BLACK seems to be a really cool game. I just got the demo. While the models may not be realistic, the gameplay is great. After you empty a mag into a room, you actually have to wait for the dust to settle, just to see if you hit anybody. Bullets destroy cars, and shotguns can blow the door off of its hinges. The grenades shatter glass off an entire building face. Heck, I was hunkered down behind a wall, wondering why I was getting hit, I then noticed the bricks had been blown out by the incoming fire! It has great gunplay. My only complaint is with the models, which feature a milled AK47 with a rail, what loks like a 20" barrel and a barrel mounted laser. (Although none of these features are useable) If you guys want gun porn, this is it, the developers actually spent many hours on the range, obsessing over how fun shooting is, it seems like a game was finally made for us gun-people.

I'm buying it for the XBox. Wish they had it for my new 360 though.  Guess Ghost Recon 3 will be first.

*cough*sounds familiar

Whats the story plot? I might pick it up

Dont know about plot but it seems to be the first shooter where you can shotgun door locks.  Most of the enviornment is destructable too You do well to use cover but it often does not last.  Body armor is apparently prevelent in the game too so headshots are a must.

BLACK

Join the world's most brutal and enigmatic strike force. The BLACK tactical squad operates under the cloak of complete anonymity and deniability to protect the US from threats foreign and domestic. It answers to no one, allowing it to carry out brutal and covert operations around the globe.

I read a preview in GameInformer magazine. Evidently the plot is pretty much secondary, the entire game is just focused on the gunplay.

The commercial for it kicks ass.

The Big Bang! Bang! Theory --- In Move Away
From Licensing, EA Creates a Noisy Original;
"It Ain't `Dr. Zhivago' "

02/10/2006, 17:12 [The Wall Street Journal]

VISITING A LAS VEGAS gun range several years ago, Alex Ward, a videogame designer with Britain's
Criterion Software Group Ltd., couldn't believe how powerful the sounds, sights and smells were: the
rat-a-tat of an AK-47, the muzzle flash of a pistol, the smell of gunpowder wafting in the air.
His experience convinced him that today's shoot-'em-up games, while growing more sophisticated in
their plots, have lost some of the sound and fury of guns being fired. "Most of the guns in other
shooters feel like water pistols," he says.
So Mr. Ward and Criterion's corporate parent, Electronic Arts Inc., are embarking on a mission
nongamers may feel is entirely unnecessary: to put the bang back into shooting and action games.
Later this month EA, the world's largest games publisher, will release a game called "Black," an ode
to mayhem that takes the volume and destructiveness of videogames to new ear-splitting heights.
Other popular shooter games like Ubisoft Entertainment SA's Splinter Cell spy series encourage
players to skulk around, surgically and discreetly dispatching enemies. In contrast, during the
development of "Black," EA designers followed what they called the "five rules of gun craft" (Rule No.
1: "Guns are the stars of the show;" Rule No. 3: "Bigger and louder, louder and bigger"). The game is
rated for audiences 17 years and above; for all its violence, EA hastens to point out that there's no
blood or gore when enemies are killed.

"Black" shows how the biggest game makers, despite years of attempting to stretch beyond their
core audience, are still aiming most of their high-profile titles at teenage and adult males. Some
publishers have sought to expand the audience of gamers with nonviolent fare, including Nintendo
Co. with its "Nintendogs" virtual pet game and EA with "The Sims" and its forthcoming "Spore" game.
Yet male-oriented titles like Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas"
and Microsoft Corp.'s "Halo 2" have still topped the sales charts in recent years.

"As with books, TV and movies, action and adventure are a common theme in videogames," says EA
spokesman Jeff Brown. "Like book readers, gamers know the difference between fantasy and reality."
"Black" also stands out as the first of a round of forthcoming titles from EA in which the company
owns outright the game concept and characters. That is in contrast to EA games based on
entertainment and sports brands like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the National Football
League that it licenses from Hollywood studios and sports leagues. EA, of Redwood City, Calif.,
refined the now-widespread practice of building successful games by tapping into popular brands,
and most of its top-selling games are based on such licenses.

EA won't abandon licensing. But brand-licensing deals are becoming more expensive for game
publishers as leagues, athletes and studios seek a bigger piece of the action. So EA, plans to put
greater emphasis on what industry executives call "original IP," or intellectual property. If they are
hits, such games can be more profitable than licensed properties, for which publishers may have to
share between 10% to 20% of sales with licensors, analysts estimate.

"The economics of IP that you own are incredibly superior" to those based on licensing deals, says
EA Executive Vice President Frank Gibeau. In addition to "Black," original projects in EA's pipeline
include "Spore," a game due out next year from Will Wright, designer of "The Sims," that will let
players guide the evolution of life forms. EA also has a deal with filmmaker Steven Spielberg to
collaborate on the development of three original games.

Some analysts doubt "Black," on its own, will dramatically affect EA's near-term financial
performance, which has suffered in recent quarters as gamers slowly prepare to move to new, more
powerful game consoles from Microsoft, Sony Corp. and Nintendo. "I think it's going to be a good
contributor to EA's March revenues, but I don't think it's going be an earth-mover," says John
Taylor, an analyst at Arcadia Investment Corp.

"Black" may cause other things to shake -- like gamers' hands. The game, which follows a member of
an elite military squad battling terrorists, draws inspiration from cinematic bedlam such as the lobby
scene in "The Matrix," where a gun battle sends debris flying in all directions. Weapons in many
other games often don't cause much damage to their surroundings. But environments within "Black"
are almost entirely "destructible." Windows, cars, doors and almost every other inanimate object
within the game can be crumbled, shattered or exploded, sometimes on top of enemies. One scene
in a bathhouse, if played the way game designers intend, leads to an epic shower of porcelain.
The game -- developed at the same Criterion design studio in the United Kingdom that produced a
racing game called "Burnout" that encourages the game's players to deliberately crash -- includes
concussive sound effects and finely detailed close-up shots of guns as they are being reloaded, all
intended to make the weapon the centerpiece of the game.

So far the critical reception for the game has been mostly favorable. "`Black' is a very good game,"
says Andy McNamara, editor in chief of Game Informer magazine, owned by retailer GameStop Corp.
"I'm still determining whether it's truly outstanding."

Mr. Ward, the creative director at Criterion, says his approach in "Black" was to put overt action
back into a genre of shooting and combat games that have become increasingly covert in recent
years. Stealth is the watchword of hit games like Splinter Cell and Konami Corp.'s Metal Gear Solid
series, in which gamers play soldiers or spies who spend much of their time sneaking up on enemies,
hiding behind walls and using silencers on their guns to remain inconspicuous. Mr. Ward, 33 years
old, was dismayed by how such games discourage the shooting of guns.

Mr. Ward says Sam Fisher, the fictional spy and main character in Splinter Cell, pumps out precious
little lead. "I don't know why he even bothers to carry a gun," Mr. Ward says.

Helene Juguet, director of marketing at Ubisoft, says Splinter Cell requires more thinking on the part
of a gamer than "run-and-gun" games where mayhem prevails. "We created Splinter Cell because the
tastes of gamers are becoming more sophisticated," she says.

Mr. Ward says "Black" doesn't have to be sophisticated to be good entertainment. "It's not `Pride
and Prejudice' or `Brokeback Mountain,' and it ain't `Dr. Zhivago,'" he says.

[(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) ]

Quoted: The commercial for it kicks ass.

it ws on duing the Shield tonight it was pretty neat

No blood or gore?

Gun pron, I love the gun pron

Looks pretty goofy to me, the shotgun takes out about 5 feet of guardrail, blows a steel door into the next room and blows up a car, but then at point blank a guy gets one in the belly and throws his arms up and goes AGGHHH!

I love the left handed AK74 too.

I like guns.

might have to check this out...

do they have a PC version?  downloadable demo?


details... i need a web site.

Quoted: might have to check this out... do they have a PC version?  downloadable demo? details... i need a web site.

EA Games:  Black

I'll play it.

Quoted: Looks pretty goofy to me, the shotgun takes out about 5 feet of guardrail, blows a steel door into the next room and blows up a car, but then at point blank a guy gets one in the belly and throws his arms up and goes AGGHHH! I love the left handed AK74 too.

Yes, I know the game has shortcomings. But it seems like great eye candy with action packed gameplay. Also, the enemies are wearing body armor

I'll give any game that gives supposed full environment destruction a try.

Quoted: *cough*sounds familiar

OMGWTFBBQ!!!



IBTL

my pre-order copy shipped yesterday

Quoted: BLACK Join the world's most brutal and enigmatic strike force. The BLACK tactical squad operates under the cloak of complete anonymity and deniability to protect the US from threats foreign and domestic. It answers to no one, allowing it to carry out brutal and covert operations around the globe.

Sounds a lot like a STU team simulator... Is there a stadium massacre in it by chance?

got my copy...played the first mission. It's pretty good, but not great.

Quoted: got my copy...played the first mission. It's pretty good, but not great.

I loved the second mission. It is set in the woods and is very fun!

When the commercial came on during 24 my wife asked if I was going to get it.  

Quoted: I'll give any game that gives supposed full environment destruction a try.

Heh, I remember Red Faction had that.  You could blow up the walls, but not the chicken-wire reinforced glass.  So I blew up the walls all around a window and was left with a piece of undamaged glass suspended in midair.

Bought it today. Had a gift cert.

Game moves slow.. only complaint so far.. Past that..

Amusing..

SWEET!  A lefty AK!

BEING SHOT BY A RIGHTY!



Brass flying in your face just screams "action"

Hi guys, just got back to my computer. Got home from school around 2 and have been playing ever since. I'm using easy right now, I plan to beat it on every difficulty. Whew, thats almost tiring, just playing that long. It is a short game, but the objectives and hidden secrets, not to mention unlocks, will keep me coming back for more. I think this game is the definative shooter for consoles.

Quoted: definative shooter for consoles.

Sweet, it's right up there with the best propeller driven fighter plane!

Quoted: Quoted: definative shooter for consoles. Sweet, it's right up there with the best propeller driven fighter plane!

Nah, once upon a time those were state of the art.