Three collectible editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 have just been announced. These include the Hardened Edition we were all expecting, the Prestige edition (called the “Care Package” edition), and the Digital Deluxe edition. A number of sources seem to be overlooking the Digital Deluxe edition, but it is pretty cool, especially if you’re a bit behind the times and need to revisit the past to fully appreciate the future. The package is going to retail for $79.99. What will you get for that price?

The Digital Deluxe Edition is going to come with Player Card Backgrounds, Weapon Camo (skinning for your weapons), a copy of the official soundtrack for Black Ops 2, and a digital download of Call of Duty: World at War. The download token will allow you to get a digital copy of the classic COD game which is set in World War II. While many gamers have enjoyed the franchise since the beginning, Call of Duty has been around so long that some of its newer fans haven’t played all of the older games yet. This is a great way to get a copy of World at War and enjoy traveling back to Call of Duty’s roots in history.

Black Ops 2 of course will be the first COD game to take place in the future. The game is set in the year 2025 with playable flashbacks to the 1980s. We’re going to see how it all comes together on November 13th. And don’t forget, if you pre-order any copy of Black Ops 2 between now and release day, you’ll get the Nuketown 2025 and Nuketown Zombies maps! These reboots of the classic fan favorite will take you to a futuristic version of Nuketown and a Nuketown populated by the walking dead. Have fun and good hunting!

Fans have been clamoring for news about the zombies in Black Ops 2 for months now, but Treyarch has said surprisingly little about the return of the undead adversaries in the next installment of Call of Duty. Just recently, however, Treyarch posted a simple two word tweet on the official Black Ops 2 Twitter account: “Something’s coming …” The announcement was followed by a screenshot of what appears to be a bloody handprint on a doorframe. While in a FPS game there are a lot of reasons one might potentially leave a bloody handprint on a door, zombies seem like the most likely explanation!

Right now we only know a little bit about the zombies mode. We know that it will feature up to eight players (not the four which were supported in the past), and also that it will take place in a larger environment which will include more backstory on how the zombies came to be. Players will also be able to become zombies if they are infected; if this happens, the infected player will take on a new zombie class and will continue to fight as a zombie. How this will impact game mechanics, goals, and rules for the zombie mode we don’t know at this point. It seems like it’s most likely to take the form of a free-for-all since this would have chaotic results in a team game. Within days we may have an answer to how it’s all going to work!

As usual, Call of Duty is taking a bit of flak for announcing this year’s collectible editions, one of which is a $180 Black Ops 2 Care Package that comes with, believe it or not, your very own remote control UAV patterned after the Dragonfire Drone in the game. Detractors are already declaring what a silly offering this is on the basis that they have never paid more than $80 or $100 for any collector’s edition of anything.

Okay, admittedly the $180 price tag is really high. This much is apparent to anyone. Whether it’s ridiculous or not totally depends on your budget though. After all, if you don’t have a lot of money, the people saying they’d only pay $100 for a collectible game probably already sound absurd to you—so what’s the big deal about paying $180? Consider that a UAV by itself would probably cost you $100 or more anyway, and that the rest of the content (the same as the Hardened edition) costs the same amount of money that you’d pay for the Hardened Edition anyway. You can buy the Hardened Edition if that’s all you can afford—or even just pre-order the basic game if you don’t want to pay the extra $20 for the collector’s edition. So why shouldn’t Treyarch and Activision release a special Care Package edition for people who can afford it?

Whether or not the Care Package is worth it depends on your budget and just how big a COD fan you are. The fact is that Call of Duty has a lot of haters, which happens anytime something becomes as popular as COD is. That’s why so many people are saying that this is an extravagant thing. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the value that is being offered. Frankly it’s pretty cool that these guys worked on getting an actual flyable UAV put together which has the same basic design as the ones you use in the game. And that they then made that available to their biggest fans is really a creative gesture.

There’s a reason COD is popular—the game has a lot more fans than haters. If you’re a huge fan of COD, this franchise is probably a big part of your life considering how long it’s been around. If $200 isn’t out of your budget for something that makes you happy, there’s no reason you shouldn’t get your own UAV on November 13th with your collector’s edition of Black Ops 2.

Three collectible editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 are going to be available: the Care Package Edition, the Digital Deluxe Edition, and the Hardened Edition. The Hardened Edition will come inside a limited edition steelbook case and will include a copy of the official soundtrack for Black Ops 2 by Trent Reznor, an exclusive multiplayer weapon skin called Weapon Camo, 2 Player Card Backgrounds, the Xbox LIVE Avatar Prop, and the Xbox LIVE Zombies Avatar Costume. If you’re on PlayStation 3 instead of Xbox you’ll receive a dynamic multiplayer theme of the Turbine map and a dynamic zombies theme. Most excitingly, you’ll receive challenge coins you can use to unlock additional downloadable content.

The Hardened Edition, like all other pre-orders of the game, will allow you to receive two versions of the Nuketown map—a re-imagined futuristic rendition: Nuketown 2025, and a Nuketown map that has been invaded by zombies. You can purchase the Hardened Edition for $79.99 (the same price as the Digital Deluxe Edition, which comes with a digital copy of World at War instead of the exclusive Black Ops 2 DLC). This is a limited edition, and they sell out quickly, so be sure to reserve your copy of the Black Ops 2 Hardened Edition early before they run out.

Pre order Black Ops 2 Hardened Edition now!

The first Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified screenshots were released the other week. With Gamescon going on and all the other news about Black Ops 2’s multiplayer mode, the Declassified release for Sony’s Vita handheld console didn’t get a lot of attention. The screenshots also weren’t all that impressive, which is probably another reason that not a lot of people paid attention. The reality however is that they were blown up quite a bit to appear on our full-size computer screens, and this probably accounts for why they look a little less crisp than we’d like. When they appear on the Vita we think they will look a lot sharper and more satisfying. So if you have a Vita or are planning on getting one, check them out, and remember that they’re probably going to look awesome on the smaller screen.

One of the most exciting things we’ve learned during this year’s Gamescon about Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, is that Treyarch has decided to enable Multi-Team mode. What this means is that players will be able to form more than two teams to face off in multiplayer mode. There will be a maximum of 18 players allowed, and a minimum of 2 players per team. That means matches can have up to six teams fighting each other for victory.

This is going to totally change the way the game is played. Just think about a simple game like team deathmatch and how the dynamics of that game will change with the inclusion of more teams. Tactically even the simplest game mode can entirely transform—with more teams, even more ingenuity will be needed when it comes to finding tactical grounds and choosing strategies to oppose the other teams. With more complex multiplayer games, this new dynamic will be emphasized even more powerfully. There’s going to be a much greater need for tactics, but there’s also going to be a lot more action and a lot more bloodshed, which means a lot more fun!

A lot of people are curious how the new shoutcasting feature is going to work with Black Ops 2. The next installment in Call of Duty is going to allow users to join games as spectators and stream live commentary on the matches as they unfold. This will encourage more community involvement and hopefully add an exciting new dimension to live matches, one which will lend well to the professional gaming trend which is developing right now and in which the first Black Ops game participated.

Will shoutcasting be distracting, or will it influence the outcome of a game? Treyarch has taken both of these issues into account and has already taken action to make sure that the new feature won’t have an impact either way. As a commentator, there are two ways you can do your commentary. You can either do it live, or you can do it using a saved game. If you do it with a saved game you’ll be able to use further options such as scoreboards and user name cards which can display on the HUD, and you’ll also be able to rotate between points of view of different players. You may also have the option of tapping into the team’s mic system.

As a player, however, you’ll have some options as well. You won’t be able to hear the shoutcasting while you’re in-game, which will eliminate distraction. You can even turn it off altogether if you want so that no one can commentate on your match. If live commentating is selected for a match, there will be a ten second delay between the live game and the shoutcast commentary to prevent cheating. If you still are concerned about it, you can just switch it off altogether.