Call of Duty's online multiplayer has earned a reputation for tempering its solid gameplay with an often obnoxious online community. Of course that whole bad apples rule applies, particularly when you've got a Call of Duty-sized bushel. Don't think that Treyarch hasn't noticed all of those players who opt out of multiplayer, however. They have, and they're not happy about it. Fortunately, they're trying to address that issue instead of just impotently whining about it.

"As popular as COD is, there are a lot of people who don’t play multiplayer,” says David Vonderhaar, Black Ops II's game-design director. “And quite frankly, this bugs the s--- out of us. They should all play MP. And Combat Training helps us get there.”

The biggest change to the game's returning Combat Training is how the mode is integrated into players' multiplayer progression. Instead of keeping Combat Training rankings in their own separate ecosystems, like the first Black Ops did, experience that you earn in those matches feeds into your general multiplayer career. Combat Training includes match types designed to ease players into CoD's multiplayer, mixing teams of both human players and bots, for instance.

Black Ops II's training modes feature bots that can play objective-based matches, so you're not just learning how to blast people into oblivion. You're actually learning the maps and how to effectively perform as a team. Both skills will serve you well. Perhaps you won't get chewed out as much when you dip your toes in the online waters, but you may want to keep your finger on the mute button, just in case.

[Via One of Swords]