Call Of Duty Black Ops II hailed as 'COD's golden age' on its 10th Birthday

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is now 10 years old and we're taking a trip back in time to what made this game just so good and a part of the "golden age" of gaming.

Very cool that there even is a "golden age" of gaming, very cool indeed. I'm sure such a statement won't lead to some of our audience placing their heads in their hands and wondering where the years went.

The first game to introduce non-linear gameplay and choices that impacted the campaign's ending, Black Ops II was creative in the ways it wanted to surprise longtime players and welcome new recruits to the series. It also allowed players to customise their loadout before beginning a mission, and Pick 10 was adaptable yet balanced enough that multiplayer matches would feel fresh.

Rust is in Modern Warfare II - if you know where to look. Check out our video below!

"It was CoD at its absolute peak," said Spuriusrex via the Call of Duty subreddit. "The create-a-class system, the guns, the campaign, the multiplayer maps (best iteration of Nuketown, thus far), and League play was in its infancy and wasn’t the sweaty and toxic mess it became... it was the last CoD through which we could experience toxic game-chat lobbies that were pinnacle to gaming of the golden age."

Right, the golden age was when 13 year olds were rancid to each other over £15 microphones that had to be unplugged from the computer from the last time someone used Skype. "I could literally run around with ANY gun in the game, including special weapons (even the knife) and I would have a blast each time," argued invisibleman6755. Well, it's not impossible to think that Modern Warfare II or Warzone 2.0 could reach these lofty heights in time, given the raucous reception for the former and the hype for the latter. With Warzone 2.0 arriving imminently, we'll see if it's picked up anything from this "golden age" of gaming.