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Call Of Duty: Black Ops To Have Dedicated Servers
Call of Duty: Black Ops will support dedicated multiplayer servers on PC, according to Treyarch studio head Mike Lamia. Speaking with UK gaming mag PC Zone, Lamia said, "I think dedicated servers are excellent. I don't see any reason not to see them unless...well, I just don't see any reason not to."
The last Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2, sparked a bit of a controversy over developer Infinity Ward's decision to remove dedicated server support from the PC version. Instead, MW2 used the same type of centralized matchmaking service with peer-to-peer connectivity seen in the console versions. The PC gaming community's response was explosive, though it didn't stop gamers from, you know, buying the game if Steam's bestseller lists over the last six months are any indication.
Black Ops' multiplayer sounds like it will have the best of both worlds. "We do work very hard to reconcile the desire to manipulate and modify those dedicated servers with offering them the persistent experience and benefits that the console system provides," Lamia said. "We're working very hard to marry those two things, so people can run dedicated servers and also participate in the communal experience the console players get to have, given they're all on first-party servers."
However the Infinity Ward drama plays out, as a gamer I will cheer on Treyarch as it tries to secure the beloved franchise's legacy. The studio's CoD games have gotten continually better since its first mediocre effort (which was apparently slapped together in under a year, so it's hard to lay the blame entirely at Treyarch's feet), to the point that it's not uncommon to see gamers putting World at War over Modern Warfare 2 in their personal Call of Duty rankings.
Black Ops looks sweet, and Treyarch could silence a lot of critics if the game lives up to the hype.
[via CVG]
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