Call of Duty®: Black Ops

Nuketown was one of the most popular maps in Call of Duty: Black Ops' back shooting filling multiplayer, and a favourite of fans. Now an IGN reader has spotted a poster at Irish game store Xtravision that indicates the beloved map is coming back, but not for everyone.

The redesigned map is called 'Nuketown 2025' and will be updated to fit with Black Ops 2's more futuristic approach. It's unclear if the Nuketown will be a special edition bonus (the sign does say 'limited edition') a pre-order bonus (it also says 'driving pre-orders... and day 1') or an retailer specific bonus. Either way it's described as the 'biggest incentive in Call of Duty history', which while it will no doubt excite retailers, is just an additional annoyance for fans.

Maps are always a controversial choice when it comes to bonus incentives, as EA and DICE found out last year when gamers attempted to organise a boycott in the mistaken belief that Battlefield 3's Back to Karkand would be day one DLC for pre-order customers. The fear is that it will unnecessarily split the community, although given that Black Ops sold 20 million map packs, Activision could probably split their community several times over and still have more players than almost every other FPS.

Bonus maps aside, the new Call of Duty actually looks like it's trying some new and interesting things. Check out our Black Ops 2 preview for more.

The studio behind the Tony Hawk series and Guitar Hero have started working on Call of Duty. Evil Avatar note that their website has been updated with a message saying "we have molded our team into a crack squad of eager developers ready to push the First Person Action genre in support of Activision's Call of Duty franchise."

Working "in support" suggests they might be handling ongoing DLC content for an upcoming Call of Duty, in the same way that Sledgehammer are supporting Modern Warfare 3 with Call of Duty Elite content. Alternatively, they could be working on a new CoD title entirely, but will it have skateboards?

It's impossible to tell at this early stage, but judging from the cycling mocap studio shots and the job listings on the site, it won't be a small spin-off. The job ads require "experience designing top notch levels or gameplay experiences in shipped AAA titles" So there we are, Neversoft are the latest members of Activision's Call of Duty tag team, consisting of Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven.

Treyarch are busy putting together Call of Duty: Black Ops for release later this year. Based on previous form, Infinity Ward will be making Modern Warfare 4 for 2013, but a Neversoft project could give one of Activision's other studios an extra year or two to move CoD into an upgraded engine, though that may be wishful thinking. Frostbite 2 will start pushing 64-bit OS systems next year, with the release of Battlefield 3 and Medal of Honor, Call of Duty is in danger of looking increasingly dated.

 
"Noisy" and "quite orange" were the two overriding sentiments coming out of the E3 2012 demo for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The futuristic setting does allow for some neat toys, though. There's a sniper section in which the player plugs enemies from a broken carriageway, spying and shooting them through solid concrete pillars, Perfect Dark style.

It's loud and full of bangs, but there's no sign of any deviation from the traditional Call of Duty linear set-piece to set-piece progression here, and while there's technically plenty going on (mostly explosions), up-close, the engine is starting to show its age, especially when lined up alongside the Medal of Honor trailer that also emerged from the E3 conferences today. What do you think of the new setting?

With ITV mistaking games footage for video evidence of terrorists attacking planes and the BBC mistaking a logo from Halo for a genuine UN flag, the boundaries between the real and the virtual are getting interestingly blurred – although not, curiously, by people who actually play a lot of games. Accidents like the BBC and ITV incidents happen, but intentionally confusing games for reality is still rare. Unless you're Sam Orchard, a photography student from Falmouth College hopes.

He's taking screenshots to the art world, with a project called 'Uncanny Valley' which will be exhibited at the Truman Brewery in London. In it, he uses shots from Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 to “question the validity of the perceived ‘real’ war photograph”.

I contacted Sam to ask him how he captured the images, thinking there'd be some sort of free camera mod with heavy PhotoShopping involved to let him get the pictures he wanted, some of which are very close to award winning pictures from recent conflicts. Stupid me – his technique was to point a camera at the screen while playing. Tricky to do, but he is a photographer after all.

War photography and the images of war is a difficult subject to tackle – on the one hand, it might seem facile to challenge photojournalists and reporters who risk their lives to bring back stories from warzones with pictures from videogames. On the other, their work is so important that it needs challenging regularly – at its worst, it becomes a process for satisfying the aesthetics of the image rather than the documentary truth of a situation.

“Some of the most celebrated war photographs of all time (Roger Fenton's 'Valley of the Shadow of Death' - 1855, Robert Capa's 'Falling Soldier' - 1936) were the result of ethically debatable degrees of representationalism or even straight forgery, using the perceived infallibility of the war photograph to mould the author's own agenda around the image.” says Orchard, “This ranged from moving aspects of the scene to benefit the final aesthetic of the photograph (Fenton), or actually staging soldiers being shot to create an iconic image (Capa).”



There have been many more recent examples of photographers seeking a “front page shot”, says Orchard, who believes that an “iconic documentary image should be incidental, not constructed”.

“By mimicking the role of a war photojournalist and imitating the aesthetic conventions of the archetypal war photograph,” he says, “I aimed to plant a seed of doubt within the viewer's mind - causing them to question not only my images, but other subsequent 'real' images of war. This process of creating an awareness to the potential of deception within the war photograph would therein challenge the working ethos of the war photojournalism industry and its supposed purveyance of truth.”

Le Show – which features collections from the Falmouth course, most of which have nothing to do with games of course - runs from 21st to 26th June. Image credits and copyright Sam Orchard.

(Via Duckrabbit)

The introduction of the Frostbite 2 with Battlefield 3 last year threw down the gauntlet to other shooters. Visually, things have taken a step up, so it's interesting to see how the other big shooter franchises like Call of Duty respond. Black Ops 2 was revealed just a few weeks ago, and while it's been updated, it's still running on the modified version of the id Tech 3 engine that the series has been using for years. Treyarch aren't concerned.

Mark Lamia spoke about the Black Ops 2 engine to One of Swords. "People always ask me, “Is this a new engine?” I liken it to people who live in an older house that has been remodeled," he said. "Just because you’re remodeling the house and it will look new or it will have a new kitchen, you don’t tear out the foundation, or break out some of the framing. You might even go as hardcore as replacing the plumbing, and we will do that sort of thing, as an analogy. It’s a gross simplification, but it’s one way to say that. There’s a lot of good still in that foundation that you wouldn’t get rid of, and we don’t. We look to advance in the areas that support our game design."

The lighting system has been a big point of interest for Treyarch in Black Ops 2, and the team have the added constraint of trying to ensure that the game will run on consoles at 60 frames per second.

"Engines, each time they get touched, they change. The creators alter them; they don’t modify what they don’t need to, and then they alter what they need to. You can’t make a competitive product if you’re not upgrading that engine along the way," he added.

Black Ops 2 will be set in a future full of X-Ray sniper rifles. Find out more in our Black Ops 2 preview.

Court documents obtained by Game Informer suggest that the near-future setting of Treyarch's upcoming Black Ops 2 could violate the agreement between Activision and Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward.

Infinity Ward's Memorandum of Understanding includes a cause that grants the developer authority over 'any Call of Duty title set in modern day (post Vietnam), the near future or distant future.'

Game Informer's report suggests that if ex-Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West win the lawsuit against Activision, the publisher could find itself in a difficult situation, with damages payments the likely outcome.

Check out Evan's Black Ops 2 preview for more on Treyarch's new direction for the series, and this picture of a mocap horse because it's a picture of a mocap horse.

Evan mentioned this in his Black Ops 2 preview, but we thought it was worth highlighting.

Treyarch have been motion capturing horses ridden by men with toy AK-47s. You can see the results of the tech in their recent trailer, which is embedded below. Read on for a larger image of the horse and rider, along with a few screenshots of some in-game horse action, grabbed for your convenience.

Our initial verdict? Excellent equine rendering. Whether it's up to the high standards set by the probably-never-coming-to-PC Red Dead Redemption is yet to be confirmed. Which animal would you most like to motion capture?

Black Ops 2 will utilise the power of DX 11 on PC. As reported on One of Swords, Treyarch’s director of online highlighted the graphical upgrades during the recent Black Ops 2 reveal presentation. Despite the technical upgrades, getting the upcoming FPS to run at a 60 frames per second on all platforms is still high on Treyarch's priority list.

Dan showed off the developer's mixture of "tech and technique" during a walkthrough of a level set on Yemen's Socotra Island. HDR lighting, bounce lighting, self shadowing and reveal mapping will all feature. They sound pretty. Treyarch showed off the new features next to footage of the first Black Ops, making it look a bit crummy by comparison.

Expect more identifiable landmarks within multiplayer maps too. Treyarch want to make it as easy as possible for your squad mates to identify your location, promoting more co-ordinated teamplay.

We'll have more on Black Ops 2 soon. Until then, check out the Black Ops 2 Reveal trailer and our Black Ops 2 preview. Evan also got a chance to grill Treyarch with hard questions after the presentation.

We really like grilling developers.* Hard Questions embodies our commitment to addressing the creative, technical, or customer service decisions made by developers that PC gamers care about.

*PC Gamer's legal representation would like to remind you that our regret for the lives lost by our prototype Interview Barbeque is not an admission of guilt.

I spent a day with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 last week. After Treyarch's presentation, I borrowed a breaching charge from the studio's kitchen (the place is lousy with C4) to blast open the office door of its studio head, Mark Lamia. Entering in slow-mo with Inquiry Guns akimbo, I complimented Mark on the presidential red rotary telephone on his desk. Through a fog of drywall dust and poisonous florescent lightblub particulate, my interrogation began.

PCG: Will Black Ops 2 have dedicated servers on PC?

Mark Lamia, Studio Head, Treyarch: We had it with Black Ops, so the architecture exists. But we haven't yet announced exactly what that setup is going to be with Black Ops 2. The goal, for us, really, is to... We like the flexibility, just philosophically, of the dedicated server. We also like our game to be played the way we spent the last couple of years making it, and try to find that happy medium between the two. There's a meta-game that we've created here in terms of allowing people to rank up with the experience points and everything. Trying to make sure that people can enjoy that meta-game is important to us too. That's where we try to strike that balance on Black Ops as much as possible.



Is it an issue related to anti-cheat? I think that was something a lot of people—

ML: Absolutely it is. It's absolutely related. It's one of the considerations. Once you let those server files out, there's a problem. That was actually one of the primary reasons why you could rent a server... I can tell you that that wasn't a business decision on our part. That's not our business. But it's an important security consideration.

One of the things I know that the team has been focused on for the PC is, in particular, anti-cheat mechanisms. We know it's a huge issue in PC gaming, for online gaming. We've been working on proprietary schemes, we're not just relying on the commercial schemes that... They do a good job and clearly that's their job, to do that stuff. But we have a lot of experience, especially after Black Ops, seeing what people were doing to the game, and we want to make sure... Look—you want to do that stuff in a custom, private game, that's your business, but if you're playing out there in the world, in the community, we are going to try to make it fun for as many people as possible. So we have some proprietary schemes the team has been working on. I think that will be unique to this title, since it's not off-the-shelf software. We're working on that.



Don't you think Black Ops 2 would benefit from a beta?

ML: The problem with a beta, in particular on our time frame, it's just not practical. We're coming out this year, we're not taking four years to make this game or three years to make this game. You could actually take a lot of time on a beta. Most consumers don't have a technical problem. We have done betas in the past. Sometimes you get the information you need and actually sometimes you don't. It just depends. But there's nothing like having the reach of a game like Call of Duty to eventually get to every single place.

What about Call of Duty Elite? It’s still strange to me that your web-based platform doesn’t function with the PC version of Modern Warfare 3.

ML: Great question. It's one that Activision has to answer for us. Right now it's not a technical limitation on our engines. But there is... We haven't announced exactly what we're doing with Elite for the next game. It's more of an Elite question that's going to be answered for people later. But our game does a real good job... Did you play Black Ops?

Yeah.

ML: So there's a ton of stats that we have already built into our engine. Our engine's really well-integrated with all that stuff. We're already doing quite a bit of that. It's going to be really... It takes advantage of Elite pretty nicely.

Will Black Ops 2 have LAN play? That doesn't seem like a troublesome thing to implement.

ML: Yeah, so we'll talk about, like, what network architectures and stuff we're going to give you a little bit later. But I think it's fair to say that we're paying attention to the eSports scene, and the kinds of issues that you're talking about... Forget the specific hardware, but the kinds of issues that you're talking about are ones that we are paying attention to and are important to us.

How would you expect to support eSports on PC without dedicated servers?

ML: Um... Well, I haven't told you whether we are or we aren't having them, so... You mean if there were no dedicated servers? Well, we were able to do that with... I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but we were able to do that with... We had Black Ops on the PS3 on the MLG, that was a Pro Circuit. What you're able to do is create... In your custom game configuration, you allow people to create the customizations that they need. You don't need a dedicated server to give people the variables they need to create a custom game.

Thanks for your time, Mark.

Check back later this week for Hard Questions about mods and more from our interview with Treyarch on the PC version of Call of Duty: Black ops 2.

A mysterious blurry poster has fallen into Kotaku's hands, passed on by a "retail source." It's tagged with Activision and Treyarch's logos and features a big date and a tagline "return for debriefing."

The framing device for the Call of Duty: Black Ops single player campaign was an angry debriefing session. You'd return there between missions to listed to a man shout things like "Mason! Mason! The numbers, Mason! what about the numbers? WHAT ABOUT THE NUMBERS?" Lurking silhouettes of brooding military men has been a staple of Black Ops marketing materials in the past, too, suggesting that this could be a tease for the heavily rumoured Black Ops 2.

Black Ops 2 has being popping up all over the place. It was briefly listed on Amazon at one point, it's been spotted on dev CVs and Activision snapped up web domain names related to Black Ops 2 months ago. Activision haven't confirmed anything yet, mind. The date on the poster could be the reveal date. Here's the full sized pic.