Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition (with GAME Exclusive Preorder Pack) Product Details

Released on 09/11/2010

Call of Duty: Black Ops Hardened Edition for Xbox 360 Includes:

• A copy of Call of Duty Black Ops
• Premium Steelbook casing
• Custom Black Ops emblem medal
• “Woods” Avatar outfit for Xbox Live
• Four Exclusive Co-op Maps

The newest installment in the biggest action series of all time and the follow-up to last year’s blockbuster Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops launches on November 9, 2010.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

The biggest first-person action series of all time and follow-up to last year's blockbuster Modern Warfare 2 returns on November 9, 2010, with Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops will take you behind enemy lines as a member of an elite special forces unit engaging in covert warfare, classified operations and explosive conflicts across the globe. With access to exclusive weaponry and equipment, your actions will tip the balance during the most dangerous time period mankind has ever known.

Call of Duty®: Black Ops will also be playable in stereoscopic 3D!

Call of Duty®: Black Ops will be compatible with 3D-ready HDTVs and 3D PCs utilising state-of-the-art active shutter 3D glasses, delivering true depth of field and an unprecedented level of immersion that is perfectly suited for the Call of Duty action experience.

But don't worry if you haven't got a 3D TV yet - the game will be playable in non-3D as well!

Call of Duty: Black Ops Features:

• Cinematic Single-Player Campaign. An epic campaign and story that takes you to a variety of locations and conflicts all over the world where if you are caught, captured or killd, your country will disavow all knowledge of your existence.
• Signature Multiplayer. Call of Duty's signature multiplayer gameplay returns with new perks and killstreaks, deeper levels of character and weapon customisation, and all new modes including: Wager Matches - One in the Chamber, Gun Game, Sticks and Stones, Sharpshooter; Theatre Mode - View, record and edit your favourite moments from multiplayer, and share with your friends; Combat Training - Test your skills solo or Co-Op with friends against AI enemy players.
• Zombies! Fan favourite Zombie mode is back, providing endless hours of zombie slaying entertainment, solo or Co-Op.
  

• Josh Olin Black Ops Interview

  Treyarch Community Manager Josh Olin talks CoD

  Treyarch's last Call of Duty game was World At War, which was set in World War II. Black Ops marks your first step away from that era - what can you tell us about the differences between the games, specifically relating to the story?

  Josh: Because the era was so vast and undefined during the Cold War we are specifically following our own fictional story so really it’s not like World at War any more where you’re following a bunch of different squads as they go on their normal missions. Any different perspective that you play as in Black Ops is progressing towards the same ending in the story, there are definitely going to be multiple threads in the story, but they all come together in the same conclusion. There is a singular story that is going to weave it’s way through historical references in time during the Cold War and that essentially is what Black Ops is about. But i don’t want to spoil it because we’ve put a tremendous amount of effort into this and I know that you don’t want to spoil it for those reading this, but it’s an original story and the deepest story that Treyarch’s ever told we really for the first time get to show players what we’re made of and show them what kind of stories we can create. We have such as great design and writing team at Treyarch so the writers are just fantastic its all been done in house.

  World at War had a very solid, long campaign which including co-op. Will Black Ops have the same length, or will it go further?

  Josh: It will be comparable, I mean we’re not done yet so we do not know the exact length but you would be able to compare it to that. There’s definitely something that can be said about a game that's too long, but then again too short is definitely a problem, but too long can be a problem too. So there has to be a sweet spot, and that sweet spot is dependent on what kind of story you’re telling and we’ll have enough game to tell our story. From start to finish with nice concise gameplay, plus some ups and downs twists and turns.

  Co-op gameplay is becoming a must-have in games. Treyarch struck gold in World at War and many wanted co-op in MW2, but it didn’t deliver on that. We’ve heard that Black Ops won’t have a co-op campaign, but there will be an element of co-op. Can you explain what this will be?

  Josh: It will have a unique co-op mode, so it’s not campaign co-op, but it’s not really Spec Ops either. It’s a very unique thing that I think players are going to love. It’s up to four players online or two players split screen, but it was important that in Black Ops we gave the players, no matter what kind of player you are or what kind of mood that you’re in, something that you can play - whether that’s a nice deep campaign, or whether you want to go online and rank up for hundreds of hours and progress through the competitive multiplayer. Or you can just kick back with a few of your friends and not necessarily go online and invest that kind of time; maybe just a few hours into this co-op thing is, but there will be something for everybody.

  Regarding multiplayer... everyone loves going through the prestige and getting the medals for doing certain things. Is that all going to return?

  Josh: We’re not ready to talk about multiplayer yet, we’re saving all that for a big reveal we’re doing on September 1st, it’s going to be a blowout hands on preview event in LA, so any questions you have about the multiplayer will be answered at this event. For the first time in Treyarch’s history we’ve actually had a dedicated multiplayer team working on this since day one, so it’s actually allowed us to do a lot of things and go deeper than we’ve ever gone before with our multiplayer design, so frankly I don’t think players are fully aware of what we’re going to hit them with come September 1st.

  The Zombies were definitely a high point for World at War, will they be making a return in Black Ops and will there be any new modes with them?

  Josh: Would you like them to?

  Oh Yeah!

  Josh: Yeah Zombies was an amazing success from World at War, we definitely loved it, but our co-op mode is yet to be announced. That will happen later this year.

  The Theatre Mode, can you give us any insight into what that is?

  Josh: That’s come from the Multiplayer teaser trailer that we released. The point of the trailer was to create more questions than answers and building up the hype to September 1st There are definitely lots of things to discover in that trailer.

  GAME: Going back to the campaign... will you just be focusing in on the two characters we’ve just seen [Special Agent Jason Hudson and Sergeant Mason] or will you be picking up the story at different points with different characters?

  Josh: Like I said, I don’t want to spoil it. You will be playing through the campaign from multiple perspectives, but primarily it’s Mason and Hudson; those are the two characters you play the most. You’ll know all the characters as each has a very distinct personality and flavour to them - each has their own voice. As for the squad members that you work with, the various characters are in a tight knit group and operate together so you’ll always know who you are at all times. Multiple perspectives have always been a theme for Call of Duty since its inception and that remains unchanged for Black Ops.

  Of everything that that has been announced so far which you are able to talk about, what is your personal favourite element of Black Ops?
  

  Josh: Of what we revealed, it would have to be the full performance capture and that technology that we’ve employed to create a performance that’s really the best. It’s the best performance you’ll see in a shooter this year, because this technology didn’t exist two years ago. So we’re really the first game to implement it, it’s the same technology, a similar technique to that was used in the creation of Avatar the movie; we actually went to the same studio that James Cameron went to called the House of Moves in Los Angeles. It’s where you capture the motions and the animations of the character, the facial expressions and the voice all in one take, so before when you would record them separately and piece them together, there would always be some piece that wouldn’t synch up so either a guy would shout over there and then point like a split second later, or the inflection in his voice would have more emotion than his face could show. So his voice would be screaming at the top of his lungs but his face would be quite mellow.

  So it wasn’t quite the same, you would always have those infidelities , but with Black Ops you have just this truest performance where the actor can really put himself into the performance and it ratchets itself to a whole new level.  That is inline line with a theme, the core theme that we’ve had throughout the game which is raising the bar. That’s probably my favourite part, which is why I said pay attention to Woods when he says “See that Hind? We’re going to take it!” Like the breath he takes before he delivers that last line, and then glances back at you and he’s gritting his teeth and his eyebrows are narrowed like all that comes across now which never would have come across before. So that is my favourite new aspect, but to be honest though, probably my favourite thing about Black Ops is yet to be revealed. So if you thought there was alot of stuff in the teaser, you haven’t seen anything yet. It really just the tip of the iceberg, it’s going to September 1st that we blow people out of the water.

  This year you've got some major competition: there's one massive franchise coming back in Halo Reach, and you’ve got another game Medal of Honor making a return after a long absence. What will Black Ops give gamers that those two won’t?

  Josh: Well I think Call of Duty has always stood apart from the pack in terms of how tight the controls are and how buttery smooth the 60FPS and 720p resolution, crisp photorealistic graphics always pushing the platform to the limit in terms of what kind of visuals we can create on screen. You saw that with Payback.

  It’s no one thing that sets it apart, it’s the collectiveness it the kind of story and the cinematic intensity but really the pacing, there’s a science to it and i really couldn’t put to words, which is how you pace the story elements and how the story unfolds, but i think the campaign mode will really stand apart. And then you’ve got the multiplayer, it is the deepest multiplayer from Treyarch, and that’s what people are going to keep playing for hundreds and hundreds of hours past the launch of the game.

  And all the new features that we’ve built into that of that are just going to help prolong that and extend the longevity of that even further so it will be tough to say what any one thing is paramount. You know, Medal of Honor and Halo they’re going to great games, you know Bungie, EA and Dice are all great studios so we’re don’t doubt that they’re going to be phenomenal games, but I still think that Call of Duty will stand apart in its own way, in true Call of Duty fashion.
  

  Published: 28/09/2010

• New Black Ops trailer goes dark

  New Black Ops trailer goes dark

  A brand new campaign trailer for arguably the year's biggest game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, has exploded onto the internet, teasing us some more with brief flashes of the story mode that show this is one game that's taking war very seriously indeed.

  There's a nuke launching, a man falling from a helicopter, plenty of explosions, choppers coming under fire over a jungle canopy, and what looks like either a torture sequence or a deadly game of Russian roulette. There's also the barest snippet of a jetbike set-piece that we're sure is going to be one of the game's highlights.

  As the gravel-throated voiceover man says: "You will move without boundaries. You will act above the law. You will use every means necessary to stop the wars that are hidden from the world. And if you succeed, you will do so without recognition. Because you do not exist." So while you might finish the game wearing a medal of honour, no-one will know about your heroic deeds.

  It's thrilling stuff, anyway, and has made the wait for the game's release that bit harder. Call of Duty: Black Ops hits Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii and DS on November 9.
  

• Gamescom 2010: Call of Duty: Black Ops

  After the success of Modern Warfares 1 and 2 and World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops is bound to be one of the year biggest releases which meant that seeing the game running was one of our biggest priorities when we hit the show floor at Gamescom 2010.

  Scouting ahead
  Settling into our seats at the Activision booth, the first thing we saw was the newest Call of duty: Black Ops trailer. It showed the RV XD Video Surveillance Vehicle and Transmitter in use in game the same XD remote control buggy that forms part of the limited production run Prestige Edition.

  Like its in-game counterpart, the buggy sends a video and audio stream to a monitor on the wireless transmitter remote control. In the real world you might us this to track your cat or keep an eye on your stash of jelly babies in the office, but in the game you can use it to sniff out sniper positions so you can take them out with remote control smart missiles. The RC XD covers the ground very quickly, so you can send it off to scout the route ahead with the confidence that you'll be able to drive away from most troublesome things if the need arises.

  Then it was time for our demo play through. We gripped the controller and headed into battle...

  Read the full Preview here.

• Call of Duty to go sci-fi?

  Every year we get busy speculating about a futuristic instalment of Call of Duty. Now Treyarch, the team behind Call of Duty: Black Ops has got in on the act, with the game design director admitting he would be interested in a near-future update.

  "It would be pretty fantastic!" David Vonderhaar told Machinima (thanks, Eurogamer). "It would be kind of a unique opportunity but the way this works out is obviously more complicated than, 'Hey, me and Treyarch are going to make a near-future shooter.' It doesn't work out that way in practice. It's a tough question to answer. We have not announced any new Call of Duty games at this time but to answer his specific question I think, personally, it would be pretty fantastic to do near-future, you know? Not necessarily far-future."

  He was careful to that his answer was, "For me personally. I'm just talking for myself." Boo!

  Still, if he thinking about it, maybe there hope. If youe more interested in the past than the future, of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops concerns itself with all manner of Cold War shenanigans. It brilliant fun, and it available right now for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

• Black Ops beats Avatar to become 2010 biggest-selling entertainment product

  Proof, if any were needed, that games are the fastest-growing entertainment medium came yesterday in a report from industry site MCV. According to ERA data, Call of Duty: Black Ops was comfortably the biggest-selling entertainment product of last year. Activision perennially popular shooter sold a whopping 3.3 million copies, more than combined Blu-Ray and DVD sales of James Cameron Avatar.

  Just behind the 3D blockbuster in third place was EA SportsFIFA 11, which shifted 2.4 million units. Impressively, both sequels managed to top their predecessors, with Black Ops besting Modern Warfare 2 tally by 340,000 copies and FIFA sales improving year on year by well over 200,000 units.

  Just Dance made it a strong showing for games in the top ten, shaking its money-maker in ninth position with 1.3 million copies sold. Though only released in October, its sequel also managed a place on the list, just outside the top 20.

  Ubisoft was further represented by Assassin Creed: Brotherhood at 24, while Nintendo saw a combined total of 1.7 million sales for evergreen titles Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort, both of which were launched in 2009. Rockstar epic western Red Dead Redemption and Microsoft Halo: Reach made it a total of nine games in the Top 40. Could that tally increase when 2011 figures are revealed in 12 monthstime? We wouldn bet against it.

• Treyarch bringing Modern Warfare 3 to the Wii

  Wii owners won't be left out of the action when Modern Warfare 3 hits the shelves this November. Black Ops developer Treyarch has revealed that it is currently working on a Wii version of the sure-to-be-blockbuster shooter.

  Infinity Ward is working on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, of course, but Activision executive Eric Hirshberg announced the Wii version this week, while talking grown up money stuff to investors. The decision to squeeze the game into the Wii's smaller system came because the publisher didn't want to leave any of the community out of the excitement. How sweet.

  Treyarch certainly has good form where Call of Duty and Nintendo hardware is concerned. It turned out the Wii versions of Black Ops and World At War, and also tackled the Wii port of the original Modern Warfare.

  Modern Warfare 3 shoots your face off on November 8th on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and now Wii as well.

• Full Call of Duty XP event details released

  If you're not one of the 6000 lucky fans who got tickets to Call of Duty XP, the inaugural showcase event for Activision's shy and retiring shooter series, then do not despair. Highlights from the show will be beamed live around the world via the magic of internet pipes as well as a dedicated Facebook app.

  The highlight, of course, will be the first public play session of Modern Warfare 3, a game that is inevitably destined to make more money in one day than most small countries manage in a year. There'll be a million-dollar tournament to celebrate. As well as getting hands-on with the mother of all blockbusters, attendees will also get a free copy of the Hardened Edition.

  But it's not all shooty-shoot. There'll be talking as well, with panels dedicated to the voice cast, the new Call of Duty Elite subscriber service, and the making of the Black Ops multiplayer. If that's not glamorous enough, there'll be the premiere of Find Makarov, the short live action CoD movie, and live performances from Dropkick Murphys and Kanye West.

  The event opens at 11am, LA time, tonight (September 2nd) or 7pm in the UK, and runs for two days.

  Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 8th for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. You knew that, right?

• Call of Duty: Black Ops - Rezurrection coming to PS3 and PC this month

  Activision has announced that PlayStation 3 and PC owners will receive the new Call of Duty: Black Ops downloadable content pack Rezurrection very soon.

  The Zombies-focused DLC, which made its debut on Xbox 360 at the start of the month, will be coming to the other platforms on September 22nd and will include a helping of bonus content.

  Rezurrection introduces a brand-new Zombies map called Moon, which transports players into outer space to battle undead monsters with futuristic weapons in low-gravity environments.

  It will also include four of the most popular Zombies maps from past Call of Duty games - Nacht der Untoten, Verruckt, Shi No Numa and Der Riese - all of which have received a graphical overhaul.

  Also included in the Rezurrection pack will be an enhanced Zombies soundtrack album and a special Moon theme for the PlayStation 3 home screen.

  The popularity of Call of Duty: Black Ops shows no signs of abating, having become the biggest-selling game in UK history earlier this year.

  Published: 14/09/2011

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