If you are a Call of Duty fan, then you know very well there are two game studios that develop the games we love to play year in and year out. This year, Treyarch is at the helm developing Call of Duty: Black Ops. COD360 had the honor to visit Treyarch Studios and attend the First-Look event for the C.O.D. community in which a few single player campaign scenes were on demonstration. When it was all set and done, Call of Duty: Black Ops will undoubtedly improve from its predecessor and will take us to where no war game has taken us before.

Rumors around the web is that the game is to be set in Vietnam and/or the Cold War era. The truth is that it's neither true nor false, let me explain. Call of Duty:Black Ops is not about the Vietnam War or about any specific conflict, it is about the Black Ops- the S.O.G's "Studies and Observation Group." Which were made up of elite units such as the Green Berets, US Air Force Air Commandos, and the navy SEALS. The Black Ops are the best of the best. The baddest of the baddest. Bottom line, these guys were the Godfathers of tactical recon. They ran the type of missions where if something went wrong, there is no going in after them and would be denied ever existing. Treyarch chose the Black ops and the Vietnam/Cold War era because "they wanted to own it, it is totally own-able and has a fertile ground for gaming which has not been done by many people." says Treyarch Studio Head Mark Lamia. This also allow the team freedom to create all new types of experiences and game play.

Treyarch is dedicated to bringing the C.O.D fans an experience like never before by concentrating on character development. Black Ops will take place over a long period of time in which the player will get to know the character and the changes he goes through as you progress throughout the game. A FIRST in a Call of Duty game is that your player will now have a "player voice". You are a SOG, so Treyarch felt that since you are a badass, which takes control of the battle field, you needed a voice to portray that. Treyarch faced the challenge head-on to brings us a voice in a first person shooter which is not easy to do since you do not see the character. Lamia felt if they were going to tell a deep story, it was important for the player to respond and be part of the story. Which really changes the dynamic of single player and the way it plays out. Another way that the player will be able to plunge in and experience some thing new is for instance in the WMD mission. Where you are engaged in a recon mission flying over in a SR-71 Black Bird. You are able to command the troops on the ground by telling them there is "danger close" and where to go. Then with a smooth transition, the player jump right into their shoes on the ground ready for combat. Treyarch is also improving the enemy AI. This time around if you have a rusher that is running towards you and you begin to shoot or throw a grenade. The AI will duck and roll out of the way, making him a lot harder to kill.

For the PC players and to quote Lead PC designer Cesar Stastny, "PC VERSION IS AWESOME!" And as if I was watching Superman, Cesar tears open his shirt to unveil a black T-shirt with the words "Dedicated Servers" printed on it. Next topic is MOD Tools, will they be available? It is too early to tell. All though Treyarch has done advancements to the engine and along side that, comes a lot of advancements in the tools that help them internally to make the game better but also can complicate the aspect of delivering MOD-Tools. Another info given to us is that there will be an improved server browser with the dedicated servers.

Since this was just for a single player pre-view, not much was said about the multi-player aspect of the game. But Dan Bunting and David "Vahn" Vonderharr stepped in and talked about multi-player for a while- at least what PR allowed them to talk about. With Black Ops, the team has been working on the project since day one with about twice the team than previous projects. Dan then describes how at the beginning of the project they broke down the game to its most core components (Pillars).

The Player Experience- is how you as a player want to customize it, personalize it and make it a part of you; your own persona. Create-a-class 2.0 anyone? (code name, might change in final game)

The Competitive Experience- is how you do in relation to other players in the game which is the bread and butter of M.P..

The Social Experience- is how you relate to other player outside of the game.

With past games the single player would be in development first and then multi-player would take form from the single player baseline. A question was asked if there would be single player maps in the multi-player side of the game and Vahn responded with "when you see stuff in single player, it looks like M.P., it is because they took it from multi-player. Not the other way around." This is an important point because some of the things you see in the campaign such as maps and weapons were taken straight from multi-player. For an example, the cross-bow was a weapon designed for MP and so badass that it had to be in single player. The game is developed with the "hardcore" player in mind but they have to make Black Ops accessible for everybody. With this in mind, for those that prefer a more "old school" style game type there will be a Barebones Play List. And for those more casual players, you have your regular game types. Another subject that we know you are dying to know about is vehicles, will they make a return? The answer is yes but not in the way we are used to or expect. That really left us wondering and wanting more. For those of you wondering if gore make a return, the answer is yes. Auto Toggle aim also makes a return along side host migration, and region filter were also confirmed.

Treyarch is grabbing the bull by the horns and taking charge. With new features, Character development, dedicated servers, and many new features that we could not talk about. Call of Duty: Black Ops as a whole is going to offer something for everybody from the casual players to the hardcore player and undoubtedly take us to a war like we've never seen before.