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Release of ‘Black Ops II’ Brings Crowd to Store Late at Night

Gamers were lined up late Monday night at the Target store on Roosevelt Road to buy the new Call of Duty game, Black Ops II.

“I’ve been waiting since the summer for the release of this game, once I saw the commercial,” said 38-year-old Aaron Schultz of Evergreen Park. “Once Target allowed me to have the game pre-ordered, I immediately did it. I’ve bought every [Call of Duty] game in the past and will continue to until they stop making them.”

Call of Duty has been one of the most popular game franchises as the company releases a new version each year as it has grossed $65 million after the first week of sales.

There are two companies, Infinity Ward and Treyarch, that produce the games. The companies alternate each year in releasing these games. The two firms compete for the highly profitable gaming audience, which is close to making $68 billion.

For the new Black Ops II release, almost 2 million copies were pre-ordered before the game. As gamers waited in anticipation, they were able to play demos of the game before its launch on Nov. 13.

The 2-million pre-ordered copies were sold in the United States. The new game was also released in other nations and was sold in Australia for the first time.

One of the most popular features with the new game is Nazi Zombies. The zombie side game within Call of Duty started with their Worlds at War game. This feature allows up to four players team up and fight off zombie hordes for as many rounds as they can; the levels get harder. The newest addition of this game allows players to move around from level to level unlike the two prior games.

“The reason why I’m getting this game is for the zombie maps,” said 22-year-old Marty Kruze of the South Loop. “I think it’s the best part of the game and think Treyarch really put themselves over Infinity Ward by having this special feature.”

Even though the Xbox 360 released one of its biggest franchise games, Halo 4, a week prior to the release of Black Ops II, Call of Duty was able to sell more games. Call Of Duty can be played on all three systems, the Wii-U, PlayStation and Xbox 360, This is unlike Halo which can only be played on Xbox.

“I go back and forth between Halo and Call of Duty trying to decide which game I like more,” Schultz said.

It is highly debated which gaming franchise is better and will continue to compete as these games. The Call of Duty franchise tried to keep up with Halo by having David Goyer, who has written for the “Dark Knight” movies, to write the story line for Black Ops II.

Tom Kurtz, 22, from Lombard, said: “I think this game is better than the Halo franchise. It offers more to a gamer. You have zombies, a fun campaign mode and is more realistic. I don’t think any other game will be able to match what this series has to offer.”

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