Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 trailer showcases "Cybercore" abilties

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

"Cybercore." Is it the home of the Transformers? The company that invented Terminators? The long-awaited follow-up to the album that killed Billy Idol's career? No! It's the term for special "cybernetic abilities" that players may wield in the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.

The Cybercore abilities revealed in this new trailer have swanky names like Wide-Area Misdirect, Adaptive Immolation, and Enhanced Sonic A.P., but I think it's handier to describe them as they actually are: Electro-punch, Bomb Zapper, Bees!, and Noisemaker. They give players a way to kill stuff without having to make use of the standard tools of stuff-killing, ie., guns.

They are also, at least to my eyes, very BioShock-ish in nature, especially Firefly Swarm, which by all appearances is an almost direct lift of the Insect Swarm plasmid. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just interesting. It also represents an even greater shift away from the realism that's been the hallmark of its Call of Duty cousin, Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 hits the shelves on November 6.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.