Now that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is official, hype for the much-anticipated video game can start building up. As is evident in the debut trailer for Black Ops 2, there are some major changes in store for the franchise that has often been criticized for being too cut-and-paste. The changes will not be exclusive to the single-player campaign, however, as gamers can expect Treyarch‘s infamous Zombies mode to be back and better than ever this time around.

Details on just what kinds of changes are in store, or even just the playable characters that’ll be starring in Zombies, are still under tight wraps. Fortunately, CVG did manage to secure a few tidbits of new info during its preview of Black Ops 2, such as the mode now being run on the game’s multiplayer engine. This may not sound like an important improvement, but the engine will be able to do a lot more than just make the mode sound like it’s been improved.

“The multiplayer engine can throw around twice as many shambling corpses at once, and it can handle a co-op tally double that of Black Ops 1′s.”

Eight-player co-op against immeasurable hordes of zombies has always been a pipe dream for Call of Duty fans, but now – as Treyarch has alluded to – the new and improved Zombies may finally be giving them just that. Strong sales of the original Black Ops‘ Rezurrection DLC has allowed the team working on the updated Black Ops 2 mode to enhance it in which ever way they see fit.

“Treyarch have given their zombie team free reign to do pretty much whatever they want with the mode regardless of the direction the campaign is headed in.”

Zombies has always been one of the best modes in Call of Duty. The bi-annual feature is often met with much excitement, and we can’t even imagine how much more fun it’ll be now that it’s essentially twice as big. One thing I can confirm about the new mode is that it’ll be the go-to source for many Game Rant game nights – after Black Ops 2 explodes onto store shelves later this year.

I'm waiting to hear the campaign is more than 4 hours long. I play some multiplayer and I know COD is set up for that, but I'm not paying 60 bucks for something I can rent for 4 bucks and finish in an afternoon. What ends up happening, I fall behind in the multiplayer cause I don't play 8 hours a day and get my tail handed to me and trade it in. 60 bucks spent for the 4 hours of fun in the campaign. Plenty of other FPS have 8-12 hour campaigns.

Black Ops II pre-orders ten times higher than Black Ops

As the saying goes, records were made to be broken. According to the latest pre-order statistics from Amazon, Black Ops II is already on pace to shatter the previous sales records set by 2010’s Black Ops and 2011’s Modern Warfare 3. Speaking with Joystiq, Amazon said, “Pre-orders from day one of Black Ops 2 were more than ten times the amount of pre-orders for the first Black Ops on its first day of availability.”

Even more, based on Amazon’s data, Black Ops II is outpacing last year’s sales juggernaut Modern Warfare 3. “Black Ops 2 even out pre-ordered the first day of availability for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by more than 30 percent,” the online retailer related. “Modern Warfare 3 currently holds the record for the most pre-ordered game of all time and was among the top 20 pre-orders ever on Amazon.com, including books and movies.”

It’s not really surprising at this point that a Call of Duty title is on track to sell a lot of copies. What is a bit of a surprise is how quickly the early numbers have skyrocketed past previous entries in the series. At this point, Black Ops II setting yet another sales record is just a formality.