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A recent leak, supposedly from an Activision 'insider', has revealed new details about the next Call of Duty. Although, Call of Duty 7 is yet to be formally announced by Activision, logic suggests that the new instalment will be handled by the *other* CoD team, Treyarch, formerly responsible for Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War.
Fact or fiction? We look at the latest rumours and tell you what we think.
The game will be called Call of Duty: Black Ops:
In the recent leak the Acti insider uses this name to refer to CoD 7. In military terminology, a 'black op' is the most covert type of mission undertaken by secret services like the SAS - an area that Treyarch has yet to fully explore (bar a brief dalliance in CoD3).
Above: CoD 7: Black Ops could see you playing as a member of the SAS
If the team is keen to move away from their tag as the 'World War II' CoD team, this concentration on more ‘under-the-radar’ missions might be the way to do it. Plus, further info suggests you'll play at least part of the game as a member of the SAS, which sounds way more exciting than a Private in the infantry division.
Missions will take place in a variety of time-frames...
Back in early 2009 it was already beingreported that CoD 7 would be set in the Vietnam era. Again, an 'insider' pointed to the music that was being licensed for the game which was of the Vietnam era and Cuban, African and Russian music.
Above: The CIA-led Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba falls within the suggested time-frame for CoD 7
This would suggest a Cold War/Vietnam setting (including a possible mission in the Bay of Pigs Invasion) and would place the time-frame between 1959 and 1975. Sounds totally plausible to us.
There will be a mission based around the 1980 London Iranian Embassy Siege:
Not so sure about this one... and we've got someinfo to back this up.
In the recent lawsuit filed against Activision by Infinity Ward employees Vince Zampella and Jason West it was revealed that West and Zampella had "creative authority over the development of any games... set in the post-Vietnam era, the near future or the distant future".
Above:Unfortunately, this PC modmight be closest we get to an Iranian Embassysiege ina Call of Duty game
Given that the Iranian Embassy siege by occurred in 1980, this would fall out of Treyarch's remit. However, now that Zampella and West are no-longer employees of IW and their future influence over the series is still to be decided in the US courts, this clause might be rendered irrelevant now.
From a gamer point of view, playing out that notorious mission would be kind of cool (and controversial enough to garner 'No Russian'-style media attention).
The game will use dedicated servers for PC multiplayer:
This is more of an issue for PC gamers, many of whom abandoned Modern Warfare 2 when it was revealed that Infinity Ward was doing away with dedicated servers and instead using an Xbox Live style matchmaking service.
Above: PC gamers got quite militant about Modern Warfare 2
The reasons for the anger felt by a section of the PC gaming community arenumerous and well documented, but it seems to have rubbed off on Treyarch, if we are to believe this part of the 'insider's' intel -that CoD 7 will support dedicated servers. We want to believe this is true.
Zombies will return:
This one seems to be a dead cert, as it was here that Treyarch saw the most vocal support as far as its multiplayer offering played out. Sure, gamers played WAW online for a bit as a stop-gap (and then went back to original Modern Warfare) but it was Zombie mode that had us hooked and laying awake at night planning strategies to reach level 17 on Veruckt.
Above:Nazi zombies - a stroke of co-op genius
It would be highly unusual if Treyarch didn’t capitalise on this and expand zombie mode into a serious section of the game. Like Modern Warfare 2 had three distinct 'sections': Campiagn, Spec Ops and Multiplayer. We think CoD 7 will take a similar route with Campaign, Zombies and Multiplayer.
It'll be out on 10 November:
Looking back at the history of Call of Duty release dates Activision seems to favour an early November launch window, and both CoD 3 and CoD MW2 hit stores on 10 November. The only consideration that could affect this in 2010, is EA's relaunch of Medal of Honor, which is scheduled for Fall 2010. Aside from this November 10 has beensupported by retail leaks in the UK.
Original source
March 29, 2010
