Black Ops 2 – Treyarch gets behind their game engine

Surrounding the buzz of the announcement of Black Ops II is news that the game is still running on version 3.0 of the Infinity Ward engine (IW 3.0) – the same engine which powered the original Modern Warfare, World at War and Black Ops.

Given the engine’s age and concerns that the the game will look dated, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia has attempted to ease the concerns.

In a recent interview, Lamia assured fans that the engine is up to scratch and numerous tweaks and modifications have been made to ensure that the game is up to the competition’s standards.

“Two areas we did focus on for this game were the graphics and the lighting — a pretty significant amount of work is going into that,” Lamia said.

The studio head also backed the current engine, and emphasised the importance of lighting in Black Ops II.

“The answer may not need to be an entirely new engine, but you might need to do an entire overhaul of your entire lighting system.”

Lamia also mentioned that the studio is aware of what the fans want, and that Treyarch are working hard to make sure that the game has a certain visual quality. “I think what people are asking for is for us to push. They want us to make a better-looking game; they want things. I don’t think those are things people can’t ask for. We asked ourselves that very same question — we wanted to advance the graphics.”

The interview could’ve been in response to EA’s Kevin O’Leary, who recently tweeted: “Poor [Black Ops II], you look tired, you should take a year off and rest,” said O’Leary, as he took a little swing at the upcoming futuristic installment into the series everybody loves to hate.