Call of Duty: Black Ops' new Wager Matches are free-form game modes designed to be "adrenaline junkie fun," Treyarch Design Director David Vonderhaar told a gathering of press tonight.
These matches are separate from your standard ranked matches in your online competitive playing. In Wager Match you take the currency you've earned and you can gamble it against other players. You're gambling that you are going to come in the top three on the final scoreboard, we're told.
Here's a run down of the four Wager Match modes:
One in the Chamber: In the match everyone spawns in with a pistol, one bullet and three lives. If you kill someone you get to take their bullet. If you fire and miss you're left with melee.
Sticks and Stones: You spawn with a crossbow, ballistic knife and a tomahawk. If you hit a player with the tomahawk you instantly bankrupt that player.
Gun Game: You get a series of progressive weapons in this match. With every kill you get a better weapon. The first person to progress through all of the weapons wins. But if you get knifed you get sent back one tier.
Sharp Shooter: In this one all players start with the same randomly selected weapon. You get to use that gun for a fixed amount of time and then everyone gets switched out to the next weapon. With each kill you earn a perk and eventually a scoring multiplier.
This sounds pretty damn amazing even if no actual money changes hands... or at least is intended to.