Do you have any questions or concerns about Black Ops II?
Richard: I do wonder if Treyarch can deliver the same sense of franchise innovation to multiplayer. The thematic shift and adjustments to single player pacing aren't exactly applicable to the other significant COD element. I'm curious to see how that will play out. Zombies appears to now be a third pillar in the franchise's design. I'm not sure I'm overly fond of that. I loved the concept when it was a surprise -- a simple bonus for beating World at War. Now that it involves space monkeys and all sorts of other deprave concepts, it's lost a lot of what made it appealing. It will be interesting to see if some key design alterations can recapture the magic.
Beyond that, I still have plenty of questions about the single player experience. I wonder if the shift in time will still be interesting after a few hours -- will I care about mechs and drones later on, or will the familiarity of everything else weigh that down? Will the story be sensible? Will I care at all about my character or the supporting cast? Will COD once again try for some cheap shock tactics at the expense of good taste? The franchise as a whole has developed some rather bad habits. It will be fascinating to see if it can shake them off.
Andrew: I’m still a little nervous about how far into the future we’ll go. As I said before, the setting only works because it’s just barely in the future. Jumping any further ahead than that makes me wonder how the game would be received -- are Call of Duty fans ready to suspend their disbelief that much? I’m also curious to see how the span from the 1980s to the future will work. Can the 80s still be interesting at this point, or will it just be more of the same?
Treyarch also needs to show off the multiplayer. Adding Strike Force missions and branching paths to the single-player campaign is a huge step in the right direction, but that doesn’t mean multiplayer can rest on its laurels. I want to see meaningful changes. New killstreaks and mission types would be great, but let’s mix it up further than that. I’m nervous that multiplayer will just be more of the same, which would be disappointing considering the changes in single-player. Call of Duty obviously does insanely well, and to some degree I can understand the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality, but I’d still like to see Treyarch try something new.
Mitch: I'm interested to see the next step in Zombies, Rich is silly. Yes, it's dumb, but it knows what it's doing, and it's a ton of fun because it lets itself go. Come on, the last one had Buffy and Machete in it. I'd love to see some Strike Force influence appear in the new Zombies mode, perhaps giving one player an overhead view of everything while issuing orders or marking targets. My main question, though, is about the villain of the campaign. Treyarch is really pleased with itself when discussing Menendez, the man with motivation to end the world. As someone who enjoyed hanging out with Woods and co., I suspect I'll dig this dude when we start learning more about him. I'm still not sold that the battle to find him will be anything out of the ordinary, though.
Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the 'Papa Koopa' of the IGN Nintendo team. Join him in his ridiculous adventures on Twitter, Tumblr and IGN. Got questions? You can ask Rich on his Tumblr Q&A page. Keep it cool, Koopalings.
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.
Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.
Richard: I do wonder if Treyarch can deliver the same sense of franchise innovation to multiplayer. The thematic shift and adjustments to single player pacing aren't exactly applicable to the other significant COD element. I'm curious to see how that will play out. Zombies appears to now be a third pillar in the franchise's design. I'm not sure I'm overly fond of that. I loved the concept when it was a surprise -- a simple bonus for beating World at War. Now that it involves space monkeys and all sorts of other deprave concepts, it's lost a lot of what made it appealing. It will be interesting to see if some key design alterations can recapture the magic.
Beyond that, I still have plenty of questions about the single player experience. I wonder if the shift in time will still be interesting after a few hours -- will I care about mechs and drones later on, or will the familiarity of everything else weigh that down? Will the story be sensible? Will I care at all about my character or the supporting cast? Will COD once again try for some cheap shock tactics at the expense of good taste? The franchise as a whole has developed some rather bad habits. It will be fascinating to see if it can shake them off.
Andrew: I’m still a little nervous about how far into the future we’ll go. As I said before, the setting only works because it’s just barely in the future. Jumping any further ahead than that makes me wonder how the game would be received -- are Call of Duty fans ready to suspend their disbelief that much? I’m also curious to see how the span from the 1980s to the future will work. Can the 80s still be interesting at this point, or will it just be more of the same?
Treyarch also needs to show off the multiplayer. Adding Strike Force missions and branching paths to the single-player campaign is a huge step in the right direction, but that doesn’t mean multiplayer can rest on its laurels. I want to see meaningful changes. New killstreaks and mission types would be great, but let’s mix it up further than that. I’m nervous that multiplayer will just be more of the same, which would be disappointing considering the changes in single-player. Call of Duty obviously does insanely well, and to some degree I can understand the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality, but I’d still like to see Treyarch try something new.
Mitch: I'm interested to see the next step in Zombies, Rich is silly. Yes, it's dumb, but it knows what it's doing, and it's a ton of fun because it lets itself go. Come on, the last one had Buffy and Machete in it. I'd love to see some Strike Force influence appear in the new Zombies mode, perhaps giving one player an overhead view of everything while issuing orders or marking targets. My main question, though, is about the villain of the campaign. Treyarch is really pleased with itself when discussing Menendez, the man with motivation to end the world. As someone who enjoyed hanging out with Woods and co., I suspect I'll dig this dude when we start learning more about him. I'm still not sold that the battle to find him will be anything out of the ordinary, though.
Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the 'Papa Koopa' of the IGN Nintendo team. Join him in his ridiculous adventures on Twitter, Tumblr and IGN. Got questions? You can ask Rich on his Tumblr Q&A page. Keep it cool, Koopalings.
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.
Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.
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