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ugN Gaming
CALL OF DUTY - MODERN WARFARE
Older Series
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
BO2: What You Can Expect - Feature
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Topic: BO2: What You Can Expect - Feature (Read 2117 times)
KriS
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BO2: What You Can Expect - Feature
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November 12, 2012, 10:26:16 AM »
With just days remaining before the release of the highly anticipated title Black Ops II the scene is buzzing with curiosity around the promised eSports functionality that has been placed into the game. Since the initial announcement back in 2011 precise information about the aforementioned features was secretive, but through the plethora of online streaming throughout the past few days that is no longer the case allowing me to tell you what you can in fact expect...
With the Call of Duty 4 scene in decline after many bountiful years the scene has been on the lookout for a new beacon to move towards, something that has the roots of a title they have loved passionately for many a year but with a fresh zeal to excite and encourage. It was just at this time that Black Ops II emerged, boasting to all that it would in fact invest heavily into technology that would not only support eSports, but would in fact encourage the casuals to take part.
It was at this stage that I personally started to take an interest. What technology could they possibly deliver that would enhance the game to new peaks? The first announcement of features proclaimed League Play, integrated broadcasting functionality and an all singing and dancing "CODcasting" overlay. Sounds too good to be true right? I was sceptical at the beginning so I started to roam the information super highway that is the internet in search of unbiased material, something that could crush my dreams of a new competitive Call of Duty title and to my utter disbelief there was very little to be found.
In fact the main gripe seemed to stem from the communities, the Clans that make up a good chunk of the casual scene and to a lesser degree the competitive side. The lack of privately owned dedicated servers served as quite a big blow for their traditional users, no longer would there be a "-=101st=- Scope only Server" that small communities would gather upon during their evenings, instead the game offered free to use dedicated servers provided by Activision alongside a pretty well thought out functionality for clans within Call of Duty Elite (Did I mention it's free to us?). Within Call of Duty elite you can create your clan, invite new members alongside allow new members to apply to join you. The developers stated that "the whole point of this system is to enable you to play together".
Now I'm not going to sit here and say that the loss of privately owned dedicated servers is a good thing, but the replacements provided do seem to be pretty damn good alternative. Treyarch really seem to be pushing for connectivity, offering a network to promote and advertise for your clan. Hell even the integrated streaming technology within the game could work wonders for clans as they broadcast their socials to the whole world. The challenge for these communities will be learning to adapt, but after meeting many leaders of these collectives I'm sure they've got enough ingenuity to make something of this game.
Call of Duty Elite by IGN.
Now that I've brought up the streaming I might as well explain to you all what it's all about. What makes this different to the way we traditionally stream using xsplit and other external programs? Origin, EA's version of Steam first introduced this technology just a few months ago. Basically with a touch of a button you can display your game to the masses, no fancy hardware or internet connection needed. This is MASSIVE for those on the console, and for us the hardcore PC community it's still pretty huge. Just think, you're in a big team and you've got hundreds (maybe thousands) of followers who love to watch you play, so with this technology all you have to do is hit a button before a match and boom all they have to do it tune in. This is amazing for the promotion of eSports.
So how does this all work? Activision have partnered up with Youtube to allow you to stream directly to the web not only on the PC's either but on tablets, phones and any other device that currently supports flash technology. Originally there was fears that you would only be able to view the streams using Activisions Elite, but those fears have been laid to rest. There are a few limitations though, the developers didn't want thousands of 1 man streams popping up on the internet, leading to only League Play matches being allowed to be broadcasted. These streams will be sent to the cloud, where they will become visible once reaching a set number of viewers (who I presume you would need to attract via twitter and other social media outlets).
The next feature that ties into this technology is the CODcasting overlay which is one of the most visually appealing overlays currently within FPS eSports, even surpassing CSGO in several aspects. Without delving into every single aspect of the overlay, something that I may leave for it's own individual feature, it's actually quite astounding how effective it actually is. At the top there is a score and time board, easily conveying who is winning to the audience. In the lower left you can see who you are currently spectating, and even the team they belong too.
One interesting and unique addition is the part screen display, showing the teams alongside their kill streaks. The shoutcaster has a number of settings at his disposal allowing him to customize his and his viewers experiences. You adjust what you want to see on your HUD, options like names plates, perks, inventories can all be toggled off. Even variable features like perks can be made to only display just as the users spawns, something he may change to adapt to the team he is facing or the environment he is facing them on.
Within Black Ops II is a very interesting addition, League Play. In essence it's a ranked match making mode that can be played in a solo queue or as part of a team. The league itself it divided into seven divisions, ranging from bronze, into silver etc (although these may have been changed during recent months after listening to developer streams). The first game you play will serve as a placement match, allocating you into one of the divisions where you will battle to either maintain your position or advance to greater heights. This league could actually make Black Ops 2 into a competitive hit, it can act as a bridge between the casuals and the hardcore LAN attending competitive scene, drawing in the community and continually feeding fresh blood into the scene.
The league itself will use barebones settings, although they have not been made publicly available in Black Ops 2 previous barebones rule sets have seen perks, kill streaks and attachments disabled with only death streaks being allowed. Whether it is just the same this time around we'll have to wait and see, but it does seem to be a promising start. During a recent developer stream on IGN it was hinted that limited kill streaks would be allowed, with unbalanced drops like care packages being limited to maintain an even playing field. Although on the surface this may seem to be a pretty big blow, but they assured the community that there was counters to every kill streak award such as EMP grenades (that would take stun/flash/smoke's place in your inventory) and flak jackets.
Finally to wrap things up there are a number in-built cinema tools that allow movie makers to create stunning effects and can even create clean, simple movies without even exporting to an external program. Think of it as CODtv without the downsides. For the guys that simply love to be creative this will be a great tool for them to make use off and I personally am looking forward to seeing what this technology will allow them to create.
Hopefully this feature will have opened your eyes as to what is on offer, yes there are drawbacks but this game will be ready for eSports from the word go. It won't be promod, it won't be what we are used to but it looks like a bloody good game, one we should seriously give a chance.
So with just over 24 hours until release will you be making the plunge into one of the biggest FPS releases of 2012? I know I will.
For those that want additional information I reccomend you go watch the gamespot VoD from Thursday 8th November.
http://uk.gamespot.com/shows/now-playing/?event=call_of_duty_black_ops_ii_multiplayer_live20121108
Additional: Within the last few hours the developers have confirmed 90FoV and an unlimited FPS cap.
Source:
http://www.tek-9.org/articles/bo2_what_you_can_expect-926/feature-1.html
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Last Edit: November 12, 2012, 10:47:44 AM by Kirkers
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Kirks
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Re: BO2: What You Can Expect - Feature
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Reply #1 on:
November 12, 2012, 11:20:42 AM »
A good article there Kris and from the surprisingly positive comments on TEK9, usually so negative to anything other than CoD4, it sounds like people might be ready to get behind the game.
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ugN Gaming
CALL OF DUTY - MODERN WARFARE
Older Series
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
BO2: What You Can Expect - Feature