With Black Ops 2, Treyarch plans to bring some big changes to the Call of Duty franchise. We’ve already seen the game’s new near-future setting, but the studio is also making a few technical enhancements — specifically in the audio department.
Speaking on an episode of Elite TV Roll Call, Treyarch’s Mark Lamia stated that the team is testing Black Ops 2 against different headset and home theater configurations. Careful work is being done to improve the audio all together, with weapons taking on different sounds depending on the environment.
Many of these changes have been incorporated to appease competitive Call of Duty players. A common tactic among gamers is to listen for minute audio cues while playing, such as the sound of footsteps or a bomb being planted. By increasing focus on these details, Treyarch hopes to improve the competitive aspect of the game — though we’re sure dedicated servers will also help.
“We know it’s important, not only for people at home, but for people who compete. We’re seeing this phenomena with Esports out in the world. We’re paying attention to that phenomena and we think Call of Duty has a very important part in that world, not only from the technology that we’re creating, but our level design and how we’re setting up our games so that those people who like to compete are going to have a great competitive experience.”
Audio isn’t the only facet of the game Treyarch plans to improve, as Black Ops 2 is designed to support more flexible play styles. A common flaw in Modern Warfare 3 was that the maps were too small, giving the advantage to close range weapons. Players like myself, who prefer to fight from a distance, were at a disadvantage — though the Elite content drops would later remedy that problem.
“We know there’s a lot of you guys out there – everyone from the casual and beginner player to the most advanced. Respecting each of your play styles, we are giving a hardcore look at all of our core systems in the game and we are making sure that no matter what kind of play style you have, you’re going to be able to play that inside Call of Duty: Black Ops 2″
Black Ops 2 might not be a graphical juggernaut, but for a franchise that’s routinely criticized for its “lack of innovation,” there are some big changes coming. It will be interesting to see how the game is received when it launches later this year — will it earn praise offering something new, or will it be brushed off as “just another Call of Duty game”?
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 releases November 13th, 2012, for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
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Source: MP1st
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The no dedicated servers thing is beginning to Irk me something fierce. It is the number 1 problem with that game on PC right now.
Mate, @pcdev already confirmed PC will have dedicated servers, an FOV slider, lean and a dedicated PC team.
Gee, that’s great. i don’t want to hear it form PC dev, i want to hear it from Treyarch.
@Arore
@PCDev is the Twitter handle of a Treyarch employee. https://twitter.com/pcdev
YAY! Sounds!
PEW PEW PEW PEW
mabey this time the guns will sound real and not like some crapy 1980′s movie.
the audio is terrible, them saying the audio is being worked on is a blatant lie and a poor attempt at drawing people away from the better games coming out around this PoS’ release date. seriously, the sound effect for the default assault rifle is like a less pussier version of the mp5 in BO (listen to it carefully).
sledgehammer and infinity pulled the same ‘we are working to make the game better’ bs for mw3 and they literally used the same sound effect on 5 different guns (just increased the loop rate to make it sound less obvious), those guns are: ak47, g36c, one of the scars, tmp4 (secondary).
the day i believe them will be the day they actually upgrade the engine and come out with a DIFFERENT game instead of the same bs just slightly better looking.
You know they haven’t finished the game, at least from the demo, the MW3 demo and BO demo both used different sounds from the final product.
keep telling yourself that.
it’s b/c of consumer stupidity that activision keeps on making money on a worthless and mindless load of repetitive garbage.
It’s not consumer stupidity lol it’s because COD is easily accessible to both male and female of all ages. NOT stupidity, ACCESSIBILITY.
Sure other games are more technically advanced, but since when did that tromp having fun, Jwalka? It’s nice to have a healthy combination of both IMO.
And there are far worse games (FPS’ specifically) than COD. You like Borderlands, that game looks stupid to me. Killzone looks great graphically but is boring to me. Homefront flopped. Metro is great for story but as a shooter it is “meh”. BF3 succeeds on so many fronts when it comes to multiplayer. BF & COD are my top shooters for different reasons.
COD has something most other shooters don’t, blockbuster done right! I, personally, don’t think COD is the ‘best’ shooter but numbers don’t lie.
the franchise is so ‘accessible’ b/c the consumers are to lazy or stupid to be bothered ot learn how to play other then ‘aim and shoot’ hence why bf3 has so many run and gun morons thatd otn know wtf is going on and why it (bf3) sold half as much as mw3 – people dont like to adapt to new situations and prefer repetition.
it is this very repetition that has us stuck in this bs copy/paste shooter generation in which no one is ballsy enough to do something different and instead conforms to making the same type of gaming thinking they will either make a lot of money (b/c a garbage game like CoD has) or are scared that their game wont appeal to anyone b/c it will be to ‘hard’ or ‘complex’ thus not making them money (everything arcs back to money these days).
How can you say that’s a blatant lie? That’s your problem. You assume things. Maybe they really are working hard on audio. Are you a Treyarch dev? No, you’re not. By the way, there is no “TMP4″ in MW3, or anywhere else in the world. I have no idea what gun you meant.
they haven’t bothered with audio thus far so what makes you think they aren’t just saying bs like the clowns involved with mw3 to lure in suckers ? treyarc in general sucks with everything when it comes to war games, BO would have ended really well had it stopped after the twist, but they took thing to the stupid side of action with the over the top and unrealistic ending battle thing.
i dont know the exact name of the PoS but it’s like a mini mp7, it’s a secondary ‘machine gun’.
ohh and compared to every other shooter out there CoD has and probably always will have the worst sound b/c bobby kotich won’t fund the developers so that they can upgrade their tech (engine, sound gear etc). just take a look at the so called ‘sound engine’ for mw3… it was basically a watered down version of the mw2 gun sounds (so it wouldn’t be that obvious that they just copy/pasted everything).
Treyarch is doing several new things to BO2, so maybe they want to go a step further and upgrade the sound to make BO2 the greatest CoD ever. You can be skeptical about their work on audio, but you can’t call it a blatant lie. Yes, I know CoD has always had terrible sounds, but that doesn’t mean Treyarch can’t change that.
The pissing contest you guys got going on is useless. You have your opinion and he has his. The fact that you guys are fighting about this isnt going to change either of your minds. So might as well keep your thoughts to yourself bc either way nobodys mind is going to change.I myself am a COD player. Have been since the first one came out. Now the first black ops did well as far as sounds go, granted the graphics arent amazing, But not everybody cares about how amazing the graphics are or how amazing the gun sounds are. They are looking for the competition inside the game. Yes it would be nice to have diverse gun sounds and close to realistic graphics. But thats not what the call of duty series is all about. It is about the competition. Yes in ways the games are alike. But what keeps consumers coming back for more are the changes they DO make each year to make the franchise develope. I dont care if you hate that people keep playing COD. Doesnt mean you have to. Stick with BF or whatever series you play if at all. You dont have to ruin our enjoyment with your simplemindedness
Lol do you even know what arguments are about? They’re about people having different opinions. There, you learned something today.
P.S. jwalka’s “opinion” isn’t really an opinion at all, it’s something that he thinks is a fact, but is not.
COD (to me) is a game, and JUST THAT, a game. NOT a simulator. NOT a game that takes itself too seriously. As long as I have fun playing it, I’m not TOO concerned with cosmetics.
ATG is right. Just because people like simplicity doesn’t mean it’s out of laziness. Don’t be so close-minded.
i would go so far as to say out of stupidity. when the majority of (cod) players are aged under 18 and are unable to multi task properly you have to consider how developed their brains are and why they stick to simplistic games.
by multi task i am strictly referring to gaming and FPS’, young people cant play games like bf3 b/c there is so much stuff happening at once and there are so many things you have to do (in objective modes) so they dont play that game, and when they do they just abuse the point system and go around treating rush or conquest like it where tdm, something which CoD players are renown for – screwing up the original intentions of the game mode for their own lazy and selfish benefits.
I actually sort of have to agree with jwalka on this one (a first, I think). For example, my friend bought Battlefield 3. Three days later, he let my other friend have it. Why? It wasn’t CoD. It wasn’t arcade-y and simple enough for him. He’s my friend and all, but come on. That’s just ridiculous. If BF3 is too complex for you, then you aren’t very good at video games, and you probably aren’t the smartest person out there.
I hope Treyarch really is working on BO2′s audio. CoD’s sounds really need an overhaul. As for the multiple play styles, I don’t buy it. CoD games (their SP campaigns, anyway) have always been about running and gunning. That’s always been the best strategy for taking down 20 bad guys in front of you. What play styles do they think they’re going to allow? Sniping from afar? That never works because in CoD games, in order to progress, you have to move forward. I just don’t see multiple play styles being viable.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II propels players into a near future, 21st Century Cold War, where technology and weapons have converged to create a new generation of warfare.
http://bestgamestores.org/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii/