Just in time for the holidays, the next Call of Duty game is here. Longtime franchise developer Treyarch is back with Call of Duty: Blacks Ops III, and just like Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare last year, the series is turning its eye on a more futuristic setting.
Black Ops III took a slightly different turn this year, most notably at E3, when it was presented during the PlayStation press conference. In years past, the series was linked primarily with Xbox, with players on Microsoft's console getting some extra benefits such as exclusive maps or early access to the beta.
All About The Multiplayer
Changes were also made to the widely popular multiplayer gameplay. During our time with the multiplayer beta, we saw the biggest change in the form of Specialists. Players choose from one of these characters, each with its own special set of abilities.
However, the multiplayer also received some upgrades for professional gamers. At Gamescom, the developers introduced the concept of bans and protects for weapons and abilities. The idea is currently in other eSports games, most notably Dota 2 and its International Championship Tournament. Speaking of tournaments, January 2016 will signal the launch of the Call of Duty World League, inviting professional and amateur teams from all over the world to compete for prize money totaling $3 million across the multiple stages of the tournament.
The Black Ops series is also well-known for introducing the Zombies cooperative modes, and it's bringing them back again for this game with a new chapter titled "Shadows of Evil." For the first time in this specific mode, players will be able to earn experience points as well as customize weapons tailor-made to stop the undead horde.
Room For The Campaign
On the single-player side, it's also continuing the trend of using famous celebrities in a main role. Last year it was House of Cards’ Kevin Spacey. This year's iteration brought Christopher Meloni, well known for his role in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Using these actors brings about some credibility to the game's single-player campaign, which surprisingly is still around considering the ever-growing popularity of its multiplayer aspect.
On the console end, most players are using an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4, but if you bought the game for the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3, you won't be able to see this new storyline because the old hardware couldn't faithfully recreate the campaign. At least, that's what Treyarch says.
Future Plans
Over the next few months, Treyarch will still be hard at work maintaining the game's multiplayer functionality and possibly adding content in the future. For the PC players, the game should get a healthy refresh next year, as the team will be implementing the ability to create mods and custom maps. Even with these plans, you can make a healthy bet that around this time next year, we should have yet another Call of Duty to experience.
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Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.
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