Where’s the most unlikely place you might have spotted a Treyarch developer in the past few months? Unless you can answer ‘under the stairs’, try Calico, California: a ‘ghost town’ in the Mojave desert. The men of CoD were there for a field trip in the name of Buried, Black Ops 2’s next Zombies map. Treyarch are actually based elsewhere in California – Santa Monica, on the famous West Coast – but that’s nevertheless 142 miles of dedication, or two hours and 15 minutes in good traffic.
Let’s see what they came back with, shall we?
“Calico proved to be the perfect inspiration to capture the ‘Old West’ feel for the newest chapter in the Zombies fiction,” said Treyarch on their Facebook page.
It certainly looks like gen-you-ine cowboy stuff from where I’m sitting (Northern England, surrounded by classic western DVDs and absolutely no history books).
New map Buried will form the backbone of Black Ops 2’s third map pack to date, the forgettably titled Vengeance, and see the return of the Ray Gun. As is now standard, it’ll also feature four PvP maps and get a PC release a month after the Xbox, probably at the beginning of August:
I want to say this is the first time Romero’s visited the frontier in the name of gaming, but then I remember there’s a carrion-fuelled piece of Red Dead DLC kicking about. Perhaps the first time for PC, then?
Thanks, Black Ops Blog.