The crazy popular series, Call of Duty, continues on November 13th with Black Ops 2. With a new branching campaign, retooled multiplayer, and at least three to four robots, Black Ops 2 should make quite a splash.

We want to know what your launch day plans are. Will you rock a midnight launch party? Play a few hours after school or work? Call in sick? Knowing this stuff helps us understand you and further our steps for global domination  better serving you as a reader. Take our extremely short, hyper easy, totally cool survey and let us know. It takes less than 15 seconds -- no joke.

Go ahead, take the survey. We'll wait here.

No, really, it's fine. Take your time. We're not going anywhere. Go ahead. We promise we'll be here when you get back.

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Ryan Clements writes for IGN and is totally not plotting to overthrow the current world governments and instate his own order fueled by k-pop. Follow him on Twitter at @PwamCider.

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Microsoft has revealed that during the month of November, players can earn free Microsoft Points for playing Halo 4 multiplayer. Called the Halo 4 Combat Tour Offer, Microsoft will offer 10,000,000 Points in total throughout the month, awarded to players based on how much time they’ve spent playing the game.

Players who spend 35 or more hours playing Halo 4 multiplayer will get 100 Points ($1.25), players who spend 70 or more hours will get 300 Points ($3.75) and players who spend 140 or more hours will get 600 Points ($7.50). Eligibility began yesterday, on Halo 4’s release date, and runs through November 30th.

On top of that, players who spend Microsoft Points on Halo-related add-ons, avatar items, themes, Games on Demand or videos during November will receive a rebate, with players who spend 1500 Points getting back 100, and players who spend 3000 or more Points getting back 200. Any purchase between November 1st and November 30th is eligible, and a full list of qualifying items is available on Microsoft’s site.

The Halo 4 Combat Tour Offer comes just weeks after Microsoft announced the MyAchievements program, which offers rewards to players based on their achievements, including 1 and 2% rebates on Xbox Live Marketplace purchases.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

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Multiplayer combat gaming is dominated by titles that enfold players in quasi-realistic modern war-zones. The action and the perks and the zombies-on-the-moon modes may be pure fantasy, but the settings are rooted in the real world of multi-terrain combat boots and SA-58 clips.

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The first time you play it, it has to be fair, but also it has to be fair on the hundredth time and the thousandth time.

By contrast, Halo 4 is pure fantasy, a sci-fi dreamscape of weird colors, strange weapons, variable gravity as well as Ghosts, crazed AIs and abandoned deep-space mining vessels. Publisher Microsoft wants its key multi-billion-dollar franchise to sit at the heart of inter-human gaming.

Developer 343 has delivered what is arguably the best Halo ever made, and one key component to this is multiplayer, described by IGN reviewer Ryan McCaffrey as “golden” with “immaculate weapon balancing” and containing “an impressive collection of outstanding battlegrounds.”

343 hired Austin, Texas-based development house Certain Affinity to help out with modes, maps and map-creation tool Forge. Why? The company was founded by Max Hoberman, who spent a decade at Bungie, crafting the Halo series’ multiplayer experience.

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I'm dying to see what crazy things people come up with.

Certain Affinity is also responsible for working on MP sections of recent Call of Duty games and on Left 4 Dead. In short, these guys really get multiplayer, and they have a long and intimate relationship with the Halo universe. 85 team-members spent 18 months working on Halo 4’s multiplayer, in close association with 343.

Hoberman says the starting point for refining and evolving Halo 4’s multiplayer modes has been making it available to as many people as possible.

He explains, “That was 343's approach across the board. How do we make this better by letting more people enjoy it? We started by smoothing off some of the rough edges on areas that could be great, but just weren't quite there for accessibility reasons. That can be really difficult, really challenging, especially when you're trying to develop something that has some inherent depth. How you balance depth and accessibility is always a challenge. But that has absolutely permeated all of our decision-making.”

Certain Affinity worked on some of the War Games modes, many based on old favorites that have now been tweaked. For example, Dominion is a team-based mode in which each side attempts to capture and defend a series of bases which, over time, sprout defensive upgrades, culminating in a ‘last stand’ slaughter of the team that’s failed to secure defensive positions.

Oddball is the classic game mode that wins players points for holding onto a ball, with an added twist of being able to throw the ball. When this one feature was first shown, at PAX, it drew enthusiastic whoops from the crowd.

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When you're designing for multiplayer, you have to be selfless.

Part of the responsibility facing Certain Affinity, and all developers that specialize in multiplayer, is the intense relationship players have with the modes and maps they play. Unlike single-player games, which are experienced once or perhaps a few times, multiplayer games are experienced again and again. They are lived. They are also very public testing grounds for people who take their skills very, very seriously.

Not only, but also, through map-editors like Forge, players understand the fundamentals of multiplayer level design. Ten years ago, players might have enjoyed a multiplayer map, without stopping to think about the subtleties of sight blocks and cover positions. These days, they intuite sloppy design.

Hoberman says, “We’re very aware of the gravity of our responsibility. We're creating this content that people are going to play time and time again, sometimes thousands of times, for one map or one game mode. It feels like a massive responsibility. We mandate internally that we play this stuff over and over. We have to be fans of our own work and we have to put it to the test day in and day out.

“

We're creating this content that people are going to play time and time again, sometimes thousands of times.

“We insist that our developers participate in daily playtests. It can be tough. Our artists, for instance, they have a big to-do list, but we make them take an hour out of their day to playtest. We think that's invaluable. Fans are going to pick these things apart. They're passionate about every detail. It's critical that everyone working on these things is also passionate about every detail and understands how these things are going to be experienced by the players.”

He points out that in single-player modes, the story embraces the player as well as the characters in the game, but only the actual player is having a real emotional experience. But in multiplayer, it’s about everyone who is on screen.

“When you're designing campaign levels, you're inherently designing something asymmetrical. You're designing for the player. You don't need to care about how the enemies feel. You don't need to care about how the Covenant feel about their experience. When you're designing multiplayer, you have to care about everybody.

“What you're designing is inherently balanced and symmetric, even if it's physically asymmetric. It has to be balanced. It has to be a fair experience for everyone. The first time you play it, it has to be fair, but also it has to be fair on the hundredth time and the thousandth time. It takes a different mindset to design for multiplayer. I'd say it also takes a different personality sometimes. When you're designing for multiplayer, you have to be selfless. You have to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes. If you're just concerned about designing a good experience for yourself, then you'll never be a great multiplayer designer.”

One of the massive projects undertaken by Certain Affinity was Forge, which allows players to make their own multiplayer maps. This tool has been around for some years but in Halo 4 has been drastically overhauled.

New features include better looks through dynamic lighting and gorgeous native environments; greater ease-of-use via neat gadgets like item-lock, duping and magnets; and local effects called player-trait zones which give designers all sorts of freedom to play around with their invented worlds.

Hoberman says, “Forge is interesting, any map editor is interesting, because so many people benefit from it whether they actually use it or not. Everyone benefits from the creations that come out of it. The accessibility improvements that we made and some of the feature additions are ultimately just going to mean that new users will find it easier, but because Forge is inherently a pretty sophisticated tool, the creations are going to be that much more inventive and novel.

He adds, “You always do something and you think maybe you’ll see a dozen interesting ways people use it. In reality, over time, you end up seeing hundreds of greats ideas. I'm dying to see what crazy things people come up with.”

Don't forget to make use of IGN's massive Halo 4 wiki.

For daily opinions, debates and interviews on games you can follow Colin Campbell on Twitter or at IGN. 

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Halo 4 is launching -- if you're in the eastern hemisphere, you may already be pummeling Prometheans -- and the IGN Editors want to play multiplayer with you, our lovely readers.

So how can you get your chance to shoot us in the virtual face? Here's the scoop:

What: A ton of Halo 4 War Games.

When: November 6, 4:00pm Pacific/7:00pm Eastern

Where: Xbox Live, of course!

Who: You! Also, a handful of IGN staffers will be online and ready to get splattered by your Ghost, including Ryan McCaffrey, Mitch Dyer, Casey Lynch, and more.

How: Send a message or friend request to one of the following IGN editor gamertags telling us you'd like to play. We'll do our best to rotate everyone in and mix up the playlists, and each editor will have his or her own lobby so we can play with as many of you as possible.

• Ryan McCaffrey, Xbox Executive Editor: Ryan IGN
• Mitch Dyer, Xbox Associate Editor: MitchyD88
• Casey Lynch, Editor-in-Chief: Lynchtastic
• Destin Legarie, Editorial Producer: DestinL
• Sean Allen, Community Manager: ImNotSeanAtIGN
• Alfredo Diaz, Video Editor: AlfredoIGN
• Eriq Martin, Community Contributor: ereeeek
• Sean Finnegan, Associate Video Producer: Finnegan ii
• Sam Claiborn, Wikis Executive Editor: OKMANIAK
• Ashley Jenkins, Head of Community and Social Media: jinx
• Steve Butts, Managing Editor, Steve IGN
• J Kartje, Social Media Coordinator: jsauce ign
• Nic Vargus, Tech Executive Editor: acex23

While you wait, why not read/watch our Halo 4 review? We think it's swell. See you tomorrow!

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A new multiplayer mode titled King of Zombies has been unveiled for upcoming survival horror game ZombiU.

In an interview with ONM, the game's story director Gabrielle Shrager explained that that the mode would have links to the St George's Yard mission that players will encounter in the single-player game, while also being based on a modified version of Capture the Flag.

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St George's is our hell within hell. Our multiplayer arenas are a spin-off of this mission in the campaign.

"You’ve seen the Tower Of London gameplay footage by now, so you know we are going to have to breach the Traitor’s Gate and penetrate the depths of the Bloody Tower to find the Raven Of Dee’s Secret Bunker," she revealed. "But you’ve never heard of St George’s Yard.

"St George's is our hell within hell. Survivors here are unwilling participants in a twisted game in which they are thrown to the infected. Our multiplayer arenas are a spin-off of this mission in the campaign."

The King of Zombies mode is one such multiplayer arena that sees one player use the Wii U Pro Controller to try and guide their survivor towards the flag. Meanwhile, it's the job of the GamePad wielding player to spawn zombies around the flag using the touchscreen in a bid to keep the flag unclaimed.

ZombiU is planned as an exclusive launch title for the Wii U when it releases in America on November 18 and in Europe on November 30.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and is slowly realising he'd be as useful as a chocolate teapot in a Zombie Apocalypse. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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The multiplayer matchmaking system in Call of Duty: Black Ops II will work using latency and ping, Treyarch has confirmed.

In a series of tweets, game design director David Vondehaar explained that the upcoming entry in the Call of Duty series wouldn't rely on region-based matchmaking, as was the case in previous games.

In response to being asked whether the locale-preference in matchmaking would again appear in Black Ops II, the following exchange took place:

In theory, this should result in fewer instances of host migration and drop outs, which have frustrated Call of Duty players in previous instalments. This isn't the only good news we've had for Call of Duty multiplayer fans recently; earlier this month Treyarch announced that the Call of Duty Elite service would be free to Black Ops II players.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is due to release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on November 13, and on the Wii U on its respective launch dates.

Thanks, CharlieIntel.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and a meleeing ninja when it comes to COD. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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Activision has announced that Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse will be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 23, 2012.

It also revealed details of the game's 'Multiplayer Challenges', which will let you invite up to four friends to assume the roles of popular characters from the show – including Peter, Brian, Quagmire and, of course, Stewie – and head into an "epic battle" or a "wild team battle". No more details were forthcoming but the multiplayer component is said to be in keeping with the Family Guy 'spirit', with "unexpected gags and cameos at every turn".

Here are some new screenshots of the challenges:

There hasn't been much information released on the game so far, but you can find out a bit more about here.

Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer, and you can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

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