Final thoughts on Black Ops

gimli2112 · 01-11-2011 09:17AM

Used to play it a lot. Quit about 6 months ago and went back to MW2. Prestiged it this weekend and played one game. Remembered why I quit in the first place.

Crappy hit detection and just bland, imo.

Liked ascension, theatre mode and the AK47.

Enigma IE · 01-11-2011 12:43PM

Best all round COD game for me so far. Really liked the additions like the currency system, combat training, wager matches, theatre mode. I found myself using many different weapons and combinations of attachments, where in previous COD games I stuck to one or two reliables.

In terms of game time, I've only played BLOPS < 10 days, while I played > 20 days of MW2 but that's not a reflection of how much I enjoyed the game, merely a reflection on reduction of my gaming time in general.

KERSPLAT! · 01-11-2011 04:51PM

MW2 was my 1st MP game and I liked it at the time but I much prefere BLOPs. Lov all the extra game modes, combat training etc

The DLCs were a bit of a let down with only 2-3 decent maps from them all.

Overall I really liked it and think it's much better than MW2.

Snake Plisken · 01-11-2011 06:47PM

Glad to see lads coming out of the woodwork to support Blops over the months on this forum the usual suspects have been coming out and slagging off Blops but as outlined in this thread it's got some great innovations that are going to be carried over to MW3 e.g. wager matches Theatre Mode etc.

Cossax · 01-11-2011 07:13PM

Mostly echo Yimrag's and X's points, some good things introduced but probably outweighed by the look, feel, sound, excitement and Michael Bayness of MW2.
Racked up a ridiculous amount of days on MW2 and still play it a bit, only been on BO once in recent times and even then it was the draw of being in a party rather than of playing the game itself.

yimrsg · 01-11-2011 08:22PM

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Glad to see lads coming out of the woodwork to support Blops over the months on this forum the usual suspects have been coming out and slagging off Blops but as outlined in this thread it's got some great innovations that are going to be carried over to MW3 e.g. wager matches Theatre Mode etc.

You're making a mistake in calling people's honest feedback as slagging. There is sod all innovations in black ops, a more apt word is borrowing; theatre mode is from borrowed from halo 3, just like gun game is borrowed from CS (amongst others I think), zombie mode was around from WaW and dead ops is a throwback to early top down shooters. The little innovation there was in wager matches were ruined through dashboarders and weren't fully expanded upon. Elite's online stats elements is scarily familiar to what bungie and dice have done before.

Being brutally honest the call of duty franchise is severely lacking in innovation. Most first person shooters are generally similar in style, it comes with the territory. But Black Ops turned out bland. Innovative is about the worst word you could use to describe black ops, it's one of the most formulaic games in the series. It's still a good game to pass the time but it never attempted at being ground breaking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DbAs203r3Y

I don't like it, I don't dislike it, I'm apathetic to it. That's the worst thing a game should be.

Nuri Sahin · 01-11-2011 08:44PM

I'll miss dolphin diving as well

Witcher · 01-11-2011 08:55PM

I liked it, didn't log as much time on it as the others but I enjoyed it more and raged less:P

Awful anachronisms in the gun lineup though:pac:

Lab_Mouse · 01-11-2011 10:12PM

I've liked pretty much every CoD game(apart from 3)since CoD2 so this is no different .

Every game they release is going to have it's plus and minus points.

Im sure there are some aspects of mw3 i'll despise but likewise i'll probably like it over all.

Now about theatre mode...its responsible for the torrent of sh1te that passes off as game commentary etc.

prefer when people that liked making vids had to get the thumb out and spend some money and get a capture card thus weeding out the wanna be's:pac:

gcgirl · 02-11-2011 12:27AM

x43r0 wrote: »

I would echo most of yimrag's sentiments.

When I compare the two I use the woman analogy. Black-Ops is the reliable girlfriend who doesn't cause you that much grief and is always there. The steady, not very exciting girl who your parents like. She enjoys baking, going on walks and the missionary position.

MW2 is that crazy ex who you used to skip school to hang out with. The one who comes over to meet your parents and has her hand down your pants under the dinner table. The one who your friends warn you against but for some reason unbeknownst to you, you can't get enough of, even though she does your head in and quite frankly scares the **** out of you at times.

Best reply ever

ironictoaster · 02-11-2011 12:27AM

Solid game, new game modes and features, hours spent on it.

Money well spent.

Bobby Baccala · 02-11-2011 01:39AM

Black ops was a pure load of bollocks.
Story mode was horrendous.
Online was boringly easy.
One positive was that the first zombies map was alright.
I only played about 2 days on it compared to my 19 days on mw2 that shows how little i liked it.

hypermuse · 02-11-2011 11:56AM

there is another thing which Blops had that I don't think I saw previously as well which was a simple addition but probably the best one!

2 player online..

nothing worse than living with mates and if some1 is playing MW2.. you just sit and watch etc..

With Blops, you could pick up a controller and play multiplayer online together! A HUGE ADDITION!!! Prob my favorite thing it has over others...

Shammy · 02-11-2011 12:05PM

Stopped playing it months ago

Bobby Baccala · 02-11-2011 01:35PM

Shammy wrote: »

Stopped playing it months ago

i stopped playin it in january

TerrorFirmer · 02-11-2011 02:39PM

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Black ops was a pure load of bollocks.
Story mode was horrendous.
Online was boringly easy.
One positive was that the first zombies map was alright.
I only played about 2 days on it compared to my 19 days on mw2 that shows how little i liked it.

Storyline was horrendous compared to what, MW2? Don't get me wrong I loved MW2 SP but the storyline comes across as if it was written by a 10 year old Michael Bay. I thought MW2 SP was just as good as the one in BO but frankly, I consider the actual credibility of the storyline in BO somewhat more feasible.

You're making a mistake in calling people's honest feedback as slagging. There is sod all innovations in black ops, a more apt word is borrowing; theatre mode is from borrowed from halo 3, just like gun game is borrowed from CS (amongst others I think), zombie mode was around from WaW and dead ops is a throwback to early top down shooters. The little innovation there was in wager matches were ruined through dashboarders and weren't fully expanded upon. Elite's online stats elements is scarily familiar to what bungie and dice have done before.

Being brutally honest the call of duty franchise is severely lacking in innovation. Most first person shooters are generally similar in style, it comes with the territory. But Black Ops turned out bland. Innovative is about the worst word you could use to describe black ops, it's one of the most formulaic games in the series. It's still a good game to pass the time but it never attempted at being ground breaking.

That is pretty bizarre criticism. You do know the definition of innovation, right? To bring about change or to better, basically. Innovate does not mean to bring radically new hitertho unseen changes to the table despite, for whatever reason, people seeming to think that's what it means. It doesn't.

Theatre - new addition.
Dead Ops - new addition.
Zombie mode - new addition (to the modern franchise post MW2 franchise at least)
Gun Game - new addition, as well as all the other modes.

Just because it 'borrowed' these ideas from other games does not make it any less innovative in the sense of what it brought to the franchise.

The fact that Black Ops brought a whole load of extras to the COD franchise makes it innovative. The fact that these features appeared separately elsewhere does not make them suddenly non-innovative.

If you took that logic there's pretty much no innovative games in existence because most new or altered features are based upon something that's featured in other games before to some extent.

Compared to MW2, Black Ops innovated and it did so by bringing a whole load of new features that were not present in COD4 or MW2 to the table, and they set the bar for MW3 which had to step up and match those offerings despite being from a different developer.

Now if MW3 has absolutely no new features and instead is a different game with the same feature set from Black Ops - that would be a game deserving of the non-innovative tag, regardless of how good a game it may happen to be.

yimrsg · 02-11-2011 04:41PM

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That is pretty bizarre criticism. You do know the definition of innovation, right? To bring about change or to better, basically. Innovate does not mean to bring radically new hitertho unseen changes to the table despite, for whatever reason, people seeming to think that's what it means. It doesn't.

Theatre - new addition.
Dead Ops - new addition.
Zombie mode - new addition (to the modern franchise post MW2 franchise at least)
Gun Game - new addition, as well as all the other modes.

My point is that Call of Duty Black Ops isn't innovative compared to other FPS, there has been recent games based in first person like Portal, Left for Dead and Bioshock which were innovative and original but saying Black Ops is innovative when all it did was incorporate other features from other games into it is barely reaches the criteria of innovation. Shrewd is a far better description.

It's not tried to be original instead choosing to borrow or rehash. There was several FPS shooters released around black ops and to me they were all formulaic, without the call of duty name preceding black ops I doubt it would have risen head and shoulders over them.

Would you consider it innovative if there was a map building options for CoD? Or would you consider it a copy and paste job from a series that is bereft of creative ideas and instead looks to capitalise on what other games have done. Chances are most people would see a degree of both, my cynicism favours the latter.

Just because it 'borrowed' these ideas from other games does not make it any less innovative in the sense of what it brought to the franchise.

The fact that Black Ops brought a whole load of extras to the COD franchise makes it innovative. The fact that these features appeared separately elsewhere does not make them suddenly non-innovative.

Replace innovative for stealing/borrowing/poor creativity/unoriginal/etc. and your argument makes just as much sense. Perhaps if I'd used original instead of innovative and talked about FPS on the whole in my earlier post my thrust would have been more apparent.

If you took that logic there's pretty much no innovative games in existence because most new or altered features are based upon something that's featured in other games before to some extent.

Compared to MW2, Black Ops innovated and it did so by bringing a whole load of new features that were not present in COD4 or MW2 to the table, and they set the bar for MW3 which had to step up and match those offerings despite being from a different developer.

Now if MW3 has absolutely no new features and instead is a different game with the same feature set from Black Ops - that would be a game deserving of the non-innovative tag, regardless of how good a game it may happen to be.

I honestly don't think's it's innovative in terms of the FPS genre, in fact black ops is a damning game in highlighting the lack of originality and creative content being put in to FPS particularly the CoD franchise. Being the most innovative in the Call of Duty franchise is like being the only entrant in a competition. You can hoist it on your shoulders and declare it champion but it's a hollow meaningless victory.

CORaven · 02-11-2011 07:23PM

hypermuse wrote: »

there is another thing which Blops had that I don't think I saw previously as well which was a simple addition but probably the best one!

2 player online..

nothing worse than living with mates and if some1 is playing MW2.. you just sit and watch etc..

With Blops, you could pick up a controller and play multiplayer online together! A HUGE ADDITION!!! Prob my favorite thing it has over others...

Meh, in all honesty it was poorly implemented. Yes it was nice it have, but with all the restrictions (no kill feed, all classes got renamed, issues in SND, could not use the Camera, Mini map was pants). It could have been handled better.

Snake Plisken · 02-11-2011 07:36PM

@yimrsg If you hate the COD franchise and you think it's lazy and steals ideas from other games why do you keep playing it?

Bobby Baccala · 02-11-2011 10:18PM

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Storyline was horrendous compared to what, MW2? Don't get me wrong I loved MW2 SP but the storyline comes across as if it was written by a 10 year old Michael Bay. I thought MW2 SP was just as good as the one in BO but frankly, I consider the actual credibility of the storyline in BO somewhat more feasible.

That is pretty bizarre criticism. You do know the definition of innovation, right? To bring about change or to better, basically. Innovate does not mean to bring radically new hitertho unseen changes to the table despite, for whatever reason, people seeming to think that's what it means. It doesn't.

Theatre - new addition.
Dead Ops - new addition.
Zombie mode - new addition (to the modern franchise post MW2 franchise at least)
Gun Game - new addition, as well as all the other modes.

Just because it 'borrowed' these ideas from other games does not make it any less innovative in the sense of what it brought to the franchise.

The fact that Black Ops brought a whole load of extras to the COD franchise makes it innovative. The fact that these features appeared separately elsewhere does not make them suddenly non-innovative.

If you took that logic there's pretty much no innovative games in existence because most new or altered features are based upon something that's featured in other games before to some extent.

Compared to MW2, Black Ops innovated and it did so by bringing a whole load of new features that were not present in COD4 or MW2 to the table, and they set the bar for MW3 which had to step up and match those offerings despite being from a different developer.

Now if MW3 has absolutely no new features and instead is a different game with the same feature set from Black Ops - that would be a game deserving of the non-innovative tag, regardless of how good a game it may happen to be.

when did i compare the black ops campaign to mw2?
I'm not comparing it to anything i just hated it.
Get your facts right and don't make it out like i said things that i didnt say.

KERSPLAT! · 02-11-2011 10:26PM

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

when did i compare the black ops campaign to mw2?
I'm not comparing it to anything i just hated it.
Get your facts right and don't make it out like i said things that i didnt say.

Keep your knickers on...

Bobby Baccala · 02-11-2011 11:12PM

IPAM wrote: »

Keep your knickers on...

this has nothing to do with you man don't bother getting involved.

Lab_Mouse · 03-11-2011 12:18AM

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

this has nothing to do with you man don't bother getting involved.

no seriously,keep yer knickers on or they'll get in a twist

Spike2010 · 03-11-2011 12:30AM

Some people seem to take Games to heart tbh.

IMO i though Black Ops was a great game. Maybe because it was my first FPS to get into.

03-11-2011 02:55AM

Gonna chime in here.

Black Ops despite it's flaws I thought was Brilliant. That said I didn't play the single player so that's multiplayer only.

gimli2112 · 03-11-2011 09:12AM

^ seriously, you should try the singleplayer if only for the Vorkuta level which is fairly early on. I've enjoyed all the COD SPs since COD4 except WAW on Veteran (grenade hell)

everlast75 · 03-11-2011 09:49AM

I still remember the build up to the release of Black Ops... "Gimme shelter" in the adverts gave me shivers.. Couldn't wait for the release.

I'd come late to the CoD party and was pretty much blown away by MW2. The best part about it was the craic playing with Boardsies until ridiculous hours in the morning. (I blame the students and one particular american in a different timezone)

Come release night I was up outside Gamestop in Drogheda, treated to some Dominos pizza, free t-shirt and then the game itself.

I legged it home, stuck it on and played til about 5 am with Ross and a few others.

I played it exclusively for I'd say 6-7 months and absolutely loved it. I found the perk challenges engaging, the weaponry varied, appreciated the fact that you spent the credits on the guns/perks you liked, enjoyed the different game modes and for a non pvr owning pundit, the theatre was an excellent addition.

That's not even mentioning Zombies, which provided many CoD players with dozens of hours of entertainment, many who post here.

I know that there has been some debate here on whether one should call it innovation or plagerism, but in terms of CoD franchise in my view it is undisputable that these were all advancements for the brand. Hopefully, they will remain and if so, we have Treyarch to thank for that.

I would have to confess that I am not as much an officiando/purest as many on here, but as the old saying "I knows what I like".

I love MW2.

I love Black Ops.

Both for different reasons.

I have pre-ordered MW3 and no doubt, if most of the lads I play online with play this, I'll spend an inordinate amount of time on this game also.

Yep, Black Ops had its flaws, its lack of colour, poor hit detection etc etc, but MW2 had its flaws also (by god did that have flaws!).

No doubt MW3 will have (as are already being discussed).

Retrospectively, I would have to say that Black Ops as a game, is definitely one I would not get rid of and will, as I do with MW2, keep coming back to it.

donalg1 · 03-11-2011 10:28AM

Thought the single player could have been much better was expecting a lot more from it, but was very disappointed by it in the end, all the sitting round talking to your man in the room telling him to remember, what was that all about? Its supposed to be running around shooting people and blowing sh** up but instead it was sit around pressing every button trying to skip the talking.

Enjoyed the multi player as usual though tis always good for a quick game to fill an hour or so.

yimrsg · 03-11-2011 12:39PM

Snake Plisken wrote: »

@yimrsg If you hate the COD franchise and you think it's lazy and steals ideas from other games why do you keep playing it?

I've never meant to come across as hating COD more so that I'm gutted that it's not going to better itself and that despite having 2 to 4 companies working on the franchise it's never going to give us that one flawless game. What other game or series has such backing? If people honestly think that Black Ops is the paragon in the series then that's their choice but for me it, MW2 and WaW are just markers of a franchise stagnating and choosing to rest on it's laurels.

I've grown up playing CoD, on the xbox 360 I own(ed) 5 out of the 6 versions available, Cod 2, Cod 3, Cod4, MW2 and Black Ops and I've owned other some of the earlier versions before them as well. I'll soon be 6 from 7 when mw3 launches on the 360. WaW didn't tempt me into buying it as I'd had my fill of ww2 and the pacific theatre of war wasn't as interesting as the european one. Hi, I'm yimrag I'm a CoD fanboy.

Cod2 was the BIG launch title, I still remember carrying my xbox 360 home from game soaked from the rain, the paper bag disintegrating requiring me to cradle the box in both hands and my first thought was to not dry my self but to start playing it. Never experienced that same intensity in a game before, putting explosives on a tank's threads and barely surviving the blast giving me a ringing sound and blurred vision transported me into ww2.

Cod3 was another step up, the campaign wasn't all that dissimilar to 2 but the multiplayer was a notch up. Vehicles, split screen multiplayer and beautiful maps. I still remember me and a mate splitscreening, playing capture the flag on eder dam and us in a sidecar with the flag jumping the gap in the bridge with an enemy gun car hot on our heals. 5 point domination against 2 or 3 enemy tanks was also a rush.

When Cod4 launched I was largely unaware of it until I happened to play it in a gamestore (Zavvi I think); I played the wetwork campaign mission and it blew me away. I remember escaping the sinking ship and jumping on the chopper, picking up a copy and going home to play it straight away. The campaign was just amazing, well utilised flashbacks, gorgeous graphics and the multiplayer levels were just perfect. If I had to play one map for the rest of my life over, this is the final short list.

Mw2 upped the ante and intensity but it wasn't as well constructed as the others, the careful balance of the multiplayer that was in the other games was lost, I still played it and the fanboy in me overlooked a lot of it's shortcomings but I know that ultimately it's a let down. A bit of effort post release from IW and this would have stood up there with CoD4 but alas it wasn't to be.

I went into Black Ops with little expectation, the cold war setting and the graphics meant it was hard to get excited over a game that looked like it was made 2 years previously. I remember talking to the store guy in Harvey Normans and he seemed more happy for me than I was getting it. If I compare the buying experience with the cod4 one and you can see the disappointment that has grown within me as the series has progressed. Now there was balance in terms of multiplayer, but it had lost something else, it was more of the same, the campaign was dull and longwinded. The multiplayer just seemed loose, unrefined and lacking a finishing touch. Yeah it was beautifully refined outside of the actual gameplay but I can't help but wonder that extra polish came at the expense of the hit detection or graphics or something else.

My main disappointment stems from the fact that within those 5 games above is the perfect CoD game, the fact that it hasn't been made doesn't make me hate it, I'm gutted that it isn't going to be all that it can (and I can't play it).
I used to love Halo but I got my fill over time and we said our goodbyes, Halo reached it's peak and left me satiated. For whatever reason there is still a part of me that doesn't want to let go of CoD as it hasn't.

My ideal CoD game is made up from these elements:

CoD2
campaign (too good to ignore)

CoD3
5 point domination
split screen

CoD4
killstreaks (I'm old fashioned)
perks (plenty of them are great but I might drop one or two and take some from mw2)
campaign
arcade mode (why hasn't this returned baffles me)
maps
matchmaking (about 2000 to 3000 players world wide)

Mw2
guns & attachments
graphics
sound
spec ops (must be 4 player with online, splitscreen, local and customisable)
hit detection
dlc
spawn system (depends on size of map)

Black Ops
private games
8 player party chat
party system
theatre mode
stats
post release updates
spawn system

hypermuse · 03-11-2011 01:19PM

yimrsg wrote: »

I've never meant to come across as hating COD more so that I'm gutted that it's not going to better itself and that despite having 2 to 4 companies working on the franchise it's never going to give us that one flawless game. What other game or series has such backing? If people honestly think that Black Ops is the paragon in the series then that's their choice but for me it, MW2 and WaW are just markers of a franchise stagnating and choosing to rest on it's laurels.

I've grown up playing CoD, on the xbox 360 I own(ed) 5 out of the 6 versions available, Cod 2, Cod 3, Cod4, MW2 and Black Ops and I've owned other some of the earlier versions before them as well. I'll soon be 6 from 7 when mw3 launches on the 360. WaW didn't tempt me into buying it as I'd had my fill of ww2 and the pacific theatre of war wasn't as interesting as the european one. Hi, I'm yimrag I'm a CoD fanboy.

Cod2 was the BIG launch title, I still remember carrying my xbox 360 home from game soaked from the rain, the paper bag disintegrating requiring me to cradle the box in both hands and my first thought was to not dry my self but to start playing it. Never experienced that same intensity in a game before, putting explosives on a tank's threads and barely surviving the blast giving me a ringing sound and blurred vision transported me into ww2.

Cod3 was another step up, the campaign wasn't all that dissimilar to 2 but the multiplayer was a notch up. Vehicles, split screen multiplayer and beautiful maps. I still remember me and a mate splitscreening, playing capture the flag on eder dam and us in a sidecar with the flag jumping the gap in the bridge with an enemy gun car hot on our heals. 5 point domination against 2 or 3 enemy tanks was also a rush.

When Cod4 launched I was largely unaware of it until I happened to play it in a gamestore (Zavvi I think); I played the wetwork campaign mission and it blew me away. I remember escaping the sinking ship and jumping on the chopper, picking up a copy and going home to play it straight away. The campaign was just amazing, well utilised flashbacks, gorgeous graphics and the multiplayer levels were just perfect. If I had to play one map for the rest of my life over, this is the final short list.

Mw2 upped the ante and intensity but it wasn't as well constructed as the others, the careful balance of the multiplayer that was in the other games was lost, I still played it and the fanboy in me overlooked a lot of it's shortcomings but I know that ultimately it's a let down. A bit of effort post release from IW and this would have stood up there with CoD4 but alas it wasn't to be.

I went into Black Ops with little expectation, the cold war setting and the graphics meant it was hard to get excited over a game that looked like it was made 2 years previously. I remember talking to the store guy in Harvey Normans and he seemed more happy for me than I was getting it. If I compare the buying experience with the cod4 one and you can see the disappointment that has grown within me as the series has progressed. Now there was balance in terms of multiplayer, but it had lost something else, it was more of the same, the campaign was dull and longwinded. The multiplayer just seemed loose, unrefined and lacking a finishing touch. Yeah it was beautifully refined outside of the actual gameplay but I can't help but wonder that extra polish came at the expense of the hit detection or graphics or something else.

My main disappointment stems from the fact that within those 5 games above is the perfect CoD game, the fact that it hasn't been made doesn't make me hate it, I'm gutted that it isn't going to be all that it can (and I can't play it).
I used to love Halo but I got my fill over time and we said our goodbyes, Halo reached it's peak and left me satiated. For whatever reason there is still a part of me that doesn't want to let go of CoD as it hasn't.

My ideal CoD game is made up from these elements:

CoD2
campaign (too good to ignore)

CoD3
5 point domination
split screen

CoD4
killstreaks (I'm old fashioned)
perks (plenty of them are great but I might drop one or two and take some from mw2)
campaign
arcade mode (why hasn't this returned baffles me)
maps
matchmaking (about 2000 to 3000 players world wide)

Mw2
guns & attachments
graphics
sound
spec ops (must be 4 player with online, splitscreen, local and customisable)
hit detection
dlc
spawn system (depends on size of map)

Black Ops
private games
8 player party chat
party system
theatre mode
stats
post release updates
spawn system

I think I've only ever seen maybe 3 of your posts that were less than 1,000 words long!!

Final thoughts on Black Ops

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