Chase Porter
Staff Writer

It’s true: everyone loves Call of Duty: Black Ops. The franchise has done it again releasing its newest edition of Call of Duty with millions of followers all around the world.

“It’s awesome,” said junior Garrett Hicks. “I love Call of Duty: Black Ops because the [Call of Duty] games have always been fun and the new additions really make it stand out from the other games.”

The Call of Duty franchise has released games for almost the entire decade starting with WWII games and then branching off into different story lines, like Modern Warfare and now with Black Ops. Black Ops has re-introduced the meaning of the first person shooter to their numerous fans and also a lot of students here at CHS. The newest game includes a new story, a reworked multiplayer and new customizations.

First off, the basic objective and style of the game has stayed the same: shoot the bad guys. But the new story mode will throw any long time player for a twist and also give them some good old fashion shoot’em up action. In the campaign, you play as a new character, Alex Mason, in which you delve through the memories of his past as a covert operations soldier.

Multiplayer has been flooded with new things such as customizing everything about your character and also changing the way you get new weapons. The basic ranking system is still in place, the better you do the more experience points you get, but that’s not going to get you perks and equipment. You also receive cod points, which is a currency system where you can buy guns, customizations, perks and contracts to get even more money.

“I’m getting the game because it’s fun but also because I’ve been a life long fan of the games [Call of Duty],” junior Matthew Ainsworth said.

The game modes have basically stayed the same except for a new mode called wager matches which all new and old players will enjoy because it is mainly based off of skill and not whoever has the best weapon. In the matches you can bet and win money, choose different games and amounts of money to bet and of course win crazy bragging rights.

Maps for many may not seem like that big of a deal to some players but these maps in Black Ops are far more detailed than the previous maps of Modern Warfare 2. Maps like Villa and Jungle are huge and really detailed making it much harder to maneuver your first time through. Also, the weapons are mostly the same except when sniping you may have extreme problems, so you’re not going to find many people sniping. One of the most fun new weapons in the game are the crossbow and the ballistic knife.

Probably one of the biggest reasons this game was purchased was for the crazy addicting game mode, Zombies. The past game Call of Duty: World at War Zombies was extremely popular and thankfully the members of Treyark, the creators of Call of Duty: Black Ops, brought back the phenomenon. The new Zombies is no walk in the park like the first zombies were, these new maps are far more detailed and while playing, it’s hard to get a good strategy going.

“Having zombies on Call of Duty is why I play the game,” junior Richard Curry said. “It never gets old.”

While playing Call of Duty, some of the first things that people enjoy are the graphics and the sounds of the virtual combat. In my opinion, there are not really any problems with either but I do feel like the graphics of Modern Warfare 2 were a little better. The sounds of Black ops are great though, it’s like you are really in the fight.

All in all, I believe that the Call of Duty franchise has done it again making one of the most fun games of 2010 and 2011. If you need more persuasion to buy this game because you think no one plays it, I suggest you take a look at the pre- order sales which passed Modern Warfare 2’s pre-sales, which was one of the best selling games of all time so far. Call of Duty: Black Ops was released on Nov. 9 and is on sale for about $60.