Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s warfare is advanced, but not necessarily for the better

By Will Fulton April 23, 2015

Official Call of Duty®: Black Ops III "Ember" Tease

“Mankind’s greatest mistake will be its inability to control the technology it has created,” ominously opens the new “Ember” teaser for Call of Duty: Black Ops III. While the video doesn’t reveal anything in the way of gameplay, but it does lay the groundwork for the complex themes that the upcoming military shooter will explore.

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The bulk of the trailer is a montage of human augmentation’s history, starting with athletic doping scandals in the 90s, through mapping the entire human genome, and the latest advancements in robotic prostheses. There’s even a brief nod to our current wave of wearable technology. From there it projects forward into a future filled with retinal implants, augmented athletes, neural links, and genetic upgrades for the wealthy.

As science fiction has trained us to expect, this all takes a turn for the worse, devolving into global riots against scientists “playing god,” and accusations from a Snowden-looking whistleblower that the United States government is creating augmented super-soldiers (which — let’s be real — they are totally working on). The timeline stops at 2065, which probably means that is when the game will take place.

“Neural control, voluntary limb replacement: this is happening,” opines the trailer’s Edward Faux-den. “The only question that remains is: how far will we allow it to go?” Cut to “III” and the promise of a world reveal on April 26.

This line of inquiry about the technological future toward which we are moving should sound especially familiar to anyone who has played the Deus Ex games. 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and its recently-announced sequel, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, focus on the dangers — technological, social, and otherwise — of giving people cybernetic augmentations that don’t just replace lost functionality, but make people faster, stronger, and more capable than was naturally possible.

It’s a natural theme for video games to explore these days both because it’s relevant to the increasingly sci-fi realities afforded by the progress of science, and because it slots very naturally into the super-powered upgrade mechanics so prevalent in recent shooters. Why run around and shoot at each other from behind walls like real soldiers do when you can punch through those walls and leap over buildings like a cyborg super soldier?

Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops III, developed by Treyarch, will arrive later this year.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

Gaming

The best Perk-A-Colas in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

A screenshot from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's zombies mode.

There's nothing more refreshing than taking a nice big swig of a Perk-A-Cola during an intense Zombies match with your pals in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Besides tasting great (we assume), these colas empower you with buffs that will keep you alive until the later rounds. These bonuses are just as important as the Pack-A-Punch, but come in a wider range of flavors. It is possible to stack them all, but that gets expensive very fast so you need to be thrifty about choosing which ones are most valuable early on. These colas come in eight different types that may or may not be worth your Essence to chug. If you want to know which ones are the best in Black Ops 6, check out our ranking.
Best Perk-A-Colas in Black Ops 6

We're ranking these Perk-A-Colas based on their base bonuses, not any additional effects you can get if you Augment them, from best to worst.
Jugger-Nog
You can never go wrong with the classic Jugger-Nog. Increasing your health by 100 is useful for the entire duration of a Zombies mode, but especially in the early rounds. Going down is at best a major setback and at worst a cascade into defeat. This extra health allows you to get out of a bad situation that would otherwise end your run.
Quick Revive
This Perk has two components, with the less useful one being the ability to revive teammates 50% faster. Ideally, that shouldn't be needed but is nice. However, what makes it rank so high is the 50% shorter delay on health regen. Your health will come back over time in Zombies but at a dreadful pace. Starting to heal faster means less time running and kiting zombies around and more time in the action helping the team.
Speed Cola
The best early guns for Zombies mode have a large magazine, fast reload, or both. Running out of ammo at the wrong time and not being able to get more rounds in the chamber fast enough has ended many a run, but Speed Cola is the solution. It will speed up your reloads and armor plating by 30%. That's not a massive number, but fast enough to make the difference.
Stamin-Up
These zombies aren't the shambling types. They will chase you down like sprinters, and some of the monstrous ones can outpace you even at full tilt. Stamin-Up sounds like it would let you run for longer, but actually just lets you run faster since you have no limit on sprint in Black Ops 6. Positioning is everything in Zombies so being able to get where you need to be faster is never a bad thing, especially if it's a downed teammate bleeding out.
Deadshot Daiquiri
Every zombie has a weak spot, which is most often the head. Deadshot Daiquiri makes a critical hit hurt even more than normal, plus increases your auto-aim on those weak points when you aim down sights (ADS). That second part shouldn't factor much if you've got good aim, which is why this is only a decent Perk-A-Cola.
PhD Flopper
Not being able to hurt yourself is situationally useful, and the ability to cause an explosion by diving is a risky move. Yes, it's cool, but you don't want to be lying prone surrounded by zombies. This is a cool gimmick, but save yourself the Essence and skip it.
Elemental Pop
When Elemental Pop works, it's great. The problem with it is that you can't rely on it. It gives a small chance on every shot you take to add a random ammo mod effect, which is cool but impractical. If you have spare Essence on you, sure, it won't hurt you to have, but it isn't something that will turn the tide for you or your team.
Melee Macchiato
Finally, Melee Macchiato bottoms out the list. It is fine in the early game when the hordes are small and you're better off meleeing enemies since it will smack enemies away with each hit, but quickly drops off in usefulness. When the zombies get too strong and too numerous, you will need a lot more than a strong punch to deal with them and end up forgetting you even have it.

Gaming

War is hell, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes it a carnival game

Zombies shambling in Black Ops 6.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who play Call of Duty and those who don’t. For three glorious hours, I was finally part of the former. Then it all came crashing down in a hail of gunfire.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now and it's being hailed as a return to greatness for the struggling series. Critics have praised features like its game-changing Omnimovement and welcomed the return of round-based Zombies mode. The star attraction, though, is this installment’s campaign. After years of experimental failures, Black Ops 6 delivers a straightforward political thriller full of eclectic missions. It’s a great premise, one that allows developer Raven to goof around with a “gone rogue” story featuring characters like Russel Adler.

Gaming

The best Call of Duty games, ranked

Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play a particular game.