Information has recently been posted on the official Black Ops 2 website detailing the features of the PC version of the game. Topics covered include servers, cheating, and mod tools. Anti-cheat technology will bring the most advanced banning capabilities ever used in any Call of Duty game to try and ensure fairness on the multiplayer game. An entire staff of full-time cheat detectors and banners will be employed to bring a human angle to resolving the cheating problem, and bans will be permanent.
Matchmaking and ranked dedicated servers will be included with the PC version of the game, so gamers playing on PCs will be able to participate in Public Matches and League Play and fight against opponents of comparable skill level. Server files will not be released to the public, and unfortunately server renting will not be offered, but the team promises that there will be a huge number of servers around the globe offering high-speed connections. Mod tools sadly will not be provided either, owing apparently to “increased technical requirements, licensing restrictions, and technology dependencies.”
So there are a few annoyances and disappointments there, but it all comes down to how it plays out. While it’s annoying that we won’t be able to rent servers, hopefully the servers that are provided will be more than sufficient (which they haven’t always been in the past). It’s great that the developers are taking such a strong stance against cheaters though, and that they’re going to employ full time workers to crack down on them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be released on November 13th. It’s been a long, slow wait, but we’ll be playing the game before we know it—and hopefully starting to hear some rumors of Modern Warfare 4. There’s still nothing on that front, but it can only be a question of time. It’ll be interesting to see how Infinity Ward follows up on all the innovation which Treyarch has done on the series this year.