GameChanger

Clearly, you were a bit too eager for 4/20 to come

Inb4 he is referring to alternate realities with his tweets. SHANGRI-LA ON MARS CONFIRMED BUS ROUTE B CONFIRMED CONTINUATION OF TRANZIT EE CONFIRMED MISTY IS TANK'S DAUGHTER CONFIRMED

You should be proud, considering the amount of people who play Grief and the even smaller amount of people who don't quit out causing you to take a loss on your stats. Ninja Edit: I mean that in the most sincere way possible. I wish I had such good luck that I had 11 fulfilling games of Grief.

That's a bit of a stretch, even by "M.A.R.S." conspiracy theorist standards. Michael Madsen has played in a wide range of works, so the only thing surprising about his appearance is that Telltale was somehow able to have him perform in a non AAA game. Shangri-La IIRC is a mythical earthy paradise that has been used a A HUGE NUMBER of games, music, movies, shows, and much more. It's definitely not exclusive to Black Ops at all. Trust me, you're digging a bit too deep for clues if you're citing a Zombie Game that has pretty much zero connections to the Black Ops series.

Call me a cheapskate, but I have no hesitation to buy the door to the Bank on Buried. I'd happily sacrifice a little dosh in order to get my LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOADS OF MONAY from the Bank.

I've talked about this game to hell and back, but I guess it's time to have my final thoughts on it. Black Ops II Zombies was disappointing. Unlike its predecessor, it seems to fall short in every aspect. BO1 actually had a story that actually made sense. BO2's story seemed shallow in a way. If anything, it was always about Richtofen Vs. Maxis, and nothing more. In terms of gameplay, it just got too gimmicky for me. Mob and Origins combined challenge and fun perfectly, whereas TranZit/Die Rise/Buried somehow felt frustrating and simple at the same time. Turned was an utter failure, while Grief didn't even get the focus it deserved. All in all, I feel horrible for the people who didn't buy any DLC and only have TranZit to deal with it. Hopefully in two years (which is more than enough to mend story/gameplay issues) time, I'll too busy enjoying TranZition, one of the best maps of all time, to care about the previous game.

I don't have much faith after the crap-show that was Black Ops II, but I'd be REALLY surprised if Treyarch manages to screw it up with TWO years of development time.

The site is a UK fansite for game series Sam & Max, but it does seem legit to me. I doubt Boat is wrong with Stu's character description especially this late in development, so I think this was a subplot that didn't make it just yet.

It would kinda make sense he's a CIA Agent too, so hopefully it got cut due to time constraints and will be featured next 3arc game. He's following in the footsteps of Broken Arrow operative Russman, and his crazy ramblings may have a hint of truth to them.

Samuel J. Stuhlinger. Love him or hate him, we all know he's a little crazy. From what we've seen of him, we know right off the bat the guy has both Paranoia and Schizophrenia. He's also always spouting his totally 100 percent true conspiracies to the group. Just from his appearance, we know he's a basket case. When did he become like this is the big question here. Russman would've quickly stopped mentoring Stu as a child if he had such mental issues, and Stu's kinda bad at keeping his mental troubles under wraps. Logically, he couldn't have had these disorders right when he was born. In some cases, these disorders are "triggered" by significant/traumatic events. As shown in Die Rise, Samuel is revealed to have been a part of The Flesh. We even get a split-second shot of him chomping down on an arm (Nom.) As we have seen in the O4, 115 creates side effects on a living human. By Stuhlinger ingesting that arm before TranZit begins, he's allowed an unknown level of 115 to enter his system. Similar to Richtofen, the 115 slowly made Stuhlinger insane. The last of the side effects seems to be his ability to hear voices from the Aether. He wasn't always calling out conspiracies. At first, he was just a scared guy in the Apocalypse who sought refuge in a survival group. Hope you enjoyed my already obvious "Theory". Here's some random stuff that didn't belong in its own thread.

"Drink once from the wrong well and everyone calls you a monster" is the quote I believe you are referring too. To answer your question, Russman has a lot of quotes about regretting past things he's done, and Marlton and his big mouth messing things up. Also notice how in Buried intro, Marlton tip toes around the "incident". One can assume Marlton may have something to do with Russman's departure. Degree 3.

It's most likely because playtesters disliked the the voices, although they were pretty much just new zombie groans. Even with all these diseases, the guy is still running around and kicking ass. I know Russ is a bit unreliable due to his current state of health, but he says in Buried that he over the age of 75! (It's been a while since I heard that quote) I hate for '115' to be the answer for all plot holes, but it could make sense that Russ messed with it back in B.A. to stay alive and able for so long. Marlton was most likely the cause for Russman's departure, as he has multiple quotes about Marlton "fucking everything up". The Maxis Ending in Buried reveals that he's opening the gateway to Agartha to rescue Samantha. In the very next map, the sidequest revolves around opening up the Gateway to free Samantha. With the whole alternate universe stuff, this could just be one version of how events play out. Who knows, maybe the first map for BO3 will be about trying to get Richtofen out of Samuel's body. It really would be a shame if that whole Maxis v. Richtofen thing wasn't just a way for the community to "vote" for the canon storyline for Black Ops II. EDIT: Most people agree that Samuel was a part of The Flesh, but couldn't tell the group about him eating Zombie Flesh otherwise he'd be killed. One can guess this is why he can hear voices. Marlton is an extremely intelligent person who seemed to be involved with Broken Arrow, so he knows the gist of what's going on. Russman was also part of B.A., so he knows a couple things about why the Earth is in ruins. I do agree that the N4 story had potential, but I guess that's we'll have to wait till next game to get more information. For now, all we know is that PAYBACK'S A BITCH, JUST SO YOU KNOW SO IS RUSSMAN

I can see where HW is coming from on this. Brains were designed to encourage people to contribute and have well thought out posts, not rip off a funny joke and post it to Chicken Sandwich. Then again, I do agree with you. With the extra long off season, we can only talk about BO2 so much before it get repetitive. I personally believe a goal of the off season is to make sure we our community is active and thriving. If a post is well thought out and impressive, it should be commended regardless of section. Ideally, Brains should be rewarded for the post itself, and not the poster.

Well, we should begin by finding out what loose ends need to be solved. Off the top of my head (and I'll edit this post with more) some unanswered questions are What was Marlton doing in the Fallout Shelter? How long was the time between TranZit and Moon? How is the Rift going to be "mended"? Why are the perks flashing in MotD? What's the status on the O3 from Moon? How was Samuel able to hear Aether voices in Die Rise, but not in Buried? What are the background stories of the N4? Which side of the Black Ops 2 Side Quests are canon? (Most likely Maxis) What specifically was Broken Arrow? How has Russ been living so long and healthy? What is Russman's real name? What was the Purple Light from Die Rise about? What book does Samuel have during the events of all 3 N4 Maps?

Petitions aren't really effective, considering the party in question is a multi-billion dollar company who's not obliged to follow the requests, especially when one of their recent games made half a BILLION in three days.

I'd choose 2-sided EEs, with Challenges coming a close second. I was really pumped at the idea that the community influenced the story. It really made me feel that we had a choice on how the storyline progresses. However, my hopes and dreams were shattered when Team Maxis and Team Richtofen amounted to nothing. Hopefully in the next game our choices will matter and whichever side had the most "votes" (The one you do first in the map is your one and only vote) will influence the canon for the next map, and on a grander scale, the story. However, Team Zombies needs to make sure the EE steps are fair to both sides and ambiguous enough to not have people flock to one side for the "Good Ending" but at the same time answer questions and tie up loose ends.

This is a very well-thought out theory. Thank you so much for sharing and happy 935th post! Personally, Origins is so open-ended you can legitimately say that Maxis is secretly a dog with a plan to destroy the Earth and colonize Mars. I personally believe that there's some dimension-hopping and time traveling shenanigans going on, but not this elaborate. Anything's possible though, and I suppose we'll see November. Regretfully, I must inform you, neither the Earth, nor its felines will survive.

Thanks so much for doing this mega thread. It's an absolute shame that they cut so many story quotes from the BO2 maps. It really could've supported the already weak storyline, even just a little. God, why would you ever cut quotes about Samuel struggling with the voices?!

Inspired by Rissole's great post about how Turned can be improved, I decided to make post about how Grief could be improved as well. Keep in mind, this is a very rough sketch of ideas I'm copy and pasting from another post. I'll make sure to stop procrastinating and edit it with original ideas later in the day. Grief returns with an emphasis on "Grief". The mode features "Power-Downs" which are meant to hurt the other team. Power-Downs include but are not limited to: Min Ammo: 1/4 of the other team's total ammo is lost Half Points: Reduces all points gained by half Delayed-Death: All Zombies killed by other team will have a delayed reaction to death, similar to getting their heads shot off Water Sale: Doubles the box's price for a whopping 5 minutes (this one is rare) Ocean Sale: Doubles the PAP's price for a good 3 minutes. Random Water Bottle: When you have 4 perks, it randomly dilutes a perk and makes you lose it (with the exception of Jugg and Mule Kick to be fair, this is is VERY VERY rare) Bonus Debts: Lose between 500-1500 points on pickup. Power-Downs in regular gameplay are very rare, but have an unlimited spawn rate per round. Usually, to receive one, you need to do a specific challenge a la Origins and then activate at a time of your choosing in a chest.

Allow me to preface this by saying this post has nothing to do with the gender/sex side of things. It's a little bit silly to use that card considering that the male characters aren't exactly superultramegaawesome with their Schizophrenia, Dementia, and Germaphobia. Abigail. "Misty". Briarton. That's her name. When we first met the N4, Misty was the most... physically revealing of the group. Of course, this spawned many many jokes and sexual objectification of her. It doesn't help that Misty's background is one of the least interesting we've seen in the storyline. She's a farmgirl. That likes shotguns. I think that a crucial part of people disliking her is that Misty is bland compared to the rest of the crew. It's a real shame they never really utilized PAP quotes or otherwise to grow her character. We got bits and pieces such as her father was killed in a Zombie attack and that she can't even recall her mother's face, but not much else. I really do hope for the next game they can somehow "fix" the Misty character, because I really do believe that she has potential. What was life on the farm like? What was she like before the Outbreak? Why exactly is she so revealing? What was her relationship with her parents? How does she feel at Marlton at the moment? There's easily so many sub plots they can utilize to make her character more appealing. What I personally think will really help is making her the "leader" of the group. By far, Misty is the most sane of the group. She's more than capable of handling the group and banding them together, as shown in the Buried sequence. This can even lead to yet another sub plot, which is the stress of handling such an odd and dysfunctional group. Misty can easily be as good as the others, if the writers try to focus on what will make her interesting. Since I'm bound to make a mistake or two in this post, feel free to correct me or even add your own opinion about this in the comments section.

Yeah, Misty really needs some more focus by the writers in the next game. Her character is pretty bland compared to the colorful personalities to the rest of the N4. Of course your average person believes the N4 died in Buried. The average CoD player was never really known for exhibiting skills of critical thinking.

The way I see it, the Next Game needs to push forward, but make sure to look back. I don't know about you, but I don't want to play the same version of Zombies over and over. I want FRESH content!It's frightening to take risks, but so much great things can result from it. The main problem with BO2 Zombies was that it felt "gimmicky". TranZit clearly didn't belong on current gen consoles, Die Rise had plain horrible and confusing map design, and Buried cranked the easiness up to an 11. The story is also completely messed up, with no way to make heads or tails of anything at this point. What BO3 needs to do is simply take advatange of next-gen's power, take risks in design mechanics but don't make them a hassle to deal with, and FOCUS ON THE STORY. We're (well most of us) are interested in the TranZit 4. There's so many unresolved questions and subplots. How is Russman still alive? What is "the incident"? What's the status on the Marlton and Misty relationship? Who's The Flesh? What exactly is Broken Arrow? How did each of the characters meet (besides at the Bus Depot)? Why do I have to ask all these questions? BO3 needs to make sure the Zombies story is wrapped up without too many loose ends, and we're golden.

Browsing around, I noticed there wasn't really a definite answer as towards why Arlington keeps hearing Nikolai's name, as evidenced in this video. Now that we're at the end of our journey, we finally have more clues to speculate with. What could this mean? Since the story's all wibbly wobbly with the whole time/alternate universe thing, it's STILL anyone's guess. But my guess is that MOTD is somehow connected to Origins (most notably because of the perk machines). Because of Samatha's odd presence in Origins (I had a much more detailed post here, I'll try to look for it), she's the reason all this weird time distortion stuff is happening. 115 has the ability to dispel stuff from their proper time and place, and her somehow ending up in alternate reality France obviously messed things up. Weasel can hear Nikolai's name because it's a side effect similar to the flashing perk machines. The weapons, the perks, and so much more just don't belong in 1920's Alcatraz. Nikolai's name is simply a trace of another place, in another timeline. I hope I'm not too confusing with this one. If you have any questions or theories of your own, please, feel free to comment below. EDIT: Okay, just found that post!