The Call of Duty franchise won't get its own dedicated expo in 2012, Activision confirmed to Joystiq. Last year's Call of Duty XP event was used to celebrate the franchise's huge fan base, while also setting the stage for Activision to reveal the Call of Duty Elite service.

Rather than hold the event, an Activision representative said that the company's plan is to put more of an emphasis on Cologne, Germany's Gamescom event this August. Activision didn't rule out the possibility of Call of Duty XP returning in the future.

Last year's event was the public, hands-on debut of Modern Warfare 3 from Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games. Proceeds from tickets sold to the event went to Activision's Call of Duty Endowment charity.

Sure, we expected as much since Microsoft has Call of Duty DLC locked until 2012, but Microsoft still saw the need to announce a continued partnership with Activision for Call of Duty DLC anyway, those rebels. During the Microsoft E3 press conference, Don Mattrick revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 would continue the trend of offering DLC first on Xbox 360

At this point, a portion of the current conversation surrounding Black Ops 2 is in regards to the engine powering it, version 3.0 of the Infinity Ward (IW) engine – IW 3.0 powered Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: World at War and the original Black Ops. If you're worried the visuals in Black Ops 2 won't be up to snuff, Treyarch head Mark Lamia assures us all the engine has seen numerous tweaks, downplaying its age in a recent audio interview summed up over on One of Swords.

Lamia said "a pretty significant amount of work" in Black Ops 2 is going into the graphics and the lighting. "I think what people are asking for is for us to push. They want us to make a better-looking game; they want things. I don't think those are things people can't ask for. We asked ourselves that very same question - we wanted to advance the graphics. I think the questions are valid. The answer may not need to be an entirely new engine, but you might need to do an entire overhaul of your entire lighting system. The trick is, we're not willing to do that if we can't keep it running at 60 frames per second - but we did that this time."

Lamia gave an analogy akin to remodeling a home – not with a rocket launcher, but rather he talked about sectioning off parts of the metaphorical house for more local improvements. "There's a lot of good still in that foundation that you wouldn't get rid of, and we don't. We look to advance in the areas that support our game design. Engines, each time they get touched, they change. The creators alter them; they don't modify what they don't need to, and then they alter what they need to. You can't make a competitive product if you're not upgrading that engine along the way."

 

Black Ops 2 brings back Treyarch's personal twist on Call of Duty, namely Zombies. The official Twitter account issued this image, teasing a shotgun-toting female. It's not the first time a woman had to get her hands dirty, though we think this one took the phrase a bit too literally.  

Amazon's pre-order numbers indicate Activsion's Call of Duty gravy train is still going full steam. Earlier today, Amazon UK told MCV that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 pre-orders were three times higher than its predecessor, Black Ops, two years ago. We wanted to know if that anticipation crossed the pond.

"Pre-orders from day one of Black Ops 2 were more than ten times the amount of pre-orders for the first Black Ops on its first day of availability," Amazon US told Joystiq this afternoon, but that's not all the buzz.

"Black Ops 2 even out pre-ordered the first day of availability for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by more than 30 percent. Modern Warfare 3 currently holds the record for the most pre-ordered game of all time and was amongst the top 20 pre-orders ever on Amazon.com, including books and movies."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 went on to gross over $775 million globally in five days, flying past Call of Duty: Black Ops' $650 million record and the $550 million record before it, set by Modern Warfare 2.

Garnering legions of fans tends to wedge a franchise right between those that crave more of the same content, and those that loathe its existence. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is in the same spot, but developer Treyarch is looking to create some wiggle room between the two camps in its next contribution to Activision's billion dollar franchise.

At Treyarch's office in Los Angeles, company boss Mark Lamia steps into a darkened theater filled with journalists. He's chipper, excited to finally talk about the game his team has been slaving over for more than a year. Despite a tightly constructed marketing schedule, the secret of Black Ops 2 was hard to contain; its existence began to leak in January.

"Let me introduce you to the worst kept secret in the game industry," Lamia says as he walks in front of a giant screen embellished with the sleek Black Ops 2 logo. The walls around the screen are lined with concept art, some of it modeled after surveillance photos from in-orbit satellites, but all with a futuristic tint to them. "Saying that," Lamia continues, "we think what Black Ops 2 is about is one of the best kept secrets in the industry."

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (5/1/2012)

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As implied by the early marketing, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 thrusts the franchise into the near future. But this isn't Halo or Battlefield 2142 – this is a future that isn't as far off as we may think, and it's not the period of time gamers will be visiting when the game launches this November.

"This is a direct sequel to Black Ops," Lamia says, adding that one of the central characters from the previous installment, Sgt. Frank Woods, is alive and well in the sequel. Rather than lead off from the previous game, Black Ops 2 will feature two distinct time periods: the 1980s vintage Cold War, and a grounded future in which the United States and China are embroiled in a new Cold War. The idea, Lamia admits, is to show some parity between both periods and allow players to get a better glimpse into the characters involved. Technology and the reasons for battle change, but the objective remains the same: win at all costs.

In Black Ops 2 players will play as former protagonist Alex Mason in the 1980s, and as his son, David Mason, in 2025. The two periods are entwined with the return of Woods and a new villain, Raul Menendez. The story arc spans the Mason family and Woods, and plot out the rise and fall of Menendez. Working with David S. Goyer, who helped co-develop the story for The Dark Knight, Treyarch has decided to shine a more detailed light on its villain. Players will see the breaking point for Menendez in the 1980s to better understand his motivations for terror in the future. We see a man go from good soldier to bitter terrorist, and his story is as important to the entire plot of Black Ops 2 as any other character we meet. "It's a character study. It's a story about these characters," Lamia explains to me later.

It's Menendez's actions that throw the United States and China into a chaotic war. A cyber attack cripples the China Stock Exchange, which leads the country to horde a precious material that is making headlines in real life today.

Though control of the world's oil reserves continues to be the source of tension today, the future battle for resources in Black Ops 2 revolves around Rare Earth Materials. Rare Earths are a combination of minerals used to create everything from smart phones, laptops, and earth-conscious, wind-powered generators. It's also a central component in the creation of weapons: guided missiles, drones, and more rely on these rare earths.

President Barack Obama was recently in the news stating that the U.S., European Union, and Japan will bring a case against China to the World Trade Organization because of the nation's export restrictions on the material. China, according to multiple reports, produces over 95 percent of all rare earths. In Black Ops 2, the stock exchange incident, which traces back to the United States, offers the perfect excuse for China to keep the materials to itself.

Remember those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books? That's sort of the idea we have here.- Dave Anthony, Game Director

According to Lamia, Black Ops 2 comes from a team that has worked together for an extended period of time, where comfort levels and success allow them to challenge assumptions and deliver something they believe can push the franchise forward. This leads to one of the most interesting changes since Infinity Ward took the franchise to the modern era: branching stories.

Throughout the campaign, players will be given the choice to take part in 'Strike Force' missions, with a key objective that can shift the landscape of the greater battle between China and the United States. Sometimes multiple missions will be available, but only one can be selected. Based on the success or failure of these missions -- and you can actually fail to accomplish your objective -- the campaign story will change. There are also choices within levels. In a mission shown at the event, players were given the choice between covering their team with a sniper rifle from a perch, or hitting the ground alongside their squad. According to Lamia, player choice can also lead to the death of key characters during the campaign.

"Remember those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books?" game director Dave Anthony asks the room, "that's sort of the idea we have here." It seems crazy Treyarch would spend time and resources to create levels players may never see during a single playthrough, but it's extraordinarily ambitious and an idea that intrigues me.

Setting the majority of the game in 2025 doesn't mean Treyarch will showcase a war of laser guns and giant mech suits. The conceit in Black Ops 2 is that technology has continued to grow and the military has better embraced the use of drones on the battlefield. Many of the concepts featured in Black Ops 2 are taking existing technology and increasing its ferociousness, or shrinking it down to size.

In another mission, Los Angeles has been ravaged by unmanned attack drones. David Mason and his partner, Harper, are tasked with escorting the President of the United States when their convoy is attacked by a fleet of these drones. Here we're introduced to a new piece of gear: a scope with the same ability as the full-body scanner found in modern airports.

"The military has something like this now, except it's this huge rig on a truck," Lamia tells me, describing an area scanner that takes a three-hundred-and-sixty degree image, revealing everything within nearby structures and underground. It's this giant prototype that has been shrunk down into the scope in Black Ops 2, allowing players to see through structures and spot hiding enemies. It's certainly future technology, but it could be within the realm of possibility in the next decade.

Former Pentagon employee and author Peter W. Singer, whose book Wired For War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century outlines the military's change in attitude toward unmanned technology in recent history, is helping Treyarch keep the future setting grounded in reality. "In some cases he told us we didn't go far enough," Lamia explains after I ask him about concepts that seemed too futuristic to be included in the game. But will war ever escalate to call for the amount of drones and machines seen in the Black Ops 2 trailer? "When U.S. forces went into Iraq, the original invasion had zero robotic systems on the ground," Singer wrote in 2009's Wired For War. "By the end of 2006, it had reached the 5,000 mark and growing. It was projected to reach as high as 12,000 by the end of 2008."

To keep things even, and to show off the near-future technology Treyarch has added to Call of Duty, Black Ops 2 multiplayer will take place exclusively in 2025. Though the developer wouldn't go into detail on the franchise's most important component, game design director David Vonderhaar noted it was important for the team to strip the entire multiplayer down to the most important pieces, to ensure Black Ops 2 would have the "best gameplay system that you can have, period." Two multiplayer maps were shown: a destroyed downtown Los Angeles map called 'Aftermath' and a map called 'Yemen,' set in a deserted island town. A more detailed multiplayer reveal is expected later this year.

Zombies, of course, will also return, but those are timeless creatures. The only shred of info revealed for the returning mode is that Treyarch will now present it within the multiplayer engine, making it easier to take advantage of certain elements found in that mode.

Call of Duty detractors may complain the series hasn't evolved enough over time, but Black Ops 2 may change things. The developers at Treyarch, from what I've seen, are doing what they can to make this a unique experience for fans – and perhaps garner the interest of people outside that huge group. The studio certainly has the ability to rise to the challenge, so we'll be keeping a close eye on Black Ops 2 as the game's November 13 release date inches closer.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has officially existed for barely over a day, and as the internet hype machine slowly begins to whirl up to speed, so too does the uproarious clamor from our nation's retailers, hell-bent on claiming custody over your Call of Duty consumer commitment.

Predictably, Gamestop is the first out of the gate with enticements to earn your dollars, with pre-order bonuses that come in waves – four to be precise – the first of which is active now. Securing your future purchase of Black Ops 2 during the first wave will net you an "exclusive, limited edition two-sided poster," as well as a Prestige token for Modern Warfare 3 and all of the subsequent pre-order bonuses offered during waves two, three and four.

Choice in a video game is not a rare occurrence, unless that game happens to be Call of Duty. During the campaign in Black Ops 2, players will have the ability to select from a handful of 'Strike Force' missions anchored to hotspots throughout the globe. When one mission is selected, the others become unavailable, replaced later with fresh 'Strike Force' missions.

But these single-player missions set in the near-future aren't simply random missions without a story wrapper. Instead, they offer players an opportunity to play Call of Duty with an element of rarely seen choice.

The mission showcased during a recent press event featured an attack on a harbor, as U.S. forces attempted to sink a docked freighter. While players can select a single soldier and run through the mission as they would any other scenario in Call of Duty, there's an option to switch control to other elements of the battlefield.

Perhaps you'd prefer to control a swarm of aerial attack drones, armed with light machine guns; or the land-based assault weapon, a dog-like tank affectionally referred to as the CLAW. Swapping between these resources, including other squad members, seems to be the hook of these 'side quests.' They offer a change of pace from the character-driven narrative, throwing players into the grand battle between two superpowers, while adding an incentive to change the geopolitical landscape of the world in Black Ops 2.

If players fail these missions -- which happens when troops are no longer available for you to control -- or succeed, the consequence bleeds into the single-player. This may make consequent challenges easier or more difficult for players in future story missions. A player's actions may also affect the objectives of Raul Menendez, the main antagonist in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Story-branching and choice is an interesting component coming to the series, implying that players may not see every piece of single-player content in a focused completion of the campaign (of course, players can go back to play those missions as they choose, or play the campaign again).

What's most exciting about the ability to swap roles in 'Strike Force' is the ability to leave the fighting to the computer, instead issuing commands to all of the components -- human and robotic -- from a zoomed out 'Overwatch' position. Strike Force is ambitious, and we're keeping a close eye on it as development on Black Ops 2 progresses.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is coming to the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on November 13, 2012.