Prerelease:Call of Duty: Black Ops (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Call of Duty: Black Ops (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii).

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Screenshots. More differences. Fix the video previews.

Early Video Content

Several employees from Spov, the company who handled the pre-level briefings, uploaded early versions of some of these briefings. They are largely the same as the final but have some small differences.

• Numbers: The interrogator goes over the masterminds of Project Nova in the order of "Kravchenko, Clarke, Steiner" and Mason recounts their names. The final swaps Clarke with Steiner and Mason only mentions Dragovich.
• WMD: Some of the lines are different.

Voice	Final	Early
Interrogator	A fully operational military complex buried deep in the Ural Mountains.	A fully operational military complex buried deep in the Ural Mountains, stockpiled with enough Nova 6 to blanket the entire planet.
Mason	That's where Hudson was contacted by Friedrich Steiner—the Nazi scientist that developed the initial strain of Nova-6 for Dragovich --	That's where Hudson found Friedrich Steiner—the Nazi scientist that developed the initial strain of Nova-6 for Dragovich --
Mason	Oh my God... the numbers are REAL...	The numbers are real.
Interrogator	They've always been real Mason. This isn't a game. We face annihilation unless you cooperate. Where is the broadcast station?!	They've always been real Mason. This isn't a game. Where is the broadcast station?!

Demos

London Press Event

In late May 2010 a press event was held in London that showed a playthrough of the campaign missions "WMD" and a partial playthrough of "The Defector". These versions of the levels have some differences from the final game.

• Mason and Hudson's dialogue had not be added to yet so their dialogue is spoken by a different actor and was meant to be a placeholder.
• The Defector:
  • The level is called "Slaughterhouse".
  • During the part where Mason takes the radio from Crosby, in an interview with AusGamers, Josh Olin mentions that Mason throws the radio away after using it, which does not happen in the final game.
• The start of the WMD mission where Mosely walks up the SR-71 originally had a part where airforce personnel inspected Mosely's and Neitsch's flight suits or outfitted them with extra equipment (the TotalVideoGames article is not clear which happened) before they entered the SR-71.

(Source: Kikizo, TotalVideoGames, Kikizo, AusGamers)

E3 2010 Demo

The E3 2010 demo shows a bit of rat tunnel section of "Victor Charlie" and the mission "Payback". There are quite a few differences between the demo and the final game.

Differences

• The HUD looks closer to Modern Warfare 2's HUD.
• The font used in the prompts and HUD is different.

E3 2010	Final Game

• The Python is called .357 Magnum.

Trailers

Debut Teaser Trailer

This trailer was uploaded on April 28, 2010, and was a teaser for the game. It can be seen here. It had the following differences from the final game:

• At 0:31, there is a scene with two marines near a box, one standing near the box and holding an AK47 with a SPAS-12 on his back, and the other running away. This scene is absent from the final game. Interestingly, there is an unused SPAS-12 in the game files titled "spas_12_sog".

World Premiere Uncut Trailer

This trailer was uploaded to YouTube on May 18, 2010 and can be seen here.

• Rappelling sequence from "The Defector":
  • During the part where Woods jumps out of the helicopter, there is less smoke in the background.
  • During the part where the helicopter crashes, it can be seen that the helicopter Mason rappels from has a protrusion at the front, a mouth decal, turrets on either side, and the explosion is larger and blows pieces of metal out of the helicopter.
  • There are mountains in the background that are absent in the final.
  • There is a large cloud of smoke that Mason moves through while holding on to the rappelling line.
• Second room of the first building from "The Defector":
  • The lighting is different, there is some more rubble on the ground, and on the left wall there is a poster that is absent from the final.
• The Defector: The room Mason is in upon crashing has lighting that is different from the final and there are some books on the ground that are not present in the final. This version of the room is the one used in the Wii version.
• WMD breach sequence:
  • Weaver has no eyepatch, his rope is white instead of black, and less of the handle of his AUG is white.
  • The icicles on the railing are in a different formation.
  • The camouflage on the AUG is in a different formation.

Multiplayer Teaser

On August 9th, 2010, Treyarch released a teaser for Black Op's multiplayer. It contains quite a few differences.

• The font used in the HUD and score counter is different.

Teaser	Final Game

Wager Match Trailer

This trailer contains several differences from the final game.

• The font used in the HUD is different.
• The Stakeout is called the Ithaca.
• The SPAS-12 is called SPAS.

Team Wager Matches

During the COD XP 2011 panel "The Making of Call of Duty: Black Ops", the development team shared during the Q&A session that a significant amount of money, almost $2 million dollars according to multiplayer director David Vonderhaar, was spent on developing team-based Wager Matches, which ultimately were cut from the final game.

(Source: Engadget)

Hangar 18 Name

The DLC map Hangar 18, included in the Annihilation DLC, was called Area 51 for a significant portion of development, presumably the entirety of development given that its codename is mp_area51 and these appear to be set in early development. According to Alex Conserva at COD XP 2011 during the "Making of Call of Duty: Black Ops" panel (9:40 - 10:24 in this video), the decision to change the name was due to Activision's legal team informing the team 3 days before the deadline for completion of the DLC that the name could not be used due to being legally problematic. After the team was informed, the team spent the remaining days trying to brainstorm a name, and it was only minutes before the deadline that the name Hangar 18 was selected.

Call of the Dead loadscreen

The loadscreen for Call of the Dead shows in the top-right corner a small part of Shangri-La's loadscreen. This part differs slightly from the final Shangri-La loadscreen in that the fern is farther away from the temple.