Black Ops II: TRANSITIONING

It's still early days, but there does seem to be a marked lack of superplay clips available for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Maybe I follow the wrong YouTube channels, but at this stage commentator focus is pitched squarely at teaching and explaining the various systems and mechanics in place for this years sequel. Although both clips embedded above are basically class specific tutorials, they do have some nice streaking. 20XX fav TheSandyRavage fools around with one of the more obviously useful shotguns - the Remington 870 MCS, while Maximilian pairs the futuristic B23R with a RoboCop soundboard.

Perhaps this is just how the YouTube commentator scene has evolved. The Theatre Modes included in the last few Call of Duty games have rather turned up the noise ratio on gameplay clips. Anybody with even the barest inclination can edit and upload short bulletins from their latest triumph. Established personalities, who often make their living by maintaining a steady stream of subscriber content, have to be seen doing something different, hence chatter lead instructionals. It's also likely that this lack of sustained killstreaking has a lot to do with the wonky connectivity issues most people seem to be experiencing. Here's ELPRESADOR struggling through a typical game.



To be fair to Treyarch, this is always a problem with Call of Duty games, especially in their first weeks of release. Treyarch's problem, like Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward's last year, is that the overall design of the actual multiplayer experience does very little to hide these problems. Like Modern Warfare 3 maps are small and dense with choke points. With map knowledge bordering on zero, most players tend to charge around blindly searching for prey. Couple that with a game pace that favours one specific class of weapon - in this case the dash flexible sub-machine guns, and you have an experience not unlike a total clusterfuck. The first week of release was awash with players sprinting around hipfiring compact bullet hoses. It reminded me of Call of Duty: World at War, Treyarch's 2008 instalment in which nothing could hold a candle to an MP40 coupled with the Steady Aim perk.



If you're disinclined to this style of play might I recommend putting some serious time into levelling up the single shot FAL-OSW? This futureshock upgrade of the old NATO fav has a nifty little trick up its sleeve. Since the weapon is designed, and presumably balanced, to fire in the singular, the damage it deals is particularly ruinous. Put enough time into any assault rifle and you'll unlock a select fire option that allows fully automatic weapons to fire off singular rounds. This attachment has quite a different effect on the FAL-OSW and the SMR, it allows these one-shot rifles to become fully automatic. For long-term players it's an amusing feature - Treyarch have essentially legitimised a way of playing previously considered cheating. It is no longer necessary to root through eBay looking for modded controller auctions; grind out a weapons skill tree for long enough and you can spam with the best of them. For maximum bullying, pair the Select Fire attachment with the Target Finder, an optical addition that highlights potential victims with little red boxes. It's so good, I can't believe I'm not getting hate mail.