CoD: Black Ops 2

[RooksBailey]

Oliver North has been enlisted (ahem) to help promote BlOps 2:

http://youtu.be/Gm5PZGb3OyQ

AdWeek had an interesting comment on this ad, as well as the blurring of war as entertainment:

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertisi...-ops-ii-140017

The docu-style spot is truly brazen. Here's a notorious military man talking about the frightening future of warfare in a spot that's impressively news-like—yet is completely designed to build drama for an elaborate fiction. The real world and the fantasy world seamlessly combine. There is no difference, it seems, between real war and entertainment war—or at least, none worth fretting over.

...

In a way, it's refreshing to see a gaming campaign so directly acknowledge that the vicarious thrill of fake war is directly based on pretending to experience the real thing. In gaming, war is entertainment—it's just not polite to say so. This may be liberating.

War as entertainment...what do you think?

PC Gamer has this interesting tidbit:

The Strike Force mission we saw was a raid on the Port of Singapore by Navy SEALs. A team of four fast-roped into the shipping port from a helicopter with a mission timer of 20 minutes. These missions operate a little like a skirmish mode; this one felt like a multiplayer map populated by bots. That's a compliment, honestly. More interestingly, you could hop into "Overwatch Mode" at any point, a flying camera view, and assign movement waypoints to all team members. From there, you're able to take control of any friendly unit—drone or man—at any time.

I have to say that the planned features for BlOp2 SP campaign sounds like Treyarch are trying to bring the series into Rainbow Six territory.

[jomni]

War as entertainment...what do you think?

And you ask that question to wargamers?

[MIGMaster]

From all the promo stuff, I really think COD:Black Ops 2 looks a bit out there for me. Next thing you know it'll be Steampunk !

[RooksBailey]

War as entertainment...what do you think?

And you ask that question to wargamers?

LOL!  :D  True enough. 

From all the promo stuff, I really think COD:Black Ops 2 looks a bit out there for me. Next thing you know it'll be Steampunk !

It is curious.  CoD started in WWII, spent the last few years in the modern era, and now is heading to the near future.  Where next?!?

[Arctic Blast]

From all the promo stuff, I really think COD:Black Ops 2 looks a bit out there for me. Next thing you know it'll be Steampunk !

I'm actually happy to see them moving on to something a bit different.

And it seems like Treyarch is setting up the Black Ops series to be a bit more 'gonzo' than the others, anyway.

[RooksBailey]

And it already has set a record:

Call of Duty: Black Ops II beats first-day preorders of Modern Warfare 3 on Amazon

Call of Duty: Black Ops II pre-orders for the first day after the announcement of the game have beaten first-day pre-orders for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Black Ops II has beaten Modern Warfare 3′s pre-orders on Amazon by 30 percent.

That's saying a lot since Modern Warfare 3 was the fastest-selling game in history when it went on sale last November, eclipsing sales of the previous record setter, Call of Duty: Black Ops, from 2010. Modern Warfare 3 currently holds the record for the most pre-ordered game of all time and was among the top 20 pre-orders ever on Amazon.com. Modern Warfare sold more than $1 billion worth of games since it debuted.

Strange, I was just reading how people are tired of the CoD franchise.   ::)