Tech Olive

Treyarch surprised fans today with the release of in-game Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer footage. As expected, the game is packed with new weapons along with plenty of features that made Modern Warfare 2 great, but improved upon (and hopefully with less hackers). Most notable of these advancements is the graphics engine, with this footage showing some impressive smoke, particle and weather effects.

One of the more interesting points is the “Theater Mode” (briefly shown at the end) that seems to offer gamers the ability to view and edit replays and save them. Hit the break to check out the footage!

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In an announcement that hardly comes at a surprise, Treyarch revealed today that Call of Duty: Black Ops will not feature co-op gameplay in the primary campaign, but will opt for something like the “Spec Ops” missions we saw in Modern Warfare 2 before it. Black Ops will feature “unique co-op modes,” with single-player being “the epic, cinematic, seat-of-your-pants thrill ride that you star in.”

via [Joystiq]

For those of you that didn’t want to sit through an entire night of sports just to catch a glimpse of Treyarch’s upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops, here’s the full and uncut trailer for your viewing pleasure. Check it out after the break.

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In an interview, Treyarch head Mark Lamia mentioned that they are working hard to include dedicated servers in the PC version of Black Ops for multiplayer.

“Dedicated servers are excellent, I don’t see any reason not to see them unless… well, I just don’t see any reason not to. We do work very hard to reconcile the desire to manipulate and modify those dedicated servers with offering them the persistent experience and benefits that the console system provides… We’re working very hard to marry those two things, so people can run dedicated servers and also participate in the communal experience the console players get to have, given they’re all on first-party servers.”

Nobody would have expected it, but perhaps Treyarch will be the one to save us from the horrible trenches that Infinity Ward dug for us with IWNet’s terrible player-2-player servers in Modern Warfare 2.

On a related note, Activision has assured gamers that a full, proper Black Ops trailer will be premiering on May 18th during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals match on ESPN.

via [Shack News]

Treyarch has released the first trailer for their upcoming Call of Duty game, Black Ops. Shrouded in secrecy and mystery, the teaser gives us a few tiny glimpses of actual gameplay, but little else to go with it. Follow the break for the trailer.

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While we’re still expecting the first teaser trailer today from GTTV, it seems the story has broke and Activision has announced that the next Treyarch CoD game will be Call of Duty: Black Ops and is set for a November 9th release this year.

“We can’t wait for our community to experience Call of Duty: Black Ops,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head for Treyarch. “We have focused our entire studio on this game, with dedicated multiplayer, single-player and co-op teams creating the most intense, gripping and riveting experience possible for our fans on all fronts.”

[Press Release, Official Site]

According to a full-page report in this month’s Official Playstation Magazine, their next issue will have a feature officially announcing the next Call of Duty game. So, we’ll finally be able to confirm or crush some of the rumors that have been flying around recently.

via [SystemLink]

2010 seems to be the year of mystery, ciphers and codes for developers. An interesting teaser has released for Call of Duty 7 and it seems to paint a different picture than the one that we’ve come to expect. Although more solid details still point to the game taking place in Vietnam, following a special operations group, the teaser site seems to have a much larger focus on the USA’s nuclear weapons program and 1960s propaganda. So, perhaps, CoD7 will have a lot more to do with the American homeland than gamers have been expecting. However, at this point, gamers can only speculate until further solid details can help decode some of this information.

via [GGtL]

In a press release that leaves us a bit confused, Activision announced some details that we already knew; Treyarch’s next CoD game is coming this holiday season and Modern Warfare 2‘s DLC is still coming, but they also announced something very vague about the future of the series:

The company is also for the first time announcing that a new game in the Call of Duty series is expected to be released in 2011 and that Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed, wholly owned studio, is in development on a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre.

From the sounds of that, I see some kind of third-person platform in the future of the CoD series. What do you guys think?

[Press Release]

I’ll just warn you, there are some spoilers in the following post. They are regarding the game’s main characters and the game’s rough storyline basis. Consider yourself warned.

It seems that the rumors just might ring true. The boys over at VG247 have found a video game casting call for an upcoming Activision game. The actor is to voice the character by the name of Frank Barnes, an elite Vietnam soldier that is part of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group. A few other main storyline characters were detailed in the casting call as well.

Activision is looking to cast the following characters:

• Frank Barnes, “a fiercely patriotic veteran of WW2… A solid leader, possessed with an excellent ability to assess and respond to any situation quickly and decisively”
• Joseph Lewis, a “very physically fit” black man in his 20s
• Jason Hudson, a white man in his 30s with “over 15 years of military experience, making him an excellent tactician and mission co-coordinator”
• Kristina Ivanova. a Russian-born martial arts expert and CIA operative who’s “calm to the point of being cold and detached”

via [VG247]