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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

The soundtrack will include forty tracks. You can purchase it separately or you can get it at a discount by purchasing the Black Ops 2 Hardened Edition, a limited edition package which includes a number of exciting bonuses at a low price. Along with the soundtrack, you’ll also receive collectible dog tags which can be used to unlock exclusive DLC for the game, and many other great bonuses besides. Pre-ordering the game gives you free access to the Nuketown 2025 map as well, which will only be available for free through next Monday. On Tuesday, November 13th, the game will officially be released. So order now while you can still get all the freebies and benefits!

If you pre-order Black Ops 2 from Amazon, you’ll get access to the Nuketown 2025 bonus map (if it becomes available later to other gamers, you’ll probably have to pay for it if you choose not to pre-order). You’ll also get an exclusive Kindle backstory called Rightful King, which will give you background information on villain Raul Menendez. Other bonuses include access to Double XP Weekend, the exclusive Amazon Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Wallpaper, and some free instant video credit. This deal will be gone in just a few hours!

We’ve also learned more about the new and improved spawning system which should save players a lot of annoyances. Not only will the new system prevent spawns right in front of enemy players (and thus reduce spawn traps and system abuses), but it will also try to ensure that players won’t respawn miles away from all the action, necessitating a long run just to get back into the fight. Game designer David Vonderhaar refers to the “3-second rule” to explain how this works. The design team accumulated data on the first three seconds following spawnings. This included how many times a player could be shot at within the first three seconds following spawning and how many times that player could shoot at others within three seconds of spawning in different locations.

By compiling this data, the design team were able to work out respawn locations which minimized action during the first three seconds of spawning. How they worked out the balance with not being too far away from the action isn’t clear from the explanation. But one can see how this would prevent those obnoxious spawns where you die instantly on reappearing in the game because some person shoots you in the back before you can even move or get your bearings. Bad respawns can cost you the high score or can cost a team an entire game.

So far, Vonderhaar says the team has achieved a high rate of success with the spawning changes. This is one of the hardest aspects of a FPS game to get right, so we’re excited to see the improvements. Eliminating bad spawns could improve the playability of maps which might otherwise pose difficulty to players and should hopefully lead to greater fairness and more accurate scores for matches.