That’s right. It looks like that quadrotor flying drone teaser was the nail in the coffin, as the futuristic tech features in the world premiere trailer that Activision released during the playoffs.

If you pay attention to the opening of the trailer, you’ll see that the game is set in the year 2025. After watching The Avengers recently, we can’t help but notice that the building you first see at the start of the trailer bears a slight resemblance to Stark Towers! Back to the game though – how does a futuristic Black Ops sequel appeal to you after seeing the trailer?

Graphics don’t look particularly amazing, but then again it has always been about the gameplay. We’re getting really excited about the idea of using various flying mech and gadgets as new killstreaks in the game, not to mention things like plasma rifles that Treyarch can now put in the game.

There’s explosions galore in the trailer and towards the end another little surprise – horses. Will they be restricted to the campaign mode or will you be able to ride horses in multiplayer? – Sounds a little crazy we know. At the moment, there’s a lot of divide on whether a futuristic setting is good for Black Ops. However, after the arguably ‘disappointing’ MW3, a big shake up like futuristic warfare is just the change that the Call of Duty franchise needs.

What about Battlefield as well? We’re intrigued to hear what EA think of Activision’s sudden switch to a futuristic setting for Black Ops 2. If the game enjoys the same amount of success that the first Black Ops game did which it probably will, then don’t be surprised to see EA follow suit with a futuristic Battlefield 4 of their own. Would you like to see this happen as well, or would you be strongly opposed to the idea?

A zombie mode has already been confirmed for Black Ops 2 as well, but we’ll discuss that at a later point. Watch the trailer below if you haven’t already and let us know your opinions on Activision taking things into the future. Is this going to become a popular trend for the next generation of home consoles?

More About: Battlefield 4, Black Ops 2, call of duty

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Given that some of the recent Black Ops 2 rumors have proved to be incorrect, you should obviously take the following information with a pinch of salt. However, there’s no denying that whoever has posted the list has obviously gone into great detail, so that may provide a solid amount of evidence that it could be real.

To get started, the information was found on a German forum and discovered by MP1ST. A perk list has been compiled along with their relevant ”Pro” unlocks and it references new perks such as Spy, Audiophile, Escape Artist and Diver. Spy will allow you to appear as a friend on an enemy’s radar, while Audiophile will allow you to spot silenced weapons on the radar. Escape Artist adds the brilliant idea of being able to ‘fake death’ while prone, and finally Diver will allow you to shoot whilst dolphin diving.

These are just a few of the perks mentioned – there’s a full list below to read through. Some of the ideas this time around are pretty exciting, such as Bladesman – giving you two knives instead of one and Pilot, where any air Killstreaks will count towards your next Killstreak.

A list of weapons has also been disclosed, although we’re not sure if this is the final list or just what has been confirmed so far. Some of the rifles include the AR-18, Valmet M60, R1 Rifle, AK47 and Commando. However, there is no mention of favorites such as the ACR or M4A1 rifles.

Sniper rifles listed include the M76, SVD, model 700, PSL and the returning PSG-1. There’s also a mention of a Stinger launcher in the explosives category, meaning that players will be able to take out aircraft which is always a good thing.

Just to reiterate, there’s no guarantee that this information is correct, but the perks list does look believable so it’s worth a look. Have a look at the full perks and weapon chart here and let us know what you think of it. Which new perk appeals to you the most? We really like the idea of the Spy and Diver perks, so we hope that these are confirmed at least.

More About: Black Ops 2, call of duty

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If you head to the official Call of Duty website, you’ll now see that a countdown is taking place. The announcement will officially take place during the US basketball playoffs on TNT. Having said that, you can probably expect the trailer to go up before then since it always happens every year.

Along with the countdown are a series of teaser images, which Activision are planning to reveal in the upcoming days leading up to the end of the countdown. The first image has been teased already and doesn’t reveal much, but the most interesting thing about the website is that the background image used is almost exactly like the same chap we saw on the Black Ops game.

Judging by all of the numerous leaks over the last few months and indeed this background image from Activision – the next game is probably going to end up being Black Ops 2. Considering that we just have a week to go until the countdown ends, expect all kinds of speculation to kick off as Activision unlock the teaser images one by one.

Do you have any idea what the first image could be, because we don’t. It could be some kind of camera device, but Activision aren’t really giving much away here. It’s strange that their background image really does give the impression that this is another Black Ops game, so does it perhaps defeat their objective of still trying to keep the game a secret until May 1st?

We’ve added both images below, let us know your reaction to the next Call of Duty game being revealed next week. Instant purchase for you or not?

More About: Black Ops 2, call of duty

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Like all previous Black Ops 2 rumors before it, Activision has already swooped and deleted the image in question so you can no longer see it. If you’re interested though and of course you will be – you can view the image again over at TheSixthAxis here. The logo is nothing too fancy, but the obvious highlight is a reveal date of April 28th 2012 – almost two years exactly to the date that Activision unveiled the first Black Ops game.

Does this mean that we are going to be treated to a world premiere gameplay trailer on this date as well, or will Activision just reveal the game’s existence first and foremost? It seems like Black Ops 2 is the worse kept secret in the gaming industry at the moment, but that doesn’t mean to say that the anticipation for a sequel will decrease, since there is a general belief amongst many gamers that Treyarch’s Black Ops remains the best Call of Duty in recent years after an ‘arguably’ disappointing Modern Warfare 3 game from Infinity Ward.

Just to recap, this information has come from previous intel posted on the official Black Ops which suggested that Activision will release the game on November 6th. Both sets of information have now been deleted though by Activision, so you have to presume that they are just trying to prolong this for as long as possible.

What can we expect to see in the new game, more of the same from MW3, or a continuation of Zombies and the addictive Wager Match modes? For us, these were the best aspects of the game in our opinion that kept Treyarch’s game unique compared to Modern Warfare, so we just hope that they are adventurous with the game and take the game in a brand new direction that the franchise badly needs.

What are you expecting from Black Ops 2 this year?

More About: Black Ops 2, call of duty

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If you’re talking about Call of Duty as a game in the first person shooter genre, it’s fair to say that Call of Duty is right up there with the top at the moment. With this in mind, Robert Bowling as a creative strategist was obviously in a pretty commanding position as the number one community figure for the franchise, just like Josh Olin is for Treyarch’s Call of Duty games.

To leave Activision just like that, something drastic must have happened, or Robert Bowling has received a more rewarding offer for a different game project. Bowling always uses his Twitter account to display his thoughts, and some recent Tweets from the man may have offered a slight insight into why he left.

As noted by MSXbox-World, Bowling has said that he’s in no rush with his next move. He aims to take his time and look for something passionate, stating that he ‘wants to fall in love again’. Does that mean he has fallen out with Call of Duty then basically? – Too difficult to say at this time perhaps.

However, a further tweet from him replies to a user who said that it’s not always about the money and that he shouldn’t join Respawn (Referring to Respawn Entertainment, where the ex-Infinity Ward leads are now based). Bowling replied to the user agreeing that ‘there is more to life than money’ and that the sooner people realize that, the better.

One final Tweet and the most interesting to us, is that he reportedly stated that he ‘doesn’t want to spend his time just focusing on one project’ (Call of Duty), when there are ‘far too many amazing things’ happening in the industry right now.

You can just sense that Bowling is dying to reveal what has really happened between himself and his former employers, but just as he stated it looks like he is in no rush to tell us just yet.

One thing to note though is that these Tweets mentioned in the source above appear to have disappeared from Bowling’s Twitter account, so draw your own conclusions on that. If Bowling really has fallen out of love with the state of Call of Duty at the moment – would you be surprised by this?

More About: call of duty

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Ah, good old zombies – are you feeling starved yet? Infinity Ward has tried to recreate the ‘survival’ experience seen in zombies with Modern Warfare 3 but it’s not really the same is it?

Gamers are hungry for even more zombie maps to play and it would be a pretty crazy decision if Treyarch didn’t announce a new zombie mode along with their game. As most of you know, the last map featured a Moon setting and it was a general cliffhanger for most seeing as there was still plenty of ways to prolong the game further.

How could Treyarch expand on zombies in Black Ops 2 to make it an instant purchase for you? We would love to see some little additions to current gameplay, such as multiple types of pack a punch weapons with each version costing more money but having greater features. We would also like to see the death machine mini gun as a main weapon, but make players earn it first by completing a certain puzzle or set of co-op challenges.

We would also like to see support for more than four players online – when are Treyarch finally going to make this a feature? Zombies is crying out for more player support, and also even more types of zombie to kill. Zombies with smarter AI would be welcome too, zombies which could jump and actually give you a real problem in-game.

More perks are also welcome, but brand new ways to kill those zombies is what we want to see. It looks like Black Ops 2 is definitely a reality as we have had another retail leak – this time coming from a major Spanish and Portugese shop. You can check out a screenshot at Eurogamer, as we won’t upload it here.

If you are getting bored of Modern Warfare 3 and want to see a new zombie mode along with Black Ops 2 this year, let us know what sort of new features and enhancements you would like to see. More of the same, or a complete revamp?

More About: call of duty, Call of Duty 4

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The engine that was used for MW3 first saw the light of day back in 2005 with Call of Duty 2, and has only seen some minor tweaks since then. Velocity Gamer feels that both Treyarch and Infinity Ward know how to make a great multiplayer game, especially when it comes to bringing fans back for more. The franchise has been gaining in popularity in the last few years but it doesn’t seem that Activision has done much to improve the experience.

Currently the game has no dedicated online servers despite the huge revenue the game draws in, and not forgetting the extra income earned via DLC content. There will be some who think it is time that the game was treated to a new engine to run on, along with its own servers. The franchise big rival last time round was Battlefield 3, which was treated to the impressive Frostbite 2 engine.

We have wondered in the past whether the constant annual releasing of games such as Call of Duty are as good as titles like Skyrim and GTA V. There will obviously be no chance of Activision taking a break with Call of Duty until the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft becomes available.

Recently we heard that Activision had promised the next title will bring ‘meaningful innovation’ to the franchise, which is believed to be Black Ops 2. After each Call of Duty game has been released in recent years there has been some users saying they won’t purchase another one because of the similarities. There is a good chance though the next release will again break sales records, but some fans may feel left a little cheated if the game is too similar to previous offerings.

The franchise probably won’t see a new engine on the current gen systems, and there is a good chance that developers are already working on next gen platforms already if recent job ads are anything to go by. While there were complaints of recycling with MW3 the game still sold really well, but if the practice were to continue some Call of Duty fans may at least delay getting the next release.

Do you want to see a new engine for the Call of Duty franchise?

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There has been a lot of speculation regarding the next game being a direct sequel to Black Ops, and it seems like a large piece of that puzzle has now been solved, thanks to the inadvertent help from Amazon France.

Not for the first time, Amazon has once again spilled the beans on a major game release and although this is obviously not 100% official yet, it was reported over the weekend that Amazon France had put up a listing online for Call of Duty Black Ops 2.

As you can imagine, the page on Amazon disappeared rather quickly, but not until French website Gameblog.fr snapped a few screenshots of the listing. Then a major twist occurred as Activision contacted the site in question asking for them to remove the screenshots and information on Black Ops 2 immediately, to which they refused to do so.

A transcript of the whole event has been compiled by the guys over at Kotaku who add that Gameblog.fr have also allegedly had their media partnership with Activision terminated, although Activision has now dismissed this claim as a misunderstanding.

So there was that, and then one other notable piece of information regarding Black Ops 2. A chap known as Hugo Beyer had put on his LinkedIn page that he was working for a company called Nerve Software, and that one of the titles in progress was Call of Duty Black Ops 2, according to Joystiq. Unsurprisingly, the page has now vanished as well and additional information from Joystiq reveals that Nerve Software is actually a company contracted by Treyarch, developers for the best selling game on the PS3 and Xbox 360, in Black Ops.

Has Activision’s cover been well and truly blown by this new intel? It certainly seems like it, so hopefully it won’t be long until Activision finally reveals what their 2012 Call of Duty game will be. One possible explanation behind Activision’s strict stance in trying to block the information being published is the fact that this was one of their main surprises for E3 2012. Now that the majority of gamers believe that Black Ops 2 is coming this year, we perhaps won’t see the ‘wow’ factor when and if Treyarch pop up on stage in the Summer to announce the game.

What are your thoughts on these new revelations. Will you be delighted if a direct sequel to Black Ops materializes? It would be a very logical decision on Activision’s part of course, especially given the phenomenal successes of the first game.

More About: Black Ops 2, call of duty

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Little information is known on the COD game for PS Vita as of yet, as Activision have remained silent on whether the game will be a brand new entry in the Call of Duty series or if the likes of Infinity Ward or Treyarch will port an existing Call of Duty game to the handheld instead.

We don’t want to read too much into this, but we thought you should know that a new gameplay video is doing the rounds on YouTube, appearing to suggest that Call of Duty for PS Vita will actually be a port of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The evidence is far from conclusive though, as we see no evidence that the gameplay is actually running on a Vita system and this is one of the main reasons why most of you are already calling fake on this one.

While it would still be an impressive feat to get the console and PC version of Modern Warfare running on the PS Vita handheld, personally speaking we would rather see a brand new game altogether, rather than the same old gameplay that we’ve all played before. On the slim chances that this video is real, it wouldn’t be the first time that Call of Duty 4 has received a port. You may remember that the Reflex Edition was ported to the Nintendo Wii by Treyarch, but had a reduction in features compared to the console and PC versions.

Another reason why this may be fake is the lack of touchscreen controls and modified interface seen in the video either. Don’t forget that this will be Activision’s first Call of Duty game on the Vita, so they would want it to look as good as possible – the blurred gameplay we see in the clip doesn’t show off any touchscreen commands or updated visuals. When Activision first unveiled the news about COD coming to the Vita (then NGP), they hinted that the game would make full use of touch commands, the rear touch pad and also social media functions.

On this basis alone, we think this is just a user created video designed to tickle a few lungs and nothing more. Check out the gameplay below for yourself and let us know your thoughts on it. It has to be fake, right guys?

More About: call of duty, sony

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Activision has just finished with their latest investor’s call and not for the first time, some rather interesting information has come out of it, other than the typically ‘boring’ financial statistics that most you are probably not interested in hearing.

This time however, Activision Publishing chief Eric Hirshberg has given all current and past Call of Duty players reason for optimism by stating that the game will bring ‘meaningful innovation’ to the franchise. Many current COD players who have become disillusioned with the state of the franchise will agree that yes, the game does need a slice of ‘innovation’, so what could we be possibly be seeing in the next game that we haven’t already seen?

You may not want to get your hopes up though on that passage of text, as since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, we haven’t really seen much in the way of innovation. One potential reasoning behind this though, could be aimed at the ‘action adventure’ title that Sledgehammer Games are thought to be developing. Cast your mind back to March of 2010, when Activision’s COO Thomas Tippi was quoted as saying this about the Sledgehammer developed Call of Duty game:

”We haven’t yet announced the content of their game, but it’s going to be an innovative take that will further broaden the audience for Call of Duty.”

Could we link the two pieces of information together and assume that this is all related to the same game? At the time of that ‘innovative’ quote last year, many of you were going crazy on the prospect of space warfare featuring in some capacity in a Call of Duty game, while we also saw a lot of requests for a Call of Duty futuristic warfare game as well.

It’s clear that Activision need to do something though, as many fans are not too impressed after seeing what Modern Warfare 3 had to offer. Whatever game comes out though, it’s obviously going to be a big success since Activision and Call of Duty can seemingly do no wrong regardless of any criticism aimed towards the franchise.

If you have played Modern Warfare 3 and didn’t feel as if it was better than Modern Warfare 2, let us know your ideas on how they can ‘innovate’ the series to make it completely different. Would space warfare be such a bad idea?

More About: Activision, call of duty, Treyarch

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