Call of Duty: Black Ops

[Cheerycoke]

Looks sweet!

[Kawe / Dave]

I'm pretty hype about the mp for this.

Has potential to be mw2 but better and without the network problems and prolific hack usage.

Will post the cool vid about wager matches sometime soonish!

[shankski]

Looks pretty awesome
Lets hope its better than mw2

[Kawe / Dave]

I'm pretty excited about these modes. The one bullet mode sounds like it'll be really exciting! Gun game is always a giggle too.

[shankski]

Dude those game modes are sick
Looks like ill be getting this as well as MoH xD

[Kilizion]

Looks awesome, will be getting it.

[Föötmunch]

U CAN SHOOT KNIFES OMG OMG GIIIIIIVE

[Föötmunch]

OMG THE 1 bullet mode is made for me

[Cinn]

MW2 was only awesome for the biggest casuals btw

lets hope this one is better and i might actually buy it (instead of just downloading it for the singleplayer)

[Cheerycoke]

THATS RIGHT CINN!

[shankski]

i got splatted

[Devlin]

As I haven't had the opportunity to try multiplayer, I'll try to review the singleplayer a bit.

All in all it is pretty much everything all the other Call of Duty games (of late) has been. fast-paced action, explosions everywhere, and some nice scenery. Except unlike the other games, this time around I didn't get any introduction to weaponry or anything. They took a more on-the-fly approach to that aspect of this game, and that's fine I guess, but it felt a bit rough being thrown into the action right away.

The story is set during the cold war, and it's made up of flashbacks, where you get to play in all kinds of environments; from snowy landscapes to jungles and urban areas and everything in between. The storyline is as far as I know linear in the sense that you cannot alter the outcome in anyway, or decide what missions you get to play or not.

I have to say I was disappointed in this game. The Call of Duty games have in essence been the same since Modern Warfare (first one from 2007), and I guess that's understandable since the multiplayer is so popular. But for the singleplayer it just doesn't meet expectations. The graphics look pretty much the same since 2007. They tried to throw in the infamous airport scene in Modern Warfare 2 (2009) to hype it up, but even then it failed - in my opinion - to provide a good singleplayer experience.

Treyarch, the company behind this installation of Call of Duty, were also behind World at War (2008), and you can tell it's the one and the same company doing them both. The game is non-stop shaky cameras, various people screaming at you, and just overall mayhem. Those ingredients work well if you use moderate amounts, but this game OD's on them.

It even got to the point where I just stopped caring about the story or anything, and just ended up plowing through the endless stream of enemies that they throw at you. It seems that, instead of making the game hard or interesting through engaging combats, they just throw massive amounts of brainless AI at you nonstop. It's not fun having to camp behind the same box for 2 minutes because you literally can't advance or do any nice flanks. You just go straight to plowtown throughout the entire game.

Yes sure, they have these random cannons setup here and there, and the occasional Valkyr missile to take out pesky helicopters. That's all fine and dandy, but it's in my opinion too little innovation in the battles overall. You'd think that a group of 1-4 soldiers would not hit massive armies straight on, but instead do a bit more sneaky stuff. That's not this game. I guess I have to play Splinter Cell to get that.

To sum it up, the story was fairly well orchestrated, but I lost interested in it due to the constant screaming and yelling, shaky cameras and general annoyances in this game. The graphics haven't changed since the first Modern Warfare, and neither has the gameplay. All in all you get about 5-6 hours of gametime out of this. I would not recommend buying this game for singleplayer alone. Multiplayer might be a totally different story though.

Singleplayer verdict: 4/10

[Cinn]

Devlin, i just downloaded the game and played it for 3-4 hours. I rly wouldnt know how far I am in the story currently but i felt exactly the same. I'm glad everyone gets this game for the multiplayer, cause so far the singleplayer didnt impress me in any way. The never ending stream of duplicate soldiers which you have to camp out, going back to an oldschool setting, less 'line' in the storyline, less cool teammates, teammates doing nothing, it all so far feels like a step back to me.

[Kawe / Dave]

The Call of Duty games have in essence been the same since Modern Warfare (first one from 2007), and I guess that's understandable since the multiplayer is so popular.

This is understandable because MW1's singleplayer was completely, ground-breakingly awesome. It's no surprise they've been trying to emulate it since then; especially with the economy the way it's been and combined with activision being activision, seeing the 'safe bet' option being taken is almost certain. Though if tonnes and tonnes of shaky camera with crazy chaotic mayhem and a plot that takes a backseat to the action aren't your thing, it's a little confusing that you'd buy and play through a cod singleplayer sequel to MW2.

Regarding graphics being the same, here's a hint as to why - consoles haven't changed since 2007 either. 100k to 200k pc users vs something like 2-4million console users means they ain't gonna spend that much time on the PC versions now. They already spend a disproportionate amount of time on it, which is fortunate for people like me who really don't like the idea of playing an mp FPS with a controlpad (though never really felt bothered about SP).

Personally, I haven't even started the Blops SP. Going by the critic reviews, it seems like the sp is alright, but not great, so might be a long while until I bother.

[Kawe / Dave]

Had to drop this in here too, since it's great