COD Black Ops II

Aparently on its way for November.
Anyone still playing it?

had originally planned to buy it once bored of BF3, but still learning things in BF3 that make it fun.

Yes, for the campaign at least. Not bothered about the MP and I think zombies has become far too convoluted so I'm not sure about that either.

But campaign, definitely.

Agreed, Zombies was good up until Black Ops. Five was a good map but the newer ones they focussed too much on the easter eggs rather than surviving the rounds. I would of liked to have seen more weapons, more perks, different environmental changes etc. rather than doing lots of annoying steps for a bit of story.

Judgement reserved until I see more about the new COD!

I liked the rocket level (the name escapes me) because at least the tasks doubled up as an escape mechanism (lunar landers).

The rest just got monotonous though.

Ah yea sorry, I liked Five and Ascension (the rocket one) that was a good map But yea the rest got pretty damn boring.

I think this sounds promising and from a campaign perspective, forward thinking. I don't want a simulator, just action without too many rails as "Strikeforce" promises.

And as one of the old school that buys games first and foremost for their campaign mode, that sounds really cool to me.

Watch the Trailer

Lets be honest did we not know that Treyarch would be releasing Black Ops 2 .......Kind of Obvious.

Trailer looks really nice,but how many games can we say that about ?

To be honest mate (multiplayer aside) I have never felt let down by a COD title. I remember feeling the latter MOH games being intrinsically scripted to the point of almost being on auto pilot, which is the cardinal sin as far as I'm concerned. Somewhere between FarCry 2 and MOH is about right for me. Constrained freedom rather than a total sandbox approach, although the time I am able to set aside for gaming probably helps make that descision for me. Those with more time will likely see it slightly differently.

And I don't really have a leaning toward Infinty Ward or Treyarch. Campaign wise I loved World at War. Especially assaulting the steps of the buildings in the penultimate mission. I'm very easily satisfied, give me a gun (don't care what sort), good cinematics and a beautifully balanced control feel and I'm happy. I don't want tired, heavy, "simulated" movement (Killzone for example). I hate realistic movement. If I wanted realism I'd join the TA.

Twitch shooting all the way for me.

I blinked and missed the in game footage in that trailer. Nice cut scenes,hold on is it a movie or a game?

We will be seeing plenty more in game footage over the weeks I'm sure of that ?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

I blinked and missed the in game footage in that trailer. Nice cut scenes,hold on is it a movie or a game?

Blinked?

You'll never make it as a pro twitch shooter with that attitude!

Doing well enough as a colonel in BF3, enjoy the hour long games with 1000 ticket rounds.

Looks like a very poor graphical movie, though its whats to be expected from the MW series and this title doesnt look to disappoint to go the extremes with new things to hide how poor the game is.

Not sure what you were watching TBH.

That sounds subjective rather than objective. I don't think BF3 is at all easy on the eye, but calling it poor would not be fair or constructive. And I'm not conceited enough to pretend to know otherwise. There are many poor looking games around, but the COD games certainly aren't.

Obviously from your post you are a Cod Fanboy

Poor i doubt that very much,not much of improvement we come to expect ......Probably ?

This is Cod and whatever you think it will sell in its Millions come November and if Treyarch just up there game just a fraction then i think the majority of Cod Lovers will be very happy .

After all myself included now think that Black Ops is the better game and far more balanced than MW3 with better maps.

Agreed.

It probably won't have changed much technically, but it will be a different style with the 2025 setting, weapons and vehicles, and hopefully smooth at a higher than average frame rate. Whether or not it is any good as a game is a different matter of course, but I'm not too worried TBH.

I think the Strikeforce mode sounds really promising if they carry it off properly and the 80's based part will also be interesting to see.

Edited by mrnelster (Thu 03-May-12 06:12:05)

How you going with your gaming mrnelster,what are you playing at present and did you ever play God Of War 3 and if not why not

But that's the problem with COD, there hasn't been a good one since the first one. Not a single one with that initial WOW, 'kin 'ell, factor. There's been a lot of hype, but very little improvement. If anything, with the shorter and shorter SP, it's got steadily worse.

What no FPS has done in single player is a real campaign, i.e. take an area, then hold it against counter attack and then have to retake it.

The same map should work if designed well, or is that single player maps are too rail based to date.

PC can go smoother and faster at a cost, but xbox I suspect is close to limits, without a big change in the maths behind it all, similar for PS3. They need to fill in before the PS4 and 720 arrive.

The tablet interface for the next Wii has some potential, as it could be used as a commander interface for squad play, while commander still has FPS controls to keep themselves alive.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

What no FPS has done in single player is a real campaign, i.e. take an area, then hold it against counter attack and then have to retake it.

RO2 tried to do this sort of thing, but they mixed in too much RO1 (realism) with COD (achievements, unlocks and other unnecessary things ) and basically committed developer suicide.

They need to fill in before the PS4 and 720 arrive.

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, I shudder at how much the gaming industry has stagnated because it's easier to just 'create' clones of the same game over and over again.

I guess I've been gaming too long. I always remember my dad telling me how [censored] modern music was and that they were just copying artists from the 50's and 60's, I guess I've got to 'that' age and I've applied that logic to the gaming industry. Been there, done that, seen it before. Yawn.

Not your real age, but gaming age. Know young people who hark back to lower visual quality but more fun to play games

In reply to a post by time2die:

Obviously from your post you are a Cod Fanboy

Poor i doubt that very much,not much of improvement we come to expect ......Probably ?

This is Cod and whatever you think it will sell in its Millions come November and if Treyarch just up there game just a fraction then i think the majority of Cod Lovers will be very happy .

After all myself included now think that Black Ops is the better game and far more balanced than MW3 with better maps.

Funny how everyone said that Treyarch and BO were pants but are now saying it was ok

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

It probably won't have changed much technically,

Which has been the problem since MW2.

Only so long you can keep milking the IW engine with "refinements". It needs retired and replaced. If it's just a "slightly better" looking Black Ops, then what's the point? It appears they'll make this mistake as it's looking like yet another modification of the IW3 engine fork they've been using since World at War. Never worry...it'll have cutting edge features like HDR...haven't seen that before. Oh wait, most engines in the last what...8 years have had this? Christ.

If however they go down the route of doing server based PC play correctly and have larger maps and a large amount of weapons, perks, unlocks and ranks similar to BF3 then it might just be worth it.

If it's small and limited like the previous games in the series then it'll not sell outside of the console kiddy arena. Related to this - single player is completely irrelevant. Multiplayer is where they win or lose.

Edited by orly (Thu 03-May-12 16:13:25)

I never said it was pants i said i was never a lover of Treyarch in the first place and before the split up of most the team leaders and developers of infinity ward i would still think the same.

Having now given MW3 plenty of time i seriously now think Black Ops is the better game,i can not come to that conclusion until the release of MW3 .

I never liked World at War and i never will,black ops was a major improvement but at the time i still preferred Mw2,now after all has come and gone black Ops is more balanced and the maps are better...........Period.

Personally once max payne 3 is released and Future soldier i wont be playing any Cod games until the end of the year and thats only if Black Ops 2 gets favourable reviews.

Edited by time2die (Thu 03-May-12 17:30:51)

Totally disagree MW1 was Brilliant and redefined console fps.

So general opinion is MW2 was good, BO not so and MW3 rubbish.
Judging by that form I don't hold out much hope for BO2

I was taking your opinion seriously up until this.

In reply to a post by orly:

the console kiddy arena

I think logic can sometimes become clouded by a person's own preference.

All of the COD games are much of a muchness. If you loved MW1 I don't understand how you can lambast the sequels. It really hasn't changed that much, which has basically been the critical consensus of the franchise. How can preferring the new kid on the block make the old one any better or worse than when you enjoyed it. Do new faster Ferraris with innovative design make the old ones poor in comparison or simply define the new model as "faster with innovative design"?

Fickle fuzzy logic.

Haven't played for a week or so. Was hoping to play a little survival on MW3 yesterday but it didn't work out that way.

The only GoW I played was a snippet of the PSP version. I always think it looks great, but then seem to find something else to play instead. Bit linear for me perhaps? I am planning a games clear out and then I think I'll grab UC2 on the cheap, as I know I'll love it.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

I was taking your opinion seriously up until this.

In reply to a post by orly:

the console kiddy arena

Console gaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzS4GMYJbF8

Now I know your not serious. PC gamers invented that nonsense when Battlefield games weren't even available on consoles!

Pot kettle black me thinks.

Nicely put matey,Nicely put........Think we all know that when the first MW came out it was something pretty special and i liked the new games that followed .

But this is a BIG But things have not really moved on that much and i think we expect a lot more come some 2/3 years later.

I like a lot of what MW3 offers but if i look at it realistically is it really that much of a improvement over the first game and is it really as balanced.

Having picked up the 360 version of Black Ops once again and then playing it i find that Black Ops for some reason or another is a far more enjoyable experience than the present MW3.

Shame really he should broaden is horizons having more than likely never owned a console,personally compared to PC Gaming i think they are the future and thats coming from someone that spent years playing nothing but PC games on quite a few nice powerful rigs.

Think there is a market for both but i prefer the relaxed way of gaming that consoles generally give you as opposed to be sitting in some office 2 feet from a monitor with back ache

Just pick up Max Payne 3 2 weeks Friday as I'm sure that is all you will need,No point going back to uncharted 2 if you played 3 matey especially when all the new games are on the horizon.

Mind you having said that you tend to play games 3 years after release ......Have you played Pang yet that came out about 25 years ago so i recon you might just have got around to downloading it .

Hey I'm only kidding as i know you don't get the time to play games like i do.

Agreed. And stop waving your big BUT around.

Your funny

You going to get Max then or what,have you seen the latest multiplayer videos i posted regarding the game.

Yeah, sorry, I did actually mean MW1 (it's that age thing ). The price of the game was worth it for the SP alone. Hasn't been one since that did the same though.

Yeah Samson i can not argue with the millions that think Activision have become so greedy and they have not really moved on that much,lets call it expansion packs if we must .

I remember playing the beta for MW1 and thought oh my god this is pretty dam special.

As much as things did stay the same perks/guns/killstreaks got more and more ridiculous (double shotguns that look like they belonged to some swashbuckling buccaneer anyone?) and only really the graphics stayed stuck in the mud.

You say about the new kid on the block (I presume you mean BF3) but I didn't enjoy WaW at all, MW2 had huge issues such as gun balance and the horrible peer 2 peer system and kill streaks involving nuclear bombs(!?). And hackers. Blops probably got closest to being back to some of the things that MW1 did well but the kill streaks were still ridiculous and I found myself playing other games such as the very old CS:Source which I found more enjoyable. All of that happened pre-BF3 when I was crying out for a decent FPS. MW3 is the only one to have been around when BF3 has been out and I didn't buy that (and that was a good decision I think!)

In reply to a post by time2die:

This is Cod and whatever you think it will sell in its Millions come November and if Treyarch just up there game just a fraction then i think the majority of Cod Lovers will be very happy .

Cod should have died after 4, no game since under the name has come close to what IW made, all Activision cares about is how much profit they can milk out of cod until it finally dies.

Instead of having a new game each year, it would better to leave it for every 2 years and come out with a finished, balanced game.

The single player has become more dependent on large scripted scenes, what you would expect in Micheal bay movies etc.

I will wait for a muliplayer trailer but it will likely be very similar to the previous title with new toys and guns to play with.

But basically it is every 2 years because each year it is a different developer so in all honesty IW and Treyarch both have 2 full years to make the product.

But nothing has come close to MW1 i will agree with that statement

In reply to a post by ilh:

You say about the new kid on the block (I presume you mean BF3) but I didn't enjoy WaW at all, MW2 had huge issues such as gun balance and the horrible peer 2 peer system and kill streaks involving nuclear bombs(!?).

I don't disagree wih any of those comments.

But I also can't agree that the franchise is poor graphically. Basically because it isn't. It is akin to IGN scoring games at 5/10 because they are exactly the same as the previous installment.....that they gave a 9.5/10! Millions of people know what they like and millions more are comfortable with more of the same.

If it doesn't improve dramatically next gen, then that would be fair criticism. Saying they are greedy and could afford to push the envelope visually is also a fair point. But saying it is poor visually for not evolving is incorrect. It's disappointing yes, but that doesn't make it poor. It does show just how fickle gamers can be.

Those who despise it so badly, needn't play it. I wanted to like BF3 and it's more realistic approach but it felt like hard work on the eye. I am a gamer that would rather have less detail in a clearer form, than everything but the kitchen sink going on at a lower frame rate with visual issues. Maybe that's just my eyes, but if others eyes can cope then that's all good. Those playing on PC's probably won't have that problem.

One thing is for sure, next gen they will both have dramatically better visuals and then the debate really will (quite rightly) revolve around the gameplay.

In reply to a post by mrnelster:

One thing is for sure, next gen they will both have dramatically better visuals and then the debate really will (quite rightly) revolve around the gameplay.

It should all be about the game play. IMO adding perks and ranks ruins that.
Bring back the early days before we had them
Ranks = play time and are not a measure of skill.
Leader board at the end of a match is fine but ranks????
I couldn't give a monkeys if UnknownSoldier is of a higher rank than me.

I agree about ranks but I think perks are good as long as they are sensibly limited.

Same goes for killstreak rewards. They should be limited to support rewards such as flak jackets or UAV's. Not Nukes for the slowest connection in the match.

Owned plenty of consoles...when I was a kid.

If you want to play sports or racing games then console is superior.

If the game involves guns you use the PC. End of. There is no debate or question.

Where FPS games have gone wrong MP wise, IMHO, is they are biased towards length of play instead of skill.

Back when DOD was king of the WWII MP FPS everyone had the same equipment right from the start, you could be a casual player and still destroy someone who played 10 hours a day if you had skill. When you shot someone, they died, you didn't have to empty a full mag to get a kill like you seem to have to do in most COD games.

Now, it gets easier the longer you play. I don't get that, if anything it should get harder. There's no skill in most FPS MP games any more.

Couldn't give a monkeys about graphics, gameplay always wins over visuals.

Half a Mag.........Are you sure ?

That would be one of my biggest gripes regarding Cod games in general the fact you die far to quickly and have little time to react as it takes no more than a second to die.

First on the trigger usually wins

Yeah but we are talking about proper consoles you owned as a kid and not a Spectrum 128k

Only difference regarding guns in games console v PC is the fact you get a better resolution and smoother graphics which are better looking.

But once the new era of consoles arrives in a year or so that will be less of a problem for a while until PC move on once again and need constant upgrades.

For me it's not the graphics it's the control systems on consoles. They suck. May be great for sitting on yer [censored] on the sofa playing sonic, but for anything that requires finesse, forget it without auto aim.

Maybe they'll improve things like the kinect, but right now there's too much lag in movement to on screen time. If they manage to get a control system with similar or better ability than a mouse and keyboard I'm in, til then, I'm out

To be fair I haven't played MP since MW2, so they may have tweaked the damage model. But I'm old school, when I shoot someone they die with one bullet, not turn around and shoot back

In reply to a post by SamsonUK:

......everyone had the same equipment right from the start, you could be a casual player and still destroy someone who played 10 hours a day if you had skill.

Totally agree with that.

Another reason why MP is so biased nowadays. Those with the better connection get the more and more capable weapons and attributes to smash those of us who don't, then wallow in their KD fantasy world. It's not competitive and levelling those attributes more from the start would help tremendously. But as long as it would appear quick snipe functionality is viewed as acceptable by the developers, it would be futile to think they would understand that sentiment.

I'll stick to campaign and co-op with friends.

I wonder if you will be happy with the move to the near future, as I know you are quite fussy with the type of weapons you like to see in FPS games? Hopefully the handheld weapons wont be "too" futuristic. I think this video makes some long awaited promises.

Roll on E3 I say.

Headshot and the right gun and they die quick and painless
Want to annoy them you knife them

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Headshot and the right gun and they die quick and painless

Body, arm, leg or head shot and any bullet and they should be dead or seriously incapacitated. Even if you are wearing body armour.

This is where my biggest gripe lies with FPS games, I know it's just a game, but it's no fun watching multiple bullets hit a target and it turning around and start shooting back.

Just an opinion, I know most won't agree with it, that's why the likes of COD continue to be a success and why I tend to stick to games with more realism. Sadly they tend to be less polished due to lack of development funds and thus don't draw as many players as the main titles. Which is a great shame.

It amazes me that I can be the machine gunner in a tank in BF3, hit someone multiple times and yet they still manage to RPG me to death :/

PC upgrades are about once every 3-4 years which is about what most concolses should have their average lifespan though the curretn generation is a exception.

As to the development cycles of Cod it needs at least a 2 year gap between games so that they can establish otherwise the newer title just kills off its predecssor on console, pc still mostly play cod4.

In reply to a post by ccxo:

PC upgrades are about once every 3-4 years which is about what most concolses should have their average lifespan though the curretn generation is a exception.

As to the development cycles of Cod it needs at least a 2 year gap between games so that they can establish otherwise the newer title just kills off its predecssor on console, pc still mostly play cod4.

Yea console games do get old very quickly. MW2 was infested with cheats and unplayable as soon as the new one came out. The developers just abandon a game once they have a new one. So much for customer loyalty

Actually swanny that is not quite correct,Infinity ward are renown for not supporting there games but Treyarch apparently do.

There has been many flaws and issues with MW3 since it release last November and even the basics have not been addressed

been playing black ops regularly

banned from most servers now for cheating but they have no proof - just cant handle the skillz

In reply to a post by Stanman_24:

been playing black ops regularly

banned from most servers now for cheating but they have no proof - just cant handle the skillz

You don't get banned for being a good player. You're either lagging or cheating.

If you weren't, you would probably be a little less complacent about it.

Edited by mrnelster (Mon 07-May-12 11:45:42)