Black Ops

[Chris]

Not so much a review. Just an opinion. So far MW2. Black Ops is too much.

[hallsofvallhalla]

I dont understand. Are you saying it is like MW2?

[rockinliam]

Thought i should add something more substantial.

A quick review of Call of Duty: Black Ops

Black ops, i wasn't exactly excited for but i thought it was a chance for treyarch to do something interesting with the franchise.

SinglePlayer
Story line told through the medium of flashbacks during an interrogation. The plot was nicely executed with a certain amount of depth. Considerably more than the, "kill this Ahole" storyline that were in many of the previous games. The use of enigma and clues throughout, turns the storyline into a great big mystery adventure that just adds to the fun. The ending for me was too easy, and the actual climax was over too fast for me, i wanted to feel like i had achieved something but instead the end was a bit more abrupt than i hoped for. But then just as you think the credits will roll, Treyarch offers their answer to one of the biggest conspiracy's in American history, who really shot JFK? Hahaha.

MultiPlayer
Pretty much same as before except you buy the guns with points you gain through winning matches and killing people etc. I find the maps very engaging, i think that Treyarch captured the essence of what made the COD4 maps so much fun, but with MW2, IW moved up a gear and i feel the fans will be left feeling disappointed. The online weapons are terrible, much recoil, although the customization is nice, if not a little sad. Quite a few maps are too small and have problems with enemys spawning too close to where you are spawning, which is a recipe for rage.

Zombies Mode
Full of humour from the playable characters (Richard Nixon FTW!). Maps are expansive and imaginative, but the game now feels unbalanced, zombies are stronger maps are far more difficult to defend, but i guess that is all part of the fun. The secret top down arcade mode of "Dead Ops Arcade" is epic! Music is great, graphics are humorous, full of imagination and it is seriously fun, arguably better than the actual zombie mode.

Graphics and sound
The actual sound track to the single player is very adequate, some bits are really great, but nothing is bad so that is a definite plus. The weapon sounds on the other hand are poor, i can't quite put my finger on it, but they just sound wrong. TBH these though are very minor disappointments compared to the graphics. I'm not talking about the 3d models they are very good as always, Its the textures! The game feels half textured, as if half of them are placeholders, just general colours of what it should look like. I played it on the PS3, the game drops plenty of frames when things get busy, a lot of stuff looked rough, and the game looked washed out and resembles more and more like a used coffee filter. And the thing is, the PS3 can do alot better than that. If you really want it to look as good as possible, you need to get it for a gaming pc.

Conclusion
Graphics aside the singleplayer is solid, even brilliant in places. The storyline is probably the best of the newer Call of Duty games. Multiplayer is fun but the guns are poor and some maps are too small, and have poor textures. Overall the game could of been better, but it's fairly good, and should satisfy the fans.

7/10

[hallsofvallhalla]

The game feels half textured, as if half of them are placeholders, just general colours of what it should look like.

Exact same thing happened with MW2!! I bought it day of release and so many textures were left undone. It was a joke.

[Ravinos]

I liked everything about it except for the lag and as it was said before the textures are extremely low res. The lag is almost unbearable on ps3 and destroys the fun of the game.

[rockinliam]

The game feels half textured, as if half of them are placeholders, just general colours of what it should look like.

Exact same thing happened with MW2!! I bought it day of release and so many textures were left undone. It was a joke.

Although overall in MW2 it was less noticeable compared to Black Ops. Like i was doing a mission were i had to go into a cave/underground base and from a distant it looked great, but when i got close the cliff texture was mainly a weird shade of brown. And it just left me feeling like they just didn't try, and when a texture becomes more noticeable than the gun fight going on around you, then there is something seriously wrong.

[hallsofvallhalla]

haha yes, I actually haven't bought Black ops yet. Just been too busy with work. Working on another promotion, but I may wait even longer now. TO me it sounds like MW done all over again...again...

[Jackolantern]

I was reading somewhere that Black Ops actually comes packed-in with a "zombie mode" where you fight against zombies. Is that true? While I love zombie movies and zombie-stuff, this is getting a bit out of hand if that is true.

[Ravinos]

It's all true Jack. Zombie mode is alive and kicking. Compared to World at War's Nazi Zombie mini game this is really hard to beat. I made 20 attempts at completing the first map and the farthest I ever got was halfway through. The only bad part is when the zombies start lag warping around....

[hallsofvallhalla]

PS3 Lagging? hence the free network. $8.99 a month for Xbox live is steep but well worth it. I have never lagged.