We’re only two short weeks away from Black Ops hitting shelves on November 9th and today, we’re excited to roll out the first piece in a two week series of articles. Two weeks equates to 14 days, counting today, and in this piece we’re highlighting 14 ways that Black Ops is raising the bar on First-Person Shooter titles and the Call of Duty franchise, itself.
Do you see where we’re going with this? 14 days left, 14 ways they’ve raised the standard?
What we are going to do is post a new and fun article every day for the next two weeks, in addition to our usual news and content updates. These articles are just going to be a fun look into the world surrounding Black Ops, but always centered around the number of days remaining until launch. We hope that this will provide our readers a bit of fun while they count down the days until November 9th. Without further ado…

14 Ways Black Ops Raises the Bar

• Nazi Zombies - This was one of World at War’s most popular features, and for Black Ops, Treyarch raised the bar on themselves by updating the four original Nazi Zombie maps and bringing them to new life for the heavily updated Black Ops game engine. These maps, however, will only be available in the Hardened or Prestige edition of Black Ops.

• Stat Keeping - Treyarch has said that this is their more aggressive stat-keeping system to date, the one feature in Black Ops. Players can track their stats for each weapon used, over the course of their entire career in Black Ops. Combat Record, a multi-paged record keeping feature, will also feature heat-maps. These are essentially a mapping of where the major action takes place on a map, or where it’s ‘hottest’.

• Sniping – While we know that Quickscoping is a hotly debated Call of Duty community subject, we are diplomatically going to stay out of that one. What we do support, however, is the lengths that Treyarch is going to make sniping more realistic and return the role of a Sniper to where it began in Call of Duty.

• Killstreak Kills - Kills from Killstreak Rewards no longer count towards your next-higher killstreak reward. This is definitely raising the bar over previous Call of Duty titles where users often had only to reach a lower killstreak and hide somewhere while that Killstreak Reward earned them their next-higher one. This will encourage some more interactivity and promote aggressive players.

• Interactive Killstreaks – Something that has been missing from previous Call of Duty titles is a truly interactive Killstreak Reward. More often then not, it is a push-button-and-forget-it type of situation. Modern Warfare 2 improved on this, featuring Chopper Gunner and AC-130 but Treyarch and Black Ops definitely raised the bar. Gunship allows players to control an attack helicopter, including it’s direction and weaponry. Most killstreaks have a certain level of interaction to them. Definitely a step up from previous titles.

• Campaign - Everything that we have seen and heard from Black Ops’ campaign all seems to indicate that the story that Treyarch are telling will surpass any Call of Duty campaign by quite a lot. The player-character now has a voice, as opposed to never speaking in previous Call of Duty titles, this is going to go a long way to getting players wrapped up in the Campaign’s epic story. We’ve been teased that the campaign ending is extremely epic.

• Special Secondaries – Two of the most hotly anticipated weapons in Black Ops are the two, brand-new and unorthodox Special Secondaries: the Crossbow and the Ballistic Knife. Out of the ordinary weaponry like these two really set Black Ops apart from previous Call of Duty titles, and many FPS titles in general and sets a new standard for this genre. People may not be entirely happy being restricted to firearms in the future, remembering back on Black Ops’ Crossbow and Ballistic Knife.

• Community Feedback – Never before have we seen such dedication to the community, as Treyarch have shown during the development of Black Ops. Countless features in the game came directly from feedback that the community put forth. Treyarch has proven time and time again that, not only are they willing to listen to us, they are willing to change their game for us. Their level of community interaction sets the bar very high for other developers, as players are going to hope for this level of interaction from every game developer they deal with.

• COD Points – If you aren’t familiar, COD Points is the name of the new currency system, implemented into Black Ops for the first time in Call of Duty history. This system allows you to earn Points and spend them any way you like, on Weapons, Camo’s, Face-paints, Killstreak Rewards or a host of other options. This raises the bar on many other FPS titles and especially on Call of Duty, itself. Never before have players had the ability to spend ‘money’ on anything that they wish. We have always been given a certain weapon, at a certain level, whether we liked that weapon or not.

• Co-op - While we don’t have the exact details, from everything we have been told and have seen, we are certain that Black Ops’ co-op mode will definitely surpass Spec Ops in MW2 and Campaign Co-op in World at War. Treyarch has promised a ‘seat-of-your-pants’ type of fun for players and their friends. With Nazi Zombies and the new co-op mode, we are sure to have a first-class co-op experience.

• Theater - While Theater mode may not be new to FPS titles in general, it is certainly a brand new and highly anticipated feature in Black Ops. Players will be able to share clips with friends and upload videos to the internet, though the details of the latter are not yet available. With Free Cam mode, you can detach the camera from a set player and move freely around the map, watching the action from all angles. There will also be a Segment Editor, where players can join clips to form a film. This is definitely a major addition to the Call of Duty series, and one that fans will not want to miss out on in the future.

• Combating Hackers & Cheaters - The hacking community has plagued Call of Duty and many other FPS’ online game modes for years. Action has been taken against them in the past, to little or no avail, it seems. This time around, Treyarch is stepping up their measures by, not only including in-game security but a team of people in place to respond and react to hacks, glitches or exploits as they appear in Black Ops. This is definitely a stepped-up security measure, and one that many other developers will most likely want to implement in their games in the future, depending on the success that Treyarch has with Black Ops.

• Balancing Multiplayer – Previous Call of Duty games have all had their balancing issues, but Treyarch seems to be doing everything that they can to ensure that both Killstreaks and Weapons are all balanced when Black Ops launches on November 9th. The effort that they are making is rumored to include having a person on the team, who’s sole job on Black Ops, is to ensure that the MP is balanced. This will be a welcome change for people who were pestered with MP40′s in World at War, UMP-45′s and Chopper Gunner in Modern Warfare 2 or any of the other bothersome balancing issues.

• Customization – the number one way that Black Ops raises the bar on FPS games and future Call of Duty games is Customization. Whether it’s the option to place your Clan Tag on your weapon or the chance to create a multi-layer emblem representing yourself, Treyarch has really raised the bar with Customization. Players like to make their online character a representation of themselves, and prefer to play the game in their own style. The options for that are coming on November 9th, and they are coming in droves. Be prepared to spend a long, long while making your Black Ops experience unique to your style.

http://www.codblackopsnews.com/2010/10/26/14-ways-that-black-ops-raises-the-bar/

Posted: Oct 27, 2010 2:56 am