I'll start off by posting a video that contains no less than an hour of footage from CoD:BO. I suggest you at least skim through it, but I'll post some facts from it as well as my reaction and thoughts after
Some known features:
-Dedicated Servers (provided exclusively from gameservers.com at $0.99/slot
-"Barebone" mode: The ability to allow or disallow perks and weapons - What the game needs to have a decent competitive scene
-Unlock progression is based on earning credits in-game rather than straight up earning points like in previous CoD titles
-Summon dogs is an 11-kill killstreak (from CoD:WAW) - Best killstreak ever.
-Zombie mode will have players play as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro and Robert McNamara @ the pentagon
-Germany will not be able to purchase the console version (Source)
Weapons and perks:
+ Show Spoiler +
Guns(Primary)
*SMG:
MP5K
skorpion
MAC11
AK74u
Uzi
PM63
MPL
Spectre
Kiparis
**SMG Addon
Extra Mags
Dual Mags(Faster reload)
ACOG Sight
Red Dot
Reflex
Grip
Sliencer
Grenade Launcher
Rapid Fire
*AR:
M16(3 round burst)
Enfield
M14(Semi-Auto)
Famas
Galil
AUG
FN FAL(Semi-Auto)
AK47
Commando
G11
**AR Addon:
Extra Mags
Dual Mags(Faster reload)
ACOG Sight
Red Dot
Reflex
Masterkey(Mount on a AR)
Flamethrower
Infrared Scope
Silencer
Grenade Launcher
*Shotguns:
Olympia(Double Barrel)
Stakeout(Pump Action)
SPAS-12(Semi-Auto)
HS10(Semi-Auto)
**Shotguns Addon
Olympia(None)
Stakeout(Grip)
Spas-12(Silencer)
HS10(Akimbo)
*LMG:
HK21
RPK
M60
Stoner63
**LMG Addon
Extra Mags
ACOG Sight
Red Dot
Reflex
Infrared Scope
*Sinper:
Dragunov
WA2000
L96A1
PSG1
**Sinper Addon
Extra Mags
ACOG Sight
Inrared Scope
Silencer
Variable Zoom(Adds more Range on Sinper Rifle)
Perks 1:
Lightweight Pro(Take no fall damage)
Scavenger Pro
Ghost Pro(Cold Blooded from MW2)
Flak Jacket(blast shield)
HardLine Pro
Perks 2:
Hardened Pro(Stopping power)
Scout Pro(Hold Breath Longer, Switch weapon faster)
Steady Aim Pro(Aim faster after sprinting)
Sleight of Hand Pro(Reload fast, Aim down sights fater with weapons(expcept Sinper Rifles))
Warlord Pro(Bling Pro, Start with one extra lethal and tactial grenade(except Willy Pete))
Perks 3:
Tactical Mask Pro(Protect from nova gas. Reduce effects of flash and stuns and revel position of a flashed or stunned enemy
Marathon Pro
Ninja Pro
Secord Chance Pro(Survive Longer and revived by your teammates
Hacker Pro(Sitrep from MW2. booby trap stolen crates, remain invs to Motion sensors)
Maps:
Array(LG) Snow Covered landscape
Cracked(LG) Streets of Vietnam
Crisis(MD) Hiddle missile facility in Cuba
Firing Range(SM) Military practice facility
Grid(MD) Soviet intelligence station
Hanoi(MD) Fight in the infamous prison camp
Havana(MD) Cuban City
Jungle(LG) Great vertical gameplay along a river valley in Vietnam
Launch(MD) Battle at the launch pad of this cosmodrome.
Nuketown(SM) Nuclear testing ground
Radiation(MD) Uranium processing plant.
Summit(MD) Research facility on a snow mountain
Villa(MD) Cuban Estate
WMD(LG) Abandoned Soviet Base
Kill Streaks:
3Spy plane(UAV)
3RC-XD(Remote Control RC with exlosives)
4Counter Spy plane(C-UAV)
4Sam turret(Airdrop and destroys aircraft(Kill streaks))
5Care Package(Airdrop)
5Napalm Strike(Airstrike)
6Sentry Gun(Airdrop)
6Mortar Team(Target 3 location to bombard with mortar Strikes
7Attack Helicopter
7Valkyrie Rocket(Remote controlled rockets)
8BlackBird(Shows both enemy position and direction on the mini-map Cannot be shut down)
8Rolling Thunder(Carpet Bomb)
9Chopper Gunner
11Attack Dogs
11Gunship(Pilot an attack helicopter)
<Under Construction
My thoughts:
+ Show Spoiler +
Coming from a very very big background in CoD4 (ran a sponsored team, won some tourneys, etc) my first impression of this game was reasonably poor due to the decline that I've seen the CoD series take with MW2. I felt like the game would be simply about a bunch of people running around abusing boring gimmicky stuff like ballistic knives, but after seeing the video above I'm significantly less disappointed. The barebone mode gives me the opportunity to ban all of the stupid imba garbage and keep the gameplay pure if I see fit. Because of this, leagues will form and I believe the game will have a decent competitive following, however it is far far far too early to say whether it has even the slightest chance at succeeding as an ESPORT. From a more casual point of view, I'm looking forward to getting five of my high-skilled friends together and smashing pubs while all of us run around with nothing but crossbows and tomahawks. The game seems like a significant step up from the unbelievably broken Modern Warfare 2 (seriously IW, what the fuck were you thinking? No dedicated servers = fml) so I will definitely be buying this game on day one and giving it a chance. As broken as MW2 was, I still put over 250 hours into that game so I'd be lying if I said I didn't get my money's worth, even if I hate the hell out of it now I hope that this game will be the case as well
I have some faith in Treyarch and I hope they can deliver. I never really understood the hatred for CoD:WAW as most of it stemmed from people who wanted to bolt all day and couldn't deal with the fact that you had to hit the torso or the head to 1hit. As far as I'm concerned it was a good thing, it made it so any random nub couldn't pick up a kar98k and sit in a corner while getting a billion frags. Some of the maps in WAW left something to be desired, so I really hope they nail it in Black Ops
Some of the things I'm hoping for:
+ Show Spoiler [Please?] +
-Console access. For fucks sake it's the most goddamn useful thing in the history of everything forever. I don't want to have to adjust a bar to change my sensitivity on the fly, or have to edit config.cfg whenever I need to make a tiny tweak. I understand this is probably a longshot, but I really think they'd be making more people happy than they'd piss off.
-The ability to have more than 65 FOV. My god, after playing CoD4 and BC2 for so long trying to play any fps with a tiny field of view like that puts me into a tunnel-vision induced vomit rage
-Good maps. If the maps suck ass, so will the game. This should pretty much go without saying.
-Not-super-gimmicky tier one weapons. I don't want the game to devolve into Akimbo Model 1887 / care package knife / noobs spraying akimbo glock18
-Matchmaking that uses dedicated servers. I love the way matchmaking works. You grab a group of friends and you get matched up against opponents and have some fun. The problem with this is traditionally someone in the lobby is given host and all the players network from that one guy. That one guy is in mexico and decides to start downloading the latest Justin Bieber album while everyone in the game but him runs around with 200 ping having a pretty shitty time. One of my favorite things about this is the postgame lobby trashtalk - having a bunch of enraged rednecks who just lost 27-0 in CTF call you and your team a bunch of hackers simply just does not get old. With traditional dedicated servers you don't really get this as much and finding a server where me and five of my friends can connect and all play on the same team can become quite tedious.
In a nutshell, I'm pretty excited for this game after seeing the video. Treyarch seems to have shown they are competent enough to step up to the plate to do right where MW2 went wrong, but time will tell.
Edit: TL COD:BO PC Player steam names
prodiG1337
Darkwolfx20
tekin4200@gmail.com
Teamliquid Steam Group - Join up!