Campaign: What we know DETAILED SPOILERS

[Daveyjone]

Please do not read on if you don't want to know the synopsis. I myself will not read this.

All sources have been legitimately revealed by Mark Lamia, who showed thevege studios a playthrough of the beginning mission(s) (I don't know how far they go as I said, I didn't read them ) Spoilers start midway and will be marked, all are text only descriptions, no videos.

Images can be found at the source site: http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/2 ... in/2756745

The following is NOT spoilers but the pre-play interview.

Screenwriter David Goyer (The Dark Knight, Superman: Man of Steel) returned to help Treyarch develop the time-bending tale, and create what both parties believe will be an unforgettable villain in Menendez. Lamia can't help but remind me that Goyer was responsible for Heath Ledger's Joker.

A very old Woods is still alive in 2025 and a narrator of sorts in Black Ops 2. He explains what happened in the 80s while on assignment with Alex Mason and why it matters in the game's present.

Woods has an ongoing story of his own, and though it's unclear, the Treyarch team hinted at a major third-act reveal imagined by Goyer. Maybe I'm way off, but could Woods have been brainwashed in Hanoi like Alex Mason was in Vorkuta in the original Black Ops?

A point I also have thought.. discuss!

Anyhow, in the late 1980s, which will be roughly a third of the game, you will see how Menendez becomes a monster of a man, and in 2025, you will see what he's capable of. It's rather unsettling.

What's most important, though, Lamia tells me, is believability. "We gotta be grounded," he repeats time and again, like a holy mantra

They ask about the 'rare earth elements' (No, not 115) which have been discussed:

Lamia tells us future war won't be about oil, but rare earth elements.

Rare earth elements are about as grounded as it gets. The minerals are essential to many of today's most important products, from smartphones to renewable energy devices like wind turbines and hybrid car batteries. Rare earth elements also play an important role in the creation of most modern military technology.

So what's the rub? In the real world, rare earth elements are almost entirely controlled by China's market, which provides 95% of all REEs. By comparison, Iran controls only 10% of the Earth's oil.

Lamia plays a clip of Obama talking about the necessity of China's participation with Western market in trading rare earth elements fairly. He shows an interview with a Japanese businessman discussing the dangers of China's complete control of the commodity.

Then things get apocalyptic.

The Treyarch team volleys between clips from news and military television programs pertaining to war in the not so distant future. They paint a world in which a hacker could bring a superpower to its knees.

Drones, advanced robotics, security systems: Our best weapons may one day be used against us. Oliver North, who is a consultant on the game, says he's not worried about the guy who hijacks the one plane, but about the guy who hijacks all of them.

SPOILERS. ABANDON HOPE ALL YE CODDERS

A well-dressed man covered in blood shrieks in agony. David Mason pushes him into a seat and looks around the limousine, spotting the president. She looks like a younger Hillary Clinton. We hear G20 leaders across the world are under attack.

The vehicle is speeding down the highway. Outside, blinking construction signs call for an evacuation of Los Angeles. Above, a swarm of dozens, maybe hundreds of drones are bombarding the skyscrapers and roads. One swoops over the limo, lighting it up.

Mason pulls the president from the wrecked car, dashes across the highway, and hops into a turret atop a military vehicle dangling precariously off the lifted roadway. The weapon locks onto a half dozen or so drones at a time, chasing them with heat seeking rockets. A drone shot out of the air crashed onto the highway and skips like a three-ton stone over Mason, nearly slicing the head from his shoulders.

In action-star fashion, Mason abandons the turret moments before it slides off the freeway in a thunderclap of fire and cement. "On route to prom night with the president," some colleague says.

The president is repelled beneath the freeway by a couple of soldiers, while Mason provides cover with a sniper rifle. It's futurefied with the ability to see enemies through cars and cement barrier. They look like images from the new scattershot x-ray machines at airports -- Lamia later mentions them as an inspiration for the weapon.

When Mason pulls the trigger, it kicks sharply back, letting out a piercing noise, like wood slapping pavement.

Mason finally makes his way down to the lower road, hops in a sports utility vehicle, and drives through the abandoned street, hammering cars and pulverizing enemy soldiers. Up ahead, the vaulted freeway begins to collapse.

A female pilot keeps watch over Mason from a Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft, a harrier-like jet (remember, from Saints Row The Third). She provides direction through the dizzying battlefield.

"Most of the city's a full blown war zone," shouts some guy. The Pentagon and Wall Street are in equal or worse shape we hear, before a red semi sideswipes the vehicle.

CUT TO BLACK.

"The arena district is compromised," screams a grainy voice over the radio. Mason opens his eyes.

He is in the arena district, between the massive storefronts of a futuristic Staples Center and Nokia Theater.

A horse-like robot called the Cognitive Land Assault Weapon, C.L.A.W. for short, led by the enemies, shoots a cop apart. You've seen something like this machine before. Maybe here. Or here. In game, it's bigger and scarier.

Mason and what remains of the U.S. soldiers shoot the heavy steel legs out from beneath the C.L.A.W., and fire a round into its rear panel, igniting the fuel chamber into a plume of smoke and flame and electricity.

He heads into a shopping center. A swarm of friendly quadropcopters, basically military grade versions of the AR.Drone Parrot, swoop in. Mason dials a few numbers into his wrist computer, which literally wraps around his forearm, commanding the gaggle of flying artillery-bots. He makes his way through the interior of a shopping area. When an enemy charges him, Mason lifts his other hand, which is wrapped in a glove-like electronic-device, and fires a propulsive blast of air, knocking the baddie to the floor.

Outside is a horror show. Falling buildings and dead civilians. A skyscraper comes down, the rush of debris screaming towards Mason.

CUT TO BLACK.

Mason wakes up, and the intersection is filled with brown air, ash and little flames.

The pilot in the VTOL calls in. She's been injured. The plane lands and she is taken by paramedics to an ambulance. Naturally and without a second thought, Mason pilots the vacated aircraft.

He doesn't know a thing about flying one of these, but a voice on the radio says the "flight computer should handle most of the work."

The VTOL is entirely player controlled, from steering to boosting to shooting. Mason releases missiles with abandon, decimating parking structures, drones and more red semis. Apparently the latter are the chosen vehicle of enemies nationwide.

Things are going fine, until Mason hits another plane dead on - in what is a rather showy display of heroism. He ejects at the last moment, launches his chute, slides into the side of building and tumbles towards the ground.

Pause screen. That's it.

If you're a connoisseur of the franchise, you know Black Ops was a bit more covert. A bit less bombastic than the landmark destroying Modern Warfare series. Lamia assures me that this game will have more top-secret, no-one-ever-knew-you-were-there missions.

But they wanted to introduce Black Ops 2 with a bang.

Almost died trying to copy but not read that [brains]

Near the end of this lengthy session, we were shown the improvements the team is making with their motion capture system. They created a female character to stress test the software's ability to create believable facial animations. This was neat, but was surpassed by footage of a horse being motion captured.

In a mission set during the 1980s in Afghanistan, Alex Mason rides a horse, who was fully motion captured in the House of Moves in Los Angeles. And it looks pretty believable. As do the faces of the characters. Just look at the close-up of Woods in the reveal trailer to get a grasp of how far the motion capture tech has come.

In fact, the game in general looks believable considering the future setting. The team at Treyarch clearly has done a tremendous amount of research into how the world will look a little over a decade from now. The loud colors and bright lights of future LA don't look quite as becoming as the dark corridors of the original Black Ops. That's the cost, perhaps, of bigger environments with greater detail, all the while maintaining 60 frames per second.

If anything's holding back the graphics, it's the current console generation's hardware.

Outside the theater during a break I spot a piece of concept art presumably from the horse sequence. A member of the Muhajideen with a stinger missile launcher strapped to his back, evades an attack from what looks like a Russian helicopter.

Lamia's words echo in my head: "Gotta keep it grounded." I'm sure that mantra stands, until an idea like this one pops up. After all, what fun would Black Ops 2 be without a helicopter-versus-horse battle to the death?

[crazy skillz]

^ AMAZING! MIND = BLOWN [brains] For you!

[ZombieNationZ]

Hey Shoreyo, what up? Long time no see. Also very good post my man love it; I will send brains when Im on a pc.