Feeding/Throwing

One-tricking, raging because the team isn’t working together or just for fun – whatever the case may be, players intentionally sabotaging their team is annoying. The worst part is, you never know what could cause someone to start feeding. You could die once, pick a bad hero, choose some “non-meta” weapons and effectively trigger someone into losing the game for everyone.

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Panzersoldat – Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and 3 Zombies

You know the forces of evil aren’t messing around when they send a zombie in power armour after you. The Panzersoldat appears in the Origins map for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s Apocalypse DLC with a flamethrower, jetpack and grappling claw. It subsequently re-emerges in DLC for Black Ops 3 with an electric arm of sorts. Regardless of where he appears, he’s hard to kill.

Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been one of the most requested Xbox 360 games for backwards compatibility on the Xbox One. Activision has been awfully accommodating with the titles – the first Black Ops and World at War are backwards compatible – but Black Ops 2 is surprisingly absent till now.

What are Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s thoughts on Black Ops 2 eventually going backwards compatible? Commenting more on the overall direction of the program, Spencer said on Twitter that, “I like the progress on [backwards compatibility]. We’d like to have all and work on [third-party] games is always a partnership with publisher.”

Hey, if Red Dead Redemption could be resurrected for backwards compatibility support then it’s totally possible that Black Ops 2 will follow. In the meantime, two new Call of Duty titles are out in November – Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Treyarch has always made the best Call of Duty games (even though infinity Ward gets the credit for setting the mold for a modern Call of Duty game with the original Modern Warfare). Their games have some of the most innovative changes to the single player campaigns, the most content, as well as the most balanced and competitive multiplayer as well, that remains equally inviting to all players and communities- it’s why Treyarch Call of Duty games have such long legs beyond their initial releases.

Which reflects in this mind blowing statistic- Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which launched all the way back in 2012, and is only available on older consoles, still sees a mind boggling 12 million monthly users on average. According to Activision, that’s an “unprecedented level for a game that is three years old and only available on old-generation consoles.”

This is the kind of momentum and long term community and loyalty that Treyarch has fostered, that Activision believes will help the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Black Ops 3 already seems to be the best Call of Duty game we have received in a while, and according to early trends, will reverse the trend of declining Call of Duty sales that we have been seeing in the last few years, since the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Black Ops 3 launches on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and PC on November 6.

If you are a fan of how the multiplayer mode in previous Call of Duty: Black Ops games was structured, then this will get you very excited for the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 indeed. Speaking to The Examiner, Treyarch revealed that they had taken a lot of cues from previous Black Ops for the new game.

“The scorestreak system is very similar to Black Ops 2,” Game director Dan Bunting said. “We’ve kept it that way for an important reason. In the same way that we want things to have very big identities and big personalities and unique roles, we also want it to be very accessible and don’t want to overcomplicate any of the systems. Any players can go in an understand the system very quickly and make free choices. The things that you’ve chosen have a very different role from the other things that you’ve chosen.

“We didn’t want to blur the lines between the roles. We didn’t want to make the roles very nuanced, we wanted the differences to be big and very understandable, so accessibility and understanding how each piece of gameplay content works and how it functions is important to us,” Bunting said.

This makes me feel good, because Call of Duty: Black Ops games have always had the best multiplayer balance and structure. It gives me confidence that the same will also be true of Black Ops 3, when it launches on Xbox One, PS4, and PC this November.

There’s quite a bit of buzz flying around the internet at the minute regarding the possibility of Call of Duty Black Ops 3 being just around the corner. This comes by way of an update to Call of Duty Black Ops 2 that has dropped some suspect images into the game world. Call of Duty player Drift0r uploaded a video in which he highlights the SnapChat ghost being visible on some in game images.

But what does this mean? Well, scanning the ghost in the same way one would scan a QR code, adds the Call of Duty SnapChat account to your friends list, possibly hinting at the beginning of a viral marketing campaign for the highly anticipated sequel.

Strangely enough, the only content currently on the Call of Duty SnapChat account is a short video clip, 10 seconds in length, that features a blinking eye, trees and a man saying “Listen only to the sound of my voice.” Does this herald the coming of a special marketing campaign? Well, maybe. At the minute everybody is just speculating, but what do you think?

@TmarTn @OMGitsAliA @Drift0r On Callofduty's Snapchat! pic.twitter.com/P7cD3ozAa5

— Nick (@Nipple_Nicholas) April 7, 2015

Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, and its experimental sequel Black Ops 2 remain the pinnacle of the Call of Duty, fully realizing the vision behind the series while also providing their own unique spins on the formula. A new game spearheaded by the studio is expected to come out later this year, and many are speculating it will be Black Ops 3. If it is, then this rumor would make sense.

Activision might be releasing a Call of Duty: Black Ops Combo pack, judging by this listing for it that has appeared on Amazon. The combo pack will apparently include the original Black Ops, the First Strike DLC pack, and Black Ops 2. Notably, the listing is only for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and does not specify any Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions, which strikes me as a bit odd.

As of right now, the release date for the combo pack is listed to be May 1, which lends it even more credence- Activision announces new Call of Duty games in May, so having a combo pack for Black Ops ahead of the new Call of Duty game this year, which we know is being developed by Treyarch, might be their way of kickstarting some hype.

Whatever it is, we will keep you posted.

In honor of Halloween, Activision has confirmed that it will be offering double XP in all relevant online multiplayer modes of Call of Duty: Ghosts, as well as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Because somehow, shooting up the enemies of America in fictionalized, unrealistic wargame scenarios is all that Halloween is about. Or something.

The Double XP period begins today, and will continue on through to the end of this week on Friday, October 31. This double XP weekend is probably Activision’s last attempt to garner some interest and multiplayer traffic in these two games, which are both substantially less popular than Call of Duty games were at their peak, before Activision releases Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in November, which they are turning to to reverse the trend of the series’ slump in recent years.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is available on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U; Call of Duty: Ghosts was made available for PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and Wii U. Advanced Warfare will be coming to all the same platforms Ghosts was available on, except for Wii U.

Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts will be receiving four new personalization packs on March 4th, and we finally get some new screens as to what’s on offer. Aside from the recently leaked Makarov Legend pack, we also have skins for Rorke (the main antagonist of Ghosts), Zakhaev (the villain of Modern Warfare) and Hazmat Suit guy (who wears a suit and that’s pretty much all we’ve got).

Each personalization pack will cost $1.99 each and can be used in mulitplayer. For those still playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, don’t worry – some new personalization packs will be available for the game on the same day, each retailing for $1.99 each.

These weapon camos will consist of three reticles and an animated calling card. There will be four in total – Beast, Dead Man’s Hand, Octane and Weaponized 115. Check them out below to see how snazzy (or tacky) they are.

The personalization packs for both games will release for Xbox users first, with PlayStation and PC users receiving the same at a later date.

Sledgehammer Games is finally getting in on the Call of Duty development cycle, as the recent Activision fourth quarter financial report has revealed that the studio will be developing this year’s edition as well as cycling the franchise regularly with Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Each studio will have three years for developing each new edition, which should be good news for those who have complained about the declining level of quality.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick actually indicated to investors in a conference call after the report that Call of Duty 2014 would be “one of if not the best” Call of Duty game ever made. It was also revealed that the franchise was on top for the fifth year in a row in North America.

Call of Duty: Ghosts was also the number one best selling game in North America and Europe for the fourth quarter, along with being the best selling next gen title.

What are your thoughts on Sledgehammer’s first Call of Duty? Let us know below.