90 seconds of combat in Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer (hands-on video)

Activision Blizzard showed off some hands-on gameplay of Call of Duty: Black Ops II multiplayer, and we were there to try it out. It has lots of new features that we described in our longer story. This piece is all about the visual actions.

The new multiplayer mode is the critical part of Black Ops II, which, if all goes well, could generate $1 billion in sales once again for Activision Blizzard. Publisher-owned developer Treyarch showed a couple of new maps and multiplayer modes at a recent event, where we captured this video. In this game, I had a submachine gun, a frag grenade, and concussion grenades. I cut out the best part (a very rare sequence for someone like me), which shows me getting the drop on a few of my fellow journalists in the middle of a Domination map, where the object is to control three flags at once.

The Overflow map takes place in a destroyed city in the Middle East, and it has lots of alleys, windows, and destroyed cars that provide cover. The streets feature long corridors for sniping, but it was a fast-action battle in which we didn’t have the time for sniping. It was a good map for tossing out concussion grenades around corners.

Here’s a slice of video from my turn at playing the Overflow map in Black Ops II. I had a lot of fun playing it. The game comes out on Nov. 13.