Call of Duty seems to be getting a lot of flak from the press these days. Photographers Issouf Sanogo of the Agence France-Presse and Yann Foreix of Le Parisien stumbled across a French soldier in northern Mali who was sporting a bandana over his face with a skeleton face, made to resemble the Ghost character from the Call of Duty games. While you can’t fault a soldier for wearing a cool bandana, well, apparently the French military can.

Col. Thierry Burkhard stated, “This is unacceptable behavior. This image is not representative of action by France in Mali.” If you’re not up to date on what’s going on in Mali, the French military is currently trying to take the area away from Al-Qaida soldiers. The goal of the action as stated by the defense minister of France is “total reconquest of Mali.”

Sanogo, the photographer who took the picture which is making waves around the internet, pointed out that he didn’t see anything strange about the image when he took it. “Rays of light filtered through the trees and the clouds were lifted by the helicopter. It was a pretty light. I saw the soldier wearing an odd bandana and I took the photo. At the moment I didn’t find it particularly extraordinary or shocking. The soldier wasn’t posing.”

It’s interesting and strange that something as simple as a soldier wearing a Call of Duty bandana would cause so much controversy. And we would argue it’s perfectly representative of any military action. Even a soldier on a mission of liberation is also on a mission of death. Otherwise he wouldn’t be carrying an assault rifle. It’s interesting that the image of a soldier with a rifle wouldn’t bug the French military, but an image of a soldier who looks like a skeleton would. Both are images of death and destruction, which is a price paid in any war.

It’s amazing a game like Black Ops 2 can come out, make half a billion dollars in 24 hours, and still we see articles like this one from The Guardian with titles like “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Has the Series Peaked?” The article points out that almost “nothing survives beyond five years.” Call of Duty has already passed that test, however, and continued to do well. Is its performance cyclical? Of course, we’ve already noted that. Modern Warfare 3 pulled a good year last year, but was down compared to previous installments. There were reasons for the sales decline though, reasons which Black Ops 2 has directly answered and remedied.

The author also points out that “dominant genres rise and fall.” This is true as well, though FPS games have something of a timeless legacy by this point. While they may rise and fall as a trend, they will always be big—even if other games may sometimes be bigger by comparison some years. Many Call of Duty gamers not only enjoy this year’s installment, but also previous games they purchased in the series, not to mention other older FPS games by different companies. There are dedicated fan bases to old FPS games like Quake III Arena which came out clear back in 1999. And many of us can remember old games we played clear back in the early to mid 90s (Wolfenstein anyone?).

FPS games have come a long ways, but the essential core of the genre has always appealed to gamers and will continue to do so. As long as Infinity Ward and Treyarch can continue to deliver fun, balanced, well paced offerings in the genre, they will probably do excellently for many years to come. There will be ups and downs, but success is often planted in the soil of failure. All those lessons which were learned from Modern Warfare 3’s declining year paved the way for Black Ops 2 to do outstandingly well this year. Cycles don’t point toward a downfall; they’re just a common element of business for any successful business or franchise.

Yesterday, gamers were give their first opportunity to purchase Nintendo’s next generation console, the Wii U. Black Ops 2 is one of the launch games available for Wii U. This should tell us all that Activision and their developers have already set their focus on the future—indeed perhaps that is something of the symbolic purpose of setting Black Ops 2 in the near future. This is a sign that Call of Duty is ready to move forward with the next generation of consoles and into the future of gaming.

Okay … so we’re not suggesting you do this, but if you had to do it with anything, let it be Black Ops 2. Australian gamer Okan Kaya just set a Guinness World Record for playing the longest video game marathon in history by playing over 122 hours of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. That’s over five straight days of nonstop gaming with no breaks for sleep. Throughout the gaming marathon, Kaya was given regular health checkups to make sure he wasn’t about to collapse from exhaustion (and yes, people have actually died because they’ve forgotten to eat or sleep while playing video games; it’s happened).

All we can say is that Kaya is lucky that this week is Black Friday. As a sales manager of an online retailer, he’d otherwise have no excuse not to log all those extra hours that retail workers usually are commanded to deliver this week. He’s certainly proven he’s up to the task and that sleep isn’t a necessity! Next year he’ll have no excuse—unless of course he works on logging a new promotional record with the next Call of Duty game. Black Ops 2 is currently on sale for four platforms, including Wii U, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Don’t already have a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, or looking to give the gift of explosive, violent joy to that special gamer in your life this holiday season? Amazon.com has just announced that they will drop the price of Black Ops 2 to $59.01 on Black Friday. That’s about $10 less than it costs at full price. And remember that sold-out Black Ops 2 Care Package Prestige Edition with the remote control UAV and the really awesome replica care package box? That’s going back on sale for Black Friday, so you’ll get one more chance to snag a copy of it. The Prestige edition also includes a copy of the official soundtrack, collectible challenge coins which unlock exclusive DLC, the Nuketown 2025 and Nuketown Zombies maps, Weapon Camo, player card backgrounds, and more.

There are other retailers out there doing Black Ops 2 deals this week, but none seem to stand up to Amazon’s offer, which by the way also includes $5 in Instant Video credit and free one-day shipping. So whether you’re shopping for someone else or you’re giving yourself an awesome gift this holiday season, check it out before this deal is gone forever.

Somewhat amusingly, ex-CIA director David Petraeus is featured in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The timing is rather unfortunate, being as just last week he became the focus of a scandal and resigned from his post in the agency. Petraeus appears in the game speaking with Admiral Tommy Briggs about the upcoming conflict with the game’s villain Raul Menendez. In another scene, he receives a prisoner on board the USS Barack Obama. Petraeus is also featured riding on a plane alongside the fictional president in the year 2025, Commander-in-Chief President Bosworth, when the plane is attacked by enemy aircraft.

While this is all rather awkward, it’s mostly funny—and for his part, at least Petraeus gets to be immortalized in the Call of Duty universe in a more positive light. He wasn’t directly involved with the creation of the game, as Activision has recently explained. “Including Gen. Petraeus and other real-life figures was strictly a creative decision made many months ago when the storyline was drafted. We are not commenting further on the latest news or Gen. Petraeus. His service to his country and career accomplishments are a matter of public record.” We actually have to give them kudos for saying this. The scandal surrounding Petraeus involved his personal life—not his service record. We think public figures should be judged by the nature of their service to the public and not for their private lives, and clearly Activision agrees.

The single-player campaign mode in Black Ops 2 is receiving all sorts of praise for getting gamers more emotionally involved and for being less linear than previous installments. If you don’t already have a copy of Black Ops 2, check it out. Even if you aren’t a hardcore COD fan, you’ll probably be impressed.

For months we’ve been hearing nothing but how amazing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is going to be. And now that the big day has finally arrived, how does the game measure up to its predecessors? It turns out Black Ops 2 has lived up to all the hype, and many fans and critics are saying it is the most compelling game yet. And no, we’re not just saying this because of the sales figures. Modern Warfare 3 sold very well too, but the reviews it received were somewhat mixed. So far we haven’t seen many complaints about Black Ops 2.

Gamers are praising the much more compelling single-player campaign mode with its branching storylines, as well as the improvements to the game mechanics in the multiplayer mode. There haven’t been many complaints; those which we’ve heard focus on some of the futuristic technology being a bit hard to get a handle on (it’s only been a day though; some adjustment time is expected). The TranZit mode is also getting a lot of positive press. One thing that has stood out to us about these reviews is that they aren’t just coming from avid fans. Even reviewers who aren’t die-hard COD fans seem to be digging Black Ops 2. The game has a broader appeal than many of its predecessors, and should introduce a lot of gamers to the series. Well, enough writing—it’s time for us to get back in the game!

If you check the news right now, you’ll see the first of what’s soon to be scores of reviews for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which was officially released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC today (November 13th). With a new COD game released every year around this time, many have dubbed this “Call of Duty Day,” and not a few eager fans are calling in sick to work to get in on the action. So what do the reviewers have to say? So far, the reaction is overwhelmingly positive. For months and months now we’ve been hearing Treyarch designers talk about all the ways in which they’ve been working to improve the franchise, and now fans and critics alike are reporting success.

Modern Warfare 3 was a popular game, but there were numerous complaints about how staid the formula for Call of Duty had become. It was Treyarch’s mission to revive the series this year. The first promise Treyarch made was that they would make the single-player campaign mode worthwhile again. Multiplayer is the meat of Call of Duty, which has caused some to charge that the single-player campaign is a defunct motif, but we don’t think that’s going to be a charge much longer. We like what Steve Tilley over at the Toronto Sun had to say about it: “This is the first Call of Duty game in which I not only remembered exactly which character I was playing at any given time, but knew where they were and why they were there. I often cared about whether they succeeded or failed, and on at least one occasion I gasped out loud at a plot twist.”

The plot takes you back and forth between the past and the future, exploring the interconnected storylines of Alex and David Mason, Frank Woods, and villain Raul Menendez. Is the story mind-blowing? Maybe not, but it’s certainly more memorable and impactful than other Call of Duty storylines have been. Additionally, reviewers have praised the decision to include branching storylines in the game. The storyline can branch based off the success or failure of Strike Force missions (which are a lot of fun!), the simple decision to kill or not kill a specific person, or other choices which arise along the way. The branches really do help get the player more involved since the game feels less linear and more “alive” as a result.

There’s still a feeling of linearity and constriction in Black Ops 2’s single-player campaign mode, but it’s not nearly as constrained as it used to be—and it does offer replay value. Once you play through the campaign once, you want to go back and find out how different things could have been. Black Ops 2’s single-player campaign mode is just one area which is being praised, however; the multiplayer and zombies modes have garnered excellent reviews as well!