CoD to be leading the way in terms of meaningful analyses of wartime atrocities, but it would be nice to see a war game that did something other than explosions, knifing and ridiculous sequences.

  • Talbot #36 2 years ago

    Yeah I'd be a little bit careful about what former US soldiers have to say about their combat experience. A mate of mine in the Army (British) said they blow their actions way out of proportion. I'm inclined to believe it as a result of witnessing the curious American capacity for doing that sort of thing.

  • Dave52 #37 2 years ago

    tossetaz: "Nice to see Ellie Gibson previewing this, for once someone who sees through all the ridicules bullshit that is Call of Duty"

    But she didn't tell us anything...

    "I hope she gets to do the review as well!"

    What, so I can wade through pointless quips and not actually get any impression of the actual game? Brilliant.

  • darkmorgado #38 2 years ago

    What, so I can wade through pointless quips and not actually get any impression of the actual game? Brilliant.


    You've played MW2 I take it? Any other COD?

    Well then congratulations, add on a couple of bolted-on vehicle sections and you've also played COD:BO

  • geeza2020 #39 2 years ago

    Think i'll just wait for the BC2 Vietnam add-on thanks.

  • EthanWoods #40 2 years ago

    It's more interesting then Modern Warfare, but I just don't care anymore. It's CoD year after year after year, and all that happens is the campaigns get shorter and the multiplayer gets more unbalanced and riddled with glitches and bugs. The last one I bought was MW, and it looks like it's going to stay that way.

    To quote EG's retrospective on the original Call of Duty: "Never mind the fact that they might have just made the biggest-selling videogame of all time. Playing the original game again, I feel like this series could have been more than that."

  • darkmorgado #41 2 years ago

    Quite frankly, now that serious COD fatigue is starting to set in and more and more people are switching on to the fact that it's just the same damn game trotted out every year, I bloody hope the series starts getting the scores of 5 or 6 that it deserves.

    5 = Average. No innovation, everything works as intended, but it's just the same damn game you've played a hundred times before, with the same multiplayer, but a couple of new guns. Competent but nothing special. A polished IKEA coffee table.

  • Dave52 #42 2 years ago

    "add on a couple of bolted-on vehicle sections and you've also played COD:BO"

    That may be true, but why bill this as a preview when it clearly isn't. Just because it's another COD, doesn't mean I don't want to read about it.

  • darkmorgado #43 2 years ago

    @Dave52

    Because I get the impression that the specialist press are sick of COD, gamers are getting sick of COD, and really the whole thing is just token coverage now with very little enthusiasm.

    "Oh a new COD is coming out? That time of year is it? *Sigh* Ok, I suppose we should send someone to do a preview."

    It's hard to muster any enthusiasm when you feel like you're just endlessly covering the same game with a slightly different subtitle on the end year in, year out.

  • geeza2020 #44 2 years ago

    Because if it was a proper preview you would realise that its just the same shit being shovelled at you again.

  • ignatiusjreilly #45 2 years ago

    "They were also blowing sh** up."

    By shit, he means people. Rad!

  • jefranklin18 #46 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado: I bloody hope the series starts getting the scores of 5 or 6 that it deserves.

    It won't though, it'll be at least an 8.

  • DarknRahl #47 2 years ago

    I am so sick of heavily scripted games with rail-car gameplay. I played the original and loved it as it was really intense and original. The second one I got bored after a few levels.

    People can play whatever they want but it does stick in the craw that the sales figures on these games simply encourage publishers to make more non-original, safe and inoffensive pap. The gaming industry well and truly replicates Hollywood in this regard.

  • dacicus #48 2 years ago

    The first two COD were alright, MW was heading the series in the right direction and then they've decided to release WAW and MW2. Someone mentioned that the devs are afraid to tackle with the horrors of the wars. But the same goes for TV, movies or newspaper. There was a time when the media would present horrific photos or shots from the warzones. Today, everything is sanitized. Like someone would like to make you believe that life is in pink and nothing bad happens out there. La vie en rose, huh? Not bloody likely. I'd really like to see a shooter presenting the war in an unglorified manner. The bowels of your fallen comrades, pieces of human bodies shattered by an artillery shell, blinded people by a phosphorus grenade. Those thing happened and are still happening. Devs should start presenting the war as it is, with good and bad: incredible acts of heroism and incredible horrors.
    Just my two cents.

  • rashes #49 2 years ago

    @AphoticCosmos
    I agree completely. It would be refreshing if they did something serious and real on a shooter... I'm not saying to make it very somber but make some attempt at a serious point and not just 'Michel Bay' guns explosions all the time.

    As regards this game. As with any of the COD games, I don;t care about the single player one bit. I buy COD every year as I still think it's the smoothest most balanced multiplayer game on the market.

    I preferred WaW to MW so hopefully I prefer this to MW2 (All the kill streaks get annoying)

  • ignatiusjreilly #50 2 years ago

    Not bloody likely. I'd really like to see a shooter presenting the war in an unglorified manner. The bowels of your fallen comrades, pieces of human bodies shattered by an artillery shell, blinded people by a phosphorus grenade. Those thing happened and are still happening. Devs should start presenting the war as it is, with good and bad: incredible acts of heroism and incredible horrors.

    Sounds fun.

    edit: Sorry for the flippant answer, but just don't want their game to educate them about the horrors of war. Games (and their audiences) have got a long, long way to go before they can approach subjects intellectually like a good film can, and any company attempting to do what you've described will be commiting corporate suicide.
    Edited by ignatiusjreilly at 19/08/10 @ 14:02

  • CaptainQuint #51 2 years ago

    Day one rental.

  • Physically_Insane #52 2 years ago

    Another CoD article, more spam comments from CoD trolls.

    Vote me down cool kids.

  • Azazel #53 2 years ago

    People are pondering whether war can be anything more than explosions and AMURICA-FUCK-YEAH in a game.

    Dunno. It's the same thing that afflicts movies somewhat. You can't make a movie like Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket or The Hurt Locker - all films which aspire to being a critique of warfare - without at the same time glamorising it to a degree.

    To make an actual anti-war movie you have to create something like Das Boot or Come And See... you have to show the mundanity, tedium and The Horror.

    Would that make an entertaining game? It might well do - just as it can make an entertaining (albeit a bit draining) movie.

    I somehow doubt it would be as commercially successful as CoD though.

    Anyway, it's an interesting thought: is there such a thing as an anti-war game? I can't think of an example.

  • rashes #54 2 years ago

    @Azazel

    I agree .. it's difficult to do. I don't think it has to be an anti-war game... just handle the subject matter with a little bit more gravitas. The problem I see is that it seems to be getting worse. The new MoH game is a particularly bad example of how to treat the subject.
    Possibly it's more obvious how jingoistic war games can be when the conflicts are real and more recent... Vietnam, Afganistan, etc.

  • Ged42 #55 2 years ago

    Actually a game where you're an army photographer trying to stay alive and take photos could be kind of fun. With a split storyline in which you either take photos of war as it really is/was or a propaganderised vision of the conflict.

  • Bluetooth #56 2 years ago

    Like with WW2 FPSs previously, I think we're all just sick and tired of modern FPSs now (in addition to futuristic ones i.e Halo, GOW). Maybe there should be a 3 year period where everyone agrees not to release an FPS, for the good of the industry.

  • Zaiz #57 2 years ago

    Yeah, I'd like to emphasize that CoD4, CoD2, and the first batch of games were absolutely amazing and took shooters in all new directions. The "haet cod" thing shouldn't extend to them because they are great video games and should be treated as such.

    Also, fuck this game. "LOL THIS HELICOPTER WASN'T IN EXISTENCE BUT...uh. WELL LOL AUTHENTICITY IS FOR FAGS, COD IS FOR AWESOME."

  • photoboy #58 2 years ago

    Doesn't admitting you like Farmville automatically destroy any credibility you might have as a serious games journalist?

  • darkmorgado #59 2 years ago

    @photoboy

    Though personally I can't stand it (No I don't want to give you some FUCKING sunflower seeds!), when you come down to it it's really not that different from Harvest Moon, Caesar or SimCity - they all have you trying to find the perfect balance between income and expenditure and expansion and all require you to keep everything running smoothly despite random acts of disaster.

  • Gromit #60 2 years ago

    Call Of Ja-Vu

  • ozzzy189 #61 2 years ago

    screw this scripted shite. 1200pts for 3 new maps- twice !!, a game that still has glitches in over 6 months after release, and bobby kotick- more than enough for me to tell activision to get fucked. there are other games to play more deserving of my limited time.

  • Zerobob #62 2 years ago

    Well, I think the engine COD is built on is astonishing, and coupled with a no bullshit, fast to connect multiplayer I have thouroughly enjoyed playing both Modern Warfare games and also World At War.

    That said, I do think the COD games are starting to fall into the Apple thought pattern; if it has an "i" in front of it people will buy it. Now if it has the "Call Of Duty" logo on it people will also buy it.

    I agree with DoctorFouad though (2nd post). Games used to require innovation to sell and innovation drove the industry. Now flogging the same horse seems the only way developers are happy. I absolutely loved Shenmue and SotC but not because they were the best games ever, as they were both flawed in certain aspects, but because of the idea they portrayed, the atmosphere they created and the way forward they seemed to pave.

    The games industry is reflecting the film industry more and more every day in that the same Hollywood wank (Day and Knight, for example) is released simply as a safe bet for everybody financially involved to make a bit of money back. I really hope the games industry breaks free from this mentality and it's encouraging to see new innovation like Kinect or Move.

  • Douche #63 2 years ago

    rashes

    I agree about making it less Michael Bay - would be interesting to see a more sombre, serious tone in a call of duty title. Doubt it is going to happen though.

    jefranklin18

    It is utter nonsense to suggest that COD games should score 5s or 6s. Easily one of the top shooters out there, despite what the majority of people who comment on COD articles might say.

  • Physically_Insane #64 2 years ago

    @ozzy189
    "screw this scripted shite. 1200pts for 3 new maps- twice !!, a game that still has glitches in over 6 months after release, and bobby kotick- more than enough for me to tell activision to get fucked. there are other games to play more deserving of my limited time."

    I know this has lost all meaning but I'm going to do this now because I absolutely mean it this time:

    /yawn

    Scripted yes, but it has never denied that it wasn't. The majority of games are scripted and it doesn't necessarily mean that the are below par. Why are you talking about the 5 level map pack? This is a preview for Black Ops, not MW2. Glitches? I remember the javelin glitch which was fixed very quickly. MW2 is a very robust game and I'm guessing you ran out of insults. Interesting you state that " there are other games to play more deserving of my limited time" and yet, AND YET, you've came into this article assuming that you read the preview, and trolled this article.

    90% of these comments are ridiculous and I'm afraid that EG will feel pressured to lower their Black Ops review score because of this vocal minority. Seriously though guys, this is getting boring now. I understand you don't like CoD and I don't care if it's because you hate Activision, it's popular, you like IW, whatever. This place is getting as bad as neogaf.

  • Douche #65 2 years ago

    Physically_Insane

    +1

  • geeza2020 #66 2 years ago

    The only reason Black Ops will get a low score is because it will be un-inspiring unoriginal rubbish made to sell to kids who get kicks out of pwning fag noobs.

  • Douche #67 2 years ago

    I disagree, it will get a decent score (no lower than a 7) because it will be well made, fun to play, include co-op and a good multiplayer package. And the above almost certainties are why it will sell to more than just 'kids who get kicks out of pwning fag noobs.'

  • ozzzy189 #68 2 years ago

    Physically insane.
    I understand your point, but activision pissed a lot of gamers off with the feeble map packs, and i think a fair few will not buy another cod, myself included. That was my point. I used to enjoy MW2 online, however, as you probably guessed, i don't now. To many mods and glitches still prevail. I hated cod3, and i'm not a fan of treyarch's work, so i'm not interested in buying the same game with different graphics- same can be said of many games these days i'm afraid. Everything is dumbed down these days, folks seem to want to leave their brains elsewhere when wanting entertainment. The dreadful state of tv programmes these days- reality shows and the shocking state of the music industry- simon cowell i'm looking at you, cinema releases, how many really really good films are there now that are not crash bang wallop boom boom and full of swearing ? We're all doomed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Talbot #69 2 years ago

    I'm p*rating this BS bitchis'