MasterofDVD

I told myself that Halo 4 would be the only online game I play this fall but that last trailer makes me wanted to buy this game....and I HATED the first Black Ops.

gerrythedon

Same here, that trailer was great. Hate Black Ops Online so bad but want to play this after what I just saw. The graphics look good.

Move over Frosbite2!

Osiris3657

Pre ordered...but did that awhile ago. These games may frustrate me at times but overall I have a good time.

sven

A nice breakdown of the reveal trailer.....

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/NjcPGgdSdTs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

sven

http://mobile.theverge.com/gaming/20...s-scorestreaks

Michael Corvin

sven

http://mobile.theverge.com/gaming/20...options-so-far

TheBigDave

Here's the livestream videos from BlackOps 2 Gamescom. Lots of multiplayer gameplay footage.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2Mceqc-oSCI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xy4LfvHwWyg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Matthew Chmiel

HERE WE GO!

HARDENED EDITION: $79.99 (available for PS3 & 360)

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II
• Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map - Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
• Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map - Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the "model home of the future."
  
• Collectible 2-Sided SteelBook - Limited edition game case featuring exclusive artwork.
  
• 2 Challenge Coins - Limited edition challenge coins that serve as your key to exclusive digital content.
• Weapon Camo - Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
• 2 Player Card Backgrounds - Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
• Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack - A digital copy of composer Jack Wall's epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
• Xbox LIVE CLAW Avatar Prop - An exclusive avatar prop, deployable to a dashboard near you.
• Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume - Show off your pride with an avatar costume built exclusively for fans of the Call of Duty undead.
• PlayStation 3 versions include a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map as well as a dynamic Zombies theme that shows off Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies.

DIGITAL DELUXE EDITION: $79.99 (available for PC)

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II
• Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map - Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
• Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map - Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the "model home of the future."
• Weapon Camo - Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
• 2 Player Card Backgrounds - Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
• Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack - A digital copy of composer Jack Wall's epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.

CARE PACKAGE: $179.99 (available for PS3 & 360)

• Call of Duty: Black Ops II
• Remote Controlled MQ-27 Dragonfire Drone - Command cutting-edge technology, exclusively for this once-in-a-lifetime combat collection.
• Nuketown Zombies Bonus Map - Battle hordes of Zombies in this beloved 1960s nuclear neighborhood.
• Nuketown 2025 Bonus Map - Relive the close quarters chaos of this classic fan-favorite map re-imagined in a 1960s visionary depiction of the "model home of the future."
  
• Collectible 2-Sided SteelBook - Limited edition game case featuring exclusive artwork.
  
• 2 Challenge Coins - Limited edition challenge coins that serve as your key to exclusive digital content.
• Weapon Camo - Rank-up in style with an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin.
• 2 Player Card Backgrounds - Liven up any killcam with two exclusive player card backgrounds, inspired by Nuketown 2025 and Zombies.
• Official Call of Duty: Black Ops II Soundtrack - A digital copy of composer Jack Wall's epic in-game score with Theme by Trent Reznor.
• Xbox LIVE CLAW Avatar Prop - An exclusive avatar prop, deployable to a dashboard near you.
• Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume - Show off your pride with an avatar costume built exclusively for fans of the Call of Duty undead.
• PlayStation 3 versions include a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map as well as a dynamic Zombies theme that shows off Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies.

GODDAMNIT AMAZON, WHY HAVEN'T YOU PUT UP PRE-ORDER LINKS YET?

Matthew Chmiel

Amazon links are now live (as of 12:55 PM PST) for both limited edition sets:

HARDENED EDITION: PS3 & 360
CARE PACKAGE: PS3 & 360

sven

I'll be sticking with the regular edition I think.

Matthew Chmiel

I placed a pre-order for the Hardened Edition:

• You're guaranteed Nuketown: Zombies as Activision still hasn't confirmed if it'll come with the first pressing of the game (a la Nuketown 2025).
• You're guaranteed extra DLC with the challenge coins.
• You're guaranteed extra camo and card backgrounds (if you play multiplayer).
• You get the added benefit of the steelbook packaging, digital download of the soundtrack and the Live/PSN materials.

I don't know if the added material is worth $20, but it's worth a shot. Based upon Amazon and the MW3 Hardened Edition, all the pre-orders will be claimed by next month.

Michael Corvin

One zombie map for an extra $20? BO1 gave us 4 redone maps. Also shitty since said maps were already bought once anyway.

I starting to find it kinda shitty that games in the same series can't use previous DLC. There's no reason BO2 couldn't read the DLC files for BO1, or Halo Reach couldn't import the maps from ODST and Halo 3.

Matthew Chmiel

Different game engines, that's why.

For the DLC of Terminal earlier this summer in MW3, the developers had to re-write the coding for it to use the new engine.

gerrythedon

ordered!

JayDerek

with my luck, my care package will explode. :/

mattysemo247

That's a huge step back from MW3. Last year for $20 more you got all of the DLC released. You don't even get that with the $180 package this year? That's just fucking greedy.

Matthew Chmiel

Activision launched Elite with no perception of how well it would do. Adding it into the Hardened Edition (and dropping the Prestige Edition entirely) made it a worthwhile draw as there was nothing in the Hardened Edition other than the game, the one-year subscription to Elite and the journal. What sucks is that a lot of us missed out on the pre-orders as most retailers sold out of the Hardened Edition two months before the game came out. I ended up purchasing the Elite subscription before the launch of the DLC in January and I don't regret it one bit.

However, this now puts into question the second-year of Elite and how it incorporates with BO2. Will BO2 follow MW3's year of content where DLC was released every month to Elite members before it was available for purchase or will Elite be a free subscription based service and we have to purchase the DLC in waves? Personally, I hope they keep the service the way it is.

Michael Corvin

But not necessary every year.

Matthew Chmiel

Disagree. Just as we've discussed in what we're expecting for the next-generation of consoles to deliver, games should be pushing the current-generation consoles to their absolute limit. While the mechanics of the game are similar year after year, you can't blame Infinity Ward and Treyarch for improving upon their game engines and pushing to make the games look as best as they can on the consoles. Treyarch has already posted what improvements consumers can look forward to in the new BO2 engine:

The upgrades are worth it, especially Zombies being moved to the multiplayer engine. I just hope Treyarch supports running the game at 60 fps similar to MW3.

With Halo Reach, Bungie rewrote the Halo 3 engine from scratch for the game to look far superior to the last two outings. With Halo 4, there's no word yet on if 343 made their own engine or if they're improving on the Halo Reach engine.

Michael Corvin

But you're still talking every other game. Treyarch and Infinity Ward have their own things going but are under the same umbrella so why not create an engine that will be used in back to back games by both companies?

Same for Halo. Theoretically Halo 3 and ODST would be compatible. I'm not sure what 343 has in store for Halo 4, but it looks better than Reach.

Matthew Chmiel

Since Call of Duty 2, all of the games have used a variation of the IW engine. Infinity Ward has only provided Treyarch with an upgraded engine once and that was for Call of Duty: World at War.

Call of Duty 2 used the IW 2.0 engine.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops used the IW 3.0 engine.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 used the IW 4.0 engine.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 used the MW3 (IW 5.0) engine.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II uses the Black Ops II engine which was built using the IW 3.0 engine.

The weird (and sad) thing is BO2 is ultimately using an older engine. However, the million dollar question is Infinity Ward's work with the franchise done? I guess we will have to wait until next year to find that out.

TheBigDave

I pre-ordered the Hardened Edition, because I'm concerned it'll sell out like it has in the past. But I'll probably cancel before release date. None of that stuff is worth $20 to me.

Too bad they don't have a pack which includes an Elite Subscription. MW3's Hardened Edition was a good deal.

Decker

I've purchased the last three Hardened editions, but really struggle to see how this one is worth the extra $20 (of course, that might change depending on what is in the coin-based DLC). Two Avatar Props? That we'll never, ever see? Really?

sven

Yeah I think they'll regret it when they see how many people decide not to re-up their Elite subs.