By Adam Smith on July 10th, 2012 at 9:00 pm.
Trent Reznor, who it’s still weird to see referred to as an Academy Award Winning Composer, will be providing the theme tune for Call of Duty Black Ops 2. Both he and the FPS have come a long way from Quake, although I’ll leave it to you to decide in which direction each has been travelling. The news comes along with a trailer for the game that shows the villain for the first time. He has escaped from a place but doesn’t have any weapons but that doesn’t matter because he HAS TAKEN ALL OF THE BLOPS’ WEAPONS. That’s the plot. Oh, and it’s the future, so jetpack dives from space and baby AT-ATs.
Reznor had this to say about COD in an interview with USA Today:
I have always looked to that franchise as the cutting edge of what seemingly unlimited budgets and full-on not cutting any corners can do in the current day and age.
After talking about changes in the industry, mainly in terms of scale, he does acknowledge that indie games still exist and that CODBLOPS isn’t trying to be one. That’s good. I like to imagine he plays sad pixelly things as well.
As for the sound of the theme, it reflects the story.
What I learned in listening to the full story and the amount of effort that has gone into the back story and the characters and the full preparation there is a lot of reservation and angst and sense of loss and regret and anger bubbling under the surface. So it didn’t make sense to have a gung ho, patriotic feeling theme song. It has to feel weighty. There is a lot of remorse and apprehension here. So choosing to arrange it a bit more with guitars and drums and aggressively sounding, that struck a tone with them.
Angst, loss, regret and anger. That’s the Call of Duty I’ve come to know.
Let’s go back in time.
10/07/2012 at 21:04 Brun says:
Wait, is that first screenshot a real shot from the trailer? Because good god it looks atrocious. It’s like they tried to make him look “realistic” but instead it looks like they Photoshopped some real guy’s picture over the game.
10/07/2012 at 21:22 grundus says:
My reaction was pretty similar. There must be roughly one third of a graphic in that screenshot. Maybe it’s a crop from a larger scene where the guy in the image is in the window of a distant skyscraper, in which case this is graphics, but if not this is grophics.
10/07/2012 at 22:32 LTK says:
I had the same reaction. And then this quote…
…pretty much proves that by ‘not cutting any corners’ they evidently don’t mean ‘not being constrained by prehistoric console hardware’. What an abomination. Watching the video in 720p actually makes it worse.
10/07/2012 at 22:42 woodsey says:
Yeah, that quote was just embarrassing. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and presume he was fed that line by some PR guy.
11/07/2012 at 02:18 mouton says:
Also, he is a music-making fellow, not a game-making fellow. I can forgive him mistakes made outside the field he specializes.
10/07/2012 at 22:56 SirKicksalot says:
They squeeze every ounce of power out of that prehistoric hardware.
The quote makes more sense when you consider what he says later in the interview:
It’s interesting to see gaming go from one guy in the Robotron era to when I worked on Quake with the ‘Mom-and-Pop shop’ of id Software fresh off the success of Doom, but it still was a core of a handful of guys that could work autonomously and churn out interesting cool stuff. And jumping back to id a few years later when it’s Doom 3 and now that handful of guys has a zero at the end of how many there are and the scale of, wow, there’s a hell of a lot more resources need to go into the game.
And then tuning out of that world for a while and popping in at Treyarch and the scale of it and, most impressively, the coordination of it all. I was in there a month ago or so, and there’s everybody in their cubicles working on minutiae that fits into this whole in some way. And I start thinking, ‘Man, this is coming out in a few months. Somebody has planned out that all these pieces fit together.’ I know how hard it is to get three other guys and the lights to come on for a tour. It is mind-blowing to see that coordination and effort and the handshaking part. It’s very impressive.
11/07/2012 at 05:49 lpqwdjh says:
Taylor Made R9 Golf Bag! USD $ 159.00
Yes, it is in stock, if you buy more than 5pcs, you will be able to get discount. http://twr.kr/3Hu
11/07/2012 at 05:55 Universal Quitter says:
I think Treyarch’s CoD games are abortions, but you visual-philes make talking about the industry less fun. How DARE they not be on teh cutting edge of visual technology! You know we’re probably about smack dab in the middle of the uncanny valley, when it comes to ‘realistic’ graphics, so maybe that 720p isn’t such a bad thing.
Seriously, though, most gamers don’t have enormous monitors, and you cannot expect the company to spend more than you are worth as a customer [x(60$)]. I don’t want to subsidize your pretty textures that I can’t enjoy, and I don’t want them taking up space on my hard drive. If you were profitable, games would look better. Just be grateful that we even have a gaming industry and it DOES progress, you entitled turds that lack real problems.
11/07/2012 at 07:26 noom says:
This outrage at people daring to express negative opinions of a thing is getting awfully passé round these parts. If you wish to go trotting about on your moral high-horse, I can thoroughly recommend the Guardian’s comments section.
11/07/2012 at 14:22 Brun says:
It’s not about being on the cutting edge of technology – it’s about having a consistent visual style, which is an artistic decision and independent of technical constraints. In order to have that consistent style, they would need to dumb down the detail on the face so that it’s in line with that of the body.
10/07/2012 at 21:08 Drake Sigar says:
“Talking. With. Unneccessary pauses. Makes me. Sound. So cool!”
10/07/2012 at 21:10 Koshinator says:
you dissing Kirk now?
10/07/2012 at 21:11 Drake Sigar says:
At least Picard admitted he was bald.
11/07/2012 at 12:20 Makariel says:
But He. Didn’t suck in. His tummy. For an. Entire Episode. To fit. Into those. Pyjamas.
10/07/2012 at 21:10 Belsameth says:
Man! I love the Quake soundtrack. The whole of it, including the weird noises and such that make up the rest of the hour orso…
11/07/2012 at 00:48 magicwalnuts says:
Man, so true. Me and my buddies were playing some Quake recently, and realized how amazing the sound design is in that game. We might all be making the exact same grunt every time we jump, and the same sound may play every single time someone gets gibbed, but those were some GREAT sounds. Uber props go to the noise the teleporter makes. Amazing.
10/07/2012 at 21:11 SirKicksalot says:
The first BLOPS had excellent faces.
id better get Trent Reznor to work on Doom 4…
10/07/2012 at 21:23 BreadBitten says:
It’s not id you have to worry about, just pray Trent doesn’t spaz out near the end thinking his work could’ve been better.
10/07/2012 at 21:17 wodin says:
he has plastic face…
11/07/2012 at 12:25 Makariel says:
indeed. also, they should invest in better beard technology.
10/07/2012 at 21:21 lionheart says:
Where’s Tubbs?
and shouldn’t Phil Collins be doing the theme tune?
OH LORD!
11/07/2012 at 07:20 noom says:
Phil Collins should be doing every theme tune.
10/07/2012 at 21:22 djbriandamage says:
Between his soundtrack for The Social Network and that 4-disc ambient album I think Reznor is as strong a composer as he’s ever been. He has a characteristic tone and mood but exercises a good range of media for those consistencies.
10/07/2012 at 21:33 zaprowsdower says:
What’s the name of this four disc ambient album?
10/07/2012 at 21:39 Adam Smith says:
Ghosts
10/07/2012 at 23:41 SkittleDiddler says:
I agree that Reznor is at the top of his game creatively, but his score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was so overwrought and consistently mismatched scene-to-scene that it made the movie a real chore to sit through. I hope his next opus is a bit more appropriate to the medium.
11/07/2012 at 01:43 Jason Moyer says:
Ghosts I-IV was good. It’s just a shame he did all those other records from 1998 until that one.
11/07/2012 at 01:58 wodin says:
GhostFace killer…
Thats a rapper that
10/07/2012 at 21:25 magnus says:
He was sitting at a desk in a strange way – EEEEEVIL!
11/07/2012 at 11:18 Ultra Superior says:
Hero for the 99%
Their hero has wiped them out!
Nuketown DLC
Blunt propaganda like this makes me sick. Yeah boogieman wants to nuke you, government will protect you, so you better hand ‘em yer rights and play some Duty of War, you american ass!
10/07/2012 at 21:26 Mr.Crack says:
What’s this 13th month of the year the trailer mentioned? Is that DLC as well?
10/07/2012 at 21:26 Tei says:
I think Total Biscuit as gone waaaaaaaaaaaay to hard here, becoming enemy.. of the civilization!.
Youtubers: The new zombies.
11/07/2012 at 08:55 EPICTHEFAIL says:
WTF did I just read?
10/07/2012 at 21:27 BreadBitten says:
“You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard that Trent Reznor’s selling out to Activision? Jesus,” – Chris Cornell
10/07/2012 at 21:36 Obc says:
Chris Cornell + Timbaland … enough said xD
10/07/2012 at 22:07 derbefrier says:
man i haven’t heard the term “sellout” since high school. Teenage angst FTW!
11/07/2012 at 00:53 Elevory says:
For those wondering, Chris Cornell didn’t say that. However, Reznor did say the following on Twitter in 2009, regarding the Cornell + Timbaland collaboration:
“You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus.”
11/07/2012 at 08:45 BreadBitten says:
Killjoy…
12/07/2012 at 15:21 theleif says:
All you know about him is what he’s sold you, dumb fuck.
He sold out long before you’d ever even heard his name.
He sold his soul to make a record, dip shit.
Then you bought one.
10/07/2012 at 21:32 Scandalon says:
Quake had a soundtrack?!? Heh, I think I put the CD in for the music once, that was enough…
And yes, those faces…ugh.
10/07/2012 at 21:43 Asokn says:
“There is a lot of remorse and apprehension here”
Indeed there is.
10/07/2012 at 21:49 db1331 says:
And you could have it all
With a subscription to ELITE
Every DLC
Exclusive for a week
Then you could start again
A dozen months away
Another 60 bucks
Another CoD to play
10/07/2012 at 22:03 Bonedwarf says:
I love you.
10/07/2012 at 22:26 max_1111 says:
Well done good sir, well done.
10/07/2012 at 22:49 BreadBitten says:
[Golf clap] Which is weird because that’s exactly what you hear near the end of ‘Non Entity’ in ‘Live Beside You in Time’!
11/07/2012 at 00:02 Conor says:
I want you.
11/07/2012 at 14:28 Gonefornow says:
And you can have it all!
db1331® comes in three(3) varieties:
-Gold edition (get all exclusive appendages).
-Standard edition (duplicate organs not included).
-Subscription model (get a new chunk every month).
And don’t forget db1332© is coming out next summer.
10/07/2012 at 21:56 Paul says:
That quake theme is just brutal, and legendary.
10/07/2012 at 22:00 industrialoco says:
the bad guy is michael douglas
11/07/2012 at 12:03 Ultra Superior says:
Michael Douglas is a hero of the 1%
10/07/2012 at 22:05 Ashen says:
I know, I know the answer to that! Downward Spiral.
10/07/2012 at 22:36 ninjapirate says:
And it’ll continue to go further down the spiral; it’s just the beginning of the end.
11/07/2012 at 01:55 Dances to Podcasts says:
Oh internet, you’re such a pretty hate machine.
11/07/2012 at 02:20 Shadram says:
There’s a lot of love on the internet, too! Most of it in graphic close-up.
11/07/2012 at 05:27 tomeoftom says:
I hope the slip into scoring games again works out well.
11/07/2012 at 09:06 BreadBitten says:
I don’t know, the fragile balance of love and hate in the internet is pretty disconcerting.
11/07/2012 at 11:14 RegisteredUser says:
I am becoming a bit hurt by this.
11/07/2012 at 12:23 Makariel says:
Don’t bite the hand that feeds! It’s not like it’s year zero or something.
10/07/2012 at 22:11 Lytinwheedle says:
The evil guy is the hero of the 99%, it’s hardly surprising that the most despicable neoliberal gaming companies are shilling for class war.
10/07/2012 at 22:21 Gap Gen says:
Yeah, I saw that and thought hurray, American class warfare bullshit.
F3ck: I think he means neoliberalism from the point of view of small state free market, rather than the sort of liberal who would support welfare programmes (although the Liberal Democrats have both, it’s a confusing party).
10/07/2012 at 22:36 max_1111 says:
Yea i kinda wanted to flip my desk over once i saw, “Messiah of the 99%”.
11/07/2012 at 08:58 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Ah yes, logical thought. We have dismissed this theory.
11/07/2012 at 20:26 Gap Gen says:
A YouTube montage of gamers watching this trailer and flipping their desks over would be incredible.
10/07/2012 at 22:17 fiddlesticks says:
Isn’t Reznor a boss in Super Mario World? Why did he change his profession?
11/07/2012 at 02:24 Shadram says:
He never got to be in Mario Galaxy. On the plus side, all the buzzsaws in his castle made interesting noises, and won him an Oscar.
(Is it ‘him’ or ‘them’? If I remember 1992 correctly, the Reznor boss is the 4 rhinos on a ferris wheel. I never really understood.)
10/07/2012 at 22:26 killmachine says:
well. trent did blow back then. you should know this. he’s come a long way from downward spiral to with teeth.
10/07/2012 at 22:39 RegisteredUser says:
The Downward Spiral is one of the biggest works of musical genius I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing! :D
10/07/2012 at 23:12 killmachine says:
do, i don’t mean he blows. i mean he did blow. it’s a synonym for a white substance that you snuff up your nose. downward spiral is in fact one of my most favorite albums. with teeth on the other hand not so much. it has it’s moments but it’s too much pop.
11/07/2012 at 00:12 RegisteredUser says:
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh.
Massive forehead slap for being such a comment-douche.
Don’t be sleepy, read and comment, I guess..never would have read it with that meaning though I think.
I actually read about his addiction before, but conveniently filed it under “Ate the usual rockstar food” and forgot about it again(mostly because he cleaned up from what I gather).
There, I made a cunning edit. :P
10/07/2012 at 22:28 dethtoll says:
I misread it as Reznov at first…
10/07/2012 at 22:28 The First Door says:
Is it just me or does the phrase ‘full-on not cutting any corners’ just sound wrong? Can you not do something full-on? Because if so I’m full-on not scuba diving right now!
10/07/2012 at 22:33 max_1111 says:
“I have always looked to that franchise as the cutting edge of what seemingly unlimited budgets and full-on not cutting any corners can do in the current day and age.”
As much as i try to avoid hopping on a CoD hate train, this quote has left me scratching my head.
I feel as though sir Reznor has not been playing the same Call of Duty games we have.
10/07/2012 at 22:37 RegisteredUser says:
Its weird, because given all his co-operations and tech exposure, you’d imagine he understands that it all still basically runs on “must be compatible with x generations old consoles” target-details / engines.
But given that he’s talking about something he knows he’s getting paid to work on..cum grano salis.
11/07/2012 at 12:32 kael13 says:
Take it with a grain of salt? Did I just read Latin?!
10/07/2012 at 22:45 Koozer says:
Honestly, he’s right, if you assume they will only be developing for the biggest market, ie. the consoles. They squeeze as much juice as they possibly can out of those things, even if it still looks like waxy soup in the end.
10/07/2012 at 23:57 max_1111 says:
Are they really though?
All i ever heard from Activision reps on the subject was hogshit like, “we’re in the business of making games that are fun and making sure they always run at sixty frames per second!!! HOLY SHIT ALWAYS REMEMBER SIXTY FRAMES PER SECOND!!!”
…that may not be verbatim.
I’m not going to pretend i know anything about what’s under the hood of the Modern Warfare engine(s) but frankly i think they could do a lot more (with the existing tech) than they are.
11/07/2012 at 07:27 HermitUK says:
It’s the IW engine, which has always been an (increasingly heavily modified) Quake 3 engine. The problem for them is that 60fps is actually a really good target to be hitting – in terms of controls they feel much more responsive, and I’m still convinced this is one of the reasons why it’s so popular over on the consoles.
You could get much better looking visuals with a proper replacement for the now positively ancient engine (Compare RAGE to MW3, for instance. Or Insomniac’s PS3 Ratchet and Clank games, which run at 60fps and look better than your average CoD). But Activision aren’t interested in putting a team to work on a new engine for their needs, as that wouldn’t directly translate into a tidy annual sum of money.
It’s also hilarious that IW and Treyarch ended up with their own versions of the engine, because IW apparently got a bit annoyed about other developers encroaching on their series and refused to share code improvements with them (or so the rumours go :p). So Blawps was built on a heavily modified CoD4/WaW engine, rather than MW2′s version of the engine.
11/07/2012 at 01:57 Jason Moyer says:
Unlimited budgets = the Quake 3 engine and gameplay that consists of pushing forward and hitting the ‘shoot’ button once in awhile.
11/07/2012 at 08:38 Screamer says:
And following! Must not forget the following.
11/07/2012 at 09:01 EPICTHEFAIL says:
FOLLOWFACE
11/07/2012 at 11:05 RegisteredUser says:
Sometimes, you duck.
10/07/2012 at 22:33 marcusfell says:
Looks like COD is finally secure enough in its position to do something vaguely interesting.
10/07/2012 at 23:57 elmo.dudd says:
Finally fully free of West and Zampella, the guys who brought us Stopping Power, Juggernaut, Painkiller, Martyrdom, Commando, One Man Army, 3x Frag Grenade… Yeah the CoD4 campaign was okay, but they also did the MW2 campaign. Black Ops showed some significant deviation from their formulas, and Black Ops 2 looks like a full blown departure “Hey, now we can try things”.
10/07/2012 at 22:35 RegisteredUser says:
“CODBLOPS. Cutting edges, not corners.”
Marketing genius.
10/07/2012 at 22:56 Beelzebud says:
Joe Biden needs a shave and a shower.
10/07/2012 at 23:06 abandonhope says:
I rate this news one Michael Bay ADHD action hard-on up. Also, no thanks.
10/07/2012 at 23:13 max_1111 says:
I thought Baysplosions were the appropriate units for rating, no?
10/07/2012 at 23:29 magnus says:
Is that Tony Todd at the begining? Sure looks like it is.
11/07/2012 at 00:52 magicwalnuts says:
Couldn’t put my finger on who that could be, but I think you nailed it.
11/07/2012 at 01:40 int says:
Yeah, the voice and the face.
Love that guy.
11/07/2012 at 00:53 magicwalnuts says:
My god, that Quake theme still gives me goosebumps after all these years.
11/07/2012 at 08:16 Mitza says:
Black guy talking… cut to tagline “The future is BLACK!”. Now that’s some comedy right there.
Also, “The most ambitious Call of Duty to date”… isn’t that like saying “This is a new COD”? Duuuh… I expect that line to appear for each of the next COD titles as well.
11/07/2012 at 08:50 N'Al says:
Does anyone actually know of a place (online) where you can buy the Quake soundtrack?
11/07/2012 at 09:20 Flint says:
The original Quake game disc has all the songs stored as CD audio files, so you can use the disc like a normal CD (including ripping the songs off it). AFAIK that’s the only way to legally get the OST.
11/07/2012 at 09:35 N'Al says:
I don’t own Quake (I know, shoot me!), so that’s not an option, unfortunately.
11/07/2012 at 11:20 Flint says:
I’d assume that it’s fairly easy and not too pricey to find it on eBay etc though.
11/07/2012 at 12:51 N'Al says:
Ok, cool, cheers.
11/07/2012 at 10:20 WinTurkey says:
Wow, it’s a good thing they’re improving the singleplayer campaign, after all, that’s what CoD is all about, not the MP which is apparently still 360QwikSkopexxxx on tiny maps.
11/07/2012 at 12:30 kael13 says:
Gosh, the Quake soundtrack is rather godly.
11/07/2012 at 08:02 CrookedLittleVein says:
He said neoliberalism, you silly person.