The Official Xbox Magazine was recently released, with a huge feature on Call of Duty: Black Ops. To check out the full scans of each page, just click the pictures below!
Here's a summary of the details from codblackopsnews.com, they've written it perfectly:
<h2>General</h2>
<ul>
<li>OXM reckons, unsurprisingly, that this will be ‘one of this year’s very biggest, and best’ games</li>
<li>The graphics, as we saw in the teaser trailer, are amazing – in particular building are demolished brilliantly and ‘dynamic shadows’ that build tension</li>
<li>‘Black Ops has a different, grubbier vibe to MW2′</li>
<li>Treyarch are approaching the game as ‘3 games in one’ – single player, co-op, and multiplayer</li>
<li>There’s ‘dedicated co-op’, suggesting a departure from WaW – Treyarch ‘changed the subject’ when asked about zombies <img src='https://www.codblackopsnews.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt='' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
<li>Treyarch have taken ‘creative risks’</li>
<li>There are more than 200 people working on Black Ops</li>
<li>The difference between World at War and Black Ops is like the difference between CoD2 and CoD4</li>
</ul>
<h2>Campaign</h2>
<ul>
<li>You’re a member of SOG (Studies and Operations Group) working in deniable ops during the Cold War – we knew that.</li>
<li>There’s fighting in ‘Vietnam, the frosty Russian mountains, the Laotian undergrounds and everything in between’</li>
<li>Naturally, you’ll be fighting the North Vietnamese Army</li>
<li>In ‘WMD’, the mission USA Today played, you are indeed controlling the SR-71, and you issue orders to soliders down below</li>
<li>In ‘Victor Charlie’, you start off in a crashed helicopter in the Huong River, and make your way upstream, swimming, with only a knife</li>
<li>In ‘Payback, you’re in a <strong>fully-controllable </strong>helicopter – you drive it and shoot it</li>
</ul>
<h2>Gameplay</h2>
<ul>
<li>‘Stealth plays a big part’</li>
<li>Rapelling: you’ll be able to feel ‘each crash back into the cliffside with a bone-jarring thud’</li>
<li>You can call in air support to decimate NVA buildings</li>
<li>Your player has a voice, unlike other CoD games</li>
</ul>
<h2>Weapons</h2>
<ul>
<li>The crossbow was confirmed</li>
<li>As was the ‘dragonbreath’ flame-throwing rounds for the SPAS-12 (also confirmed)</li>
<li>The M202 ‘Grim Reaper’ rocket launcher was name-dropped</li>
<li>And, (thanks to WePlayCoD), the guy in the full-page picture is holding a MAC-10</li>
<li>Vehicles return, ‘but not the way you remembered them from WaW’</li>
</ul>
<h2>Multiplayer</h2>
<ul>
<li>Multiplayer began development early on, such that some single player levels are based on multiplayer maps</li>
<li>A beta’s ‘being considered’</li>
<li>We’ve heard it before, but Treyarch will be improving multiplayer from suggestions, and acknowledged the under-the-map glitches that plagued WaW’s launch</li>
<li>Matchmaking for consoles has been improved (although <a href="https://www.codblackopsnews.com/2010/05/14/dedicated-servers-to-return-in-cod-black-ops/" target="_blank">as we learned earlier</a>, PCs will almost certainly get dedicated servers)</li>
<li>Create a Class 2.0 – improved character customization includes kit and appearance items!</li>
</ul>
So overall, a few bits we knew before, a few we kinda guessed, and a few genuinely exciting prospects. I've always liked the stealth missions, so I'm hoping stealth really does play a 'big part' like they say. Customization for Create A Class sounds great, as does a fully controllable helicopter. I honestly can't wait.
New video release with a few seconds of new footage, the world première should be interesting. Cheers to Shadow for the heads up: