Call of Duty

British Tabloids Are Blaming Call of Duty and… Dynasty Warriors

Initially, Mass Effect incorrectly (and embarrassingly) got the blame for the tragic Sandy Hook school shooting. Now, British tabloids are picking up the “played video games” angle to single out Call of Duty and Dynasty Warriors Today’s morning edition of The Sun carries this headline: “KILLER’S CALL OF DUTY OBSESSION”. The sub headline reads “Massacre…

Please Quit Photoshopping Horns Onto Bobby Kotick. It’s Bad for His Dating Life.

Today’s New York Times profiles Bobby Kotick, the boss of Activision Blizzard and longtime bête noir of many a longtime gamer, many of whom have created unflattering portrayals of him quickly found by Google Image search. Well, he wants you to know this doesn’t help his game. See, he’s divorced and on the prowl. “Think…

At Least 1,408 People Are Playing Black Ops II Online on the Wii U Tonight

For four consecutive Mondays, we’ve counted the number of people who are playing Black Ops II on the Wii U. We’ve wanted to, however roughly, measure the uptake of online gaming on the Wii U, using one of the most popular online series around. Over those four Mondays, the combined number of Wii U owners…

Call of Duty is “a Good Game, but I Wouldn’t Advise It for Younger Kids,” Says 8-Year-Old

Towheaded and small-voiced, Felix von Perfall’s countenance seems to define childhood innocence. But look into those eyes. Those eight-year-old eyes have seen war, they’ve seen … things, things no seven-, six- or five-year-old should ever know. “Call of Duty, it’s a good game, but it’s really—I wouldn’t advise it for younger kids,” Felix told WNYW-TV…

Why David Petraeus Will Never Be a Strategy Game General

David Petraeus would not have gone down in history as a great general, even if he had been able to keep his zipper zipped. Certainly not great enough for the retired Army four-star general and former commander of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to merit appearing in a strategy game. It is true that…

Black Ops II has grossed a billion dollars in 15 days, says Activision, one faster than Modern Warfare 3. What decline?

This Year’s Biggest Shooters Remind Me Why Multiplayer Unlocks Suck

The other day, a colleague mentioned that she felt like there was something off about Halo 4’s multiplayer. She was getting destroyed by other players, eventually feeling like she didn’t have much of a chance when up against people with advanced abilities or gear gained from Spartan point unlocks. This seemed like a marked difference…

Does Call of Duty Camo Work in… Tokyo? Let’s Find Out.

You know in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, when Lt. Price and Cpt. MacMillan wear those “ghillie suits“? The camo outfits look like they’re wearing grass and foliage. Those come in handy while sneaking about the Russian wilderness. They’re less handy when in urban jungle known as Tokyo. Or are they? Japanese site Rocket…

This Might Be the Last Cosplay You’d Expect from Japan

When you think of Japan and cosplay, you probably imagine ladies dressed in skimpy anime outfits or dudes in Gundam gear. And you’d probably be right! That type of cosplay is prevalent, sure, but it’s not the only game in town—especially with more and more Japanese players totally digging Call of Duty Recently on Japanese…

Wait A Minute. Two Smart Critics Really Like The Wii U’s Allegedly Inferior Black Ops II.

Once could be an aberration. Twice? We’re approaching a trend, people. Two sharp critics have both spent some time this week saying that Call of Duty: Black Ops II is good. Better than that, one of these chaps suggests that Black Ops II might be, PC notwithstanding, best on Wii U. What in the world??…

Forget the Haters, Japan *Hearts* Call of Duty

The conventional wisdom has always been Japan loves role-playing games and dislikes first-person shooters. First-person shooters, pundits said, were popular only with Western gamers. The pundits and conventional wisdom, it seems, are wrong. In its debut week, Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the PS3 is the second best selling game in Japan, moving…

This Dud is Still a One-Hit Kill in Black Ops II

This could only come from the great laboratory of death known as free-for-all in a multiplayer shooter. Given enough matches, enough combatants and enough button-spamming, you’ll inevitably discover that a bouncing betty to the face is a one-hit kill Call of Duty: Black Ops II—without detonating. YouTube video uploaded by reader Danny

Today’s Argument That Call of Duty Is Finally In Decline

Forget whether you like Call of Duty or not. The thing to ponder today is whether the world likes Call of Duty as much as it used to. A swarm of vultures might be premature. Black Ops II has already sold millions of copies. And it’s a good game (at least we think so). But…

Without Music Or Gunfire, Black Ops II Becomes A Surreal Symphony Of Screams

Call of Duty games have a distinctive aural imprint. The whizzing bullets, grunting allies, ringing impacts and of course, the screams of the many men you kill. But what if the game were stripped down to only that last—what if the only things you heard in Call of Duty: Black Ops II were the combatants’…

727 People Are Playing Black Ops II Online On Wii U Now (And 35 Are Playing Madden)

659 people are playing standard multiplayer and 68 people are playing Zombies mode on Wii U. More than last week For comparison, there are 511,529 people playing standard multiplayer and 124,321 people playing Zombies mode in Black Ops II on Xbox 360. Of course, it’s not fair to directly compare a console that launched last…

Black Ops II for Wii U looks nice, but falls short on framerate according to the people at Digital Foundry.

How Square Enix Screwed Up Black Ops II for Japan

For years now, Square Enix has published the Call of Duty games in Japan. Square Enix honcho Yoichi Wada is apparently a big fan of the series—and Western games. His goal is apparently to make Japanese gamers more open to playing foreign titles. That’s admirable. It would be more admirable if the company didn’t keep…

Call of Duty: Black Ops II GPU & CPU Performance

For Call of Duty fans, developer Treyarch just delivered an early Christmas present when they released Black Ops II. As the ninth game in the Call of Duty franchise and the sequel to the 2010 game Black Ops, we are hoping to see something meaningfully new from Black Ops II. We say this because last…

Why We Like To Shoot

A few days after the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the first-person shooter game’s publisher, Activision, released their annual braggadocious press release about the success of their most successful video game series. “Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star…

Fan Outrage Brings the Nuketown 2025 Map Back to Call of Duty: Black Ops II Multiplayer

After suddenly pulling a popular pre-order multiplayer map from Black Ops II online play yesterday, Activision added it back to a new playlist called Chaos Moshpit. Game design director David Vonderhaar from dev studio Treyarch—who delivered the bad news—made it seem possible that the map could come back in a tweet late yesterday: That was…