Aug 22, 2010
Sitting in the preview room at Gamescom, Cologne, you could practically cut through the testosterone with a knife. All eyes were glued to the huge screen as we eagerly waited for a preview of one of the stages from Treyarch‘s latest Call of Duty title, Black Ops, due for release in November of this year.
We weren’t disappointed.
At the start of the demo, you pilot an aircraft and take to the air. From there, you are able to monitor your ground squad’s position and issue instructions on where they need to go to avoid enemy contact. During the demo, the ground squad were spotted and you were instantly shifted down to take control of one of them (using the more familiar first person view) until all enemies had been dispatched. Then you were shifted back to the aircraft.
At this point, it’s unclear whether any enemy contact will trigger your viewpoint to move down to the ground squad or whether there are set times when this will happen. Possibly a mixture of the two as you are expected to plant explosives and tear out electrical cabling in one or two positions to disable the enemy.
The next part of the demo took us back to more familiar Call of Duty territory (and first person viewpoint) where you are trying to infiltrate some kind of base. This section sees you and a comrade swing down from a platform, in slow motion, to break through a window below and into an enemy building. As I’m sure you can imagine, all hell breaks loose from this point on.
There were various weapons available but the one that stood out for me was the crossbow – especially when an explosive bolt was attached and fired into a tanker truck.
To finish, it seems that Treyarch have managed to come up just enough to keep this new title fresh while staying true to the Call of Duty gameplay that keeps the fans happy.
Call of Duty: Black Ops will be released in November on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PC.
This all sounds very promising!
>> Sitting in the preview room at Gamescom, Cologne, you could practically cut through the testosterone with a knife.
You can say that again.
The EA guy at Crysis said it was sausage parade – he reckoned not even 5% of patrons over the course of Gamescom were female. I don’t think it was quite *that* bad (maybe it was just that Crysis didn’t bring in female gamers?) but it was pretty low – a quarter at best, perhaps?
Anyway, good job capturing the atmosphere, Sarah!