With any borderline similar games, with borderline similar release dates comes borderline imaginative fake contests between those aforementioned games.
These, at the end of the day, are majorly hot air and metaphorical genitalia-measuring but always an interesting development in web-based arguments about which game will succeed the most, or which one’s rendering of water will be the most superior; depending on which way your opinion is inclined.
This year’s major comparisons comes in the fall, in time for Christmas releases of the world’s biggest gaming franchises; Call of Duty and Halo.
Whilst many a self-anointed gaming superior will laugh off any suggestion that Halo can be matched by anything that isn’t given the same budget as Avatar, The Matrix sequels and the GDP of the USA, and involves a life-like battle between a small boy with a knife and every God ever conceived by religion; or a game based entirely around improvised ways to undress Katy Perry on Kinect, I believe that not only will this game be matched by the sequel to Black Ops, but it will outshine it entirely.
1. Lower Expectations
If you haven’t heard of Halo, the likelihood is you’ve been in a coma since the 90s (or aren’t fortunate enough to live in a part of the world where homeowned technology is an obligation, however this is rather heavy for an article about video games so I will jump over that), the fact that a game attached to the Halo franchise is coming out is enough to induce pant-changing excitement in the majority of video game players; the fact that it is Halo 4 and heralds the return of Master Chief in the beginning of a new trilogy is something above the normal level of excitement.
This also brings with it extortionate amounts of expectation; Halo kept the Xbox alive in the beginning, and is widely regarded as one of the best game series in the world, with a fan base the same size as one of the larger provinces of China.
Granted, Call of Duty is hardly the smallest game franchise in the world, but it can be pointed out that Black Ops is to Modern Warfare what the unsuccessful step-son is to the multi-millionaire singing, biological daughter.
Furthermore, if the “educated” gamers are to be believed; Call of Duty is nothing more than a long barrage of constant disappointments that hasn’t been successful since Modern Warfare 1.
This, in the battle for winter’s gaming soul, plays in the hands of Black Ops because not only does it have the advantage of people not expecting much from it other than repetitive multi-player and a five hour story; it has the advantage that more is expected from Halo than has ever been expected from Wayne Rooney in the run up to an international tournament.
With early footage and synopsis giving Black Ops 2 the potential to be the best COD game ever; the fact no-one expects this to be much of an achievement could make it look 10x better if it hits the perfect note, compared to Halo 4 which is expected to be just that.
We are currently seeking Gaming contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Gaming contributor, click here.










53 Comments
Not sure if trolling…
Must be trolling…was looking for 5 reasons but all I got were 5 ramblings…
http://forum.i3d.net/attachments/offtopic-english/943227833d1305709183-english-spam-thread-not-sure-if-troll-just-very-stupid-28n1299498207760-29.jpg
God damn only 5 reasons? Not even good ones, when I think of Halo I think unlimited reasons why it’s far better than CoD. Man just think of the way they designed and made Halo 4, that has took gaming to so many possibilities, wish more people would open there eyes that Halo is a master piece.
HAHA! Wow, why are we even discussing the franchise of “Halo”? First, let me state I use to be a huge Halo fan over CoD video-games. However, Halo Reach was the worst game ever! Everything from the ranking system (actually, half-way stolen from CoD) to the placement of ‘skill level’ in matches. I’m not going to lie I played it all day on the day of it’s release. Also, I was conceivably very good at that damn game but it did not even feel like a Halo sequel. Truth is, the game just went off in a stupid, confusing, & idiotic direction. Hope the new Halo brings a fresh perspective on it’s reputation, while keeping some of the basics. Until then, I will have my money on Black Ops II. Oh, by the way, the original black ops broke made $1 billion in sales throughout 16 days. That just ought to put a dirty sanchez on Halo!!!
If cod needs parallel stories to keep you interested incase you get bored then it has already failed.. Same game every year always rubbish, so easy to be good at.. Whoever sees who first sat in corners
lmao funny I work in frys electronics.. funny that i see more call of duty fly from the shelves more than Halo. I didnt like Halo..
That’s because a Halo game hasn’t been released in two years and since Halo 3 its been 5, they put out quality not like cod which releases a game every year. Wait till Nov. 6 at 12am, then you’ll know what a Halo, with Master Chief, release looks like.
Writer is pretty sure of cod fan, btw there is nothing new in black ops 2. He just talks of cod importance and criticize halo on every ground.
Actually I don’t criticise Halo once, I set up the problems Halo may have and how they compare to what Black Ops is bringing to the floor, at no point do I say Halo is a bad game, I say it could have certain problems but I never say it is bad once.
Black Ops 2 doesn’t look that bad to be fair. Zombies will be good, doubt I’ll buy it.
In my opinion they haven’t made a great CoD game since the original Infinity Ward team made Mw2!
I don’t think they’ll make another great Call of Duty game until the next gen consoles come out!
This is a pretty bad attempt to convince me why BO2 will be better than Halo 4. The first 2 “reasons” are not so much reasons why BO2 will be actually better as reasons why BO2 will be perceived as having improved more, which does not equal better.
The third reason may indicate a more complex story, but this is by not a “giant step” (as you say it is) or an indicator of better quality. Some games already have multi-timeline plots (see Singularity), and BO2 embracing this does not make it better. Also, just because it is more complex does not make it better – MW2 had a more complex story than MW1, but most people disliked it.
The fourth reason doesn’t make much sense. How does making BO2 a futuristic game set on Earth make it better? Halo 2 and 3 were futuristic games partially set on Earth too. So this new setting may give Treyarch more creative freedom. They have more freedom to improve BO2. They also have more freedom to doom the franchise. This could turn out either good or bad, and isn’t an indicator of quality.
The fifth reason is ridiculous. All games respond to fan feedback. Sure, BO2 is the biggest revision so far in CoD. So is Halo 4, which is also built largely on fan feedback. And Halo 4 is ultimately even more of a game-changer than BO2 – episodic content, completely revised multiplayer, completely new setting and enemies.
I honestly think BO2 will be the best CoD yet. But I doubt that it will be better than Halo 4. And this article does little to disprove this doubt.
As you know from all your time extensively playing both?
HALO 4 & Call of Duty are completely different games. It’s more like HALO 4 and call of duty Black Ops 2 / Nov 12. rather than HALO 4 VS BlackOps2.
The call of duty franchise does not consider HALO 4 as game against conflict of interest unless it is business point of view off course. $$
it is rather a setting the scale high. we expect HALO 4 to be one of the greatest game in recent history and it raises the bar of what a gaming company need to deliver in order for a game to be successful.
BlackOps2 might very well be the best call of duty game ever. however it lacks the nostalgia of how successful a franchise can be just revolving around a character like Master chief that Call of duty certainly lacks.
As a future prospect i wouldn’t be surprised if call of duty had to adopt one.
Remember you can give an old car a new paint job but in the end it’s still an old car….
Where’s the new engine?
COD has not been good since COD4,COD5….lol
Still won’t beat Battlefield!!!
damn right its like they are pumping out the same games whith diffrent perks and guns
I think that saying Black Ops 2 will be better than Halo 4 or vice versa comes down to pure opinion. I personally don’t even consider CoD games separate anymore, as the only differences between them are storylines and available weapons, but the bottom line is that if you enjoy CoD you’re going to like Black Ops 2, and if you enjoy Halo you’re most likely going to enjoy Halo 4.
I’m gonna be realistic and say i have played both games pretty much too the bone and can honestly say they both are different in their own right, the only thing that same is the fact they are both FPS games. Henceforth you cannot compare them, it is as simple as that, you like COD? play COD without saying all the crap about Halo of course (that right i’m talking to you kids!!), you like playing Halo? Play Halo (without saying the crap about COD). It cannot be anymore simpler. I’m not saying Halo is better or COD is better because neither of them are better than the other, they both have their strengths, but at the same time they have their weaknesses, so it’s simple, enjoy both the games, buy both of them, and thank those at 343 and Treyarch for their good work on the game and the world will be a simpler place to live in.
That does make more sense, although I want to make the point that I’m never criticising Halo, although I’ve played it and read a lot about it I have nowhere near enough knowledge to call it a bad and, I’m talking about the features and aspects that have so far been previewed and why I think Black Ops 2 could be better. Black Ops 2 could be the worst game ever. Halo 4 could be the best game ever, this is a preview article for these two games more so than a review of their histories, if you notice I don’t have good things to say about old Call Of Duty games because the only one I like is actually Black Ops.
I’m with Bob on the whole rewrite.
I mean you did a fair job of accessing potential success and failure in both series but when it comes down to a list of pros and cons as to why one game will maybe do better, then you have something to talk about.
I’m a Halo fan through and through since Halo CE and I’ve only played a few Call Of Duty games but I did spend an equal amount on MW2 and MW3 and I can say that was because friends had the games. Call Of Duty has had too many games with the whole run and gun mechanic. Even Battlefield embraces a better mechanic than COD. I can’t really give the series any leeway to say it will ever actually good, besides to the people who prefer to pick up a game that they don’t have to try to hard to learn how to play, but hey people already buy a sports game every year why not let them do the same with a game that’s suppose to have high replay-ability.
Anyways I would have preferred this article to have been more about reasons Black Ops 2 may fail:
1) They have to live up to the fact that the first BO sucked ass. (I only kept it for zombies and even that bored me after a while)
2) Call Of Duty basically competes with itself, the next game comes out so frequently that they run out of ideas to add, so each COD game is basically the same besides single player.
3) Call Of Duty possesses no backbone compared to a game like halo that has an iconic character(scratch that) MULTIPLE iconic characters that keep you wanting more(in terms of single player)
4) Call Of Duty is filled with lot more little kids than Halo(seriously lol)
5) MOST IMPORTANTLY BATTLEFIELD HAS ALREADY BEGAN IT’S RISE AS THE SUCCESSFUL WAR GAME SO COD IS NO LONGER WORTH ANYTHING.
GAMERTAG — >BLCKPANTHA
& I hate COD :)
Cool, I will do that, but don’t worry about buying a giant inflatable job to attach to your head, you’ve perfected that trait already.
*nob, god I hate autocorrect.
For someone who writes articles and trying to prove they aren’t an idiot, you should know how to spell knob. Your autocorrect is fine. As for the article it does seem you are very one sided and it just seems plain ridiculous how you “compare”. Try reading a little more before you start writing, it helps.
@Costaxx
If I wanted to call him a door knob, I would have, I wanted to call him a penis. So I called him a nob, which is the correct spelling in that context. Nob.
they should change the names from blacks ops 2 too FLOP again ops 2000
your just MAD BRO cuz ur not sexy enough to play halo
did u ever notice how every little bitch says ever year “oh this call of duty will change the game forever!!!” u guys are sounding like a broken record cod is for pedo’s with pedo stashes :{0
u could save allot of time by just typing “hey everyone i am a virgin cod whore and i am proud of it!!!!”
I don’t trust COD Black op 2 anymore. i am buying halo 4 LE. They are way better than before. i never see how 343 made the best. it pretty seem halo 4 is going be the BIG DAMN GOOD! Halo 4 is all realist and seem like cod. And Cod is very old and boring just do nothing, just nothing. you know i like master chief. Halo 4 fan :)
XD None of these guys are for BLOPS 2. I honestly do not see how Black ops 2 will be better. You’re given a high flung futuristic world unseen so far in the COD series and a buttload of new weapons which every COD focuses on. I mean really, nobody is going to play a new game with same guns, the public wants variety. This game may be a big improvement from previous CODs but there is no way in hell its going to beat the Reclaimer trilogy. In addition, its going to be just awfully weird if there was a Black ops 3. So far the stories of each COD game were simply straightforward and lacks an expansive universe like Halo. There are no novels and the radical changes in COD still have not stepped up to par with Halo which was primarily focused with one thing, the Trilogy. And it still was king in the xbox 360′s life. If somehow BLOPS 2 beat out Halo 4 in a minimalistic way (which would seem logical at this point) it still wouldn’t win at other levels such as, Story, universe, etc. I wondered how long will cod continually recycle and re-innovate those recycled ideas until fans would say, “Hey whats the difference now?!, its Modern Warfare 2.5 >_<" One huge plus here is that cod has made every game at 8 month cycles. That leaves a small amount of time to develop their games and make it "perfect" and have made each game a type of "toot it and boot it" until the next one. Halo has had their time to make each game, and they had proven themselves. Its not much different now as Blops 2 took a year to make and Halo 4 3 years. Oh and Halo 4 beat out Blops 2 as the most anticipated game of the year :p. We'll see who's delivered in the coming months.
Im not going to talk about how much rubbish you just splurted, but who wrote this article is braindead.
It is the players that ruin CoD not just the gameplay, they can change what they want but you cant change the players. When you do something skillful and take out a few guys on Halo, you feel godlike. On CoD it more “yey I threw a random grenade and got 2 kills, absolutely no effort, oh look yet another cheap ass predator missle heading for me, used by some person totally new to the game who. killed 6 guys not looking
haha this is ammusing. If there’s any reason anyone likes playing fps games it’s the pure joy of out gunning/smarting the other person. And it takes more skill to do this in halo hands down. CoD is user friendly. Sowwy to burst your bubble. Out gunning based on headshots, starting with similar weapons (it’s about 5 or 6 rifles now in H4) and battling for power weapons takes more skill. Not starting with a rocket and a shotty and a claymore etc etc(bs). I was good at Halo first. I played H2 on xbox. And I bought every Cod from 2-mw2. I stopped buy due to the same engine/repetitive camping gameplay. As well at the user friend bs kill streaks handing out kills from choppers while you sit in a corner with a shotgun. People who know skill know halo takes more of it. I was good at halo and beasted every Cod I played. Can’t be the other way around.
Halo 4 FTW
Both these games will sell for the multiplayer not single player… 4/5 points are moot
I beg to differ :p, I am very much excited for the campaign. The Halo series has enjoyed two groups of people. Those geared towards Campaign and those geared towards multiplayer.
…..Are you serious?
I dont care about the story in any CoD game, they lack depth. Gets really boring quickly shooting the same generic enemies over and over. Also gets boring on the MP, campers everywhere for easy kills. You can change the game as much as you want, but not the way people play. Halo has always forced you to think on your feed.
It’s so funny how most of his arguments are said without proper substansiation.
First of all, halo 4 has as much expectation as black ops 2 does. Both fan bases are requesting a game of high caliber.
Secondly, although halo 4 has a completely new campaign, it retained two aspect from all of its predecessor games; the covenant and UNSC-which also branches of to weapons and vehicles. Their are significant changes in the game such as the Forunner’s. This does not suggest that halo 4 is starting off with new ideas because in the halo book series, they mentioned the Forunner’s.
Thirdly, this is one that made me laugh, your opening sentence was “5 reasons why black ops 2 will be better than halo 4″. This is what I mean by you having to substantialise your arguments better. A game is not only judged by its campaign but as well as its multiplayer and other aspects. I also don’t get how having a parallel story and having a game embracing the future would make one game better than another.
Last but not least, ALL GAMES receive criticism, how do you think halo came to what it is today and its no only halo but AC, Gears of War, FIFA and much more. Why wouldn’t 343 or any other game industry want to receive feedback. Also, the previous black ops game had a terrible campaign. One of the many reasons why is because of the way they killed Fidel Castro in the game. It simply demonstrates how desperate they are from killing someone they couldn’t in reality. So much that there has been hundreds of REAL attempts to assassinate him.
Overall, these arguments are all not valid due to your lack to collate information and inform on this topic.
Yes, because a preview piece has the advantage of so much information and hardcore facts to build on.
It’s a PREVIEW, you look at the information you have. The reason I can’t give huge details is because the GAMES ARE NOT OUT YET. These are here to generate conversation and excitement, not have unaware idiots talk about the fact I don’t have enough game playing details.
If I was going to compare features on both it would be titled that way, I’m saying here are the things that will make Black Ops 2 better than Halo 4 as everyone already decided that Halo 4 would surpass it in every sense so I was in fact giving balance to an argument that twits like you decided with equally one sided fan boyism.
I read the info leading up to both games and decided Black Ops 2 would be more interesting and better so wrote this preview to try and get some intelligent discussion on the matter so people could talk me round to playing Halo; what I got was you.
You know what I don’t get is, why does Battlefield, medal of honor and Halo always want a comeptition with Call of duty, but when they loose, they feel bad. Halo 4 isn’t even from bungie, it looks really boring, Black ops 2 might use a same engine. but the producers know if they chagne it, all you dumbasses will say its not even call of duty no more. I’m not really a halo fan but Black ops 2 will definity be in my house november 13th
One point people keep missing. Call of Duty uses two seperate developers. Infinity Ward and Treyarch. So there’s a two year gap between games technically.
I never really cared for Halo. My 35 year old brain seems to recall years ago the first jump I attempted over a rock, only to find myself catapulted 20 feet in the air. *Puts controller down, walks away*
While I understand COD is not a battlefield simulation, it just feels more linear, the controls seem more vibrant. Even considering the franchise may be a bit stagnant, I’ll be in line for the midnight release. No hate here for Halo, as I reserve my “Fanboyism” for Gran Turismo.
Thanks for the laughs.
I disagree with this point. The terminals in halo 3,the reclaimer saga books and the kilo-five books all help make a strong foundation for the new trilogy.
are you serious? ign did a poll on halo 4 vs black ops 2 and halo 4 won 80% to 20%, halo 4 is going to be sooooo much bigger
LOL @ HOW HE TRIED 3 TIMES OUT OF HIS 5 POINTS TO SAY THAT CODS STORY WILL BE SOMEHOW BETTER THAN HALO’S EPIC 10 YEAR LONG STORY !!! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
5 reasons halo 4 will kill blackops
1. The Reviews just came out and its gonna be hard to beat
2. Microsoft has made this game with a blank check do you what and how much money you are dealing with no game will even come close.
3. Mlg in halo keeps it alive expect a long lasting multiplayer community and a bug free online experience halo has always tried there hardest to weed out cheaters.
4.BALANCE IS A KEY TO HALO EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS WELL BALANCED ALWAYS HAVE A CHANCE TO SURVIVE.
5. MASTER CHIEF LOOL DO YOU NOT REMEMBER HALO 3 LINE UP YOUR GONNA BE SURPRISED ON RELEASE DATE THIS IS GONNA KILL YOU.
6.GRAPHICS
7.MAPS
8.CAMPING DOES NOT WORK.
9.IF YOUR GOOD IN HALO NOOBS CANT KILL YOU BUT IF YOUR GOOD IN COD I COULD RANDOM FIRE AND RUIN YOUR SPREE FAIRLY EASY. NOOBTUBE HAHAHAHAHAHAHA NUUUUBE TUBEEEEEEE
10. MULTIPLAYER MATCHUP IN COD IS RIDICULOUS JUST RANDOM HALO ALWAYS HAS SKILL DETERIMED MATCHUPS NOT XP AND THIS GAME IS NOT GONNA CHANGE THERE IS AN INVISIBLE RANK DETERMINED BY THE WAY YOU PLAY AND HOW GOOD YOU PLAY NOT IF YOU HAVE GOLD GUNS AND SUCK.
i can go on far beyond this list
Wow this is so biased, and BS reasons this has nothing to do with actual gameplay..
Wow this is so biased, and BS reasons this has nothing to do with actual gameplay…………..
Halo 4… hmmmmmm. Well I for one am not even going to bother buying COD BO2 on release this year. Nothing against Treyarch, but Halo 4 has delivered above expectations… I can’t see myself being dragged away from it for many months to come… maybe even years. Its sublime.
Call of duty doesn’t even compare to the halo campaign, call of duty may aswell just leave out the campaign because it is literally so bad, it just over the top action after over the top action after over the top action. The campaign does not even trigger the slightest emotional response from me as each character doesn’t have a personality, whereas halo on the other hand provides intriguing characters to keep you attached to the story.
To be honest on the multiplayer side of things i do feel as though call of duty is an extremely fun and addictive side to the game, although in saying this it has become too repetitive for me as they do not change anything, it has been working of the same engine since CoD 4 and even further back i believe! my honest advice would be to ignore this ‘Author’ (how the hell he has this job I don’t know) and go off your own judgement, if you are the sort of person who loves the same thing over and over again with slight changes, spend your well earned money on the new CoD, but if you are tired of the same old nonsense and feel like a definite change is in order, buy Halo 4. Also i can guarantee you this, halo will not be a appointment, it is the first of a new trilogy so Microsoft (who practically are 343′s bosses) will bust a nut to create a series of games that people will buy, halo 4 is the catalyst to this new series.
I played the game already and I am fairly disapointed with both the campaign and the MP. MP for BO2 sucked, just like every other CoD game. The story line still doesn’t makes any sense. Sure it was picked up from Black Ops 1 (not really) but they should stick with the past and not with the future. If you say Halo sucks, then obviously, you just another brat that probably no one would care about.
Plus, try beat over $220 million in profit in the first 24 hours.
I thanks a lot for sharing this very nice information. I always want and love reading quality material. Keep sharing. Best wishes for your further efforts.